Logan runway gets debris detectors

Logan International Airport has installed a first-in-the nation automated runway debris detection system to prevent costly damage to planes and potentially save lives.

"Our No. 1 priority is safety on the airfield and anytime we can enhance that safety with technology that's what we strive for," said Ed Freni, director of aviation for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

The $1.7 million system uses small censors to scan the runway and automatically detect and alert inspectors of debris that could cause damage to planes, Christa Fornarotto, associate administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration said. The FAA paid for half the cost.

The foreign object debris (FOD) system, or 
FODetect, was developed by Israeli-based Xsight Systems, which has its U.S. headquarters in Boston.

There were 108 reports of debris in the past year at Logan, none resulting in serious accident or injury. Runway checks are manually conducted at least three times a day, and the new technology will enhance that, Freni said.

Logan installed the device on its busiest runway in September, and officials will evaluate its success to decide if they want to expand its use to all runways.

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Hyundai shifts gears, turns heads

While I was photographing this car a man approached and asked what kind of car I had. Told a 2014 Hyundai Equus, he let out a whoop, a friendly cuss and exclaimed "A Hyundai!" and left chuckling about how much better the car was than the 1990s rust-buckets.

The cackling has stopped about paying nearly $70,000 for the Equus since its introduction in 2011 because this is one beautifully made luxury automobile.

Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Cadillac certainly aren't laughing anymore. These high-end carmakers are being challenged by the Koreans, with their imported European designers who are now making great looking, well-engineered and elegant machines while muscling in on market share.

This full-sized Ultimate — one of two trim levels available — with rear-wheel drive and a 5-liter V8 mated to an 8-speed transmission, is quiet, powerful and full of tech goodies including sunroof, navigation, a Blue Link integrated infotainment system, wonderfully comfortable leather seats and a rocking sound system. The 429-horsepower engine purrs on the highway and effortlessly accelerates through traffic. High-test gas is recommended but the car will run well on lower octane with only the miles per gallon dropping slightly from the estimated 15 mpg in the city and 23 mpg on the highway.

This car could easily assimilate into a livery fleet as rear-seat passengers get to enjoy individually controlled DVD screens, personal climate control, reclining seats and, in one model, a refrigerator. The trunk is massive, providing ample storage.

The refreshed interior is well laid out and trimmed with wood, brushed aluminum and leather. The infotainment center is run by a mouse-like controller, similar to that found in a Lexus, but not as intuitive. It was the only part of the car that left me underwhelmed. The newly designed dash has electronic display gauges and the center stack is smartened up, in­cluding a square analog clock.

The Equus may not have true European sport sedan handling but the sedan has three driving settings: normal, sport and snow. Sport was my preferred style, adjusting the car height, suspension and shift points to make cornering and performance just a bit tighter. Maneuvering the big machine is made easier by the fore and aft bird's-eye cameras that play out on the 12-inch video screen.

The exterior lines are simple and elegant. Also reworked for 2014, the simple five-fin horizontal grill is framed by LED headlights and running lights and Hyundai-­added fog lamps.

The catch? It's all included in the luxury budget $68,900 price tag.

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FEMA unveiling new Hub flood zone maps

Suffolk County residents will get a first look today at new flood zone maps that have prompted outcry over rising federal flood insurance costs and a deluge of lawsuits across the nation.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency today is unveiling the new maps that Boston officials say are likely to affect about 10,200 residential units and as many as 3,600 businesses.

"As a city, we're committed to accurately identifying the risks from coastal storm flooding and finding ways to support those home and business owners who will be impacted by the remapping of the flood zones," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said.

The city is working on hiring a consultant with the Boston Redevelopment Authority to review the maps to ensure their accuracy and applicability, he said.

The earliest the city of Boston expects to adopt a final flood hazard map is December 2014.

Sticker shock from the new federal mandate has kicked off a rising tide of opposition nationwide.

"These new rates will devastate many families and businesses throughout Massachusetts," said state Attorney General Martha Coakley, who yesterday joined a lawsuit against the new rates in Mississippi federal court. "In setting these new flood insurance rates, FEMA not only failed to evaluate their economic impact, but also failed to gather all the data required to ensure the new rates are accurate."

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Townhouse condo has roomy charm

A townhouse condo in Cambridge's Inman Square that's priced at nearly $1 million shows just how much has changed in the once-inexpensive neighborhood known for its funky, independently owned shops and eateries, including the iconic S&S Restaurant.

A new three-bedroom attached townhouse at 15 Oak Street, one of three available units carved out of an expansive 1854 house and attached barn, was initially listed last week for a jaw-dropping $999,000, but has just been reduced to $969,000. For that money, you get three floors with 2,550 square feet of living space, oak floors throughout, custom maple cabinetry, Bosch appliances, a huge master bedroom suite and nicely done ceramic tile bathrooms.

The original house and rear barn have been gut renovated, with new clapboard siding, roof and windows and all-new systems added, including gas-fired heat and central air conditioning.

Unit 1, the front townhouse, has a covered front porch and opens into an oak-floored open living/dining area, with a picture window and a light/fan over the dining space. Off to one side is a sunny sitting room, and opposite is a half bathroom with gray ceramic tile. An adjacent formal dining room gets lots of sun but is cut off from the adjacent kitchen by a full wall.

Reachable through the living room, the well-
appointed kitchen features 25 custom maple cabinets and Absolute black granite counters. Appliances are all Bosch stainless-steel, including a side-by-side refrigerator, a dishwasher and a five-burner gas stove. Right off the kitchen is a good-sized pantry closet.

