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Braintree roadblock slows Uber and Lyft

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 16 April 2015 | 18.38

Controversial ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft are facing another regulatory battle, this time in Braintree, and opponents are hoping there is more to come.

The city's Board of License Commissioners voted Tuesday to have the town solicitor write a cease-and-desist letter telling the companies to stop operating without registering with the city.

"Hopefully it will be the catalyst for other cities and towns to enforce their ordinances as well," said Stephen Regan, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Regional Taxi Advisory Group.

Town Clerk and commission chairman Jim Casey said the goal is not to drive Uber and Lyft out, but rather to require the companies and their drivers to register as either hackney or livery services.

"The proposed policy would not prevent ride-hailing services from operating within the town boundaries," he said.

Casey said the commission will likely vote on whether to send the letters to the ride-hailing companies later this month. The move would be a first by a municipality in Massachusetts in the ongoing battle over the tech giant, which has attracted fierce opposition from the taxi industry.

Uber spokesman Matt Wing said the move would hurt Braintree residents.

"This action would deny tens of thousands of Braintree residents the increased safety, reliability and value that Uber brings to the transportation ecosystem," he said.

Uber and Lyft have faced regulatory scrutiny throughout the state. Gov. Charlie Baker is moving forward with state regulations and Baker spokesman William Pitman said the administration expects to file legislation in the coming weeks.

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Loss of Cape Wind sinks bid for marine terminal

A major port operator is no longer competing to run the state's New Bedford marine terminal — a $113 million taxpayer-funded boondoggle — after the Cape Wind project folded.

"They had a good plan with the wind energy and that's really what we were banking on," said Frank Vannelli, senior vice president for commercial and business development at Logistec Corp. "But when the deal fell through, we just stepped back and we said, 'Let's take a look here at how we're spending our resources' and we decided to put it in a holding pattern."

Without Cape Wind as the main terminal tenant, a bid no longer made sense for Logistec, Vannelli said.

Executives with Cape Wind, who are planning to plant 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, backed out of a two-year, $4.5 million deal to rent the 28-acre terminal after National Grid and Eversource terminated contracts to buy power from the wind project.

State officials have said a new lease is expected to fetch a lower price for the terminal, which is overbudget and months behind schedule.

Vannelli said the South Coast Marine Commerce Terminal could be conducive to smaller vessels with refrigerated goods, such as frozen fish and fresh fruit, because the area isn't optimal for larger container ships.

"Our organization is still very interested in what's going on in the port of New Bedford and I do think it has a role to play," he said. "I don't think that it's realistic to think that any of these smaller-sized ports would attract large container cargoes. The containers will go to the larger ports. They will go to New York. They will go to Boston."

The quasi-public Massachusetts Clean Energy Center plans to name a port operator by summer, but has yet to make public the three finalists.

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Public needs drive plans: Developers think beyond garage lot

Redevelopment proposals for the city-owned Winthrop Square garage feature impressive soaring skyscrapers that would reach new architectural heights in Boston's Financial District, but their mixed uses and public benefits are what's garnering kudos.

Plans include retail, restaurant, residential, hotel and innovation economy office uses to bring around-the-clock activity to the square, with other public benefits ranging from an entrepreneur innovation center to a public school.

"What impressed me about many of them were they just weren't about the building," said architect Tim Love, a Utile Inc. principal and Boston Society of Architects president. "They were thinking about Winthrop Square and that whole little neighborhood there, and they had a lot of positive things to offer."

Since the garage is city-owned, public benefits stand to carry more weight in the competitive vetting process by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

"They certainly like public space," said David Begelfer, CEO of NAIOP Massachusetts, a commercial real estate development trade group. "They like the idea of energizing the ground-floor space. They want to tap into the whole Downtown Crossing and build on that."

How the buildings allow for public connections through long city blocks are among benefits the city should consider, according to Love. And hotel and residential uses — one or both of which are in all proposals — would help the Financial District become a 24-7, live-work neighborhood that would draw in more businesses, he said.

But stacking residential units over offices — as Trans National Properties, Lincoln Property Co., Millennium Partners and Lend Lease Development propose — is easier said than done, said John B. Hynes III, CEO of Boston Global Investors.

"There aren't a lot of successful examples," Hynes said. "To stack them vertically is a challenge. We went through that very exercise at One Franklin, then Vornado (Realty Trust) got cold feet on the residential and ... pulled the plug."

Still, he and Begelfer believe Steve Belkin's Trans National — which has had designs on the site since 2006 — has an edge over other teams because it can tie in its adjacent 133 Federal St. property. "We looked at (the site) at length 10 years ago maybe, before it went out to bid and Belkin got it (in 2006)," Hynes said. "It was clear even back then that the best use of that parking garage was to combine it with the Belkin site."

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Seattle CEO to cut his pay so every worker earns $70,000

SEATTLE — A Seattle CEO who announced that he's giving himself a drastic pay cut to help cover the cost of big raises for his employees didn't just make those workers happy.

He's already gained new customers, too.

"We've definitely gained a handful of customers in the last day or two," said Stefan Bennett, a customer relations manager at Gravity Payments, a credit card payment processing firm. "We're showing people you can run a good company, and you can pay people fairly, and it can be profitable."

Dan Price, chief executive of the company, stunned his 100-plus workers on Monday when he told them he was cutting his roughly $1 million salary to $70,000 and using company profits to ensure that everyone there would earn at least that much within three years.

For some workers, the increase will more than double their pay. One 21-year-old mother said she'll buy a house.

At a time of increasing anger nationally over the enormous gap between the pay of top executives and their employees, the announcement received immense attention. But corporate governance professor David Larcker of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business said it's unclear if Price's unusual gesture will start a trend.

"It's an alternative way to think about a tough problem, and I give these guys a lot of credit for laying it out there," Larcker said. "Whether this would scale to a bigger organization, it's hard to know. But it's clever, it's interesting and it's fun to think about."

Washington state already has the nation's highest minimum wage at $9.47 an hour, and earlier this month Seattle's minimum wage law went into effect. It will eventually raise base hourly pay to $15.

Labor unions and workers in the Seattle area on Wednesday joined national protests for better pay. Drivers for Uber and Lyft — the app-based car-hailing services — gathered in Seattle, while airport workers rallied at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In Seattle, police arrested 21 demonstrators who opted for civil disobedience to dramatize their point, refusing to move out of an intersection at the conclusion of their march.

Gravity's CEO launched the company from his dorm room at Seattle Pacific University when he was just 19. He's long taken a progressive approach that included adopting a policy allowing his workers to take unlimited paid vacation after their first year.

"I think this is just what everyone deserves," Price told workers in a video of Monday's announcement released by the company.

But he also acknowledged it won't be easy: The increased pay will eat into at least half the company's profits, he said, and he has no plans to simply raise rates on clients.

"It's up to us to find a way to make it work," he said.

Bennett, 28, went to college with Price and has worked for Gravity since graduation. He said he was already happy to work for a company that treats its employees and customers well in what he otherwise considers a predatory industry. For him, the raise will amount to about $10,000.

"I don't care as much about the money," he said. "But if I look at my colleagues, and what they talk about on a day-to-day basis and what their concerns are — just looking at their faces when Dan announced the pay increase, it was pretty phenomenal."

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Biogen, Danish company â€¨in patent spat worth billions

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 15 April 2015 | 18.38

Biotech giant Biogen is locked in a fight with a Danish company over a crucial patent that protects a nearly $3 billion multiple sclerosis drug.

Cambridge-based Biogen is battling with Copenhagen-based Forward Pharma, and both have filed a patent for treating multiple sclerosis with daily doses of 480 mg of dimethyl fumarate. The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board declared an "interference" yesterday — signalling it will address overlapping patents filed by separate parties.

"It is essentially enormously important to have that protection," said Josh Lerner, a professor at Harvard Business School. "When you look at the price trajectory of what happens when you have drugs go off-patent, you typically get a dramatic drop in terms of price, in your ability to monetize the drug."

Forward Pharma's patent was filed in 2005. Biogen's patent was filed in 2012, and is the basis for Tecfidera, Biogen's blockbuster drug that was responsible for  $2.9 billion in sales last year.

Still, the filing date of the patent is less important than when the actual invention was made. The PTAB will hold a hearing to determine which company invented the treatment first, and award them the patent.

Catherine Falcetti, a spokeswoman for Biogen, said the company's sales, along with its customers and patients, are not affected.

"Our ability to market it is not impacted, and patients can still get Tecfidera," Falcetti said. "We intend to aggressively defend  this portfolio."

Forward Pharma's patent has led to the creation of its own MS drug, which is still in development.

"This is a key step in advancing our intellectual property in the U.S. covering the use of 480 mg per day of DMF in MS," said Peder Andersen, chief executive of Forward Pharma, in a statement. "We look forward to the start of the interference proceeding and additional progress with our five other pending patent applications in the U.S. and in Europe covering the 480 mg daily dose of DMF."

Lerner said the dispute will likely not reach a conclusion.

"In many of these cases, there's some sort of settlement reached," he said. "There's some sort of licensing deal and payments made."

Other industry analysts said an acquisition of Forward Pharma by Biogen or other companies is among the potential resolutions.

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Nokia confirms acquisition of French telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent

Photo by:

The Associated Press

FILE - This Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015 shows the Nokia head offices in Espoo, Finland. Nokia says it is in advanced discussions to acquire the French telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent. In a brief statement Tuesday, the Helsinki-based mobile technology concern said the two companies are in advanced negotiations "with respect to a potential full combination which would take the form of a public exchange offer by Nokia for Alcatel-Lucent." (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP, File) FINLAND OUT

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Nokia confirms acquisition of French telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent

Photo by:

The Associated Press

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Asia shares meander as China GDP data disappoints

TOKYO — European shares rose early Wednesday on expectations that European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi will douse speculation over a possible early exit from the ECB monetary stimulus program that is due to last until September 2016. Shares fell in Asia, however, after China reported its economy grew at a 7.0 percent annual rate in January-March, the slowest pace in six years.

