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Activists call for stricter checks of ride-hailing drivers

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 14 April 2015 | 00.24

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women is urging ride-hailing services like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar to come up with tougher background checks for their drivers.

Mass NOW spokeswoman Katie Prisco-Buxbaum said the companies have a responsibility to address safety concerns of women and other riders following reports of sexual and physical violence in the Boston area.

Prisco-Buxbaum said that while no screening is perfect, the companies should begin using the more rigorous methods like fingerprinting or other identification measures for drivers.

In February, Boston police charged an Uber driver with sexually assaulting a 30-year-woman. In December, an Uber driver from Boston was accused of driving a woman to a secluded location where he beat and sexually assaulted her.

The state is weighing new regulations for ride-hailing services.


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Booting Up: Storage costs cloud police cam issue

Police body cameras are controversial, in demand — and a monumental technological undertaking that should be left to cloud computing experts.

Pressure on police departments to deploy body cameras is boiling over as outrage intensifies over the deadly police shooting in South Carolina in which a North Charleston officer shot and killed an unarmed black man as he ran away earlier this month. A video of the April 4 shooting was filmed by a bystander showing a far different version of events than cops officially reported, renewing calls for video as a requirement.

In contrast, the move by Boston police and prosecutors to release security video of a gunfight that left a police officer wounded and the suspect dead has been widely praised — and renewed calls for body cams here.

Only in recent years has cloud computing made it feasible to start thinking about saving and maintaining the deluge of video data from police-worn cameras. Cloud computing allows anyone to store reams of data on far-flung servers managed by companies like Amazon and Microsoft.

Because most cloud storage platforms don't meet the FBI's security policy standards, many departments have forgone the cloud thus far. But the drawbacks of local storage are numerous, requiring police departments to hire IT personnel for maintenance and security.

Police departments thinking of investing in body cameras should expect to encounter cyberattacks. Locally stored police data is already a huge target of hackers, with departments regularly fending off malicious cyberattacks.

By contrast, cloud computing centers are incredibly secure — in fact they're arguably some of the most secure facilities on the planet, with their locations often kept secret. Armed guards and retinal scans are the norm.

Storing that data is more expensive than purchasing the actual cameras. According to the Police Executive Research Foundation, the cost of data storage can reach $2 million per year for a department. A typical urban police department should expect data from its body-worn cameras to accumulate several terabytes of data per month. Oakland police, with 600 body cameras, report that their servers are crammed with a whopping seven terabytes of data per month. Think of that as about 1,500 feature-length films.

In Fort Collins, Colo., for example, cops discard footage after seven days if there is no citizen contact. Other departments keep everything. In Albuquerque, non-evidentiary video is retained for a year. In Oakland, that data is stored for five years.

Microsoft recently piloted the first FBI-compatible data storage program for police video, a program using its Azure cloud storage system with VIEVU, a Seattle-based maker of wearable police cameras, likely opening the door for many police departments to start storing data in the cloud. As a result, police departments should be able to keep and manage data longer and for a lower cost, putting to rest arguments that cop body cameras are too financially burdensome and not feasible for small departments. Storing all that data is only going to get easier.


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Now if you buy a Sprint phone you can get it set up at home

A new customer strategy for Sprint: Phone setup in your house.

Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint Corp. has been trying to draw subscribers from its bigger rivals, Verizon and AT&T. Meanwhile, the No. 4 carrier, T-Mobile, is winning customers through discounts and other programs.

Sprint's home service starts Monday in Kansas City for customers who are eligible for an upgrade, and will expand to Chicago and Miami next week. More cities are expected.

How it works: A Sprint rep will bring a new phone or tablet to a customer's house, transfer over data from an old device and offer advice on how to use it.

Sprint is still investing in stores, though. It's building mini-shops in many of the remaining stores of bankrupt electronics chain RadioShack.


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US stock market gains in midday trading

NEW YORK — Stocks are moving slightly higher in midday trading as investors look ahead to a busy week for corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,086 as of 11:45 am. Eastern time.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose three points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,105. The Nasdaq composite increased 25 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,021.

JetBlue Airways surged 6 percent after the airline reported a big increase in passengers last month.

The market is coming off a second weekly gain in a row. It hasn't had a three-week winning streak since late February.

Bond prices didn't move much. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 1.95 percent.


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Massachusetts gas prices inch up a penny

BOSTON — A gallon of gas in Massachusetts has inched up a penny in the past week, but remains a nickel below the national average.

AAA Northeast reports Monday that the average price of a gallon of self-serve, regular is up to $2.34.

The current price is still 7 cents lower per gallon than a month ago and $1.19 lower than at this time last year.

AAA found self-serve, regular selling for as low as $2.13 per gallon and as high as $2.59.


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Inspector Gadget: MacBook a bit pricy, but lightweight and a beauty

MacBook ($1,299 and up, 
AppleStore.com)

The latest iteration of Apple's full-size notebook computer weighs in at two pounds, is 13.1 mm thin, and has a 12-inch so-called Retina display with edge-to-edge glass.

The good: If you like Apple design, you'll love this MacBook. Available in gold, silver or space gray, it's also got a great new trackpad and a wider keyboard.

The bad: Apple's new MacBook has just one USB port. So if you plan to connect a lot of devices to your laptop, this might not be for you.

The bottom line: If you're OK with just one USB port, this gorgeous Mac's for you.


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Hospitals eye models to address disasters

Crisis plans that can take hospitals months to develop could be produced in seconds with the right mathematical modeling — cutting out much of the painstaking human analysis — according to Boston professors who hope to incorporate these algorithms into local protocol.

"What these models enable you to do is figure out a complex situation with a lot of interacting factors. The tools help you make the best decision," said Ozlem Ergun, an associate professor in Northeastern's Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department. "Boston is a very specific place, where almost all the big hospitals are research hospitals, so it could really benefit from this kind of thing."

According to Ergun, these systems can determine the most efficient way for hospitals to respond to incidents such as outbreaks of disease, natural disasters or tragedies like the Boston Marathon bombings, which cause an influx of patients concentrated in one area.

"If you're in a situation where many people need access to hospitals, there could be several issues — problems with transportation, congestion due to the number of people, access limitations for security reasons," she said. "There needs to be a plan for things like how to use certain EMS vehicles and where patients should be directed based on their needs."

Ergun, who is reaching out to local hospitals to team up on preparedness efforts, came to Northeastern from the Georgia Institute of Technology in September, and has worked on issues surrounding humanitarian crisis response for organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jarrod Goentzel, founder and director of the MIT Humanitarian Response Lab, has been using these methods to help West Africa cope with the Ebola outbreak, and said the same approach could be used in Boston to create a central point among its cluster of large hospitals to house supplies needed in crisis situations.

"We have lots of hospitals here. In a panic mode, everyone is trying to procure supplies," he said. "Basic human nature is to hoard and hoard and be prepared. But the more centrally you stock things, the more risk that can cover."

Paul Biddinger, chief of emergency preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital, said each local hospital conducts a yearly analysis using tools like FEMA flood maps, but that potential coordination among hospitals is not analyzed.

He added that predicting the frequency and severity of pandemics is tricky, and any resources that could shed light on those events "would be of use."

"Anything that will more accurately predict stressors on the system will help us know how to deal with those stressors," he said.


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Stocks mostly rise as weak China data boosts stimulus hopes

BEIJING — World stocks mostly rose on Monday, with China's index closing at a seven-year high, as a run of weak indicators boosted hopes for stimulus in the world's second-largest economy.

KEEPING SCORE: Germany's DAX was flat at 12,372.99 and France's CAC 40 was up 0.1 percent to 5,243.32. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.5 percent. A broader measure of European shares, the Stoxx 600, was at record highs, edging up 0.1 percent from the record close set on Friday. On Wall Street, futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 and Down were both down 0.1 percent.

CHINA'S STIMULUS HOPES: Markets were boosted by expectations that a sharper-than-forecast contraction in March trade increased chances that Beijing will launch additional stimulus to spur slowing growth. Imports fell 12.7 percent from a year earlier and exports declined 15 percent. That added to signs that growth in the first three months of the year, due to be reported Wednesday, might decline further from the previous quarter's 7.3 percent.

THE QUOTE: "The elephant in the room is whether China's deterioration has endured," following softer industrial output and other data in January and February, Mizuho Bank said in a report. "The silver lining is that a softer outcome under disinflationary conditions will allow more stimulus to propel a revival in growth."

ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.2 percent to 4,121.71 points, closing above 4,100 for the first time since March 11, 2008. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 2.7 percent to 28,016.34 and Seoul's Kospi rose 0.5 percent to 2,098.92. India's Sensex added 0.3 percent to 28,876.49 and Sydney's S&P ASX 200 edged up 0.1 percent to 5,960.30. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was unchanged at 19,905.46 after briefly passing 20,000 last week.

CURRENCY: The dollar rose across the board as it continued to benefit from expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates as quickly as early expected. It rose to 120.69 yen from Friday's 120.18 yen. The euro fell to $1.0530 from the previous session's $1.0586.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 61 cents to $52.25 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 85 cents on Friday to close at $51.64.


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USTelecom files suit against government's new Internet rules

NEW YORK — A legal fight against the Federal Communications Commission's new Internet traffic rules has begun.

The rules were voted on in February and uphold the principle of net neutrality — that online content be allowed to load at the same speed. They forbid paid fast lanes favoring some content and say broadband providers can't slow Web traffic or block content.

The rules were published Monday in the government's Federal Register and would go into effect on June 12 if a court doesn't block them. Litigation could drag on for years.

The United States Telecom Association, an industry group that represents companies including AT&T and Verizon, said Monday that it has filed suit to block the rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia. The suit asks for a review of the FCC's rules on the grounds that they violate federal law and are arbitrary. The suit also says the FCC didn't follow the proper procedure for creating the rules.

