Reps: Let Boston pay MCCA Tab

Skeptical House lawmakers from the South Coast and Western Massachusetts questioned why statewide hotel tax money should be funneled to Boston to pay for a $1.1 billion convention center expansion — and why Hub taxpayers aren't picking up more of the tab.

"From where I am, 110 miles from the State House, no one wants to keep footing the bill in Boston," said state Rep. Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick), one of four members of the 11-member House Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets at yesterday's hearing. "They come here infrequently and they can't even get $10,000 budgeted for a cultural council."

Chairman Antonio Cabral (D-New Bedford) wanted to know why Boston isn't paying more of the expansion costs — like it did in 1997 when it shelled out $157 million to construct the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

"Would Boston be prepared to again be a partner since it's the city that's probably going to benefit the most out of the expansion?" asked Cabral.

"Boston feels we are partnering in this proposal and that we are a partner at that table," said John Barros, the city's economic development chief.

Barros said Boston used much of the money in 1997 to help acquire the land the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority now owns, and that Boston and Cambridge contribute 98 percent of the money in the convention center fund that will help pay for the construction.

The Herald reported this week that the state hotel tax fund could be used as collateral to secure the bonds for the convention center expansion.

But in a surprise revelation, Colin MacNaught, an assistant state treasurer, told the committee there's a high likelihood the state will have to dip into that hotel tax fund at some point to pay back bondholders.

MCCA Executive Director James Rooney disputed that.

"I would be willing to bet that if that happened, the Legislature would say, 'Wait a minute. Let's solve this another way. We're not using statewide resources for this. Let's look at those revenues that flow into the convention center today and see if we can raise those taxes instead,'" Rooney told the Herald.

Rooney told the committee the state is losing out on major conventions because the BCEC is too small and the South Boston Waterfront lacks enough hotel rooms. The proposal would expand the BCEC by 1.3 million square feet.

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Liquor licenses may get diluted

Gov. Deval Patrick's move to give cities and towns control over the number of liquor licenses they can issue generally is being well-received, but some expressed concern about the potential devaluation of existing licenses.

Obtaining licenses sold for up to $500,000 on the open Boston market poses a barrier to entry for prospective restaurateurs. But issuing new lower-priced licenses could give them a competitive advantage and spell trouble for businesses that used their licenses' values to get financing, said restaurateur Babak Bina.

"It does have a value as a way to secure a loan, and if you take (that) away, I don't know what that does to the bank's collateral," said Bina, whose eateries include Merrill & Co. and Lala Rokh. "It's a touchy subject, and ... devaluing those will be a certain blow."

Patrick made the proposal as part of an economic development package unveiled yesterday. A 1933 law requiring cities and towns to get legislative approval to exceed statutory limits on licenses is hindering development, said Greg Bialecki, secretary of Housing and Economic Development. "For the kind of mixed-use developments that developers and investors are interested in building, restaurants are a key element," he said. "We hear about big real estate projects that can get all of their other permits, but they can't get liquor license permits."

Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who's been pushing for a home-rule petition to regain control of Boston's liquor license process from the Legislature, welcomed the move. "Allowing cities and towns to control their licensing process is an important economic development and civil rights issue," she said in a statement.

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At Locke-Ober Cafe, 
a tasteful makeover

You can't eat at Boston's Locke-Ober Cafe anymore, but you can live above it.

The storied 137-year-old restaurant closed two years ago and its six connected Greek Revival-style buildings dating back to 1832 were bought by local developer Origen Ventures for $3.3 million.

The developer has just unveiled the Winter Place Residences, six large condos on the upper three floors, ranging in price from $1.75 million to $3 million.

It's taken 18 months to rehab the building into condos. Three of the units have extensive period details, and the developer created more traditional-looking condos around them.

"Our goal was to keep all the details we could," said Jim Robertson, a partner at Origen.

One of these now available is Unit 3-2, a 2,234-square-foot, two-bedroom condo for $1.75 million. Its dining/living room is called the Camus Room — named after former Locke-Ober manager Emil Camus — and features 
restored Corinthian pilasters, dentil molding and original sconce lighting. The kitchen has white Shaker cabinets, River White granite counters and Wolf, Sub-Zero and Bosch appliances.

A unit on the second floor will feature the 
restored private dining room used by the Kennedy family, including original paneling and wallpaper and the bell used to ring for service.

A downtown financial executive who was a regular at the restaurant bought a unit that listed for $2.7 million and has a 900-square-foot living room that was one of Locke-Ober's 
upper-floor dining rooms.

"The Locke-Ober name is what drew the buyer here, but what got him to buy was the square footage, the quality of construction, and direct elevator access," said Valerie Post of Meridian Property Group, co-listing broker.