KEEPING SCORE: Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 7,106.24 and Germany's DAX climbed 0.6 percent to 12,299.74. France's CAC 40 gained 0.7 percent to 5,253.07. Wall Street's outlook for the day was mixed, with S&P futures down 0.03 while Dow futures were trading 0.06 percent higher.

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK: Despite glimmers of improvement on Europe's horizon, Draghi, the ECB head is expected to tell reporters the central bank for the 19-country region using the euro will stick with monthly bond purchases meant to raise inflation from an anemic 0.1 percent.

THE QUOTE: "Ahead of European trade, we are looking for mild gains in the major bourses," Stan Shamu, market strategist for IG, said in a commentary. He added that "Mario Draghi could make some positive commentary around signs of improvement in the economy."

CHINA DATA: China's economy cooled further as manufacturing and retail sales slowed in January-March, raising pressure on Beijing to keep the world's second-largest economy on track. Growth fell to 7 percent from the previous quarter's 7.3 percent, the weakest performance since it tumbled to 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

ASIA'S DAY: Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index fell 0.2 percent to 19,869.76. Hong Kong's Hang Seng recovered from early losses, gaining 0.2 percent to 27,618.82 and South Korea's Kospi gained 0.4 percent to 2,119.96. But the Shanghai composite index yoyo'd to end the day 1.2 percent lower at 4,084.16. In Australia, whose resource sector is vulnerable to fluctuations in Chinese demand, the S&P ASX/200 fell 0.6 percent to 5,908.40. Shares in Taiwan, New Zealand and most of Southeast Asia were also lower.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 75 cents to $54.04 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose $1.38 to close at $53.29 a barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose 57 cents to $60.38 a barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 119.57 yen from 119.45. The euro fell to $1.0575 from $1.0648.

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Housing, retail plan submitted for Allston site

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 14 April 2015 | 18.38

A Cambridge firm is proposing to build 138 apartments and 8,000 square feet of new retail space at the site of a longtime bicycle shop in Allston, a project cast as answering Mayor Martin J. Walsh's call for more middle-class housing.

The Eden Properties project is proposed for 89-95 Brighton Ave. and 41 Gardner St., which are listed as contaminated "brownfield" sites, according to documents filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority yesterday.

"Allston Village is an important neighborhood that can benefit from a new mixed-use residential project that embraces a range of price points," Noah Maslan, one of Eden Properties' principles, told the Herald. "The project will improve an existing brownfields site, expand residential opportunities, enliven the streetscape with ground-floor retail and encourage alternate forms of transit."

For 45 years, the Brighton Avenue site was home to International Bicycle Centers, which closed in January. Eden Properties' filing says its project will "further the goals of the Boston 2030 Housing Plan by creating new housing for Boston's middle-class workforce."

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The Ticker

BRA gets bids  on garage project

Eight development teams submitted proposals to redevelop the city-owned Winthrop Square garage in Boston's Financial District by yesterday's due date.

The groups are Trans National Properties, Lend Lease Development Inc. and the Hudson Group, the Fallon Co., Millennium Partners, Accordia Partners, Trinity Acquisitions, Lincoln Property Co. and HYM Investment Group, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The Walsh administration in February issued a request for interest in the shuttered garage's redevelopment even after Trans National Group owner Steve Belkin — who originally planned a 1,000-foot tower at the site in 2006 — had reopened talks with the city about a scaled-down project.

Wage rally planned

Organizers expect thousands of low-wage workers and supporters to rally and march today through Boston as part of the "Fight for $15" movement.

The Wage Action Coalition of union, community, college and religious groups will kick off wage inequality protests set to start tomorrow in other cities here and abroad. The march starts at 4 p.m. on Huntington Avenue near Northeastern University and continues through downtown to Chinatown.

THE SHUFFLE

Blend Therapeutics, Inc. announced the  appointment of Drew Fromkin as president, CEO and member of the Watertown biopharmaceutical company's board of directors. Fromkin previously served as president and CEO of Clinical Data Inc. until its acquisition by Forest Laboratories.

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Business Protocol: Lying a dangerous quality in workplace

Should Hillary Clinton be worried?

We all tend to embellish the truth, here and there. Some distort the facts. Others straight up lie.

Clinton, a newly declared 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, will face more withering attacks over her version of the truth about her private email server and other past scandals. How she responds may be the difference between winning and losing.

We're all not political candidates, but how you fess up can be pivotal to your career.

So the question is: When is it OK to lie?

Clancy Martin, an author and professor, has said "relationships last only if we don't always say exactly what we are thinking."

We go easy with the truth for altruistic reasons in order to make colleagues feel good, to be polite or to be a team player. Or maybe to just keep the peace.

But outright lies — especially at the highest levels — can be disastrous.

When then-President Richard Nixon said, "I am not a crook," it didn't save him. It wasn't water under the bridge, and history has not been kind to him.

When then-President Bill Clinton said he "did not have sex with that woman" — White House intern Monica Lewinsky — it didn't save him either.

Interestingly Nixon was driven out of office and Bill Clinton hung around and is now one of the highest-paid speakers in the nation. A jaded public, it appears, has come to expect politicians to disappoint.

But if your business is based on credibility and professionalism, embellishing the truth — as Brian Williams did — is a career-killing gamble.

Your reputation is all you have in business. Stretching the truth is part of human nature and maybe some will understand and forgive.

But why risk it?

Brian Williams is asking for a lot, and I'm not sure viewers can move on from his tall tales.

But will voters forgive Hillary Clinton? That question is going to be the story of this election cycle. If she can tell her story with conviction and own up to any stumbles, she'll be the first female U.S. president. That's a tall order.

For the rest of us, your reputation is all you have. Guard it, defend it, preserve it, honor it and others will, too.

Judith Bowman is president and founder of Protocol Consultants International and author of "Don't Take the Last Donut: New rules of Business Etiquette" and "How to Stand Apart @ Work … Transforming 'Fine' to Fabulous!" Email her at Judith@protocolconsultants.com.

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Hearst taps Twitter's Periscope for live-video blast across 18 digital brands

Hearst is latching on to the recent craze for live-broadcasting video apps, with the media company planning to host live feeds on Twitter's Periscope Monday night across all of its 18 magazine and digital brands.

On Monday at 10 p.m. ET, Hearst will stream 18 simultaneous live broadcasts -- each pegged to the theme of "Bedtime Stories" -- on Periscope, promoted with the hashtag "#bedtimestory." The video content will feature editors, personalities and social-media influencers.

Some examples: Cosmopolitan's "resident shirtless hunk" CJ Richards is on board to read kids' classic "Goodnight Moon" while stroking a kitten; Redbook will feature "The Bachelor" season 17 contestant Sean Lowe reading an excerpt from his new book, "For the Right Reasons"; and Elle.com editor Leah Chernikoff will interview plus-size model Elly Mayday about her evening beauty routine.

Troy Young, president of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, said the "Bedtime Stories" stunt on Periscope is akin to "'Tonight Show' meets our magazine brands."

"It's an experiment in live programming," he said. "We're trying to learn about live and broadcast in this particular environment." Hearst is not generating any revenue, per se, from the Periscope broadcasts.

Hearst distributes content across multiple partners, including Microsoft's MSN, Young said. He cited Cosmopolitan's recently launched channel on Snapchat Discover as reaching more than 1 million people per day.

"We are aggressive on virtually every social platform, and (Periscope) is part of that," he said. "It's reflective of our embrace of all kinds of distribution channels."

As for why Hearst opted to go with Periscope, as opposed to upstart Meerkat or another live-broadcasting platform, Young cited Periscope's "intimate connection with Twitter." But, he added: "Obviously it's early in how this market is shaping up." Twitter bought Periscope for a reported $100 million and launched the app late last month.

How regularly Hearst expects to produce live Internet broadcasts in the future remains to be seen, Young said.

Hearst's other Periscope broadcasts set for Monday include: a chef from The Cheesecake Factory preparing a special, off-the-menu cheesecake for the Delish food site; author Benjamin Percy reading an excerpt from his new novel, "The Dead Lands," for Esquire; and Seventeen revealing its May 2015 cover image -- as announced by a puppy.

For February 2015, Hearst had 79.9 million unique monthly U.S. users across desktop and mobile platforms, according to comScore. That puts it in 24th place just behind Conde Nast (80.9 million) and BuzzFeed (81.7 million). The top three U.S. Internet properties for February per comScore were: Google (240.8 million), Yahoo (216.8 million) and Facebook (206.5 million).

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Hospitals eye models to address disasters

Written By Unknown on Senin, 13 April 2015 | 18.38

Crisis plans that can take hospitals months to develop could be produced in seconds with the right mathematical modeling — cutting out much of the painstaking human analysis — according to Boston professors who hope to incorporate these algorithms into local protocol.

"What these models enable you to do is figure out a complex situation with a lot of interacting factors. The tools help you make the best decision," said Ozlem Ergun, an associate professor in Northeastern's Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department. "Boston is a very specific place, where almost all the big hospitals are research hospitals, so it could really benefit from this kind of thing."

According to Ergun, these systems can determine the most efficient way for hospitals to respond to incidents such as outbreaks of disease, natural disasters or tragedies like the Boston Marathon bombings, which cause an influx of patients concentrated in one area.

"If you're in a situation where many people need access to hospitals, there could be several issues — problems with transportation, congestion due to the number of people, access limitations for security reasons," she said. "There needs to be a plan for things like how to use certain EMS vehicles and where patients should be directed based on their needs."

