61 affordable units for senior citizens 
planned in Brighton

Sixty-one new affordable apartments for senior citizens — including seven for formerly homeless seniors and five for older adults with lifelong disabilities — will be built in Brighton under plans by Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly.

The Brighton nonprofit's estimated $20 million to $22 million project at 132 Chestnut Hill Ave. would be adjacent to its existing 700-apartment campus.

The non-sectarian housing units, 56 of which would be one-bedrooms, would help chip away at JCHE's three- to five-year waiting list and Mayor Martin J. Walsh's goal to create 53,000 new housing units by 2030.

"There's just an enormous need, and the need is growing for affordable housing," JCHE CEO Amy Schectman said. "We were a logical organization to develop it because we can … make very efficient use of a small site."

JCHE's existing Brighton campus is at the back of the Chestnut Hill Avenue parcel. Residents of the new apartments would have access, via an enclosed passageway, to the campus' fitness and computer centers, library, auditorium, art room, meeting rooms and lounge areas.

JCHE was the lone respondent to a 2013 request for proposals by the BRA, which acquired the 0.3-acre site in 2004.

"We feel like this is a strong proposal that would serve an important need for the community in that it would provide a significant amount of affordable housing for seniors," BRA spokesman Nick Martin said.

The JCHE has been building affordable housing since 1965 and has close to 1,500 independent seniors at its eight buildings in Brighton, Newton and Framingham. It hopes to start the new Brighton project next spring and complete it in 2017.

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IKEA stops online Russian magazine due to gay propaganda law

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Ikea, the world's largest furniture retailer, says it is halting its online magazine in Russia out of fears it violates the country's law banning promotion of same-sex gay values to minors.

The Swedish retailer says its magazine IKEA Family Live "demonstrates various aspects of home life regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation."

In a Russian language statement, IKEA said "we understand that some material in our magazine can be considered as propaganda," adding it had decided "to stop the publication of the magazine in Russia."

The law passed in 2013 bans promotion of "non-traditional sexual relations" to people under the age of 18.

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Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

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Suffolk Law School behind anti-discrimination effort

Suffolk Law School's use of sting operations to crack down on housing discrimination in the Boston area was hailed by a top HUD official yesterday.

"They are very critical in the work they do to protect fair housing rights, help HUD advance our goals for fair and inclusive housing in the Boston area," HUD assistant secretary Gustavo Velasquez said, after speaking at Suffolk's Fair Housing Conference.

Using a HUD grant, Suffolk's Housing Discrimination Testing Program conducts undercover operations to expose housing discrimination. Posing as potential renters, one person will say they have children and another will not. If there are any differences in treatment, the case is referred to HUD.

"Nowadays it's very hard to prove discrimination in housing," Velasquez said. "Most of the discrimination happens in subtle ways, not the in-your-face discrimination we used to encounter."

Attorney General Maura Healey's office announced a $17,500 settlement with Coldwell Banker last month after a real-estate agent directed families with children away from landlords who did not want to pay to remove lead in their walls. Testing by Suffolk led to the judgment.

"The Housing Discrimination Testing Program has become an invaluable partner to the work of the Civil Rights Division in a relatively short period of time," Healey said at the conference.

In fiscal year 2014, HUD and HUD-funded agencies reported handling 200 new cases of housing discrimination in Massachusetts, and closed another 297 cases. Nearly half of the new cases were disability-related, while close to a quarter were racial discrimination.

Velasquez said his office also focuses on unintentional discrimination, including a recent town ordinance in Berlin, N.H., that gave landlords the right to evict anyone who had police come to their residence three times. The rule discriminated against domestic abuse victims, HUD said.

"This ordinance, neutral on its face, had a discriminatory effect," said Daniel Weaver, fair housing enforcement chief for HUD's Region 1, which includes Boston and New Hampshire. "A woman could have her home invaded by her previous boyfriend and decide she just can't call police."

The ordinance was changed to include an exception for domestic violence victims.

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Size isn’t everything for Bay Village unit

Curbed.com recently called Bay Village "Boston's Monaco: tiny, charming and pricey," and this $1.1 million condominium at 34 Melrose St. is a perfect example.

Tucked in a quiet corner of the city's smallest neighborhood, it is one of two duplexes that recently were renovated and converted from apartments in a brownstone that dates to 1899. And it's something of a rarity in that it has three exposures and abuts a tiny city park. It's also a five-minute walk to the Public Garden, Boston Common, Back Bay, the South End and the Theatre District.

"It is 100 percent turn-key, mint-condition new construction in a perfect location," said broker P.T. Vineburgh of Charlesgate Realty Group.

