Some critical of proposal for ads on school buses

WORCESTER, Mass. — A proposal to allow advertisements to be placed on school buses in Worcester is drawing mixed reviews.

John Monfredo, vice chairman of the city's school committee, asked the school department to explore a pilot program to place black-and-white ads on school buses as a way of raising new revenue for educational programs.

School Superintendent Melinda Boone said the administration has discussed the idea with the Worcester Education Development Foundation, but had concerns.

"We're concerned about safety as it relates to people potentially reading the ads and not paying attention to a (bus's) stop arm that's out," Boone said.

Monfredo joined two other school committee members in voting to refer the proposal to a subcommittee for more study, The Telegram and Gazette reported (http://bit.ly/1pvbg3L ).

"I'm really distressed to see this item on here," said Tracy O'Connell Novick, one of two members who voted against sending it to the subcommittee. "We have had a history of keeping commercial activity out of the Worcester Public Schools ... I'm really bothered by the notion we would think transporting our kids could become a commercial enterprise."

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Obama: Congress left town with unfinished business

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he's taking action on his own because Congress is doing so little for working families.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the economy is improving. He says decisions made now can ensure things keep improving.

Obama says he's been pushing policies addressing jobs, student loans and wages. He says all of the policies would help families feel more stable, but all have been blocked by Republicans.

Obama says Congress left town for their August vacation with unfinished business. He says he hopes when lawmakers get back, Washington can join together in common purpose.

In the Republican address, Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon says Obama is disengaged when he should be leading. He says the midterm elections are a chance to deliver accountability.

___

Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.nrcc.org

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Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch may be on market soon

Word on the real estate street via the fine folk at Forbes is that "Neverland Ranch," the Los Olivos, CA, mega-estate where Michael Jackson lived in (in)famous, child-like splendor will soon be put on the market for an unrevealed price.

The crazy talented but terrifically troubled Mister Jackson decamped "Neverland" years before he died in 2009 but in its glory-days the 2,700-acre spread had a zoo with exotic animals and an full-blown amusement park where -- true story, children -- one of Your Mama's cuzzins used to drive the train.

There were rumors the estate's current owner, Colony Capital, considered subdividing and selling the property in order to recoup its investment as well as turning the property into tourism spot like Elvis's "Graceland" in Memphis (TN). However, the not easily accessed, semi-remote location not to mention the vehement local opposition nixed that notion before it really got off the ground.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Nuclear plant looks to end emergency planning role

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The soon-to-close Vermont Yankee nuclear plant wants to stop more than $2 million in annual payments for emergency planning in the region, but a watchdog group opposes that, saying nuclear waste on-site will create continuing risks.

Plant officials have told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the radioactive spent fuel will have cooled enough by mid-2016 that they should then be able to stop paying to maintain the 10-mile emergency evacuation zone around the plant.

The plant is closing at the end of this year.

The zone extends out from the reactor in Vernon in Vermont's southeast corner to six Vermont towns and parts of neighboring New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The plant maintains emergency sirens in each town, provides each household with a tone-alert radio, distributes an annual calendar with emergency information and supports regular drills by emergency personnel.

The risks of storing spent nuclear fuel in storage pools at plant sites have been hotly debated in recent years, with some state regulators and nuclear critics saying the fuel is safer in the concrete and steel storage casks that many plants have been using in recent decades because they've been running out of room in their pools.

Five U.S. senators wrote to the NRC in May to urge it to expedite movement of the spent fuel from fuel pools to dry casks. They said studies have concluded that "draining a spent nuclear fuel pool can lead to fires, large radioactive releases and widespread contamination" and that research has found spent fuel pools "could not be dismissed as potential targets for terrorist attacks."

Erica Bornemann, a Vermont Emergency Management official overseeing disaster planning around Vermont Yankee, said the next full-scale drill next year will focus on the potential for a catastrophe resulting from "a hostile act."

Short of that, Raymond Shadis of the nuclear watchdog group New England Coalition pointed to an NRC document describing the possibility of an accident during the process of unloading the spent fuel pool. The casks are brought into the pool as they are loaded. The NRC document raised the possibility that one of the 110-ton casks could be dropped.

Vermont Yankee has said it expects there to be some fuel remaining in the pool until 2021, when the last of it will have been moved into dry casks.

Bornemann argued that until the spent fuel pool is emptied, there should be some level of enhanced emergency response capability around the nuclear plant.

Just weeks after the senators wrote their letter, the NRC rejected calls for speeding up the transfer of spent fuel from pools to dry casks, saying too little was to be gained from a safety perspective to warrant such a ruling.

Christopher Recchia, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, said Vermont and neighboring states are pressing the NRC not to let Vermont Yankee drop the emergency response efforts. But he acknowledged that, given the NRC's position that spent fuel pools provide safe storage for the nuclear waste, the states' chances of prevailing may be slim.

On Friday, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency was reviewing Vermont Yankee's request to end its support for emergency planning. He said the agency had never rejected such a request from a plant undergoing decommissioning.

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Taiwan explosions probe focuses on petrochem firm

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Authorities in Taiwan's second-biggest city zeroed in on a petrochemical firm Saturday in their investigation into a series of gas pipeline explosions that killed 28 people and injured 286, as anger rose over the handling of the disaster.

The government is seeking to pinpoint the cause of five blasts that tore through streets in the city of Kaohsiung starting at around midnight Thursday, flinging cars into the air and blasting cement rubble at passers-by, many of whom were out late at a nearby night market.

The city's environmental officials said LCY Chemical Corp., a Taiwanese petrochemical firm, had failed to notify authorities of problems with a pipeline in the area despite being aware of irregularities in deliveries going through that pipeline that night. This caused delays in the government's response to the disaster, said the officials, who are facing growing public anger.

"If we were informed earlier by LCY, we could have evacuated everyone," Chen Chin-der, director of the Environmental Protection Bureau in Kaohsiung, an industrial port city of 2.8 million people, said at a televised news conference Saturday.

The pipeline was leaking nearly four tons of propene every hour as pressure dropped at around 8:45 p.m. Thursday, Chen said.

Propene, also known as propylene, is mainly used for making the plastic polypropylene, which is used in a wide variety of packaging, caps and films. It is a highly flammable, colorless gas with a mildly unpleasant smell.

Because the leak went on for so many hours as firefighters and environmental officials struggled to identify the nature of the gas and its source, it was able to rapidly accumulate in density and spread a greater distance, Chen said.

"The leak was at a different location from the explosions, because propene was leaking and spreading through the sewer system everywhere," Chen said in a telephone interview. "When the density of propene is very high, anything can trigger an explosion, anything as small as a cigarette, or starting the engine of a motor scooter."

The city's fire department and environmental authorities first received reports of a gas leak from residents in the area several hours before the explosions. They summoned representatives of a few companies to the site of the leak to check their pipelines, but all of them, including LCY Chemical, said their operations were normal, according to Chen and other environmental officials.

Thinking at first that the leak was that of natural gas, firefighters poured water at the site in the hope of dissolving the gas. When it became clear it was not natural gas, environmental experts were called in to take samples, a city news release said.

The experts were only able to identify the gas as propene at around 11:55 p.m., Chen said. But by then it was too late. A few minutes later, the blasts started ripping the streets apart.

Chang Jui-hui, chief secretary of the Environmental Protection Bureau, said records and data collected later by investigators from LCY's plant and that of its supplier, China General Terminal & Distribution Corp., showed abnormalities in the delivery of propene that night, with significant changes in pressure in the pipeline. Yet the companies did not notify the authorities, Chang said.

The supplier said it had initially shut off the propene pump when it noticed irregularities several hours before the blasts, but had resumed delivery on LCY's request. "Our preliminary judgment is that it is that stretch of line that had the problem," the supplier's assistant manager, Lin Kuo-chung, told local television channel FTV News.

LCY Chemical Corp. said it would cooperate with the investigation. "Our priority is to figure out the truth and responsibility," company spokeswoman Pan Lee-lin told a news conference.

Some local residents questioned the way the authorities handled the leak and subsequent blasts that left a 2-square-kilometer (1-square-mile) trail of destruction. One resident told television channel TVBS that five minutes before the explosions, the authorities told them: "Everything is under control. You can go home and sleep."

