The Ticker

FDA approves antibiotic from Lexington's Cubist

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved a new antibiotic from Lexington-based Cubist Pharmaceuticals to treat common skin infections often acquired in the hospital.

Regulators cleared the company's Sivextro as a pill and as an intravenous solution for adults with skin infections caused by bacteria that are often resistant to older antibiotics.

The FDA gave Sivextro an expedited review under a 2012 law designed to encourage drug makers to invest in researching and development of new antibiotics. Under the measure, Cubist will receive an additional five years of exclusive marketing rights to the drug.

Casino hopefuls present traffic plans

Mohegan Sun and Wynn Resorts laid out plans yesterday to help alleviate Boston-area traffic created by their proposed casinos.

The casino giants are vying for the lucrative eastern region gambling license, which is expected to be awarded in late August or early September.

Mohegan Sun officials, at a meeting before state gambling regulators at the Hynes Convention Center, said the casino's planned $1.2 billion resort on the Revere side of the Suffolk Downs horse racing track would include an estimated $45 million in transit-related improvements.

Wynn Resorts officials said their proposed $1.6 billion casino on a former chemical plant site in Everett would include about $50 million in such investments.

Both casino operators put forward a range of traffic-mitigating plans, including improvements to some of the area's most congested traffic circles. The casinos also said they would be limiting employee parking onsite and encouraging mass transit use while also staggering work shifts so that employees are not on the road during rush hour drive times.

Dow, S&P reach record highs

U.S. stocks rose yesterday, driving the Dow and the S&P 500 to close at record highs as the shares of 330 companies hit 52-week highs on the New York Stock Exchange.

The S&P 500 scored its third record closing high in a row while the Dow surpassed its previous record close on June 10. The blue-chip index hit an all-time intraday high at 16,978.02, coming close to the 17,000 mark.

For the week, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose 1 percent as investors brushed off geopolitical concerns about Iraq and focused on the Federal Reserve's comments indicating that it will keep interest rates low for a long period of time.

Sperry Van Ness International Corp., a commercial real estate franchisor based in Boston, announced that Diane Danielson, previously the company's chief platform officer, was promoted to chief operating officer. Danielson is responsible for the day-to-day operations that support the more than 180 Sperry Van Ness franchises nationwide. She previously worked as a new media and marketing technology consultant for several industries.

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City wants projects more 
accessible to the disabled

The city wants to change the mindset of real estate developers "hard-wired" to comply with only "bare-minimum" federal and state accessibility mandates for people with disabilities.

New development review guidelines adopted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Thursday are intended to instead convince developers to incorporate "ideal" accessibility and "visitability" accommodations into their building projects.

Developers will be required to complete an accessibility checklist at the start of the project review process. The city's Commission for Persons with Disabilities also will play a greater role in the process, starting with "pre-filing" meetings between the BRA and developers so issues can be considered during initial project design.

"Our expectation is … it will yield projects that do more than mere compliance with minimum standards," said acting BRA executive director Brian Golden, referring to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and state Architectural Access Board requirements.

"This is not a coercive device, because we don't have the authority to coerce in this regard," Golden said. "We think that if developers are shown options and discuss options early, they can incorporate them at minimal costs and maybe at no cost."

But while the BRA technically can't force developers to include "ideal" accessibility features in projects, it can use the permitting process as leverage, said David Begelfer, CEO of NAIOP Massachusetts, a commercial real estate development trade group.

Begelfer, who had yet to see the new BRA guidelines, said he's "cautiously concerned," citing already strict federal mandates and state requirements that exceed them, and possible added costs. "To go beyond the state and federal (requirements) … seems to be asking a lot," he said.

But, getting all city departments involved early in the project review process would be a good thing, Begelfer said. "There are a lot of other departments that don't get involved until much later ... and that gets to be a problem," he said.

The Commission on Persons with Disabilities previously got involved in the BRA development reviews about halfway through the process, when many design decisions already had been made, commissioner Kristen McCosh said.

"The goal is really to map out the accessibility features of a project at the beginning … rather than having them try to fit them in at the end," she said.

More than 77,000 Bostonians identify themselves as disabled. The city wants to develop not only accessible buildings, but accessible routes to accommodate them, McCosh said.

"We ask the developers to look at things like accessible transit stations in proximity to the development, sidewalk conditions ... accessible pathways … and visitability," she said. "Developers don't have that lens when they look at their projects.

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First nonstop Beijing flight lands in Hub

The first nonstop Hainan Airlines flight from Beijing arrived at Boston's Logan International Airport yesterday afternoon, christening a direct route expected to bolster trade and tourism between New England and China.

"Business, leisure and educational travel and trade between the United States and China has been growing dramatically," Hainan Airlines president Xie Haoming said in a statement after arriving on the inaugural flight. "This wonderful new link will stimulate this growth."

Xie and a delegation of Hainan executives, Chinese media and business people are scheduled to meet with local business leaders in the coming days.

Hainan Airlines will provide free private limo service for business-class passengers within 30 miles of Logan starting July 1, a service it already provides in Beijing.

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AG to probe CGI payments

The state will shell out an additional $35 million to developer CGI in a settlement over the disastrous Health Connector website, and Attorney General Martha Coakley has launched an investigation into the Virginia-based company, officials said yesterday.

"There were deficiencies and shortcomings on our part and CGI's part," said state Obamacare czar Maydad Cohen. "That has been well-documented by independent reports and by virtue of the fact we're in the position we're in today."

All totaled, CGI will have recouped $52 million of the original $69 million contract — a cost that skyrocketed to $89 million thanks to cost overruns. But the site was doomed from day one, baffling users with glitches that blocked people with hyphenated names and forced others to falsely identify themselves as prison inmates or mental patients to enroll.

"What a sad state of affairs that you spend that amount of money and there's no accountability at all," said Joshua Archambault of the Pioneer Institute. "If this were the private sector, there would be serious consequences for wasting this kind of money."

The agreement gives Coakley the power to try to recover up to $12 million from CGI under the False Claims Act.

"The failings of the CGI-developed website have been unacceptable, and we are conducting an investigation into their actions to seek to recover money back for taxpayers," said spokesman Brad Puffer.

But GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker shot back: "Investigations cannot undo the taxpayer dollars wasted and the disruption of families' access to health care."

Gov. Deval Patrick defended the settlement in a statement: "This is a pragmatic way to wind up a frustrating relationship. CGI has been a disappointing partner."

CGI had continued working on the day-to-day project as recently as this week, even though Patrick had announced in March that the two sides were "parting ways."

Part of yesterday's settlement included determining the ownership of intellectual property — items such as software and code — that wasn't clearly spelled out in the contract.

CGI workers will remain on the job for the next three months in the transition.

"This agreement recognizes the important contributions made by CGI throughout the project and during the past three months when hundreds of CGI professionals stayed on the job," said CGI spokeswoman Linda Odorisio.

While state officials had blamed CGI for the disaster, documents unearthed by the Herald showed that in-fighting among Patrick administration officials, frequently changing work orders, and the state's obsession with building the "Rolls-Royce" of insurance portals also contributed to the cyber-meltdown.

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Presbyterians to divest as protest against Israel

DETROIT — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Friday became the most prominent religious group in the United States to endorse divestment as a protest against Israeli policies toward Palestinians, voting to sell church stock in three companies whose products Israel uses in the occupied territories.

The General Assembly voted by a razor-thin margin — 310-303 — to sell stock in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. Two years ago, the General Assembly rejected a similar divestment proposal by two votes.

The American Jewish Committee, a policy and advocacy group based in New York, said the vote was "driven by hatred of Israel." But Heath Rada, moderator for the church meeting, said immediately after the vote that "in no way is this a reflection of our lack of love for our Jewish brothers and sisters."

The decision is expected to reverberate beyond the 1.8 million-member church. It comes amid discouragement over failed peace talks that have left activists desperate for some way to affect change and as the broader movement known as BDS — or boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel — has gained some momentum in the U.S., Israel's closest and most important ally.

