Charming Colonial in Braintree makes splash

This attractive single-family Colonial in Braintree Highlands has a classic elegance with a nicely landscaped yard and an in-ground heated pool with a cabana.

Built in 1998, the well-maintained three-bedroom house with a hip roof at 130 Catherine Drive has been updated several times by its current owners since 2007. Renovations include a central air-conditioning system, renovated master bathroom and all-new toilets, new high-efficiency burner and refinished oak floors. The 2,660-square-foot home, which was recently repainted outside and inside, is on the market for $639,900.

The house sits on a cul de sac at the end of a long driveway with an attached two-car garage and brick walkway. The exterior is blue clapboard with black shutters and white trim. The entrance has a widow's walk framed by a large Palladian window.

A grand two-story ceramic-tiled entry foyer has a large brass chandelier above and two closets, one for storage and the other for coats.

To the right of the foyer is a formal dining room with oak floors, crown molding, 8-over-8 windows and a built-in mantel.

On the other side of the foyer is an open living

dining area with oak floors, 8-over-8 windows and a ceramic-tiled wood-burning fireplace. There are glass doors from the dining area out to a rear deck and down to a granite patio with a heated in-ground pool enclosed by a wrought-iron fence. The pool's heater and propane tanks were recently replaced and there's a cabana at one end.

Back inside, the stylish kitchen features 26 white bargeboard-faced cabinets and built-in racks. There's a center island with grayish granite counters and a built-in electric range. All-white appliances include a cabinet-front Amana side-by-side refrigerator, built-in General Electric wall oven and new microwave and a Bosch dishwasher.

Off the kitchen is a half bathroom with gray ceramic tile floors, a linen closet and a cabinet that holds a washer

dryer hookup with shelving above. Adjacent is direct access to the home's two-car attached garage.

The stairway and second-floor landing that overlooks the foyer have paneled wainscoting.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor, including a master suite. The carpeted master bedroom has four 8-over-8 windows and a fan

light overhead. There's a deep walk-in closet with a built-in shelving system. The en-suite master bathroom, renovated last year, has beige ceramic tile floors and tile that surrounds a raised whirlpool bathtub. There's a separate glass-doored Fiberglas shower, a granite-topped double-sink vanity and a linen closet.

There are two other carpeted bedrooms ideal for children. There's also a second full bathroom with a ceramic tile floor, a linen closet, a Corian-topped vanity and a one-piece Fiberglas tub and shower.

The finished basement has a carpeted media

family room with a big storage closet for games and toys. There's also a carpeted home office with a built-in added by the current owner with desk space for two and cabinets above. And there's even a full bathroom in the basement, with access to the outdoor pool through a door.

Pros:

 Stylish kitchen with bargeboard-faced white cabinets and gray granite counters

 Open living

dining area with wood fireplace and glass doors out to in-ground pool with granite patio

 Master bedroom suite has large walk-in closet and newly renovated bathroom

Cons:

Fiberglas showers in bathrooms

 Some appliances and tile finishes are average grade

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Kia Sorento rebuild kicks it

Well, the Koreans just keep doing the unexpected and consumers are benefiting from it.

The 2014 Kia Sorento SX AWD SUV has had a mid-cycle rebuild and I think this may now be a better car than its popular brand mate the Hyundai Santa Fe for about the same money.

The Sorento had been taking a bit of a beating from consumers and critics for its poor handling and modest adornments. Hyundai/Kia listened and responded loudly. With a new engine, rebuilt suspension and more refinement in style and substance, you've got a contender for the your crossover dollar.

In the past few years, Hyundai/Kia's hallmark has been bang for your buck and the '14 Sorento fills the SUV side of the equation nicely. Starting at base MSRP of $24,900, the Sorento offers a high-quality and stylish interior with the easy-to-use and intuitive UVO infotainment system. It has sleek textured interior panels with some soft touches and wood accents along with comfortable and high-quality leather-trimmed seats. Our AWD SX is not quite top of the line, but is jam-packed with goodies.

The $36,700 SX package includes the panoramic sunroof, blind-spot monitoring, backup camera and sonar warning, power folding side-view mirrors, three driving modes, along with features you'd expect such as cruise control and power lift gate.

Under the sheet metal is where Kia has made significant changes.

Earlier Hyundai/Kia cars we've tested have had vague, underwhelming steering and suspensions.

This extensive re-engineering of the 2014 chassis includes stiffening of the front suspension, adding larger rear suspension components and constructing a more rigid frame. Add in the new electric steering and all lead to better handling than earlier models.

Combine the 3.3 liter, 290-horsepower, V-6 engine and six-speed automatic transmission and you've got a really powerful crossover on your hands. The V-6 and AWD can be a bit thirsty, but only give up a couple of miles per gallon fewer than the base model, testing to about 18 in the city and 24 on the highway. I averaged 21 mpg, right in the middle of the range.

The V-6 provides plenty of power, brisk acceleration and a quiet ride. Whether it's a supermarket or dump run or a cruise along the highway, the new handling characteristics make this a comfortable car to drive. Pick your favorite from one of the three Flexsteer modes — comfort, sport or normal — and feel the responsive, taut command of the car missing in other models.

The SUV includes third row seating — the Mitsubishi Outlander is the only other in class to do so — but it robs from the cargo area. Although the Sorento is larger in all dimensions than its class rivals, the Honda CRV and Ford Escape, the third-row seats are still a snug fit. I preferred to keep them stowed and make use of the full deck space.

The simple-to-use and high-tech UVO infotainment center combines all your wireless connectivity and audio needs without endless drill-down menus. It works smartly with voice command and the sound system is excellent. The 8-inch navigation screen was easy on the eyes and a snap to use, too. It's a marked improvement over earlier models.

