Cuts may stunt state’s growth

Higher worker bonuses and a strong technology sector helped the Massachusetts economy grow faster than the nation for the first three months of the year, but experts warned that federal budget cuts and the payroll tax increase are already taking a toll on the commonwealth.

"What the policy is doing is slowing the pace of our growth," said Michael Goodman, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "It's like driving around with the emergency brake on. You're still moving forward, but not as fast as you would like."

Massachusetts' real gross state product grew at a rate of 3.9 percent in the first quarter, outpacing the nation's 
2.5 percent growth rate.

In a MassBenchmarks report issued yesterday, experts said the state's solid economic growth from January to March was likely caused by "sizable" bonus payments made to workers in the financial and professional services sectors.

However, the state's professional, scientific and business services sector took a big hit last month with the loss of 3,400 jobs even as the unemployment rate dropped down to 6.4 percent. March marked the beginning of federal automatic spending cuts.

The state grew at an annual rate of 2.4 percent during the fourth quarter of last year while the United States posted a paltry 0.4 percent growth rate.

Federal budget cuts are already starting to slow the commonwealth's leading industries, including health care, higher education and research and development, experts said.

"The national and state economies are being strongly influenced by two opposing forces. On the one hand, growth in consumer demand is being supported by rising home prices, stock markets and job expansion," said Northeastern University economist Alan Clayton-Matthews, senior contributing editor of MassBenchmarks. "On the other hand, fiscal drag in the form of the payroll tax increase and federal budget cuts are slowing the economy. This fiscal drag could dampen growth by as much as 1.5 to 2 percentage points this year. And the continuing recession in Europe and an apparent slowdown in China are not helping matters."

Demand for the state's technology resources — information technology and medical devices — continues to give Massachusetts a growth edge over the nation, said Robert Nakosteen, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Isenberg School of Management. However, the sector will "take a bit of a hit" as the year progresses because it is largely supported by government spending and contracts, he added.

"The state can't sustain this high rate of growth," Nakosteen said. "We're not in danger of a renewed recession, but the growth we've seen in the last quarter is not going to be sustained."

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Gov asks SBA for loans to those hit by bombing

Gov. Deval Patrick has called on the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide some relief in the form of low-interest loans for small businesses and private nonprofits affected by the Boston Marathon bombings last week.

In a letter, Patrick asked the agency to issue an Economic Injury Declaration for Suffolk County so that long-term and low-interest SBA loans would be made available to businesses and private nonprofits.

"Requesting this federal aid will help Boston and the commonwealth recover faster from the tragic events that unfolded at the marathon," Patrick said. "I urge the Small Business Administration to approve our request quickly to help the small businesses that keep our commonwealth strong rebuild."

In order to receive this federal assistance, the commonwealth must show that businesses suffered substantial economic injury.

If the agency issues the declaration, emergency officials will coordinate with the USSBA and Boston's Office of Emergency Management to have specialists available in the city to work with businesses that may be interested in the loans, Patrick said.

Businesses were gradually allowed to reopen on Boylston Street this week, several days after two bombs went off killing three people and injuring hundreds.

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Sporty Durango handles well

Choices are limited when shopping for a seven-passenger vehicle. A minivan can take care of the seating capacity, but factor in the need for cargo space, and towing capacity and suddenly you're shopping for a hulking SUV. The 2013 Durango meets these requirements in a sporty crossover SUV that drives like a much smaller vehicle.

The Durango starts at $29,495, but our all-wheel-drive test model arrived with the top-of-line Citadel trim package that topped out at just over $44,000.

A bold chrome grille immediately catches the eye, giving the Durango a bit of muscle car bravado. Chrome continues on the door handles, ground effects, mirrors and wheels to help give the Dodge, painted in a bright silver metallic clear coat, an aggressively styled exterior.

The Durango's beige leather and black trim interior is upscale, well-built and packed with features. Both driver and front passenger seats are eight-way power adjustable. There's plenty of head and foot room with the second-row captain-style chairs. Both front and second row seats were heated along with the steering wheel. My children instinctively went for the third-row seats, which were a bit cramped for adults.

