Microsoft warns XP users the end is near

REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft is preparing its customers for the end of technical support and security updates for its XP operating system.

As of April 8, Microsoft says it will retire its old, dependable operating system, which first shipped in 2001.

Greg Sullivan, Microsoft's director of Windows, says "We can't continue to support it forever."

Sullivan says it's a standard industry practice to retire operating systems in the constantly evolving tech world. He points to Apple's recent decision to end support for its Snow Leopard operating system, which shipped in 2009.

XP users are being asked to go to AmIRunningXP.com for information on how to upgrade their systems.

Microsoft is encouraging its customers to upgrade to its Windows 8 operating system, which has received mixed reviews.

Sound: Upcoming

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China's February exports down 18 percent

BEIJING — China's exports plunged by an unexpectedly large 18 percent in February, possibly denting hopes trade will help drive the slowing economy while communist leaders push ambitious promised reforms.

Exports declined to $114.1 billion while imports rose a stronger-than-expected 10.1 percent to $137.1 billion, customs data showed Saturday.

Weakness in key European and U.S. export markets could raise the risk of politically dangerous job losses in trade-reliant industries that employ millions of workers at a time when communist leaders want to focus on restructuring China's economy.

China's official 2014 economic growth target of 7.5 percent, announced this week by Premier Li Keqiang, assumes trade also will grow by 7.5 percent. But customs data show combined imports and exports so far this year have shrunk by 4.8 percent.

The ruling Communist Party is trying to reduce reliance on trade and investment to drive growth by promoting domestic consumption and giving market forces a "decisive role" in the economy. A surge in job losses could force them to shore up growth with a stimulus based on state-led investment, setting back their reform effort.

China's trade data can be distorted by the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls at different times in January and February each year. But even grouping together the first two months of this year still showed exports fell 1.6 percent from a year earlier, while imports rose 10.1 percent.

This year's data also were expected to be unusually weak because during the comparison period in 2013 exporters were believed to be inflating sales figures as an excuse to evade currency controls and bring extra money into China for investment.

Despite that, the decline in February trade far exceeded forecasters' expectations of a contraction in low single digits. They also expected imports to grow by a similar small margin.

The official economic growth target looks unusually ambitious after last year's expansion rate fell to a two-decade low of 7.7 percent. Manufacturing weakened in February and an HSBC Corp. survey showed employers cut jobs at the fastest rate in five years.

The finance minister said this week that growth as low as 7.2 percent would be acceptable and Beijing's priority is creating jobs. Plans call for creation of 11 million jobs but the minister said as many as 13 million might be possible.

China's global trade balance swung to a deficit of $23 billion. The country often runs a trade deficit for one or months early in the year as factories restock following the Lunar New Year shutdown.

The surplus with the 27-nation European Union, China's biggest trading partner, narrowed by 22 percent to $4.1 billion. China's trade surplus with the United States narrowed by 36 percent to $7 billion.

A plunge in global demand in mid-2013 prompted Beijing to launch a mini-stimulus based on higher spending on railway construction and other public works. Growth accelerated but quickly faded once the government spending ended.

Since then, Chinese leaders have said there is little that additional stimulus can do to spur growth and improvements will have to come from longer-term reforms.

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Still no price on fix for botched Health Connector site

Beleaguered Health Connector officials continue to chip away at the massive backlog of Bay Staters' applications for health insurance, but still won't say how much taxpayers will have to shell out to fix the state's entire Obamacare fiasco.

"We are working really hard to pull that together," said Sarah Iselin, the state's new temporary Obamacare czar, during a weekly conference call with reporters. "It's a complicated picture, but we'll begin reporting on that next week at the connector meeting."

Despite repeated inquiries from the Herald, state officials have said they don't yet know how much it's costing to place 62,000 Bay Staters on temporary insurance.

The good news for the Health Connector is that the total backlog of applications — once a staggering 72,000 — is now down to 43,000.

"That's a decrease of 40 percent in about three weeks," said Iselin.

She said the state is seeing an increasing interest in insurance, receiving about 2,000 applications a day, half on paper, the other half electronically.

It used to take staffers two hours to enroll each paper application — that figure is now down to 33 minutes.

Chaos and confusion have dogged the state Health Connector's woeful 
$69 million website since it launched on Oct. 1, frustrating users who have struggled to sign up for health insurance by key deadlines.

Adding insult to injury, the Herald reported this week that many Bay Staters are seeing astounding spikes in their health insurance premiums — some soaring as much as nearly $11,000 a year.

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Obama: It's time to give America a raise

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he's hearing from business owners across the country who are voluntarily paying their workers more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says those actions show that change comes to Washington, not from it.

Congressional Republicans are resisting Obama's pleas to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Obama recorded the address in Washington before leaving Friday for a weekend in Florida.

In the Republican address, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman says Obama's proposed 2015 budget taxes too much and spends too much.

Portman says Senate Republicans have a plan to spark economic recovery by getting government out of the way.

___

Online:

Obama address: http://whitehouse.gov

Republican address: www.youtube.com/user/gopweeklyaddress

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4 nations urge US gas exports amid Ukraine crisis

WASHINGTON — Four Central European nations are urging the United States to boost natural gas exports to Europe as a hedge against the possibility that Russia could cut off its supply of gas to Ukraine.

Ambassadors from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic made their appeal Friday in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. A similar letter was expected to be sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The letter from the four nations, known as the Visegrad Group, asks for Congress to support speedier approval of natural gas exports, noting that the "presence of U.S. natural gas would be much welcome in Central and Eastern Europe."

The ambassadors warn that the unrest in Ukraine has brought back Cold War memories and that energy security threatens the region's residents on a daily basis.

"Gas-to-gas competition in our region is a vital aspect of national security and a key U.S. interest in the region," the ambassadors wrote in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Ukraine is heavily dependent on Russian natural gas, and previous disputes between Ukraine and Russia have led to gas supply cuts. Russian state gas company Gazprom has increased the pressure on Ukraine's new government, which now owes $1.89 billion for Russian natural gas, by warning that if Ukraine doesn't pay off its debt, there could be a repeat of 2009, when Russia cut off supplies to Europe because of a pricing dispute with Ukraine.

Recent advancements have made it possible for gas that normally flows through Ukraine to the EU to instead flow the other direction, so that nations like Poland and Hungary can supply gas to Ukraine if Russia were to cut off its supply. But with gas supplies limited, the region is still vulnerable unless the U.S. makes it easier to import American natural gas, the ambassadors argued.

Boehner and Republicans have been urging the Obama administration to clear the way for more exports amid a natural gas boom in the U.S. The Energy Department has only approved six export licenses in recent years out of about two dozen pending.

"The ability to turn the tables and put the Russian leader in check lies right beneath our feet, in the form of vast supplies of natural energy," Boehner wrote this week in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal.

The White House has argued that Russia's dependence on gas revenues makes it unlikely that the country will cut off supplies to Europe despite the ongoing crisis in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, where the Russian military has intervened in what the U.S. regards as a violation of international law.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday that because Europe has had a relatively mild winter, gas supplies are at or above normal levels. He said even if the U.S. did approve more export licenses, it would take until the end of 2015 for gas to be delivered.

"Proposals to try to respond to the situation in Ukraine that are related to our policy on exporting natural gas would not have an immediate effect," Earnest said.

___

Reach Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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Spotify snags Echo Nest

Music streaming company Spotify has bought The Echo Nest, a Somerville company that powers many online streaming radio services.

Founded at the MIT Media Lab, The Echo Nest has more than a billion data points about more than 35 million songs, information that is currently used by Spotify and many of its competitors, including Rdio, MOG and 
SiriusXM.