The three bedrooms on the second floor are reachable via a charming winding wood staircase with new custom-designed wrought-iron railings.

The oak-floored master bedroom is huge, with a row of four front-facing windows and recessed lighting. There's a large area suitable for a master closet and a smaller closet as well. The stylish en-suite master bathroom has striated ceramic-tile floors and walls for a glass-doored walk-in shower and an Absolute black 
granite-topped vanity.

There are two other decent-sized oak-floored bedrooms on this floor, along with a second stylish full bathroom with striated ceramic tile floors and walls surrounding a tub and shower. The vanity has a beige granite top. There's a closet in the hallway with a washer/dryer hookup, and the developer will throw in a washer and dryer on closing, says real estate agent Adam Day.

A winding staircase leads to two more finished, oak-floored rooms with windows on the third floor under the eaves. One room would make a great home office, while the other, with low headroom due to the eaves, could work as a playroom.

The townhouse has all-new electrical and plumbing systems, and new gas-fired heating and central air-conditioning systems.

The unit comes with one parking space in the three-unit complex's driveway. But there is no other open yard space.

Broker: Adam Day of Realty Executives at 617-908-5653

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Prairies vanish in the US push for green energy

ROSCOE, S.D. — Robert Malsam nearly went broke in the 1980s when corn was cheap. So now that prices are high and he can finally make a profit, he's not about to apologize for ripping up prairieland to plant corn.

Across the Dakotas and Nebraska, more than 1 million acres of the Great Plains are giving way to corn fields as farmers transform the wild expanse that once served as the backdrop for American pioneers.

This expansion of the Corn Belt is fueled in part by America's green energy policy, which requires oil companies to blend billions of gallons of corn ethanol into their gasoline. In 2010, fuel became the No. 1 use for corn in America, a title it held in 2011 and 2012 and narrowly lost this year. That helps keep prices high.

"It's not hard to do the math there as to what's profitable to have," Malsam said. "I think an ethanol plant is a farmer's friend."

What the green-energy program has made profitable, however, is far from green. A policy intended to reduce global warming is encouraging a farming practice that actually could worsen it.

That's because plowing into untouched grassland releases carbon dioxide that has been naturally locked in the soil. It also increases erosion and requires farmers to use fertilizers and other industrial chemicals. In turn, that destroys native plants and wipes out wildlife habitats.

It appeared so damaging that scientists warned that America's corn-for-ethanol policy would fail as an anti-global warming strategy if too many farmers plowed over virgin land.

The Obama administration argued that would not happen. But the administration didn't set up a way to monitor whether it actually happened.

It did.

More than 1.2 million acres of grassland have been lost since the federal government required that gasoline be blended with increasing amounts of ethanol, an Associated Press analysis of satellite data found. Plots that were wild grass or pastureland seven years ago are now corn and soybean fields.

That's in addition to the 5 million acres of farmland that had been aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — that have vanished since Obama took office.

In South Dakota, more than 370,000 acres of grassland have been uprooted and farmed from since 2006. In Edmunds County, a rural community about two hours north of the capital, Pierre, at least 42,000 acres of grassland have become cropland — one of the largest turnovers in the region.

Malsam runs a 13-square-mile family farm there. He grows corn, soybeans and wheat, then rents out his grassland for grazing. Each year, the family converts another 160 acres from grass to cropland.

Chemicals kill the grass. Machines remove the rocks. Then tractors plow it three times to break up the sod and prepare it for planting.

Scattered among fields of 7-foot tall corn and thigh-high soybeans, some stretches of grassland still exist. Cattle munch on some grass. And "prairie potholes" — natural ponds ranging from small pools to larger lakes — support a smattering of ducks, geese, pelicans and herons.

Yet within a mile of Malsam's farm, federal satellite data show, more than 300 acres of grassland have been converted to soybeans and corn since 2006.

Nebraska has lost at least 830,000 acres of grassland, a total larger than New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas combined.

"It's great to see farmers making money. It hasn't always been that way," said Craig Cox of the Environmental Working Group. He advocates for clean energy but opposes the ethanol mandate. "If we're going to push the land this hard, we really need to intensify conservation in lockstep with production, and that's just not happening," he said.

Jeff Lautt, CEO of Poet, which operates ethanol refineries across the country, including in South Dakota, said it's up to farmers how to use their land.

"The last I checked, it is still an open market. And farmers that own land are free to farm their land to the extent they think they can make money on it or whatever purpose they need," he said.

Yet Chris Wright, a professor at South Dakota State University who has studied land conversion, said: "The conversation about land preservation should start now before it becomes a serious problem." Wright reviewed the AP's methodology for determining land conversion.

The AP's analysis used government satellite data to count how much grassland existed in 2006 in each county, then compare each plot of land to corresponding satellite data from 2012.

The data from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Agriculture identify corn and soybean fields. That allowed the AP to see which plots of grassland became cropland.

To reach its conservative estimate of 1.2 million acres lost, the AP excluded grassland that had been set aside under the government's Conservation Reserve Program, in which old farmland is allowed to return to a near-natural state. The AP used half-acre sections of earth and excluded tiny tracts that became corn, which experts said were most likely outliers.

Corn prices more than doubled in the years after Congress passed the ethanol mandate in 2007. Now, Malsam said, farmers can make about $500 an acre planting corn.

His farm has just become profitable in the past five years, allowing him and his wife, Theresa, to build a new house on the farmstead.