The parlor level has a wide-open layout, with recessed lighting and Jacobean stained oak hardwood floors. The living area has a coat closet and a fireplace set up for gas. The dining area looks out onto the park. And the chef's kitchen has granite countertops, five-burner gas cooking, a microwave, a dishwasher, custom white Shaker cabinets and, just outside, a tiny deck perfect for a grill. The parlor level also has a half bath.

The downstairs landing has more closet space. And the garden level has two bedrooms, one of which has a small, private patio; two full, marble baths; closets; and a washer and dryer.

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3 Kansas hospital patients die of ice cream-related illness

DALLAS — The deaths of three people who developed a foodborne illness linked to some Blue Bell ice cream products have prompted the Texas icon's first product recall in its 108-year history.

Five people, in all, developed listeriosis in Kansas after eating products from one production line at the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham, Texas, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA says listeria bacteria were found in samples of Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Country Cookies, Great Divide Bars, Sour Pop Green Apple Bars, Cotton Candy Bars, Scoops, Vanilla Stick Slices, Almond Bars and No Sugar Added Moo Bars.

Blue Bell says its regular Moo Bars were untainted, as were its half gallons, quarts, pints, cups, three-gallon ice cream and take-home frozen snack novelties.

According to a Friday statement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all five of the people sickened were receiving treatment for unrelated health issues at the same Kansas hospital before developing listeriosis, "a finding that strongly suggests their infections (with listeria bacteria) were acquired in the hospital," the CDC said.

Of those five, information was available from four on what foods they had eaten in the month before the infection. All four had consumed milkshakes made with a single-serving Blue Bell ice cream product called "Scoops" while in the hospital, the CDC said.

"Scoops," as well as the other suspect Blue Bell items, are mostly food service items and not produced for retail, said Paul Kruse, CEO of the Brenham creamery.

The CDC said the listeria isolated from specimens taken from four of the five patients at Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, Kansas, matched strains from Blue Bell products obtained this year in South Carolina and Texas.

The five patients became ill with listeriosis during their hospitalizations for unrelated causes between December 2013 and January 2015, said hospital spokeswoman Maria Loving.

"Via Christi was not aware of any listeria contamination in the Blue Bell Creameries ice cream products and immediately removed all Blue Bell Creameries products from all Via Christi locations once the potential contamination was discovered," Loving said in a statement Friday to The Associated Press.

Via Christi has eight hospitals in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Blue Bell handles all of its own distribution and customer service, Kruse said, so it moved to pull suspect products from shelves, as soon as it was alerted to the South Carolina contamination Feb. 13. Kruse did not suspect handling of those products after they left the Central Texas creamery.

"The only time it can be contaminated is at the time of production," he said. That contamination has been traced to a machine that extrudes the ice cream into forms and onto cookies, and that machine remains off line, he said.

All products now on store and institution shelves are safe, Kruse said.

However, "Contaminated ice cream products may still be in the freezers of consumers, institutions, and retailers, given that these products can have a shelf life of up to 2 years," the CDC statement said. CDC recommends that consumers do not eat products that Blue Bell Creameries removed from the market, and institutions and retailers should not serve or sell them.

Listeriosis is a life-threatening infection caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes, the CDC said. The disease primarily affects pregnant women and their newborns, older adults, and people with immune systems weakened by cancer, cancer treatments, or other serious conditions.

A person with listeriosis usually has fever and muscle aches, sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. Almost everyone who is diagnosed with listeriosis has invasive infection, meaning the bacteria spread from their intestines to the blood, causing bloodstream infection, or to the central nervous system, causing meningitis. Although people can sometimes develop listeriosis up to two months after eating contaminated food, symptoms usually start within several days. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics, the CDC said.

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Clayton contributed from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington also contributed to this report.

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New blood for Health Connector

Two new appointments to the Health Connector board yesterday signal a new focus on transparency as the board moves forward to smooth out kinks in the program's troubled website, according to an analyst.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," said Joshua Archambault, a senior fellow for the Pioneer Institute, "The philosophy of people being appointed is very different from positions they've taken in the past. I suspect we'll see a lot more transparency and a much more robust discussion at public meetings."

Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday named insurance executive Mark Gaunya and business consultant Rina Vertes as the newest members of the Connector board, after the recent purge of four members.

"Mark is one of the most knowledgeable insurance brokers in the state," Archambault said. "He's been a huge advocate for transparency."

The meeting yesterday also revealed a proposal from the board to cap the number of plans each carrier can list on the website in an attempt to simplify the selection process. Currently 11 carriers offer 126 qualified health plans. The goal is to get below 100 by limiting each carrier to 14 plans.

Massachusetts Association of Health Plans spokesman Eric Linzer said his group will work with the Connector "to make sure there's still a broad range of options that meet consumers' needs."