"We've been fans of The Echo Nest for a really long time and honored to have their talented team join Spotify," said Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify, in a release.

"Together, we're going to change how the world listens," wrote The Echo Nest co-founders Tristan Jehan, Brian Whitman and CEO Jim Lucchese in a blog post.

The Echo Nest will continue to operate independently in its Somerville and San Francisco offices.

David Blutenthal, whose app Moodsnap taps into both The Echo Nest and Spotify, said the acquisition makes sense.

"It's going to make Spotify better," he said.

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The Ticker

S&P sets new record on good jobless news

U.S. stocks mostly rose yesterday, with the S&P 500 closing at yet another record on better-than-expected jobless claims data and the European Central Bank's move to keep rates unchanged.

Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment insurance fell to 323,000, the lowest in three months, a sign of strength in a labor market that has been hobbled by severe weather.

New orders for U.S. factory goods, however, fell more than expected in January; and shipments also slipped, adding to signs of a recent slowdown in manufacturing activity.

Yesterday's milestone closing at 1,877.03 marked the S&P 500's fourth record closing high over the past six sessions.

Shaw's parent co. buying Safeway

AB Acquisition, the parent company of Albertsons and Shaw's and Star Market, is acquiring all outstanding shares of Safeway.

Safeway, the second-largest U.S. mainstream grocery store operator, said the deal is valued at about $9.4 billion.

The deal creates a grocery network of more than 2,400 stores and 250,000 employees.

No store closures are expected, according to the company.

Disney interactive laying off 700

Disney is laying off 700 people from the interactive unit that makes video games and operates websites, about a quarter of the workforce in the division.

A Walt Disney Co. spokesman confirmed the layoffs yesterday.

The move narrows the company's focus on mobile and social games that use key Disney characters.

Some games that Disney acquired when it bought social gamemaker Playdom in 2010 for $563 million, such as "Sorority Life," will be discontinued.

It is also discontinuing onetime hits, such as music play-along game, "Tap Tap Revenge."

Today

 Labor Department releases employment data for February.

 Commerce Department releases international trade data for January.

 Federal Reserve releases consumer credit data for January.

THE SHUFFLE

New Albertsons Inc. announced that Jim Rice has been promoted to president of the Shaw's & Star Markets division based in West Bridgewater. Currently interim president of the company's Chicago-based Jewel-Osco division, Rice has more than three decades of experience in grocery retail.

Do you have a job announcement or promotion at your company? Send us the information along with a photo to bizsmart@bostonherald.com.

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Top brokers draw wealthy clients

Selling super high-end properties in Boston, those over $10 million, is a rarefied world dominated by a handful of Hub brokers.

Sometimes these brokers represent the sellers, sometimes they bring buyers to the deal.

Jonathan Radford of Coldwell Banker represented the seller of the Mason House, a 14,580-square-foot 11-bedroom mansion at 211 Commonwealth Ave., which sold last month for $12,736,000.

Radford said buyers are initially wowed by palatial homes like Mason House with features such as an ornate music room, an elevator and a five-car garage. But these signature spaces can also be intimidating.

"What can hold a buyer back is whether the home works with their current lifestyle," he said. "It's up to the agent to bring ideas to the table. If the top floor has three extra bedrooms you don't need, you bring in designers with ideas on converting the floor to an entertainment room."

Buyers are often personalities from the sports or entertainment worlds, business leaders and royalty, so not only is discretion critical, but so is having an in-depth knowledge of the high-end market here and internationally, Radford said.

"A buyer for one of these properties could come from around the corner or around the world," Radford said.

Negotiations are intense affairs, often involving not just the buyer and seller and their agents, but also each side's lawyers and financial advisers, said Radford.

"It's a juggling act keeping everyone in the loop and focused on getting the deal done," Radford said. "But the incentive is that these properties change hands rarely and for a buyer it could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance."

But even in super high-end homes that seemingly have it all, there can be something besides price that keeps the property from selling.

That's the case with 74 Beacon St., the so-called Benjamin Mansion, a six-floor townhouse with a media room, library, gym, elevator, a Brimmer Street garage space — and even a rooftop lap pool. It's on the market for $13.95 million and had been rented for the past year at an eye-popping $40,000 a month after failing to sell.

"As we started showing it again after the rental lease ran out, we saw that while the house has everything a person could want, what didn't click for many buyers was that the kitchen was on the garden level," said John Neale of Sprogis & Neale, which is the co-exclusive listing broker for the property along with Tracy Campion of Campion & Co.

The 8,450-square-foot six-
bedroom townhouse that overlooks the Public Garden had already undergone a three-year gut renovation several years earlier. But Neale convinced local owner/developers Peter and Elizabeth Georgantas of Peg Properties & Design to relocate the kitchen to the first floor, and to convert the former basement kitchen into a family room. Neale will relaunch the mansion when the renovations are completed next month.

Next door, Beth Dickerson of Gibson Sotheby's sold 
78 Beacon St., a six-bedroom, 7,878-square-foot renovated townhouse for $9.3 million last November, down from its original asking price of $10.75 million.

"High-end buyers at this level are all cash and can close quickly," said Dickerson. "At this price level they want garage parking and for everything to be newly done."

Will Montero of Gibson Sotheby's works as both a seller's and a buyer's agent, having brought the buyers for recent high-end property sales at the Four Seasons and The Clarendon. He's now working with three local CEOs who are looking to buy.

Montero is also the listing broker for a 9,817-square-foot Parisian-style mansion at 130 Commonwealth Ave., with its six parking spaces and 2,200-bottle wine cellar that's on the market for $13.9 million. The property is owned by a Singapore investor, who bought it for $9.5 million in 2012.

"A home like this in Singapore would cost $40 million, which appeals to international investors," Montero said. "And a lot of properties in this range are also bought by wealthy business or royal families whose children are, or will be, going to school in Boston. They want the extra space for when they come to visit."

Montero said his clients value agents who know about properties for sale before they hit the market.

"Buyers at this level are often very busy people and don't have a lot of time," Montero said. "You have to be able to get them what they want and hopefully be the first ones in. And to be able to close the deal."

He said the high-end brokers in Boston know one another and often bring buyers to one another's properties. And some properties are sold through private sales, never even hitting the market.

But Radford said he always urges sellers to list super high-end properties to get as wide exposure as possible and the most money.

"For those who do end up buying these homes, it's not just getting the right price, but they have to be the right person for the house," Radford said.

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Experts: Despite loss of 4,500 jobs, Massachusetts outlook good

Massachusetts lost 4,500 jobs in January after the state last year saw the largest increase in jobs since 2000, but experts and state officials said last month's losses are not a predictor of the entire year.

"I don't think that reflects any indication that the economy is slowing at all," said Alan Clayton-Matthews, an economist at Northeastern University. "I suspect that this is an aberration and things will pick up in the coming months."

Andre Mayer, senior adviser at Associated Industries of Massachusetts, said in a blog post it is tough to interpret January's numbers.

"The reported January job loss may signal a slowdown, but it may just as well be statistical error from the survey or seasonal adjustment, or simply a result of bad weather."

Clayton-Matthews said much of the losses could be due to seasonal trends.

"The decline in retail trade could be due to seasonable fluctuations that occur this time of year," he said.

The Bay State's unemployment rate in January fell 0.3 percent to 6.8 percent. The national rate in January was 6.6 percent. Last year, the state unemployment rate rose above the national rate for the first time since 2007.

State officials also released the final numbers for 2013, and said the state added 55,200 jobs last year.

"For our state, it's particularly exciting that we had such strong growth in 2013 because it means we are moving beyond a simple recovery," Housing and Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki said.

Clayton-Matthews said neither number changed his views on 2014, which he thinks will be a strong year for the state.

