Hurricane gets public popping into Boston museums

Hurricane Arthur turned out to be a boon for businesses on Cape Cod, but with the festivities already over on Boston's Esplanade, Back Bay businesses missed out on the throngs of revelers the Fourth of July usually brings.

Mark Kielpinski, who owns By the Bay Designs and the Village Toy Store in Brewster, said he nearly tripled the number of staff at his stores for the day because on the Cape, at least, "cloudy weather makes the ultimate shopping day."

"There's no doubt that when the sun shines on the Fourth of July, it tends to be quieter," he said.

In Boston, however, the opposite appeared to be true.

"We're probably a little less busy than last Fourth of July, probably because of the bad weather," said Elizabeth Christensen, a shift supervisor at the Pavement Coffeehouse on Newbury Street. "I hope we'll have a better day tomorrow."

Many people in the city for the holiday headed instead for museums or the New England Aquarium, where there was a 50-minute wait to get in by mid-afternoon.

"The line would normally be closer to 15 minutes," said Christine Rohrer, manager of visitor experience, "but because of the rain and because the fireworks were moved up by a day, all of those things tend to increase attendance."

A little more than three hours after it opened, the Boston Children's Museum already had sold more than 2,000 tickets and, like the aquarium, had a line that stretched out the door.

Said museum spokeswoman Jo-Anne Baxter, "When it rains, people want to find something fun and educational to do with their kids."

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Fiesta’s a fuel-sipper with power

Finding a sedan that has both fuel economy and power is a pet project of mine, because my commute includes a 200-mile round trip along the Mass Pike several days a week, plus additional miles in and around Boston.

The 2014 Ford Fiesta is appealing as it pushes the balance between fuel economy and power with a three-cylinder, 123-horsepower gasoline engine. While not the smallest engine and not the only inline-three (I-3) on the market, the Fiesta's I-3 EcoBoost is still an engineering marvel. The turbocharged, 1-liter engine ran smooth on the highway and hustled the five-passenger sedan around town. The fuel-sipping subcompact sedan yielded 32/45/37 miles per gallon city/highway/combined fuel economy.

The downside to the Fiesta's three-banger is it's only available with a manual transmission. And since the engine choice is part of an EcoBoost efficiency package, it costs an additional $995. The $15,580 base model Fiesta SE comes with a 1.6-liter, inline-four cylinder engine that actually produces slightly less horsepower and fuel economy. Our tester with the efficiency package also had a $290 Comfort package that included automatic climate control, heated side mirrors and front seat-
warmers. The total MSRP for our tester was $17,335, which included a $395 ruby red paint job.

I actually enjoyed the 
Fiesta's five-speed manual. It took a day or two to get used to the clutch, but by the end of the week I was downshifting as I entered corners, using the lower gears to slow down while maintaining engine speed for acceleration as it exited the turns. The sedan's 
diminutive engine size was apparent on highway inclines as I had to grab a lower gear to pass slower-moving trucks. I also had to downshift on residential hills with a carload of kids and the air conditioning cranking.

I was able to fit three children across the backseat, two with boosters, the one in the middle without. However, three adults would be a little tight in the back.

Overall, the Fiesta's interior was well built and comfortable. An elbow rest on the door and an arm rest atop a center storage compartment were well positioned, better than many high-end luxury cars. Controls on the center console were within easy reach. The Fiesta's trunk space was outstanding for a subcompact sedan — it swallowed up several beach chairs, kid's bags, coolers, toys and was still hungry for more on a day trip to the beach. Squeezing the sedan into tight city parking spots was a breeze, although a rear-view camera would have been helpful.

Overall, I was pleased with the Fiesta's fuel economy and adequate power. The manual transmission and I-3 engine combination provided just enough power for highway and around-town driving. I'm sure I could get away with the clutch and stick if I was only commuting on the highway, but stop-and-go city driving makes it a tough choice. The 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage is also worth a look as it has an inline-three and is available with an automatic transmission.

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General Motor's image running out of gas

The recalls of at least 8.4 million more General Motors vehicles this week underscores a deepening safety crisis that could do irreparable harm to the company's image if it continues, experts said.