Dodge does a good job of simplifying the Durango's media center. I felt at ease with a limited number of buttons and dials on the center console controlling the radio and navigation systems. However, I found the steering wheel controls a bit overwhelming at first. Soon, though, I was controlling just about everything while keeping my eyes on the road.

Our test model had an adequately powered 3.6-liter, V6 engine with a 290-horsepower output. The Durango handled well, cruising quietly along the Mass Pike and in the city. A relatively short wheelbase helped out when trying to park in tight downtown Boston garage spaces. I did find that the Durango's five-speed transmission was a bit lacking — an extra gear would help smooth out the SUV's acceleration.

Our test model's V6 engine offered reasonable fuel economy, at 15 miles per gallon combined city and highway, along with all-wheel-drive and light to moderate towing capacity. An optional 5.7-liter, V8 engine is available for those who need the extra power, but bear in mind that the AWD feature is only available with the V6.

The Durango holds its own in the limited crossover-SUV market.

While I enjoyed the Citadel's upscale trim package, I could easily settle for the Durango's entry- to mid-level trim packages.

The Durango adequately accommodated my family of five, but rear cargo space was limited once everyone was seated. Crossover SUVs from Ford and GM are also worth considering when looking at the Durango.

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Obama: Flight delay fix a 'Band-Aid'

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama chided lawmakers Saturday over their fix for widespread flight delays, deeming it an irresponsible way to govern even as he prepared to sign the legislation they hurriedly pushed through Congress.

Wary of letting Republicans set a precedent he might later regret, Obama dubbed the bipartisan bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers a "Band-Aid" and a quick fix, rather than a lasting solution to this year's $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester. The cuts have affected all federal agencies, and some cuts were undone. But flight delays last week left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious and Congress feeling pressured to respond.

"Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they've decided it was a bad idea all along," Obama said, singling out the GOP even though the bill passed with overwhelming Democratic support in both chambers.

He scolded lawmakers for helping the Federal Aviation Administration while doing nothing to replace other cuts that he said harm federal employees, unemployed workers and preschoolers in Head Start.

"Maybe because they fly home each weekend, the members of Congress who insisted these cuts take hold finally realized that they actually apply to them, too," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address released Saturday.

Rushed through Congress with remarkable speed, the bill marked a shift for Democrats, who had hoped the impact of the cuts would increase pressure on Republicans to reverse the sequester. Republicans, meanwhile, have rejected Obama's proposal to replace the across-the-board cuts with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.

"There are some in the Obama administration who thought inflicting pain on the public would give the president more leverage to avoid making necessary spending cuts, and to impose more tax hikes on the American people," said Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania in the Republican address.

He argued that the FAA could have averted the flight delays on its own by cutting costs elsewhere and rejiggering work schedules — but intentionally chose not to do so.

The bill signed by Obama would let the FAA use up to $253 million from an airport improvement program and other accounts to halt the furloughs through the Sept. 30 end of the government's fiscal year.

Faced with the prospect that emboldened Republicans will push to selectively undo other painful effects of the cuts, the White House said Friday that a piecemeal approach would be impractical, but wouldn't definitely rule out signing other fixes.

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Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference

___

Follow Josh Lederman at https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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Capturing the sun for Earth Week

Boston Scientific Corp. celebrated Earth Week by showing off the new 3,900-panel rooftop solar installation, left, atop the company's international distribution center in Quincy. The 1.28 megawatt solar energy system generates an average of 1,685,000 kilowatt-hours a year, or enough electricity to serve 145 average-sized American homes a year. The installation covers 120,000 square feet on a roof that is 850,000 square feet in size and powers approximately 25 percent of the Boston Scientific international distribution center. It's the third-largest rooftop solar installation in Massachusetts.     