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Harsh winter hasn’t slowed home sales

Spring is typically a popular time to buy and sell homes, but local realtors say this season could be huge.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors released pending sales figures for February last week that could indicate a promising sales season.

"Historically, February is probably one of the slowest months in real estate for Realtors making contracts," said Corinne Fitzgerald, the association's president. "In this market, the buyer and seller markets were out despite the snow. Some will say, 'I'll take a month off,' but we didn't see it this year."

Pent-up demand — fewer homes listed, and a surplus of buyers — has altered the pattern. The Realtors' group found pending sales from last month were up 2.6 percent compared to last February.

"If there was such a thing as a crystal ball in real estate to know what the future is, that would be pending sales," said Fitzgerald, broker and owner of Fitzgerald Real Estate in Greenfield. "Basically, you are predicting the next couple of months of what is going to close. Not everyone is going to close, but the majority of them do."

At Hammond Residential Real Estate in Charlestown, 58 properties — single-family, condo and multi-family — had sales pending as of Wednesday, compared to 17 last year at the same time.

"That's a 241 percent increase," said Nora Moran, senior vice president and manager of Hammond's Charlestown office.

Low inventory has created a competitive buyer's market for the past two years, but other factors are contributing to the demand.

"Low interest rates continue to drive the buyer pool, and the high rental amounts to live here," said Tracy Shea, senior sales associate in Hammond's Charlestown office. "Job opportunities are coming into the city, and, coupled with the low inventory, you roll all that in and it's a perfect storm for sellers."

Last weekend, Shea hosted nearly 60 prospective buyers at 23 Prospect St. in Charlestown. By Monday, she had five offers, and the property was under agreement by Wednesday.

Anthony Giglio, a broker and owner of ReMax/Legacy in Woburn, said recent open houses have been packed. In Medford, one open house drew 69 interested parties and yielded 11 offers. All but one was over the asking price, Giglio said. Last weekend, a property in Tewksbury listed by Giglio's offce had 50 people visit and eight offers were received.

"If (the home) is in a decent location and priced right, you are going to have a feeding frenzy," Giglio said.

Realtor Kristin Buker of Keller Williams in Braintree has seen similar results.

"We've done better than we did last year," Buker said. "We are constantly increasing, even with the weather."

From last February to this year, Buker's office has seen a 14 percent increase in sales. In February, business was up 63.5 percent in her office; and year to date, January to February, was up 41 percent on closed sales volume.

"When (properties) come on, if they are priced properly and staged, they sell quickly," Buker said. "There are a lot more buyers out there right now."

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Charlie Baker task force to focus on chronic unemployment

Gov. Charlie Baker wants to find new ways of addressing chronic unemployment problems for minorities, veterans and people with disabilities, and is forming a task force of top state officials and advocates to come up with ideas.

"There are still far too many people out there who want and need a job to sustain their families and build a life," Gov. Charlie Baker said. "In many of these communities, unemployment is nearly double the state average, which is unacceptable."

The task force, led by Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker, will include other top Baker deputies as well as officials at local schools and nonprofits. Last month, Baker announced the creation of a task force focused on helping prospective employees get the skills that employers want.

"The key issue here is to make sure we identify the challenges these populations are facing (and) recommend strategies that can reduce barriers to employment," Baker said. "It's clear that doing what we've been doing doesn't really get us anywhere."

In 2014, the state's black population had an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent, while the Hispanic population saw an unemployment rate of 10.9 percent. The overall statewide rate was 5.8 percent.

Tito Jackson, a city councilor who represents Roxbury, said parts of his district have unemployment rates as high as four times the rest of the city.

"My hope is that the aim is really not about restating problems, the objective I believe here is to find solutions, solutions that actually end up with people getting a job and a career," Jackson said. "It's critical that we do an analysis of what is working and what isn't working."

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New life proposed for vacant Dorchester site

A Boston developer hopes to breathe new life into a vacant patch of Dorchester land with a new mixed-use residential and retail project.

"I think this is a game-changer in my neighborhood," said Catherine O'Neill, a real estate consultant and Savin Hill resident hired by Atlas Investment Group to handle the project's community and government relations. "This site has been dilapidated and decaying for over a decade. This is just going to pick up the entire neighborhood."

Atlas' plans call for 260 residential units, 40,000 square feet of retail space and a 400-space parking garage off Dorchester Avenue, according to a letter of intent filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority yesterday.

The targeted four acres — also bounded by Pleasant, Hancock and Greenmount streets — are part of an old industrial site that's just under a half-mile from the Savin Hill MBTA station.

Eileen Fenton, chairwoman of the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association's Planning Committee, said, "In general terms, I think people are very excited about the project — excited about something happening there and adding some vitality. That area at night tends to be a little quieter, so I think with ... people living there and businesses, it will be a great addition."