Presbyterians who advocated for divestment insisted their action was not part of the broader boycott movement. Israeli officials, along with many American Jewish groups, denounced the campaign as an attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state. Separately, the assembly also voted to re-examine its support for a two-state solution.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the Israeli Embassy in Washington denounced the resolution as "shameful."

"Voting for symbolic measures marginalizes and removes its ability to be a constructive partner to promote peace in the Middle East," the statement said.

Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the BDS movement, praised the vote as a "sweet victory for human rights."

He said Presbyterian supporters of Palestinian rights have introduced divestment into the U.S. mainstream and have given Palestinians "real hope in the face of the relentless and intensifying cruelty of Israel's regime of occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid."

The top Presbyterian legislative body has been considering divestment for a decade. Representatives of the Presbyterian socially responsible investment arm told the national meeting in Detroit that their efforts to lobby the three companies for change had failed. Carol Hylkema of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, a Presbyterian group that advocates for Palestinians and spearheaded the drive for divestment, said their action was modeled on the divestment movement to end apartheid in South Africa. The 2012 assembly had endorsed a boycott of Israeli products made in the Palestinian territories.

"Because we are a historical peacemaking church, what we have done is, we have stood up for nonviolent means of resistance to oppression and we have sent a clear message to a struggling society that we support their efforts to resist in a nonviolent way the oppression being thrust upon them," said the Rev. Jeffrey DeYoe, of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network.

The vote was the subject of intense lobbying both from within and outside the church. Rabbis and other members of Jewish Voice for Peace, which advocates for Palestinians, lined the halls of the meeting and prayed in vigils outside the convention center wearing T-shirts that read, "Another Jew Supporting Divestment." Other rabbis and their Presbyterian supporters held panel discussions and sent letters to delegates urging them to vote no.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, which is the largest branch of American Judaism, addressed the delegates twice, urging them to reject divestment. After the vote, Jacobs said the denomination as a whole is no longer "a partner for joint work on Israel-Palestine peace issues."

In leading an effort to strike down the proposal, Frank Allen of the Central Florida Presbytery told delegates, "Divestment will create dissension. Dialogue and relationship building will lay the groundwork for true peace."

Bill Ward of the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest, based in Spokane, Washington, argued the proposal was not an attack on Israel. The measure adopted Friday reaffirms Israel's right to exist. "It is motivated by stewardship integrity, not partisan political advocacy," Ward said.

Two smaller U.S. religious groups have divested in protest of Israeli policies: the Friends Fiduciary Corp., which manages assets for U.S. Quakers, and the Mennonite Central Committee. Last week, the pension board of the United Methodist Church, the largest mainline Protestant group in the U.S., revealed plans to sell holdings worth about $110,000 in G4S, which provides security equipment and has contracts with Israel's prison system. However, the United Methodist Church had rejected church-wide divestment.

Motorola Solutions said in a statement that the company follows the law and its own policies that address human rights. Hewlett-Packard said its checkpoints for Palestinians were developed to expedite passage "in a secure environment, enabling people to get to their place of work or to carry out their business in a faster and safer way." Caterpillar has said it does not sell equipment to Israel, just to the U.S. government.

A church spokeswoman estimated the value of Presbyterian holdings in the companies at $21 million.

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Zoll reported from New York.

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Soccer interactions dwarf other events on Facebook

NEW YORK — Through one week of the World Cup, Facebook has already seen more people having more interactions about the tournament on the social media site than it had for the Sochi Olympics, Super Bowl and Academy Awards combined.

A total of 141 million people have commented about, "liked" or shared posts on Facebook about the World Cup, the company said Friday. There have been 459 million different interactions on it.

Much of the action is international: 85 percent of the people talking about the World Cup on Facebook are from outside of the United States. There are 1.28 billion people on Facebook worldwide, 80 percent of them living outside the U.S.

"We always see a large level of conversation on Facebook around big sporting events," said Justin Osofsky, the company's vice president of global operations and media partnerships. "But what we're witnessing around the World Cup has been extraordinary."

By contrast, the Super Bowl engaged some 50 million people on Facebook, the Sochi games 45 million people and the Oscars 11.3 million people, the social media site said.

Facebook has targeted the World Cup as part of its effort to become a site with more real-time conversation and news distribution around big events, functions where many people think of Twitter first. Facebook is promoting World Cup-related hashtags, has a special World Cup-related section and heavily promotes celebrity-related posts.

A photo posted by Pitbull, who performed at the opening ceremonies, has received more than 1.2 million interactions, as has a photo posted by Brazilian soccer star Neymar, Facebook said.

Facebook is also working with other media outlets to increase its exposure. One of the most prominent is Univision, the broadcaster with the Spanish-language rights to telecast the World Cup in the United States, which is featuring details about Facebook postings on its telecast. For CNN International, Facebook is constantly measuring what topics surrounding the World Cup are getting the most attention.

"In a fundamental sense, we're just getting started," Osofsky said.

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David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder

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TD Garden gets growing on $70M redo

TD Garden yesterday unveiled further details of a two-year, $70 million renovation that includes digital technology and Wi-Fi enhancements, concourse and Legends Club upgrades, new menu items and a much larger pro shop.

The goal is to provide a "best-in-class hospitality and in-game event experience," according to Charlie Jacobs, principal of arena owner Delaware North Cos. and the Boston Bruins. "I hope it will set a standard for the arena industry and the hospitality industry," he said.

A high-density Wi-Fi system with 400-plus antennas will be installed in the 19-year-old arena. Delaware North also is exploring an industry-first: placing 24 of those Wi-Fi antennas in the hockey boards that circle the ice.

The project will add 29 video walls displaying game feeds, fans' Twitter posts and sponsor messaging; 72 overhead digital LED displays; and eight digital maps.

A larger Legends Club, the restaurant for season ticket holders, will have poles wrapped in LED displays and changing projections of sports banners. A raw bar, charcuterie and items including lobster pot pie and braised short rib nachos are on the new made-to-order menu.

TD Garden also will sport four new "fan hospitality zones," 25 new portable food and beverage carts, new craft beer bars and revamped concession stands with digital menu boards. Burgers and local specialties such as lobster rolls, fried clams, meatballs and cannoli will be sold.

"I think people will be most excited about the food," TD Garden president Amy Latimer said.

The current pro shop will remain open until the new second-level shop, which is more than double the size, opens by year's end.

"We're looking for some fun technology as well for that space," Latimer said.

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East-meets-Gothic in Zen makeunder

The interior of the five-bedroom penthouse unit at the Burrage House mansion 
in the Back Bay, which just went on the market for 
$10.7 million, is nothing like you'd expect from the building's exterior.

The imposing residence at 314 Commonwealth Ave., built in 1899 as the home of copper tycoon Albert Burrage, was modeled after a French Gothic chateau and is decorated with gargoyles, dragons and cherubs carved into its elaborate stonework.

But the current penthouse owners went for a minimalist approach, with an interior designed by Japanese-born architect Moho Abe of Woburn-based Zen Associates. Abe has successfully incorporated an Eastern aesthetic within the confines of a very Western building.

There are only four units in the Burrage, which was converted to condos in 2003-2004.

The penthouse has large, open living spaces filled with natural light that radiate serenity.

"People are taken aback by the open space and minimalist design," said listing broker Terry Maitland of Landvest. "The buyer is 
going to have be someone with a really modern aesthetic because too much has gone into the renovation."

The architect took 
advantage of the top floors by creating vaulted ceilings and adding skylights throughout. Fine touches include a staircase to the fifth floor with floating maple stairs and handrails wrapped in leather.

The entryway off the 
elevator, modeled after a Japanese house, has movable walls that are ideal for displaying artwork. The open living/dining area features beige limestone floors and a wood fireplace set 
inside a large wall of onyx.

The building has two turrets: Under one is a free-standing stainless steel hot tub, and the other hosts a meditation space.

The custom kitchen features blue limestone floors and stainless steel Poggenpohl cabinetry, and Sub-Zero, Kuppersbusch and Miele 
appliances. At the far end of the kitchen is a built-in tropical fish tank that acts as a 
divider to a family room with cathedral ceilings, skylights and a gas fireplace.

Off the family room is a cleverly designed child's bedroom with built-in beds. A hallway has a long row of burled walnut cabinets with lots of storage space and a Miele washer and dryer.