The three other units feature more contemporary design, with white quartz counters and striped rosewood cabinets. The 3,357-square-foot, fourth-floor penthouse Unit 4-1, listing for $3 million, has skylights, a private roof deck and two master bedroom suites.

Condo fees will range from $531 to $740 a month. The building doesn't have parking, but owners can buy garage spaces for $75,000 at nearby Tremont on the Common.

Robertson said negotiations are underway to bring a restaurant to the historic, first-floor former Locke-Ober main dining room, which could be announced by the building's mid-May opening.

"We're insisting that the new eatery will respect the grand interior of the restaurant," Robertson said. "Our goal with the entire project is to feel like we did the building justice."

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Auto recalls in high gear

Recalls by General Motors, Ford and, just yesterday, Toyota have put automakers on a record pace this year as they scramble to avoid bad publicity, government fines and criminal prosecution.

Since January, at least 
9 million vehicles have been recalled in the United States. At that rate, the auto industry could break the record of 30.8 million vehicles recalled in 2004.

"Right now, we're poised to beat that," said Jeremy Acevedo, an analyst at Edmunds.com, a resource for auto information.

Yesterday alone, Toyota announced it was recalling 6.4 million cars and trucks worldwide, including nearly 1.8 million vehicles in the U.S., to fix faulty air bags and a spate of other problems.

The announcement came two weeks after the Justice Department skewered the automaker for covering up problems that caused unintended acceleration in some cars, beginning in 2009. To settle that case, Toyota agreed to pay $1.2 billion, but federal prosecutors still can resurrect a wire fraud charge if the company fails to comply with the terms of the settlement.

The Toyota recall comes in the wake of rival General Motors' recall of 6 million vehicles and as GM faces a Justice Department investigation on the heels of congressional hearings about faulty ignition switches that have been linked to at least 13 deaths and what lawmakers have called a cover-up.

"That can be a real game-changer," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety. "There's nothing that changes corporate behavior as much as criminal prosecutions."

Ditlow said he expects smaller recalls in the future as companies move quickly to fix parts and limit the impact of a problem.

"Automakers certainly see value right now in initiating a recall rather than having one imposed on them," 
Acevedo said.

The high number of recalls could also be attributed to the use of "the same engineering, the same parts, the same suppliers," by some automakers, said Rosemary Shahan, president of the nonprofit Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.

"To try to cut costs, they are making the same mistakes," Shahan said.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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The Ticker

Medicare paid some doctors millions

Medicare paid a tiny group of doctors $3 million or more apiece in 2012. One got nearly $21 million.

Those are among the findings of an analysis of physician data released yesterday by the Obama administration, part of a move to open the books on health care financing.

Topping Medicare's list was Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, who was paid $20.8 million. His lawyer said the doctor's billing conformed with Medicare rules and is a reflection of high drug costs.

The analysis found that a small sliver of the more than 825,000 individual physicians in Medicare's claims database — just 344 physicians — took in top dollar, at least $3 million apiece for a total of nearly $1.5 billion.

Deputy administrator Jon Blum said Medicare will now take a closer look at doctors whose payments exceed certain levels.

"We know there is waste in the system, we know there is fraud in the system," he said. "We want the public to help identify spending that doesn't make sense.

'Heartbleed' bug is security headache

A computer bug called "Heartbleed" is causing major security headaches across the Internet as websites scramble to fix the problem and Web surfers wonder whether they should change their passwords to prevent theft of their email accounts, credit card numbers and other sensitive information.

The breakdown revealed this week affects a widely used encryption technology that is supposed to protect online accounts for a variety of online communications and electronic commerce. Security researchers who uncovered the threat are worried because it went undetected for more than two years.

TODAY

 Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

 Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.

 Treasury releases federal budget for March.

TOMORROW

Labor Department releases the Producer Price Index for March.

THE SHUFFLE

Kaloutas Painting, a commercial painting company headquartered in Peabody, announced the appointment of Douglas Blake of Salem to the newly created position of director of the Industrial Flooring Division. The appointment follows Kaloutas Painting's recent acquisition of Ipswich-based sister companies Clean World Floors and Res-Stone Industrial Flooring. Blake, who had an ownership stake in the companies, will lead Kaloutas Painting's effort to expand its scope of services into the commercial flooring arena.

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Jane Pauley to join CBS News as contributor to 'Sunday Morning'

Former "Today" anchor Jane Pauley has agreed to become a contributor to CBS News' "Sunday Morning." The news was disclosed at the start of a panel held as part of an annual symposium held at Texas Christian University's Schieffer School of Journalism by "Face the Nation" anchor Bob Schieffer.

