Mayor Martin J. Walsh seeks global partnerships, startups

Mayor Martin J. Walsh, hosting attendees from 14 countries at a State House conference yesterday, said Boston can't just rely on home-grown businesses to fuel its economy.

"Boston and Massachusetts cannot operate in silos," Walsh said. "It's so important to build relationships."

Walsh said the city has received 16 initial pro­posals for its startup incubator in the soon-to-be unveiled Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square. The building will house the new headquarters for the Boston Public Schools, but will include up to 4,000 square feet for startups.

"Hopefully it's the beginning of many incubators we're going to have in and around the Boston area," he said. "We are looking to continue to start and develop businesses here in Boston."

But, he said, Boston needs to continue growing its "global economy. We must be willing to form partnerships with like-minded cities," he said.

One of those cities is Belfast, where Walsh traveled in September and signed a sister city agreement.

As in Boston, health care is one of the leading industries in Belfast, said the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Nichola Mallon.

"We will be discussing the economics and skill sectors of both of our cities, and e-health will feature highly," she said. "We are committed to making that sister city agreement work."

The conference is Mallon's first international visit.

State Senate President Therese Murray agreed. "To continue to grow, collaboration is key," she said.

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Market Basket back on track after delays

Market Basket's newest store opens Sunday at 7 a.m. in Revere — more than a year after it was completed and ready for business in July 2013.

The store's opening — and progress on others — was stalled by infighting among Market Basket's directors and share­holders that triggered the firing of CEO Arthur T. Demoulas and a six-week employee uprising in his support this past summer.

Demoulas gained full owner­ship of the chain in late August and reassumed its helm.

Tewksbury-based Market Basket's next store openings will be in Littleton early next month and Waltham in early December, according to Market Basket operations manager David McLean.

"Then we have a couple of stores that will follow in Attleboro and Athol that will be in the beginning part of 2015 — definitely the first quarter," he said.

Hiring and training employees takes six to eight weeks, and the upcoming holidays will interrupt the process. But, aided by the publicity surrounding the employee and customer rallies, the chain has seen heightened interest from job-seekers, according to McLean.

"So many have said, 'We've heard such great things about Market Basket, and we want to be part of it,'" he said. "I think it's the same sentiment that a lot of customers have expressed who shop with us. They want to support a business … that cares very deeply about their associates."

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China lowballs MBTA bid

The controversial train manufacturer run by the repressive Chinese government submitted an extraordinarily low bid to make new Orange and Red line subway cars that was hundreds of millions of dollars lower than its rivals, records show.

But while that may be a coup for the Patrick Administration, angry human rights and labor activists say it's a raw deal for Chinese workers forced to toil on the cheap by their totalitarian overlords — and U.S. companies that have to compete against them.

"This happens every day," said Charles Kernaghan of the Institute for Global 
Labour and Human Rights. "If those bids are so wildly apart, we can imagine these trains (will be) made with cheap labor in the manufacturing part of China. ... China doesn't play on a level playing field. It has no respect for its own workers. They have zero rights. ... It's really a rotten deal."

The MassDOT Board of Directors is expected to vote today on whether to award China CNR Corp. the $566.6 million deal in what would be the first rail contract the company has landed­ in the United States. Other bidders included Hyundai Rotem at $720.6 million, Kawasaki at $904.9 million and Bombardier at $1.08 billion.

The Alliance for American Manufacturers — a national labor group — blasted the deal in a letter yesterday to Gov. Deval Patrick, warning that he will put other companies across the country at a competitive disadvantage in future contracts if the China contract is signed.

"By making CNR's entry into the U.S. market possible, this procurement opens the door to unfair, state-owned competition on other rail and transit procurements throughout the United States," executive director Scott Paul wrote. "Government-backed entities are able to undercut market prices that privately owned businesses are able to offer. It is cheating, plain and simple, and should not be rewarded using taxpayer dollars."

MBTA officials yesterday insisted their own investigation "revealed no record of violations of human rights against workers by China CNR Corporation Limited," known as CNR MA Corp. in the Bay State subway deal.