Four miles south, signs at each end of the town of Roscoe announce a population of only 324. But the town, which relies in part on incomes like Malsam's, supports a school, a restaurant, a bank, a grocery store and a large farm machinery store.

The manager of the equipment dealership, Kaleb Rodgers, said the booming farm economy has helped the town and the dealership prosper. The business with 28 employees last year sold a dozen combines at about $300,000 apiece, plus more than 60 tractors worth between $100,000 and $300,000, he said.

"If we didn't have any farmers we wouldn't have a community here. We wouldn't have a business. I wouldn't be sitting here. I wouldn't be able to feed my family," Rodgers said. "I think ethanol is a very good thing."

Jim Faulstich, president of the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition, said the nation's ethanol and crop insurance policies have encouraged the transformation of the land.

Faulstich, who farms and ranches in central South Dakota near Highmore, said much of the land being converted is not suited to crop production, and South Dakota's strong winds and rains will erode the topsoil.

"I guess a good motto would be to farm the best and leave the rest," he said.

___

Gillum reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Dina Cappiello and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report from Washington.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ This is part of an Associated Press investigation into the hidden costs of green energy.

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US doctors urge wider use of cholesterol drugs

For decades, if you asked your doctor what your odds were of suffering a heart attack, the answer would turn on a number: your cholesterol level.

Now the nation's first new heart disease prevention guidelines in a decade take a very different approach, focusing more broadly on risk and moving away from specific targets for cholesterol.

The guidance offers doctors a new formula for estimating risk that includes age, gender, race and factors such as whether someone smokes.

And for the first time, the guidelines take aim at preventing strokes, not just heart attacks. Partly because of that, they set a lower threshold for using medicines to reduce risk. They recommend using statin drugs such as Lipitor and Zocor, and identify four groups of people they help the most.

The end result: Twice as many Americans — one-third of all adults — would be told to consider taking statins, which lower cholesterol but also reduce heart risks in other ways.

"The emphasis is to try to treat more appropriately," said Dr. Neil Stone, the Northwestern University doctor who headed the cholesterol guideline panel. "We're going to give statins to those who are the most likely to benefit."

Doctors say the new approach will limit how many people are put on statins simply because of a cholesterol number. Yet under the new advice, one-third of U.S. adults — 44 percent of men and 22 percent of women — would meet the threshold to consider taking a statin. Under the current guidelines, statins are recommended for only about 15 percent of adults.

The guidelines were issued Tuesday by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. Some doctors not involved in writing the guidance worry that it will be tough to understand.

"It will be controversial, there's no question about it. For as long as I remember, we've told physicians and patients we should treat their cholesterol to certain goal levels," said the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Steven Nissen. "There is concern that there will be a lot of confusion about what to do."

The government's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute appointed expert panels to write the new guidelines in 2008, but in June said it would leave drafting them to the medical groups. New guidelines on lifestyle and obesity also came out Tuesday, and ones on blood pressure are coming soon.

Roughly half the cholesterol panel members have financial ties to makers of heart drugs, but panel leaders said no one with industry connections could vote on the recommendations.

"It is practically impossible to find a large group of outside experts in the field who have no relationships to industry," said Dr. George Mensah of the heart institute. He called the guidelines "a very important step forward" based on solid evidence, and said the public should trust them.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. High cholesterol leads to hardened arteries that can cause a heart attack or stroke. Most cholesterol is made by the liver, so diet changes have a limited effect on it.

Current guidelines say total cholesterol should be under 200, and LDL, or "bad cholesterol," under 100. Other drugs such as niacin and fibrates are sometimes added to statins to try to reach those goals, but studies show they don't always lower the chances of heart problems.

"Chasing numbers can lead us to using drugs that haven't been proven to help patients. You can make someone's lab test look better without making them better," said Yale University cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krumholz, who has long urged the broader risk approach the new guidelines take.

They say statins do the most good for:

—People who already have heart disease.

—Those with LDL of 190 or higher, usually because of genetic risk.

—People ages 40 to 75 with Type 2 diabetes.

—People ages 40 to 75 who have an estimated 10-year risk of heart disease of 7.5 percent or higher, based on the new formula. (This means that for every 100 people with a similar risk profile, seven or eight would have a heart attack or stroke within 10 years.)

Despite a small increased risk of muscle problems and accelerating diabetes in patients already at risk for it, statins are "remarkably safe drugs" whose benefits outweigh their risks, said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, preventive-medicine chief at Northwestern.

The patents on Lipitor, Zocor and other statins have expired, and they are widely available in generic versions for as little as a dime a day. One that is still under patent protection is AstraZeneca's Crestor, which had sales of $8.3 billion in 2012.

Aspirin — widely used to lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks — is not addressed in the guidelines. And many drugs other than statins are still recommended for certain people, such as those with high triglycerides.

Patients should not stop taking any heart drug without first checking with their doctor.

The guidelines also say:

—Adults 40 to 79 should get an estimate every four to six years of their chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke over the next decade using the new formula. It includes age, sex, race, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. If risk remains unclear, doctors can consider family history or three other tests. The best one is a coronary artery calcium test, an X-ray to measure calcium in heart arteries.

—For those 20 to 59, an estimate of their lifetime risk of a heart attack or stroke can be considered using traditional factors like cholesterol and blood pressure to persuade them to change their lifestyle.

—To fight obesity, doctors should develop individualized weight loss plans including a moderately reduced calorie diet, exercise and behavior strategies. The best ones offer two or three in-person meetings a month for at least six months. Web or phone-based programs are a less-ideal option.