If you're worn out with the legion of bullet-shaped competitors in this class, then this may be your vehicle. The body styling is more traditionally truck-like and Kia has some nice tweaks with wrap-around lights and body accents.

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Boston stations pull out the stops

A tension-filled day gave way to a night of celebration, relief and even revelry on the streets of Watertown as a suspected Boston Marathon bomber was apprehended and the local TV stations — WBZ, WCVB, WFXT, WHDH and NECN — tracked every moment.

As breaking news banners flashed updates on suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's location — a boat in a Franklin Street backyard — stations kept their cameras trained on the neighborhood as darkness fell. After it was confirmed that Tsarnaev was in custody and on the way to a local hospital, cheers and applause erupted from the crowd gathered near the site.

As the suspected terrorist remained on the loose for much of yesterday and with much of the Boston area under unprecedented lockdown, local TV stations responded with unparalleled wall-to-wall coverage.

Probably no one had a more harrowing day than WHDH's Adam Williams, who arrived with his cameraman in Watertown early yesterday morning and found himself pinned down as the two brothers, Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, exchanged about 200 rounds of gunfire with police.

"It was not a good position to be in," Williams stoically told viewers last night.

The most oft-repeated footage was supplied by a viewer: Against a backdrop of flashing blue lights, the Watertown shootout with rat-a-tat gunfire that left Tamerlan dead and an MBTA police officer critically injured seemed to last hours.

The stations scrambled to mute the raw audio, but the video was terrifying.

With long stretches of time to fill, the stations worked overtime to profile the alleged killers and convey a sense of the Boston area under what seemed like martial law.

"The entire city looked like a scene out of 'I Am Legend,' " commented David Gerzof Richard, professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College, referring to the 2007 post-apocalyptic film starring Will Smith. "Empty streets. It's the first time I can ever remember an entire city that was shut down."

T.J. Winick, former WBZ and ABC news reporter and now a media relations consultant in the Boston area, gave high marks to the stations' efforts.

"These are scenarios you can work 30 years in local news and never be put in," he said. "I think the reporters and the anchors did an incredible job keeping their composure and providing the very latest information" under trying circumstances.

Part of every local station's mission is public service, and that often gets overlooked, Winick said, but here the news desks kept the public updated on the search for a dangerous suspect in real time.

Because of their dogged efforts, "You'd have to be living in a cave not to know what's going on."

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Experts: Mass. economy won’t sprout in spring

The Bay State could soon hit a "spring stall" when it comes to recovery and growth as federal budget cuts and European economic weakness threaten to choke off job opportunities, experts said yesterday.

"I don't see a whole lot of oomph out there to get job growth in Massachusetts," said Robert Nakosteen, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Isenberg School of Management.

Massachusetts lost an estimated 5,500 jobs last month even as the state's unemployment rate dipped a tenth of a point to 6.4 percent, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

"There's nothing inherent about spring except this one has the sequester and the payroll tax increase and continuing uncertainty about the debt limit and budget deals," Nakosteen said. "All of those extract a price."

Nakosteen added the state could expect to see "fairly flat" job growth for the duration of the year as residents start to feel the pinch of automatic federal budget cuts, which will also cut unemployment insurance assistance by nearly 13 percent for close to 45,000 residents collecting benefits for more than 26 weeks.

Before March's jobs plunge, Massachusetts had only added 500 jobs in February.

While the state's education and health services, and leisure and hospitality sectors added 2,200 and 300 jobs, respectively, last month, Massachusetts' professional, scientific and business services sector took a big hit — losing 3,400 jobs in March.

"That sector has been growing quite strongly in recent years, fueled by the innovation economy here," said Michael Goodman, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who called March's jobs figures "clearly disappointing."

"The decline in professional and business services is consistent with what one would expect from the kinds of cuts that have been taking place at the federal level," he said.

Northeastern University economist Alan Clayton-Matthews added that unrest in Europe has continued to be "a drag" on the state's economy.

"I expect to see slower job growth over the next several months, but I do not expect to see continued job losses of this magnitude," he said.

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UMass cites Harvard flaw

News that a UMass Amherst graduate student had uncovered significant flaws in an influential paper by two eminent Harvard University economists roiled the profession this week, raising questions about the policies it influences at home and abroad.

Thomas Herndon, a 28-year-old doctoral student in economics, discovered what he saw as glaring omissions in the spreadsheets used for Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff's 2010 study, which had asserted that economic growth slows sharply when government debt exceeds 90 percent of annual economic output.

The study was widely cited by policymakers worldwide, including former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, to justify cutting spending. So when a working paper by Herndon and two of his professors, Michael Ash and Robert Pollin, pointing out the errors was posted on the UMass Political Economy Research Institute website this week, it quickly went viral.

"It really indicates the profession needs to question its own methods and standards," said Barbara Alexander, an economist and visiting lecturer at Babson College. "Published research needs to be audited and cross-checked, and the data needs to be freely available. ... It's really disturbing because the results in this case have been used to support policies that have been extremely painful for many people in this country and around the world."

In a joint statement, Reinhart and Rogoff said they were "grateful" to Herndon, Ash and Pollin for pointing out a "coding error," but they maintained there is a correlation between high government debt and slow economic growth.

"It is sobering that such an error slipped into one of our papers despite our best efforts to be consistently careful. We will redouble our efforts to avoid such errors in the future," they said. "We do not, however, believe this regrettable slip affects in any significant way the central message of the paper or that in our subsequent work."

Herndon and his professors disagree with that conclusion.

"People argue that spending cuts are a bitter medicine you have to take to get out of a recession," he said, "but we provide strong evidence that disputes that."

Ash, a professor of economics and public policy, said it is "quite likely" that high public debt is not a cause of poor economic performance, but an effect.

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The Ticker

Merrill Lynch fined $250G

Merrill Lynch has been fined $250,000 in connection with improperly selling more than $39 million in unregistered securities, including auction-rate securities to two Massachusetts cooperative banks in violation of federal law, Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin said.