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Wood pellet users left out in the cold

This winter's bone-chilling temperatures have led to a shortage of home-heating wood pellets, causing long lines and limits on the number of bags customers can buy, and adding a week or more to the time it takes to have them delivered.

"This is the first time in many years we're out of stock," Jeff Alcock, owner of Bark Unlimited in Shrewsbury, said yesterday. "We haven't been able to get them. We're hoping we will Friday or Saturday, but we're going to have to limit customers to 10 bags each."

On Monday, Alcock sold 950 bags — a full shipment — in three hours and 30 minutes. Customers began lining up at about 6 a.m., he said, and one man told him he'd driven 98 miles from Concord, N.H., for his 20-bag limit.

"This has never happened before," he said.

That's because wood-pellet stoves are gaining in popularity, and this winter has been exceptionally cold, not only in New England, but in many other parts of the country, as well, said Glenn Walldroff, president of Associated Harvest Inc., a Lafargeville, N.Y., pellet manufacturer.

"Demand that normally would have been concentrated in the Northeast got diluted," Walldroff said, "and you can't correct a shortage in 30 days."

Last winter, Leah Arteaga of Roslindale went through 2.6 tons of wood pellets at a cost of about $800 to heat her 2,000-square-foot home. So she thought she was playing it safe when she ordered 3 tons from woodpellets.com for this winter, only to find she now has about a week's worth left, and the company is predicting delivery will take at least two weeks.

"I worry about how cold it's going to get," Arteaga, 46, said. "It could be a long two weeks."

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US agency demands recall data from General Motors

DETROIT — U.S. safety regulators are demanding that General Motors turn over reams of documents and other data showing what the company knew and when it found out about a dangerous ignition problem that has been linked to 13 car-crash deaths.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating how GM handled the problem, which triggered the global recall of 1.6 million older-model compact cars. GM has acknowledged it knew of the ignition troubles a decade ago but didn't recall the cars until last month.

In a 27-page order sent to GM Tuesday, NHTSA demanded pictures, memos, electronic communications, engineering drawings and other data to answer 107 questions. The reply, which must be signed under oath by a company officer, is due on April 3. GM spokesman Alan Adler said Wednesday that the company is cooperating.

NHTSA wants the documents to determine if GM delayed its response or withheld evidence. In either case, it could fine GM up to $35 million. Automakers are required to inform NHTSA of safety defects within five days of discovering them. Such a fine would be a record for NHTSA, but essentially is pocket change for GM, which made $3.8 billion last year.

Included in the order is a series of questions about when GM discovered the ignition problem in 2004 and the identity of employees involved in finding and replicating it. The order asks what fixes GM considered "including the lead time required, costs and effectiveness of each of the solutions."

On Feb. 13, GM announced the recall of more than 780,000 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s (model years 2005-2007). Two weeks later it added 842,000 Saturn Ion compacts (2003-2007), and Chevrolet HHR SUVs and Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky sports cars (2006-2007).

Facts surrounding the recall are embarrassing for GM and could scare away consumers. Since leaving a painful bankruptcy in 2009, GM has cut bureaucracy, improved vehicle quality and is quicker to recall cars when problems occur. However, its admission that recall procedures were lacking 10 years ago shows how the old culture can still haunt the automaker.

In an effort to reassure employees and customers, GM's new CEO Mary Barra on Tuesday promised an "unvarnished" internal investigation to figure out what happened and prevent it from recurring.

"We want our customers to know that today's GM is committed to fixing this problem in a manner that earns their trust," GM's Adler said.

Even as NHTSA pressures GM for details, safety advocates say the agency bears some blame for the automaker's slow recall response. NHTSA said Wednesday in a statement that it's a data-driven agency "and we will take whatever action is appropriate based on where our findings lead us."

The maximum fine NHTSA can charge was more than doubled last year under legislation approved by Congress after Toyota unintended acceleration recalls. But critics say it still isn't enough to deter bad behavior.

GM says a heavy key ring or jarring from rough roads can cause the ignition switch in the recalled vehicles to move out of the run position and shut off the engine and electrical power. That can knock out power-assisted brakes and steering and disable the front air bags. In the fatalities, the air bags did not inflate, but the engines did not shut off in all cases, GM said.

It was unclear whether the ignition switches caused the crashes, or whether people died because the air bags didn't inflate.

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In populist appeal, Obama spotlights minimum wage

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — Mounting a show of support from like-minded governors, President Barack Obama put a spotlight Wednesday on a minimum wage push that Democrats hope will appeal to economically squeezed voters in November's midterm elections.

Standing at the center of a packed college gymnasium, Obama said raising hourly wages to $10.10 would pull millions of Americans out of poverty. While one of Obama's top priorities, the proposal is more likely to serve as a rallying cry for Democrats in the approaching election than to be adopted by Congress in the foreseeable future.

In a nod to staunch Republican opposition, Obama urged Americans to demand answers from their lawmakers about whether they support raising stagnant wages and ask if not, why not?

"Ask them to reconsider. Ask them to side with the majority of Americans," Obama said. "Instead of saying no for once, say yes."

The backdrop as Obama rallied a crowd of 3,000 at Central Connecticut State University: Four Northeastern governors — from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island — who support Obama's proposal.

More than 20 states have increased their state-level minimum wages, said Labor Secretary Tom Perez, including six in the year since Obama first called for a federal increase. Democrats believe the push will bolster a populist message about expanding opportunity that they believe offers their best shot at fending off Republicans this November.

As if to underscore how politically charged the issue has already become, Republicans seized on Obama's appearance to accuse him of threatening to obliterate badly needed jobs.

Republicans cite a study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimating the proposal would cut employment by roughly 500,000 jobs. The White House disputes that finding, while embracing another finding from the same report that says more than 16.5 million people would see higher earnings by 2016.

"The problem is Republicans in Congress oppose raising the minimum wage. Now I don't know if that's just because I proposed it," Obama said to laughter from the largely supportive crowd. "Maybe I should say I oppose raising the minimum wage, and they'd vote for it."

Poking fun right back, House Speaker John Boehner's office released a parody "fact sheet" in the style typically used by the White House to outline Obama's proposals.

The headline: "President Obama Offers Plan to Destroy Jobs for Low-Income Americans."

"When folks are still struggling to find work in this economy, why would we make that any harder?" said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck.

Outside the gymnasium where Obama spoke, a handful of protesters waved the Ukrainian flag in apparent solidarity with Ukraine's new government, while immigration activists chanted: "Obama, don't deport my mama."

Obama's visit to a state he handily won twice served as a nagging reminder than Obama is struggling to maintain the public's support amid concerns about his health care law and a still-sluggish economic recovery. Just 45 percent of voters here approved of the president — his lowest score in Connecticut — according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week.

With an eye toward the election, Obama told about 70 donors later Wednesday that Democrats have a tendency to tune out midterms at their own peril. At an art gallery in Boston, Obama warned that Democrats could get "walloped" again this year if they turn prematurely to the 2016 presidential race.

"Nobody's going to be more interested than me in having a Democrat succeed me," Obama said. "But right now, we've got to make sure we're fighting in this election."

Obama's two Boston fundraisers were among 18 that Obama has committed to holding by mid-summer for the Democratic National Committee, which is still working its way out of deep debt more than a year after helping Obama get re-elected.

___

Follow Josh Lederman at https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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Facebook, Instagram aim to curb gun sales

Facebook and its photo-sharing subsidiary, Instagram, are taking steps to block potentially illegal firearm sales facilitated by their websites after more than 230,000 people backed a petition by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

Facebook and Instagram will delete reported posts offering to sell guns across state lines or without background checks. The sites also will block users younger than 18 from viewing reported private gun sale posts or pages.