The blasts also damaged rows of shops and low-rise apartments. Tens of thousands of people lost utilities in the disaster zone, but a deputy economic affairs minister said Saturday that water and power would be restored within five days.

Industrial-use pipelines run through Kaohsiung's residential neighborhoods because industry preceded the construction of houses, said city spokesman Ting Yun-kung. Kaohsiung contains much of Taiwan's heavy industry, especially petrochemicals, and the explosions were the city's worst in 16 years.

The disaster was Taiwan's second in just over a week, following the July 23 crash of a TransAsia Airways prop jet on the island of Penghu that killed 48 people and injured 10.

___

Associated Press writer Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed to this report.

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GM boosted June sales with discounts to dealers

As General Motors prepares to report monthly sales results on Friday, a look its numbers from June show just how intent the company is on keeping new-car sales on the rise during a record spate of safety recalls.

The Detroit automaker has recalled nearly 30 million cars and trucks this year, including some models that had barely rolled off the assembly line. Yet sales have been resilient, up 2.5 percent through the first six months of the year.

In mid-June, however, the automaker was headed for a year-over-year monthly sales decline, according to data compiled by automotive research firms. Then, on June 20, GM asked dealers to buy more cars, and it threw in another $1,000 in discounts per vehicle, five dealership representatives told The Associated Press. The company finished the month with a 1 percent gain.

The dealers said they were asked to buy the cars for a rental program, one that provides loaner cars for people whose vehicles are being serviced. When they buy the cars for the program, GM counts them as a retail sale. It's a longstanding practice used by nearly all automakers to boost sales results.

At GM, though, the incentive was unusually generous and came as GM executives try to steer the company through the worst safety crisis in its history, including the recall of 2.6 million small cars with defective ignition switches tied to at least 13 deaths. The company has allayed investor fears by saying that recalls have actually helped sales by bringing in customers who see vastly improved new models.

"Clearly the timing seems a little suspicious," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for the Cars.com website who predicted on June 22 that GM sales would be down 7 percent for the month, compared with a 2 percent decline for the rest of the industry. "Retail numbers at that point did not show any kind of strength." The industry eked out a 1.2 percent gain for the month.

GM spokesman Jim Cain confirmed that offers were made to dealers, but wouldn't give details. He said GM needed to make more models available as loaners for those whose cars are being recalled. As part of its small-car ignition switch recall, GM is offering free loaners to owners. But dealers have run short of cars for the program and have been forced to rely on rental car companies, which can loan out cars from competing brands.

GM has issued more than 83,000 loaner cars since the recalls started in February. But CEO Mary Barra said last week that it had fixed about 550,000 of the small cars, so the need for loaners was waning.

The automaker won't say how many vehicles were purchased by dealers in June. After about two months, the loaners are resold as used cars because of the miles on them, but buyers get low-interest financing and other incentives offered to new-car buyers, said the dealers, most of whom asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the company.

"There was a heavy push on an incentive program that increased sales," one dealer said. "If they don't have the volume they want, they'll come out to the dealers."

GM's U.S. sales rose 2.5 percent in the first half of the year, lagging the overall market's 4.3 percent gain.

Some dealers downplayed the importance of the discounts. Mike Marone, chief operating officer of AutoNation Inc., the country's largest dealership chain, said AutoNation bought a small number of discounted vehicles for its loaner fleet. But he didn't think the sales had a large impact on GM's numbers.

"I don't think it's as big a deal as it may sound," he said.

Marone and other dealers said other automakers also offer similar late-month discounts in order to juice sales and improve monthly numbers. Some make the offers every few months.

Some dealers worry that if GM continues to make similar end-of-the-month offers, the influx of used cars into the market will hurt resale values and new-car sales.

GM's Cain said that even without the sales to dealers, GM would have beaten analysts' sales expectations in June. Before the month ended, many analysts predicted GM sales would fall at least 6 percent. The loaner program, he said, has helped boost GM's reputation for customer service.

"That has been very important during the recalls that we have had, to be able to put customers into new GM vehicles and not have to force people into a Ford Focus," Cain said.

Sales at GM and the rest of the industry are expected to improve in July. Edmunds.com expects an 11.1 percent increase in total sales, with GM up 10.6 percent. When all the numbers are in late Friday, it may wind up being the industry's best July in eight years, Edmunds predicted.

GM's stock price has dropped nearly 16 percent since the start of the year. It had been trading around $37 recently, but began falling last week as GM announced that recall costs had dramatically cut into earnings. The shares closed Thursday at $33.82.

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Whole Foods lowers sales projections; shares slip

After a series of disappointing earnings reports, executives for Whole Foods Market hoped Wednesday's quarterly numbers would win back favor from investors.

But while the Austin, Texas-based natural foods grocer did beat some Wall Street expectations for its fiscal third quarter, the company also missed on its same-store sales projections and lowered its sales forecast for the rest of the year.

The combination sent Whole Foods' stock downward in after-hours trading. Shares fell as much as 7 percent shortly after the earnings report, but the stock stabilized closer to the $37.94 mark, down $1.17, or 3 percent from Wednesday's close.

Whole Foods has grown into one of Austin's highest-profile companies. The retailer has 388 stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe and has about 2,800 employees in Central Texas and 84,000 worldwide. The company reported quarterly revenue of $3.4 billion, a record total that was a 10 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago and above Wall Street expectations. The company had earnings per share of 41 cents, above 38 cents reported during the same quarter a year ago and above expectations of 39 cents per share.

However, the retailer posted lower same-store sales growth, a key metric closely watched by Wall Street. Same store sales rose 3.9 percent for the third quarter, which was well below the company's projections of 5 percent to 5.5 percent. The retailer also cut its future outlook for same-store sales.

The slowdown, said co-CEO Walter Robb, was a result of a number of factors, including cutting prices and new Whole Foods stores dragging on older locations.

It "reflects continued headwinds from our value efforts, cannibalization, competition and the economy," Robb told analysts and investors in a conference call following the earnings release.

After years as the leader in natural foods, Whole Foods has seen traditional supermarkets, big-box stores and online retailers step up their organic and natural offerings.

The retailer laid out several new initiatives to combat its growing landscape of competitors. Those include a new delivery and pickup service in at least a dozen major markets, an online subscription grocery service, the company's first national advertising campaign this fall and plans to "refresh" some of its older stores.

Robb said the retailer's business model continues to show positive signs, with "industry-leading" sales per gross foot, healthy returns and strong operating cash flow. Whole Foods has also seen more signs of stability in sales trend, Robb said.

Ahead of Wednesday's earnings report, investors had been hopeful, as Whole Foods stock closed up up $1.43, or 3.8 percent to $39.11. The stock also saw heavy trading, with 15.6 million shares trading hands, more than twice the company's average volume.

After it reported disappointing second quarter earnings in May, Whole Foods shares had taken a beating, falling to a more than two-year low. Before the May earnings report, the stock's 52-week low was $45.43.

During a testy May conference call with analysts, Robb and co-CEO and co-founder John Mackey faced questions over what the retailer was doing to combat increasing competition. Analysts said it was time to detail a more specific plan to fight competitors than just one focused on growth.

On Wednesday, Robb said with new initiatives in hand, including price cuts and competitive price matches, Whole Foods will be looking at robust growth over the long term.

"While the current environment is very dynamic and competitive, we are managing and growing our business for long term," Robb said. "We are not suggesting a race to the bottom, but rather a thoughtful, strategic, surgical approach to improve our relative value positioning."

———

©2014 Austin American-Statesman, Texas. Distributed by MCT Information Services

Visit Austin American-Statesman, Texas at www.statesman.com

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States remind Market Basket of workers' rights

BOSTON — Massachusetts and New Hampshire officials are telling the Market Basket supermarket chain they'll be looking out for the legal rights of any workers fired in a protest over the family-owned company's leadership.

Attorneys General Martha Coakley and Joseph Foster also urged the company Thursday to consider its impact on other businesses in the region, where it employs about 25,000 and has 71 stores.

Co-CEOs Felicia Thornton and Jim Gooch said they "hope sincerely" not to fire anyone and they'll follow the law. They said Wednesday workers off the job demanding the return of fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas must return by Monday.

Demoulas' supporters have held protest rallies and shut down deliveries to stores.