According to Galvin's complaint, the securities were sold by a Boston branch of Merrill Lynch that did not follow procedures for determining if the banks were qualified and failed to train its personnel on its own policies and procedures

Winthrop Square garage to close

The Boston Redevelopment Authority will close the Winthrop Square Parking Garage indefinitely at midnight after identifying infrastructure issues with the 240 Devonshire St. facility. No vehicles will be allowed to enter the garage after 3 p.m.

THE SHUFFLE

L Acella Construction Corp. of Norwell has promoted Ryan Klebes, left, to the position of senior project manager. Klebes first joined the company in 2003 as a project manager, and was previously an assistant project manager at Lee Kennedy Construction in Boston.

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Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez dies at 94

MEXICO CITY — Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez has died at the age of 94.

Ramirez Vazquez designed some of Mexico's biggest landmark modernist structures, including the new Basilica of Guadalupe, the Anthropology Museum and the Azteca Stadium, all in Mexico City.

Mexico's National Arts Council said Ramirez Vazquez died late Tuesday of pneumonia. He is survived by four children. No burial plans have been announced.

The sweeping, curvy lines of the basilica and the cantilevered central pavilion of the anthropology museum became hallmarks of Mexico's modernist architectural boom, led by figures like Luis Barragan from the 1940s to the 70s. He also designed a low-cost, pre-fab rural school.

While less well-known than Barragan, architects such as Ramirez Vazquez and Mario Pani designed the biggest projects of the era.

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Yahoo adds 2 more applications to mobile arsenal

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo is taking the next step in its effort to make some of its most popular services more appealing and accessible to the growing audience connecting to the Internet on smartphones and tablets.

The mobile push being orchestrated by CEO Marissa Mayer has hatched Yahoo's first email application for Apple Inc.'s iPad and other tablet computers running on Google Inc.'s Android software.

Yahoo also has created a new weather app for Apple's iPhone that will provide forecasts on top of slideshows feature pictures of landmarks in the cities chosen by a user.

The free apps are being released Thursday morning.

Like many other Internet companies, Yahoo Inc. is pouring more engineering talent and money into developing mobile applications as people spend more time on consuming content on smartphones and tablets.

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World stocks choppy as global economy wanes

BANGKOK — Global stock markets were choppy Thursday as evidence of weakness in the global economy kept many investors at bay.

Markets were also cautious after disappointing U.S. corporate earnings on Wednesday, although there was some positive news in the U.S. Federal Reserve's so-called Beige Book. The survey, released late Wednesday, showed modest growth across the U.S.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent to 6,255.91. Germany's DAX added 0.3 percent to 7,552.25. France's CAC-40 rose 0.6 percent to 3,620.86.

Wall Street looked set for a rebound. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 14,579 and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.2 percent to 1,549.20.

Asian stock markets dropped, however, with investors in Hong Kong still feeling cautious due to a bird flu outbreak in eastern China and the rapid rise of Chinese government debt.

"Funds are still staying with those stock markets that are under monetary easing mode," said Kwong Man Bun, the chief operating officer at KGI Securities in Hong Kong. "Investors remain on sidelines to wait for signals that recent corrections have come to an end. So far this signal is not clear."

Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.3 percent to 21,512.52. Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.2 percent to close at 13,220.07.

South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.2 percent to 1,900.06. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slid 1.6 percent to 4,924.40. Benchmarks in Taiwan and New Zealand also fell. Mainland China, Thailand and the Philippines rose.

European economic indicators this week also raised concerns: Germany reported a drop in investor confidence while car sales have plummeted across the region. Labor market figures for the U.K. were also negative, suggesting the British economy is unlikely to stage a significant recovery in coming months.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday lowered its outlook for the world economy, predicting that government spending cuts will slow U.S. growth and keep the euro currency countries in recession this year.

The week got off to a bad start Monday, when China said its economic growth slowed in the first three months of the year to 7.7 percent, below the 8 percent level anticipated by markets. That caused U.S. stocks, energy and other commodities to plunge. Gold fell the most in 30 years.

On Wednesday, stock markets in the U.S. again turned sour on disappointing earnings from Bank of America. The bank has been mired in mortgage-related lawsuits related to its acquisition of Countrywide, which played a major role in the U.S. financial crisis by issuing subprime loans. Traders also began to worry about Apple Inc.'s sales after a supplier hinted at a slowdown in iPhone and iPad production.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 35 cents to $87.03 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $2.04, or 2.3 percent, to close at $86.68 in New York on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3047 from $1.3014 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 98.18 yen from 97.84 yen.

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Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

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Social media spurs character-building acts of kindness

In the chaotic aftermath of Monday's fatal marathon bombings, Jarrett Goetz was on his way to his South End home when a friend called and asked if Goetz would give him, his girlfriend and a stranded runner they had found a ride.

Goetz did, and was on his way home, again, when he saw two sisters — also marathoners — who looked cold and lost, and offered to give them a ride and spare jackets he kept in the trunk of his Land Rover.

By the time he finally arrived home some four hours after he left work, he had given rides to five runners, two marathon volunteers and one bystander, updating his Facebook status about it along the way.

By last night, 237 of his friends had "liked" it and many had offered to give people rides themselves or places to spend the night.

"It was a chain reaction of free taxi services," said Goetz, 37, who works for a technology startup. "But really, it's about grace under pressure. You've got to put yourself in other people's shoes and rise to the occasion. And if you do it, it makes you feel good and inspires others to do the same."

And so it went on social media Monday, as the news outlet of first resort for many morphed into a mirror of the soul.

Twitter saw 180-day peaks in use of the words "donate," "volunteer" and "help" as people heralded the heroic first responders at the scene of the two fatal bombings and searched for ways they could be of use themselves.