Pauley may be best known for her 13-year tenure as co-anchor of NBC's "Today," where she held a seat from 1976 to 1989 alongside Tom Brokaw and Bryant Gumbel. She has also served as a host of NBC's "Dateline" and as a daytime talk-show host.

'We're really, we're really really happy to have you," Schieffer said during the panel, according to a transcript provided by CBS NEws. "And I can't think of a better place for you to tell a story. Because you're a great storyteller - and Sunday Morning is one of my favorite, favorite broadcasts."

A date for Pauley's first appearance on the program could not be immediately determined.

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

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Twitter tweaks website to attract new users

NEW YORK — As Twitter looks to broaden its appeal beyond its 241 million users, the company is introducing a redesign of profile pages that includes bigger photos, more user controls and a distinct resemblance to Facebook.

"Moment by moment, your Twitter profile shows the world who you are," the company wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "Starting today, it will be even easier (and, we think, more fun) to express yourself through a new and improved Web profile."

As part of changes coming in the next few weeks, users who access Twitter via the Web will notice larger photos on their profile pages. Besides profile photos on the left corner of the page, the redesign includes a large banner photo that resembles the big rectangular cover photos on Facebook pages. Users will be able to "pin" one of their tweets to the top of the page to give others an idea of the topics they like to tweet about. In addition, tweets that receive the most interest from other users will appear slightly larger.

The more visual look is an attempt to attract people who may be intimidated by Twitter's onslaught of text filled with quirky acronyms, at-symbols and hashtags. The changes come at a time when Facebook is adding features to its site that are Twitter-like, highlighting the way the two companies are jockeying for people's time and advertisers' dollars.

Is Twitter saying a picture is worth 140 characters? Perhaps not. The new profiles don't apply to Twitter's mobile app, which is a more popular way to access the service than the website. Mobile is also where Twitter earns most of its money. EMarketer expects about 77 percent of Twitter's estimated $1.1 billion in advertising revenue to come from mobile this year.

Even so, Twitter has acknowledged that it needs to reach a bigger audience. CEO Dick Costolo described the effort in broad terms during the company's February earnings call with analysts.

"By bringing the content of Twitter forward and pushing the scaffolding of the language of Twitter to the background," Costolo said, "we can increase high quality interactions and make it more likely that new or casual users will find the service as indispensable as our existing core users do."

Costolo also promised more visually engaging content, of which the profile page redesign is just one example. Last fall, the company decided to make users' feeds more visual by including previews from Twitter photos and Vine videos.

Twitter's first-quarter tally of users signaled that growth is slowing on the service. The company added just 9 million new monthly users in the fourth quarter, only 1 million of which came from the U.S. It added an average of 16 million new accounts in each of the first three quarters of 2013.

Twitter said in February that it had 241 million users at the end of 2013. By comparison, Facebook boasts some 1.23 billion users, while WhatsApp, the messaging service Facebook is buying for $19 billion, said it had 400 million active monthly users last December.

Twitter has not yet reported its first-quarter financial results, so it's hard to tell if the slowdown is a sign of trouble or just a blip. EMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a recent report that Twitter's user base "may be growing more slowly than expected, but the social service has steadily increased its ad revenue and shown that its ads can drive engagement and interaction."

Noah Elkin, executive editor at eMarketer, said advertisers "love the engagement they get on Twitter." That said, he added that the company is still under pressure to grow.

The redesigned profile page, Elkin said, will likely have a "relatively minimal impact" on Twitter's advertising revenue, "unless and until" the company brings the new look to its mobile app.

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NC sides with Duke in appeal of coal ash ruling

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina regulators are joining with Duke Energy in appealing a judge's ruling on cleaning up groundwater pollution leeching from the company's coal ash dumps.

The state Environmental Management Commission filed notice Monday that it intends to appeal a March 6 ruling by Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway.

The commission and Duke contend North Carolina law does not give the state the authority to order an immediate cleanup. Ridgeway ruled the state had been misinterpreting the law for years.

Environmentalists say the decision to file an appeal directly conflicts with public statements from Gov. Pat McCrory suggesting his administration is getting tough with his former employer after a Feb. 2 coal ash spill that coated 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic gray sludge.

McCrory, a Republican, worked for Duke more than 28 years prior to retiring to run for governor. The nation's largest electricity company and its employees have remained generous political supporters to McCrory's campaign and GOP-aligned groups that support him, providing more than $1.1 million in support since 2008.

Though the governor directly appointed eight of the commission's 15 members, McCrory spokesman Josh Ellis said the panel operates independently of the administration. The remaining seven members were appointed by state House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger, both Republicans.

"The commission does not report to the governor," Ellis said.

Ellis declined to say whether the governor disagreed with the decision made by his appointees.