The company's board is evaluating buyout offers, including one from Demoulas. He was fired by the board which is controlled by his cousin.

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Dow has worst drop since February: What happened?

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 317 points on Thursday, wiping out its gain for the year. It was the biggest drop since February and gave the index a loss for July after five straight months of gains. Here are some questions and answers about the sell-off and what might come next.

Q: Why did the stock market fall?

A: A number of worries have been building for investors in recent weeks and several of them came together on Thursday. That prompted people to dump stocks, breaking several months of calm in the market. A number of large U.S. companies reported poor quarterly results or forecasts, including Whole Foods Market and Exxon Mobil. Tensions are escalating between Russia and the West, threatening Europe's economy and energy needs, and the Federal Reserve is getting closer to ending its powerful economic stimulus program. Also, the market has gone for an unusually long time without a significant pullback.

Q: How bad was it?

A: The Dow, an index of 30 large U.S. stocks, had its worst day in almost six months. The Standard & Poor's 500, a broader measure of the market and the benchmark for many index funds, lost 2 percent, its worst one-day decline since April. The S&P 500 index is still up 4.5 percent for the year and closed at a record high just one week ago. The Dow is slightly negative for the year.

Q: Does this mean the stock rally is over?

A: Not necessarily. Company earnings, one of the most important drivers of stock prices, are still at record levels and are expected to grow by 8.6 percent in the second quarter, according to S&P Capital IQ. That compares to growth of 4.9 percent in the same period a year ago and 3.4 percent growth in the first three months of this year. Also, the market has bounced back from other big drops this year. The S&P 500 slumped 3.6 percent in January but rose steadily for five months after that.

Q: What comes next?

A: The next order of business for investors is the monthly jobs report coming out Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Investors will be looking to see if U.S. employers are adding enough jobs to suggest that the economy is picking up momentum. They'll also be looking for signs that wages are growing, which might suggest that the Federal Reserve could move sooner than expected to raise interest rates in order to stave off inflation. Stock investors don't like higher interest rates because it makes it more expensive for companies to borrow money and invest in their business.

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US employers add 209K jobs, rate rises to 6.2 pct.

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers extended their solid hiring into July by adding 209,000 jobs. It was the sixth straight month of job growth above 200,000, evidence that businesses are gradually shedding the caution that had marked the 5-year-old recovery.

Still, July's gain was less than in the previous three months and probably wasn't strong enough to intensify fears that the Federal Reserve will soon raise interest rates to curb inflation.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2 percent from 6.1 percent as more Americans started looking for work. Most didn't find jobs, but the increase suggests that they're more optimistic about their prospects. The jobless aren't counted as unemployed unless they're actively seeking work.

Average job gains over the past six months reached 244,000 in July, the best such average in eight years.

The pickup in hiring has yet to translate into larger paychecks for most Americans, a key factor that has hobbled the recovery. In July, average hourly earnings ticked up just a penny to $24.45. That's just 2 percent higher than it was 12 months earlier and is slightly below current inflation of 2.1 percent. In a healthy economy, wages before inflation would rise 3.5 percent to 4 percent annually.

Weak pay gains are restraining the housing market, usually a key driver of growth. A measure of signed contracts to buy homes slipped in June, the National Association of Realtors said this week. That suggests that home sales will decline in coming months.

Still, Friday's report echoes other data that point to an economy picking up speed. Growth accelerated during the April-June quarter, the government said Wednesday, after contracting sharply in the first three months of the year. Last quarter's bounce-back assuaged fears that growth was too weak to support this year's rapid hiring.

And on Friday, the government said consumer spending and income picked up in June.

Investors remain anxious about whether the broad economic gains will lead the Fed to raise its benchmark short-term rate sooner than expected. Such fears likely contributed to Thursday's 317-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average — its worst day since February.

In addition to reporting July's solid gain, the government on Friday revised up its estimate of the job increases in May and June by a combined 15,000.

Higher-paying jobs showed strong increases in July. Manufacturing added 28,000 jobs, the most in eight months. Construction added 22,000 and financial services 7,000, its fourth straight gain.

In the April-June quarter, the economy expanded at a seasonally adjusted 4 percent annual rate after a steep 2.1 percent contraction in the first quarter. Americans stepped up their spending, particularly on autos, furniture and other big-ticket items. Businesses also spent more on plants, office buildings and equipment.

Americans are also gradually gaining confidence in the economy, which means spending could accelerate in coming months. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index jumped to its highest level in nearly seven years in July.

___

Contact Chris Rugaber on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

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Sony lifts first quarter profits, but estimates $488 million loss for year

TOKYO -- Troubled electronics giant Sony has flummoxed nay-saying analysts with a rise in six-fold increase in net income in the three months to June of JPY26.8 billion ($261 million).

For the April-June period total sales advanced by 6% to $17.9 billion and the company also recorded a JPY34.3 billion operating profit rise year-on-year, to 69.8 billion yen ($691 million). which it attributed to stronger earnings in the Games & Network Services division.

But the Japanese giant said that it continued to forecast a net loss of JPY50 billion ($488 million) for the full year.

Sony has been aggressively restructuring, selling off its Vaio PC business, hiving off its loss-making TV division into a separate, wholly owned company and unloading company real estate.

The 'pictures division,' which Sony has been under pressure to sell and where there has recently been a spate of high profile executive exits, recorded an operating profit of JPY7.8 billion ($76 million), more than double the 3.7 billion yen ($36 million) reported in the first quarter of FY2013. Sony cited the strong worldwide gross of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and "22 Jump Street" and said the result was flattered by comparison with a quarter which included the theatrical under-performance of "After Earth."

The Games & Network Services segment squeezed out an operating profit of JPY4.3 billion ($42 million), an improvement compared with the JPY16.4 billion ($159 million) loss recorded in Q1 of last year. Strong sales of PlayStation 4 consoles, as well as rising revenues from game-related network sales nearly doubled sales year-on to JPY258 billion ($2.5 billion).

The key Home Entertainment & Sound segment, which includes television set manufacturing, reported a gain in operating profit, from JPY3.4 billion ($33 million) to JPY7.7 billion ($75 million) year-on. Interest in World Cup soccer games helped boost TV sales 10% year-on to JPY205 billion ($2.03 billion).

The Mobile Communications division, which has been targeted as a future profit center, ended the quarter with an operating loss of JPY2.7 billion ($26 million), down from a profit of JPY12.6 billion ($122 million) the previous first quarter. Sony blamed the slide on higher marketing and R&D expenses, as well as other factors.

In May Sony predicted that it would earn $254 million from sales of 50 million smartphones in the current fiscal year, compared with sales of $39.1 million in FY 2013. It now sees a slippage in annual sales, especially in emerging markets, however, and operating profit for the segment is expected to total zero.

Currency movements also boosted the group's top revenue line by 3% when expressed in Japanese Yen.

For the full year the group left unchanged its forecast for the pictures division at revenues of JPY880 billion (US$8.6 billion), with operating income of JPY65 billion (US$635 million). In 2013-2014 the division delivered revenues of JPY830 billion and income of JPY51.6 billion.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Chili Pepper Chad Smith picks up Venice pied-a-terre

• BUYER: Chad Smith
• LOCATION: Venice, CA
• PRICE: $2,755,000
• SIZE: 2,800 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMA'S NOTES: Several of the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been in the mood to change up their residential property portfolios lately. Last summer lead singer Anthony Kiedis coughed up $3.65 million for a bolthole just above the Sunset Strip and in early July of this year, bass player Michael "Flea" Balzary slapped a $6.8 million price tag on his historic hillside compound in L.A.'s Los Feliz area. Just a few weeks later drummer Chad Smith quietly shelled out $2,755,000 for a boxy and glassy newly constructed contemporary pied-a-terre on a prime, tree-lined street in still kinda gritty but decidedly chic and trendy Venice, CA,

Digital marketing materials describe the brand-spanking new and approximately 2,800-square-foot dwelling as a "prestigious eco-architectural statement" clad in horizontal white oak planks and set behind a high fence and locked gate. The three bedroom and 3.5 bathroom house has airy, open plan interiors spaces finished with honed concrete floors, modern art-hungry white walls and wide banks of aluminum-framed sliding glass doors and windows

.A double-sided fireplace wrapped in reclaimed wood adds a bit of earthiness to the otherwise clean lined living spaces that benefit hugely from high ceilings -- they're a head-roomy 11-feet everywhere but the dining area where they soar thrilling to 25 feet. A four-stool snack counter at a wide center island divides the dining area from the white-on-white kitchen that's decked as per usual with top-grade stainless steel appliances.