Ergun, who is reaching out to local hospitals to team up on preparedness efforts, came to Northeastern from the Georgia Institute of Technology in September, and has worked on issues surrounding humanitarian crisis response for organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jarrod Goentzel, founder and director of the MIT Humanitarian Response Lab, has been using these methods to help West Africa cope with the Ebola outbreak, and said the same approach could be used in Boston to create a central point among its cluster of large hospitals to house supplies needed in crisis situations.

"We have lots of hospitals here. In a panic mode, everyone is trying to procure supplies," he said. "Basic human nature is to hoard and hoard and be prepared. But the more centrally you stock things, the more risk that can cover."

Paul Biddinger, chief of emergency preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital, said each local hospital conducts a yearly analysis using tools like FEMA flood maps, but that potential coordination among hospitals is not analyzed.

He added that predicting the frequency and severity of pandemics is tricky, and any resources that could shed light on those events "would be of use."

"Anything that will more accurately predict stressors on the system will help us know how to deal with those stressors," he said.

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Activists call for stricter checks of ride-hailing drivers

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women is urging ride-hailing services like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar to come up with tougher background checks for their drivers.

Mass NOW spokeswoman Katie Prisco-Buxbaum said the companies have a responsibility to address safety concerns of women and other riders following reports of sexual and physical violence in the Boston area.

Prisco-Buxbaum said that while no screening is perfect, the companies should begin using the more rigorous methods like fingerprinting or other identification measures for drivers.

In February, Boston police charged an Uber driver with sexually assaulting a 30-year-woman. In December, an Uber driver from Boston was accused of driving a woman to a secluded location where he beat and sexually assaulted her.

The state is weighing new regulations for ride-hailing services.

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Inspector Gadget: MacBook a bit pricy, but lightweight and a beauty

MacBook ($1,299 and up,  AppleStore.com)

The latest iteration of Apple's full-size notebook computer weighs in at two pounds, is 13.1 mm thin, and has a 12-inch so-called Retina display with edge-to-edge glass.

The good: If you like Apple design, you'll love this MacBook. Available in gold, silver or space gray, it's also got a great new trackpad and a wider keyboard.

The bad: Apple's new MacBook has just one USB port. So if you plan to connect a lot of devices to your laptop, this might not be for you.

The bottom line: If you're OK with just one USB port, this gorgeous Mac's for you.

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Stocks mostly rise as weak China data boosts stimulus hopes

BEIJING — World stocks mostly rose on Monday, with China's index closing at a seven-year high, as a run of weak indicators boosted hopes for stimulus in the world's second-largest economy.

KEEPING SCORE: Germany's DAX was flat at 12,372.99 and France's CAC 40 was up 0.1 percent to 5,243.32. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.5 percent. A broader measure of European shares, the Stoxx 600, was at record highs, edging up 0.1 percent from the record close set on Friday. On Wall Street, futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 and Down were both down 0.1 percent.

CHINA'S STIMULUS HOPES: Markets were boosted by expectations that a sharper-than-forecast contraction in March trade increased chances that Beijing will launch additional stimulus to spur slowing growth. Imports fell 12.7 percent from a year earlier and exports declined 15 percent. That added to signs that growth in the first three months of the year, due to be reported Wednesday, might decline further from the previous quarter's 7.3 percent.

THE QUOTE: "The elephant in the room is whether China's deterioration has endured," following softer industrial output and other data in January and February, Mizuho Bank said in a report. "The silver lining is that a softer outcome under disinflationary conditions will allow more stimulus to propel a revival in growth."

ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.2 percent to 4,121.71 points, closing above 4,100 for the first time since March 11, 2008. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 2.7 percent to 28,016.34 and Seoul's Kospi rose 0.5 percent to 2,098.92. India's Sensex added 0.3 percent to 28,876.49 and Sydney's S&P ASX 200 edged up 0.1 percent to 5,960.30. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was unchanged at 19,905.46 after briefly passing 20,000 last week.

CURRENCY: The dollar rose across the board as it continued to benefit from expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates as quickly as early expected. It rose to 120.69 yen from Friday's 120.18 yen. The euro fell to $1.0530 from the previous session's $1.0586.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 61 cents to $52.25 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 85 cents on Friday to close at $51.64.

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Mip TV: Drama dynamizes 2015 market

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 12 April 2015 | 18.38

CANNES - Two big "Ds" - Dramas, Digital - look set to galvanize much Croisette business, as well as multiple conference panels, at next week's Cannes Mip TV, which catches part of the international TV business in the full flush of evolution, convulsed by ramping consolidation - Mip TV will be the first market for new joint venture Endemol Shine Group, for instance - and the ever-clearer emergence of international drama as a serious alternative to US fare.

As the number of high-end drama escalates, competition for top-notch show-runners - mostly based out of the U.S. will become all the more bitter.

Last Wednesday, Amazon Studios aconfirmed Diego Luna to play the lead in its untitled Casanova period drama, exec produced by Electus Ent.'s Ben Silverman and Stu Zicherman. Expect further high-end drama announcements - of epics and event dramas - or first-look talent deals at 2015's Mip TV.

Traditionally, May' L.A. Screenings, and October's Mipcom TV mart, have proved the biggest launchpads for new high-profile dramas. No more. Now Mip-TV looks to have joined the club, as the market launches a Drama at Mip TV forum and a veritable mini tsunami of high-end fiction is set to sweep the Croisette. Just some examples:

*One of the most active of Hollywood studios at Cannes, Twentieth Century Fox TV Distribution's will continue to roll out sales on "Empire," boosted by phenom first season ratings, the best for any regular broadcast drama since 2008, as well as the rave-reviewed "The Last Man on Earth."

*Warner Bros. Worldwide TV Distribution, will be pushing super-hero drama" The Flash," and DC Comics super-villains and vigilantes origin story "Gotham," picked up for SVOD by Netflix.

* With free-to-air broadcasters still seeking semi autonomous episode drama, CBS Studios Intl. will be shopping Patricia Arquette starrer "CSI: Cyber" and sci-fi thriller "Zoo," based on James Patterson's bestseller.

*In Europe, film-TV powerhouse Studiocanal bows its first-ever TV sales operation at Mip TV, led by two Canal Plus Original Series, the Tandem-produced "Spotless," now a Canal Plus hit, and futuristic "Section Zero," from Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, plus Tandem's "Crossing Lines 3," and Harlan Coben's "The Five" from Red Production Company.

*Flagship dramas at Endemol Shine Group include ITV series "The Frankenstein Chronicles," with Sean Bean, and AMC/Channel 4's "Humans" (pictured), an around mid-year bow which is "a relationship story with strong thriller elements" set in a world where robots, called synthetics, have developed human emotions, said Endemol Shine Intl. CEO Cathy Payne.

* At Mip TV, ITV Studios Global Ent. will hold a World Premiere Screening of "Texas Rising," co-produced with A + E, and talk up a rebooted "Poldark," and David Duchovny U.S. crime drama "Aquarius," set for NBC.

*From Germany, ZDF will be pushing pan-European crime thriller "The Team," starring Lars Mikkelsen ("The Killing"), Beta "Line of Separation," set in a Cold War-wracked Germany, and Tele München Group Dominic Graf's "Blender," based on a narcotics cop scandal.

The highest profile Mip TV 2015 keynote speakers look like "Modern Family" co-creator Steven Levitan and Sky group chief exec Jeremy Darroch, who will set out his vision for the push by a pan-European Sky, with now integrated pay TV operations in the U.S., Italy and Germany, into high-end drama.

And one of this year's large highlights will be Mip TV's Intl. Drama Screenings, which range from Starz Worldwide Distribution's ballet drama "Flesh & Bone" to "Follow the Money," from Danish pubcaster DR Fiction, "Deadline: Gallipoli," airing in Australia's Foxtel, and "Versailles," a flagship English-language series at France's Canal Plus.

"Great stories have no homeland," says a The Wit Mip TV study, "5 Drama Trends For 2015," citing the fact that the most-adapted scripted formats in 2014 came from Spain.

Of top fiction formats, CW's hour-long comedy "Jane the Virgin," its first Golden Globe nomination, is now in negotiations with a big German broadcaster. Exec producer Ben Silverman originally sourced it from Venezuela.

Reflecting the spread of series in partners, languages, shoots, setting, beyond its first five English-language skeins Federation Ent. is producing the "Boss"-style "Marseilles" for Netflix and espionage thriller "The Bureau" for Canal Plus, both in French, and co-producing hospital-set "The Replacements" in Finnish and season 2 of "Hostages," a Hebrew-language series, with Israel, Federation Ent.'s Breton said.

For Garaude: "We're continuing to notice a growing notion of market opportunities coming from all around the world. Drama production is thoroughly international and becoming more and more so every year."

For the world's biggest content suppliers, Mip TV remains a multi-purpose mart. "The L.A. Screenings very much focus on new TV series, "At Mip TV, we typically talk to everyone about everything, and what we discuss just depends on the relationship we happen to have with each client that we're meeting with. Conversations may turn on film, series or library content, depending on clients," said Gina Brogi, EVP, Worldwide Pay Television & SVOD, Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution.

But such, indeed, is the current dynamism of the drama sector, that one large question is where it leaves much else of the TV business.

In the non-fiction format sector, everybody's waiting for The Next Big Thing. "One big hit changes the way the whole market works. When I began my career, I was told that music was dead in primetime, yet you'd be hard pressed to say that now, with 'Idol,' 'The Voice,' and 'Popstars' in major roles in many territories," said Rob Clark, director of global entertainment, FremantleMedia. At Mip TV, FremantleMedia presents new BBC quiz show "Beat the Brain," "10 Questions You Wouldn't Ask On a First Date," and RTL 1 hit "The Most Beautiful Woman," a beauty contest for women of different ages and backgrounds which is "very engaging, about inspirational stories, female empowerment, with potential to be a long-running franchise for a broadcaster," Clark commented.