Internet service providers have said they support net neutrality. But the FCC put those rules in place by regulating Internet access as a telecommunications service, like the telephone is.

Some broadband providers don't like the stricter oversight that comes with that. Now the FCC will be able to investigate complaints from consumers and Internet companies such as Netflix about "unjust or unreasonable" behavior by broadband providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T.

Internet service providers say they are worried that aspects of the new rules are unclear — what practices would the FCC deem unfair? An AT&T executive has said that the FCC's new rules mean "a period of uncertainty that will damage broadband investment in the United States."

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Follow Tali Arbel on http://twitter.com/tarbel


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Mom charged after boy, 2, falls into cheetah pit at Ohio zoo

CLEVELAND — A woman accused of holding her 2-year-old son over a railing at a Cleveland zoo when he fell into a cheetah exhibit has been charged with child endangering.

Michelle Schwab, of Delaware, Ohio, was charged Monday in Cleveland Municipal Court.

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo says the toddler's parents jumped in and pulled him to safety after he fell into the cheetah enclosure Saturday.

Zoo officials say the boy hurt his leg in the fall, but they say the cheetahs didn't go toward him or his parents.

Schwab couldn't be reached to comment on the charges. Court records did not say whether she has an attorney and there was no telephone listing for her.

The zoo says several people saw the woman holding the child over the railing.


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US stock indexes gain in quiet trading; oil price surges

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 07 April 2015 | 00.24

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose in quiet trading on Monday. The price of crude oil jumped, helping to push Chevron, Exxon Mobil and other oil and gas companies up. Many overseas markets remain closed for holidays.

KEEPING SCORE: As of 1:10 p.m. Eastern time, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 18 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,085. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 161 points, or 0.9 percent, to 17,924, and the Nasdaq composite rose 39 points, or 0.8 percent, to 4,926.

JOBS: With the stock market closed in observance of Good Friday, the Labor Department reported late last week that employers added just 126,000 workers to their payrolls in March, the smallest gain since December 2013. For investors, it was mixed news. The report was another sign of weaker economic growth, but it also added more pressure on the Federal Reserve to put off raising interest rates. Historically low rates have helped fuel the stock market's long run.

RESPONSE: "Had the market been open on Friday, we would have probably had a triple-digit decline in the Dow," said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Harverford Trust. "The fact that we had a weekend to digest put it in perspective. I think more investors are coming to the conclusion that this soft patch is temporary."

FRIES WITH THAT? Companies in the services industry expanded at a slightly slower pace in March. The Institute for Supply Management reported Monday that its services index slipped to 56.5 last month, from 56.9 in February. Any reading above 50 reflects growth.

CRUDE: Benchmark U.S. crude jumped $2.57, or 5 percent, to $51.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude rose $2.69, or 5 percent, to $57.67 a barrel on the ICE exchange in London. The gains helped drive gains in energy-sector stocks. Transocean, an operator of drilling rigs, jumped 87 cents, or 6 percent, to $15.86.

A DEAL: Ventas announced plans to buy Ardent Medical Services, a privately owned hospital chain, for $1.75 billion and spin off most of its skilled nursing facilities. Ventas, an investment trust focused on health care, surged $3.73, or 5 percent, to $76.97.

NOT YET: The planned merger between Hudson City Bancorp and M&T Bank has run into another delay. Hudson City said the Federal Reserve won't sign off on the deal before April 30, a deadline for the merger to move ahead. Hudson City Bancorp sank 61 cents, or 6 percent, to $9.88, while M&T dropped $3.09, or 2 percent, to $124.13.

BONDS: U.S. government bond prices fell, driving the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 1.90 percent. Bonds had surged following the employment report on Friday, sending the yield on the 10-year Treasury down to its lowest level in two months.

QUIET ELSEWHERE: Major markets in Europe were closed for Easter Monday. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed with a loss of 0.2 percent, while Seoul's Kospi gained 0.1 percent. India's SENSEX surged 0.9 percent. Many other major markets, including those in Australia and China, were closed.

CURRENCIES: The euro gained against the dollar, rising to $1.0989 from $1.0895 on Friday. The dollar was little changed against the Japanese currency at 119 yen.


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Massachusetts gas up by a penny per gallon

BOSTON — The price of a gallon of gasoline in Massachusetts has inched up by a penny in the past week.

AAA Northeast reports Monday that its weekly price survey found self-serve, regular selling for an average of $2.33 per gallon.

Despite the 1 cent increase over a week ago, gas remains 12 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and $1.19 lower than at the same time a year ago.

The Massachusetts average is also 6 cents per gallon lower than the national average.

AAA found self-serve regular selling for as low at $2.13 per gallon and as high as $2.55.


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State posts details of $225M Exxon settlement on website

TRENTON, N.J. — Details of New Jersey's proposed $225 million settlement with Exxon Mobil over pollution around refineries in Linden and Bayonne were posted online Monday, starting the clock on a legal process that will stretch into June and giving vocal opponents an opportunity to persuade a judge to kill the deal.

Details of the proposed deal struck last month between the attorney general and the Texas-based oil company were published on the Department of Environmental Protection's website.

Here's what you need to know about the four-page proposal:

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HOW IT WORKS

The Department of Environmental Protection said the public has 60 days to comment and then it will decide whether to approve the agreement, which it is expected to do.

Then, Judge Michael Hogan will issue a ruling on the offer. If he does not sign off, he may decide what the damage award should be, though it is common with agreements such as the one between the state and Exxon to be approved by the judge.

Commenting on the settlement gives the commenter standing to pursue an appeal.

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THE DEAL'S DETAILS

In addition to the Linden and Bayonne sites, the proposed settlement would resolve pollution claims at 16 service station sites across the state. It also proposes resolving claims at all services stations in New Jersey where, the department says in a news release, there was little or no damage and where there was no evidence of MTBE, a chemical compound used a gasoline additive. The department said litigating over these sites would cost taxpayers more than their expected value.

The $225 million proposal would be the second-largest natural resource settlement against a corporate defendant in the country's history and the largest in state history, the department said in a statement. Only the Exxon-Valdez payout was larger.

"We have vigorously litigated this case for the good of the environment and for the people of New Jersey," DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said in a statement. "On top of the historic payout for this natural resources damages settlement, there is no cap on what ExxonMobil must spend to complete the remediation work. ExxonMobil is also obligated to remediate all of the other, though far less contaminated, sites included in the proposed agreement."

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POLITICALLY VOLATILE

News of the proposed settlement has become a political lightning rod because a report in the court documents had estimated that the state might recover up to $8.9 billion. Leaks of the deal appeared in the press before the attorney general discussed the details, and the Democrat-led Legislature criticized Republican Gov. Chris Christie's administration for accepting pennies on the dollar.

New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel bashed the proposal. "It's really the largest sellout in history," he said in an interview.

Christie has publicly emphasized that Exxon Mobil must still clean the site.

"Under this settlement, ExxonMobil's obligation to remediate the refinery sites - exclusively at its cost, which will be substantial -- is reaffirmed," acting Attorney General John Hoffman said in a statement.

It's unclear how much cleanup will cost. Exxon Mobil will not speculate on the remediation process, said spokesman Todd Spitler said in a statement. Since 1991, the company has spent about $260 million to clean up the Linden and Bayonne sites under DEP supervision, Spitler said.

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BUDGET BATTLE

If the deal goes forward, the settlement money would not be available until the start of the fiscal year — July 1 — at the earliest, Hoffman said last month.

How that money is disbursed has also become the subject of a fierce debate. Under current law and as Christie proposed in his 2016 budget, the first $50 million of money recovered from natural resources settlements would go toward site cleanup and the rest would go toward the general fund. The Democratic-controlled Legislature has sent Christie a bill that would require half of the money from settlements of more than $50 million to be spent on cleanup. Christie has until May to decide if he'll veto the bill.

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Online: http://bit.ly/19Y7psi


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Strikes proliferate in China as working class awakens

NANLANG TOWNSHIP, China — Timid by nature, Shi Jieying took a risk last month and joined fellow workers in a strike at her handbag factory, one of a surging number of such labor protests across China.

Riot police flooded into the factory compound, broke up the strike and hauled away dozens of workers. Terrified by the violence, Shi was hospitalized with heart trouble, but with a feeble voice from her sickbed expressed a newfound boldness.

"We deserve fair compensation," said Shi, 41, who makes $4,700 a year at Cuiheng Handbag Factory in Nanlang, in southern China. Only recently, she had learned she had the right to social security funding and a housing allowance — two of the issues at stake in the strike.

"I didn't think of it as protesting, just defending our rights," she said.

More than three decades after Beijing began allowing market reforms, China's 168 million migrant workers are discovering their labor rights through the spread of social media. They are on the forefront of a labor protest movement that is posing a growing and awkward problem for the ruling Communist Party, wary of any grassroots activism that can threaten its grip on power.

"The party has to think twice before it suppresses the labor movement because it still claims to be a party for the working class," said Wang Jiangsong, a Beijing-based labor scholar.

Feeling exploited by businesses and abandoned by the government, workers are organizing strikes and labor protests at a rate that has doubled each of the past four years to more than 1,300 last year, up from just 185 in 2011, said Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin, which gathers information from China's social media.

"What we are seeing is the forming of China's labor movement in a real sense," said Duan Yi, the country's leading labor rights lawyer.

That's prompted crackdowns by authorities, and factory bosses have fired strike organizers. Although authorities have long ignored labor law violations by companies, activists say authorities now dispatch police — and dogs, in at least one case — to factories to restore order or even restart production. They have also detained leading activists and harassed organizations that help workers.