A floating, open-tread staircase makes a straight shot to the second floor where are two guest/family bedrooms each have a private bathroom and. A cable-railed bridge links the stair landing to the street-facing master bedroom that includes a walk-in closet and super-tall aluminum-framed glass doors that open to a small private terrace. The roomy attached master bath has a two-sink floating vanity, soaking tub set in front of a huge single-pane window with sky roof and palm tree view and a separate shower set behind a singe piece of frameless glass.

The high-fenced and tree-shaded front yard is the primary outdoor living and entertainment area and includes a bit of concrete terracing that wraps around the living room and give way to some newly installed sod. Over in the corner second concrete terrace has a built-in fire pit.

The uncommonly talented 50-something year rock-n-roller -- he's produced seven children with four women, including four with his current architect wife, Nancy Mack -- likely purchased the property as an in-town pied-a-terre as he owns a much more substantial spread in the celeb-approved Point Dume area of Malibu that he bought in May 2006 for $8.6 million. The Smith family's much-coveted street is chock-a-block with famous folk including kinky-haired saxophonist Kenny G, Julia Roberts and Danny Moder. Maybe or maybe not consciously uncoupling Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin recently shelled out $14 million for a both beloved and oft-heckled Bart Prince designed residence next door to the Smiths and aging magnificently supermodel Cindy Crawford and her handsome hubby Rande Gerber recently paid six million bucks for a dumpy fixer upper around the corner where they plan to build and sell and eco-minded LEED-certified house.

(C) 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Non-compete reform left out of final bill

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As US economy accelerates, Fed remains cautious

WASHINGTON — After a grim start to 2014, the U.S. economy has rebounded with vigor and should show renewed strength into next year.

That was the general view of analysts Wednesday after the government estimated that the economy grew at a fast 4 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter. Consumers, businesses and governments combined to fuel the expansion. The government also said growth was more robust last year than previously estimated.

Whether the healthier expansion will lead the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than expected is unclear. The Fed offered a mixed message on the economy Wednesday: Growth is strengthening, and the unemployment rate is steadily falling. Yet by some measures, it suggested, the job market remains subpar.

A statement the Fed issued after a two-day policy meeting signaled that it wants to see further improvement before it starts raising its key short-term interest rate. It offered no clearer hint of when it will raise that rate.

Instead, the Fed reiterated its plan to keep short-term rates low "for a considerable time" after ends its monthly bond purchases. The Fed said it will slow the pace of its purchases by another $10 billion to $25 billion a month. The purchases, which have been intended to keep long-term borrowing rates low, are set to end in October. Most economists think a rate increase is about a year away.

The economy sprang back to life last quarter after a dismal winter in which it shrank at a sharp 2.1 percent annual rate. The government upgraded that decline from a previous estimate of a 2.9 percent drop. But it was still the biggest contraction since early 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession.

Last quarter's bounce-back reinforced analysts' view that the economy's momentum is extending into the second half of the year, when they forecast annual growth of around 3 percent.

The government also updated its estimates of growth leading into this year. They show the economy expanded in the second half of 2013 at the fastest pace in a decade and more than previously estimated. The revised data also show that the economy grew faster in 2013 than previously estimated, though more slowly in 2011 and 2012 than earlier thought.

The second quarter's growth in the gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services — was the fastest since a 4.5 percent increase in July-September quarter of 2013.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said that given last quarter's rebound, he's boosting his estimate for growth this year to 2 percent, up from a previous 1.7 percent forecast. Ashworth said the economy's growth also supported his view that the Fed will be inclined to start raising rates early next year.

Ashworth is among a group of economists who think growing strength in the job market and the economy will prod the Fed to move faster to raise rates to make sure inflation doesn't get out of hand. Other economists have been predicting that the Fed would wait until mid-2015 to start raising rates.

The Fed revised the wording of its previous statement to note that while the unemployment rate has dropped steadily, the job market is still struggling in other ways. It didn't specify what it meant. But Chair Janet Yellen expressed concern to Congress this month about stagnant wage growth, many part-time workers who can't find full-time jobs and the proportion of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than six months.

The GDP report showed that one measure of inflation rose 2 percent last quarter, up from a 1.3 percent rise in the first quarter. The Fed's inflation target is 2 percent, and for two years the GDP measure of inflation has been running below that level. Low inflation has given the Fed leeway to focus on boosting growth to fight high unemployment.

In its statement, the Fed noted that inflation had risen closer to its 2 percent target. The statement said concerns that inflation would run persistently below the Fed's 2 percent target had "diminished somewhat." But it expressed no worries about the slight acceleration in prices.

The economy's sudden contraction in the first quarter coincided with a severe winter that disrupted activity across industries and kept consumers away from shopping malls and auto dealerships. Consumer spending slowed to an annual growth rate of 1.2 percent, the weakest in nearly three years.

Last quarter, consumer spending accelerated to a growth rate of 2.5 percent. Spending on durable goods such as autos surged at a 14 percent annual rate, the biggest quarterly gain since 2009. Analysts said that was an encouraging sign of consumers' growing willingness to buy high-cost items like cars.

"Better job growth, a rising stock market, falling gasoline prices — all those things are starting to resonate on Main Street," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.

Hoffman suggested that five straight months of job gains above 200,000 were buoying both consumer and business confidence. He predicted that the July jobs report, to be released Friday, would show job growth of around 225,000. Hoffman foresees growth of around 3 percent over the next year.

The government's revised estimates going back to 2011 show the economy expanded at an annual rate of 4.5 percent in last year's third quarter, up from a previous 4.1 percent estimate. The growth rate was 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, up from an earlier 2.6 percent estimate.

For 2013 as a whole, the government said the economy grew 2.2 percent, up from its earlier 1.9 percent estimate.

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US jobless aid applications rise to 302,000

WASHINGTON — More people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, but jobless claims remain at pre-recession levels.

Weekly applications for unemployment aid rose 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 302,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The prior week's claims were revised down to 279,000, the lowest since May 2000.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell 3,500 to 297,250. That's the lowest average since April 2006, more than a year before the Great Recession began at the end of 2007.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. When employers keep their workers, it suggests potential income gains, active hiring and confidence that the economy is growing.

Employers added 288,000 jobs in June, the fifth straight month of job gains above 200,000. That's the first such stretch since 1999, during the height of the dot-com boom. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008.

Economists forecast that the July employment report being released Friday will show that 225,000 jobs were added, according to a survey by the data firm FactSet. They forecast that the unemployment rate held at 6.1 percent in July.

Payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that private employers added 218,000 jobs in July, down from 281,000 in June.

Steady hiring gains have yet to lift wages by much. Wage growth has slightly outpaced inflation since the recession ended more than five years ago.

But more people with jobs increases the total number of paychecks, which could boost consumer spending and growth.

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US economy grew at strong 4 percent rate in spring

WASHINGTON — After a dismal winter, the U.S. economy sprang back to life in the April-June quarter, growing at a fast 4 percent annual rate on the strength of higher consumer and business spending, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The rebound followed a sharp 2.1 percent annualized drop in economic activity in the January-March quarter. That figure was revised up from a previous estimate of a 2.9 percent drop. But it was still the biggest contraction since early 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession.

Last quarter's rebound was broad-based, with consumers, businesses, the housing industry and state and local governments all combining to fuel growth. The robust expansion will reinforce analysts' view that the economy's momentum is extending into the second half of the year, when they forecast an annual growth rate of around 3 percent.

The second quarter's 4 percent growth in the gross domestic product — the economy's total output of goods and services — was the best showing since a 4.5 percent increase in July-September quarter of 2013.

The economy's sudden contraction in the first quarter of this year had resulted from several factors. A severe winter disrupted activity across many industries and kept consumers away from shopping malls and auto dealerships. Consumer spending slowed to an annual growth rate of just 1.2 percent, the weakest showing in nearly three years.