The fifth floor, taken up by the master bedroom suite, has a carpeted bedroom with a sunken bed and a wall of burled walnut closets with custom built-ins. The bedroom opens onto a two-tiered roof deck with another hot tub as well as great Back Bay tower views.

If there's any negative, it's that three of the unit's bedrooms are in a connected 1,265-square-foot apartment in the building next door. The unit, made for a nanny
or other live-in help, is rather average-looking and is untouched by the hand of the architect.

The penthouse and live-in apartment total 8,565 square feet and the taxes are $81,461 this year. The condo fee, even though it includes all utilities, including heat and central air conditioning, is a staggering $5,676 a month.

But in its favor, the penthouse comes with four deeded spaces in the building's garage, plus there's one outdoor parking space. You'd be hard-pressed to get this kind of parking anywhere in the city no matter the price.

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Kraft Foods recalls 260 cases of Velveeta

NEW YORK — Kraft said Thursday it is recalling its Velveeta cheese product from Walmart stores in as many as 12 states, mostly in the Midwest, because the cheese product lacks the proper amount of preservatives.

Insufficient levels of sorbic acid has led to the recall of 260 cases of Velveeta original pasteurized recipe cheese product because it could cause the cheese product to spoil prematurely or cause food-borne illnesses.

Kraft Foods Group Inc. said the cheese product was sent to three Walmart distribution centers and could have been shipped to as many as 12 states: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The company said the code on the packages is 021000611614. The packages also have a date stamp that reads "17 DEC 2014" and the timeframe is between 10:54 and 14:35.

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Drug maker Shire rejects offer from AbbVie

LONDON — The Dublin-based drugmaker Shire said Friday it has rejected an unsolicited 27 billion-pound ($46.2 billion) offer from AbbVie Inc., arguing that it fundamentally undervalues the company and its prospects.

The company said in a statement Friday that U.S.-based AbbVie's proposal was for 20.44 pounds ($34.78) and 0.7988 shares per Shire share. That values Shire stock at 46.11 pounds each — a 23 percent premium to its price of 37.38 pounds on Thursday.

Based on the number of outstanding shares in the company, the deal values Shire at 27.1 billion pounds.

Besides the price, Shire PLC says its board also has concerns about company structure "as AbbVie would redomicile in the UK for tax purposes."

The offer comes at a time of intense speculation in the industry, as drugmakers look to grow or eliminate noncore assets while focusing on strengths.

Last month, Pfizer pulled the plug on a takeover offer for Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, amid intense political pressure to keep jobs in Britain.

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Lego to introduce mixed digital-physical blocks

NEW YORK — On the heels of success with "The Lego Movie," the Danish toy company is giving kids a chance to put their own blocks on the screen, with a new product line that copies their creations into phone and tablet games.

The Lego Fusion line will launch in August. Each $35 box will contain some 200 bricks and a special plate to build on. Creations on the plate can be photographed with Apple or Android devices and imported into free, downloadable games.

There are several Lego-themed games already, but this is the first time it's blending real and virtual this way. Many toy companies are going down that route, trying to capture some of the attention — and money — that's being diverted from physical products to iPhone and Android games.

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Tax break could be ticket to new Boston theater boom

Backers of proposed tax credits for live theater productions want Boston to reclaim its footing as the premiere city to stage pre-Broadway shows.

The statewide tax credits were included in the House's economic development bill passed last week to help Massachusetts compete with other states — Rhode Island, Illinois, Louisiana and, most recently, New York — that already have adopted them, according to state Rep. Nick Collins (D-Boston).

"The largest factor was giving a competitive advantage against other areas on costs to operate shows," he said. "The workforce that is used in the theater industry all come from this area — as opposed to the actors — so I think we can make the case that there's job creation out of this."

There's also the trickle-down effect to restaurants, hotels and other businesses, said John Walsh of the International Alliance Of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 11. "It has a positive impact not just for the people who work in the theaters," he said.

Shows bound for Broadway or off-Broadway within a year and Broadway tour launches would be eligible for up to $3 million in credits per production. Recipients also could sell or otherwise transfer the credits — similar to the state's controversial film tax credits started in 2007.

Going back some 70 years, Boston's Emerson Colonial Theatre was one of the premier theaters for pre-Broadway shows, hosting productions including "Porgy and Bess," "Oklahoma!" "Carousel" and "La Cage aux Folles," said Josiah A. Spaulding Jr., CEO of the Citi Performing Arts Center, which oversees the theater.

"But in the last several years, pre-Broadway shows have been going to other … states primarily because (they) have … a pre-Broadway tax credit," he said. "As one of the producers of (the Broadway musical) 'The Addams Family,' I would have much rather have had that in Boston. However with my partners, it made economic and business sense to go to New Orleans."

But the credits have detractors. Government needs to get away from the idea that just because something is good, it deserves a tax break, said Scott Drenkard, economist for the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. "Instead of carving out particular preferences for whatever industry happens to be making its case loudest, it's much better to have a tax code that has a broad base and a low rate that applies to everybody," he said.

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Study: Use of antidepressant not direct link to birth defect

A new study has found no direct link between antidepressant use during pregnancy and one type of birth defect.

The research, published in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, comes nine years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors — the most commonly prescribed antidepressants — might increase the risk of heart malformations in the developing fetus.

"There have been multiple studies looking at this, but it remained unclear whether the associations were chance findings," said Krista F. Huybrechts, the study's lead author and a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Our study should provide some reassurance that if pregnant women need SSRIs, we did not find a substantially increased risk of having a child with cardiac malformations."

Huybrechts and her colleagues analyzed data from 949,504 pregnant women from three months before conception through one month post-delivery and their infants, and found that 72.3 per 10,000 infants not exposed to antidepressants were born with a cardiac defect, compared with 90.1 per 10,000 infants who were exposed. After controlling for depression severity and other potential risk factors, there was no association between use of SSRIs such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft and heart malformations in the infants.

But senior author Sonia Hernandez-Diaz of the Harvard School of Public Health called the findings "only one piece of the complex puzzle" about the overall safety of antidepressants during pregnancy, and said more research needs to be done to evaluate the risks and benefits.

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Rollout anticipated for new pushcart kiosks downtown

Upgrades to downtown Boston's pushcart program are slated to begin in September with a test of new mobile retail kiosks.

The Downtown Boston Business Improvement District is seeking city approval to put six of the structures on the Old State House plaza, Washington Street in front of Walgreens and School Street.

The custom-designed, moveable metal kiosks are 4 feet across and 8 feet high when open. They have storage and can be locked and left in place overnight.

"These are being custom-designed so they will fit into the landscape of the district and will be very accommodating for people who want to sell different things," BID president Rosemarie Sansone said. "You won't see any of the boxes or clutter that's around the current vendors. It will … really allow the vendors to present themselves and their products in the most profitable and professional way."

Rental fees for the kiosks, which will cost the BID $32,000 each, haven't been determined, but a monthly range of $1,500 to $2,000 per unit has been discussed. Current pushcart fees run $800 to $2,500, depending on location.

Longtime pushcart vendor Craig Caplan said he's applied for the pilot program and hopes it will turn into a long-term venture that allows him to remain in his 22-year spot in front of the former Filene's building, now being redeveloped.

"I'm very excited about the prospect," he said. "I've worked really, really hard for what I hope is coming."

New pushcarts and a selling vehicle for food vendors also are on the agenda for the property owner-supported BID, which is trying to upgrade the vending program to match public and private improvements in the district.

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Harley-Davidson introduces electric motorcycle

MILWAUKEE — Harley-Davidson will unveil its first electric motorcycle next week, and President Matt Levatich said he expects the company known for its big touring bikes and iconic brand to become a leader in developing technology and standards for electric vehicles.

Harley will show handmade demonstration models Monday at an invitation-only event in New York. The company will then take several dozen riders on a 30-city tour to test drive the bikes and provide feedback. Harley will use the information it gathers to refine the bike, which might not hit the market for several more years.