China's labor law, which went into effect in 1995, stipulates the right to a decent wage, rest periods, no excessive overtime and the right of group negotiation.

Workers are allowed to strike, but only under the government-controlled All China Federation of Trade Unions — which critics say is essentially an arm of the government that has failed to stand up for workers.

Workers who organize on their own can be arrested, not for striking but on charges such as disrupting traffic, business or social order. In Shenzhen, worker representative Wu Guijun was charged with gathering crowds to disrupt traffic, but was released with no conviction after a year in detention.

Migrant factory workers are perhaps the vanguard of this movement, but labor activism is slowly spreading among a working class that, all told, forms more than half of China's 1.4 billion.

"The working class has not yet fully woken up," said Qi Jianguang, 27, who was sacked from his job at a golfing equipment company in Shenzhen for leading a strike last summer. Lack of effective organization is another challenge. But he said that a common appeal for equitable and dignified treatment is serving to unite the laboring classes.

Deep suspicion of labor activism among authorities is rising. In February, the ACFTU's party chief, Li Yufu, warned that hostile foreign forces were using illegal rights groups and activists to compete for the hearts of the workers, sabotaging the unity of the working class and of the state-sanctioned union.

Zhang Zhiru, who runs a small labor group helping workers defend their rights, has been repeatedly harassed by police. He said the government will continue thwarting efforts at labor organizations because it considers them "making trouble."

But he remained optimistic.

"The social development and the increasing awareness of workers about their need to protect their rights will push the society forward," he said.

In March, workers returning from the Chinese New Year break to the thousands of factories in the Pearl River delta region near Hong Kong staged three dozen strikes at companies such as Stella Footwear, Meidi Electronics and Hisense Electronics.

Some fight for mandated severance pay, some for back social security payments and some for equal pay for out-of-town workers who typically earn less than local city residents. All of these actions have been on factory grounds because workers have grown impatient with government mediation rooms or courts.

"In many cases, lawsuits cannot ensure that workers' rights are protected, so the workers now are turning to collective negotiations or even organizing into a group to gain more, and to save time," Duan said.

While many labor activists have been harassed and detained, few have been convicted. In the only known case of workers involved in organized actions being criminally punished in recent years, Meng Han and 11 other security guards at a state hospital in Guangzhou were convicted in April 2014 of gathering crowds to disrupt social order after they staged a strike to demand equal pay and equal social security for local and out-of-town workers.

In the Pearl River Delta town of Nanlang, the handbag factory where Shi worked is one of many lining the main drag that leads to a group of parks honoring the town's most famous son, Sun Yat-sen, and the 1911 revolution he led to build a republic in China.

Earlier this year, the 280 or so workers, mostly women, went on strike to demand a still-unpaid but promised bonus of about $150 for last year. They ended the strike when factory management shelled out the money.

But in early March, the bosses announced fewer overtime hours and fewer workdays due to the global economic slump, and yanked a $5 bonus given to every female worker on March 8, International Women's Day.

The workers went on strike again, demanding back payments into social security funds, housing allowances and — believing the factory was on its last legs — the right to a severance package if they quit.

This time, the management did not budge.

Inside the town's government building, a Japanese man who identified himself as the factory's former general manager but declined to give his name said through an interpreter that the company had no choice but to cut hours when it failed to receive enough orders. He said workers kept making new demands, and that the factory had to call in police after surveillance cameras showed workers engaged in sabotage.

A Nanlang government statement said it dispatched a team March 24 to persuade the workers to return to work, but that some of them were flattening tires, destroying a surveillance camera, displaying banners and preventing other workers from returning to the workplace. Four workers were detained.

Workers said they were holding a peaceful rally when police attacked them.

"They were pulling our hair, smashing cell phones so we could not take photos," said a worker who gave only her family name, Cao. She was later taken to a police station, where she said she was handcuffed, deprived of sleep and food, and was lectured on her wrong behavior before being freed the next morning.

"I told them we are defending our own rights," Cao said. She and 10 other workers were fired.

Shi, who had been hospitalized after the police raid, said the incident eroded her trust in authorities.

"We were hoping the government would be on our side," she said, "but how could we have ever imagined that we would see the police pour in instead."


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Euro falls near $1, but European goods remain pricey

NEW YORK — Americans hunting for a bargain on a new Beemer, bottle of Chateau Margaux or Hermes handbag thanks to the sliding euro should put away their gold cards. European luxury goods sold in the U.S. still carry luxurious price tags.

The European currency has fallen 10 percent against the dollar this year. In theory, car dealerships, department stores and other companies that sell goods from Europe could pass on the savings to their American customers, said Ira Kalish, chief global economist at Deloitte, the consulting and accounting firm.

"But what would be the point of doing that?" Kalish asked. Demand for anything made in Europe is so strong that they have little trouble moving merchandise. "From their perspective, it's better to leave the price unchanged and pocket the profit."

The euro has been in a long tailspin. Last April, it was trading just shy of $1.40. Since then, it sank as low as $1.04 in March before bouncing back to $1.10 on Monday.

In other words, you used to have to pay $1.40 to buy a single euro; today, you pay just $1.10.

So where are the bargains? There's no reason to think that prices for Italian shoes and French red wines will fall along with the euro, analysts said. Part of the reason is that most European consumer products sold in the U.S. aren't aimed at most consumers. Armani, Hermes, and Prada cater to the affluent, selling well-made products as well as the perception of prestige and status. They have an image to maintain and slashing prices isn't part of it, Kalish said. Loyal customers might consider it, well, gauche.

"If a luxury product becomes really cheap, they might think, 'Why am I buying it, then?'" Kalish said. "The high price makes it attractive for some people."

WINE

Bill Earle, president of the National Association of Beverage Importers, said customers shouldn't expect to see cheaper prices for French and Italian wines anytime soon.

Part of the explanation, Earle said, is that U.S. importers pay well in advance for wines that often take years to age. With Brunello di Montalcino from Italy, for instance, the wine sits in an oak barrel for about four years before it's ready.

"One way to look at it is, the earliest you're going to see cheaper Brunello is in 2019," Earle said.

But even then, there's no guarantee that businesses will pass on savings to customers. Earle said a bottle of wine has to pass through layers of businesses before it shows up on the shelves — importers, distributors and retailers — and each business has its own costs. Because currency markets can be volatile, businesses are slow to cut prices because any savings could quickly vanish with a sudden swing in currency trading.

Doug Bell, a wine buyer for Whole Foods Market, also said he doesn't think people will see a significant fall in prices for European wines. Any drop would start showing up with the 2015 vintage, and even then, he said, other factors, such as bad weather, could easily offset a currency move.

The only way people might benefit from cheaper European wine, Earle said, is if they're "bringing it over on an airplane."

WATCHES, HANDBAGS

Similarly, anyone looking to score a Chanel handbag on the cheap is in for a letdown. Chanel's classic handbag carried a $4,900 price tag last year, according to Robert Burke and Associates, a luxury consulting firm. That's up from $2,250 in 2007.

Chanel is reportedly tweaking prices in other parts of the globe while leaving them alone at its U.S. stores. Robert Burke said he expects other luxury retailers to follow Chanel's cue. Demand remains so solid for these products in the U.S. that high-end retailers have no reason to pare prices. It would only tarnish their elite image.

Nate Herman, vice president of international trade for the American Apparel & Footwear Association, said higher manufacturing costs give these companies another reason to keep prices high. Over the past decade, luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Prada shifted some of their production to Asia, as manufacturers in the region improved their ability to craft high-end goods. As a result, the euro's fall against Asian currencies has driven up their costs.

CARS

It's the same story with German luxury cars. Americans with a taste for fancy rides are already able to afford them, so there's no need for Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Audi to pass along the benefit of a falling euro to customers by slashing prices.

Demand for these German cars remains solid. Audi's U.S. sales climbed 15 percent last year, while Mercedes's sales rose nearly 10 percent and BMW's 6.5 percent. Each company is likely to pocket the extra money from exchanging dollars to euros, no matter whether the cars are made overseas or in the U.S.

The exception might be Volkswagen, whose U.S. sales sank 3 percent last year. The company behind the Beetle, Golf and Touareg could use the weak euro to cut prices and lure more buyers.

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AP Business Writers Anne D'Innocenzio in New York and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.


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Modi blames changing lifestyles for India's rising pollution

NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday blamed the changing lifestyles that have come with India's economic development for rising pollution levels that have given the country some of the world's dirtiest air.

With his government rolling out a new air quality index to 10 of the nation's cities, Modi urged Indians to curtail waste and conserve resources even as they become wealthier, in order to prevent an environmental catastrophe.

"Until we focus on our lifestyle and get the world to focus on it, we will not succeed despite all other measures being taken," Modi told state environment ministers in New Delhi.

"It is difficult to convince the developed nations about this," he added, but said India should set an example.

Air pollution kills millions of people every year, including more than 627,000 in India, according to the World Health Organization.

India announced plans last year for the air quality index, releasing a draft proposal in October based on New Delhi's small network of air quality monitors. Experts have criticized New Delhi's readings as erratic and unreliable, calling for more transparency and rigor in the data.

They also said using an air quality index in 10 cities was a welcome step for raising public awareness of pollution dangers, but was still far below what is needed. The WHO puts 13 Indian cities in the world's 20 most polluted — with New Delhi deemed the filthiest — while pollution levels even in the countryside are often several times above what is deemed safe.

Environmental activists said the index had little value without offering advice on how to cope with high pollution levels, or announcing any measures to reduce pollution.

"Given the scale of air pollution and the impact it has on the public in Delhi and many other cities across the country, we had expected the government to address the issue with more rigor and responsibility," Greenpeace said in a statement.

The index — a simple ranking of pollution over a 24-hour period as good, satisfactory, moderately polluted, poor, very poor or severe — will be used New Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. A few of the cities, however, have just one air monitor. New Delhi has 20 in operation, but even that is deemed very low.