Last quarter, consumer spending, powered by pent-up demand, accelerated to a growth rate of 2.5 percent. Spending on durable goods such as autos surged at a 14 percent rate, the biggest quarterly increase since 2009.

Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity.

In the April-June quarter, business investment in new equipment jumped at a 7 percent rate after having fallen 1 percent in the first quarter. That setback had reflected the expiration of business tax breaks at the end of 2013. Those tax breaks led companies to boost equipment spending at the end of last year.

Businesses, optimistic about future demand, increased their stockpiling last quarter. The increase in inventories contributed two-fifths of the growth in the quarter after having subtracted 1 percentage point from first-quarter activity.

Housing, which had been falling for two straight quarters, rebounded in the spring, growing at a 7.5 percent annual rate.

Government spending also recovered after two consecutive declines. The strength came from state and local governments, which offset the seventh quarterly decline in federal government spending.

With the new report, the government also released its annual revisions to GDP data for the previous three years. Those revisions showed that growth was slightly faster in 2013 than previously thought, mainly because the second half of the year was healthier.

But the government said growth in 2011 and 2012 was slightly lower than previously estimated. The new figures showed growth of 2.2 percent in 2013, 2.3 percent in 2012 and 1.6 percent in 2011.

Many analysts think the economy is on the verge of an acceleration after subpar annual growth rates of just above 2 percent through the first five years of recovery from the Great Recession, which officially ended in June 2009.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said he thinks growth could accelerate to above 4 percent in 2015. He said he expects support from continued solid gains in hiring, which should translate into strength in consumer spending. Employers have added at least 200,000 jobs for five straight months — the best such stretch since the late 1990s tech boom.

"I think we are finally going to start seeing more wage growth and that should kick the economy into high gear by late 2015," Zandi said.

When the Federal Reserve ends a two-day meeting Wednesday, analysts think it will keep a key short-term rate at a record low near zero for the rest of this year and into 2015. The first rate increase is expected by mid-2015, after the economy and job market strengthen further.

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Survey: US companies add 218,000 jobs in July

WASHINGTON — A private survey shows that businesses hired at a healthy pace in July, though the job gains slowed from the previous month.

Payroll processer ADP says private employers added 218,000 jobs last month, down from 281,000 in June. It was the fourth straight month of job gains above 200,000, a healthy pace that usually is enough to lower the unemployment rate.

The figures suggest that the government's jobs report, to be released Friday, will also show a solid increase. But the ADP numbers cover only private businesses and often diverge from the government's more comprehensive report.

Economists forecast that the government's report will show that 235,000 jobs were added in July, while the unemployment rate stayed at 6.1 percent, according to a survey by FactSet.

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Britain to test driverless cars next year

LONDON — British officials says driverless cars will be tested on roads in as many as three cities in a trial program to begin in January

Officials said Wednesday the tests will last up to three years. Sensors and cameras will guide the cars.

The plan will include two types of driverless technology. One places a driver in the car who can take the controls if needed; another calls for a fully autonomous vehicle with no driver present.

Transport Minister Claire Perry said driverless cars could transform Britain's road network and improve safety and traffic flow while reducing carbon emissions.

The cities to test the system will be chosen in a competition.

Other countries including Japan and the United States are already developing driverless technology.

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Hyundai recalls 883K Sonatas to fix gear shifters

DETROIT — Hyundai is recalling its popular Sonata midsize sedan to fix problems with the gear shift levers.

The recall covers 883,000 cars from the 2011 through 2014 model years.

The Korean automaker says the automatic transmission shift cable can separate from the shift lever. If that happens, the lever may not show the correct gear, increasing the risk of a crash.

Also, if the driver stops the car and puts the transmission in "park," the car may still be in gear and could roll away, injuring drivers, passengers or bystanders, Hyundai said in documents posted Wednesday by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Other symptoms include an inability to start the car because it can't be shifted into park.

Hyundai has received 1,171 warranty claims about the problem, plus seven other reports with related symptoms. The documents don't say if there have been any crashes or injuries. The Sonatas being recalled were made from Dec. 11, 2009 through May 29, 2014.

The Sonata is Hyundai's second-best-selling car in the U.S. so far this year. First is the compact Elantra.

Hyundai will notify owners by letter between now and the end of September. Dealers will inspect the shift cables and repair the connection if needed.

Owners with questions can call Hyundai customer service at (800) 633-5151.

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As Fed meets, key issues likely to stay unanswered

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will likely end a policy meeting Wednesday with a lot of questions unanswered:

When will it start tightening its benchmark short-term interest rate to make sure future inflation remains under control? How will it do so? And when will the Fed start reducing its enormous investment holdings — a move that will put upward pressure on interest rates?

Chair Janet Yellen gave few hints about the answers to such issues when she testified to Congress this month. And most analysts don't think the central bank will fill in any of the blanks when it ends a two-day meeting with a brief policy statement. There will be no Yellen news conference this time.

One announcement that is expected is that the Fed will make a sixth $10 billion cut in its monthly bond purchases, which have been aimed at keeping long-term rates low.

A key reason is that the economy needs less help now. Hiring is solid, and, at 6.1 percent, the unemployment rate is on the cusp of a historically normal range. Manufacturing is strengthening. Consumers are voicing renewed confidence.

Still, the economy isn't back to full health.

Workers' pay remains flat. Turmoil overseas, from Ukraine to the Middle East, poses a potential threat. And as Yellen noted in her congressional appearance, long-term unemployment remains high and wage growth weak.

For that reason, the Fed is expected to reaffirm its plan to leave its key short-term rate at a record low near zero "for a considerable time" after it ends its bond purchases.

"There are so many uncertainties, both economic and political, that the Fed wants to leave plenty of wiggle room," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands.

The Fed will almost surely announce that it's reducing its monthly bond purchases from $35 billion to $25 billion. When the Fed started cutting the purchases in December, they stood at $85 billion a month.

The Fed intends to end its new purchases by October. By then, its investment portfolio will be nearing $4.5 trillion — five times its size before the financial crisis erupted in September 2008.

After the crisis struck, the Fed embarked on bond purchases to try to drive down long-term rates and help the economy recover from the Great Recession. Even after its new bond purchases end, the Fed has said it will maintain its existing holdings, which means it will continue to put downward pressure on rates.

The Fed has kept its target for short-term rates near zero since December 2008. Most economists think it will start raising rates by mid-2015, though some caution that the Fed could do so sooner if the economy keeps generating jobs at a robust pace. There have been five straight months of 200,000-plus job growth.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said he thinks chronically lagging pay growth, in particular, will stop the Fed from raising rates before mid-2015.

Besides discussing short-term rates, Fed officials this week are likely debating how to unwind their investment holdings. They face a delicate task in shrinking the portfolio to more normal levels without destabilizing markets. The Fed's bond purchases allowed it to inject money into the financial system, which wound up as reserves held by banks and helped keep loan rates low.

To reverse that process and raise borrowing rates, the Fed is considering a variety of tools. One would be to increase the interest it pays banks on excess reserves they keep at the Fed.

David Jones, author of a new book on the central bank's 100 year history, said any new exit details might not be revealed until the Fed releases the minutes of this week's meeting in three weeks. Those minutes, Jones said, "may be the most interesting thing to come out of the meeting."

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Pfizer's 2Q profit sinks 79 pct but tops forecasts

NEW YORK — Pfizer's second-quarter earnings plunged 79 percent from last year, when the world's second-largest drugmaker booked a business spinoff gain of more than $10 billion. The latest results still edged analyst expectations.

The New York company said Tuesday it earned $2.91 billion, or 45 cents per share, in the quarter. That compares with earnings of $14.1 billion, or $1.98 per share, last year. Adjusted earnings totaled 58 cents per share.

Analysts expected, on average, earnings of 57 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue slipped 2 percent to $12.77 billion, while analysts forecast $12.47 billion, on average.

Pfizer Inc. is best known for creating medicines for the masses, including the erectile dysfunction pill Viagra, the Prevnar vaccine against pneumonia and related infections, and the now-generic cholesterol fighter Lipitor, which was once the world's best-selling drug.

Chairman and CEO Ian Read has been streamlining Pfizer to reduce costs and free up money for research on disorders with limited treatments or in areas where the company has expertise. Over the last three years, Pfizer has divested assets outside its core business.