"People can report (potentially illegal) things to us, and, of course, any time law enforcement sees something, they can report it to us," Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, said during a media conference call that included New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the heads of Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Il­legal Guns.

The response Mothers Demand Action received from Facebook contrasted sharply with the lack of one from Staples after the group repeatedly asked to meet with a representative to urge the company to follow the lead of CVS, Costco, Starbucks and other retailers that bar guns from their stores. When 10 mothers went to Staples' Framingham headquarters Tuesday to deliver a petition signed by more than 12,000 people, a security guard took it and told them to leave the property. A company spokeswoman did not return a call or an email yesterday.

Jim Wallace, executive director of Northboro-based Gun Owners Action League, called the Staples petition "a little bit ludicrous" and minimized yesterday's Facebook announcement, saying, "We haven't done anything to get the human criminal element off the streets."

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Cybersecurity a focus for Israel’s Yehuda­ Yaakov

Forging bilateral cyber­security ties is among Yehuda­ Yaakov's goals in his new role as Israel's consul general to New England.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., native wants to model the partnerships on the life sciences relationship between Massachusetts and Israel by encouraging companies on both sides to open overseas offices and drawing in local academic institutions.

Yaakov, who is based in Boston, sees similarities between the two "ecosystems," but said there's greater urgency associated with cyber­security.

"There's a very high awareness here that the cyber­attacks are running very fast and are adapting very quickly to the solutions found," he said during a Boston Herald visit yesterday.

Israel is developing Be'er Sheva, in the country's south, as its center for cyber­security. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is in Be'er Sheva, the Israeli military is moving its cyber­security units there, and entrepreneurial incubators have been established.

"I very much think our (Israel's and Massachusetts' competition) is Silicon Valley and San Francisco," Yaakov said.

An Israeli delegation of venture capital and tech firms — including Jerusalem Venture Partners, ThetaRay and CyberArk (whose U.S. headquarters is in Newton) — took part in a cybersecurity startup forum at Harvard Business School last month.

Cybersecurity is an "approachable" issue that ties into Yaakov's background, he said, noting his experience with running a counter-­terrorism and homeland security unit for Israel's Foreign Service. Yaakov relocated to Israel 30 years ago and has been a member of its foreign ministry since 1989.

Israeli companies with a Massachusetts presence generated $6.2 billion in revenue and created 6,700 jobs in 2012, according to a study for the New England-Israel Business Council released in December.

In 2012, Gov. Deval Patrick announced $1.3 million in grants to four research and development collaborations between Bay State and Israeli companies under the Massachusetts-Israel Innovation Partnership.

MassChallenge, a Boston-based startup accelerator, also established an Israeli arm last year.

A nonstop flight between Boston and Tel Aviv — which Massport and the NEIBC have been pushing — would encourage even more entrepreneurial traffic, Yaakov said.

"It would be nice if it was El Al," he said, referring to the Israeli airline. "But there's no reason why it can't be a U.S. company."

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Cold weather puts Duck Tours on ice

Boston Duck Tours could be the latest victim of a frigid­ and stormy winter that's grounded flights, resulted in a road salt shortage and caused potholes galore.

The 20th season of the company's land-water tours could be delayed due to a frozen Charles River that could ground its fleet of nearly 30 former World War II amphibious vehicles.

Boston Duck Tours has stopped ticket sales for its March 17 launch through March 20 — a first for the company — and general manager Cindy Brown said she'll keep her fingers crossed about opening weekend.

"The river is definitely still frozen," Brown said. "Every year we say this time of year that it will melt, and every time it has melted. But this year has been unseasonably bad, and we're just worried we might not get to (that) point."

Boston Duck Tours' vehicles splash into the Charles River by the Museum of Science and could operate solely­ in the lower basin if that portion becomes ice-free, but Brown prefers being able to navigate the entire river so customers get a view of the Boston skyline.

"If it warms up, we can put (the tickets) back up for sale," Brown said. "I keep hoping for a 60-degree day, but it gets cold at night, and it keeps refreezing."

The winter weather has been a mixed bag for another winter attraction —the outdoor skating rink at the Boston Common's Frog Pond.

"Ice conditions have been amazing," general manager John Schaub said. "But given­ that it's been so cold … it keeps people away."

The low temperatures, though, will allow the rink to stay open until March 23.

Andrew Blom contributed 
to this report.

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Dish, Disney deal envisions Internet-delivered TV

LOS ANGELES — Dish Network and Disney have reached a landmark deal that envisions the day when Dish will offer a Netflix-like TV service to people who'd rather stream TV over the Internet than put a satellite receiver on their roof.

The deal announced late Monday paves the way for Dish to offer live local broadcasts from ABC TV stations and programming from ABC Family, Disney Channel, ESPN and ESPN2 over mobile devices, set-top boxes and other means, similar to how Netflix's video streams are delivered today.

No start date for such a service was announced. It is likely that Dish will have to cut similar deals with other programmers to make such a service attractive. A Dish spokesman refused to speculate on what the offering would cost.

As part of the new rights deal, Dish Network Corp. agreed to disable — for three days after the initial broadcast — a function on its Hopper digital video recorders that allows people to automatically record and strip out commercials from prime-time weeknight programming. But that's only for programs on ABC, which is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

Dish CEO Joseph Clayton said in a statement the deal was "about predicting the future of television."

Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, said in a statement that both Disney CEO Bob Iger and Dish's majority shareholder, Charlie Ergen, were directly involved in carving out "one of the most complex and comprehensive" deals ever.

"We planned for the evolution of our industry," she said.

With the deal, both sides are dropping a legal battle between them over the so-called AutoHop function, which had threatened to cut into the revenue of media companies like Disney by stripping out ads. Dish hasn't made public how many of its 14 million subscribers use the Hopper.

Dish customers will also gain access for the first time to Disney's WatchESPN, Watch Disney, Watch ABC Family and Watch ABC apps, which allow for live and on-demand program viewing on mobile devices in or out of the home.

Dish is also picking up a slew of new channels including Disney Junior, Fusion, ESPN Goal Line, Longhorn Network and the upcoming SEC ESPN Network when it launches sometime this fall. It also gains more access to more on-demand Disney programming.

The companies said they would work together on new advertising models. Last month, Dish announced a technology partnership with rival satellite TV company DirecTV to launch a system that helps target political ads to viewers based on where they live.

Dish and Disney said they are looking at dynamically inserting ads into programming based on viewer data, developing new ways of advertising on mobile devices, and measuring viewing for longer than the current industry standard that includes the live broadcast plus three days of DVR viewing.

The two sides have been quietly negotiating a new deal since before the last one expired at the end of September, deftly avoiding a signal blackout like the one between CBS Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. last August that caused massive subscriber defections.

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Ukraine crisis may hit Massachusetts

The Bay State economy could suffer if the crisis in the Ukraine lingers and begins to hurt Europe, where Massachusetts has the most at stake.

A showdown in Ukraine already has grabbed investors' attention and stoked fears of a tit-for-tat campaign of economic sanctions between Western powers and Russia — Massachusetts' 28th largest export market last year.

"We don't do nearly as much business with Russia (as with Europe, whose markets fell even more yesterday)," said Andre Mayer, senior vice president of communications and research at Associated Industries of Massachusetts. Germany's DAX, for example, plunged 3.4 percent.

"There's a lot more concern about what the broader economic implications might be, particularly for energy markets," Mayer said. "Western Europe gets natural gas from Russia. And anything that affects Europe affects us because Europe is our major export market, and we have a lot of European companies here. 
The general concern that we have less capacity than we thought to handle international crises is bound to be damaging to confidence."