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AP hack may prompt Twitter to start two-steppin’

This week's hack of The Associated Press' Twitter account rocked Wall Street and may force execs at the private San Francisco-based social media darling to address online security issues before another major embarrassment occurs.

While no security system is foolproof, experts say Twitter could begin by introducing a two-step authentication process to avoid a repeat of Tuesday's tweet, which claimed that two bombs had exploded at the White House, injuring President Obama.

The tweet sent the stock market tumbling 150 points before the White House reassured the nation that it was a hoax. But it wasn't the first time a news organization's Twitter account had been compromised.

Days before the AP incident, CBS' "60 Minutes" account also was targeted by hackers, another instance that might have been avoided had Twitter implemented the kind of two-step authentication that Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple already offer.

In addition to typing in your username and password to get access to your account, those systems typically also require you to enter another piece of information, such as a PIN that's sent to you in a text message.

"I wouldn't necessarily use this method to launch nuclear weapons, but it makes me feel pretty close to perfectly safe," said Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at Sophos, a global computer-security firm. "It's a minor inconvenience for peace of mind."

Even a flawless security system, however, doesn't guard against the perils of bad reporting, said David Gerzof Richard, president of BIGfish Communications and professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College.

"If the tweets they're sending out are incorrect," he said, referring to some overanxious reporting in the days following the Marathon bombings, "then a two-step authentication doesn't do much good."

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Cambridge DNA whisperers

Cambridge-based Gen9 has landed another $21 million to keep pushing the limits of synthetic biology, a cutting-edge field where scientists "play God" by creating customized DNA — the building blocks of life — for a variety of different industries.

As part of the deal, Agilent Technologies of Santa Clara, Calif., gained an equity stake in Gen9 and will join its board of directors as the Bay State startup uses the money to increase the scale of its operations and ultimately to make new products, Gen9 CEO Kevin Munnelly said.

"Gen9 was founded to significantly increase the world's capacity to cost-effectively generate high-quality DNA content for use in transforming industries ranging from chemical and enzyme production to agriculture, biofuels, pharmaceuticals and even data storage," Munnelly said. "Agilent's investment is a powerful validation of our proprietary BioFab platform, and we look forward to working closely with them to further innovate around our manufacturing capabilities and build Gen9 into the leading high-throughput supplier to the synthetic biology marketplace."

The investment will also help Gen9, whose early backers include New England Patriots owner The Kraft Group, to increase its 22-person staff by about 50 percent this year, he said.

The company's clients include large chemical, agricultural and pharmaceutical companies that are "starting to realize synthetic biology can reinvent the way they do business," Munnelly said. "You can actually design what you would like these gene products to do. … You can get very inexpensive genetic constructs on a massive scale."

That kind of power is a double-edged sword, which theoretically could be used to create weapons of mass destruction, he admitted.

Because the field is relatively new, Gen9 is left to "do a lot of self-policing," Munnelly said. "We don't supply people who are looking to do those things."

Agilent makes instruments for high-end measurement and testing, including testing of water for contaminants and of fruit for pesticide residue.

"We anticipate an explosion in the use of biological machines," said Neil Cook, vice president and director of Agilent Laboratories, referring to living organisms such as bacteria or yeast, which can be used to produce everything from medicines to car fuel.

"To make molecules at will is going to fundamentally change the way we see chemical synthesis in the future," he said.

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Google makes concessions to EU antitrust body

BRUSSELS — Google is offering major concessions on how it displays search results in Europe — including a better labeling of its own promoted content and displaying links to its competitors — to appease concerns it might be abusing its dominant market position, the European Union's antitrust body said Thursday.

Google's search engine, which is the world's most influential gateway to online information and commerce, enjoys a near-monopoly in Europe. The EU Commission, which acts as the 27-nation bloc's antitrust authority, has since 2010 been investigating whether the company is unfairly stifling competition. It pointed out several areas of concern that Google is now trying to address through the proposed concessions.