—Everyone should get at least 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise three or four times a week.

—People should eat a "dietary pattern" focused on vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Include low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, beans and healthy oils and nuts. Limit sweets, sweet drinks, red meat, saturated fat and salt.

"I don't like the concept of 'good foods' and 'bad foods,'" said Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist who worked on the guidelines. "We really want to emphasize dietary patterns."

___

Online:

Risk formula: http://my.americanheart.org/cvriskcalculator

Guidelines on cholesterol: http://bit.ly/1j2hDpH

Lifestyle: http://bit.ly/16ZnV7e

Overweight: http://bit.ly/1bsdFG2

Risk Assessment: http://bit.ly/19hzaV9

Cholesterol info: http://tinyurl.com/2dtc5vy

Heart facts: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/127/1/

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP .

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New guidelines for preventing heart attack, stroke

The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology have issued the first new guidelines in a decade for preventing heart attacks and strokes. Among other things, they call for twice as many Americans — one-third of all adults — to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

WHAT'S NEW

The guidelines take aim at strokes, not just heart attacks. They're personalized for men and women, and blacks and whites. They estimate a person's risk in a novel way and change the goal of treating high cholesterol.

ESTIMATING RISK

A new formula includes age, sex, race, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and smoking. People ages 40 to 79 should get an estimate every four to six years. If risk is still unclear, family history or three other tests can be considered. The best one is a coronary artery calcium test, an X-ray to measure calcium in heart arteries.

CHOLESTEROL

High cholesterol leads to hardened arteries, which can cause a heart attack or stroke. Most cholesterol is made by the liver, so diet changes have a limited effect, and many people need medicines to lower their risk.

The guidelines don't change the definition of high cholesterol, but they say doctors should no longer aim for a specific number with whatever drugs can get a patient there. The new advice stresses statins such as Lipitor and Zocor; most are generic and cost as little as a dime a day.

WHO NEEDS TREATMENT?

Four groups are targeted:

—People who already have heart disease (clogged arteries).

—Those whose LDL, or "bad cholesterol," is 190 or higher, usually because of genetic risk.

—People ages 40 to 75 with Type 2 diabetes.

—People ages 40 to 75 who have an estimated 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke of 7.5 percent or higher, based on the new formula. (This means that for every 100 people with a similar risk profile, seven to eight would have a heart attack or a stroke within 10 years.)

THE BOTTOM LINE

About one-third of U.S. adults — 44 percent of men and 22 percent of women — would have enough risk to consider a statin. Only 15 percent of adults do now.

THE ROLE OF LIFESTYLE

Guidelines also recommend 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise three to four times a week. They call for a "dietary pattern" that is focused on vegetables, fruits and whole grains and includes low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, beans and healthy oils and nuts. Limit sweets, sweet drinks, red meat, saturated fat and salt.

To fight obesity, doctors should develop individualized weight-loss plans including a moderately reduced-calorie diet, exercise and behavior strategies. The best plans offer two to three in-person meetings a month for at least six months. Web or phone-based programs are a less-ideal option.

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP .

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World stocks lower as China meeting disappoints

SEOUL, South Korea — Asian stock markets sank Wednesday after a highly anticipated meeting of Chinese leaders did not announce bold reforms to overhaul a growth model that is running out of steam. European markets were muted.

Communist Party leaders in Beijing pledged to promote market forces in the country's state-dominated economy after the four-day meeting wrapped up late Tuesday. But in a disappointment for reform advocates, they failed to announce dramatic changes such as curbing the dominance of state industry, extending property rights to farmers or relaxing the one child birth control policy.

The ruling party said market forces will play a "decisive role" in China's economy, an upgrade from "core role" assigned to the market in party policy over the past two decades, and flagged 2020 as a timeframe for changes.

"It's going to be a slow moving ship," said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG in Melbourne, Australia. The investment community is encouraged that a bigger role is promised for private business but "simply wants more meat to sink its teeth into," he said.

China has become the world's second biggest economy after the U.S. through growth based on exports and investment. However, reform advocates say further progress will require private enterprises having a bigger role at the expense of politically favored state companies.

Major European benchmarks were weaker in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 declined 0.6 percent to 6,689.71 and France's CAC-40 inched down 0.1 percent to 4,259.53. Germany's DAX shed 0.2 percent to 9,060.81.

Futures indicated that U.S. stocks were set for another day of declines. S&P 500 futures lost 0.2 percent and Dow Jones futures dropped out 0.1 percent.

In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite plunged 1.8 percent to 2,087.94 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 1.9 percent to 22,463.83. Tokyo's Nikkei shed 0.2 percent to 14,567.16 and South Korea's Kospi lost 1.6 percent to 1,963.56. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.4 percent to 5,319.2.

Stocks in Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore also dropped.

Confirmation hearings for Janet Yellen as the new Federal Reserve chief on Thursday could provide a fresh cue for financial markets. Investors will look to her testimony for clues about when the Fed will begin reducing its massive monetary stimulus that has propped up the world's largest economy.

Yellen has been tapped to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman at the end of January.

In energy markets, benchmark crude for December delivery was up 27 cents to $93.32 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract plunged $2.10 to $93.04 on Tuesday as traders anticipated another increase in U.S. crude supplies.

The euro was little changed at $1.3434 from $1.3433 late Tuesday. The dollar fell to 99.38 yen from 99.58 yen.