It sold its capsule-making operation and its nutrition business for a total of nearly $14 billion. Then it spun off its animal health business as a new company in June 2013.

That's when it divested its remaining 80 percent stake in the new company, called Zoetis Inc., receiving an after-tax gain of $10.6 billion.

Pfizer also booked a gain of $1.35 -billion in last year's quarter from a patent litigation settlement with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Among Pfizer's top selling drugs, global sales of the pain and fibromyalgia treatment Lyrica climbed 16 percent in this year's quarter to $1.32 billion, while revenue from its Prevnar family of vaccines rose 14 percent to $1.1 billion.

Restructuring and acquisition-related costs fell 56 percent this year for the drugmaker to $81 million from $183 million.

The drugmaker also once again reaffirmed its forecast for 2014 adjusted earnings of between $2.20 and $2.30 per share. Analysts expect $2.24 per share, on average.

In the latest quarter, British drugmaker AstraZeneca rejected a $119 billion buyout proposal from Pfizer, which would have amounted to the largest deal in the industry's history. Besides gaining access to AstraZeneca's drugs and pipeline, Pfizer wanted to move its legal headquarters to England to get a lower tax rate than it faces in the U.S.

Pfizer shares rose 16 cents to $30.26 in premarket trading Tuesday. The stock had slipped nearly 2 percent so far this year as of Monday's market close. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 7.1 percent.

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US home price gains slow for 6th straight month

WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices rose in May from a year earlier at the weakest pace in 15 months, as home sales remain modest.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 9.3 percent in May from 12 months earlier. That's down from 10.8 percent in the previous month and the smallest annual gain since February 2013.

Yearly price gains slowed in 18 of the 20 cities. They accelerated in Charlotte, N.C., and were flat in Tampa, Fla.

Existing home sales have picked up, rising to an eight-month high in June. But they are still 2.3 percent below last year's level. And an index of signed contracts dipped in June, suggesting sales will cool.

Home sales have been restrained by weak wage gains and tight credit, particularly for first time buyers.

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UBS sees profits rise, probed over trading system

GENEVA — Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, reported Tuesday a 15 percent rise in second-quarter profit, driven by its core wealth management business, and disclosed it was part of a group of financial companies being investigated over alternative trading systems called "dark pools."

UBS AG said its net profit for the April-June period rose to 792 million Swiss francs ($876 million) from 690 million francs in the comparable period in 2013.

The Zurich-based bank also said it had settled an investigation in Germany of charges that the bank aided German clients suspected of evading taxes. UBS made a payment of about 300 million euros ($403 million) to put the case to rest, one of a number that it and other Swiss banks have been facing from U.S. and other foreign tax authorities hunting down suspected tax cheats.

The bank said its second-quarter results reflect 120 million francs it booked in the German case.

Prosecutors in the German city of Bochum confirmed the settlement. They said they expect also to close proceedings against individual bank employees in exchange for fines, and that in one case they have sought a 250,000-euro fine.

UBS's quarterly financial statement said all of its business divisions and regions delivered strong second-quarter operating performances, and that it continued to build its capital reserves in keeping with global and Swiss rules.

"We delivered strong underlying results in a market environment that remained challenging for our clients and the industry," Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said.

Looking ahead, the bank said the outlook is clouded by challenges in Europe, where economic growth remains fragile and fiscal and monetary policy issues in the U.S., where the Federal Reserve is gradually tightening its stimulus taps. It also cited global geopolitical instability, with Western powers considering more sanctions on Russia and with fighting on the rise parts of the Middle East.

Other possible problems remain. In its report, UBS said it is "responding to inquiries" from U.S. regulators and the New York attorney general over the operation of its "dark pool," an alternative trading system.

Those include a 2 ½ year-old investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into features "including certain order types and disclosure practices that were discontinued two years ago," UBS said, adding that it is cooperating.

It said it also is among dozens of defendants, including trading exchanges and high-frequency trading firms, named in putative class-action suits pending in New York federal court.

Last month, New York's attorney general announced a securities fraud lawsuit against Britain's Barclays PLC, which he said misled large institutional investors and other clients by falsely telling them it was taking measures to protect them from predatory high-frequency traders.

UBS's German rival Deutsche Bank said in its own second-quarter report Tuesday that it had "received requests for information from certain regulatory authorities related to high frequency trading," and is cooperating. It said that it also had been named as a defendant in putative class-action complaints allegation violations of U.S. securities laws.

UBS shares slid 0.9 percent to 16.47 francs in Zurich trading.

____

Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.

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UPS 2Q profit drops, lowers outlook on spending

ATLANTA — UPS lowered its outlook for the year as it announced plans to spend more on technology and other enhancements to improve service during peak season.

UPS said it will spend $175 million on upgrades that include expanded operations on the day after Thanksgiving and sped-up deployment of software designed to help drivers find the quickest route to a destination.

During last year's holiday season, a big increase in online shopping and a crush of last-minute orders by shoppers who jumped on offers of free shipping caught UPS by surprise. The company was forced to hire extra workers to handle the rush, but some gifts still arrived late.

As a result of the boost to spending, UPS lowered its full-year outlook for adjusted earnings to $4.90 to $5 a share. It previously expected to earn around $5.05 a share. Shares fell $2.95, or 2.9 percent, to $99.71 in premarket trading.

The Atlanta-based company also said second-quarter profit declined to $454 million, or 49 cents per share, from $1.07 billion, or $1.13 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

UPS took a charge of $665 million for the transfer of post-retirement liabilities for certain Teamster employees to defined contribution health-care plans

Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $1.21 per share. The average per-share estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for profit of $1.24.

The company said revenue climbed 5.6 percent to $14.27 billion from $13.51 billion in the same quarter a year ago, and beat Wall Street forecasts. Analysts expected $14.07 billion, according to Zacks.

UPS said global package shipments rose 7.2 percent in the quarter, boosted by shipments of lightweight e-commerce packages in the U.S. and higher international export shipments. Revenue per package fell 2 percent, however, as customers continued to opt for lower-cost shipment methods.

United Parcel Service Inc. shares have fallen $2.42, or 2.3 percent, to $102.66 since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 7.1 percent. However, the stock has risen $15.85, or 18 percent, in the last 12 months.

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Reynolds American 2Q profit climbs 6.7 percent

WINSTON SALEM, N.C. — Reynolds American Inc. says that its profit rose by 6.7 percent in its second quarter, topping analysts' expectations.

The Winston Salem, North Carolina-based company said earnings increased to $492 million, or 92 cents per share, from $461 million, or 84 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 89 cents per share. The average per-share estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for profit of 87 cents.

The company reported revenue of $2.16 billion, down from $2.18 billion a year ago. Wall Street predicted $2.22 billion in revenue.

Reynolds American narrowed its 2014 adjusted earnings forecast to a range of $3.35 to $3.45 per share. Its previous outlook was $3.30 to $3.45 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $3.35 per share.

Reynolds American narrowed its 2014 adjusted earnings forecast to a range of $3.35 to $3.45 per share. Its previous outlook was for adjusted earnings between $3.30 and $3.45 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $3.35 per share.

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Sarah Palin launches online subscription channel

NEW YORK — Sarah Palin has started her own subscription-based online network.

The Sarah Palin Channel, which went live on Sunday, bills itself as a "direct connection" between the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate and her supporters, with "no need to please the powers-that-be," Palin says in a video mission statement on her channel's home page.

"Are you tired of the media filters?" she asks. "Well, I am. I always have been. So we're gonna do something about it."

"We'll talk about the issues that the mainstream media won't talk about," she adds.

Palin says she oversees all content posted to the channel. This will include her own political commentary. Other features for subscribers include the ability to submit questions to Palin and participate with her in online video chats.

Membership is set at $9.95 per month or $99.95 for a year.

Palin remains active elsewhere as a Fox News Channel contributor and reality-TV personality.

The Sarah Palin Channel is part of the TAPP video platform, which launched earlier this year.

___

Online:

https://sarahpalinchannel.com

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Car rates returning to levels before deregulation

BOSTON — Auto insurance rates that fell sharply after deregulation in Massachusetts are climbing again.

The Boston Globe (http://bit.ly/1rQTmdE ) reports that five years after the state began to allow insurers to set their own rates, the average premium was about the same as it was before the change.