Endemol Shine Group will be selling talent show format "The Brain," from Endemol Shine Germany, a breakout hit in China, Spain, Italy, Brazil and France, plus human darts challenge "Bullseye," from Endemol Shine North America, which went straight to series at Fox. It will also be talking up "Junior Masterchef," which is now in over 20 territories as well, said Lisa Perrin, MD, Creative Networks, Endemol Shine Group.

Several "important new formats" will be announced during Mip TV, anticipated Garaude. New formats' challenge, said The Wit's Bertrand Villegas, is that the super-formats are not fading fast enough to allow new formats through.

Quite the contrary at times, as Endemol Shine's Perrin points out: Series 11 of "Masterchef" in the U.K. has launched to best-ever ratings; "Masterchef" has hit a 43% peak share in Argentina. In the last five years, there have only been four days in the world where "Big Brother," which is nearly 17 years old, has not been playing, by one estimate at least.

Some producers criticize TV channels' risk aversion. But, said Villegas, "broadcasters are not in the business of innovation but rather airing successful shows."

The problem is many producers wanting to sell their product but broadcasters not having so many slots. There are also semi-Big Things, such as kids' talent shows like Televisa's "Little Giants," re-versioned in Spain, he added.

For Endemol Shine Group's Perrin, "Regarding the Next Big Thing, I feel it's just around the corner, and I'm hoping it's going to come, but it's not there yet."

Digital is there, in contrast, and now shaping the TV landscape, as Mip TV reflects. The MIP Digital Fronts co presence is powering up, with a blockbuster line-up of 15 Digital Fronts partners and showcases, a large rise on 2014, said Garaude. One example: as Chinese appetite for entertainment formats ramps up, one top Mip Formats keynote speaker on Saturday was Yang Weidong, SVP Youku Todou, China's leading online TV co, which has bought "Big Brother" and "The Voice."

Fresh off a $50 million investment from venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz and the creation last August of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, which he heads up as president, BuzzFeed's Ze Frank will deliver the Digital Fronts keynote along with producer Michael Shamberg ("Django Unchained," "Erin Brokovich").

Other Digital Fronts speakers include Chad Gudstein, CEO of Machinima, the vidgame/fandom-themed digital co, teen YouTube destination channel Awesomeness TV's founder/CEO Brian Robbins, and Andrew Creighton, prexy of print/online publisher Vice Media.

A pumped-up Mip Digital Fronts kick off Tuesday afternoon. For most of Mip TV, however, it is drama that will be making the running. The high-end drama boom is, moreover, no passing fad.

Explaining the ramp-up of serialized drama, "The main key element is the media-technology landscape: Companies -Netflix, Amazon - leveraging premium content to differentiate their offer," said Electus Ent. founder-CEO Ben Silverman, who receives a Mip TV Medaille d'Honneur next Wednesday.

More European telecom giants will enter the TV fiction space, as serialized drama works especially well in an age of view anytime, anywhere, predicted Martin Moszkowicz at Germany's Constantin Film, which rolls this May on English-language "Shadowhunters," based on Cassandra Clares' YA book series, with writer/exec producer Ed Decter ("Unforgettable," "In Plain Sight").

The ramp-up has two large consequences. "The benchmark for drama has gone up. Competition is fierce and you need an attractive package. There's a cost to that. So broadcasters are looking to co-produce, so as to get a bigger budget," said Endemol Shine's Payne.

"Co-production is progressing enormously, becoming more and more important and successful," Garaude added. One 2015 Mip TV centerpiece is Tuesday's Intl. Drama Co-Production Summit; this weekend's Mip Doc featured, for the first time, a European Broadcasters Union Co-production breakfast.

And, currently, high-end drama is one place to be. For Twentieth Century Fox's Brogi: "One of the great things about competition for dramas in the market place right now is that there's something that works for everyone: It's just a matter of finding the right outlet for each piece of content that we make. There is increased demand and it's a great business to be in."

Elsa Keslassy and Leo Barraclough contributed to this report

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Tax Day extra difficult for many same-sex married couples

WASHINGTON — A necessary burden for most Americans, Tax Day is an accounting nightmare for thousands of gay and lesbian couples as they wrestle with the uneven legal status of same-sex marriage in the United States.

They live in a country that recognizes their marriages, but some reside in the 13 states that do not, an issue that will be argued before the Supreme Court later this month.

At tax time, and Wednesday is the filing deadline, it gets complicated because most state income tax returns use information from a taxpayer's federal return.

Straight couples simply copy numbers from one form to another. But that doesn't work for same-sex couples reporting combined incomes, deductions and exemptions on their federal tax returns. These couples must untangle their finances on their state returns, where they are still considered single.

"We're adults, we're contributing to the welfare of society and yet, here's this one thing that just reaches up every year and kind of slaps us in the face," said Brian Wilbert, an Episcopal priest who lives in Oberlin, a small college town in northern Ohio.

Wilbert married his husband, Yorki Encalada, in 2012, at a ceremony in upstate New York. He is filing a joint federal tax return for the second time this year. But Ohio, which doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, requires the couple to file their state tax returns as if they were single.

"It may not be the most burning thing," Wilbert said. "But as we think about equality and marriage equality, this is an important thing because it's part of what couples do."

The number of states that recognize same-sex marriages has grown to 37, plus the District of Columbia, since the Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013.

After the ruling, the IRS announced that it would recognize same-sex marriages for federal tax purposes, even if couples lived in states that did not.

The Supreme Court is scheduled hear arguments in another same-sex marriage case April 28. Advocates hope the court will compel the remaining states to recognize gay and lesbian marriages.

Opponents of same-sex marriage want the court to send the issue back to the states. They note that recognition of same-sex marriage has spread largely through court orders, rather than the ballot box.

"It's not about the rights of a handful of people who want to change the institution of marriage," said Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values, an Ohio group. "It's about the will of the people."

The benefits of marriage are a mixed bag when it comes to taxes. Some couples, especially those with disparate incomes, can lower their combined tax bills by getting married. Others pay a marriage penalty.

The vast majority of married couples in the U.S. file joint federal tax returns in which they combine their incomes, exemptions, deductions and credits to calculate their tax liability. But same-sex couples are not allowed to file joint tax returns in most states that don't recognize their marriages. Instead, they have to unravel their finances and file separate state returns.

"So you have this one return that would normally give you the numbers to do your state tax return, but instead you have to split all your incomes again and pretend like you're not married," said Deb L. Kinney, a partner at the law firm of Johnston, Kinney & Zulaica in San Francisco.

"Your health care benefits will be taxed differently and your credits will be different. Your interest deduction could be different, and then you have to go through the allocation on each return," Kinney said. "It's much more expensive and cumbersome."

With the tax filing deadline approaching on Wednesday, states that don't recognize same-sex marriages are dealing with these issues in different ways. Five states require same-sex couples to fill out multiple federal tax returns, sometimes called dummy returns, so they can come up with the appropriate numbers for their state returns. This is how it works in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan and Nebraska.

First, a same-sex couple fills out a joint federal income tax return, just like any other married couple. This is the return they file with the IRS.

Next, each spouse fills out a separate federal return as if the filer was single. Information from these returns is used to fill out state income tax returns, which are filed as if each was single.

"You have to literally make out five returns and file three," said Scott Squillace, a tax lawyer who wrote a legal guide for gay and lesbian couples called, "Whether To Wed."

"It's dizzying."

There's more.

"If someone with a joint bank account writes a check for a charitable donation, the question is, do you split it 50-50? Or is it that person's deduction when they file a single return?" said Arianne Plasencia, a tax lawyer at the Carlton Fields law firm in Miami.

Kansas, North Dakota and Ohio take a different approach. These states provide worksheets that same-sex couples must complete to separate their finances. In Ohio, the form has 31 lines, though most couples don't need to fill out every line.

"There is no way that I, as a Joe Q. Public, who happens to be gay and in a same-gender marriage, would figure out how to fill this form out," said Wilbert, the Episcopal priest. "I mean, it's just impossible."

Wilbert said he had to hire an accountant to do his taxes for the first time in his life. "I also had to get an extension, which I never had to do."

The issue is moot in South Dakota because there is no state income tax. It's less of an issue in Arkansas and Mississippi because these states don't use information from federal returns on their state income tax forms.

Alabama has same-sex married couples divide the income and taxes they report on their federal returns, based on each spouses' share of their combined income.

Missouri doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, but Gov. Jay Nixon issued an executive order requiring gay and lesbian couples to file joint state tax returns if they file a joint federal return.

This is much simpler than in other states. But what if filing as a married couple causes your taxes to go up?

"For the people it hurts, how unfair," said Janis Cowhey, a law partner at the Marcum accounting firm in New York. "You won't recognize my marriage, but you're going to make me pay more in taxes because I got married somewhere else."

___

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

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'Kids can smell fake': 5 insights from marketing pros at the massive summit

The room was buzzing with talk of data mining, viral campaigns and brand trust at Variety's Massive Entertainment Marketing Summit at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons on Friday, which brought together industry experts to weigh in the challenges and payoffs of digital marketing, among other topics. Marketing experts agreed that authenticity is the key for younger consumers. Here's a few other insights from the summit:

1. Kids can smell fake

Scott Birnbaum, Senior VP of marketing and e-commerce at Aeropostale, shared the story of launching a clothing line with YouTube star and social influencer Bethany Mota. At one point the campaign released photos of Mota that, to her fans, looked over-doctored and caused outrage on social media. "I even got a phone call from my daughter who was supposedly in school saying 'What did you do to Bethany?,'" Birnbaum recalled. Using this anecdote, Birnbaum emphasized the mantra that kids can smell fake. "Eventually, a single tweet that said 'Hey, we think Beth is beautiful too. It was a mistake. It's going to be fixed in 20 minutes,' made everything calm down," he said.