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NY ex-Madoff worker kept mouth shut as fraud grew

NEW YORK — In the many years he spent as a trader at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, David Kugel learned that investments that Madoff claimed to be making for clients were fiction.

Kugel, 68, knew that because he was instrumental in concocting the phony trades. But he always kept his mouth shut.

Madoff "was my boss," he testified at the trial of five former Madoff employees in federal court in Manhattan. "If he asked me to do something, I gave it to him. I didn't question him. ... I believed him."

Prosecutors are seeking to use Kugel's testimony — the first by a cooperator in the Madoff investigation — to show how he and other insiders purposely stayed blindly loyal to Madoff while becoming wealthy off his fraud.

But the testimony also suggested some complexities in the don't-ask-don't-tell environment: By Kugel's account, there was a belief that Madoff was working his investment magic in ways he wasn't revealing.

"I always thought he invested in shopping centers, foreign currencies and other ventures," Kugel testified. "A Ponzi scheme? ... I didn't think he was doing that."

When asked where all the money was going, Kugel told jurors, "I thought it was being invested. I didn't know in exactly what."

The world now knows that what Madoff was paying out as profits was actually the cash flow from new investors — the largest Ponzi scheme in history. By the time fraud was revealed in 2008, he admitted the nearly $68 billion he claimed existed in accounts was actually only a few hundred million dollars.

The collapse of Madoff's private investment business ended up costing clients nearly $20 billion. A court-appointed trustee has recovered much of the money by forcing those customers who received big payouts from Madoff to return the funds.

The victims included some big names and influential people who were Madoff visitors: During Kugel's week-long testimony, prosecutors displayed a thank you note the firm had received from Sandy Koufax. During testimony by another former Madoff employee, Eleanor Squillari, it was revealed that author Tom Clancy visited the offices when he was writing a book about automated trading. She said she saw Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., visit, and the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., was a customer.

Prosecutors have described the defendants as "necessary players" in Madoff's fraud.

They allege that Annette Bongiorno and account manager JoAnn Crupi used old stock tables to fabricate account statements and other fake records intended to dupe clients by showing steady returns even during economic downturns; that computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez developed a software program that automated the scheme; and that Daniel Bonventre, director of operations for investments, kept three separate of books on the business designed to fool the Securities and Exchange Commission, banks or anyone else who examined them.

The defendants also rewarded themselves with tens of millions of dollars in salary and bonuses from a "slush fund" of stolen money, including $2.5 million for a beach house for Crupi as the Ponzi scheme was falling apart, prosecutors say.

While the defendants have denied the charges, Kugel and four other former employees, including his son, have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the case. The trial was scheduled to resume Tuesday.

Kugel, who worked with Madoff for 36 years, testified at a trial expected to last months that he spent over an hour a week from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s fabricating trades that he gave to Bongiorno and later Crupi.

Madoff "asked me to do the math to calculate the returns," he said. Asked by a prosecutor whether his boss was good at math, the witness responded, "In some aspects, yes, in some aspects, no. He had trouble with long division."

Kugel described the firm as "a friendly place to work" and prosecutors showed photographs of other employees at Kugel family social functions. But at times he looked upset as he recalled assuring his family that investing with Madoff was safe. And he had trouble blaming Madoff.

"I looked up to him. I admired him. He was my mentor and I believed in him. ... I loved working there," he said. "I'm mad at myself for not realizing certain things and doing certain things."

When the scheme was exposed, he testified, the phony account statements showed that his daughter lost her $500,000 account; his son an account worth $600,000 to $700,000; his mother over $500,000; his brother and sister more than $2 million in a combined account and he lost more than $20 million.

Kugel testified that at various points Madoff had indicated, in truth, the returns were coming from secret investments overseas.

"Did you ever just ask him, 'Why don't you just say that?'" a prosecutor asked him.

"I didn't," he responded.

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Low-rate policies fueling world growth carry risks

WASHINGTON — Five years after a global financial crisis erupted, the world's biggest economies still need to be propped up.

They're growing and hiring a little faster and creating more jobs, but only with extraordinary aid from central banks or government spending. And economists say major countries may need help for years more.

From the United States to Europe to Japan, central banks are pumping cash into economies and keeping loan rates near record lows. Even fast-growing China has rebounded from an uncharacteristic slump with the help of government money that's poured into projects and made loans easily available from state-owned banks.

For now, thanks in part to the intervention, the world economy is improving. The International Monetary Fund expects global growth to rise to 3.6 percent in 2014 from 2.9 percent this year.

The improvement "does not mean that a sustainable recovery is on firm footing," Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, warned last month. He said major economies will need stimulus from "extraordinary monetary policies" to sustain momentum into 2014. Many economists think stimulus will be needed even longer.

Yet these policies carry their own risks: Critics, including some of the Fed's own policymakers, note that the cash the central banks are pumping into the global financial system flows into stocks, bonds and commodities like oil. Their prices can escalate to unsustainable levels and raise the risks of a market crash.

Other analysts warn that the easy-money policies could cause runaway inflation in the future.

Here's a look at how the world's major economies are faring:

—UNITED STATES

The U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly solid 2.8 percent annual pace from July through September, though consumers and businesses slowed their spending. And U.S. employers added a surprising strong 204,000 jobs in October.

The Fed has been debating whether hiring is healthy enough to justify slowing its monthly bond purchases. Despite the solid October jobs report, most economists think the Fed won't reduce its bond buying before early next year.

Janet Yellen, who faces a confirming hearing this week for her nomination to lead the Fed starting in January, is expected to sustain its low-rate policies.