According to figures from the state Division of Insurance, premiums dropped about 12 percent between 2007 and 2009 to a statewide average of $861, saving the average motorist about $122 per year.

By 2012, the average premium was back up to $974, only $9 less than what it was before deregulation. 2012 was the most recent year that statistics were available.

State officials say deregulation has helped consumers by offering more choice. The number of companies offering auto insurance in Massachusetts has nearly doubled.

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Farmers hurt by Market Basket dispute

METHUEN, Mass. — The family feud that has led to empty shelves at the Market Basket stores is having an impact on local farmers who normally supply produce to the regional supermarket chain.

Rich Bonanno, whose family operates Pleasant Valley Gardens in Methuen, estimates he's losing $2,000 a day due to the ongoing revolt by store workers and customer boycott.

Bonanno tells the Eagle Tribune (http://bit.ly/UFhpPx ) that while he's been able to unload produce to other buyers, he's only earning about half of what he would normally take in from Market Basket.

John Simone, owner of Riverside Farm in Methuen, says he normally sells about 95 percent his produce to Market Basket.

The chain is embroiled in a Demoulas family dispute featuring two cousins who have been at odds for decades.

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Dollar Tree buying Family Dollar for $8.5 billion

NEW YORK — Dollar Tree is buying rival discount store Family Dollar in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $8.5 billion.

Stockholders of Family Dollar Stores will receive $59.60 in cash and the equivalent of $14.90 in shares of Dollar Tree for each share they own. The companies put the value of the transaction at $74.50 per share, which is an approximately 23 percent premium to Family Dollar's Friday closing price of $60.66.

The companies put the enterprise value of the deal, including debt and other costs, at more than $9 billion.

Family Dollar stockholders will own somewhere between 12.7 percent and 15.1 percent of Dollar Tree's outstanding common shares at closing. Shares spiked more than 24 percent and were headed for an all-time high before the opening bell Monday.

Shares of Dollar Tree neared an all-time high.

Core customers for bargain stores and major retailers like Wal-Mart have been among the hardest hit by the recession and its aftermath because of job instability.

Family Dollar has struggled and has attempted to reinvigorate sales by lowering prices on almost 1,000 basic items. It's cut some jobs and shuttered underperforming stores.

The company had been conducting a strategic review since the winter, and investor Carl Icahn urged Family Dollar last month to put itself up for sale. Icahn has built up a stake in the company of more than 9 percent, according to regulatory filings.

Dollar Tree CEO Bob Sasser said Monday that the deal will give Dollar Tree more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. That is nearly three times as many stores as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., though Wal-Mart's square footage is still greater.

The companies did not say if any Dollar Tree or Family Dollar stores would be closed.

The combined Dollar Tree-Family Dollar chain will have sales of more than $18 billion and Sasser says that the transaction will create a more diverse company with an enhanced geographic reach.

Dollar Tree stores sell products for $1 or less, while Family Dollar's pricing is much broader.

Dollar Tree will continue to operate under the existing Dollar Tree, Deals, and Dollar Tree Canada store signs. It will keep the Family Dollar brand as well.

Family Dollar Chairman and CEO Howard Levine will still lead those stores and report to Sasser. He will join Dollar Tree's board.

Dollar Tree plans to finance the deal with available cash, bank debt and bonds.

The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close by early next year. It still needs approval from Family Dollar shareholders.

Shares of Family Dollar Stores Inc., based in Charlotte, North Carolina, surged $14.89 to $75.55 in premarket trading. The record high during regular trading is $75.29. Shares of Dollar Tree Inc., based in Chesapeake, Virginia, jumped 10 percent, or $5.50 to $59.72. The all-time high for that stock is $60.19.

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Virgin America files for IPO

NEW YORK — Virgin America's next destination is Wall Street.

The California-based airline filed on Monday for an initial public offering of shares.

Virgin America Inc., which operates out of Los Angeles and San Francisco, flies to 22 airports in the United States and Mexico and has a fleet of 53 planes. It is known for offering a variety of perks on its jets, including live TV, movies, leather seats and purple mood lighting.

The company, which was founded in 2004, licenses the Virgin brand name from the Virgin Group, founded by businessman Sir Richard Branson. The Virgin Group's parent company, VX Holdings, has a 22.1 percent stake in Virgin America, the company said it in its filing.

Virgin America posted its first annual profit last year, earning $10.1 million. It had revenue of $1.42 billion in 2013, up 6.9 percent from $1.33 billion the year before.

For the purpose of the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it could raise as much as $115 million, but that number is likely to change.

The company, which has its headquarters in Burlingame, California, did not say when it expects the IPO to happen, how many shares it plans to offer, how much each share will cost or which exchange they will trade on.

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Tire pressure sensors, aerosol inflators don’t mix

Last week I had a flat tire on my 2013 Buick Encore with only 4,500 miles on it. I got out my can of tire inflator and when I read the directions it said it could not be used on tires with pressure sensors in them. Is it because it would ruin the transmitter or because the sealant could not get into the tire? Could you use it in a real emergency? When I took the car to the dealer after putting on the spare, they said it was repairable and did so. I was told I was lucky because on all-wheel-drive vehicles you have to change all of the tires at the same time. I have never heard of this before — can you explain?

The primary ingredients in most emergency tire inflator/"fix-a-flat" aerosol products are a liquefied propellant like non-flammable HFC-134a — the refrigerant used in air conditioning systems — and a latex polymer to seal the inside of the tire. Some earlier products utilized flammable propellants, which created a danger for the service personnel repairing the tires.

The reason these products are not recommended for use in tires fitted with tire pressure sensors (TPS) is that the latex sealer may coat and interfere with the signal transmitted from the TPS, although this potential issue is still being hotly debated. What is absolutely true is that the latex sealer will have to be thoroughly cleaned from the inside of the tire, wheel and TPS. In addition, there is a potential issue with corrosion and delamination of chrome from the inside surfaces of a chrome alloy wheel.

Regardless, it is important to remember that these products are, at best, a very short-term, temporary "fix." The tire must be cleaned and repaired — if possible — at the earliest possible time.

Should you use an aerosol tire inflator in an "emergency" situation such as being stopped in a dangerous scenario or situation where taking the time to mount the spare tire would add to the risk? I would. If the fix-a-flat product will inflate and maintain enough tire pressure to allow me to drive to a safe location, I would certainly use it.

But I'd make absolutely sure to tell the service agency that you used a tire inflator and have the tire repaired or replaced as soon as possible.

The reason for suggesting that all four tires must be replaced at the same time is because four-wheel or all-wheel-drive vehicles must have all four tires with the same rolling circumference or potential damage to the drivetrain can occur. As long as the single replacement tire is virtually the same rolling circumference as the other three tires, no problem.

I have a '96 Chrysler Concorde with 94,000 miles. The needle on the gas gauge is not functioning right. At times it is normal, but at other times the warning light goes on and the needle fluctuates. Is this a big job to repair? I can keep track of the mileage with the odometer so I don't run out of gas.

The position of the needle on the gas gauge of your vehicle is controlled by the body control module (BCM). The BCM receives a signal from the variable resistor in the sending unit in the fuel tank, compares this with the fuel tank ground and moves the needle to the correct position on the gauge.

The intermittent issue with your gauge may well be the variable resistor/sending unit in the fuel tank, which is a significant repair, or maybe just a poor ground for the variable resistor which is located in the left kick panel. With the age of the vehicle, I'd make sure this ground connection wasn't the problem first.

Also, remember that the LED light in the gauge will also illuminate if engine temperatures reach the 240-260-degree range.

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 paul brand@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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Shaw’s seizing opportunity to change impressions

Shaw's Supermarkets is getting an unexpected chance to showcase the progress of turnaround efforts initiated since new owners took over the West Bridgewater-based chain last year.

It's among the regional grocery chains benefiting from the turmoil at Market Basket that has left shelves bare at the Tewksbury company's 71 stores and boycotting customers shopping elsewhere.

A Cerberus Capital Management-led investor group acquired Shaw's — often criticized by customers in the past for its high prices — from Supervalu Inc. last year as part of a larger $3.3 billion deal.