U.S. stocks followed global markets tumbling yesterday on the news out of Ukraine.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index sank by as much as 25 points before regaining some of the ground it lost, to close down 13.72 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,845.73, its largest drop since Feb. 3. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 153.68 points, or 0.9 percent, to 16,168.03, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 30.82 points, or
0.7 percent, to 4,277.30.

"Geopolitical uncertainty isn't good for markets," said Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics at IHS Global Insight in Lexington. "If this leads to a regional war or to sanctions against Russia, it could hurt the markets further. It doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. economy has to follow. If the situation goes on for a while, the markets could get used to it. But it is another source of volatility."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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Time may have passed for opposition to Boston MinuteClinics

Pharmacy walk-in clinics could soon come to Boston now that they no longer face mayoral opposition.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh said while he has concerns about the clinics, the mayor has no current plans to oppose their expansion into the Hub.

"As of right now, he has no intention of blocking these coming to Boston, but there's groundwork that needs to take place," Walsh spokeswoman Kate Norton said. "Convenient care clinics can provide valuable consumer service for small medical issues, but there is a real concern about the same continuity of care that an individual may receive from a neighborhood health center or from a primary care physician."

Walsh's stance is a shift from former Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who said clinics run by for-profit retailers would compromise quality of care.

Based in retail settings, the clinics' nurse practitioners or physician assistants offer basic, non-emergency health care for common minor illnesses such as ear infections and sore throats.

CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic, which has 48 Massachusetts locations, would "welcome the opportunity to open … in Boston, where we believe we can provide enhanced access to care, lower costs and improve outcomes," spokeswoman Carolyn Castel said.

A non-emergency visit to a Massachusetts emergency room costs $474 on average, while an illness visit to a primary care doctor costs $155 and a MinuteClinic visit costs $84, according to an October report by the Pioneer Institute, a public policy research group.

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Gaming panel enlisted in lawsuit vs. Mohegan

Mohegan Sun's erstwhile Palmer landlord is roping the state Gaming Commission into its lawsuit that seeks to bar Mohegan from building a casino anywhere but Palmer, demanding the commission turn over any communications between Mohegan and Suffolk Downs that might support the claim that Mohegan undercut its own Palmer casino effort to chase an opportunity in Revere.

Northeast Realty is arguing that any talks Mohegan and its chief executive Mitchell Etess had with Suffolk Downs before the casino developer lost a referendum in Palmer would violate an exclusivity agreement.

"The public records request to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission seeks to identify any communications conducted between representatives of Mohegan Sun including its attorney, Kevin C. Conroy, relating to the Suffolk Downs property, and the MGC including, but not limited to, commission staff and its Investigations and Enforcement Bureau," Northeast spokesman Paul Robbins said in a statement.

Commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the commission's legal staff is reviewing the request, and does "not have a comment on the lawsuit at this time."

The request, addressed to chairman Stephen Crosby and dated Feb. 28, asks for copies of any communications from Jan. 1, 2013, to Nov. 30, 2013, between the commission and a series of individuals "concerning the possibility or consideration of Mohegan's participating in any way in the application for a license for and/or development of a gaming facility anywhere on the Suffolk Downs Property."

The individuals include:

•   Suffolk Downs principals Richard Fields and Joseph O'Donnell.

•   House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and staff.

• Any attorneys or lobbyists associated with the law firms Foley Hoag and DLA Piper, who work for Mohegan.

• The public relations firm O'Neill and Associates, which represents Mohegan.

•   Former state Rep. Kathi-Ann Reinstein (D-Revere) and staff.

•     State Sen. Anthony Petruccelli (D-East Boston) and staff.

Mohegan Sun declined to comment on the records request.

Northeast Realty, which wants Mohegan to abandon its lease on the Palmer site, hit Revere Mayor Dan Rizzo with the same records request in January. Revere's solicitor responded that a search of voicemail and email records of Rizzo and his immediate staff "failed to produce any records responsive to your public records request."

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At MIT, weighing balance of privacy and big data

CAMBRIDGE  — Government, business and academic leaders gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Monday to discuss whether new policies are needed to regulate the use of big data, the large and complex sets of electronic information being used by companies to market products, researchers to study health problems, and as a government surveillance tool.

White House counselor John Podesta, who was appointed by President Barack Obama during a January speech about the NSA scandal to review big data collection and privacy concerns, said there is an overwhelming amount of personal information openly available online.

"We are undergoing a revolution in the way that information about our purchases, our conversations, our social networks, our movements, and even our physical identities are collected, stored, analyzed and used," Podesta said by phone. He called into the conference after his travel plans were interrupted by the snow storm in Washington.

Podesta said the government must figure out how to allow the public and private sector to capitalize on the benefits of big data, while protecting individual privacy. Monday's event at MIT was the first of three being held across the country before a final report is delivered to Obama.

Sam Madden, an MIT professor, said that the government should regulate what companies can do with the data they collect from customers. "The big question is defining what is and isn't OK," Madden said.

John Guttag, a professor at MIT, said collecting clinical data, which could prevent or treat diseases and save lives, requires people to give up some privacy. "Progress in health care is too important and urgent to wait for the problem of privacy to be solved," he said.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said big data also helps to keep businesses competitive, but only if people feel they can trust companies with this information.

"You promote trust when you reach out and explain to your customers in very simple and straightforward terms how you plan to use their data," she said.

Carol Rose, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said that's not happening.

"When companies want to use our data for something there needs to be a conversation," Rose said. "We should be able to control our data," she said.

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Nanocrystals come up big

In a winter of seemingly endless snow and ice, what if there were a better way of fortifying roads against potholes?

What if this same technology could be used to build stronger bridges, create solar panels, even penetrate and selectively kill cancer cells?

They're called nanocrystals — particles so small that their width measures about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a single strand of hair. And they are so light and so strong that NASA once said they theoretically could be used to build an elevator to the moon.

"The excitement to me was that they could be made out of almost anything," said Thomas Webster, chairman of Northeastern University's Department of Chemical Engineering, "and by shrinking that thing down in size, you could change its properties."

One way to do this is to start with the material in its normal form and evaporate it into individual atoms by heating it, Webster said. The degree of heat necessary depends on the material and can range from about 100 degrees to melt a polymer such as Tupperware, to as much as 9,000 degrees to melt metal. Then the atoms are collected on a cold surface, where they condense and form nanocrystals.

These tiny particles improve the strength of materials such as metal and concrete. Webster also is looking at using a combination of selenium nanoparticles, which have anti-cancer properties, and iron oxide nanoparticles, which are magnetic.

"So one can use a magnetic force to force the selenium and iron oxide nanoparticles to only go into cancer cells, and not healthy cells, to thus selectively kill cancer cells," he said. "This provides a much better solution than chemotherapy, which kills all cells."

But back to those potholes — about 6,000 of which the Boston Public Works Department filled in January and February, up nearly 400 percent from the same period last year.

Nanocrystals of asphalt could be used to keep roads from forming as many potholes by filling cracks as they begin to form and grow, Webster said, and nanocrystals of road salt could be used to keep ice from forming or to melt it more quickly by increasing the surface area to decrease the freezing point.

"To me, that is how to get the best of both worlds, using nanotechnology," he said.

So why not use that technology now? The main reason, Webster said, is the cost of heating materials.

"Some of the nanocrystals we make cost upwards of $100 per milligram," he said. "So even though using nanocrystals will make a road last longer and probably save you money in the long run on repairs to both the road and your car, filling an 
average-sized pothole would cost about $5,000 today."

Webster is optimistic, however, that if industry partners with universities, together they would be able to reduce the cost within the next five years.

"And then," he said, "the possibilities are endless."