Google has offered to more clearly label search results stemming from its own services such as YouTube, Google Maps or its shopping search function, allowing users to distinguish between natural search results and others promoted by Google. It also agreed to display some search results from its competitors and links to their services, the EU Commission said.

The Commission has often taken a harder line with U.S. tech companies than its American counterparts, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department. Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, was able to settle a similar antitrust complaint on its search business with the FTC in January without making any major concessions on how it runs its search engine.

The Commission is now proposing a market test of the concessions for a month as a test run. That would give competitors the chance to say whether they deem them sufficient.

Once the Commission accepts them — revised or not — they become legally binding for the company for the next five years. Google has worked closely with the Commission on the concessions' design until formally submitting them earlier this month.

"The objective of this process is to try to see if we can achieve a settled outcome in this antitrust investigation," said Commission spokesman Antoine Colombani.

The Commission said Google will "clearly separate promoted links from other web search results by clear graphical features" and "display links to three rival specialized search services close to its own services, in a place that is clearly visible to users."

Google will also give all websites the option to keep their content from being used in Google's specialized search services, "while ensuring that any opt-out does not unduly affect the ranking of those web sites in Google's general web search results," it said.

In addition, the proposed remedies will give newspaper publishers greater control over what appears in Google's news aggregator Google News. Google is also giving marketers greater ability to buy ads on rival networks.

The Commission's investigation was initially triggered by complaints from Google's rivals such as Microsoft Corp.

Google's web search service has a market share of over 90 percent in the EU, a bloc of over 500 million people that makes up the world's largest economy.

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Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

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Online privacy is evolving. Does it matter to you?

WASHINGTON — Online privacy rules are changing. The question now is how much you'll care.

America's tech industry is finalizing voluntary disclosure standards on the sensitive information being sucked from your smartphone like your location, surfing habits and contacts. Senate Democrats are pushing for a clearer opt-out button for all online tracking. And Microsoft is offering a new browser that encourages people to block the technology that enables tracking.

Industry officials say they understand some people want greater control. But they are betting that consumers don't really mind trading some basic information about themselves for free access.

"Consumers are very pragmatic people," Lou Mastria, managing director of the Digital Advertising Alliance, said in an interview this week. "They want free content. They understand there's a value exchange. And they're OK with it."

Mobile applications like Google Maps, Angry Birds and GasBuddy have become popular, inexpensive ways to personalize smartphones or tablets and improve their functionality. Often free or just 99 cents to download, apps can turn a phone into a sophisticated roaming office or game console with interactive maps and 24-7 connectivity.

But like all those websites that offer medical advice or parenting tips, there's a hitch: They want information from you like your birthdate or ZIP code. Developers say data collection is necessary for the software to work as promised and to reward the intellectual creativity behind it.

"There's no free lunch," said Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. "It's essentially a quid pro quo. You'll trade a little bit of information for all that free content and great services."

The online privacy debate has stumped Congress and prompted limited input from the Obama administration, mindful of consumers' concerns but reluctant to crush a growing industry in a difficult economy.

Some lawmakers, mostly Democrats but some libertarian Republicans, say consumers should have the option of not being tracked at all. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, planned a hearing Wednesday to press his proposal to subject companies to penalties by the Federal Trade Commission if they violate a consumer's "do not track" request.

Industry is pushing back. The Digital Advertising Alliance points to its web-based icon program that links consumers to an opt-out site of participating advertisers. They say some 20 million people have visited their site and only 1 million of those consumers chose to opt out of all ad tracking.

But privacy advocates, backed by the FTC, say the issue goes well beyond targeted advertising, particularly when it comes to a mobile device. Because a smartphone can divulge a person's location, the FTC warned in a recent report that detailed profiles of a person's movements can be collected over time and in surprising ways, revealing a person's habits and patterns and making them vulnerable to stalking or identity theft.

Some researchers also say they suspect retailers are engaging in "price discrimination" — the practice of setting a price based on personal data, such as the average home price in their area or a person's proximity to a competitor.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of Electronic Privacy Information Center, said most consumers aren't even aware of the extent to which their information is being collected and how it's used. And as with any product on the market, companies should be required to take meaningful steps to make sure people don't get hurt, he said.