"They've been running those stores better, including better pricing and promotions than when it was owned by Supervalu," said grocery analyst Andrew Wolf of BB&T Capital Markets in Boston. "Most shoppers don't know that because they haven't been to Shaw's in a long time. This action is going to force a certain amount of people to go to Shaw's, and they're going to discover, 'Hey, it's a little better than I remember.' "

Customers boycotting Market Basket — in solidarity with an employee push to pressure its board to reinstate fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas — have been taping their grocery receipts from competing supermarkets on Market Basket doors.

"We've definitely seen an up-tick in the number of customers," Shaw's spokesman Jeff Gulko said. "It started initially the tail-end of last week, but the first real noticeable bump-up was Monday going into Tuesday, and it's remained since. (Our) 18,500 associates are working around the clock to make sure that we have the products on our shelves that folks come to get — whether they're our shoppers or folks that are coming to our stores for the first time."

The company's two distribution centers, in Methuen and Maine, have adjusted, adding shipments and trucks, he said.

Hannaford, Stop & Shop and Wegmans declined comment on any business boost that they're seeing as a result of Market Basket's employee uprising.

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BuzzFeed reporter fired in wake of plagiarism allegations

BuzzFeed has dismissed a journalist after a social media outcry sparked a review of his work, and editors discovered at least 41 of his articles contained instances of plagiarism.

In a statement posted Friday, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith said dozens of articles penned by reporter Benny Johnson contained "instances of sentences or phrases copied word for word other sites."

"We owe you, our readers, an apology. This plagiarism is a breach of our fundamental responsibility to be honest with you — in this case, about who wrote the words on our site," Smith wrote. "Plagiarism, much less copying unchecked facts from Wikipedia or other sources, is an act of disrespect to the reader. We are deeply embarrassed and sorry to have misled you."

The review started after a series of articles on the blog Our Bad Media uncovered more than a dozen instances in which Johnson appeared to have copied and pasted sentences from other news outlets.

BuzzFeed also published a list of articles by Johnson, who largely wrote about politics, that contained instances of uncredited content taken from other sources.

They included a story explaining the Egyptian Revolution by way of images from the film "Jurassic Park," and a story about famous manhunts, including the pursuit of former Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner in 2013.

Information was copied directly from Wikipedia, The New York Times, Associated Press, The New Yorker and the autobiography of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, according to editors' notes accompanying the articles in question.

Johnson posted an apology on his Twitter account on Saturday.

"To the writers who were not properly attributed and anyone who ever read my byline, I am sincerely sorry," the tweet read.

A spokeswoman for BuzzFeed told the Los Angeles Times that Johnson began working for the web site in 2013, but declined to say if the plagiarism incident would alter the web site's editorial standards in any way.

Launched in 2006, BuzzFeed is best known for its popular "listicles," articles that often contain short bursts of tongue-in-cheek text accompanied by pictures, gifs, or memes that outline a particular topic. An article titled "28 Things That Are More Useful Than Mascara" ran near the top of the page Saturday afternoon.

But the web site began hiring more established journalists in recent years, including Smith, a longtime political columnist who previously wrote for Politico. Earlier this week, the web site published a deeply researched and lengthy feature about the culture of TMZ and its founder, Harvey Levin.

Smith acknowledged BuzzFeed's humble beginnings in the statement, but said as the web site transforms into a more serious news outlet, it must hold its staff's work to a higher threshold.

"Today, we are one of the largest news and entertainment sites on the web. On the journalistic side, we have scores of aggressive reporters around the United States and the world, holding the people we cover to high standards," Smith wrote. "We must — and we will — hold ourselves to the same high standards."

Donna Shaw, coordinator of the journalism program at The College of New Jersey and a former longtime reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, said she believes the fact that Johnson was caught highlights one of the positives of the era of online journalism.

"This is what comes of living in an age when not only everybody can be a journalist, but everybody can be an editor," Shaw said. "When I was a young journalist, it was very difficult to get caught."

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©2014 Los Angeles Times

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Helping veterans connect to companies

A coalition of Bay State companies, advocates and veterans is aiming to help vets translate skills they already have to the offices of tech companies.

"The goal is to help employers connect more effectively with a growing number of veterans who are reentering the workforce," said Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council and one of the leaders of New England Tech Vets. "No matter what a veteran did in the military, there is an equitable civilian skill."

The military has long been on the forefront of emerging technologies, so many vets have technical skills from flying drones, or operating sophisticated weapons.

And as the country's wars continue to wind down, roughly 1 million servicemen and women will leave active duty and enter the workforce, according to some estimates, but the unemployment rate for veterans remains high. Overall, the rate is 6.6 percent for vets of all wars — but 9 percent for veterans of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Major Bob Kinder, an Army Ranger who served on active duty for 20 years, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, said it took him a long time to find a job.

"It's not a piece of cake," Kinder said. "I have finally landed in a job just this week. It took me nine months."

He said the transition back to civilian life is hard for many vets, and a job can make a world of difference — far beyond a paycheck.

"They're leaving a very insular, cohesive society with a unique culture," he said. "One of the things to help form a community is a good job. It gives them a sense of purpose."

Kinder now works for G2 Capital Advisors.

One of the challenges many vets face is the struggle of describing the skills they have developed in the military, said Susan Fallon, who helps run the Tech Vets program for job site Monster.com.

"People out here in the business community, they speak a different language," Kinder agreed.

To address that, Tech Vets automatically converts a military job title to incorporate its standard requirements — which are often valuable in the civilian workforce. For example, an "infantryman" entry will automatically include skills such as advanced first aid and knowledge of blueprints and technical diagrams.

"An individual may not even know they have (certain) skills, but they've been doing that their whole career," said Ted Wadsworth, also of Monster.com.

Then there are the character attributes that employers may find even more valuable in a new employee: for many, a military background translates to a strong work ethic and discipline.

"Those intangibles," Kinder said, "are much more difficult to train."

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Startup’s videos find suitable employees

A few years ago, when Rob Hunter owned ice cream stores and one of his greatest challenges was finding good employees, he had an epiphany one day when a girl whose only experience was babysitting and playing soccer dropped off a resume replete with spelling and grammatical errors.

"I would not have hired her based on her resume, but she had a wonderful personality and turned out to be the best employee I ever had," Hunter said. "I've hired 300 people in all and interviewed 600 to 700. And each time, I know pretty much in the first 30 seconds whether they're going to be a good fit."

What if, he thought, employers in retail — where an engaging and professional demeanor is all-important — could have a preview of an applicant's personality without having to wade through reams of applications and spend hours interviewing the wrong people?

Last March, Hunter and Evan Lodge — both Babson College MBA students at the time — founded HigherMe, a website and mobile app, expected to launch this fall, that allows job applicants to answer a series of questions posed by an employer, such as which hours they'd be available to work, what pay they'd expect, and what they would do if a customer were dissatisfied. Afterward, applicants have the option to make a 30-second video on their cellphone or webcam, explaining why they'd be the best person for the job.

HigherMe, a finalist in the MassChallenge startup accelerator and competition, then sends the employer a list of applicants ranked according to whether their answers matched the ones the employer was seeking, and the employer decides which applicants to interview,

For access to the company's database of candidates and screening software, Hunter, Lodge and their co-founder, Josh Stevens, expect to charge employers a monthly subscription fee of between $40 and $200 per store, depending on the number of applicants they want to contact and hire.

Alex Lowe, owner of Artis Coffee in Berkeley, Calif., and a former classmate of Hunter's who recently agreed to test the service, asked questions like, "What superhero would you be, and why?" ("If the applicant has fun with it, they'll probably be better at customer service," Lowe said.) He also asked, "Where do you see yourself in three months? In three years?"

"We want people who have a vision for their life, whether they'll be with us as a steppingstone or as a career," Lowe said. "It's given me a whole lot more depth into whether the person would be a cultural fit, rather than just: Can they make a cup of coffee?"

Brianna D'Amerosio, 24, of Methuen was looking for a waitressing job on Craigslist last week when she came across one at an Andover restaurant that asked applicants to use HigherMe to send in a video.

"Before I had a chance to answer any of the questions, I got an email saying they'd received my video and asking me to come in for an interview," D'Amerosio said. "For years, I've missed out on opportunities because there was nothing about me that really stood out on paper. So even if I don't get this job, I love the idea of being able to send someone something that will give them a glimpse into my personality."

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