Charlotte lawyer Benne C. Hutson, whom McCrory appointed as the commission's chairman in July, said Tuesday that he recused himself from the special April 3 closed-session meeting where Ridgeway's ruling was discussed. Hutson said his law firm represents Duke, which presented a conflict of interest.

Vice Chairman Kevin C. Martin, a McCrory appointee who presided over the meeting, said he couldn't discuss matters under pending litigation or any legal advice the commission received. However, he said a concern with Ridgeway's ruling is that it wouldn't just affect Duke, but potentially thousands of other state-permitted wastewater lagoons in North Carolina.

He said staff from the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources advised the commission without taking a position on the issue.

"No one told us how to vote," he said.

On the same day the state commission met behind closed doors, Duke filed its notice appealing Ridgeway's decision. The company also asked the judge to delay enforcement of his order until the N.C. Court of Appeals rules. Ridgeway declined.

The latest legal tussle comes after a coalition of environmental groups moved last year to sue Duke under the federal Clean Water Act over its groundwater pollution.

After state officials met with the company's chief lobbyist, the state environmental agency used its authority to file environmental violations against all of Duke's 33 coal ash pits across the state. The agency, represented in court by the office of Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, then quickly proposed a settlement that would have fined Duke $99,111 over pollution at two of its plants with no requirement that the $50 billion company take action to clean up its pollution.

Environmentalists criticized the deal, which they contend was intended to shield the company from harsher penalties it would have likely faced in federal court. McCrory has denied his former employer received any preferential treatment from his administration.

The state agency withdrew from its proposed agreement with Duke following increased public scrutiny in the wake of the Dan River spill.

"Just a week after the state publicly abandoned its sweetheart deal with Duke and promised to 'enforce' the law, it has appealed a judicial ruling that confirmed the state's legal authority to enforce a real solution for coal ash contamination," said D.J. Gerken, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center. "We're disappointed that this administration remains so determined to delay through litigation rather than move forward to stop ongoing pollution of North Carolina's rivers, lakes and groundwater."

Federal prosecutors have filed at least 23 grand jury subpoenas as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the relationship between state regulators and the company prior to the spill.

___

Follow Associated Press reporter Michael Biesecker at Twitter.com/mbieseck

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Toyota recalls about 6.4 million vehicles globally

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 6.39 million vehicles globally for a variety of problems spanning nearly 30 models in Japan, the U.S., Europe and other places.

No injuries or crashes have been reported related to the recalls announced Wednesday. But two fires have been reported related to one of the problems, a defective engine starter that can keep the motor running.

Some vehicles were recalled for more than one problem. The recall cases total 6.76 million vehicles for 27 Toyota models, the Pontiac Vibe and the Subaru Trezia, produced from April 2004 through August 2013.

The Pontiac Vibe, which is a General Motors Co. model, is also involved because Toyota and GM made cars at the same plant in California and the recalled model is the same as the Toyota Matrix. It was recalled for a problem with a spiral cable attached to an air-bag. It is unrelated to a separate GM recall over ignition switches linked to at least 13 deaths.

Subaru is partly owned by Toyota, and the model was the same as the Toyota Vitz.

For the recall, Toyota also reported problems with seat rails, the bracket holding the steering column in place, the windshield-wiper motor and a cable attached to the air-bag module.

The recalls affect a large range of models, including the Corolla, RAV4, Matrix, Yaris, Highlander, and Tacoma.

Toyota was embroiled in a massive recall crisis in the U.S. starting in late 2009 and continuing through 2010, covering a wide range of problems including faulty floor mats, sticky gas pedals and defective brakes. In response, it has become quicker to recall cars and

Last month, the Japanese automaker reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department to pay a $1.2 billion penalty for hiding information about defects in its cars. It earlier paid fines of more than $66 million for delays in reporting unintended acceleration problems.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration never found defects in electronics or software in Toyota cars, which had been targeted as a possible cause.

The focus in the U.S. auto industry has recently shifted to another major recall problem, this time with defective ignitions in compact cars made by GM.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Samsung's profit falls as smartphones get cheaper

SEOUL, South Korea — Declining smartphone prices hit profit at Samsung Electronics Co. for a second straight quarter.

The consumer technology heavyweight said Tuesday that it expects operating income of about 8.4 trillion won ($8 billion) for the January-March quarter, down 4 percent from a year earlier. Sales were flat at 53 trillion won. Samsung, the world's largest maker of smartphones, televisions and memory chips, will release full quarterly results later this month.

The operating profit was in line with the median estimate by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Compared with the previous quarter, sales sank 11 percent while operating income inched up 1 percent.

The year-on-year profit decline shows the challenge for Samsung to maintain earnings growth as smartphone prices fall. The devices are its biggest cash cow, accounting for more than two-third of its income.