"You shouldn't be put at risk if a car is correctly designed when you go on the highway," Rotenberg said. "And that's our view of Internet-based services. People shouldn't have to lose their privacy to use Internet-based services."

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill says the biggest concerns are all the unknowns. The FTC has asked nine data brokers to disclose what information they collect on consumers and how they use it. Brill said she worries that companies might determine a person's eligibility for certain products and services based on information collected online, potentially violating credit reporting and fair lending laws, but without authorities knowing it.

"The industry is moving so quickly and changing so much that we need to make sure that the laws are keeping up with it," Brill said in a recent interview.

So far, the only solution to emerge has been voluntary industry standards. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been coordinating among some 80 industry lobbyists to devise the new disclosure standards for mobile apps that would offer consumers a quick, easy-to-read snapshot of what information is collected and whether it's shared with third parties.

While the final agreement isn't expected until later this spring, the privacy disclosures are expected to look less like a legal manifesto and more like a nutrition label. Just as some snacks are labeled as high in fat or sodium, some mobile apps might have to fess up to being bigger data collectors than others.

In the end, Thierer isn't sure consumers will care that they've been labeled by a marketing company as someone who, for example, likes to play "Angry Birds" and lives in Ohio.

"The problem is that a lot of these cases driving the debate are worst-case scenarios ... but in reality they are still hypothetical," Thierer said.

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Review: Galaxy S4 decent, but filled with gimmicks

NEW YORK — I've seen Android phones get better and more powerful over the years, as Google and phone manufacturers pack devices with more and more features. There comes a time, though, when less is more. I'm afraid we've reached that time.

Samsung's new Galaxy S4 smartphone is an excellent device from a hardware standpoint. Measuring 5 inches diagonally, the screen is slightly larger than that on its predecessor, the Galaxy S III. Yet the S4 is a tad lighter and smaller overall. The S4's display is also much sharper, at 441 pixels per inch compared with 272 on the S III. The S4 has one of the sharpest screens out there.

The Android operating system it runs is excellent, too, and in recent years the Google-made system has become a healthy competitor to Apple's iOS system for iPhones. Like most Android phones, the S4 comes with a suite of useful Google apps, including Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and the voice assistant Google Now. Because Google lets device makers customize Android to suit their needs, Samsung and others have been adding their own distinguishing features.

And that's the source of the problem. Packed with bags of tricks, phones have become way too complicated for many people to use. In some cases it's because these custom features work only some of the time. In other cases, you're confronted with too many ways to do similar things.

As much as Apple can be criticized for exerting control over what goes on its iPhones, it wins on simplicity. There are no competing agendas — just Apple's.

By contrast, Android has turned into a free-for-all. For instance, the Sprint version of the S4 phone has at least four different ways to watch video — one that comes standard with Android, one added by Sprint and two added by Samsung. Some content works with one but not the others.

And to watch video on one of the Samsung apps, the one called Samsung Hub, you have to navigate through two screens trying to sell you video that I couldn't get to work on the other apps. As much as it adds to the clutter, Samsung would rather you use its service and not the standard Android one. That way, Samsung rather than Google gets revenue from video sales. Samsung Electronics Co. has its own app store, too, to rival Google's own Play store on the same device.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't consider buying the S4.

Another highly praised phone, HTC Corp.'s One, has a lot of clutter as well. The display on the One is slightly smaller than S4's, but it has a higher resolution. The One sounds better, too, with front-facing speakers, while the S4 has a speaker on the back. The One might be the one for you if you watch a lot of video and listen to a lot of music. But the One feels heavier and bulkier, and its battery holds less charge than the S4.

The four national wireless carriers, plus U.S. Cellular, Leap Wireless' Cricket and C Spire, will sell the S4 in the United States. Release dates vary, and some will start this week. Expect to pay $150 to $250 up front with two-year contracts (T-Mobile calls them installment plans as it markets contract-free service).