The venture is a risk for Harley because there's currently almost no market for full-size electric motorcycles. The millions of two-wheeled electric vehicles sold each year are almost exclusively scooters and low-powered bikes that appeal to Chinese commuters. But one analyst said investment by a major manufacturer could help create demand, and Levatich emphasized in an interview with The Associated Press that Harley is interested in the long-term potential, regardless of immediate demand.

"We think that the trends in both EV technology and customer openness to EV products, both automotive and motorcycles, is only going to increase, and when you think about sustainability and environmental trends, we just see that being an increasing part of the lifestyle and the requirements of riders," Levatich said. "So, nobody can predict right now how big that industry will be or how significant it will be."

At the same time, Levatich and others involved in creating the sleek, futuristic LiveWire predicted it would sell based on performance, not environmental awareness. With no need to shift gears, the slim, sporty bike can go from 0 to 60 mph in about 4 seconds. The engine is silent, but the meshing of gears emits a hum like a jet airplane taking off.

"Some people may get on it thinking, 'golf cart,'" lead engineer Jeff Richlen said. "And they get off thinking, 'rocket ship.'"

One hurdle the company has yet to address is the limited range offered by electric motorcycles. The batteries must be recharged after about 130 miles, and that can take 30 minutes to an hour.

San Jose State University police Capt. Alan Cavallo helped his department buy two bikes from Zero Motorcycles, the current top-selling brand, and said officers have been "super happy" with the quiet, environmentally friendly bikes made nearby in Scotts Valley, California. But he said American riders who like to hit the highway would likely lose patience with the technology.

"That's the deal with the cars; you can't jump in a Tesla and drive to LA, it won't make it," Cavallo said, adding later, "People want the convenience of 'I pull into a gas station, I pour some gas in my tank and I go.'"

Zero Motorcycles introduced its first full-size motorcycle in 2010 and expects to sell about 2,400 bikes this year, said Scott Harden, the company's vice president of global marketing. That would give it about half of the global market for full-size, high-powered electric motorcycles.

In comparison, Harley-Davidson alone sold more than 260,000 conventional motorcycles last year.

But John Gartner, a research director for the consulting firm Navigant Research, said having large, well-funded companies get into the electric motorcycle market could give it a significant boost. The major automakers helped drive sales for hybrid and electric cars, he noted.

"Their marketing budgets are much larger and they have dealerships set up everywhere, and so it's much easier for companies like Ford, BMW and Honda to advertise about their electric vehicles," he said.

Levatich said true growth will require common standards for rapid charging and other features, as well as places for people to plug in. Harley expects to play a key role in developing electric vehicle standards, and its dealership network could provide charging stations to serve all drivers, he said.

"We've been very silent up to this point about our investment in EV technology," Levatich said. "... but now that we're public, and we're in this space, we expect to be involved and a part of leading the development of the standards, and the technology and the infrastructure necessary to further the acceptance and the utility of electric vehicles."

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Social Security closes offices as baby boomers age

WASHINGTON — Even as millions of baby boomers approach retirement, the Social Security Administration has been closing dozens of field offices, forcing more and more seniors to seek help online instead of in person, according to a congressional report being released Wednesday.

The agency blames budget constraints.

As a result, seniors seeking information and help from the agency are facing increasingly long waits, in person and on the phone, the report said.

Social Security has closed 64 field offices since 2010, the largest number of closures in a five-year period in the agency's history, according to a report by the bipartisan staff of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. In addition, the agency has closed 533 temporary mobile offices that often serve remote areas.

Hours have been reduced in the 1,245 field offices that are still open, the report said.

The report questions the agency's criteria for choosing which offices to close, saying the impact on local communities is rarely taken into account.

"Seniors are not being served well when you arbitrarily close offices and reduce access to services," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the Aging Committee. "The closure process is neither fair nor transparent and needs to change."

The committee is holding a hearing on the report Wednesday afternoon. A Social Security official is scheduled to testify. On Tuesday, the agency released a short statement on the report.

"We appreciate the Senate Aging Committee's report on service delivery issues and the tough choices we have had to make because of budget constraints," the statement said. "We just received the report this morning and have begun reviewing its findings and recommendations. We will respond to the committee when that analysis is complete."

The closings come as applications for retirement and disability benefits are soaring, a trend that will continue as aging baby boomers approach retirement.

More than 47 million people receive Social Security retirement benefits, nearly a 20 percent increase from a decade ago. About 11 million people receive Social Security disability benefits, a 38 percent increase from a decade ago.

The Social Security Administration has been encouraging people to access services online. The agency has upgraded its website in recent years, including secure connections to access confidential information and apply for benefits.

In 2013, nearly half of all retirement applications were filed online, the report said.

But the committee report notes that many older Americans lack access to the Internet or might not be comfortable using it to apply for benefits.

Last year, more than 43 million people visited Social Security field offices, the report said. About 43 percent of those seeking an appointment had to wait more than three weeks, up from just 10 percent the year before, the report said.

Wait times on the phone have increased, too — for those who get through. This year, the agency projects that 14 percent of callers to a toll-free help line will get a busy signal. Those who get through wait on hold for an average of 17 minutes, the report said.

People can get information about Social Security, Medicare and Supplemental Security Income at the field offices. They can apply for benefits and get information to help them decide when to apply. They can address more complicated issues such as fraud.

Visitors can also get documents verifying their benefits or Social Security numbers, though these services are scheduled to be eliminated at field offices later this year. People sometimes need the information quickly to apply for jobs or to verify income when applying for other government benefits, the report said.

"There are many, many instances where the case may be too complicated to be resolved simply by going online," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Aging Committee. "Far too many seniors throughout our nation, particularly those living in rural areas, might not have access to a computer or the Internet. It is critical that SSA take into account these issues and the effect on the community before eliminating services."

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

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Investors to seek clues from Fed on rate increase

WASHINGTON — A stay-the-course message is expected from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday after it ends a two-day policy meeting.

The Fed will likely approve a fifth cut in its monthly bond purchases because the job market has steadily strengthened. But no clear signal is expected on when the Fed will start raising short-term interest rates from record lows.

The meeting will end with a statement outlining the Fed's plans. The central bank will also update its economic forecasts, and Janet Yellen will hold her second news conference since becoming Fed chair in February.

The Fed got some further cause for discussion just before it started this week's meeting with a report Tuesday of a surprising jump in consumer inflation.

Yet most economists aren't altering their view that the Fed's first rate increase is at least a year away. Analysts cautioned that that time frame could change if inflation were to accelerate. The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in May, the government said, and has risen 2.1 percent over the past 12 months — roughly at the level of the Fed's target rate for inflation.

It's why the Fed might actually welcome the news of slightly higher inflation. It will help ease long-standing concerns that inflation might be too low. For the past two years, inflation by one key measure has remained under the Fed's 2 percent target.

Investors will be seeking any new clues the central bank might send about when it will finally raise its benchmark short-term rate. That rate has been at a record low near zero since 2008. They will also be looking for hints about how and when the Fed will start unloading its vast investment holdings.

The answers will affect loan rates for individuals and businesses — and perhaps the direction of the economy. Yet few expect to hear anything definitive. The Fed remains in a tentative wait-and-see stance.

Though the central bank has signaled optimism, officials are unsure how much the economy will strengthen the rest of the year. In its updated forecasts, the Fed may downgrade its estimate of growth for 2014 after the government said last month that the economy shrank in the first quarter, depressed by a harsh winter.

Yellen has suggested that the U.S. unemployment rate, now 6.3 percent, overstates the health of the job market and economy. She's also expressed concern that a high percentage of the unemployed — 35 percent — have been out of work for six months or more and that pay is scarcely rising for people who do have jobs.

The minutes of the Fed's last meeting in late April indicated that the central bank has begun discussing the tools it could use to finally pull back the extraordinary stimulus it's provided the U.S. economy since 2008.

Analysts expect at least one announcement when the two-day policy meeting ends Wednesday: That the Fed will make a fifth $10 billion cut in the pace of its monthly bond purchases to $35 billion, a sign of a steadily, if slowly, improving economy. The Fed has been buying Treasury and mortgage bonds to try to keep long-term loan rates low to stimulate the economy.