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Mass. health care lobbying totals from 2007-2013

What some of the top hospitals, insurers, unions and health care groups spent lobbying Massachusetts lawmakers between 2007 and 2013:

1. Massachusetts Hospital Association: $4,751,767

2. Partner's Health Care: $4,483,976

3. Massachusetts Association of Health Plans: $4,289,017

4. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts: $3,361,740

5. Massachusetts Nurses Association: $2,762,524

6. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care: $2,682,964

7. Tufts Associated Health: $2,599,319

8. Massachusetts Medical Society: $2,305,776

9. Children's Hospital: $2,165,709

10. Tenet Healthcare/Vanguard Health Systems: $2,113,136

___

Source: Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office

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Review: Mass. health lobby spent $100M since 2007

BOSTON — Last fall, the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans hosted its annual conference at Boston's Seaport Hotel, bringing together hundreds of industry officials and a handful of lawmakers, administration officials and legislative aides. Attorney General Martha Coakley addressed the crowd.

The tab for the Nov. 15 event, $104,544, turns out to be just a tiny slice of the tens of millions of dollars the health care industry has spent in recent years making sure its voice is heard on Beacon Hill.

In 2013 alone, hospitals, insurers, doctors, unions and pharmaceutical companies doled out more than $18.8 million lobbying state officials, according to an Associated Press review of state records.

That's a 74 percent jump compared with the nearly $10.8 million the industry — already an economic powerhouse in Massachusetts — spent in 2007, the year Massachusetts' landmark health care law took effect.

That, in turn, is just a portion of the $103 million the industry has poured into lobbying in the seven years since the law took effect, according to the AP review.

"When people look at the amount of money spent, they're always shocked," said Pam Wilmot, executive director of Massachusetts Common Cause. "Interests spend a tremendous amount of money lobbying our elected officials in order to get either a seat at the table or to get their policies accepted."

Despite the eye-popping totals, the number of companies responsible for the spending is relatively small. Just 217 firms, for example, were responsible for the $18.8 million spent last year.

Some of the region's biggest health industry names were responsible for the heaviest spending, including Partner's Health Care, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Children's Hospital.

Hospitals, health care providers, medical professional groups accounted for the bulk of the spending — $60.6 million since 2007 — compared with medical, dental and mental health insurance providers ($18.8 million), and pharmaceutical companies ($23.7 million).

The industry defended the spending.

Lora Pellegrini is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, which spent more than $4.2 million since 2007. She said the group's legislative agenda has focused on ways to make health care more affordable, including partnering "with the business community to hold the line on costly new mandates and other legislative proposals."

The surge in lobbying comes during a time when there have been major health care changes in Massachusetts — from the implementation of the state's 2006 law, to passage of President Barack Obama's 2010 federal health care law, to the state's push to rein in health care spending.

But the lobbying often has to do with more specific concerns, such as monitoring a certain bill or the annual state budget debate.

And while the lobbying doesn't include direct donations from companies to lawmakers, which is prohibited, many of the lobbyists whose salaries makes up the bulk of the lobbying spending are free to make contributions.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, for example, collected nearly $48,000 in donations from hundreds of lobbyists representing all types of industries and organizations in 2013 while Senate President Therese Murray collected about $23,000.

Other lobbying costs include catering, rent, phones, staff salaries and events. Children's Hospital, for instance, reported spending $1,694 to cover the cost of a breakfast last April with elected officials and staff members.

And not everyone in the health care sector has the same agenda. Pelligrini's group, for example, is often at odds with doctors and hospitals, blaming what they charge for medical services as "the major factor for rising health care costs."

At the top of the health care lobbying pyramid is the Massachusetts Hospital Association, which doled out more than $4.7 million from 2007 to 2013.

The group defended the spending, pointing in part to changes in health care payment and delivery systems.

"It has been essential for the hospital community to take part in those public policy debates," the association said in statement, adding that it "works continually with state leaders, policymakers and other health care stakeholders" to ensure access to quality patient-centered care.

Doctors and nurses have also tried to catch the ear of lawmakers.

The Massachusetts Medical Society, which represents 24,000 physicians and medical students, pointed to the need to monitor hundreds of bills and regulations on everything from electronic medical records to medical marijuana. The group spent $2.3 million in the past seven years.

"It is critical that lawmakers and regulators hear the perspectives of those" on the front lines of patient care, the group said.

Donna Kelly-Williams, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which spent more than $2.7 million between 2007 and 2013, said the group has been "trying to educate lawmakers to the fact that the hospital industry is putting profits before patients."

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Medical pot shop ads to hit Mass.

Massachusetts viewers soon will get a hit of what's expected to be the Northeast's first marijuana-related commercial on major networks.

New York-based Medical Cannabis Network has booked April airtime to advertise marijuanadoctors.com, which pairs patients with doctors who'll evaluate whether medical marijuana should be used as treatment for their serious illness or chronic pain, said founder Jason Draizin.

"We consider this alternative medicine and do not condone the recreational use or marijuana," he said.

The ad campaign comes as Massachusetts prepares for the opening of its first medical marijuana dispensaries this summer.

The company hopes to add to its database of more than 93,000 patients, 300 doctors and 500 clinics already on the site, according to Draizin. Its service allows doctors to "discreetly" build a practice that includes medical marijuana prescriptions, which can be extremely profitable for them, he said.

The commercial shows a back-alley "dealer" selling the "best sushi" from inside his jacket and includes the voiceover: "You wouldn't buy your sushi from this guy, so why would you buy your marijuana from him?"

Booked through Comcast Spotlight, it will air after 10 p.m. on national cable networks and local cable channels across the state.

The timing will coincide with April 20, also known as "4/20 day" in cannabis culture, a day on which smoking pot is celebrated.

While specific networks haven't been set, they're expected to be the same used for the commercial's New Jersey launch this weekend. They include A&E, Bravo, CNBC, CNN, Discovery, ESPN, Fox News, History Channel, MTV and USA.

State Department of Public Health regulations only cover marketing and advertising by registered medical marijuana dispensaries. "The regulations require that a certifying physician may issue a written certification only for a qualifying patient with whom the physician has a bona fide physician-patient relationship," spokeswoman Anne Roach said.

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Russian markets, ruble plummet on Ukraine fears

MOSCOW — Russia's stock market dropped about 10 percent on Monday and its currency fell to its lowest point ever against the dollar and the euro as worries grew over the potential economic repercussions of the crisis in neighboring Ukraine.

Russia intervened over the weekend to take control of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula with strategic importance, and the new government in Kiev fears a wider invasion. The West responded by questioning Russia's membership in the Group of Eight leading industrialized democracies, and the U.S. threatened possible asset freezes and trade penalties.

The Moscow Exchange fell about 10 percent in the first hour of trading Monday, although it later recovered slightly.

The ruble, already down nearly 10 percent this year, fell below 50 to the euro for the first time. It traded at 36.89 rubles to the dollar, also a record, before stabilizing around 36.49.

The Bank of Russia decided to temporarily increase the Bank of Russia key rate by 1.5 percentage points to 7 percent in an attempt to keep the currency's fall from driving up inflation. The central bank will hold its next meeting on March 14.

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Area hospitals get healthier

The sustainability trend is finally coming to the hospital industry in a big way.

Dozens of Massachusetts hospitals — including six in just the past month — have signed on to a national initiative to get "healthier" by improving their food options, cutting waste and reducing energy use.

"We felt we needed to be part of the solution by providing a healthier environment," said Vanessa Kortze, spokeswoman for Lawrence General Hospital, which joined the Healthier Hospitals Initiative last week.

Lawrence General is starting with changes to its food and beverage options. Already, the hospital has cut sugary sodas from its catering menu and almost entirely from patient menus, and rearranged drinks in its cafeterias so water, not soda, is eye-level. Next, food and nutrition director Rick McIsaac plans to revamp the hot meals.