The average price of a Samsung smartphone this year will likely be $275, down 9 percent from 2013, according to Chung Chang-won, an analyst at Nomura Financial Investment.

That is because smartphone sales growth is slowing in North America, Europe, South Korea and Japan while consumers in developing nations tend to buy cheaper handsets.

Chinese handset makers are also vying for customers in emerging markets. Samsung faces competition from a slew of handset makers in regions such as Southeast Asia where Lenovo and Xiaomi are expanding.

"In 2014, I expect that even more Chinese vendors will come in and they will put in greater investment in such emerging markets and they will pose a bigger threat" to Samsung, said Ryan Lai, an analyst at research firm IDC.

Latest data shows Samsung is fending off the threat at least in China. The maker of Galaxy smartphones sold a record number of smartphones in the world's most populous country in February, according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research. Apple Inc. tied Lenovo for second even after the launch of the iPhone through China Mobile helped the company boost sales.

Declining prices of smartphones also put pressure on profit margins for components that go into mobile devices, such as memory chips and display panels, two other key products made by Samsung.

Samsung is attempting to cut costs in response to its business challenges. Earlier this year, a mobile business executive said the company will reduce the proportion of ads and promotional fees to revenues. Samsung spent over $11 billion on advertising and promotions for handsets, televisions and other products last year.

Most analysts expected Samsung's bottom line to improve from the current quarter as the latest version of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, goes on sale worldwide from Friday. It selling the phone for slightly less than the previous version.

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Power cos. ask SJC to cut fines

Three power utilities that were hit with nearly 
$25 million in fines for botching widespread power outages during back-to-back storms in 2011 joined forces yesterday in hopes the Supreme Judicial Court will give them relief from the Department of Public Utility's punishing blow.

National Grid was ordered to pay $18,750,000; Nstar $4,075,000; and Western Massachusetts Electric $2 million after a DPU investigation in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, and the Halloween nor'easter two months later found poor staffing, response times and communication with customers and public safety officials.

Attorneys for the utilities told the Supreme Judicial Court yesterday that DPU doesn't have enough evidence to justify the steep fines.

"The department's order fails to provide factual support for its sweeping contentions," National Grid lawyer David Rosenzweig said.

Attorney General Martha Coakley and first responders disputed that.

"They've done a much better job the last two years, but back when all of this was going on, they were not responsive, they didn't want to listen, and they didn't start listening until they got fined," said Brockton Fire Chief Richard Francis.

Coakley told the Herald the fines handed out by the DPU were "justified."

"And the issues around preparedness particularly, their ability to get back up service, to communicate with people, we felt was an issue," she said. "We have the authority, we believe — and that's what was at issue before the Supreme (Judicial) Court — to seek those kinds of fines."

The SJC took the matter under advisement.

Krista Selmi, a DPU spokeswoman, said the companies have already paid their penalties, with credits going to customers last year. If the SJC sides with the utilities, they would recoup the money through charges to all of their "retail delivery service customers," Selmi said.

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BOJ refrains from further easing monetary policy

TOKYO — Japan's central bank has refrained from expanding its ultra-loose monetary policy despite a sales tax hike, saying the economy is recovering moderately.

The Bank of Japan's policy statement Tuesday was the first since an April 1 increase in the sales tax, to 8 percent from 5 percent, that is expected to stall economic growth in coming months as consumers adjust to higher costs.

The BOJ said inflation is likely to remain at about 1.25 percent for some time, below its target of 2 percent.

"Business sentiment has continued to improve, although some cautiousness about the outlook has been observed," it said. There has been an uptick in corporate investment, the bank said.

Japanese policymakers are counting on expectations of higher prices in the future to drive consumer spending and eventually prompt companies to invest more and create more jobs. The central bank's assessment of current economic trends is calibrated to support that approach.

The bank's decision to stand pat was expected.

"While the economy will surely contract in the second quarter, this needs to be seen in light of a likely surge in output in the first quarter and a likely rebound in the third quarter," Capital Economics said in a commentary Tuesday. "What's more, there is already substantial monetary easing in the pipeline until year-end."

Strong public investment and a housing boom have helped support growth since BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda announced, a year ago, unprecedentedly huge asset purchases to spur inflation and help Japan's economy recover from two decades of doldrums.

Kuroda has said the policies will remain for as long as needed.

Meanwhile, Japan's current account returned to surplus in February for the first time in five months, the Finance Ministry reported.

It said higher income from overseas securities investments, due to the weaker yen, offset the trade deficit, although the surplus in the current account, which also includes trade, fell 5.7 percent from a year earlier to 612.7 billion yen ($5.9 billion).