The index's scale may also downplay pollution levels. For example, Monday's pollution level at the U.S. Embassy in central Delhi was described as "moderately poor" on the Indian scale. But that same level is considered "unhealthy" by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency.

"It is time to push for aggressive and time-bound action in Delhi and other Indian cities to meet clean air standards and reduce the public health risk," said the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment, a research and lobbying group.

Already, many of New Delhi's 4.5 million children have reduced lung capacity, according to a study by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute of Kolkata submitted to India's Central Pollution Control Board two years ago — yet made public by Indian media only last week. The researchers found that, out of about 11,000 children studied over years, one-third showed lung disease or deterioration.

While there is scant reliable data on respiratory illness in India, doctors said the number of respiratory illnesses is rising and the cases they see are becoming more serious.

"By 35, you tend to have lungs which start behaving like a smoker's lung," says Dr. Pankaj Syal, a lung specialist at PSRI Hospital in the capital. "Not only are the cases rising, we are having difficulty controlling patients' (cases) which were easily controlled earlier on."

India's air pollution comes mostly from coal-fired power plants, crop burning, domestic cooking with firewood or cow dung, and vehicles burning diesel fuel. The incomplete burning of these fuels produces black carbon, which constitutes most of the tiny particulate matter known as PM2.5, and can lodge and fester in human lungs. Black carbon is also blamed for up to 20 percent of global warming.

Anxious to grow its economy, India has made building electricity capacity a top priority. It plans to boost solar and wind power, but also plans to triple its coal-fired electricity capacity to 450 gigawatts by 2030.

Modi also complained that other nations were thwarting India's clean-energy ambitious by not selling it nuclear fuel.

"See the irony," Modi said. "The world gives lecture on climate, but if we tell them that we want to move forward in nuclear energy as it's a good path for environment protection, and when we ask them to provide necessary fuel for nuclear energy, they refuse."

India's lack of progress in building nuclear capacity, however, is largely a result of its reluctance to allow U.S. tracking of fissile material as well as its law making U.S. nuclear suppliers — not operators of nuclear plants — liable for accidents. Modi's government has been discussing ways to placate those concerns.

The country's planned coal expansion will at least double sulfur dioxide levels, along with those of nitrogen oxide and lung-clogging particulate matter, according to a study published in December by Urban Emissions and the Mumbai-based nonprofit group Conservation Action Trust.

It remains unclear how India plans to keep pollution from escalating further. It still has no regulations for pollutants like mercury or sulfur dioxide, a carcinogen that causes acid rain and respiratory illness, while both coal-plant emissions and vehicle fuel standards remain below Western norms.

And while already the world's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, India is still home to at least 300 million people with no electricity at all, while hundreds of millions have just a couple of hours a day. Bringing them all onto a 24-hour electricity grid fueled primarily by coal could jeopardize global efforts to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Modi suggested Indians would have to be more energy efficient in order to disprove international perceptions that it did not care about the environment.

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Follow Katy Daigle on Twitter: http://twitter.com/katydaigle


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Volkswagen seeks to increase planned expansion by 25 percent

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Volkswagen is seeking to add to a planned expansion announced last year to produce a new sport utility vehicle in Tennessee.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports  documents show the automaker wants to add an additional 130,153 square feet to the original expansion, 25 percent more than first planned. The additional expansion will add about $18 million to the $900 million project.

VW plant spokesman Scott Wilson said the company has decided to increase the size of the body shop to accommodate future production needs. He said that doing that now will save money and give VW flexibility as it makes changes to the way it assembles vehicles.

VW is scheduled to go before a local industrial development board on Tuesday to seek permission for the new expansion proposal.

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Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com


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US service firms grew at slightly slower pace last month

WASHINGTON — U.S. service firms expanded at a slightly slower yet still healthy pace in March, an encouraging sign after multiple reports last week pointed to a slowing economy.

The Institute for Supply Management said Monday that its services index slipped to 56.5 last month, from 56.9 in February. Any reading over 50 indicates expansion.

A measure of sales fell last month and dragged down the overall index. But gauges of hiring and orders rose, evidence that services firms may see solid growth in the coming months.

That suggests that recent signs of a weakening economy could prove temporary. The services figures come after a disappointing jobs report last week, which echoed a slew of other weak economic data this month. Employers added just 126,000 jobs in March, the fewest in 15 months.

"Based on this survey, rumors of the demise of the US economy have been greatly exaggerated," Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.

At the same time, service firms covered by the report, which include health care providers, hotels, restaurants, construction companies, and banks, are less affected by some of the trends which have held back manufacturing. Factory output has slowed partly because of a rapid rise in the value of the dollar, which makes goods exports more expensive.

Manufacturing firms were also hit by a labor dispute at ports in California, which delayed the shipping of needed parts and components.

Fourteen of 18 services industries reported growth in March, led by real estate, hotels and restaurants, and transportation and shipping.

Still, many analysts now forecast that the economy barely expanded in the first three months of this year. Growth has slowed dramatically in the last six months.

The ISM is a trade group of purchasing managers. Its survey of services firms covers businesses that employ 90 percent of the American workforce, including retail, construction, health care and financial services companies.

The ISM's manufacturing index, released last week, fell for the fifth straight month in March. In addition to the strong dollar, factories have been held back by cheaper oil, which has hurt orders for steel pipe and other equipment.

Home construction has been weak despite low mortgage rates. And Americans are still cautious about spending, even with a sharp plunge in gas prices since last June.

Growth has faltered as a result. The economy expanded at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, down sharply from a blistering 4.8 percent in the six months from last April through November.

Most analysts expect it slowed even further in the January-March quarter. Harsh winter weather may have been partly to blame. But paychecks are still barely keeping up with inflation, even as the unemployment rate has fallen. That is likely weighing on spending and growth.


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Turkish prosecutor seeks to block social media

ISTANBUL — A Turkish prosecutor has ordered Internet providers to block social networking sites, including Twitter and YouTube, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday.

The request stems from postings of photos that show militant Marxists pointing a gun at a prosecutor who died last week in a shootout between police and the Marxists who were holding him hostage.

Government officials have blasted Turkish media for posting the images, which they have called anti-government propaganda. The prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, was shot in the head during the standoff and died in a hospital soon after.

It wasn't immediately clear how the social media order was being carried out, but the government-run Anadolu Agency quoted the Union of Internet Providers as confirming that access to Twitter and YouTube has been blocked. Some users could still access the sites, while others reported being blocked.

The agency said access was blocked because Twitter and YouTube didn't remove images of the prosecutor despite an official notification. It says the Internet Providers notified Twitter and YouTube, but video, photographs and audio continued to be posted on these sites. The Turkish telecommunications authority wouldn't immediately comment.

Twitter said Monday it was working to restore access to users in Turkey and Bulent Kent, the head of the Internet Providers Union, told Anadolu that the ban on Twitter was expected to be lifted soon.

"We are aware of reports of interruption of our service in Turkey, and we are working to restore access for our users as soon as possible," the company said in Turkish and in English through its @policy account.

The journalists group, Turkish Press Council, said that while it understood the authorities concerns over the publication of the prosecutors' photographs, it said banning social media websites was in conflict with democracy.

"It is meaningless to totally shut down social platforms — which contain billions of useful information — to the use of the Turkish people because of some unsuitable content," the group said.

Users meanwhile were sharing information on how to get around the ban on the Internet.

Last year, Turkey blocked access to YouTube and Twitter after audio recordings of a secret security meeting or tapes suggesting corruption by government officials were leaked on the social media sites. Turkey's highest court, however, overturned the bans, deeming them to be unconstitutional.

Previous moves by Turkish authorities to block the social media networks have provoked widespread criticism by Western governments and human rights organizations.

Many tech-savvy users, including former President Abdullah Gul, had found ways to circumvent the bans both on Twitter and YouTube while they were in place.

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Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.


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Sam's Club, Kroger pull all Blue Bell Ice Cream products

DALLAS — Two other large retailers have decided to pull Blue Bell Ice Cream from their shelves as a precautionary measure after the company announced it was temporarily closing an Oklahoma production plant.

Sam's Club and Kroger have joined H-E-B in halting sales of Blue Bell products. The dairy company based in Brenham, Texas, last month issued a recall after ice cream contaminated with listeriosis was linked to three deaths at a Kansas hospital.

The foodborne illness was tracked to a production line in Brenham and later to a second line in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Blue Bell announced Friday that it had stopped all production at the Broken Arrow plant.

Company spokesman Gene Grabowski confirmed Monday that the number of large retailers pulling the ice cream has grown.


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Final Maine shrimp hearing is tonight in Portland

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 31 Maret 2015 | 00.24

PORTLAND, Maine — Fishery regulators are holding the last of a series of public hearings about the future of New England's shuttered shrimp fishery in Portland.

The hearing was scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal Conference Room on the city's waterfront. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is collecting feedback from about the possibility establishing a limited fishery for the shrimp in the future. The shrimp fishery closed in 2013 and has not reopened because of concerns about population levels.

Fishermen from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts harvested Maine shrimp prior to the fishery's closure. They were a key commercial species in New England before the population collapse, which some scientists say is due in part to warming ocean temperatures.


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Signed contracts to buy US homes climb to 20-month high

WASHINGTON — More Americans signed contracts to buy homes in February, evidence that the spring buying season could open strong after sluggish sales for much of the winter.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index climbed 3.1 percent to 106.9 last month, the highest reading since June 2013.

Buying activity jumped in the Midwest and West, while dipping slightly in the Northeast and South. The gains suggest that housing should overcome the recent hurdles of freezing weather and blistering snowstorms, as both buyers and potentially sellers return to the market.