The Fed will likely end its bond purchases this fall, with its investment portfolio nearing $4.5 trillion. But officials have said that even when they stop buying bonds, they don't plan to start selling any. They plan to keep the Fed's holdings steady by re-investing maturing bonds. In doing so, the Fed will still exert downward pressure on long-term rates.

The Fed has said it will keep its key short-term rate at a record low near zero for a "considerable time" after its bond purchases end. At her news conference, Yellen will likely avoid being pinned down on how long a "considerable time" might be. Last month, she said the Fed expects to start raising rates once it sees enough progress in restoring full employment and inflation has risen to its 2 percent target rate.

Most Fed members expect the Fed to start raising short-term rates between mid-2015 and early 2016. The central bank has stressed that even after it starts raising rates, it will likely keep them unusually low to support the economy.

While economic growth went into reverse in the first quarter, the job market has shown consistent improvement this year. Employers have added 200,000-plus jobs for four straight months. The unemployment rate has dropped to a level the Fed hadn't expected to see until year's end.

But Yellen has stressed that she is studying barometers of the job market beyond the unemployment rate — from the percentage of long-term unemployed among the jobless to the number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs and the percentage of adults either working or looking for work. By those measures, the job market remains subpar, a reason Yellen has cited for the Fed's continued support.

She has also expressed worries that the housing recovery may be faltering. In addition, Fed officials have discussed such geopolitical risks as slow growth in Europe and Russia's aggression toward Ukraine. The newest threat is rising sectarian violence in Iraq, which has sent oil prices up.

This week's meeting brought new faces to debate the issues. Stanley Fischer, former head of Israel's central bank, participated for the first time as the Fed's vice chair, as did Lael Brainard, a former Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, and Loretta Mester, who has succeeded Sandra Pianalto as president of the Fed's Cleveland regional bank.

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Delta says sorry for tweet linking Ghana, giraffe

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc. apologized Tuesday for a tweet meant to congratulate the U.S. soccer team for its win over Ghana but which critics said was ignorant or offensive.

Delta gave the tweet the equivalent of a referee's red card: The airline pulled the post after criticism on social media.

Monday's tweet had the final score of the World Cup game, 2-1. It showed the Statue of Liberty to represent the U.S., and used a giraffe to symbolize Ghana.

But giraffes aren't native to Ghana, a West African country with more than 25 million people.

In a statement on its website, Delta said that the tweet "was both inaccurate and inappropriate."

Atlanta-based Delta, which has nearly 690,000 followers on Twitter, said that it is reviewing its procedures "to ensure that future images and posts reflect both our values and our global focus." A spokeswoman said that no one had gotten in trouble for the tweet.

According to its website, Delta flies to Accra, Ghana, from Kennedy Airport in New York.

Delta is not the first company to stumble on social media.

In April, US Airways apologized after accidentally tweeting a picture of a naked woman to a customer who had complained about a delayed flight. The employee was not punished for what a spokesman called an honest mistake. Chrysler, Home Depot and others have also apologized after tweets that drew criticism.

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FedEx 4Q profit rises on growth in ground shipping

DALLAS — FedEx Corp. says its quarterly profit rose as growth in online shopping gave its ground-shipping business a lift.

The earnings of $2.46 per share beat Wall Street's forecast by a dime. Revenue also topped expectations.

Its shares rose 4 percent in premarket dealings before the opening bell.

The package-delivery company said Wednesday that it earned $730 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended May 31, compared with $303 million a year ago, when write-downs weighed on the results.

Revenue rose 3.5 percent to $11.84 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $11.66 billion.

Revenue in the ground-shipping business grew 8 percent, helped by gains in e-commerce. That helped offset slower growth in FedEx Express, which accounts for more than half the company's revenue.

The Memphis-based company said that it would earn between $8.50 and $9 per share in the new fiscal year, which ends in May 2015. That is in line with analysts' average expectation of $8.74.

Last month, FedEx announced that it will start charging more for large but light packages that take up space in its delivery trucks and add to costs. That includes bulky products that consumers buy online instead of in stores. Rival United Parcel Service Co. said Tuesday that it would do the same by considering a bulky package's dimensions and not just its weight in setting prices for ground shipments.

The results marked an improvement over FedEx's third quarter, when the company was slowed by winter storms that raised costs and cut into shipping volumes. They also indicated that that while e-commerce continues to boost the ground-shipping business, express-delivery remains virtually flat as customers shift to slower, cheaper services for international shipments.

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Sustainable energy hub for Asia launched

MANILA, Philippines — The Asian Development Bank and two U.N. agencies launched a hub Wednesday to mobilize investments and innovation to bring clean energy to the Asia Pacific region, where more than 600 million people lack electricity and 1.8 billion use firewood and charcoal at home.

Energy demand is soaring in the region on the back of economic and population growth, and the ADB said that by 2035 developing countries in the region will account for 56 percent of global energy use, up from 34 percent in 2010. They will need more than $200 billion in energy investments by 2030.

ADB will host and manage the Sustainable Energy for All hub — one of three such regional hubs under an initiative of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the U.N. Development Programme are ADB's partners.

"We can overcome energy poverty through sustainable, low-carbon energy means, and through this new hub we are gathering together investors, innovators and experts to make this happen," said ADB Vice President Bindu Lohani.

One of the goals of the center is to support developing Asian countries in preparing country action plans to meet the U.N. targets of ensuring universal access to modern energy by 2030, and doubling both the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and the share of renewable sources of energy like solar or wind power.

Kandeh Yumkella, Ban's special representative on sustainable energy, called for an energy revolution that will power an industrial revolution that creates jobs and wealth in a sustainable way. He urged policy makers to ensure that public policies have transparency, longevity and credibility to lessen risks that will dampen needed investments in energy.

Finding innovative solutions to energy poverty can save lives, because 3.3 million deaths in Asia annually are associated with inhaling toxic fumes from wood, charcoal, coal or dung, said Caitlin Wiesen, Asia-Pacific regional manager of UNDP.

The world needs a staggering amount of investments in energy for the next two decades equivalent to half of the global economy to meet the U.N. goals, said Christoph Frei, secretary general of the World Energy Council composed of 3,000 private and government organization in 90 countries.

He said it is important to address political risks that come when there is a lack of balance in policies and the objectives of attaining energy security, environmental security and social equity. Investing in diverse sources of energy also cuts risks, he added.

By 2050, Frei said, solar power and gas are expected to have a dramatic growth rate as a source of energy while fossil fuel that currently contributes 80 percent of the world's source of power will have its share down to between 60 and 70 percent. Oil is seen to stagnate while there is uncertainty with regard to the growth or decrease in the use of coal.

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Rights groups say UK conducts mass cyber-snooping

LONDON — Britain's top counterterrorism official says the country's espionage rules allow its electronic spy agency to routinely intercept online communications between Britons who use U.S.-based platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google.

A witness statement by Office for Security and Counterterrorism chief Charles Farr, made public Tuesday, said data sent on those services is classed as "external" rather than "internal" communications because the companies are based outside Britain.

Britain's Home Office confirmed the document was genuine. It was written in response to a legal action by civil liberties groups who are seeking to curb cyber-spying, and was published by the groups on Tuesday.

Britain's electronic intelligence agency, GCHQ, has broad powers to intercept communications outside the country, but needs a warrant and suspicion of wrongdoing to monitor Britons.

In the document, Farr said some internal communications are intercepted under the external rules, but they "cannot be read, looked at or listened to" except in strictly limited circumstances. He said that was a "significant distinction."

Civil liberties organizations say the rules are too vague and allow for mass surveillance.

"The security services consider that they're entitled to read, listen and analyze all our communications on Facebook, Google and other U.S.-based platforms," said James Welch, legal director of Liberty — one of the groups involved in the legal action. "If there was any remaining doubt that our snooping laws need a radical overhaul there can be no longer."

Farr said that emails sent between two people in Britain would usually be classed as internal even if they traveled by route outside the country. But Facebook and Twitter posts or Google searches that went to data centers outside the British Isles would fall under the external category.

GCHQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The rights groups launched their legal action after leaks about cyber-snooping from former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. He revealed details of a program called PRISM giving the NSA access to Internet companies' customer data, and a British operation, TEMPORA, that allows GCHQ to harvest data from undersea cables.