Atlas has been "smart" about getting the word out early to the community and has been listening to abutters' issues and responding accordingly, according to Fenton.

Atlas, which has the four parcels under agreement, has a phased development plan. The first phase, on the northern portion of the site, would include 64 two-bedroom condos in eight four-story buildings along Pleasant and Greemount streets, and 50 condos or rental units in a five-story building.

"The architectural design is kind of fluid," O'Neill said.

The second phase of development, on the southern portion of the site, would include two, six-story mixed-use buildings with 145 residential units along Hancock Street and Dorchester Avenue, with a 20,000-square-foot landscaped roof deck for tenants. Other planned amenities include a pool and fitness facility.

"Because the retail component may change, there's nothing completely etched in stone," O'Neill said. "We will be going back out to the community when we get retail interest."

The retail space would be on the ground floors of the two buildings. Phase-two development also would include the four-level garage.

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At odds with Google, US seeks new rule on computer access

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is at odds with Google and privacy groups over the government's push to make it easier to locate and hack into computers in criminal investigations, a simmering conflict with constitutional and policy implications.

Federal prosecutors say better tools are needed to track down computer users who hide their locations while committing crimes on the Internet. But civil libertarians fear that the proposal, now under consideration by a federal advisory committee, would grant the government expansive new powers to reach into computers across the country.

The proposal would change existing rules of criminal procedure that, with limited exceptions, permit judges to approve warrants for property searches only in the districts where they serve. The government says those rules are outdated in an era when child pornographers, drug traffickers and others can mask their whereabouts on computer networks that offer anonymity. That technology can impede or thwart efforts to pinpoint a suspect's geographic location.

The Justice Department wants the rules changed so that judges in a district where "activities related to a crime" have occurred could approve warrants to search computers, even those outside their districts. The government says that flexibility is needed for cases in which the government can't figure out the location of a computer and needs a warrant to access it remotely, and for investigations involving botnets — networks of computers infected with a virus that spill across judicial districts.

There are 94 federal judicial districts in the country — at least one in every state, and as many as four in some.

"There is a substantial public interest in catching and prosecuting criminals who use anonymizing technologies, but locating them can be impossible for law enforcement absent the ability to conduct a remote search of the criminal's computer," Justice Department lawyers wrote in one memo.

The advisory committee considering the rule change is meeting this month.

The proposal has generated fierce pushback from privacy organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which say the rule change could violate a constitutional requirement that search warrant applications be specific about the property to be searched. They also say the proposal is unclear about exactly what type of information could be accessed by the government, and fails to guarantee the privacy of non-suspects who might have had access to the same computer as the target, or of innocent people who may themselves be victims of a botnet.

"What procedural protections are going to be in place when you do these types of searches? How are they going to be limited?" asked Alan Butler, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Among the critics is Google, which says the proposal "raises a number of monumental and highly complex constitutional, legal and geopolitical concerns that should be left for Congress to decide."

Privacy groups are also concerned that the proposal would lead to more frequent use by the FBI of surveillance technology that can be installed remotely on a computer to help pinpoint its location. Such tactics caught public attention last year when FBI Director James Comey acknowledged that in 2007 an agent posing as an Associated Press reporter had sent to a bomb-threat suspect a link to an article that, once opened, revealed to investigators the computer's location and Internet address.

"To the extent that the government has been prevented from doing lots of these kinds of searches because they didn't necessarily have a judge to go to, this rule change raises the risk that the government will start using these dubious techniques with more frequency," said Nathan Freed Wessler, an ACLU lawyer specializing in privacy and technology.

The Justice Department says such concerns are unfounded. It says the proposal simply makes sure that investigators have a judge to go to for a warrant in cases where they can't find a computer, and that the proposal would not provide the government with new technological authorities that it doesn't already have.

It's hard to quantify the scope of the problem. Justice Department lawyers acknowledge that in past cases they have successfully argued for search warrants that extend outside a judge's district.

But in one case from 2013, a magistrate judge in Texas rejected a request to search a computer that the government said was being used to commit bank fraud but whose location was unknown. Prosecutors sought authority to install software on the machine that would have extracted records and location information. The judge, Stephen Smith, said he lacked the authority to approve the search for a computer "whose location could be anywhere on the planet" but said "there may well be a good reason to update the territorial limits of that rule in light of advancing computer search technology."

The proposal is before a criminal procedure advisory committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States — a panel made up of judges and lawyers — that meets twice a year, including this month. If approved, it will then be forwarded to the Supreme Court and ultimately to Congress, which does not have to approve it but can block it. It would take effect in December 2016.

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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

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