Moderator Jeetendr Sehdev, a celebrity branding authority, read from a study commissioned by Variety that found U.S. teens view YouTube stars to be 90 percent more authentic than traditional celebrities, 17 times more engaging and 11 times more extraordinary.

Mota, who was also on the panel, said that her philosophy relies on honesty and brand trust. "I will never talk about something or promote something that I don't actually use and that I don't care about because with the relationship being so strong between the creators and viewers, they can see when you don't truly like something. As long as you're honest and truthful then that's what builds that relationship. And the stronger that is, the more they're going to listen to what you say," she said.

2. Focus on the content, not the demographic

In a spotlight conversation with Movio CEO Will Palmer about how theaters and studios use data to target audiences, Palmer suggested gender and demographic info may be an old fashioned way of approaching an audience -- "assuming that somebody, the day they turn 36, is no longer going to be interested in 'The Avengers.' These films cross all quadrants and cross all segments. So sometimes you have to ignore the demographic information and start looking at the comparable titles. If you focus more on the content and less on the demographic, you'll likely get a better result," he said.

3. Help consumers discover what they want without being intrusive

Hulu's head of marketing, Jenny Wall and Facebook's global head of entertainment strategy Jim Underwood discussed the potential hazards of data mining and targeted advertising. Wall pointed out that consumers want to feel like they're discovering new things, but they need help because there is so much available. In order to give people what they want without creeping them out, Hulu uses a combination of algorithms and staff-curated lists. Wall also said when Hulu advertises on Facebook, the combined data is extremely valuable. "Facebook data mixed with Hulu data is the most amazing goldmine of data possible. And it actually is not really intrusive because they don't really understand, I think, that we're doing that... We have a thousand ads, and in real time we're quickly optimizing and shifting to serve the right ad and the personalized ad to the right person."

4. Embrace fan-generated content

Sima Sistani, head of media at Tumblr, explained her thoughts on how content producers can improve their digital presence, saying that fans will create opportunities. "You have fandoms out there who are taking the best moments from a movie or show and creating episode recaps or pulling out the best moments into gifs and even creating fan fiction and fan art," she explained. "One of my favorite things that I saw was the bacon and eggs version of the characters of 'Parks and Recreation.' If the 'Parks and Rec' Tumblr re-blogs that, it's so meaningful and that fan is just going to get more engaged and more excited."

5. Fail, fail fast and move on

Jill Hotchkiss, VP of marketing and creative at Disney XD shared the mantra "fail, fail fast and move on" which she uses when brainstorming ways to connect with a younger demographic. "You have got to try new and try different," she said. "We need to figure out how to be a kids space and do it in a different way when there are a lot of restrictions for us."

Caty Burgess, VP of media strategies at the CW, used an example of how her network has tried as many avenues as possible in order to be on the cutting edge of marketing. "Our first mobile campaign was little sticker mirrors you could put on the back of your cellphone for 'Gossip Girl.'"

The research team at a network is largely responsible for determining what will work, but beyond that there is still plenty of uncertainty when pitching a new idea, explained Jamie Cutburth, senior VP of marketing at Bravo and Oxygen. "That 50 percent of the unproven part is the culture and it is the risk-taking," he said. "It's very difficult because you're going to make sure that it hits every button or it's not going to move forward. But that's why we're able to do a lot of great stuff."

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IFF Panama: Central America on the right track for growth

PANAMA - As the leaders of the Americas, including U.S. President Barack Obama, meet in Panama City for the seventh Summit of the Americas, they will be all too aware that it is the economies of Central America that are leading growth in the region. And, according to a report published on Tuesday (April 7) by the United Nation's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Central America will continue to lead the way in 2015 with Panama, with an expected 6 % increase in GDP over the coming year, at the forefront.

Central America, which consists of seven countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama), is also on the right track for growth in its theatrical movie market, according to Luis Vargas, Managing director of Rentrak for Mexico, Caribbean, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela.

"Central America is a region that you can consider as one country, one big country," Vargas explains. "It is a region that is growing very, very fast because of the amount of cinemas being developed. In the past three-or-four years the percentage increase in new cinemas has been at least 5% per year. A very good number, especially if you consider this compared to other regions of the world. It tells you that as an economy, it is a region that has potential for the future due to investment and the possibilities in this market."

The region, which is estimated to have a combined population of around 43 million, 3.6 million of which are in Panama, is also undergoing consolidation and modernization with old theatres making way for new, and many existing screens being digitalized and fitted with better, more modern and comfortable seats. All these elements have helped the growth of admissions and grosses.

In 2014, according to Rentrak, Central American cinemas grossed $107,184,606, up from $ 104,553,755 in 2013 and $ 94,814,293 in 2012: Growth of about 13% in two years.

There were 93 performing theatres in all of Central America in 2012, and 96 in 2013 and 2014, but, as Vargas explains: "In 2014 a lot of the existing cinemas were modernized. In 2015 we are expecting several new cinemas to be opened and less cinemas to be closed. For example, this number of 96 would suggest that no cinemas opened in the entire region, however, this number is the final total after taking into consideration the older cinemas that were closed."

In screen terms, the region has seen an increase from 489 in 2012 to 503 in 2013, and 507 in 2014. Again these are final numbers after taking in to account the closing of older screens and the opening of more modern, digitalized screens.

"Now that the digitalization is much more advanced, also by the independent exhibitors, we will see a decrease in the number of cinemas that are being closed due to economic factors, and more cinemas will be opened", Vargas adds. "We are expecting at least two new cinemas in Panama, and both are to be high end multiplex cinemas."

Across Central America in 2014 the highest grossing movies were all studio blockbusters. In order they were "Transformers: Age of Extinction," "Rio 2," "Maleficent," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," "Captain America: The Winter Solider," "The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay - Part 1," "X Men: Days of Future Past," "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies," "How to Train Your Dragon 2," and "Guardians of the Galaxy."

In Panama, the top ten for 2014 were "Transformers: Age of Extinction," "Rio 2," "Maleficent," "X Men: Days of Future Past," "Captain America: The Winter Solider," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," "The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay - Part 1," and "Annabelle."

Locally made films, however, have started to make an impact on the commercial cinema circuit in Central America, most notably Miguel Gómez's "Maikol Yordan" ("Maikol Yordan de Viaje Perdido"), an adventure, drama from Costa Rica that will open in Panama on May 14 following its international premiere at IFF Panama on April 13.

In Costa Rica. the film grossed $1,080,511 in 2014, and now has an accumulated gross of $3,528,104 since its Dec. 18 bow.

In Panama four local productions made their mark commercially in 2014. They included "Invasion" ("Invasión"), the country's first Oscar submission for the foreign-language category, "Historias del Canal", "Breaking the Wave" ("Rompiendo la ola") and "Reinas." All of which have played the IFF Panama.

The films, according to the Panama Film Commission, are just four of 13 features to be produced in Panama since 2012, and that compares with just three local productions completed between 2007 and 2012 and two between 2001 and 2007.

Vargas believes one solution for the growth of the local Central American film industry will be for governments to invest in art house cinemas.

"Gvernments should create alternative spaces of exhibition that are focused to exhibit product where the main goal is not to make money, but to promote art, or to promote a message," argues Vargas. "Otherwise, lower-budget films will be lost in the huge space of exhibition, and create unnecessary frustration for their producers.

"Why does a movie have to be exhibited on a commercial circuit?" he asks. "I believe that the only countries that have supported this type of circuit are Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Mexico has one of the highest capacities when it comes to these alternative exhibition spaces that are controlled by the government and that give low-budget films a space in which to be exhibited. We have to understand that the filmmakers can't do this on their own. It has to be a synergy, like team work, and the key people in the local film industry must ask their governments for the money for new cinemas, for the spaces in which to see their own local product."

The heads of those governments have all been meeting in Panama this weekend where the theme of their Summit of the Americas has been "Prosperity with Equity: The Challenge of Cooperation in the Americas," a theme and a challenge that is equally on the minds of filmmakers across Central and South America as they look at ways to share screen time with the Hollywood blockbusters that remain popular with the growing theatrical audiences across the region.

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Stateâ€™s first medical pot dispensary on pace in Salem

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 11 April 2015 | 18.38

Massachusetts' first medical marijuana dispensary is expected to start selling cannabis in a few months, with another on track to begin this fall.

Alternative Therapies expects to open in Salem in early summer, according to its website, after becoming the first dispensary to receive final state Department of Public Health certification in December that allowed it to start growing medical marijuana in Amesbury. It will start scheduling appointments for DPH-registered patients and caregivers through its website once it determines an opening date.

"A variety of strains of medical-grade cannabis grown with organic methods will be offered, initially in bud form only," the company's website states. "Over time, we intend to expand our product line to include more strains and ... marijuana-infused products such as tinctures, baked goods, topical creams, salves and vaporizer pens."

The DPH last week also gave New England Treatment Access the go-ahead to start growing cannabis at its 60,000-square-foot Franklin facility, and approval for its Northampton dispensary. Approval is pending for its Brookline dispensary.

"They're in the cultivation process," spokeswoman Dot Joyce said. "It takes at least five to six months to have treatments available, and we're expecting to be able to serve qualifying patients this fall."

Dispensaries will set their own prices based on region, demand and other factors, according to Kevin Gilnack, executive director of the Commonwealth Dispensary Association, a trade group.

"Every dispensary will offer a hardship program for patients who are low-income," he said.

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Car Smart: Off-road combines with luxury

The Land Rover Discovery's boxy and utilitarian appearance of the 1990s has evolved into a sleek and versatile compact SUV, but despite its refined metamorphosis, the 2015 Discovery Sport still packs enough off-road capability to handle just about any New England driving condition.

The Discovery Sport's exterior blends a clamshell nose and a streamlined profile with a rugged stance emphasized by a generous amount of fender clearance over 19-inch wheels. My tester was painted in metallic gray with brightly polished stainless steel front and rear shields that protect the Land Rover's underside.