Pending sales are a barometer of future purchases. A one- to two-month lag usually exists between a contract and a completed sale.

The upturn suggests a solid spring sales rebound, after a lackluster winter. But unlike last year when sales fell, the spring buying season opens after more than a year of robust hiring that has pulled the unemployment rate down to 5.5 percent, the lowest level in nearly seven years.

"What's different this time is that the surge in the pace of payroll growth means that the pool of prospective homebuyers is now rising more rapidly than at any time since the crash," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Existing homes sold at an annual pace of 4.88 million in February, slightly below last year's levels, according to the Realtors. Prospective buyers were finding slim pickings as the supply of homes was just 4.6 months, compared to five full months a year ago and an average closer to six months in healthy housing markets.

But solid hiring over the past year and historically low mortgage rates may help to ease the affordability pressures from tight supplies.

Average 30-year fixed rates were 3.69 percent last week, according to the mortgage giant Freddie Mac. That average has plunged from a 52-week high of 4.41 percent, a sharp decrease that makes it easier to purchase more expensive homes.

Similarly, job gains should give consumers more financial flexibility to buy homes.

Employers have added 3.3 million jobs over the past 12 months, including 295,000 jobs in February. That rapid clip of hiring has caused the unemployment rate to tumble to 5.5 percent from 6.7 percent. As the total number of paychecks have increased in the economy, more buyers should be able to afford a home, economists say.

The one missing piece in the housing rebound remains wage growth.

Earnings have risen at drastically slower rate than home prices, putting many houses out of reach financially.

Over the past two years, homes nationwide outpaced wage growth by a 13-to-1 ratio, according to RealtyTrac, the housing data provider. Home prices have risen 17 percent since the middle of 2012 when the market bottomed out, while median wages have risen just 1.3 percent, RealtyTrac said.

But that might prove to be a positive, since modest wage gains should put a cap on how high prices can go and improve affordability in the coming years.

"Those markets with the biggest disconnect between price growth and wage growth during the last two years are most likely to see plateauing home prices in 2015 until wages catch up," said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.


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Business forecasters boost 2-year outlook for US economy

A business economics group has boosted its outlook for U.S. economic improvement this year and next, particularly for job growth.

The March report from the National Association for Business Economics forecasts more hiring, a lower unemployment rate, a lower inflation rate and more growth in consumer spending in 2015, compared to the group's forecast in December 2014.

The report, released early Monday, also predicts more investment by businesses in both equipment and intellectual property, as well as modest growth in stock prices.

"Healthier consumer spending, housing investment and government spending growth are expected to make outsized contributions to the projected acceleration in overall economic activity. Accordingly, recent labor market strength is expected to continue," John Silvia, the association's president and the chief economist at Wells Fargo, said in a statement.

Other factors driving the improved forecast include an increased pace of activity in the housing sector, the strong dollar and continued low oil prices.

The report predicts the benchmark price for crude oil, which fell from $98 per barrel in December 2013 to $59 in December 2014, will average $61 per barrel at the end of the year and $69 per barrel in December 2016. Just three months ago, the group forecast that oil would spike to $85 per barrel by December 2015.

The NABE report did contain some negatives, however. Those include a widening U.S. trade deficit in 2015, a 0.1 percent dip in 2015 hourly compensation growth from December's prediction to 2.5 percent, and scaled-back forecasts for 2015 corporate profit growth, down 2 percentage points to 4.7 percent from December's forecast.

Meanwhile, 88 percent of the panel of 50 professional forecasters predicted the Federal Reserve will start increasing interest rates in the second or third quarter of this year.

Highlights of the association's forecast include:

—On average, the economy should add 251,000 jobs per month in 2015 and then 216,000 per month in 2016.

—The U.S. unemployment rate — now 5.5 percent, the lowest in seven years — is expected to dip to 5.4 percent in December and then decline to 5.1 percent in 2016.

—Gross domestic product is expected to grow 3.1 percent in 2015, unchanged from the December forecast.

—The federal deficit is expected to total $460 billion in fiscal 2015 and $453 billion in the 2016 fiscal year.

—The group's forecast for Standard & Poor's 500 index, on average, is to end 2015 at 2,150 and end 2016 at 2,262.

—Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, is expected to decline 0.6 percent in 2015, a big improvement over December's forecast that it would increase by 1.7 percent.

—Consumer spending is forecast to increase by 3.3 percent in 2015 and to increase by 3 percent the following year.

"The improved consumer spending outlook may be attributable to the psychological impact of lower gasoline prices, as well as improving employment and income growth," the report noted.


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Lincoln Continental, the car of presidents, is returning

DEARBORN, Mich. — Elvis Presley had one; so did Clark Gable. It was even the sedan of presidents. Then the name vanished amid an invasion of newer luxury cars from Europe and Asia.

Now, the Lincoln Continental is back.

Thirteen years after the last Continental rolled off the assembly line, Ford Motor Co. is resurrecting its storied nameplate. The new Continental debuts in concept form at this week's New York auto show. The production version of the full-size sedan goes on sale next year.

After more than a decade of toying with alphabetical names like LS and MKS to be more like its foreign rivals, Ford's 98-year-old Lincoln brand is embracing its heritage. It's a measure of the growing confidence at Lincoln, which is finally turning around a decades-long sales decline. And it's a nod to the importance of China, where customers know the Continental name and appreciate brands with a rich history.

Ford CEO Mark Fields says the Continental always represented the best of Lincoln. Resurrecting it sets higher expectations, both within the company and outside of it.

"When we get a chance to work on an iconic nameplate like that, it's a mixture of pride and a mixture of fear, because when you put that name out there, it's got to deliver," Fields told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

The Continental was born in 1938, when Henry Ford's son Edsel commissioned a convertible he could use on his spring vacation. Thrilled by the reception he got as he drove the elegant sedan around Palm Beach, Edsel made the Continental part of Lincoln's lineup.

The Continental soon became the pinnacle of American luxury. Warner Brothers gave Elizabeth Taylor a 1956 Continental with a custom paint color to match her eyes. A darker historical note: John F. Kennedy was riding in the back of a 1961 Continental convertible when he was assassinated in Dallas.

Continental sales peaked in 1990 at 62,732. But after that, Lincoln's sales began slipping.

Ford had acquired other luxury brands such as Jaguar and Volvo. Lincoln's designs got dull and failed to stand out from lower-priced Fords. The Continental was also squeezed by competition from the midsize Lincoln LS, which debuted in 2000, and the bigger Town Car.

Ford also underestimated the threat posed by German rivals, who were expanding their lineups, and newer Japanese luxury brands. By 2000, Lexus was the top-selling luxury brand in the U.S.; last year, BMW was.

To make its way back, Lincoln isn't trying to be sporty like BMW or showy like Cadillac. Instead, Fields says, it wants to give drivers an experience that is elegant and serene.

"We want folks to get into our vehicles and — for lack of a better term — chill," Fields said.

It appears to be working. Lincoln's U.S. sales rose 16 percent last year, making it one of the fastest-growing luxury brands in the market. The midsize MKZ was the brand's top seller.

Full-size sedans like the Continental are a tough sell in the U.S., where buyers tend to prefer midsize sedans or SUVs. U.S. sales of Lincoln's current full-size sedan, the MKS, fell 24 percent last year.

But globally, the segment is growing, Fields says. Ford has high hopes for the Lincoln brand in China, where it's opening dazzling new dealerships complete with waterfalls. Ford began selling Lincolns in China late last year, and the company will open more than 20 dealerships there this year.

The concept car being unveiled Monday in New York is painted a deep Prussian blue, an homage to Continentals of the 1950s and 1960s. But there are few other references to its history.

Lincoln's split-wing grille, a feature that dates to the 1940s, has been replaced by a tight, rectangular mesh grille, its shiny chrome patterned with tiny versions of Lincoln's rectangular logo. The sides are smooth; even the door handles are hidden within a narrow strip of chrome at the beltline.

The concept is a technology showcase. The driver's seat has a patented split cushion, so if the driver holds one leg out further than another, it will support each leg separately. The moonroof glass turns opaque with the touch of a button. Another button automatically moves the front passenger seat forward and fully reclines the rear passenger seat. That's another nod to China, where luxury car owners often have their own drivers.

Under the hood is a 3-liter V6 EcoBoost engine that's unique to Lincoln. Ford isn't yet revealing more details, like whether the car is front- or rear-wheel drive. The Continental switched to a front-wheel-drive sedan in the 1980s, but many of its current competitors — the Infiniti Q70, Mercedes Benz S-Class and Lexus LS — are rear-wheel drive.

The Continental is expected to replace the seven-year-old MKS, which currently sits atop Lincoln's car lineup.


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JetBlue computer outage causes delays for passengers

NEW YORK — A computer outage that caused delays for thousands of JetBlue Airways passengers early Monday morning has been resolved, the company said.

JetBlue Airways said it had fixed a systemwide computer problem by 6:15 a.m. Eastern that has caused delays because the airline had to manually check in passengers.

NBC News reported that the airline had to issue handwritten boarding passes to passengers at many airports.

The company said in an email that passengers might experience delays throughout the day. It did not specify how long it would take to work through delays and get operations back to normal.

The airline did not immediately respond to inquiries on how many flights were affected, but passengers at airports in Boston; Orlando, Fla., and Washington, D.C., took to social media to report long lines and delays.

A list of flights on the website of New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, JetBlue's busiest airport, showed delays of 60 to 90 minutes for early morning flights and numerous delays but there were shorter delays for more recent flights.


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Redbox renews deal with Warner Bros. through 2017

Redbox, which rents DVDs through vending machines dotted across the U.S., has extended its deal with Warner Bros. by two years, through March 31, 2017, maintaining a 28-day window on the studio's Blu-ray Disc and DVD titles.