Japan has ramped up imports of oil and gas to compensate for the loss of its nuclear power capacity following the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. A weakening in the yen's value in the past 18 months has inflated the cost of its imports, while exports have not kept pace.

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Kitchensurfing brings chefs home

For people who want to entertain with talented chefs cooking in their homes — and learn a little about cooking themselves — it may be time to go Kitchensurfing.

Founded in New York in 2012, the company branched out into Boston last year, pairing customers with professional chefs and amateurs with a culinary flair.

"There's a novelty factor about having a meal prepared for you that's special and intimate," said Kitchensurfing founder and CEO Chris Muscarella, a self-described "competent home cook, but no chef."

"People are amazed at the food coming out of their kitchen," said Muscarella, who grew up in Framingham. "And instead of being stuck in the back of a restaurant, chefs get to actually see people enjoying the food they prepared."

After years of working in the tech industry, Muscarella helped open a restaurant in Brooklyn a few years ago and thought: "If a chef wanted to be an entrepreneur, how would they be able to do what they love without having to put up any money to do it?"

Muscarella's website lets people enter the number of guests in their party and their budget. Kitchensurfing connects them with chefs who send them menus that can be customized, and the price per person. Customers then pick a chef, who shops, shows up at their house, cooks, serves and cleans up afterward.

Chefs are vetted by the company in a test kitchen and set their own prices, with 10 percent of each transaction going to Kitchensurfing.

In Boston, there's Mark Hardin, who prepares a taco and burrito bar starting at $25 per person, and Bing Liu, formerly of Corton and Dovetail — two upscale New York restaurants — who offers a tasting menu beginning at $100 per person.

Jeff Gabel of Boston discovered Kitchensurfing through Twitter and in January hired Chris Borges and Jose Ordovas to prepare a nine-course tasting with wine pairings for two for $300.

"It was comparable to (opulent Back Bay eatery) Clio, but I didn't have to go out, and I got to learn how to make pasta," said Gabel, 25. "I would certainly do it again. I think it's changing how people think about fine dining."

Kitchensurfing chefs Borges and Ordovas, two Harvard graduate students who often cook together when they aren't studying immunology, prepared an elaborate dinner that included duck with dark chocolate and squid ink agnolotti, each stuffed with a single bay scallop and draped in mussel shell broth resembling sea foam, on a plate sprinkled with brown butter powder like sand.

"The beauty of Kitchensurfing is they let both amateur and professional chefs sign up," said Borges, who was trained by his father, a New York chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. "It gives us the opportunity to hone our craft. Before, we would get a group of friends together and cook for them. But the stakes are higher when you're cooking for someone who's paying you."

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Tech stock sell-off spreads to Asian markets

HONG KONG — Internet and technology stocks tumbled across Asia on Monday as a sell-off spread from Wall Street where investors knocked down such companies over worries about excessively high valuations.

Mainstays of the Internet economy such as Google and Netflix that have surged over the past year were hammered on Friday as investors had a change of heart and decided prices were too high. The technology-heavy Nasdaq had its biggest one-day drop since February.

"Perhaps the key equity story now is the horrible price action in the momentum/growth stocks; especially ones that trade, or at least did trade, on outrageous valuations," Chris Weston, chief strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, wrote in a commentary.

The sell-off flowed to Asia, especially in Japan where the Nikkei 225 led regional declines, dropping 1.6 percent to 14,818.08. Japanese Internet company Softbank Corp. slid 4.6 percent. Yahoo Japan plunged 5.3 percent and e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. sank 5.2 percent

South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.3 percent to 1,981.75 as Naver, which owns the Line messaging app, tumbled 6.2 percent. NCsoft, developer of online games such as Lineage, lost 4.5 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.6 percent to 22,376.43. Hong Kong-listed shares of China's Tencent Holdings, which owns the smartphone-based instant messaging service WeChat, fell 4.4 percent. Chinese software maker Kingsoft Corp. slid 5.3 percent.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 percent to 5,415.20 while markets in mainland China were closed for a holiday.

Investors this week will be looking ahead to some key releases for further clues on the economic outlook. On Tuesday, they'll be awaiting a policy statement from the Bank of Japan that may reveal whether the central bank will provide further stimulus. On Wednesday, they'll be scrutinizing minutes from the Federal Reserve's policy setting committee.

On Wall Street on Friday, the Nasdaq composite index plunged 2.6 percent to close at 4,127.73. The S&P 500 index fell 1.3 percent to 1,865.09 while the Dow dropped or 1 percent to 16,412.71.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3698 from $1.3703 in late trading Friday. The Japanese yen slipped to 103.09 from 103.26.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for May delivery was down 26 cents to $100.88 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 85 cents to settle at $101.14 on Friday.