The Discovery Sport is offered in three trim levels. The well-equipped base level SE starts at $37,000, while the $41,570 HSE model that I tested features a panoramic roof, full leather seats and a power tailgate. The top-shelf HSE Lux at $45,570 adds premium leather, an 11-speaker sound system and adjustable mood lighting.

The Discovery Sport shares the same 2.0-liter turbocharged engine as Land Rover's smaller Evoque subcompact SUV that I reviewed late last year. The four-cylinder engine mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission churns out 240 horsepower and 250 pound-feet of torque. Steering-wheel mounted paddles allowed for manual shifting. My tester did 20 mpg in the city, and 26 on the highway.

Despite occasional turbo lag that resulted in delayed acceleration from a dead start, the Discovery Sport was easy and responsive to drive.

Tightly spaced gear ratios from the nine-speed transmission provided smooth overall acceleration and seamless downshifts. It was agile through the corners thanks in part to an all-new multilink rear axle and electronic power-assisted steering.

As expected, the Land Rover was remarkably quiet on the highway. The Discovery Sport can be switched from two-wheel to four-wheel-drive with the touch of a button on the center console. Additionally, Land Rover's Terrain Response system allows drivers to select four-wheel-drive modes to tailor the Discovery Sport's response to various conditions.

The Discovery Sport's well designed interior maximized space with ample visibility. Power adjustable front seats and a telescopic steering wheel made it easy to dial in a comfortable driving position. Second-row seats that comfortably fit three adults with ample head- and footroom were set two inches higher than the front to create a stadium-like view from the backseats. A third-row seating option boosts the Land Rover's passenger capacity to seven.

A push-button start, rotary knob transmission shifter and an electronic parking brake highlight the Discovery Sport's dashboard. Large buttons surrounding an 8-inch touchscreen help to reduce drilling down through multiple menus to access navigation, pair cellphones and tune the radio.

While the Discovery Sport yields to the competition when comparing performance and fuel economy, the Land Rover certainly compensates with outstanding all-terrain capability and overall luxury. Other compact luxury SUVs to consider are the Audi Q5, BMW X3 or Mercedes-Benz GLK.

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Sprint-RadioShack stores launched across Bay State

Forty Massachusetts  RadioShacks — including locations in Boston, Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston and Cambridge — were among 1,435 nationwide that relaunched yesterday as co-branded Sprint-RadioShack stores.

The move more than doubles the footprint of the mobile carrier, which will occupy about a third of each store to sell devices and services from Sprint, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile under a "store-within-a-store" model.

RadioShack products will continue to be sold in the stores.

Sprint made the deal with Standard General affiliate General Wireless Inc., which last week bought 1,743 stores from RadioShack after the 94-year-old, Boston-born consumer electronics chain filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

"This important partnership with Sprint has enabled RadioShack to continue to provide a trusted destination for our millions of loyal consumers," RadioShack CEO Ron Garriques said in a statement.

Temporary Sprint-RadioShack signage eventually will be replaced, and Sprint will build out the store-within-a-store concept in the next several months.

Sprint said it plans to hire about 100 workers for the Massachusetts stores.

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MCCA sticks to expansion plan

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is pushing ahead with plans for the expansion of its South Boston exhibition center even as the governor has put the brakes on $1 billion in bonding needed for the project and its champion, authority head James Rooney, is taking a new job.

The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center expansion committee yesterday voted to designate the architectural team of Brooks + Scarpa of Los Angeles and Spalding Tougias of Boston as its preliminary choice to design two garages on E and D streets.

The garages, with a combined 1,500 spaces, would replace parking that will be lost to the expansion project. The MCCA will now negotiate a contract with the architectural firms.

The move comes as Gov. Charlie Baker's administration continues to review the financing of the BCEC expansion after the bonding was put on hold soon after the governor took office.

Rooney, the executive director of the MCCA who has pushed hard for the expansion, is taking over the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce on July 1, but said yesterday he remains confident the BCEC project will go forward without him at the helm.

"I don't think this is about me. I think that the vision, the program, the economic development opportunities are much bigger than one person," Rooney said. "There's a very strong team of people here that have contributed to the success of the operation."

But Rooney also is looking ahead to his new job, saying he plans to reach out to startups and tech companies to integrate them into the chamber, and may even do away with its signature breakfast networking events.

The breakfasts are a Boston business institution, but may not be as welcoming to a new generation of business leaders, he said.

"These breakfasts and other things the chamber does that might have been part of the success strategy for the past 25 years, I think we need to take a fresh look at those," said Rooney. "Is this the kind of thing that millennials want when they think about networking and socialization?"

Under retiring CEO Paul Guzzi, the chamber has started to become more active in the high-tech community, and Rooney said he will focus on continuing to expand the diversity of the chamber's membership.

"Certainly understanding how the so-called new economy and the technology, innovation-based industries affect what we define as commerce in Boston will be a focus area," he said.

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CBS News' Bob Schieffer retiring

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 09 April 2015 | 18.38

"Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer has announced he is retiring, CBS News confirmed on Wednesday, in a move that will open a seat at one of the longest-running programs on television.

The journalist, who has worked in the industry for more than 50 years — 46 of them with CBS — will say goodbye to the newsroom this summer. He made the announcement in Fort Worth at TCU's Schieffer College of Communication, where he was speaking at its annual Schieffer Symposium.

"Bob's been with CBS since 1969… chief Washington correspondent since 1982 … and host of 'Face the Nation' since 1991. That broadcast is in its 60th year and has never been better or more powerful, ranking consistently No. 1 this season," CBS News president David Rhodes said in a statement. "He's been an inspiration and a mentor to so many colleagues — and frankly, to me. You could see at TCU tonight how that inspiration extends to a wider community of reporters and editors and academics … Not to mention the example he sets as a father and husband with his wife Pat and his whole family here and elsewhere."

But, Rhodes continued, "It's not over yet. Bob will be on the air this Sunday from the Washington bureau. And for a number of Sundays to come. We'll have more to report soon about the plans for this important broadcast and for the Washington bureau as a whole. An important 2016 campaign season is beginning. But this is Bob's night, and I hope we can all celebrate with him the remarkable achievement which is his career here at CBS."

Schieffer, who has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon, has been talking retirement for awhile. In January 2008, he said he would step down after the inauguration of a new president. Last November, he interviewed President Obama.

The announcement will inevitably start a round of jockeying for the anchor chair at "Face the Nation." The show is typically the most watched of TV's Sunday public-affairs programs, but ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos has made strides over the months in attracting younger viewers while NBC's "Meet the Press" has experienced new momentum since Chuck Todd took over hosting duties for that program last year.

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State to streamline Rx medical marijuana pipeline

Medical marijuana companies yesterday welcomed the news that state health officials plan to streamline the way they issue dispensary licenses to prevent delays in treatment for those who qualify for it.

"Anything that can be done to facilitate getting medication to patients is something I'd support," said Dr. James Kurnick, a cancer researcher and CEO of Mass Medicum Corp., which received a provisional license in November to open a dispensary in Taunton and a cultivation site in Holbrook.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel yesterday said the licensing system has been "a confusing, overly lengthy process that has delayed appropriate patients from getting access" to medically needed marijuana — a sentiment Kurnick shares.

Under the new process, dispensaries will be licensed in a format similar to pharmacies and other health care facilities, Bharel said. The process, which will formally launch May 15, will set high safety and suitability standards for dispensaries to meet, particularly when it comes to security and background checks, she added.

"This change will create a more efficient, market-driven licensure process that allows the commonwealth to maintain the highest standards of both public safety and accessibility," Bharel said in a statement.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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Asian shares mixed; Hong Kong, Japan benchmarks surge

TOKYO — Asian shares were mixed Thursday, with gains supported by lower oil prices, firmness in U.S. markets and strong buying in Hong Kong by mainland Chinese investors.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index rose 0.6 percent to 19,909.26, tapping fresh 15-year highs as the Japanese yen softened against the U.S. dollar. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 3.4 percent to 27,136.37, breaching seven-year highs. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.2 percent to 2,054.49, while Australia's S&P ASX/200 slipped 0.4 percent to 5,938.80. Shares in Southeast Asia were mixed, while China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.2 percent to 3,946.74.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong shares rose after mainland Chinese investors bought heavily, pushing the benchmark up 6.3 percent before it lost some ground on profit-taking. Chinese are shifting investments into Hong Kong, which is seen as a bargain following rallies in mainland Chinese markets that have made shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen relatively expensive.

THE QUOTE: "Money came flooding into Hong Kong's stock market Wednesday, and the market took flight, trading at its highest since 2008 and setting record trading volumes," Stephen Innes, senior trader for OANDA Asia Pacific, said in a commentary.

GLOBAL DEALMAKING: Shares were boosted by news that oil company Royal Dutch Shell had agreed to buy BG Group for $69.7 billion in cash and stock. A revival of major acquisitions has yielded almost $1 trillion in deals this year, according to data provider Dealogic. The premiums typically paid in such transactions tend to raise share prices.

WALL STREET: U.S. shares posted modest gains Wednesday as investors awaited company earnings and puzzled over the likely timing of a future interest rate hike, following the release of minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5.57 points, or 0.3 percent, at 2,081.90. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 27.09 points at 17,902.51.

ENERGY: Oil fell nearly 7 percent on Wednesday, its biggest drop in two months, after the Energy Department reported oil in storage was about triple what analysts had estimated. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 56 cents to $50.98 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $3.56 to close at $50.42 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, gained 48 cents to $57.17 after falling $3.55 overnight to close at $55.55 in London.

CURRENCIES: The euro was trading at $1.0767 versus $1.07797 on Wednesday. The dollar rose to 120.22 yen from its previous close of 120.15.