State officials claim the project will be an economic boon for Springfield, creating 250 new manufacturing and construction jobs at a new 150,000-square-foot factory. CNR MA will invest $60 million of its own money in the facility, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

State officials have issued conflicting figures about the deal over the past year. Patrick told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce last October that the project was a "$1.3 billion procurement to replace decades-old Orange and Red Line trains with new and modern equipment."

Even the T's own press 
release last year referred to it as a "$1.3 billion procurement to replace ... Red Line cars and ... Orange Line cars."

But Pesaturo yesterday walked back the cost of the subway cars, saying the $1.3 billion figure also includes necessary upgrades to subway signal systems and an expansion to maintenance 
facilities in Medford and South Boston.

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Toys R Us pulls 'Breaking Bad' action figures after parent petition

Toys R Us is sending its "Breaking Bad" action figures on a trip to Belize, if you catch the drift.

Following a Change.com petition from a Florida mom that called for the retailer to stop selling its line of action figures based on the AMC drama, the toy company announced it would pull the collection from its shelves and online store.

The petition claimed that the toys were a "dangerous deviation from (Toy R Us') family friendly values."

"Let's just say, the action figures have taken an 'indefinite sabbatical,'" a Toys R Us rep said in a statement, referencing a line from the show.

The toys, which the petition says included "a detachable sack of cash and a bag of meth," were intended for consumers 15 and up.

As of Tuesday evening the petition had over 8,700 signatures.

Though Toys R Us seems to have bowed to the backlash, "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston had his own response to the outcry.

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

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Dunkin’ to go mobile

Dunkin' Donuts customers will be able to skip the lines when the Canton coffee-and-doughnut chain starts piloting mobile ordering by year's end, in advance of a planned U.S. rollout next year.

"We are planning to test mobile ordering in the fourth quarter, and we anticipate adding the ordering feature to our existing mobile app in 2015," Scott Hudler, vice president of global consumer engagement, said in a statement. "For the consumer, there is a huge benefit to skip the line, and improve order accuracy and speed."

Dunkin' would not provide details on test locations for mobile ordering.

Its rival, Seattle's Starbucks, this week announced that it would debut its own mobile ordering application in Portland, Ore., this year, with a U.S. rollout also planned for 2015.

Dunkin' customers likely will have to place their mobile orders once they get to a Dunkin' location or close to one, rather than an hour before pickup, for example — at least for the initial rollout — to ensure items such as coffees and breakfast sandwiches remain hot.

"Our products are amazing, but they don't age particularly well if they're sitting in a bag," Hudler said at a Dunkin' investor and analyst conference in Dallas last month. "We want to crawl before we run in this area, so it'll be more of the guests will let us know that they're on the premises, and then we'll trigger the order, because we think our speed-of-service is so fast that that's probably the best way to deliver a great product."

The Dunkin' mobile app for payments and gifting was launched in August 2012, and has had more than 8.5 million downloads.

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Startup’s software helps protect workers from emails sent by imposters

Boston University, Target and the New York Times in the past year all have been victims of targeted "phishing" attacks, in which hackers posing as employees' contacts have gotten them to open emails and unwittingly share their credentials or infect their employers' networks.

But a new, Boxboro-based startup and MassChallenge finalist is giving companies and their employees the tools to fight back.

Astra IDentity's PhishingGuardian software uses patented technologies to combine big data processing and behavioral analytics to protect employees against emails that may be from imposters.

"A lot of people think a spam filter protects them from phishing attacks, but it only filters junk mail," said Gagan Prakash, Astra IDentity's founder and CEO. "It doesn't detect imposters because the email looks like it's from someone the recipient knows and trusts."

A hacker targeting a certain company uses social networks and other Internet data to find employees with access to the company's data or systems.

The hacker identifies other people the employees may know and then creates a fake but recognizable email address to impersonate a colleague or boss.

From that fake address, the hacker sends the employees a personalized email with a link or attachment. The email bypasses the spam filter and lands in the employees' inboxes, where they open it because it looks like the "real deal," Prakash said.

Then they click on the enclosed link, allowing the hacker to steal their credentials, or open an attachment, causing damaging software known as "malware" to infect the computer, smartphone or the company's entire network.