Some foods — fried chicken, Alfredo sauce, onion rings — have no place in a hospital, McIsaac said.

"That's not really appropriate to have inside a health care institution," he said. "It should be 'come get your grilled chicken on a bed of lettuce with a seltzer water.'"

At Partners Healthcare, John Messervy, director of capital and facility planning, acknowledged such changes can come with higher costs.

"That's one of the struggles: how do you balance the increased cost of the locally grown produce against the health benefits of that," Messervy said. "Some of our hospitals have said it's not a significant difference and others are still wrestling with it."

But the region's dominant health care system, which was one of the founders of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative in 2012, has made other changes that already are paying back, he said. Partners spent $60 million to reduce energy use, but that investment was returned in less than four years.

"Often, people think going green is more expensive. What we've been able to show is sustainability is a smart business decision," said Seema Wadhwa, director of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. "Wasting less means saving more."

The initiative has enrolled about 900 hospitals nationwide, which agree to tackle any of six categories: engaged leadership, healthier food, leaner energy, less waste, safer chemicals and smarter purchasing.

These seemingly different goals are grouped together, Messervy said, because, "In the end it really is about looking to reduce the chemical exposure of our patients and our employees. The chemical exposure comes from lots of different areas: from carbon-based fuels, from additives in food, from various toxic chemicals ... even some of the clinical instruments."

The Massachusetts Hospital Association, which officially became a supporter of the program in February, is working to enroll more hospitals and share best practices with them.

"Our hospitals and staff are extremely busy right now," said Anuj Goel, the MHA's vice president of legal and regulatory affairs. "They don't have time to do a lot of searching nationally and see what is out there. We're getting all that and saying 'here you go.'"

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A strong February wipes out S&P 500's January loss

NEW YORK — After two months of trading, the stock market is back where it started.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.3 percent in February, the biggest gain since October 2013, helped by strong corporate earnings and a Federal Reserve that seems to have Wall Street's back at every turn. But the rise in February must be taken in the context that investors spent the month making up the ground they lost in January.

"February looked a lot like January, just moving in the opposite direction," said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist with Brown Brothers Harriman Wealth Management.

Investors are also now staring at a stock market, while numbers-wise is basically where it was on Jan. 1, that is a lot more defensive than it was two months ago.

Utilities and health care stocks — two traditional "safe" places for investors because of their low volatility and higher-than-average dividends — are the biggest gainers so far this year. Utilities are up 5.7 percent in 2014 and health care is up 6.6 percent.

Investor caution was also evident in the bond market, which has done reasonably well in the last two months. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note has fallen from 2.97 percent to 2.65 percent in the last two months as investors returned to the relative safety of government debt. The Barclays U.S. Aggregate bond index, which tracks a broad mix of corporate and government bonds, is up 1.6 percent this year.

"The sentiment now is, 'bonds may not be as bad as I originally thought,'" said Michael Fredericks, a portfolio manager of the Multi-Asset Income Fund at Blackrock.

February's rise came in spite of several economic reports that showed the U.S. economy slowed in the previous month.

It started with the January jobs report, which showed employers only created 113,000 jobs that month. It was far fewer than economists had expected. Other economic reports told a similar story. Consumer confidence, manufacturing and the housing market all fell sharply in January.

Investors blamed the weather, and rightly so. Many companies, particularly retailers, said winter storms of the past two months dramatically impacted their business. Macy's said that at one time in January, 30 percent of its stores were closed because of inclement weather.

Home Depot had a similar story.

"We don't like to use weather as an excuse but we think we probably lost $100 million in the month of January," Home Depot's chief financial officer, Carol Tome, said in a conference call with investors this week. "Atlanta was frozen, for example. It was tough here."

Even with the economic concerns, investors were able to set aside the volatility of January for three reasons, market watchers said.

First, corporate earnings for the fourth quarter overall turned out to be pretty good. Earnings at companies in the S&P 500 index grew 8.5 percent over the same period last year, according to FactSet. Revenue growth also picked up, albeit slightly.

The Federal Reserve, once again, also came to the market's side. Janet Yellen, who in February took over the role as chair of the Federal Reserve, reaffirmed that the central bank plans to keep its market-friendly, low interest rate policies in place for the foreseeable future.

Lastly, weather, by its very nature, is temporary.

Spring will come, at some point, and the winter storms that have kept businesses closed and consumers away from stores will fade, investors say. All that pent-up demand will help the economy recover some of the ground lost in January and February.

"I think 70 percent, 80 percent, of the weakness we saw in January and February was weather related and we will pick up strength in the spring thaw," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management.

Investors will have less information to work with in March than they did in February.

Earnings season is basically over. Of the companies in the S&P 500 index, 484 have reported their results, as have all 30 members of the Dow, so investors won't have any corporate earnings news to respond to.

In the absence of company news, investors would typically look to the steady stream of economic data to find direction. However the severe winter weather of last two months is likely to make the upcoming economic reports even more difficult to interpret.

"You're going to be able to put on spin on any report: 'well that better than it should have been' or 'well, it was the weather,'" Clemons said. "We'll get more trustworthy numbers in April."

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 5.16 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,859.45. It was the second all-time closing high for the S&P 500 in a row. The S&P 500 is now up 0.6 percent for the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,321.76. The Nasdaq composite lost 10.81 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,308.12.

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MIT’s Sloan conference gets competitive

The word for Day 2 of MIT's Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was competition.

For eight years, the conference has united professional sports teams, sports industry organizations and cutting-edge academics, all in the pursuit of appreciating and understanding sports and athletic performance with greater, more sophisticated clarity. Each attendee has expertise or interest in innovation, due to personal passions, professional obligation, or a combination of both.

Maybe sports are only a game, but at Sloan, as there is in any game, there are winners and losers. The lifeblood of the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is the prestigious research paper competition, where academics make their cases for the next big thing in sports analysis.

Kirk Goldberry, a nationally noted visual analytics expert, visiting scholar at Harvard and three-time Sloan research paper finalist, described his research's victory as "the biggest moment of my professional career, to be honest."

"The recognition is secondary to the kind of exposure (the work) got. There are very few outlets to get this kind of exposure to the media, and this is obviously the premiere one in the sports domain."

The researchers were competing, but the games still happen on the courts, in the fields, and even in the hills. Discussions surrounding those competitions centered around fairness and competitive balance.

At the Doping & What it Means for Sport panel, disgraced former cyclist Tyler Hamilton discussed how much the unfair advantage he gained through cheating had burdened him. "I led a double life," he said. "I lied to my parents."

The Marblehead product added, "I was more worried about getting caught than winning. It took a huge toll on me."

U.S. Anti-Doping agent Travis Tygart delved into the mechanics of unfair advantages.

"Whether it's putting a small engine in a bike or taking the subway six stops in a marathon, it's unfair."

Tygart compared drugs to allowing baseball players to use aluminum bats.

"It is not going to be an even playing field," he said. "People's bodies respond differently. So it's not giving everyone an aluminum bat, it's giving someone one and the other a wood one."

New NBA commissioner Adam Silver was relieved that PEDs were not a chief concern of his league.

"I have no reason to believe that use of PEDS is widespread in he NBA, both because we test, and, No. 2, it's not part of the culture of the NBA," Silver said at the Malcolm Gladwell-moderated Commissioner's Perspective panel.

"I've been in the NBA for 22 years, I talk to players all the time, I talk to retired players all the time, and I don't hear about it."

Pressed on what made him so sure there was no NBA PED scandal lurking, Silver said, "It's hard for me to believe that, with roughly 450 players a year, a lot of players moving through the league, if there was (rampant drug use), people would be talking about it. There would be somebody. There are great journalists out there. Somebody would have found somebody that was willing to talk about it."