"What was really great was word spread very quickly, so that people were able to slow and stop marathoners from running into what was essentially a war zone," said David Gerzof Richard, professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College.

Afterward, Google set up a Boston Marathon Explosions page in Google Person Finder to help people look for and find loved ones who might be missing.

New England Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola tweeted that he'll donate $100 for every reception and $200 for every drop in the 2013 season to a Boston Marathon relief fund.

And then there was the dark side of social media in the form of a Twitter account with the handle @_BostonMarathon, which claimed it would donate $1 to victims of the explosions for every retweet it received. The account racked up more than 65,000 retweets before Twitter suspended it.

"I don't know what their motives were," Gerzof Richard said, "but it takes a lot for Twitter to turn someone's account off. You have to do something atrocious."

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Asian stocks rebound as US recovery doubts ease

BANGKOK — Asian stock markets rose Wednesday, boosted by a strong U.S. housing report and better-than-expected corporate earnings that eased doubts about the strength of the recovery in the world's No. 1 economy.

U.S. builders started construction on 1 million homes last month, the highest level since June 2008, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The government also said consumer prices declined last month as the cost of gas fell sharply while food prices were unchanged, the latest evidence that inflation is in check.

On the corporate side, robust quarterly earnings provided additional reason to wade back into stocks. Coca-Cola, the world's biggest beverage maker, reported first quarter earnings that beat Wall Street forecasts. As of Monday, 34 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 had reported earnings and 20 had exceeded analysts' expectations.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1 percent to 13,358.81. Hong Kong's Hang Seng swung between gains and losses to flatten out at 21,661.08.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9 percent to 4,994.70. Benchmarks in Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines also rose. But South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.1 percent to 1,920.40 as tensions lingered on the Korean Peninsula.

Analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore suggested the U.S. housing data was not all that spectacular, since it reflects a big jump not in single family homes but in apartment construction, which is typically volatile.

"Still, you'd have to say it was a good day for data, especially in light of what's been seen over the past three weeks," DBS said, referring to weak hiring, manufacturing and retail sales reports that had suggested the U.S. economy was cooling.

Investors chose to put aside the International Monetary Fund's dour assessment of global growth. The IMF on Tuesday said it was lowering its outlook for the world economy this year, predicting that government spending cuts will slow U.S. growth and keep the euro currency countries in recession. The international lending organization cut its forecast for global growth to 3.3 percent this year, down from its January forecast of 3.5 percent.

Lorraine Tan, director at Standard & Poor's equity research in Singapore, said investors mostly regarded the IMF's initial numbers as too optimistic. Thus the lowering of its global growth outlook didn't sting all that much.

"Global growth is continuing to move along. That should be a positive," Tan said.

Among individual stocks, Japan's Komatsu rose 2 percent after the heavy machinery maker said it will start selling automatic bulldozers in North America in June, Kyodo News reported. Mazda Motor Corp. jumped 4.9 percent.

Wall Street rebounded Tuesday after its worst day so far this year. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.1 percent to close at 14,756.78. The S&P 500 index rose 1.4 percent to 1,574.57. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.5 percent to 3,264.63.

European markets posted further declines Tuesday in the wake of a downbeat investor survey for Germany. The closely watched ZEW index fell from 48.5 points to 36.3 in April in a sign of growing investor fears over the strength of the German recovery amid widespread debt problems in Europe.

Oil prices flattened out after some wild swings. Benchmark oil for May delivery was down 2 cents to $88.70 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 1 cent to close at $88.72 on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3175 from $1.3188 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose to 98.23 yen from 97.44 yen.

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Follow Pamela Sampson on twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

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Toyota's hybrid vehicle sales pass 5 million

TOKYO — Toyota's global sales of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles have surpassed 5 million in a milestone for a technology that was initially greeted with skepticism.

The Japanese automaker, which said Wednesday it had sold 5.125 million hybrid vehicles as of the end of March, started selling the Prius, the world's first mass produced hybrid passenger car, in 1997. Gas-electric hybrids deliver fuel efficiency by switching back and forth between a gasoline engine and electric motor depending on speed and other driving conditions, and recharges as it travels.

"What an achievement for this technology to have grown this widespread," said Vice Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada, known as "the father of the Prius" for having led the team that developed the hit model. "I believe there is a lot more room for this technology to grow," he told reporters at Toyota's Tokyo office Wednesday.

Toyota's hybrid vehicles now account for 14 percent of its global sales and 40 percent of its sales in Japan. Toyota Motor Corp. sells 19 hybrid passenger car models and one plug-in hybrid, and is promising 18 new hybrids from now through December 2015.

Uchiyamada recalled that expectations had been low for the hybrid to catch on.

The production plan had called for barely 1,000 cars a month, he said, and he had to beg to raise it to that from 300 a month. But when the Prius was announced, people were flocking to dealers in Japan to place their orders. And there wasn't even a sample model to check out yet in the showrooms.

When the Prius was launched in the U.S., it was again met with enthusiasm, by people Uchiyamada called "opinion leaders," including Hollywood stars.

It was almost all too good to be true, he recalled, as marketing experts had warned that Americans would likely not want a car like the Prius because gas prices were then relatively low.

Since then, gas prices have skyrocketed and nations around the world are grappling with pollution and global warming.

After the March 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in Japan, hybrids found a new use, helping deliver electricity during blackouts in disaster zones.

The hybrid has been so successful the only obstacle for Toyota may be that many rivals are in the game now.

"Toyota has led the world on cost-effective fuel-saving hybrid technology for more than a decade, but the competition is really heating up," said David Friedman, senior engineer and deputy director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C.

The organization thinks that Honda Motor Co., Toyota's Japanese rival, overall offers greener cars, despite Toyota's hybrid success.

"To stay ahead of the pack on hybrids," he said, "they will need to focus their hybrids on boosting fuel economy further and cutting costs, while picking up the pace in innovation in their conventional and electric cars."