"There's a full-fledged black market for all this information the hacker steals because the money's there," Prakash said.

For $2 per person per month, Astra IDentity's software guards against this by monitoring a company's email traffic and building a "behavioral fingerprint" based on the communication pattern of employees and their contacts, such as whether the sender typically uses a computer, smartphone or tablet; what geography the sender's emails come from; and whether the sender's emails usually contain typos.

PhishingGuardian then crunches all this data, comparing incoming emails to the fingerprint, and alerts employees or the company about emails from potential imposters.

Dale Johnson, a Woburn -based email and security consultant, began using the software last month, and it alerted him that someone was trying to get him to click on a link and log in to what turned out to be a fake bank.

"I have customers who need this product because right now, phishing is the biggest threat to businesses and their employees," Johnson said. "If you can get into the right person's computer, you can have access to a whole company. And that is the ultimate nightmare."

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Guidelines suggest when tires should be repaired

I have a car that I drive only a couple of thousand miles a year. It had a slow leak in a tire more than 10 years old. I took it to a tire dealer who said that because of its age, he couldn't touch it. He told me that in Minnesota it's a $10,000 fine if he did so. Of course, he was happy to sell me a new tire. I then took it to local mechanic who pulled the small nail out, patched it and sent me on my way. Setting aside the safety issue of driving on 10-year-old tires, is there a law or regulation that prevented that dealer from repairing my tire?

While there have been efforts at both federal and state levels to develop tire age and tire repair regulations, to my knowledge there are no specific laws yet. Each tire manufacturer has its own repair guidelines and the Rubber Manufacturers of America, (RMA) publishes specific guidelines for tire repair.

In general, a tire can be repaired if the damage is
1⁄4-inch or smaller, not in proximity to other damage, is confined to the tread block area of the tire and the tire is deemed reparable.

Methods of repair include the one-piece stem and patch repair or the two-piece stem and patch repair, requiring that the tire be dismounted from the wheel. The RMA recommends never repairing a tire with just a plug, or just a patch.

Our 2011 Subaru Legacy has a dashboard panel lit up like a Christmas tree. The following lights remain on constantly: check engine light, traction, brake light and the cruise control light flashes. Since the check engine light remains constant, the service center says it is OK to drive even though the cruise control doesn't work. Before taking it in to a dealer for diagnostic testing, having a second opinion might help.

The car isn't "OK" to drive — there's a fault in the system, likely in the ABS/traction control. And it really isn't "OK" to drive if the brake warning light is on. This light illuminates if the brake fluid level is low, the parking brake is still on or if there's an imbalance of hydraulic pressure in the system.

So take the car to your dealer to have its diagnostic equipment identify what's wrong. The basic Subaru OE warranty is three years/36,000 miles, the powertrain is covered for five years/60,000 miles and the federal emissions warranty covers the computer and catalytic converter for eight years/80,000 miles.

Subaru issued TSB #06-41-11 dated October 2011 that identified low battery voltage — DC C0074/C0075 — as a possible cause for multiple warning lights.

I have a 2011 Ford Escape. The air conditioning works in the morning after it has been in the garage all night, but the minute it sits outside in a normal heat it no longer works. It blows hot air only. I have had Ford check it three times and it works when I drive off, but then stops working. I took it to an independent mechanic who replaced the hose, not cheap, and again it worked for one day and then failed. He then put dye to try and trace the problem but that failed as well. He was stumped and said to take it back to Ford.

At this stage, it is possible the A/C has been overcharged with refrigerant. As ambient temperatures rise, pressures in the A/C system also rise.

The system pressure switch will disable the compressor when pressures climb above a certain threshold, usually in the 300- to 400-psi range.

Other possible causes for overpressure are moisture/debris partially blocking the expansion valve, radiator fans not working and restricted airflow through the condenser.

If the vehicle is still within its three-year/36,000-mile OE Ford warranty, take it back to the dealer.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race-car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn., 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number.

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Bake sales boost breast cancer fight

There's nothing like a dose of nostalgia to get co-workers to donate to a worthy cause, especially when there's food involved.