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India's Sun Pharma buys Ranbaxy in $4 billion deal

MUMBAI, India — India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is buying troubled generic drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories in a $4 billion all-stock transaction, the companies said Monday.

The combined company will be India's biggest pharmaceutical firm, with annual revenue estimated at $4.2 billion.

Shares of Sun Pharma rose 1.7 percent. Ranbaxy's shares were down 4.8 percent in trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Ranbaxy is the leading drugmaker in India's $26 billion generic pharmaceutical industry, but it has faced penalties from U.S. regulators for years. The U.S. has banned imports of drugs from two of its factories because of concerns about quality control.

The acquisition will allow Sun Pharma to tap into Ranbaxy's strong global presence and manufacturing capabilities. The combined company will have 47 factories across five continents and operations in 65 countries, said Dilip Shanghvi, Sun Pharma's managing director.

"In high-growth emerging markets, it provides a strong platform which is highly complementary to Sun Pharma's strengths," Shanghvi said. "We see tremendous growth opportunities."

The companies said Ranbaxy shareholders will receive 0.8 shares of Sun Pharma for each share of Ranbaxy with an implied value of 457 rupees, a premium of 18 percent to Ranbaxy's average share price over 30 days. Ranbaxy shareholders are expected to own 14 percent of the new company and Ranbaxy's parent company, Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, will be the largest single shareholder.

Ranbaxy has annual revenue of about $2 billion.

The acquisition is subject to approval of shareholders of both Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy.

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Wynn urged to play with unions

The president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, who as a state senator played a key role in shaping the expanded gaming law, is calling on Wynn Resorts to follow in the footsteps of Mohegan Sun — its competitor for the lucrative Boston-area casino license — and sign a pledge to stay neutral in any future elections that would decide what unions represent workers in its casinos.

"I don't care who gets (the license), all I want them to do is stay out of it," said Steven Tolman, under whose umbrella a host of unions fall, including UNITE HERE, which represents hospitality workers in Wynn's Las Vegas casino. "Some of (the casino companies) could be supportive more of a union that might be more amenable to the company's needs. Labor harmony was in the legislation, so all that means is that they keep out of it, they allow a democratic process to take place without them interfering."

Mohegan Sun, which is proposing a casino at Suffolk Downs in Revere, has labor harmony deals with several unions, including IBEW Local 103, Teamsters Local 25, UAW and Laborers Local 22.

Both Mohegan and Wynn have reached harmony agreements with the union organizations who would build a casino, but only Mohegan has them with unions who could represent casino employees. In its license application, Wynn says it intends to enter into harmony talks on casino jobs after it receives the license.

"Since opening, Wynn has had positive union relationships at our Las Vegas location; we will have the same positive relationships in Everett," Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver said.

"We were very pleased with the positive comments made by UNITE HERE at our Surrounding Community hearing, which we believe were indicative of the nature of our long-standing agreements with labor."

Its application touts relationships with UNITE HERE's Las Vegas chapter as well as unions representing bartenders and dealers.

"Wynn Resorts has long-standing constructive relationships with organized labor in its operations in Las Vegas," the application says.

The state gaming law calls on the Gaming Commission to base its license award decisions in part on "whether the applicant has included detailed plans for assuring labor harmony during all phases of the construction, reconstruction, renovation, development and operation of the gaming establishment."

In testimony before the commission, Tolman and representatives from the UAW have praised Mohegan for reaching the labor harmony deals and criticized Wynn for not yet doing so. The UAW represents dealers at Foxwoods in Connecticut and Newport Grand Slots in Rhode Island, as well as casinos in Atlantic City, Ohio, Detroit, Indiana and Las Vegas.

UNITE HERE, which sponsored efforts to defeat Mohegan's casino at the ballot box in Revere in February, has endorsed Wynn's Everett plan, president Brian Lang said. The union flew two workers from Wynn's Las Vegas casino to a recent Gaming Commission hearing to praise the company's working conditions.

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Phone passwords go high tech

Traditional passwords, sometimes difficult to remember and easy to steal, are inadequate for increasing digital security needs and companies are answering the call with fingerprint sensors, voice biometrics and sound waves.

"User ID and password is how I logged into AOL in 1994," said Andrew Grochal, vice president of operations and finance at digital security company Certus Technology Systems, an early-stage startup that is testing logging onto websites and other secure locations like ATMs using high-frequency sound waves. "The user ID and password is a painful, horrible nightmare, and now everyone has a smartphone in their pocket that can send and pick up sound."

Certus works by sending a unique, one-time sound undetectable to humans ­— like a dog whistle — from a computer to a smartphone app, which then authenticates the user, said Grochal. Because the sound expires 0.3 seconds after use, Certus is significantly harder to hack, Grochal said. Another benefit of Certus, Grochal said, is not having to remember complex passwords.