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Massachusetts VA clinic, hospital wait times vary widely

BOSTON — In a state that prides itself on access to great health care, wait times at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics vary widely, with some facilities in central and western Massachusetts delaying appointments at much higher rates than in the affluent east.

Nearly 9,000 medical appointments at VA facilities in Massachusetts — about 2 percent of the state's total during the six-month period ending in February— failed to meet the department's goal of completing medical appointments within 30 days.

That's better than the national average of 2.8 percent, but nearly half the delays in Massachusetts occurred at only three of the state's 20 facilities, according to government data reviewed by the Associated Press.

The AP analysis of six months of appointment data at 940 VA hospitals and clinics nationwide found that the number of medical appointments delayed 30 to 90 days has stayed flat since Congress began pumping $16.3 billion dollars into the VA system in August. The number of appointments that take longer than 90 days to complete has nearly doubled.

Many of the delay-prone hospitals and clinics are clustered within a few hours' drive of each other in a handful of Southern states, often in areas with a strong military presence, a partly rural population and patient growth that has outpaced the VA's sluggish planning process.

Waits in the Northeast were generally better, but the Central Western Massachusetts VA in Leeds saw nearly double the national rate of delays — about 5.5 percent — for its 48,879 appointments. At the Worcester VA, nearly 6.2 percent of the 20,761 appointments completed there took longer than 30 days.

Dennis Ramstein, spokesman for the Central Western Massachusetts VA, said the agency has hired more medical personnel and has a new director, John Collins, with a health care background in the US Army including as former chief operating officer for the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Collins, who also receives health care services through the VA, has made lowering wait times a top priority, Ramstein said.

"We're working to get the veterans into their appointments in a more timely manner," Ramstein said. "It's a work in progress and definitely moving forward."

One of the top performing clinics in the state was the VA clinic on Causeway Street in Boston. Of the 24,041 completed appointments during the six-month period, all but 74 — about 0.3 percent — were completed within the 30-day window.

The busiest facility in the state, the VA hospital in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, had one of the better timeliness records in Massachusetts. Of the more than 112,000 appointments made during the six-month period, just 1 percent took longer than 30 days.

The highest percentage of patients that had to wait longer than 30 days occurred at the VA clinic in Plymouth. Of the 1,300 appointments completed there during the six-month period, 128 — or 9.8 percent — took more than 30 days.

Gov. Charlie Baker, a former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, said Massachusetts is ready to help the VA further reduce wait times by incorporating the state's private health care providers into the system where needed.

"Massachusetts is way past where many other states are in terms of making private providers available to veterans in situations where they either have expertise that's not available through the VA ... or they have waiting time issues that they want to address," Baker said.

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Things to know about Apple's new photo-storage service

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 08 April 2015 | 18.38

NEW YORK — On Wednesday, Apple is expected to release a free update to its Mac operating system. The update will bring a new Photos app for Mac computers and launch an online photo-storage service called iCloud Photo Library. The service lets you sync photos among various personal computers and mobile devices. It also saves storage space by moving full-resolution versions online.

Here are some things to know.

— To get it, go to the Mac App Store and check for updates. You'll need the new version of the Mac operating system, 10.10.3. On phones and tablets, you need at least version 8.0 of iOS, though 8.2 is recommended. You can also access your photos on Windows computers with Apple's free iCloud for Windows software. (Sorry, it's not available for Android.)

— If you don't see prompts to turn on iCloud Photo Library, go to "Preferences" on the Mac Photos app and check "iCloud Photo Library." On iPhones and iPads, go to "Photos & Camera" in the settings. In both cases, choose the option to optimize storage to save space on your device.

— Why optimize? That will always keep the full-resolution version online, and what you see on your device will depend on how much space you have left. If it's running low, the Photos software will replace full-resolution images with smaller files, particularly for older shots. They will be fine to view on that device, but you might notice degradation when you zoom or crop. As long as you're online, the software will download originals automatically when you need them, such as for printing.

— Photos on the Mac gives you the option to store photos and videos in folders, but the preferred way is for Photos to import copies into its library. You need to keep this default option for iCloud Photo Library to work. But you will lose control over organization, as Photos takes over managing that for you.

— The 5 gigabytes of free storage on iCloud won't get you far. You can get a total of 20 gigabytes for $1 a month, 200 GB for $4, 500 GB for $10 and 1 terabyte for $20.

— When you delete a photo on one device, it will delete across all of your others as well. But, the new Photos app gives you a warning first and then about a month to retrieve the image from iCloud. Previously, photos deleted from iPhones and iPads disappeared immediately — bad for parents with small children who like to haphazardly delete things.

— If you change your mind and want to stop using iCloud Photo Library, you'll be able to retrieve all your originals first.

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Salem rehab hospital announces closing in September

SALEM — A Salem rehabilitation hospital that can trace its roots in the city to the 18th century is closing its doors in September.

Spaulding Hospital officials tell The Salem News that upcoming changes in federal regulations designed to cut Medicare costs will lead to dramatic reductions in the types of patients Spaulding will be allowed to admit.

The closing will affect 320 workers, although the exact number of layoffs has yet to be determined.

A union official called the announcement a "devastating blow" to employees, some of whom have worked at Spaulding for decades.

Spaulding is a 160-bed hospital for patients with long-term recoveries.

David Storto, president of Partners Continuing Care, which oversees Spaulding, said the average inpatient occupancy rate has already declined from 70 percent to 48 percent.

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Review: New Apple Photos app makes fixing, cropping easy

NEW YORK — If you're like most people, those hundreds of photos you took on vacation are still on your camera or phone. You shared a handful on Facebook or Instagram, and tell yourself that you'll sift through the others — one day.

Procrastinate no more. Apple's new Photos app for Mac computers, available Wednesday as a free software update, makes it easy to organize and edit your pictures. The app, which replaces iPhoto, bundles professional-level tools such as granular color correction into one free consumer package.

Like other free apps such as Google's Picasa, Photos is good for auto-enhancing, cropping and other basic touches such as lightening underexposed shots. But it goes further by also including some of the advanced fine-tuning you'd find in a tool like Adobe Lightroom, which costs $149.

___

BETTER-LOOKING SHOTS

If you already use Photos on your iPhone or iPad, you'll see many similarities. Images are organized automatically, partly using location information embedded in the pictures. You can also view photos on a map. The Mac's app goes further in using face-detection technology to group photos by the people in them.

Click on any photo to begin editing. The Enhance button alone will improve many shots. The Adjust tool enhances lighting, color and other attributes separately. Each attribute has an auto button along with a slider you can adjust. Click an arrow to unveil the advanced controls.

I like to adjust something called white balance to compensate for, say, the yellowish glow of indoor lighting. Cameras do this automatically, but not always correctly. In pictures taken on a recent trip, a friend's baby looked too blue, and a waterfall looked too yellow. Photos fixed those quickly, just by hitting "auto." Lightroom usually requires more steps to correct similar issues.

Photos has a lot of cropping options, though my favorite is the auto button. It straightens photos based on the horizon, among other features. My only complaint is it takes a few extra steps to make sure the cropped image retains the original's dimensions. I hope a future update will let me set that as the default.

___

SYNCING DEVICES

With a new iCloud Photo Library online-storage service, all your mobile photos will sync to the Mac app, along with your iPhoto albums. You can import additional photos, including those in cameras' proprietary RAW formats, which many pros prefer using. All images are stored online in high resolution, whether they were taken on an iPhone or imported from another camera. Your entire library is then accessible on all your devices, and any edits you make will sync.

By storing full-resolution images online, Photos can free up space on your Mac or mobile device by substituting a lower-quality version. You can still get the original whenever you need it, but it's not taking up room if you don't. Photos figures all that out for you and takes into account how much space you have.

Any photo you delete disappears from all your devices simultaneously, but don't fear, you have about a month to retrieve it from the cloud.

___

HOW TO GET THE APP

Check the Mac's App Store for version 10.10.3 of the Mac system. Turn on iCloud Photo Library on your Mac and mobile devices when you see the prompts. You may need to buy more iCloud storage through Apple, as the 5 free gigabytes only translates to roughly 3,000 iPhone photos, not to mention video or larger files from stand-alone cameras.

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Tesla boosts range, power and price of low-end Model S

DETROIT — Electric car maker Tesla Motors is going after mainstream luxury car buyers by adding all-wheel-drive and more range and power to the base version of its only model.

But the added features at the low end of the Model S lineup will come with about a 7 percent price increase, to $75,000 for those buying the cars. The base lease price will rise to $838 per month.

As of Wednesday, Tesla will stop selling the old base Model S called the 60. The $70,000 rear-drive car with a 380-horsepower motor could go 208 miles on a single charge and from zero to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds.

The new all-wheel-drive model, called the 70-D, can go a government-certified 240 miles per charge, has 514 horsepower and can go from zero to 60 in 5.2 seconds. Buyers also get free access to Tesla's network of quick-charging stations.

CEO Elon Musk says with a $7,500 federal tax credit that takes the price to $67,500, plus tax credits in some states, the new version is price-competitive with BMW's midsize 5-Series, or the Mercedes E-Class when you add in savings from not buying gasoline. BMW's 5 Series starts around $50,000, while the E-Class starts at close to $52,000.

He says Tesla, which is based in Palo Alto, California, needed all-wheel-drive to appeal to luxury buyers, especially in colder climates such as the Northeast, where most luxury cars are sold. About 58 percent of the luxury car market in the U.S. is all-wheel-drive, according to Kelley Blue Book.

"It's also good in warm climates where there's heavy rain or slippery roads for any reason," Musk said in an interview. "We've seen a strong interest in all-wheel-drive in all climates, really."

Tesla's next vehicle, the Model X SUV due out late this year, will be offered with similar features at the low end of the lineup, Musk said.