Even at reduced levels, the bond purchases would continue to stimulate the economy by adding money to the financial system and lowering loans rates to encourage borrowing and spending. The Fed's purchases have helped offset U.S. government spending cuts.

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, thinks the U.S. economy will be strong enough to manage without any help from Fed bond purchases by the end of 2014. He sees the Fed raising short-term rates, which it's kept at a record low near zero since late 2008, sometime in 2015.

But weaning the U.S. economy off Fed support, he says, is "tricky ... If you do it too slowly, you could ignite inflation. If you do it too quickly, you run the risk of killing the recovery."

— EUROPE

After enduring two recessions since 2009, the 17 countries that use the euro currency are expected to eke out their second straight quarter of growth from July through September. But many economists say the eurozone's growth might not meet even the feeble 0.3 percent quarterly pace achieved from April through June. The latest quarterly figure will be announced Thursday.

The European Central Bank surprised investors last week by cutting its benchmark refinancing rate to a record 0.25 percent. It acted after economic reports exposed the weakness of the recovery. Inflation last month was a scant 0.7 percent. That raised the risk of deflation — a prolonged drop in wages, prices and the value of assets like stocks and homes.

The rate cut "signals that the ECB is not prepared to accept the risk that the euro area falls into deflation," says Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"Once prices begin to fall, you start to see consumers and businesses change their behavior," Kirkegaard says. "Why should you buy a car today if the price of the car is going to fall tomorrow? Falling into the trap can be very difficult to get out of."

— JAPAN

Japan's economic recovery has gained momentum since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in late 2012. Under "Abenomics," the government and central bank have injected money into the economy through stimulus spending and rate cutting. The economy grew at a robust 3.8 percent annual rate from April through June.

But economists worry about whether the recovery can be sustained and whether Japan can grow enough to make up in tax revenue what it's spending on stimulus.

Noriko Hama, a professor at Kyoto's Doshisha University, contends that only higher wages and rates will give people the income and confidence they need to spend more and restore the economy's health.

Like the Fed, the Bank of Japan could struggle with how to time and carry out a reversal of its easy money policy once the economy improves or if inflation or asset bubbles emerge as a threat.

"They have placed themselves in a very difficult situation indeed," Hama says. "It's a double-edged sword."

—CHINA

China's economy grew at a two-decade low of 7.5 percent in the three months that ended in June compared with a year earlier. That's still a vigorous pace compared with the developed economies of Europe, the United States and Japan. But for China, it marked a slowdown, and Beijing launched a mini-stimulus program, spending on railway construction and other public works.

It worked: Growth edged up to 7.8 percent from July through September from a year earlier.

Yet some economists doubt the gains in China will last.

"I can't see the rebound lasting for very much longer, because it has been driven by government projects," says Mark Williams of Capital Economics.

In the latest quarter, more than half the reported growth was due to investment, not trade or consumption. Many economists say China's continued reliance on government-led investment is dangerous. It threatens to produce factories that make goods no one wants and unneeded real estate developments that can't repay loans.

China responded to the 2008 global crisis by ordering its banks to open their lending spigots. The recovery has been underpinned by a surge in borrowing, which is up 20 percent this year.

China's central bank has warned that the aggressive lending is unsustainable and could cause bad loans to pile up dangerously.

"I think we're going to see policymakers try to crack down on credit in the next few months," Williams says.

___

Kurtenbach reported from Tokyo, McDonald from Beijing.

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Wal-Mart steps up competition for holiday shopping

As more stores push for Thanksgiving shoppers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is stepping up its game for the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season.

The world's largest retailer said Tuesday that it will start to offer its holiday blockbuster deals at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving at its stores, two hours earlier than last year. It will stagger holiday deals throughout the night and into "Black Friday" — the day that's traditionally the start of the holiday shopping season.

The company will increase its stock of TVs by 65 percent and double the number of tablets for sale that weekend, while promising sharper discounts. It's also bulking up the list of guaranteed popular items that it will sell in designated sections of its store to 21, from just three last year.

Wal-Mart is responding to what's expected to be a fiercely competitive holiday shopping season, the busiest time of the year for retailers. The Friday after Thanksgiving has traditionally been the official kickoff to the period, but in the last few years, that start has increasingly crept into Thanksgiving as stores realize they need to be the first ones to grab shoppers' dollars. This year, stores including Macy's Inc., J.C. Penney Co. and Kohl's Corp. are opening for the first time on Thanksgiving evening.

Best Buy Co. announced that it was opening at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving, earlier than last year's midnight opening. Toys R Us said that it will open at 5 p.m. on the holiday, three hours earlier than last year.

Most of Wal-Mart's 4,000 U.S. namesake stores are already open 24 hours year-round. But it's now concentrating the holiday deals on Thanksgiving.

During a media call Monday, Duncan McNaughton, executive vice president and chief merchandising and marketing officer at Wal-Mart's U.S. namesake division, said the discounter carefully studied the competitive landscape when it decided to start the deals earlier at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving.

"Everyone's moved up this year so it will be a new dynamic," said McNaughton.

For online shoppers, Wal-Mart will be offering special deals starting Thanksgiving morning, some of which will be the same as those offered at the sales events at the stores later in the evening.

The stakes are high for retailers since the holiday season accounts for up to 40 percent of their annual revenue. The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, expects an increase of 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion in holiday sales.

There's also more pressure on retailers this year because the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is six days shorter than in 2012.