The big growth in auto sales is coming these days from emerging markets, where hybrids have yet to catch on because of higher prices compared to gasoline-powered autos.

Uchiyamada acknowledged that costs will have to come down. But he said such nations were also growing concerned about energy efficiency and emissions and they need to offer incentives, or subsidies, for consumers so they can buy hybrids.

"Hybrids have now become a core technology," he said.

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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Gun background check deal in jeopardy in Senate

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan proposal to expand background checks to more gun buyers seemed in jeopardy Monday as a growing number of Republican senators expressed opposition to the proposal, perhaps enough to derail it. But there was plenty of time for lobbying and deal-making to affect the outcome, and the sponsors seemed willing to consider carving out at least one exemption in an effort to drum up votes.

The White House said President Barack Obama was calling lawmakers, as both sides hunted support for a nail-biting showdown.

As of Monday evening, some senators were saying the vote now appeared likely late this week, rather than midweek as top Democrats have hoped. Such a delay would give both sides more time to find support.

"The game hasn't even started yet, let alone over," said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who reached a background check compromise last week with Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., on which the Senate was preparing to vote.

In one sign of the bargaining underway, Manchin and Toomey seemed willing to consider a change to their deal that would exempt gun buyers from background checks who live hundreds of miles from licensed firearms dealers, said one Senate aide.

The change might help win support from senators from Alaska and perhaps North Dakota, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.

At stake is what has become the heart of this year's gun control drive in response to December's killing of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Supporters consider a broadening of the buyers subjected to background checks to be the most effective step lawmakers can take, and Obama urged near universal checks in the plan he unveiled in January.

Sixteen Republicans voted last week to reject an effort by conservatives that would have blocked the Senate from even considering a broad bill restricting firearms. With that debate underway, Democrats hope to win enough supporters from this group to gain passage of the first amendment to that bill — the compromise between Manchin and Toomey, which expands background checks but less broadly than Obama has wanted.

By Monday evening, nine Republican senators from that group said they would oppose the Manchin-Toomey plan and one was leaning against it. Combined with the 31 senators who voted against debating the overall gun bill last week, that would bring potential opponents of expanding background checks to 41 — just enough votes to block the Senate from considering the compromise.

"I'm not going to vote for it. It's not the right thing to do," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who was among the 16 who voted last week to allow the debate to begin.

But in the heated political climate and heavy lobbying certain in the run-up to the vote, minds on both sides could change.

Opponents say expanded checks would violate the Constitution's right to bear arms and would be ignored by criminals. They are forcing supporters of the background check plan to win 60 of the Senate's 100 votes, a high hurdle.

Fifty Democrats and two Democratic-leaning senators voted last week to begin debate. If all of them support the Manchin-Toomey plan — which is not guaranteed — they would still need eight additional votes.

So far, three Republicans who backed beginning debate have said they will vote for the Manchin-Toomey plan: Toomey and Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Susan Collins of Maine. A fourth, John McCain of Arizona, said he is strongly inclined to do so.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., missed last week's vote after saying he was suffering from muscle weakness, but spokesman Caley Gray said he hopes to be in the Senate for votes this week.

Two Democrats, both facing re-election next year in GOP-leaning states, voted against beginning the gun control debate last week: Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas both said they are still deciding.

Background checks, designed to keep guns from criminals and the seriously mentally ill, are currently required only for sales handled by the nation's roughly 55,000 licensed gun dealers. The Manchin-Toomey measure would extend that to sales at commercial venues like gun shows and online, while exempting other transactions like those between relatives and friends.

"There's no debate that that's not an infringement of the Second Amendment" right to bear arms, said Toomey as he and Manchin touted their measure on the Senate floor.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the gun legislation was "an absolute priority" and said Obama has been contacting senators, though he declined to say which ones.

But Carney said the vote would be "a difficult challenge." He said that because the Senate had voted last week to begin debating the measure "does not mean we have gotten to where we need to be, which is passage of legislation that is commonsense and that will reduce gun violence in America."

The White House originally had hoped for much more, including a ban on military-style rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The National Rifle Association said it was running an ad on cable television's Sportsman Channel and online criticizing Mayors Against Illegal Guns for running an ad showing a man holding a gun unsafely as he describes his support for expanded background checks.

"Is it possible he's an actor?" the ad asks, just before showing the NRA's "Stand and Fight" slogan.

Some relatives of the victims of the Connecticut families are planning a return trip to Capitol Hill this week to meet with senators they weren't able to visit on their lobbying trip last week. That trip was partly credited with helping move the Senate to debate the gun bill.

Also scheduled to be lobbying lawmakers this week are former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband Mark Kelly, the retired astronaut. She was severely wounded in a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.

The Manchin-Toomey deal also would expand some firearms rights, easing some restrictions on transporting guns across state lines and protecting sellers from lawsuits if buyers pass a background check but later use a gun in a crime.

The compromise is an amendment to broader gun control legislation to strengthen laws against illegal gun trafficking and to slightly increase school security aid.

___

Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.

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Business leaders come together

It will take some time, but Hub business leaders were confident in the wake of yesterday's Boston Marathon blasts that the city will bounce back and that visitors will not be scared away by the cowardly attack.

"It's such a devastating event to the families whose family members lost their lives or were injured or maimed," Pat Moscaritolo, president of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the Herald. "It's just so horrible, but Americans are resilient, so I am confident that they'll rise up and they will travel and they will travel to Boston."

He added that area attractions such as the Freedom Trail could have new meaning for locals and tourists after yesterday's attack, which came on Patriots Day, a holiday marking the first salvos of the American Revolution.

Fifteen blocks of Boston's Back Bay neighborhood were closed off as a crime scene yesterday while investigators gathered evidence related to the bombings. The city's thriving shopping district along Boylston and Newbury streets will likely be on lockdown for days during the normally busy Massachusetts school vacation week.