Deal comes after Redbox hired Mark Horak, previously president of the Americas at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, as president about a year ago.

"Redbox is an important partner," Ron Sanders, president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Home Entertainment Distribution, said in a statement. "I am very pleased that we have finalized a new two-year agreement."

Last year, Redbox reached similar renewals with Universal, Paramount and Lionsgate. But the DVD-kiosk vendor is facing headwinds, as consumers increasingly turn to subscription VOD services, according to analysts. Last October, Outerwall -- Redbox's parent company -- and Verizon shuttered their SVOD joint venture, Redbox Instant by Verizon, after it failed to gain traction.

In December, Redbox raised the daily rental prices of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, which Outerwall told investors would have an "adverse impact" on rental volumes. The daily rental rate for DVDs increased from $1.20 to $1.50, while the daily rental rate for a Blu-ray Disc increased from $1.50 to $2.

As of the end of 2014, Redbox operated kiosks in almost 35,000 locations, including at select Walmart, McDonald's and Walgreens stores. Outerwall claims those points of presence generate more than 350 million impressions at retail per week.

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


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RadioShack creditor Salus changes mind, won't offer new bid

NEW YORK — RadioShack creditor Salus says it won't improve its bid as it fights with another buyer for the electronics chain, hedge fund Standard General.

Salus had failed to win an auction for the assets of the Fort Worth, Texas-based electronics retailer, which filed for bankruptcy in February. RadioShack instead chose a $160 million bid from hedge fund Standard General that consists mostly of credit on debt it is owed.

That proposal would keep 1,743 stores open and preserve about 7,500 jobs.

In a letter filed with the bankruptcy court in Delaware, Salus says it changed its mind on improving its offer after learning of unspecified new developments.

Salus plans to argue in court Monday why its offer, which included a $271 million cash payment, is better than Standard General's bid.


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Dreamworks Animation's stock soars on 'Home' success

DreamWorks Animation is getting a big lift from the box office success of "Home."

Shares in the company are up more than 8% as markets open, kicking off the day trading at $24.30. That's the highest level they have reached since last November. It's a welcome change for DreamWorks Animation, which has seen its stock slide precipitously since spring of 2014, weighed down by a series of film flops, write downs, failed sales to Hasbro and Softbank, and layoffs.

But "Home" briefly swept those troubles aside when it debuted to $54 million, roughly $20 million more than most analysts had predicted it would generate.

"It's a huge morale boost both for investors and employees at the company," said Tony Wible, an analyst with Janney Capital Markets. "The film business is what's been languishing there and these results mean they avoid another impairment and have found a possible other franchise."

Indeed, "Home" is the third biggest non-sequel opening in DreamWorks Animation's history, behind only "Kung Fu Panda" ($60.2 million) and "Monsters vs. Aliens" ($59.3 million). It represents the studio's best chance for a new franchise in years -- something it desperately needs now that "Shrek" has run out of gas and "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Kung Fu Panda" are entering their third installments.

Moreover, for the first time in over a year, DreamWorks Animation was able to leverage a starry cast that included Rihanna, Steve Martin and Jennifer Lopez to convince a diverse audience to show up. That demonstrates there's still strength in its old model of matching A-list talent with animated fare, provided DreamWorks Animation shakes up the formula to appeal to a broader portion of the movie-going public.

"If it follows the trajectory of previous DreamWorks films this is going to be profitable," said Marla Backer, an analyst with Research Associates. "A lot of investors had written DreamWorks off in the near term and this opening may make them think twice."

That's not to say that "Home's" strong debut obviates the company's very real issues. DreamWorks Animation still needs to better control costs ("Home's" budget was a sizable $130 million) and the studio is facing intense competition in the animation space from the likes of Blue Sky, Disney and Illumination. Plus, it's hard to be a publicly traded, mid-size entertainment company jockeying for attention and profits alongside sprawling media conglomerates.

To that end, DreamWorks Animation is overhauling its feature film unit by bringing in producers Mireille Soria and Bonnie Arnold to head the division and reinvigorate its slate of films. The studio won't release another picture until "Kung Fu Panda 3" debuts in March, 2016, so this could be the last stock bump the company enjoys for awhile, analysts caution.

"They're not remotely done with restructuring," said Wible. "Their next film doesn't come out for a year, so investors looking for growth should look elsewhere."

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


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AAA: Massachusetts gas prices remain steady

BOSTON — Massachusetts gas prices remained steady in the past week, according to the latest AAA Northeast survey.

The survey released Monday found self-serve, regular selling for an average of $2.32 per gallon, the same as last week.

That price is a nickel lower than a month ago, a dime lower than the national average and a full $1.19 lower than the in-state price at the same time a year ago.

The survey found self-serve, regular selling in Massachusetts for as low as $2.11 and as high as $2.59.


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US stocks move higher, led by gains in energy companies

Major U.S. stock indexes surged in afternoon trading Monday, as investors cheered encouraging economic data and the latest batch of corporate deal news. Expectations that any increase in the Federal Reserve's key interest rate this year will be gradual also helped lift the market.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 281 points, or 1.6 percent, to 17,994 as of 1:07 p.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 24 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,085. The Nasdaq composite gained 50 points, or 1 percent, to 4,941.

CONSUMER REBOUND: The Commerce Department said that consumer spending edged up 0.1 percent in February following two straight monthly declines. The report also showed consumers' incomes rose a solid 0.4 percent, a development that could mean higher spending in coming months.

HOUSING BAROMETER: A gauge of future home sales surged to its highest level since June 2013. The National Association of Realtors reported that its seasonally adjusted index of pending home sales rose 3.1 percent in February. The report suggests that the spring buying season could open strongly after sluggish sales for much of the winter. KB Home led a broad rally among homebuilders. The stock rose 46 cents, or 3 percent, to $15.74.

FED FACTOR: Also shoring up markets were remarks on Friday by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. In her speech, Yellen noted that continued improvement in the U.S. economy means an increase in the Fed's key interest rate could come later this year, but would likely be gradual.

THE QUOTE: "She continues to put forth the message that there will be a rate hike this year, but it will be quite measured and quite gradual going forward," said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. "The market takes some confidence in that."

SECTOR VIEW: The 10 sectors in the S&P 500 moved higher, with energy stocks notching the biggest gain. The sector was up 1.6 percent. Analog Devices led all stocks in the S&P 500, climbing $5.69, or 9.7 percent, to $64.53.

PRESCRIBED BUYOUT: UnitedHealth Group jumped 2.6 percent after the nation's largest health insurer said it would buy pharmacy benefits manager Catamaran Corp. Shares in UnitedHealth added $3.01 to $121.02. Catamaran vaulted 23.8 percent, adding $11.48 to $59.81.

KITCHEN REMODEL: Fortune Brands Home & Security has agreed to buy kitchen and bathroom cabinet maker Norcraft Companies for about $600 million in cash. Shares in Fortune Brands rose $2.53, or 5.7 percent, to $46.82. Norcraft gained $2.63, or 11.5 percent, to $25.53.

PHARMA DEALS: Shares in Auspex Pharmaceuticals soared 41.7 percent after it agreed to be acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries for about $3.2 billion in cash. Auspex gained $29.60 to $100.51. Separately, Horizon Pharma climbed 15.2 percent on news the drug developer is buying Hyperion Therapeutics for $1.1 billion. Horizon gained $3.32 to $25.13. Hyperion added $3.35, or 7.8 percent, to $46.09.

FALLING SHORT: BioDelivery Sciences International plunged 26.5 percent after the drug developer said its potential treatment for pain related to diabetic neuropathy did not meet its main goal in a key study. The stock fell $3.68 to $10.21.

EUROZONE UPTICK: A survey from the European Commission showed economic sentiment across the region at its highest level since July 2011. Its main economic sentiment indicator rose to 103.9 in March from 102.3 the month before. That's consistent with annual economic growth of around 1.5 percent.

OVERSEAS MARKETS: In Europe, Germany's DAX was up 1.8 percent, while the CAC-40 in France rose 1 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares rose 0.3 percent. In Asia, Chinese stocks soared on hopes of more economic stimulus. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.6 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.5 percent. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up 0.7 percent.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 59 cents to $48.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

BONDS: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged down to 1.96 percent from 1.97 percent late Friday.


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US stock market makes modest gains following strong week

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 24 Maret 2015 | 00.24

NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes crept higher in midday trading following a strong performance last week. The gains on Monday were wide but slight: Eight of 10 sectors in the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose, though not by much.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 edged up three points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,112 as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 45 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,172 while the Nasdaq composite slipped two points, a sliver of a percent, to 5,024. It was not far from its all-time high last seen during the dot-com bubble in 2000.

The S&P 500 jumped nearly 3 percent last week, its biggest weekly gain since early February.

SOLID: Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial, said he expects the market to head higher over the coming months because there appears to be nothing on the horizon capable of knocking it off course. Investors have pushed the S&P 500 to all-time highs despite concerns over Europe's sluggish economy and slumping oil prices. "Greece hasn't pulled it down, deflation hasn't pulled it down," McMillan said. "Unless the Federal Reserve says it's going to raise interest rates in June, I just can't see what's going to pull it down."

WARNING: The stock of Gilead Sciences dropped following news that the pharmaceutical company told physicians that nine patients taking its hepatitis C treatments developed slow heartbeats and that one died. Gilead slid $2.17, or 2 percent, to $100.12.

EUROPE: Germany's DAX lost 1.1 percent and France's CAC 40 shed 0.7 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 picked up 0.1 percent.

GREECE IN FOCUS: In Europe, traders kept tabs on a meeting between the leaders of Greece and Germany for signs of progress in Greece's debt negotiations. Greece faces a cash crunch in the coming weeks and is in talks with its European lenders on what steps it must make to receive more loans.