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Asia stocks gain with eye on China; Europe down

SEOUL, South Korea — Asian stock markets mostly closed higher Tuesday amid light trading as investors waited for Beijing to announce whether a four-day policy meeting had produced reforms to shake up China's state-dominated economy.

Major European benchmarks opened lower in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.4 percent to 6,704.41 and France's CAC-40 shed 0.2 percent to 4,282.04. Germany's DAX was down 0.2 percent to 9,086.67.

Futures indicated U.S. stocks were headed for a weak open after the Dow reached a record-high Monday. S&P 500 futures were down 0.2 percent and Dow Jones futures fell 0.1 percent.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei jumped 2.2 percent to 14,588.68 and South Korea's Kospi rose 0.9 percent to 1,995.48. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.8 percent to 2,126.77. Stocks in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and India also rose.

Investors were waiting to see if China's new leadership announces reform plans or a change in the country's growth target after a meeting held away from the gaze of the public and foreign media.

"The changes that will come out of the secret location in Beijing are expected to be some of the most liberal economic changes in post revolution China," Evan Lucas, a market strategist at IG, said in a report.

The PSE Composite in Manila gained 0.9 percent to 6,324.17 after sinking the day before. The Philippines is grappling with the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. Thousands are believed dead and shattered communications and transportation links are hampering recovery efforts.

Bucking the uptrend, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.2 percent to 22,899.38 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.1 percent to 5,393.10. Stocks in Jakarta fell 1.4 percent to 4,380.64 after Indonesia's central bank announced a surprise interest rate hike.

Most Asian markets got a boost from upbeat U.S. economic figures Friday including a strong U.S. jobs report for October, even though it raised the prospect the Federal Reserve will reduce monetary stimulus that has buoyed stocks. The world's largest economy added 204,000 jobs last month, trumping market expectations for 125,000 jobs.

In energy markets, benchmark crude for December delivery was down 63 cents to $94.51 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 54 cents to $95.14 on Monday.

In currency, the euro fell to $1.3378 from $1.3401. The dollar rose to 99.64 yen from 99.16 yen.

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Cos. left to their own devices

Venture capital funding for one of the Bay State's key industries — medical device companies — is drying up, forcing startups to adapt and become mature quicker than in the past, according to industry insiders.

"In terms of VC funding, we're really in a lull," said Debbie Paul, CEO Americas of EvaluatePharma USA, which presented a state of the industry report to investors and others last week.

Funding for medical device companies dropped in 2012 for the first time in years, and seems to be on track to finish this year at the same level, Paul said.

Paul said investors are looking for a clear path to return on investment from a company before putting money in, a definite shift in mentality. She said companies now have to have more than just a great idea to get the funding they need.

"It's not just a business plan, it's not just having a thoughtful exit strategy, it's really thinking about who's your key target market," she said. "You have to be a sure bet to get the funding unless you've got really innovative technology."

Paul said another thing startups have to consider now is how their devices will be reimbursable by insurance companies.

Donna Brezinski, founder and CEO of Little Sparrows Technologies, said her focus as she looks for investors is the specifics of her product, a low-cost tent that addresses neo-natal jaundice.

It's "really identifying the market, identifying the customer," she said.

Still, there are options for those who can't find venture capital funding.

"If you're a startup and you can't get VC money, I think you'd know you need to talk to more angel investors," Paul said. "They may be filling a gap traditional venture financing may be opening."

Still, Brezinski is confident about her early-stage company and is optimistic about getting funding.

"Massachusetts in and of itself is an incredibly supportive and rich environment for early start startups," she said. "I don't think it's impossible."

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Here’s a primer on continuously variable transmissions

I read your column with interest each Saturday in a local newspaper and was wondering if you would be willing to comment on the pros and cons of continuously variable transmissions (CVT) and multi-geared transmissions.

Absolutely! So that everyone is on the same page, let's identify what a CVT transmission is. It's important to recognize that the purpose of any automotive transmission is twofold — transmit engine power to the drive wheels and to optimize vehicle performance at any and all speeds by keeping the engine in its most efficient RPM range as much as possible.

Multi-gear transmissions have historically been the transmission of choice for this purpose. Either manually — the driver selects each gear with a lever — or automatically selecting individual gear ratios based on road speed and load, these transmissions do a reasonably efficient job of keeping the engine in its "power band" at varying road speeds.

But, of course, road speed is infinitely variable, and these transmissions have only a fixed number of gear ratios. Remember the original GM Dynaflow and Powerglide transmissions? They had only two forward gears, coupled to a torque converter to multiply engine torque. Today's electronically controlled automatic transmissions feature up to eight forward speeds to help optimize efficiency and performance.

CVTs feature a drive belt riding between variable pulleys. The pulleys change diameter in proportion to speed and load by varying the distance between the inner and outer tapered "sheaves." When starting from a stop or under heavy load, the engine-driven pulley is smaller and the driveline pulley is proportionally larger so that engine RPM is higher, providing more torque to the drive pulley. As vehicle speed rises, the engine pulley gets larger in diameter while the driveline pulley gets proportionally smaller, meaning the engine is turning lower RPM as it drives the vehicle at a higher speed.

The fundamental advantage of CVTs is their ability to keep the engine in a very narrow, highly efficient RPM range to maximize performance, efficiency and fuel mileage.

Snowmobiles, ATVs and some motorcycles have had CVTs for decades, and they have been used in cars since at least the early 1960s. In fact, the very first vehicle I ever drove — in 1960 at age 11 on a long, looping private driveway — was a very small Dutch-built DAF with a belt-driven, variable-ratio CVT.