"Obviously, businesses will be impacted. However, the priority is for the public safety and the health of the community," Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, told the Herald. "This will be similar to incidents in New York. We will absolutely recover from this as a community by pulling together and making sure it never happens again."

Two huge explosions rocked the Marathon finish line on Boylston Street near Copley Square just before 3 p.m. yesterday. In a White House press conference, President Obama said it remains unclear who was responsible for the bombings, but he praised the Hub for its toughness in times of disaster.

"Boston is a tough and resilient town. So are its people," said Obama. "I'm supremely confident that Bostonians will pull together, take care of each other, and move forward as one proud city. And as they do, the American people will be with them every single step of the way."

Local business leaders echoed the president's words yesterday, saying the Hub would ultimately rebound from the attack.

"It shakes people and certainly those businesses in that area are going to have a bit of a recovery. We saw it certainly with 9/11 here in Boston when we were so much on lockdown here for a while," said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. "It's normally a very big time for the economy leading into the Marathon and leading out of it and all through school vacation week, but how you gauge it (the impact) is impossible to say at this point."

George Regan of public relations firm Regan Communications said businesses obviously took a "huge hit" yesterday when instead of enjoying Marathon Monday by dining out or shopping, Hub visitors fled in terror.

"This will be impacting (businesses) for a while," said Regan, who represents several hotels and restaurants downtown. "It will come back, but it takes a while. You couldn't imagine this. It's very hard. This really is a hit for the city."

For some businesses, it was all hands on deck as they pitched in to help out yesterday.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency partnered with Clear Channel Outdoor to provide public safety messages on digital billboards visible on Interstate 93 in Medford and Stoneham. Updates included information regarding family meeting sites, areas to avoid, cancellations and postponements.

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The Ticker

Thermo Fisher buys Life Tech for $13.6B

Thermo Fisher Scientific will acquire Life Technologies Corp. for nearly $13.6 billion, or $76 in cash per fully diluted common share.

The Waltham-based health-care equipment company will also assume Life Technologies' debt, which was $2.2 billion as of the end of last year.

Life Technologies, which is based in Carlsbad, Calif., provides products and services to customers conducting scientific research and genetic analysis, as well as those in applied markets, such as forensics and food safety testing. The company, which has more than 10,000 employees, reported 2012 revenues of $3.8 billion.

The sale, expected to close early next year, marks Thermo Fisher's largest acquisition since the 
$12.8 billion merger in 2006 of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific International.

Dish Network bids for Sprint Nextel

Satellite TV distributor Dish Network has offered to buy Sprint Nextel Corp. for $25.5 billion, topping the 
$20 billion merger Japan's SoftBank has proposed.

Dish has 14.1 million TV subscribers, making it the No. 2 satellite-TV company after DirecTV. Comcast Corp. is larger than both and is the nation's largest subscription TV provider. Sprint, which is based in Overland Park, Kan., has 55.6 million wireless devices on its network.

Dish said its proposed transaction includes 
$17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. It put the total worth at $7 per share.

Mass. gas prices drop 9 cents

Bay State gas prices are down 9 cents this week with self-serve, regular unleaded gas currently averaging $3.47 a gallon, 5 cents less than the national average of $3.52. Local prices are down 18 cents over the past month.

A year ago at this time, the Massachusetts average price was 42 cents more at $3.89.

The range in prices in the latest AAA survey for unleaded regular is 44 cents, from a low of $3.29 to a high of $3.73.

TODAY

• The Labor Department releases the Consumer Price Index for March.
• The Federal Reserve releases industrial production for March.

TOMORROW

• The Federal Reserve releases the Beige Book.

• Aushon BioSystems of Billerica has hired former SeraCare Life Sciences president and chief executive officer, Susan Vogt as the company's new CEO. Company founder and former CEO Pete Honkanen will assume the role of chief operating officer and continue as a board director.

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WEEI yakker Pete Sheppard quits with flair - while on air

An outspoken stalwart of Boston's radio sports talk scene, who quit on-air Saturday night, claimed a dispute over management style — not money or a midlife meltdown — drove him to walk away from a sports fan's dream job.

"I didn't want this to happen this way," former WEEI (93.7 FM) talk jock Pete Sheppard told the Herald yesterday. "The writing is on the wall. That place is going down the toilet. Everybody can see it. There's no loyalty to the people who have worked there."

Sheppard, 46, who was let go by Entercom Communications-owned 'EEI in January 2010 for financial reasons and brought back part-time in March 2012, insisted he was not embroiled in any salary disputes.

"Money didn't have anything to do with it. I wish it was that simple," he said.

Jason Wolfe, the station's vice president of programming, declined to comment yesterday.

Sheppard, a "dear friend" of longtime "The Big Show" host Glenn Ordway, who WEEI fired in February citing slipping ratings, said he shot off a scathing email listing his complaints with management to Entercom General Manager Jeff Brown, who he claimed had ignored his calls and written pleas to meet face to face.

"I just wanted to get to know the man and try to form my own opinion of him — not just rely on what past and present employees said. I had some really good ideas about what to do with my show, on the Web, interacting with people," Sheppard said. "I was doing a damn good job. I thought I'd be the good soldier. I figured maybe they'd throw me a bone and put me on full-time."

Brown declined the Herald's request for an interview yesterday, but in a statement said, "Yes, we are making changes, but the WEEI goal remains the same: Producing the best sports talk for the best sports fans in America and delivering top-notch results for our clients. Some take those changes better and more professionally than others. It's just the nature of the business."

Sheppard, a Rhode Island native whose radio career spans 25 years, dramatically quit on the air Saturday, after tweeting: "Hey all, got something special for you at 6:15 on WEEI."