ASIA'S DAY: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 ended with a gain of 1 percent. In China, the Shanghai Composite Index surged 2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.5 percent.

OPTIMISM: The U.S. stock market is coming off its best week since February 6. The strong performance ended with a rebound in oil prices and higher earnings from sportswear giant Nike and other big companies on Friday. The biggest gains came after the Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it was in no hurry to hike rates with inflation low.

ONE VIEW: In a note, Evan Lucas of IG Markets said that, based "on current statements, no central bank in the developed world is going to raise rates before June. In fact, the market believes no central bank will lift rates before September."

CRUDE: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 23 cents to $46.80 a barrel in New York.

CURRENCY: The dollar fell to 119.80 yen from Friday's 120.03 yen. The euro rose to $1.0898 from $1.0820.


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Starbucks scraps 'Race Together' campaign in stores after weeklong backlash

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced the end of the company's "Race Together" campaign in stores on Sunday nigh,t via a memo to staff.

Employees will no longer be encouraged to write the slogan on customers' cups after a weeklong backlash aimed at the behemoth coffee chain's efforts to open up a discussion on race issues.

"I know this hasn't been easy for any of you – let me assure you that we didn't expect universal praise," chief executive Schultz wrote in a letter to staff and released by the company on Sunday. "We leaned in because we believed that starting this dialogue is what matters most."

After the campaign kicked off last week, Starbucks received widespread criticism, and Schultz even appeared on media to clarify that the company's intentions were to open up a dialogue on race — not offend anyone.

"This phase of the effort — writing 'Race Together' (or placing stickers) on cups, which was always just the catalyst for a much broader and longer term conversation — will be completed as originally planned today, March 22," Schultz wrote.

"Race Together" activities will go on as planned over the next few months, including open forum discussions and special sections in USA Today.

The company has also committed to hiring 10,000 disadvantaged youth in the next three years while also opening up new stores in minority communities.

2015 TheWrap news inc. All rights reserved.


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Humana selling Concentra unit for about $1.06 billion

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Humana Inc. says it will sell its Concentra Inc. unit to MJ Acquisition Corp. for just under $1.06 billion in cash.

The Concentra unit, acquired by Humana in December of 2010, is a provider of occupational health, urgent care and physical therapy services.

MJ Acquisition is a joint venture between hospital operator Select Medical Holdings Corp. and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe XII, L.P., a private equity fund.

The sale is expected to close during the second quarter.

The health insurer said its 2015 profit outlook remains set at between $8.50 and $9 per share.

Humana is based in Louisville, Kentucky.


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US home sales rebound slightly in February

WASHINGTON — Slightly more Americans bought homes in February, but tight inventories, affordability problems and nasty winter weather point to sluggish sales in the coming few months.

Sales of existing homes rose 1.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million, a slight rebound after plunging in January yet still underperforming by historical standards, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

The real estate market has hibernated through the first two months of 2015, creating the potential for a second straight year of weak buying activity.

Strong job growth and relatively low mortgage rates have failed to awaken buyers. Meanwhile, relatively few homes are being listed for sale and builders are mostly catering to the wealthiest slivers of the market. Sales are running below last year's pace of 4.93 million, which represented a 3.1 percent drop from 2013.

"The next couple months are some of the most critical of the entire year for housing and sluggish numbers may continue if inventory doesn't increase," said Bill Banfield, vice president of mortgage provider Quicken Loans.

Despite February's uptick, buying activity appears to have been slow coming into March because of a series of harsh winter storms. The weather last month shut down construction and hurt open houses, likely causing fewer signed contracts and put additional downward pressure on completed sales in March.

"Mother Nature will probably make her presence known more in March," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Housing starts plunged 17 percent in February, the Commerce Department reported last week. Buyer traffic also slipped last month, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index. Mortgage applications slipped in March, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Sales tumbled 6.5 percent last month in the Northeast, which was hammered hard by snow, the Realtors said. Home-buying was unchanged in the Midwest and increased in the South and West.

The recent storms have led several economists to expect a strong recovery in the coming spring months, when more buyers usually step up their search and sellers decide to list their properties.

Still, some homeowners are trapped by mortgage debt, making it unprofitable for them to sell. Their negative equity is a lingering aftershock from the recession and housing bust, limiting the supply of available homes on the market.

The real estate data firm Zillow reported last week that 16.9 percent of homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth. In several metro areas including Philadelphia, Houston and Boston, that rate actually increased from the levels in the third quarter of 2014.

The Realtors reported Monday that just 4.6 months of supply was listed for sale, compared to a full five months a year ago.

That meager inventory has helped push up sales prices, creating additional affordability pressures despite strong monthly job gains averaging more than 200,000 for the past year.

Median home prices increased 7.5 percent over the past 12 months to $202,600, almost quadruple the pace of average hourly wage gains.

Sales to investors and for all-cash have also declined over the past year, while first-time buyers have yet to return. First-timers accounted for only 29 percent of home sales, compared to a historical average of 40 percent.

Nor have buyers responded much to the comparatively low mortgage rates.

Average 30-year fixed rates were 3.78 percent last week, according to the mortgage giant Freddie Mac. That average has plunged from a 52-week high of 4.41 percent, which should help to make housing more affordable.

Because of tight credit, few potential buyers have been able to take advantage of the low rates.

An Urban Institute index measuring credit availability found that lenders are taking fewer risks with mortgages, choosing buyers with high credit scores and providing them routine mortgages, rather than the exotic and opaque loans that inflated the housing bubble and led to the financial crisis.

The restricted credit "has been, and threatens to continue to be, a headwind for the housing recovery," said Michelle Meyer, a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in a client note.


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Investigation prompted by alleged rape story to be released

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Police plan to release the findings of an investigation prompted by a Rolling Stone article about an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house.

Charlottesville police have scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. Monday. A notice posted on the police department's website says officials won't answer any questions before the news conference.

The November 2014 article described an alleged gang rape at a fraternity house in 2012. Rolling Stone has since apologized for the article and noted discrepancies.

The police department said in January that investigators had been unable to confirm that a gang rape occurred at the fraternity house. However, a police spokesman emphasized at the time that did not mean an assault did not occur.


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New York Times botches its Jewish terminology, issues correction

The New York Times issued a correction Sunday for improperly using Jewish terms "yenta" and "shiva" in a story.

The article "For Nice Jewish Guys, Swipe Right" depicts 23-year-old Jordan Rodman paying her respects at a Shiva — a Jewish gathering to mourn the dead — when her dating life became a hot topic of conversation.

The article delves into the Jewish dating app "JSwipe," which mimics Tinder in letting users swipe right or left to approve a potential match or dismiss them.

Apparently, The Times confused both the terms Shiva and yenta, issuing a correction for both:

"An earlier version of this article described incorrectly what Jordan Rodman was doing at a shiva. She was paying her respects to a family in mourning; she herself was not sitting shiva. Also, an earlier version of this article and its accompanying headline incorrectly compared JSwipe users to yentas. Yentas are busybodies, not matchmakers."

For the record, this author has incorrectly been called a yenta while sitting shiva before.

2015 TheWrap news inc. All rights reserved.


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Obama announces $240M in new pledges for STEM education

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is highlighting private-sector efforts to encourage more students from underrepresented groups to pursue education in science, technology, engineering and math.

At the White House Science Fair on Monday, Obama announced more than $240 million in pledges to boost the study of those fields, known as STEM. This year's fair is focused on diversity.

Obama said the new commitments have brought total financial and material support for these programs to $1 billion.

"It's not enough for our country just to be proud of you. We've got to support you," Obama said.

The pledges the president announced include a $150 million philanthropic effort to encourage promising early-career scientists to stay on track and a $90 million campaign to expand STEM opportunities to underrepresented youth, such as minorities and girls.

More than 100 colleges and universities have committed to training 20,000 engineers, and a coalition of CEOs has promised to expand high-quality STEM education programs to additional 1.5 million students this year.

Obama launched "Educate to Innovate," his effort to encourage the study of science, technology, engineering and math, in 2009.

More than 35 student teams showed their projects at the White House Science Fair, including exhibits on algae, spinal implants, keystroke security and a page turner made out of Legos.

Obama said the fair is one of the most fun events held annually at the White House. "Every year I walk out smarter than when I walked in," Obama said.


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Farmers fund research to breed gluten-free wheat

WICHITA, Kan. — Kansas farmers are paying for genetic research to figure out exactly why some people struggle to digest wheat.

The hard science is aimed at developing new varieties of wheat at a time when the gluten-free industry is worth nearly a billion dollars a year in the U.S. alone.

The Kansas Wheat Commission is spending $200,000 for the first two years of the project, which is meant to identify everything in wheat's DNA sequences that can trigger a reaction in people suffering from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which eating even tiny amounts of gluten — comprised of numerous, complex proteins that gives dough its elasticity and some flavor to baked goods — can damage the small intestine.

The only known treatment for celiac disease is a gluten-free diet free of any foods that contain wheat, rye, and barley.

"If you know you are producing a crop that is not tolerated well by people, then it's the right thing to do," said the project's lead researcher, Chris Miller, senior director of research for Engrain, a Kansas company that makes products to enhance the nutrition and appearance of products made by the milling and cereal industry.

Though celiac disease is four to five times more common now than 50 years ago, only about 1 percent of the world's population is believed to suffer from it, and just a fraction have been diagnosed. But the gluten-free food business has skyrocketed in the last five years, driven in part by non-celiac sufferers who believe they are intolerant to gluten and look for such products as a healthier alternative.

Sales of gluten-free snacks, crackers, pasta, bread and other products reached $973 million in the U.S. in 2014, up from $810 million the previous year, according to a January report by the consumer research firm Packaged Facts, which analyzed the sales of hundreds of explicitly labeled and marketed gluten-free products and brands at supermarkets, drugstores, and mass merchandisers.