While engineers and carmakers have known the advantages of CVTs for decades, it wasn't until relatively recently that technology has provided a drive belt for them that could handle the much higher horsepower and torque of today's engines. The belts are no longer fabric and rubber; they are steel and provide the strength and durability necessary for modern automobiles.

Driving a CVT-equipped vehicle is a somewhat peculiar experience. Under acceleration, engine speed rapidly climbs into its optimum RPM range, which tends to create a sense of slippage although none is occurring, and the vehicle speed "catches up" to engine speed. When slowing, engine speed falls until re-accelerating when RPM jumps back up and vehicle speed starts "catching up" again. The engine, under load, is always operating in its most efficient RPM range, maximizing performance and fuel economy.

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

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Miami Herald writer freed from Venezuela custody

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan authorities on Saturday released a Miami Herald reporter they had detained two days earlier while he reported on the South American country's economic crisis.

The Miami Herald reported on its website that Jim Wyss was released from a detention facility in Caracas and handed over to U.S. Embassy officials.

Herald executive editor Aminda Marques Gonzalez said on the website that "Jim is safe and soon will be reunited with his loved ones."

Wyss later sent a message on Twitter thanking the Herald and others who worked to secure his speedy release.

From the immigration detention center in Caracas, he joked about the diet of ham sandwiches he was fed and the tight living conditions in the room he was held with eight other people.

"It's like living in a bar with bunkbeds," he told the Herald.

Wyss, the Herald's Andean bureau chief, was detained Thursday by the National Guard in San Cristobal, a western city near the border with Colombia that is a hotbed for illegal transactions used to circumvent rigid currency controls.

The Herald's World Editor John Yearwood had flown to Caracas Saturday to usher the reporter out of the country.

Throughout the ordeal, Venezuelan authorities never said why Wyss was being detained or whether he was facing charges. Nor did President Nicolas Maduro, an outspoken critic of the U.S., mention the case during a four-hour televised speech Friday night.

Wyss, who is based in Bogota and has made many trips to Venezuela, traveled to San Cristobal to report on next month's municipal elections, which are taking place amid an economic crisis marked by 54 percent inflation and shortages of staples such as milk and toilet paper.

Maduro blames hoarding and speculation by the private sector, and accuses right-wing agitators and the U.S. government of waging an "economic war" to destabilize his government. However, economists say that only scrapping the decade-old controls imposed by the late Hugo Chavez can curb a sharp slide in the currency's value on the black market.

Journalists have encountered harassment before while reporting on the crisis. Last week, three reporters for Caracas newspaper Diario 2001 were detained, and one allegedly beaten by police, after witnessing a group of frenzied shoppers break through a barricade to receive a government-provided Christmas food basket.

Government officials also regularly vilify in public members of the international media as opponents of the Chavista revolution. Still, except for the six-week jailing of an American documentary filmmaker earlier this year, the detention of foreign journalists for more than a few hours is almost unknown.

Wyss himself was nearly barred from entering Venezuela shortly before Chavez's death in March, according to the Herald report.

Claudio Paolillo, chairman of a press freedom committee at the Inter American Press Association, said he was bewildered by Wyss' detention, calling it a "new demonstration of intolerance by a regime that day after day shows its contempt for the work of journalists."

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Housing 100 vets in 100 days

As the country honors its servicemen and servicewomen tomorrow, Navy veteran Tim Pollard will be able to mark the holiday this year in the comfort of his own home.

The 62-year-old is settling into a Boston apartment thanks to a public/private initiative to find homes for 100 of the city's homeless vets in 100 days.

After the death of his brother, for whom he had been an in-home caregiver, Pollard found himself homeless in 2011. He turned to the New England Center for Homeless Veterans, where he had been living until landing his apartment a month ago with rental assistance through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program.

"It's a beautiful apartment — a second-floor walkup, one bedroom," he said. "I can't beat the location. Awesome is the closest word I can describe."

Pollard had bunked dormitory-style for nearly 2 1⁄2 years at the Court Street center, where he now works part-time in security and operations. "I just wanted to get back on my feet, get reoriented again, try to get some kind of steady employment and get housing," he said. "It's been rough, but if it wasn't for (the center), I don't know what I would have done."

The city's Department of Neighborhood Development is leading the "Home of the Brave" initiative to house 100 vets as part of the federal government's goal to end homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015. It's joined by the New England Center for Homeless Veterans, the Pine Street Inn and HomeStart.

The agencies created a registry of homeless vets looking for housing. Twenty-six got housing through VASH vouchers, 28 moved in with family or friends, 19 are renting private apartments, and the rest are in homes through subsidy programs such as Section 8. Each gets support services to ensure they're able to remain housed.

Though the goal is to help 100 homeless vets, the city will sustain the effort, said Elizabeth Doyle, Boston's deputy director for supportive housing. "We've uncovered some places where we can improve," she said. "We can coordinate better. We can make sure the right resources are getting to the right veterans. We're hoping to attract some landlords also."

An annual city census of homeless vets conducted last December documented 457 in Boston.

"One is too many," said Andy McCawley, CEO of the New England Center for Homeless Veterans. "We see veterans in their 20s and veterans in their 80s. We have been serving an increasing number ... from the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan."

To make vets' transition into housing easier, the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance is soliciting funds and items such as furniture, new mattresses and basic household items.

Pollard, meanwhile, is trying to get his apartment furnished before the holidays. "I'm keeping everything minimized because settling in, you do have to watch your pennies," he said.

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