Musk said he has no plans to spend more on marketing to match Mercedes and BMW even though he's going after more mass-market customers. The company will continue to host events for customers but "there are no plans yet to do advertising or endorsements or any discounting," Musk said

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Hackers hit Israeli websites after Anonymous threats

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 07 April 2015 | 18.38

JERUSALEM — Pro-Palestinian hackers disrupted Israeli websites on Tuesday, following threats from the Anonymous hacking collective that it would carry out an "electronic Holocaust," though Israeli cyber experts said the coordinated attacks caused little damage.

The hacking campaign, which has taken place every April 7 since 2013, is meant to be in protest of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. In 2013, the hackers first waged the coordinated campaign, dubbed OpIsrael, on the eve of Israel's annual Holocaust remembrance day.

Israel's Computer Emergency Response Team, a civilian cyber security group, said Anonymous attacked a few dozen websites belonging to Israeli musicians and non-profit organizations on Tuesday. Anonymous had vowed it would topple Israeli government websites, banks and public institutions, though no major disruptions were reported.

The hackers replaced website home pages with photos of a Muslim holy site in Jerusalem and of militants holding the Islamic State militant flag, and posted a message signed by "AnonGhost."

"We are always here to punish you! Because we are the voice of Palestine and we will not remain silent!" the message read.

A video message by Anonymous said its campaign was responding to "crimes in the Palestinian territories," including last summer's Gaza war.

Israel's national cyber bureau said it distributed instructions to "relevant authorities" about boosting defense for websites ahead of the planned attack.

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Discredited rape story a test for Wenner, Rolling Stone

NEW YORK — Through decades of digging into the private lives of rock stars and providing a forum for colorful writers like Hunter S. Thompson and P.J. O'Rourke, Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner has never been afraid to push boundaries.

Now Wenner, who founded the magazine as a 20-year-old college dropout, is weathering the stiffest test of Rolling Stone's credibility that the magazine has faced in its 48-year history.

On Sunday, the magazine retracted last November's story on sexual assault at the University of Virginia in advance of the release of a damning Columbia University report about its reporting and editing, and on Monday, a fraternity named in the story threatened a lawsuit.

The magazine also faced criticism Monday for what some critics deemed a muted response to the problems outlined in Columbia's exhaustive report.

The sharply funny O'Rourke, who worked at Rolling Stone from 1985 to 2000, said he found the editing and fact-checking there to be as rigorous as the legendarily tough New Yorker magazine.

"When Hunter S. Thompson dies and I leave, and the factual reliability of a publication goes down, there must be something wrong with modern media," he said.

Rolling Stone's unique niche in magazines was an outgrowth of Wenner's interests, a mixture of authoritative music and cultural coverage with tough investigative reporting, usually from a liberal world view. The magazine's circulation of just under 1.5 million copies an issue has been consistent over the past three years, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

The music coverage now bears the hallmark of a clumsy 50-year-old struggling to stay hip. Cover subjects can range wildly from Miley Cyrus and Kanye West to Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr as Rolling Stone tries to cater to all tastes.

Specialty websites like Pitchfork offer sharper music coverage. Like many media organizations founded in a different era, Rolling Stone has struggled to become an influential online presence, said veteran music writer Alan Light, a former Rolling Stone employee and still occasional contributor.

Yet the magazine has survived and thrived as once-hip competitors Spin, Vibe and Blender fell out of publishing.

The music coverage coexists with the long-form journalism, from Thompson's drug-fueled political coverage to an investigative report that forced the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal in 2010. Rolling Stone has aggressively covered climate change and the impact of money in politics. The Virginia story had an immediate impact: Its 2.7 million online views were more than any non-celebrity story the magazine ever published.

The Columbia report criticized Rolling Stone for failing to establish that a man accused of orchestrating a fraternity house gang rape even existed, failing to contact the accuser's friends and not pushing hard to investigate information that might contradict its narrative.

The episode doesn't erase Rolling Stone's legacy, but it's a significant blow, Light said.

"Obviously the greatest risk is that this becomes so associated with their name and this kind of a story," he said. "It's bad for everyone — it's bad for the magazine, it's bad for the readers, it's bad for the issue that they were setting out to address in the first place."

Like many publications, Rolling Stone has suffered with the online explosion. Its editorial staff, not including people working in art and photo, has dropped by 25 percent since 2008, according to the Columbia report. But the examination said Rolling Stone's failures in the Virginia story had nothing to do with being short-staffed.

The magazine's managing editor, Will Dana, took responsibility for the retracted story, written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely. In a note to readers — Rolling Stone published the full Columbia report on its website — Dana called it painful reading and said the magazine was committing itself to a series of recommendations about improved journalistic practices that was recommended.

At least initially, no one — Dana, Erdely or Sean Woods, the principal editor on the story — lost their jobs. That has surprised many long-time observers of Wenner, who's been known for having a quick trigger finger for employees who don't meet his standards, and speaks to his respect for veteran employees Dana and Woods.

Asked at a news conference on Monday about whether he thought the incident should cost someone their job, Columbia University School of Journalism Dean Steve Coll, one of three authors of the report, declined to offer his opinion, saying he didn't know the work of the journalists involved beyond the one story.

"We're not the D.A.'s office," Coll said. "We're not a special prosecutor."

It's a tough call, since there's no evidence the journalists involved were intentionally deceitful, said Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute. The initial response suggests Rolling Stone is putting its own self-interest ahead of its readers, she said.

"That's a completely reasonable management reaction to this," she said. "But you also have to look at what the audience needs to trust you."

Samir Husni, a University of Mississippi journalism professor who publishes an annual guide to consumer magazines, said it was a master stroke by Wenner to invite Columbia in to investigate Rolling Stone's practices.

"It takes guts to apologize for everything that has gone down," Husni said. "The only person that can save Rolling Stone is Jann Wenner. By going outside and doing what he did, he was able to contain the story."

The lasting damage may be if Rolling Stone decides to pull back from investigative pieces. It already feels that this has happened to a certain extent while the magazine waited for the Columbia report to come out, said Aileen Gallagher, an assistant professor in the magazine department at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Wenner, 69, is at the stage of his career where legacy is an important issue. New York magazine writer Joe Hagan recently signed to write a biography, with Wenner's cooperation, to coincide with the magazine's 50th anniversary. Wenner's son Gus is a potential successor at the company that also includes Us Weekly and Men's Journal, works at Rolling Stone if his father opts to leave things in the family.

Gallagher said that ultimately, writer Erdely's career will suffer more than Rolling Stone as an institution.

"The writer always takes the heat for these things," she said. "The magazines do at the beginning, they apologize and lessons are learned. Are people not going to read Rolling Stone anymore? I don't think so."

___

Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder

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Asia stocks gain after Fed official signals slow rate rises

BEIJING — Asian stocks rose Tuesday after Wall Street gained on a jump in crude prices and expectations the Federal Reserve will put off an interest rate hike until late in the year.

KEEPING SCORE: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.8 percent to 3,933.49 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 1.3 percent to 19,653.15. Taipei, Singapore, Jakarta and Bangkok also rose. Seoul's Kospi was steady at 2,047.11 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.1 percent to 5,961.10. Hong Kong was closed for a holiday.

U.S. ECONOMY: U.S. investors were reassured by a comment from William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve's New York branch, that rate increases will be "shallow." That helped to buoy sentiment that was dented by Friday's weak employment numbers.

ANALYST'S TAKE: Dudley's comment that a negative reaction by stock markets to an interest rate hike would "slow us down" was confirmation the Fed has used monetary policy to create a "wealth effect," said Evan Lucas of IG Markets in a report. "It's a simple idea: make people feel wealthier and they will consume more," Lucas said. "It is why the market is pricing in an October move and why most now believe, as Mr Dudley himself stated, that the rate rise will be shallow."

WALL STREET: A jump in the price of U.S. crude set off a rally in energy stocks. Transocean, an operator of drilling rigs, soared 10 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 13.66 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 2,080.62. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 117.61 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,880.85, and the Nasdaq composite rose 30.38 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,917.32.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude sank 35 cents to $51.79 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $1 on Monday to close at $52.14. Brent crude, used to price international oils, shed 57 cents to $57.55 per barrel in London after soaring $3.17 on Monday to $58.12.

CURRENCY: The dollar gained to 119.64 yen from Monday's 119.48 yen. The euro edged up to $1.0941 from the previous session's $1.0937.

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Be Money Smart! Financial education for students and families

Did you know that April is Financial Literacy Month? Now more than ever, it is critical for young people to understand how to save and manage money, and Financial Literacy Month is a great time to discuss these topics with your family. From saving an allowance to financing college, children and teens need to learn financial literacy skills now so that they can grow into financially secure adults. "If we start earlier, we can help the younger generations avoid the financial pitfalls that so many have fallen into today including debt, having no savings or safety net and over indulging in consumer goods," said Nick Fyntrilakis, Vice President of Community Responsibility at MassMutual.

Download the special section Be Money Smart!

This education section is designed to help students and families learn about financial education together. It contains information, tools and real-world activities broken out by grade level to teach students important financial literacy skills. After students have mastered this section, they can easily extend the learning at home. "Parents and guardians can share their budgets with their kids, talk about the importance of saving and coach children on how to spend wisely," Fyntrilakis said.

Be Money Smart is brought to you by MassMutual as part of their ongoing commitment to financial education. From 2014 to 2015, they spent more than $3 million on their innovative FutureSmart Challenge. "Because we recognize financial education is so important to today's youth, we've partnered with Hill Harper, select NBA teams and Junior Achievement affiliates to help get the word out and spark a learning movement," Fyntrilakis said. "MassMutual's FutureSmart Challenge, now in its second year, has reached nearly 20,000 students across the country, empowering young leaders to take positive steps toward a successful career and financial security for themselves, their families and their communities. At each FutureSmart event, students get an overview of important topics and then it's followed up by Junior Achievement lessons in their classrooms."

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