"The goal is to fix both the user experience problem and the security problem at the same time," he said.

Certus has raised $375,000 from angel investors, and is running a pilot program with a local company. Grochal said the company will likely begin a second pilot in the coming months.

Digital security has begun to move beyond passwords after high profile username and password hacks with the addition of fingerprint sensors in both the iPhone and Galaxy S5, Samsung's flagship smartphone.

"Passwords are more unwieldy and less secure than some of these other methods," said Roger Kay, founder of Endpoint Technologies, a technology research and analysis firm.

Nuance, the Burlington-based company that powers Siri, added voice biometrics to its own personal assistant app last week.

"Entering a pin or a password is clunky," said Josh Lipe, director of mobile products and solutions for Nuance.

For consumers, Nuance is using the voice biometrics technology to improve personalization and understanding, but it offers voice recognition and authentication for businesses to address "increasing consumer dissatisfaction with PINs, passwords and security questions," the company said in a statement.

Lipe said voice biometrics could easily replace a pattern or PIN to unlock a phone, features that have not kept up with advancing technology. "2003 called. They want their features back," Lipe said.

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What’s causing RAV4’s tire pressure warning to light?

I have a 2005 Toyota RAV4 with 115K miles. Intermittently the dashboard's tire pressure warning light comes on, even when all tires are within 4-5 pounds. This is the indirect-type TPM system associated with the ABS brakes. I use the "blinks 3 times" method to get the light to stay off after verifying pressures. The dealer has no clue what is causing this and suggested just ignoring the light. The tire store verified that the tires are OK.

Three of my tires pass the "Lincoln's head" test, but should probably be replaced this summer. One is a warranty replacement so is a slightly different diameter than the others. I think the warranty tire was installed after this problem started but I'm not sure. Where would you start to run this to ground?

Toyota issued a brake system service bulletin in February 2006 that indicated that the Low Tire Pressure warning light can illuminate without cause due to a lack of or improper "re-initialization" after tire replacement or tire rotation. The "blinks 3 times" procedure you described is the proper re-initialization procedure, so it's time to check the tires.

Measure the rolling diameter of each tire by one of two methods. With all four tires at equal pressure, put the vehicle on jack stands and measure the circumference of each tire with a tape measure. Or park the vehicle on dead-level ground with the steering straight, mark with chalk the pavement and each tire at the tire's center-bottom point, roll the vehicle straight forward one tire revolution and recheck each tire's chalk mark. All four marks should be at bottom center of each tire. If not, mark the pavement at each tire chalk position and measure the distance between each mark with a tape measure. This will measure the circumference of each.

Since the indirect TPM system on your vehicle uses the ABS wheel speed sensors to "look" for a wheel/tire rotational speed difference caused by low tire pressure reducing the rolling circumference of a tire, I can't help but be suspicious of the warranty replacement tire. If it is more than about 3 percent larger in circumference, it may be triggering the TPM system due to its larger circumference and different rotational speed.

L L L

I would like to know what is going on with my 1998 Toyota 4-Runner. The engine makes this growling, groaning noise. It sounds like a power steering pump but the noise only appears when the weather is cold. During warm weather it hardly makes any noise. It has 160,000 miles on it, has plenty of pep and runs like a champ. I do not have any problems steering the car. Do you have any suggestions?

Have you ever had the power steering system flushed and refilled with fresh fluid? After 16 years and 160,000 miles, aerated and contaminated power steering fluid may well be causing the whine in cold weather. First, try adding a couple of ounces of SeaFoam Trans-Tune or similar power steering fluid additive. Better yet, have the system flushed and refilled with new fluid. I'll bet this stops the whine.

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Recently on a road trip I was passed by a car on which one of its rear tires appeared to be bouncing up and down. A few miles up the road, it was stopped. That tire had blown out and had taken most of the back bumper with it. What causes a tire to be vibrating like that when cruising on the interstate at 75 miles an hour?

An ignorant motorist. I can't imagine the driver not feeling the vibration from that wobbling tire at that speed. Unfortunately, I've seen more than enough evidence of major problems that potentially affect vehicle safety being completely ignored by the motorist, primarily because nothing had happened yet.

In this case, I would suspect two possibilities. First, a tire that has suffered a structural failure or belt separation in the carcass or a progressive separation of the tread, which could explain the rear bumper damage. Secondly, a dead shock absorber/strut on that corner of the vehicle. The uncontrolled up-and-down movement of the wheel could lead to this type of tire failure eventually.

The moral of the story? If it doesn't look, feel, sound, smell or drive right, stop and investigate why. Not sure if anything's wrong? Have it checked out by a professional.

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