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Boston-based nonprofit Bakes for Breast Cancer revisited the days of selling brownies in the school cafeteria with its Office Bake Sale fundraising campaign.

During October, participants bring homemade treats (or store-bought — no judging) to sell at their workplace. All proceeds go into donation jars for breast cancer research.

Bakers can go to the Bakes for Breast Cancer website to download a sign-up calendar to post in their office.

"I jumped right on the idea because I thought it was a fun way for our staff to do stuff together that's tasty, but also for a good cause," said Scott Bernstein, COO at the Needham-based marketing group Mittcom.

So far, five Mittcom employees have brought in treats, with three more in the works for later this month. Bernstein said he's seen cookies, cupcakes and Halloween-themed goodies (his own), but the most popular were fresh-baked pies from the Italian bakery A & L in East Boston.

Employees drop off baked goods in the office kitchen, along with their business card. As they come and go throughout the day, workers can grab a treat and leave a donation in the jar. "At first people were throwing in change or a buck, but as people are getting more committed to the cause, we're starting to see larger donations," said Bernstein, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor. He said Mittcom plans to match donations from the bake sale.

Local celebrity chef Todd English, whose sister, Wendy, passed away from breast cancer in 2006, is a devoted supporter of Bakes. His Boston restaurant Figs is participating in the sale, as well as promoting the nonprofit on its menus. English said the key to bake-sale treats is not to be too fancy.

"Stick to good, basic homemade desserts that everyone always loves," English said. "I'd encourage people to bake something that's a family favorite. Anything from a strudel, if you're German, to an old English pound cake. Those kinds of things work on all levels."

Through partnerships with restaurants and bakeries, Bakes has raised almost $1 million for the cause since its foundation in 1999.

"We need to do anything we can to spread awareness," said English. "Maybe one day we won't have to do this anymore."

Go to bakesforbreastcancer.org/bake-sale to download a calendar for your office.

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Housing on Greenway, Brighton, Southie OK’d

Brighton, South Boston and downtown will get 195 new housing units — including apartments for veterans — under projects unveiled by the Boston Redevelopment Authority yesterday.

Under a $40 million redevelopment of its campus, the nonprofit Brighton Marine Health Center will build 101 new apartments, including 80 affordable units, and give leasing preference to veterans.

Boston Residential Development got the green light for a 12-story luxury condo building with 44 units and 4,000 square feet of street-level commercial space downtown at 55 India St. The building will replace a small parking lot along the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway.

In South Boston, developer Sing Ming Chan will build a four-story, 20-apartment project with two- and three-bedroom units at 933 East Second St. The $5.7 million project will include 27 parking spaces.

The BRA authorized 26 market-rate and four affordable condo units for 
45 L St., a site currently used predominantly by an auto repair shop. Quincy developer Peter Leoutsakos will erect the five-story, $11.05 million building, which will include 32 parking spaces.

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The Ticker

City Hall Plaza to 
boost food trucks

Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced the expansion of mobile food truck vending on City Hall Plaza to include a winter program for the current season and a year-round program moving forward. Eligibility is open to all food trucks currently permitted by the city.

The city's Mobile Food Truck program is comprised of 70 food trucks representing 54 businesses.

The Office of Food Initiatives will hold a mini-lottery for the City Hall Plaza site for all permitted food trucks in the city. A schedule will be in place by Friday.

Skatepark to break ground

The long-awaited Lynch Family Skatepark in the NorthPoint area of Cambridge will break ground next Thursday.

The project is a public-private partnership with Vans, the action sports footwear and apparel brand, the Charles River Conservancy and Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation.

The naming donor is the Lynch Foundation, run by Peter Lynch, the former manager of Fidelity Investments' Magellan fund.

• Reily Foods has announced the appointment of Jim Kaloyanides as general manager of wholly owned subsidiary, Malden-based New England Tea & Coffee Co. LLC, the largest independent coffee roaster and purveyor of coffee in New England. Following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great grandfather, Kaloyanides is the fourth generation family member to lead the company during its nearly 100-year history.

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