"This has been brewing for a while," Sheppard said yesterday. And he insisted he wants to keep working in the Hub. "It's going to help me. Stay tuned. It ain't over yet. To me, the best is yet to come."

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No ‘home’ run for Facebook

There's nothing particularly wrong with the new Facebook Home, the social network's attempt to infiltrate the mobile market. It's just not a game-changer.

To back up a bit: Part of the reason people love Android is you can customize almost everything. One way to do that is to download an app launcher, a pre-assembled look and feel with widgets and home screens.

Facebook Home is the social network's version of an app launcher. It's not an operating system. And the HTC First, which comes pre-installed with Home, is not a "Facebook phone."

The HTC First, available for $99 with a two-year contract, is a delightful middle-tier offering. Its reasonable size, fitting in the palm of your hand, is a rare find among all of the "phablets" and behemoth screens that currently dominate the Android market.

Available in the Google Play store — but only for some of the newer Android phones — Facebook Home provides the equivalent of a social network screen saver.

Rather than having to scroll through a news feed, pictures and status updates from friends are now fed into this screen saver, which Facebook has dubbed the cover feed. You can flip through or sit back and watch the screen change. It can look strange or exquisite depending on the photo that pops up.

Home allows users to comment on or like a post directly from the cover feed.

There are a few new conveniences: Users can update a status or post photos to Facebook directly from the home screen. And important Facebook conversations in Home can be elevated to "chat heads," with the person's head literally popping up on the screen when a new message arrives. That, in a nutshell, is Facebook Home.

The interface is clear of the bloatware and widgets that often clutter Android phones. Yet Home's clean interface seems borrowed from a social network called Path, which also includes radial menus and round profile avatars.

I could see Home coaxing a segment of social media fence-sitters into becoming frequent users. If that's all Facebook sought to accomplish, then it succeeded.

Facebook promises monthly updates to Home, and I suspect it's going to take a lot of them to reverse the poor user reviews that began trickling into the Google Play store this weekend. Users expected something beefier. But it's clear that Facebook hasn't quite found its home in the mobile space just yet.

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The Ticker

$13B buy eyed for Thermo

Thermo Fisher Scientific is close to buying Life Technologies Corp, a genetic testing equipment maker, for nearly $13 billion, reported Reuters last night.

Reuters reported that the sale price per share would be close to $75, putting Life Technologies' value at just about $13 billion. The sale could wrap up as early as today, according to the report. The sale, if successful, would mark Waltham-based Thermo Fisher's largest acquisition since the $12.8 billion merger in 2006 of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific International.

TODAY

 Citigroup Inc. reports quarterly financial earnings.

 The National Association of Home Builders releases the housing market index for April.

TOMORROW

 BlackRock Inc., Intel Corp. and Yahoo! release quarterly financial results.

 The Labor Department releases the Consumer Price Index for March.

 The Federal Reserve releases industrial production for March.

 Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has hired Pranav Mehta, left, to serve as senior vice president for product development. Mehta most recently served as vice president of marketing and president of Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa, a subsidiary of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

 Rocket Software of Waltham has hired Paul Walsh as vice president and chief financial officer and Richard Morgan as vice president of human resources. Morgan most recently worked as vice president of human resources for Dassault Systemes Americas Corp., while Walsh most recently served as CFO at Silicon Laboratories.

 HopeHealth, a nonprofit health care organization based in Hyannis, has appointed Lawrence Capodilupo as chair of its board of directors. Patricia Cahill, who served as board chair from 2010 to 2012, remains on the board as immediate past chair.

 Clean Harbors Inc. has hired Jim Buckley as senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications. Buckley previously served as executive vice president and partner at communications strategic advisory firm Sharon Merrill Associates.

 Winthrop Realty Trust of Boston has announced the resignation of Peter Braverman as executive vice president. He has taken the position of president of Winthrop Management, the entity that provides property management services for the company's properties as well as for specified third parties.

 Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge has hired James "Jim" Gemmell as chief human resources officer. Gemmell has held several senior executive HR positions at Cisco Systems for the past 13 years, most recently holding the role of chief human resources officer.

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What kind of gas to use for vintage ’67 Chevy Impala

I recently bought a one-owner '67 Chevy Impala with only 73,000 miles that's in very good shape. I've started a work list for spring that includes checking the antifreeze and transmission fluid and changing the fluids that need changing. The 327 V-8 engine is original and the owner left a note stating to add a lead additive if using a lower octane gasoline, but if non-oxygenated gas is used, no additive is needed. I filled it with non-oxygenated gas the day I picked it up in mid-December. Is it OK to start and run it every few weeks for the rest of winter?

First off, congratulations on finding a true "survivor" from the 1960s. Very few of these vintage vehicles are still original, unmolested and unrestored, which to my mind makes them even more appealing.

Let's clear up some confusion here. Generally speaking, engines built before about 1970 required tetraethyl lead in the gasoline to provide two important requirements. First, lead was an inexpensive octane enhancer to increase the octane level of gasoline for higher compression engines. Second, lead provided a heat-transfer lubricating quality for valves. The lead helped transfer and dissipate heat from valve heads to valve seats to prevent burned valves. From about 1970 on, engines feature hardened valve seats and stellite or sodium-filled exhaust valves to handle more heat, negating the need for lead for this purpose. Today, tetraethyl lead is banned from road use motor fuels due to its toxic nature.

While the engine in your '67 Impala was built for leaded gasoline, there's likely more than enough lead buildup in this original engine to protect valve seats — particularly in light-load conditions like winter warm-ups and recreational driving. In fact, I wouldn't worry about the engine when using today's unleaded fuels unless you're going to run the engine particularly hard. The correct choice of gasoline for your vehicle would be premium non-oxygenated to provide adequate octane as well as protect the fuel-system components from degradation due to the alcohol content of ethanol-blended gasoline.