Despite my complaints with all the add-ons on the S4, a number of them show promise:

— Easy Mode. It's not entirely new, as the S III and the Galaxy Note 2 have it, too. But Samsung makes that option more prominent when people set up the S4 for the first time. Icons in Easy Mode are larger, so you are less likely to hit the wrong one and have to figure out how to go back. You also get fewer choices for customizing the phone and using its camera, so there's less confusion about which to pick. Easy Mode isn't as easy to use as I would have liked, though, because features and settings from the regular mode creep in now and then.

— Multi Window. Again, this feature isn't entirely new, but it's the first time I noticed it. It allows you to run two apps side by side, the way you've long been able to on traditional computers. That means I can keep up with Facebook on the top half of the screen, as I send email from the bottom half about all the dumb things my friends are saying on Facebook. Unfortunately, it works with a limited number of apps. Foursquare and Instagram aren't among them. And I needed an online video tutorial to figure it out.

— Air View. When you point to an email or calendar entry with your finger, you see contents pop up in a bubble. That way, you don't have to open the entry and find the back button to return to what you were doing. Samsung has this feature on the Galaxy Note 2 phone, but that's designed for use with a stylus. On the S4, you simply hover over the entry with your finger. I wish it would work with more apps. For instance, you can use it with Android's generic email app, but you can't on the one made specifically for Gmail.

All of these would benefit from being part of Android rather than an add-on from Samsung. Easy Mode would truly be easy if it were designed from the start that way rather than as something that couldn't fully separate itself from the main Android. More apps would work with Multi Window and Air View if they were standard features, not ones app makers have to adapt for one by one.

And then there are some features that got in the way:

— I mentioned the competing ways to watch video and buy apps.

— Another is Smart Pause, which automatically pauses video when your look away from the screen. The phone's front camera detects your eyes. Smart, but the feature also pauses the video when you cover your eyes, say, to avoid a gory scene in a horror movie. It's as if the phone is forcing you to look. And there are few times my eyes are glued to video. I typically multitask and watch video while doing other things.

— Smart Scroll detects the tilt of your head or the phone to automatically scroll text, such as when you're reading a long article on a Web browser. Smart, but it sometimes scrolls past what I want to read. It's difficult to move the text back without touching the screen, something Smart Scroll is supposed to eliminate. And at times, I have to keep my neck up in an uncomfortable position to stop scrolling.

— With Air Gesture, you wave your hand over a sensor for such tasks as browsing a photo album or scrolling through text. I can see it being useful when you need to answer a call while driving (not that you should), but I had difficulty getting the phone to respond properly with photos and Web pages. It reminds me of automated water faucets that won't let me wash my hands no matter how much motion I make.

Fortunately, the phone comes with many of these features already turned off, and you can turn off others you don't need or want. It took me a while to figure out that the Wi-Fi connection on my phone kept mysteriously turning on by itself because of some feature called Smart Mode. So Smart Mode is now off. Group Play is a feature that lets you share music and photos with other S4 users on the same Wi-Fi network. But I don't know of any S4 users, and it doesn't work with Group Play on the S III. I couldn't uninstall the app, so I buried that in a new folder called Junk.

The S4 has plenty of other features I could dismiss. Some might like the camera's ability to erase a stray individual out of photos or to combine several images of motion into a single shot. But I'm a purist, and I'm not a fan of manipulating images. And the feature for using the phone as a TV remote control? That's what remote controls are for.

I shouldn't have to spend a lot of time customizing the phone to turn off or hide what I don't want. Many people never change the default settings. I've been using the S III as my main phone since July, and I've rarely found a need to reach into its bag of tricks. I simply want a phone that is easy to use.

The S4 can be that, but first you must figure out how to hide all its gimmicks.

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Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology editor for The Associated Press, can be reached at njesdanun(at)ap.org.

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Online:

http://www.samsung.com/us/galaxys4

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