The extent and mechanics of the programs are not fully clear.

Farr would not confirm or deny the existence of TEMPORA or say whether GCHQ had received information from PRISM.

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Toby Keith's bar in Syracuse owes $250K in taxes

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The New York location of country music star Toby Keith's chain of restaurants owes more than a quarter-million dollars in sales taxes to the state.

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports (http://bit.ly/1uAeH9r ) that a tax warrant filed by the state earlier this month seeks $107,000 owed by Toby Keith's I Love this Bar & Grill at the Destiny USA shopping mall in Syracuse.

Keith's Syracuse bar, which opened last year, also owes more than $145,000 in sales taxes from earlier in 2013.

The musician's chain of restaurants, named for the title of one of his hit songs, features guitar-shaped bars, beer in mason jars and traditional southern food.

The Phoenix, Arizona-based chain has 16 locations in 12 states, with five more restaurants planned.

A call to the chain's corporate office wasn't returned.

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Information from: The Post-Standard, http://www.syracuse.com

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Russian journalist killed in eastern Ukraine

MOSCOW — A Russian journalist for a Russian state-owned TV channel died Tuesday in eastern Ukraine after being wounded by mortar fire, the Rossiya 24 network said.

Correspondent Igor Kornelyuk, 37, died during surgery in a hospital after being wounded while on assignment in Luhansk. The whereabouts of the sound engineer with him at the time is still unknown, the network said.

Viktor Denisov, a cameraman working with Kornelyuk, said in a television broadcast that they were filming Ukrainian refugees fleeing the area north of the regional capital when mortar fire began. Denisov was not immediately next to Kornelyuk when he was wounded.

The deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russia separatist rebels and the government in Kiev has been raging for nearly two months. On Monday, new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pledged to propose a peace plan this week to bring a cease-fire to the east but said the porous border with Russia had to be secured first.

Ukraine accuses Russia of supporting the rebels and the United States and NATO say tanks and other heavy weapons have crossed from Russia into the hands of rebels in Ukraine.

Russia has rejected the claims it has sent any weapons or troops, and the rebels said a few tanks they had were seized from Ukrainian forces.

Cash-strapped Ukraine is due receive 500 million euros ($680 million) on Tuesday from the European Union to help stabilize the country and shore up its ailing economy. EU Economics Commissioner Olli Rehn said the loan is "a further concrete sign of European solidarity."

The money from the 28-nation bloc is part of a wider EU package aimed at helping Ukraine reform its economy to boost growth and increase jobs.

The EU sent Ukraine 100 million euros ($1.35 million) last month and has another 1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) lined up for it, provided Ukraine meets milestones on economic and financial reforms.

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Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed to this report.

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US consumer prices rise 0.4 percent in May

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer prices increased in May by the largest amount in more than a year as the cost of food and gasoline showed big gains and airline fares jumped by the largest amount in 15 years.

The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in May, the biggest one-month jump since a 0.6 percent increase in February 2013, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

Over the past 12 months, consumer prices are up 2.1 percent. While that was the biggest 12-month price change since October 2012, it still left prices rising at a pace near the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target. But analysts said the May price jump, double what had been expected, would get the attention of Fed policymakers, who were starting a two-day meeting on Tuesday.

"The Fed will have to acknowledge in tomorrow's policy statement that price pressures are growing," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. "The chances that it will raise interest rates before the middle of next year are increasing."

"We're seeing more signs that the days of low inflation are behind us," said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. She said the drought in California pushed fruit prices up and a drought in Brazil was to blame for higher coffee prices.

Excluding volatile food and energy, core inflation was up 0.3 percent in May, the biggest one-month gain since August 2011. Over the past 12 months, core prices are up 2 percent.

The 0.4 percent May price rise reflected gains in a number of areas. Food costs were up 0.5 percent, the largest increase since a similar gain in August 2011. Food costs have been driven higher this year by an unusually harsh winter and a drought in California.

Energy costs were up 0.9 percent in May, the biggest one-month gain since December. Gasoline prices increased 0.7 percent last month.

Outside of food and energy, there were widespread price pressures as well. Airline tickets were up 5.8 percent in May, the biggest one-month gain since July 1999. The cost of clothing, prescription drugs and new cars all showed increases in May.

Even with the May price increases, inflation is still advancing at moderate rates around the 2 percent target set by the Federal Reserve, which has the job of managing interest rates to foster stable prices and maximum employment.

Low inflation has allowed the Fed to keep interest rates exceptionally low in an effort to boost economic growth without having to worry about inflation getting out of hand. A measure of inflation preferred by the Fed that is tied to consumer spending patterns has been running below the Fed's target of 2 percent for the past two years.

The central bank was meeting Tuesday and Wednesday with Fed officials widely expected to keep a key short-term rate at a record low near zero. The Fed is not expected to begin increasing that rate for another year.

While it is the Fed's job to keep inflation from rising too quickly, it also watches to make sure that prices do not rise too slowly. That can signal a weak economy and generate further weakness as consumers stop buying big-ticket items in hopes that prices will fall further.

The Fed will update its economic forecasts on Wednesday and analysts are looking for the growth figure to be trimmed to reflect the very weak start to the year. Despite the weakness, which was related to a harsh winter, economists believe the economy will rebound to growth rates of 3 percent or better for the rest of this year.

The first quarter weakness did not derail improvements in the job market with unemployment falling to 6.3 percent, the lowest point in more than five years. But Fed Chair Janet Yellen has suggested that the overall unemployment rate is overstating the health of the job market and the economy, a view that is seen as signaling no sudden action by the Fed to start raising interest rates, as long as inflation gains remain modest.

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US home building declined 6.5 percent in May

WASHINGTON — The pace of U.S home construction slipped in May with many Americans still struggling to afford new houses.

Builders started work at a seasonally adjusted annual rate on 1.01 million homes last month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was down 6.5 percent from 1.07 million in April.

Construction firms began work on fewer single-family houses, condominiums and apartments last month.

Home construction has struggled to gain much traction this year, limiting its ability to contribute as much to broader economic growth as it has in the past. Many would-be buyers face higher mortgage rates than at this time last year, while builders are selling fewer new homes but charging more for them. That has reduced the number of possible buyers and the number of construction jobs. Builders employ 1.49 million fewer workers than they did at the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, a loss of roughly 20 percent.

"We expect housing to contribute positively to 2014 economic growth, but the magnitude of its contribution likely will be much smaller than that reported for the past two years," said Dana Saporta, director of U.S. economics at the bank Credit Suisse.

In May, construction tailed off in the Northeast, Midwest and West. Only the South experienced greater building activity in May.

Housing starts have risen 9.4 percent over the past 12 months. But apartments account for most of the gains, suggesting that more Americans will be renting instead of owning homes.

The growth in apartment buildings points to an economy in which more Americans are renting, rather than buying homes. Following the housing bust and recession, Americans have had to deal with relatively flat wages and job insecurity, both obstacles to saving for a down payment. The home ownership rate was 64.8 percent at the start of the year, down from a peak of 69.2 percent during 2004.

Applications for building permits, a gauge of future activity, fell 6.4 percent in May to an annual rate of 991,000.

Now that the spring and summer buying season is in full swing, homebuilding appears to be struggling.

Builder confidence has improved slightly but remains pessimistic.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index rose to 49 in June, up from 45 in May. A reading below 50 indicates that builders consider the conditions for new construction to be poor. The index had been above 50 from June through January.

Sales of new homes rose 6.4 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000, according to a separate Commerce Department report. That comes after sales declined 6.9 percent in March to an annual pace of 407,000, while buying slipped 4.4 percent in February.

Median prices on new homes are $275,800, a 10 percent increase since the beginning of 2013.

All of this comes amid a broader real estate slowdown after significant sales and price gains in the first half of 2013. Both prices and borrowing costs are higher.

Average rates on a 30-year, fixed mortgage are 4.2 percent, up from a low of 3.93 percent over the past year, according to Freddie Mac.

Existing-homes were purchased at a yearly clip of 4.65 million in April. That's below the 5.1 million homes sold last year. New-homes usually represent about 20 percent of all homes sold, but that figure has fallen recently to 10 percent, according to Zillow, the real estate data firm.