Understanding the causes of celiac disease and gluten intolerance is the goal of a lot of research around the world; Some focuses on human diagnosis and treatment, and others have identified about 20 of the protein fragments in wheat that causes celiac reactions.

But no one has identified all of them, or bred a variety of wheat that is safe for celiac sufferers to eat.

"We are hoping to be one of the first to establish this comprehensive screening of reactive proteins in wheat," Miller said.

The research began in July at the Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan, Kansas, and remains in its early stages, with researchers extracting proteins from seeds of various varieties of wheat. A later step will be combining the proteins with antibodies produced by the human immune system to test for reactions.

He also plans to examine the wild relatives of wheat as well as modern varieties, and will tap into a Kansas wheat variety repository that dates back to the 1900s in hopes of finding a variety — perhaps one that fell out of favor among commercial farmers — that might already be low in reactivity for celiac sufferers.

Researchers hope to use that variety to develop a gluten-free wheat using traditional breeding methods.

An expert on celiac disease who reviewed Miller's plan online worries that it may prove "too simplistic," and fail to identify all the toxic sequences that can trigger a celiac reaction.

Armin Alaedini, assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University and a researcher at the New York-based school's Celiac Disease Center, said the project may end up with a less toxic wheat product that isn't completely safe for all celiac disease patients.

"After all this effort, this product that is coming out ... is unlikely to be superior in terms of nutritional value or baking properties and taste to the gluten-free products that are already on the market," Alaedini said.

The medical advisory board for the Celiac Disease Foundation, a nonprofit based in Woodland Hills, California, could not reach a consensus on the viability of Miller's research.

But the organization's CEO, Marilyn Geller, is encouraged.

Her son had been sick his entire life before being diagnosed with celiac disease at age 15, Geller said, and his father also was later diagnosed. Since the disorder is genetic, her grandchildren will be at risk of getting it.

If these research efforts can keep celiac disease in the public eye, more doctors will be aware of it and more federal research dollars may flow, she said.

Many people with the disease would like to "eat actual wheat, with the properties of wheat that make the bread nice and fluffy," she said.

"The idea of having a variety of wheat that they could eat that has those wonderful wheat-like properties would certainly be very interesting for them."


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What to pack for year in space? A 'superhero utility belt'

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — What's one thing astronaut Scott Kelly can't do without when he moves into space this week for a year? A belt.

Kelly went beltless during his five-month mission at the International Space Station a few years back, and he hated how his shirttails kept floating out of his pants. So this time, the 51-year-old retired Navy captain packed "a military, tactical-style thing" that can hold a tool pouch.

Actually, scratch pouch. He prefers "superhero utility belt."

Kelly's partner on the yearlong stay at the space station — Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko — can't do without his vitamins. When their Soyuz rocket blasts off from Kazakhstan on Saturday (Friday afternoon in the U.S.), three bottles of over-age-50 vitamins will be on board.

After more than two years of training, Kelly and Kornienko are eager to get going. It will be the longest space mission ever for NASA, and the longest in almost two decades for the Russian Space Agency, which holds the record at 14 months.

Medicine and technology have made huge leaps since then, and the world's space agencies need to know how the body adapts to an entire year of weightlessness before committing to even longer Mars expeditions. More yearlong missions are planned, with an ultimate goal of 12 test subjects. The typical station stint is six months.

"We know a lot about six months. But we know almost nothing about what happens between six and 12 months in space," said NASA's space station program scientist, Julie Robinson.

Among the more common space afflictions: weakened bones and muscles, and impaired vision and immune system. Then there is the psychological toll.

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a frequent flier who will accompany Kelly and Kornienko into orbit, predicts it will be the psychological — not physical — effects that will be toughest on the one-year crew.

"Being far away from Earth, being sort of crammed, having few people to interact with," Padalka said. He'll break the record for most time spent in space during his six-month stay, closing in on a grand total of 900 days by the time he returns to Earth in September.

Neither Kelly nor Kornienko, though, worries about himself. They fret about the family and friends they are leaving behind for an entire year — until next March.

"If something happens ... you're not coming home, no matter what it is. You're not coming back," Kelly said in an interview earlier this year with The Associated Press.

Kelly's loved ones include: his two daughters, ages 20 and 11; his NASA-employed girlfriend; his widowed father; his identical twin brother Mark, a retired astronaut; and his sister-in-law, Gabrielle Giffords, a former congresswoman who barely survived an assassination attempt while he was at the space station in 2011.

Kornienko, 54, a former paratrooper, worries how his wife will cope alone at their country house outside Moscow. His 32-year-old daughter is a new mother; the baby is not quite a year old.

Wife Irina cried when she learned in 2012 that he'd be leaving Earth for a whole year. And she's still not happy about it, Kornienko told the AP.

"She understands that it's a dangerous mission. But she's getting used to the idea," he said.

A vivid reminder of the dangers of spaceflight hit home last fall when an unmanned supply ship blew up shortly after liftoff from Virginia. Kelly's original "superhero" belt was destroyed, along with the rest of the station cargo. Replacements went up on the next commercial shipment.

The two veteran space fliers are fully aware of all the risks. Kelly has flown in space three times for a total of 180 days. (Two of those trips were space shuttle quickies.) Kornienko has a single 176-day station flight on his resume.

Kelly acknowledges it will be a challenge "keeping the level of fatigue down, enthusiasm up, energy reserves to respond to an emergency."

Newly returned space station commander Butch Wilmore urges some three-day weekends for the pair.

"To maintain that mental focus for six months is difficult, and to do it for an entire year ... You don't want to make any mistakes," said Wilmore, whose 5½-month mission ended March 11.

Kornienko was selected by his bosses for the job while Kelly volunteered.

NASA actually got a 2-for-1 bonus with Kelly. He is teaming up with brother Mark for a battery of medical tests so researchers can compare the physique and physiology of the space twin with his genetic double on the ground. Raised by police-officer parents, they've lived parallel lives as Navy fighter and test pilots and space shuttle commanders.

Mark Kelly, a four-time space flier, will be at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for his brother's launch; wife Giffords will watch from Houston with Johnson Space Center friends. He's already submitted to numerous blood draws and ultrasounds in the name of space science.

"All right, do whatever you've got to do," Mark said he tells the doctors.

As for what Scott will endure, "Imagine if you went to work where your office was and then you had to stay in that place for a year and not go outside, right? Kind of a challenge," Mark said in an AP interview.

At least Scott Kelly will get outside for a spacewalk this time. Considerable work is needed to prepare the orbiting lab for the 2017 arrival of U.S. commercial crew capsules. So the year will be unusually busy, noted NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini, "a good thing" on such a long haul.

Another plus is that Kelly and Kornienko seem to honestly like one another. And they won't be alone. There are normally six people on board and lots of compartments, including three full-scale laboratories, in which to disappear. Besides, the U.S. and Russian crews generally spend their workdays on their respective sides, Kelly noted. The total interior volume is roughly equivalent to two Boeing 747s.

"It's a big place, and I don't really look at it as I'm spending a year with him," Kelly said. "It's more spending a year with 14 other people, and he's one of them."

Among those coming and going, in September, will be British soprano superstar Sarah Brightman. She will visit for 1½ weeks as a paying tourist, and will perform live from on high.

Kelly expects to hear a lot of singing while she's there, but doubts he'll join in.

"Never sang before. But I could try, right?" Kelly said with a laugh. "It will be either all of us (singing with her) or none of us."

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew/


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Louisville Slugger maker announces deal to sell iconic brand

The company that made bats for a who's who of baseball greats, including Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, announced a deal Monday to sell its Louisville Slugger brand to rival Wilson Sporting Goods Co. for $70 million.

Hillerich & Bradsby Co. has made the iconic bats for more than 130 years, supplying the bats with the recognizable oval logo for generations of baseball players — from the sandlots to the big leagues.

Wilson's deal to acquire the global brand, sales and innovation rights of Louisville Slugger still requires approval by H&B shareholders, according to the joint announcement Monday.

Under terms of the agreement, H&B will become Wilson's exclusive manufacturing partner for wood bats. H&B will continue to manufacture wood bats at its factory in Louisville, Kentucky.

Wilson Sporting Goods is a division of Finnish sports equipment maker Amer Sports Corp. The Helsinki-based company said the deal is expected to be completed in the second half of this year.

H&B also will maintain ownership and continue to operate the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory and Gift Shop, a popular tourist destination.

H&B said its Bionic Gloves division and Powerbilt golf brand are not part of the deal.

H&B has made Louisville Slugger bats since 1884. H&B CEO John A. Hillerich IV said the decision to sell the brand was difficult, but says the company believes it needs to pursue a new business model.

"We recognized from our first conversation with Wilson that they would be a great partner and steward of the brand our family created and so many have nurtured for 131 years," he said in a statement.

Mike Dowse, president of Wilson Sporting Goods Co., said expanding the company's baseball and softball business globally is a key part of its business strategy.

"We believe Louisville Slugger will enrich our company significantly, enhance our baseball and softball product offering at all levels of the game, and ensure we are delivering only the best performance products to athletes of every age," he said.

Wilson said it will market and sell Louisville Slugger-branded products through its baseball and softball business unit. The company currently manufactures and sells gloves, bats, uniforms, apparel, protective gear, accessories and player development equipment and training tools through its Wilson, DeMarini and ATEC brands. Like its DeMarini brand, Wilson will market and sell Louisville Slugger as a stand-alone brand.

Last year, Amer's net sales totaled €2.3 billion ($2.5 billion). It employs 7,600 people worldwide.

___

AP writer Matti Huuhtanen contributed to this report from Helsinki.


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