Cheating isn't the only realm of competitive imbalance, though. As Celtics fans are aware, NBA teams draft players via a weighted lottery system, one that, many argue, encourages teams to intentionally lose in the pursuit of talented college prospects.

Recently, and around the conference, there has been increased discussions about altering how the draft order is determined. One proposal, submitted by Celtics assistant GM Michael Zarren, made its way to the commissioner' desk.

"Mike came up with this proposal where over the course of 30 years, you move throughout (the first round) in terms of your draft pick," Silver said. "This goes to show why you really need to study these issues, because when Mike first brought it to me, I thought 'Wow, that solves our problems. Teams can plan for the future, they have absolutely no incentive to do anything but win the maximum number of games per season. They know where the draft pick is coming from.' "

Rival GMs raised concerns about the ramifications of such a system, but, importantly, as the commissioner noted, "I'm open to taking a fresh look at it."

Sharing ideas like a new model for the NBA draft lottery is what the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is all about. Rishabh Desai, a first-year basketball operations analyst for the Sacramento Kings, discussed the kinds of information being shared by competing sides.

"(Sometimes) it's really broad, because no one wants to share their 'secret sauce,' or whatever they're doing," he said, "but it's just 'Hey, are you guys using this program?' compe"

For all the competitive edges that can be quantified, there are still many that elude even the most active imaginations. At the 10,000 Hours vs. The Sports Gene panel, "The Tipping Point" and "Outliers" author Malcolm Gladwell discussed the greatness of Wayne Gretzky, sharing an anecdote about The Great One being transfixed by a televised hockey game as a toddler who would burst into tears when the games would finish.

"Even at (a young age) there was something about the game of hockey that satisfied him and thrilled him on some deep emotional level, before he could execute any of the physical moves associated with it. The game fit his imagination. I don't know what that means; it must be something innate. But it's something quite different from what we normally associate with hockey skill. In other words, Wayne Gretzky has a series of physical attributes that make him as great hockey player, but he also has this weird thing about how the game fits his imagination. So it's almost as if we're talking about Wayne Gretzky the same way we would talk about a musical composer."

The winner of the 2014 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference research paper competition was "The Three Dimensions of Rebounding," which broke down crashing the boards into three dimensions — positioning, hustle and conversion. Presented by Rajiv Maheswaran and compiled alongside a team of researchers, the paper explored the reasons players like Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Andre Drummond and Kevin Love are so efficient, despite vastly different skill sets and playing styles.

Unlike sports games, however, there were no real losers. Even the papers that did not take home the $20,000 prize had their ideas heard, and made their contributions to the budding athletic analytics field. These are the minds that will lead to the next generation of player evaluation, strategic efficiency, and organizational success.

These ideas will lead to real wins, in every sports field.

And as Hamilton put it, when asked about the motivations looking to cutting edge for a leg-up in competition, "The culture here in the United States is all about winning, whether it's in sports or business."

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App will put you in your spot

Parking in the Hub is getting easier, thanks to a new crop of apps and services designed to put your car in a spot without the hassle or stress of searching for one.

The newest of these apps is SpotHero, which is now live in Boston. Touting itself as the Orbitz of parking, SpotHero matches drivers looking for a spot with discounted spaces in garages and lots that otherwise would go unfilled.

"We help drivers know exactly where they are going to go and how much they are going to pay for a parking space," said Jeremy Smith, co-founder of SpotHero. "Our vision and our dream is to make life easier for the daily driver."

Using an app, drivers can punch in an address or neighborhood, see nearby garages that have open spaces and pay for and reserve the spot from their phones. "You get peace of mind just by knowing exactly where you are going to go," Smith said. "You also know exactly how much you are going to pay. It's peace of mind."

The average space, Smith said, is discounted 20 to 25 percent, but some drivers in Boston have gotten as much as 40 percent off the advertised price. The average cost of parking in Boston for 12 hours is $25, Smith said.

SpotHero also brings in more money for lot owners and operators, Smith said, because more spots are filled.

Smith began searching for a better way to find parking after he racked up thousands of dollars in parking tickets.

"It just turns out that there are a lot of people in the same boat," Smith said.

SpotHero is also available in six other cities, including Chicago and New York City, but the idea of making parking easier and smarter is nothing new in Boston.

In December, the city rolled out Smart Parking Sensors in the Innovation District, which show available metered parking spaces on an app.

"You see a lot of smart technologies in the transportation space," said Kris Carter of the Office of New Urban Mechanics, which helped develop the system. "People are able to make better decisions about where they're going to go."

Part of the reason for the sensors was to examine demand and use in the area. Carter said snowy weather has prevented New Urban Mechanics and the Department of Transportation from collecting significant information, but he expects the data will begin to flow in the spring.

TicketZen, an app that lets drivers who stayed at the meter too long pay off those neon orange tickets, also launched in December. Users pay off an average of $65 in parking tickets, creator Cort Johnson said.

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Volvo needs 20 minutes of highway driving to warm up

I have an issue with my car warming up slowly when the temperature gets down around 0 degrees F. The car is a 2011 S40 Volvo with the T5 engine. The dealer confirmed that the issue I describe is happening but say they checked another 2011 S40 they had on the lot and it did the same thing. I find it strange that it takes 20-minutes-plus on the highway to reach operating temperature and that if you stop and run the heater at full output the engine temperature drops.

You didn't mention how long you've owned the vehicle and whether this is the first winter in which you've experienced this problem. Regardless, I'm surprised the dealer didn't at least check the thermostat for proper function. Like most liquid-cooled engines, your vehicle utilizes a thermostat to restrict coolant flow until coolant temperature reaches 194 degrees F, then maintains coolant temperature in the 194-221 range.

If the thermostat fails to close properly when the engine is cold or sticks in a partially or fully open position, symptoms will be precisely what you've described — long warm-up times and the inability to maintain operating temperature, particularly in cold weather.

Why not apply the KISS principle and try the simple stuff first — replace the thermostat and make sure the coolant level is full. Keep in mind that if the coolant temperature gauge reads significantly below normal, but you're still getting hot air from the heater system, the issue may be a faulty coolant temperature sensor mounted on the thermostat housing.

I like to back my 2009 Silverado Hybrid 6.0-liter V8 into my driveway. That way I don't have to back out, which is considerably safer. I currently have a large snowbank at the end of my driveway. On two occasions I have backed my truck into the snowbank. The tailpipe ended up obstructed with snow and ice. When I started the truck the next day, the engine idled very roughly — almost violently — and the "Low Engine Power" alarm appeared on the dashboard. The snow and ice melted from the tailpipe fairly quickly and the engine eventually regained power and operated normally. Ultimately the "Service Engine Soon" alarm cleared on its own. It has been over a week since the second occurrence and I have noticed no ill effects after the engine started operating normally again. Is there any possibility of undetected damage?

I don't think so. The warning lights, alarm and driveability issues were directly related to the restricted exhaust. A failed catalytic converter or physically damaged exhaust pipe could cause the same thing. Potential damage, although very unlikely in this case, could include engine overheating, catalytic converter failure, pre-ignition/detonation or burned exhaust valves.

In the "Low Power" mode of operation the engine management system operates in a self-protective mode to prevent any damage — which "saved the day" in this case.

What is the current thinking on the value of daytime running lights (DRL) as a safety feature? Some states have legislated their use. Our 2006 Buick Lucerne has them, but our new Chrysler minivan does not.

The idea behind DRLs is to increase visibility of your vehicle to other vehicles around you. There is no federal mandate but some carmakers install DRLs as standard equipment. Because they need to be visible in daylight, there have been complaints that some DRLs are too bright but with the increased use of HID and LED systems I believe this issue will fade.

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

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