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Police: Indian factory workers kill CEO in dispute

KOLKATA, India — An angry mob of Indian workers wielding iron rods and stones beat the CEO of a jute factory to death in a dispute over increasing their working hours, police said Monday after arresting six workers.

The suspects — two detained Monday and four on Sunday — are expected to be charged with murder, vandalism and other crimes allegedly committed when the mob of about 200 workers stormed the office of 60-year-old H.K. Maheswari in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, according to Hooghly District Police Superintendent Sunil Chowdhury.

Maheswari had denied their earlier request to work and be paid for 40 hours a week at the North Brook Jute Mill, instead of the current norm of 25. He had also proposed shutting down the mill for three days a week to limit mounting financial losses, according to the factory's general manager, Kiranjit Singh.

"The mill workers suddenly resorted to stone pelting while we were busy in a meeting," Kiranjit Singh said. At one point during Sunday's meeting, Maheswari looked out the window at the growing crowd and was struck in the head by two stones. He collapsed, at which point a large group of workers stormed the office, Singh said.

"The CEO was thrashed with iron rods, and he succumbed to his injuries very soon," Singh said. Both the general manager and a security guard were hospitalized for injuries and later released, while Maheswari died on the way to a hospital, police said.

West Bengal is known for its combative labor unions backed by political parties, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee immediately blamed the violence on unions run by opposition parties. The opposition denied any role in the attack, and said an independent investigation should be held before any blame is hurled.

On Monday, Banerjee sought to reassure the business community that her government did not tolerate union violence.

"There is no place for violence in a democracy," she said, while also telling members of the state assembly that a regular police investigation would suffice.

Meanwhile, work at the mill has been suspended indefinitely.

A funeral was planned for Tuesday for Maheswari, who is survived by his wife, two grown daughters and a son.

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Medtronic to buy Irish medical-device manufacturer

U.S. medical device manufacturer Medtronic has agreed to buy Ireland-based competitor Covidien for $42.9 billion in cash and stock.

The combined company would have its executive offices in Dublin, where it could benefit from Ireland's lower corporate tax rates. But the merged company would continue to operate in Minneapolis, where Medtronic employs more than 8,000, the companies said late Sunday in a statement.

Medtronic is paying a 29 percent premium on Covidien's stock price as of Friday. The shares had closed at $72.02 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares of both companies surged in premarket trading Monday.

The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions by medical-device manufacturers. The companies are seeking to expand their offerings and contain costs in response to price curbs forced by the nation's new health care law.

In April, Zimmer Holdings, an orthopedic device maker, announced that it was buying Biomet in a $13 billion deal.

Medtronic makes pacemakers and insulin pumps, among other products. Covidien specializes in surgical equipment.

As a result of savings from the deal, Medtronic said it would spend an additional $10 billion over the next decade in investments, acquisitions and research and development in the United States.

"The medical technology industry is critical to the U.S. economy, and we will continue to invest and innovate and create well-paying jobs," Omar Ishrak, Medtronic's CEO, said in a statement.

In premarket trading Monday, Covidien shares climbed $22.68, or 31.5 percent, to $94.70 while Medtronic shares gained $4.16, or 6.9 percent, to $64.86.

Efforts by domestic companies to use mergers to reincorporate overseas for tax reasons have raised concern among some U.S. lawmakers. Ireland taxes corporate income at 12.5 percent, compared with a top marginal rate of 39.6 percent in the United States, according to the tax advisory firm KPMG.

Drug-maker Pfizer recently tried unsuccessfully to acquire U.K.-based Astra-Zeneca. The banana-seller Chiquita agreed to buy an Irish firm, Fyffes, in March.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, and 13 other senators introduced a bill in May to restrict the deals.

"These transactions are about tax avoidance, plain and simple," Levin said in a statement. "Our legislation would clamp down on this loophole to prevent corporations from shifting their tax burden onto their competitors and average Americans."

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Alibaba gives more business details ahead of IPO

NEW YORK — Alibaba is pulling back the curtain a little bit more, providing more information about its partnership structure and financials ahead of its planned initial public offering.

China's biggest e-commerce company filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. in May. Its latest disclosure filed Monday is in part meant to squash criticism that it didn't provide enough details on its business in its initial filing.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said in the filing that its partnership currently has 27 members, including 22 people from its management ranks such as CEO Jonathan Zhaoxi Lu. The partnership has the exclusive right to nominate a simple majority of the board's members.

Alibaba said net income for the quarter ended March 31 increased 31 percent to $883.4 million. Revenue rose 39 percent to $1.93 billion.

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China premier in UK visit to boost trade ties

LONDON — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is visiting Britain for a trip that includes an unusual meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and talks aimed at boosting fragile diplomatic relations.

The three-day visit is expected to focus on trade and investment cooperation in areas including nuclear power, high-speed railways and finance. It also aims to rebuild political ties that have cooled since Cameron met with the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in 2012.

Writing in The Times newspaper Monday, Li said he wanted to "present the real China so as to change misperceptions and ease misgivings."

Experts say the decision to grant Li the meeting with the queen — even though he is not a head of state — signals how keen Britain is to woo the Chinese.

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Foreign holdings of US Treasury debt increase

WASHINGTON — Foreign buyers of U.S. Treasury securities increased their holdings in April to another record high even though China cut back on its holdings for a third straight month.

The Treasury Department says total foreign holdings rose 0.2 percent to a record $5.96 trillion, up from $5.95 trillion in March. It marked the ninth consecutive monthly increase.

China, the largest foreign buyer of U.S. Treasury debt, reduced its holdings for a third month, cutting them by 0.7 percent to $1.26 trillion. Japan, the second largest buyer, boosted its holdings 0.8 percent to $1.21 trillion.

Foreign demand for U.S. Treasury debt is expected to remain strong this year, helped by more borrowing certainty given the congressional agreement to suspend the debt limit until March 2015.

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The Ticker

New Hub flagship for Liberty Travel

Liberty Travel's new Boston flagship location will open this week.

Called the Boston Travel Center, the three-floor, 10,000-plus square-foot space on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing is anchored by Liberty Travel and includes its sister brands specializing in business/corporate travel, Corporate Traveler and FCM.

TOMORROW

• Federal Reserve releases industrial production for May.
• National Association of Home Builders releases housing market index for June.

TUESDAY

• Labor Department releases Consumer Price Index for May.
• Commerce Department releases housing starts for May.
• Federal Reserve policy makers begin a two-day meeting to set interest rates.

WEDNESDAY

• Commerce Department releases current account trade deficit for the first quarter.

THURSDAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates.
• Conference Board releases leading indicators for May.

Florence Savings Bank, a mutually owned savings bank serving the Pioneer Valley through 9 branch locations, announced that Susan M. Seaver has joined the bank as vice president/mortgage originator.

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Should new Mustang tires go on the front or back?

I have a 2011 Mustang GT 5.0-liter with 36,000 miles. It has the Brembo brake package and Goodyear F1 tires on it. I'm ready to replace the worn rear tires again with the new OE Goodyears. Last time I replaced the rear tires, I placed the new tires on the front and moved the older front tires to the rear. Now people are telling me that I should place the new tires on the rear drive-axle to reduce the chance of oversteer that might be induced by having too much fun in a curve. With an everyday car I believe that understeer would be the greatest concern, but with 412 horsepower and almost 400 pound-feet of torque, maybe the new tires should be on the back. Which end of the car should the two new tires be placed on my Mustang and is a nitrogen fill worthwhile?

On the back. Like you, my first thought was that new tires should be mounted on the front and the older, worn front tires moved to the rear. Because the front tires do a far higher percentage of braking and, of course, steer the vehicle, my instincts said put the best tires on the front.

However, since loss of traction from the front tires — the "understeer" you mention — is easier to correct than "oversteer" — loss of traction from the rear tires — the recommendation for replacing just two tires is to mount the new ones on the rear.