But here's the information you and the rest of us driving older vehicles need. Non-oxy gasoline is not a substitute for the lubricant quality of leaded gasoline. There are legal fuel additives classified as "metallics" that offer some of the heat-transfer capability of tetraethyl lead that you can use to protect valves and valve seats on older engines.

Since the only permanent "fix" for pre-1970s engines is to remove the cylinder heads to install hardened valve seats and new valves, I'd suggest driving the car until some type of symptom requires disassembling the engine. Upgrade the valves and valve seats at that point.

My son owns a 2006 Mini Cooper. The muffler had a heat shield on it, which has fallen off. The Mini service center stated it was nothing to worry about. As a mother, I do worry about it. Should we be replacing the muffler?

On most vehicles, the heat shield on the exhaust system protects the catalytic converter, not the muffler. The reason is simple. Temperatures inside the converter can reach well over 1,000 degrees and the outside shell can reach 200 degrees or more. Mufflers typically don't get that hot.

The heat shield protects the catalytic converter from coming into physical contact with — and potentially igniting — leaves, newspaper and other combustible materials. If the heat shield begins to rattle due to broken mounts, it can sometimes be reattached or secured by welding or steel straps. Once the shield is completely missing, the only fix is to replace the catalytic converter — a potentially expensive repair.

If the missing heat shield is part of or protects the muffler, I would be less concerned. The repair, which would involve replacing the rear half of the exhaust system, would be less costly.

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Going ape over new gadget for wallet

Some people have monkeys on their backs. Zootility Tools founder Nate Barr wants consumers to have monkeys in their wallets.

In fact, Barr has already sold 5,000 "PocketMonkeys" worldwide to date. The stainless steel tool, which is the same size and thickness as a credit card, serves 12 functions in one, including bottle and letter opener, ruler, screwdriver and banana nicker.

A successful Kickstarter campaign netted Barr's creation more than $27,500, at least six times what he initially asked for. Now, the 31-year-old Somerville resident is thinking mass production, having placed an order for another 5,000 PocketMonkeys with a California manufacturer to keep up with growing demand.

"I've never had an idea take off so well, so I've been surprised in that regard," Barr told the Herald. "We've been selling it faster than we can make it."

Barr, a former mechanical engineer and part-time user interface engineer at Jumptap, hit upon his concept after locking himself out of his apartment twice.

"It's always with you. You never have to think about it," Barr said. "The real catch is it's technically difficult to engineer something as thin as a credit card but strong enough to do the functions you want it to do."

PocketMonkey, which sells for $12, is also compliant with Transportation Safety Administration rules, Barr said.

"I wasn't trying to develop something to be used in a bar fight," he said. "I think by meeting TSA guidelines you develop a pretty innocuous product."

PocketMonkeys can be purchased online, but Barr said his goal is to market the tool to more retailers nationwide, including big-box stores that can "place orders for 100,000 of these at a time." PocketMonkeys are currently sold in stores as varied as Davis Squared in Somerville and San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art gift shop, Barr said.

"It'd be awesome to have it make enough money to sustain a lifestyle of trying new ideas, but even if it just lets us learn how to do this stuff, then the next idea can be even more powerful and happen even more quickly and be more efficient," he added.

Barr is also at work on another TSA-compliant tool called KnifeNinja, which will get its own Kickstarter campaign in the near future.

As Zootility tries to keep up with orders, Barr said he is seeking another manufacturer that can produce thousands of PocketMonkeys at a time.

"What's compelling is how many things are packed into such a small package," he said. "We differentiate ourselves on the personality of our tools, that people see it as a premium brand over perhaps some cheap knockoffs. Other people try to imitate the intention, but not the execution."

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Babson holding food boot camp

Budding food entrepreneurs hungry to cook up their own businesses can learn the key ingredients during a one-day culinary boot camp at Babson College on Wednesday.

Sponsored by the Wellesley-based school's Graduate Student Council, "Small Bytes and Apps" will tackle such topics as the emotional components of starting and owning a food business; permits needed to set up shop; the landscape of food and tech businesses; and marketing and branding.

Event speakers told the Herald the purpose of the event, which is free to veterans and Babson students, is to motivate participants to tinker with their ideas even if they risk failure, given that the food industry has become more influenced by youth and technology.

"We're trying to inspire people who might be currently sitting on the sidelines who have a great idea but are scared and do not know the first step to starting their own business," said local "popup entrepreneur" and chef Wheeler del Torro, 32, of Jamaica Plain. "When I started my first culinary business, I was 16 years old and I had no idea what I was doing."

Del Torro said the Babson boot camp stems from his startup Farmacie, which caters motivational lunches for tech startups and corporations and is comprised of not just entrepreneurs with MBAs, but MFAs as well.

"For us, the creative side is a lot more important than having a fail-proof business plan. The business stuff you can always learn," del Torro said. "Creativity is a very hard thing to pick up."

Despite a growing influx of food trucks and businesses throughout the city, the food industry can scare younger people thinking about opening a business because of Boston's high cost of living, del Torro added.

Yet Rayna Verbeck, owner of 3 Scoops Cafe in Brighton and a second-year Babson graduate student, said now is an opportune time to open a food business, despite the sluggish economic outlook.

"It's a great time for people to create their own jobs and innovate in as many ways as possible," she said. "With the growth of food trucks and cafes and Internet connections, you don't have to worry about reaching the whole country with food right away."

Verbeck, who will discuss paperwork, agencies and legal and insurance issues involved in starting a food business, said technology, particularly social media, can influence a brand's success in ways that seemed impossible years earlier.

"I bought 3 Scoops three years ago when I was 24. I did not have it all laid out in front of me. Any new entrepreneur, no matter what stage or experience coming in can use as much knowledge as possible and as many guiding steps as possible," she added. "These are tips I would have given me three years ago."

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