In short, correcting understeer involves "breathing" back the throttle or modulating brake pressure to help the front tires regain traction. Oversteer, on the other hand, requires an instantaneous steering correction in the direction the back end is trying to go in order to keep the front tires pointed where the vehicle is headed, while at the same time neutralizing the throttle — not accelerating and not decelerating — to stop any wheelspin. If and when the rear end regains traction and wants to snap back — so-called "overcorrecting," a complete misnomer — the steering must be straightened in time with the rear end snapping back to keep the front wheels pointed where the vehicle is traveling.

In the racing schools I teach, we label the correction for oversteer as a three-step process: correct/pause/recover, CPR for short, an easy acronym to remember.

Nitrogen contains no moisture and is less prone to pressure changes with temperature changes, so filling tires with nitrogen makes some sense, but only if you continue to use nitrogen to top up tire pressures.

I own a 2001 Dodge Dakota and would like to clean the engine. Is it OK to take it to a self-service car wash and power-wash it?

It must be. Ever seen a used car on a dealer lot with a dirty engine? It's OK to clean the engine and engine compartment as long as you cover any sensitive wiring and electronics and don't aim the high-pressure spray directly at these components. Remember, engines and drivetrains get wet when vehicles are driven in the rain. The wiring harnesses and connectors used on modern automobiles are designed to be relatively weatherproof.

Motoring Note: Regarding white smoke from the 2003 Honda, reader Paul Harvey offered a good suggestion. "I had a similar problem involving my 2002 Toyota Sienna. One mechanic told me it was caused by a sludge problem and would require an engine replacement. I had thought it was a head gasket problem and took the van to another mechanic, who diagnosed a bad PCV valve. After he replaced it, the problem was solved."

A stuck or clogged PCV valve typically forces oil into the combustion chamber, where it is burned, creating a bluish smoke. So checking the PCV system for proper function is a simple step to possibly explain the sudden appearance of smoke from the tailpipe. Thanks for the suggestion, Paul.

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.

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Youth get sage advice at Hub site

For six years, Jared Chung was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, the elite adviser to many of the world's most influential businesses and institutions, but his true passion was moonlighting as an adviser to low-income kids.

"I saw that disadvantaged youth were feeling uninformed and alone in planning for their futures," Chung said. "I also saw that I wasn't the only one who wanted to help. The challenge in America is there just aren't enough people who are willing or able to do one-to-one mentoring."

So in 2012, he gathered a hundred volunteers and launched CareerVillage.org, a website that crowdsources career advice for low-income high school students.

"Our program is simple: We promise students the answer to any question about any career, anytime," Chung said. "And we deliver on that promise with a website that automatically matches student questions to volunteers with relevant experience."

Today, CareerVillage has more than 1,300 online volunteers and has served more than 6,000 students at schools including Match Charter Public School and Codman Academy Charter Public School, both in Boston, as well as KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate High School.

CareerVillage offers teachers training on how to use the website, as well as lesson plans, presentation slides, work sheets and group activities to help students figure out their interests and create a plan for how to get answers to their questions about careers.

"We found the website to be student-friendly, thoughtfully simple and a tool that provides an easy entry point for conversation that can be awkward or difficult to start for teenagers," said Jerre Maynor, KIPP Academy's director of college counseling.

Oren Falkowitz, CEO of Area 1 Security, a Menlo Park, Calif., computer security firm, became a CareerVillage volunteer more than a year ago after he was introduced to Chung while he was living in Boston.

"It's a simple way to make a big difference," said Falkowitz, who has answered dozens of questions — mostly about what it's like to be an entrepreneur — with help from colleagues and friends. "I've always had mentors in my life who have helped me. Without that kind of insight, it's very difficult."

This summer, CareerVillage will get free office space in Boston as one of the MassChallenge startup accelerator's 128 finalists, and it will begin recruiting more staff and volunteers for the upcoming school year.

"We have an incredibly ambitious goal," Chung said. "There are 8 million high school kids living in high-poverty communities in America. We're not resting until we put a real dent in career readiness.

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Boston connects to Beijing

New direct air service between Boston and China starts Friday, the latest in a string of nonstop international flights landed by Logan International Airport and perhaps the biggest coup to date.

"Of all the international flights, this is probably the biggest milestone," Massport CEO Thomas Glynn said. "In the global economy, China is the biggest player. Many nonprofit and for-profit businesses in Boston have activity in China."

Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines will start Boston-Beijing service four times per week — on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It will switch to daily flights from July 21 through August — peak China travel season amid strong demand, according to Joel Chusid, Hainan's U.S. executive director.

Hainan already has sold well more than half of the seats for its July and August flights on the 213-passenger Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

"Our bookings are coming in steady," Chusid said, noting Hainan started reservations "pretty early" and has an interline agreement for connections with JetBlue Airways. "It's met our expectations.."

Hainan has set up a Boston office with a general manager and sales, finance and customer support staff.

At Hainan's request, Massport is planning a June 23 meeting for airline officials with local business leaders on Massport's Asia task force that worked toward landing the China service and the nonstop Toyko flights that started in 2012. It will be followed by a luncheon with Gov. Deval Patrick.

"Lasting growth in the 21st-century global economy will come from our competitiveness in global markets," Patrick said in a statement. "Hainan's new flight will better serve our international passengers and build upon our growth strategy to open up Massachusetts to new markets to ensure that we remain competitive for many years to come."

Massport has rebated $540,000 in landing fees and will provide $350,000 in marketing support over two years to Hainan as incentives for starting the Boston service.

"This gives them a little cushion if it takes a while for them to build up their load factor," Glynn said.

Hainan's 36 business-class seats have 74-inch pitches — the space between a point on one seat and the same point on the seat in front of it. The lie-flat seats turn into beds with turn-down service, mattress pad, duvet, sheets, pillows, pajamas and slippers provided.

Menus rotate monthly and include Western and Chinese choices. Recent Chinese dinner selections for the a la carte business-class service from Beijing to Seattle included fried pork stuffed with water chestnut in sweet and sour lychee sauce, pan-fried shrimp mousse with tofu, and sauteed bitter gourd with pickle.

"It's not Panda Express," Chusid said.

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Supreme Court has 17 cases to decide by June's end

WASHINGTON — It's crunch time at the Supreme Court, where the justices are racing to issue opinions in 17 cases over the next two weeks.

The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved.

Summer travel, European teaching gigs and relaxation beckon, but only after the court hands down decisions in all the cases it has heard since October.

In rare instances, the justices will put off decisions and order a case to be argued again in the next term.

This is also the time of the year when a justice could announce a retirement. But the oldest of the justices, 81-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has signaled she will serve at least one more year, and maybe longer.

The justices will meet Monday and again on Thursday to issue opinions, and could wind up their work by the end of the month.

A look at some of the cases that remain:

— Contraceptive coverage: Corporations are claiming the right to exercise religious objections to covering women's contraceptives under their employee health insurance plans, despite the new health law's requirement that birth control be among a range of no-cost preventive services included in health plans.

— Abortion clinic buffer zones: Abortion opponents are challenging as a violation of their speech rights a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot protest-free zone on public sidewalks outside abortion clinics.

— Cellphone searches: Two cases weigh the power of police to search the cellphones of people they place under arrest without first obtaining a warrant from a judge.

— Recess presidential appointments: A federal appeals court said President Barack Obama misused the Constitution's recess power when he temporarily filled positions on the National Labor Relations Board in 2012.

— TV on the Internet: Broadcasters are fighting Internet startup Aereo's practice of taking television their programming for free and providing it to subscribers who can then watch on smartphones and other portable devices.

— Greenhouse gases: Industry groups assert that environmental regulators overstepped their bounds by trying to apply a provision of the Clean Air Act to control emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants and factories. This case is unlikely to affect the recent proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency to slash carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly one-third by 2030; that plan involves a different part of the same law.

— Union fees: Home health care workers in Illinois want the court to rule that public sector unions cannot collect fees from workers who object to being affiliated with a union.

—Securities fraud: Investors could find it harder to bring class-action lawsuits over securities fraud at publicly traded companies in a case involving Halliburton Co., a provider of energy services.

— "False" campaign claims: An anti-abortion group says state laws that try to police false statements during political campaigns runs afoul of the First Amendment.

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