Steven Fink, president and CEO of Lexicon Communications Corp., a Los Angeles crisis-management firm, said GM has done an "abysmal" job of handling the scandal, which already has triggered a U.S. Justice Department probe into why the automaker waited a decade to recall vehicles that had a faulty ignition switch that has been linked to at least 13 deaths.

"The No. 1 problem they have right now is not ignition switches," Fink said. "It's the lack of confidence in the company that seems to be building."

That's primarily because GM's new CEO, Mary Barra, has failed to take responsibility for the crisis, he said.

"The fact is she has been an executive there in one capacity or another for years," he said. "She can't just bury her head in the sand and say she's never heard of these problems. That doesn't fly in corporate America anymore. It falls to her as CEO to fix the problems and rebuild consumer confidence in the company's ability to make safe cars."

Barra brought in Kenneth Feinberg, who handled the compensation of the Sept. 11 and Boston Marathon victims, to do the same for the GM victims because she thought it would be more "expedient" and garner less bad publicity than if she didn't, Fink said.

"The company knew it didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of surviving a trial, where you have expert witnesses and grieving family members testify," he said.

Since January, when Barra took over, GM has recalled a total of 28 million vehicles, mostly for faulty ignition switches that disabled the cars' power steering and brakes, as well as their air bags.

And yet sales of GM cars have climbed. Last month, GM's market share in the U.S. was 18.8 percent, up from 16.9 percent five months earlier, before the recalls began, according to Autodata Solutions, a consultant to the automotive industry.

Still, the fact that the number of GM recalls keeps growing leads one to wonder how much longer the company's luck will last, said S. Adam Brasel, a Boston College associate professor of marketing.

"On the one hand, we should be happy the company is being proactive," he said. "But at the same time, as the number continues to climb, you can't help but wonder how many more there will be."

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In dry California, water fetching record prices

SAN FRANCISCO — Throughout California's desperately dry Central Valley, those with water to spare are cashing in.

As a third parched summer forces farmers to fallow fields and lay off workers, two water districts and a pair of landowners in the heart of the state's farmland are making millions of dollars by auctioning off their private caches.

Nearly 40 others also are seeking to sell their surplus water this year, according to state and federal records.

Economists say it's been decades since the water market has been this hot. In the last five years alone, the price has grown tenfold to as much as $2,200 an acre-foot — enough to cover a football field with a foot of water.

Unlike the previous drought in 2009, the state has been hands-off, letting the market set the price even though severe shortages prompted a statewide drought emergency declaration this year.

The price spike comes after repeated calls from scientists that global warming will worsen droughts and increase the cost of maintaining California's strained water supply systems.

Some water economists have called for more regulations to keep aquifers from being depleted and ensure the market is not subject to manipulation such as that seen in the energy crisis of summer 2001, when the state was besieged by rolling blackouts.

"If you have a really scarce natural resource that the state's economy depends on, it would be nice to have it run efficiently and transparently," said Richard Howitt, professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

Private water sales are becoming more common in states that have been hit by drought, including Texas and Colorado.

In California, the sellers include those who hold claims on water that date back a century, private firms who are extracting groundwater and landowners who stored water when it was plentiful in underground caverns known as water banks.

"This year the market is unbelievable," said Thomas Greci, the general manager of the Madera Irrigation District, which recently made nearly $7 million from selling about 3,200 acre-feet. "And this is a way to pay our bills."

All of the district's water went to farms; the city of Santa Barbara, which has its own water shortages, was outbid.

The prices are so high in some rural pockets that water auctions have become a spectacle.

One agricultural water district amid the almond orchards and derrick fields northwest of Bakersfield recently announced it would sell off extra water it acquired through a more than century-old right to use flows from the Kern River.

Local TV crews and journalists flocked to the district's office in February to watch as manager Maurice Etchechury unveiled bids enclosed in about 50 sealed envelopes before the cameras.

"Now everyone's mad at me saying I increased the price of water. I didn't do it, the weather did it," said Etchechury, who manages the Buena Vista Water Storage District, which netted about $13.5 million from the auction of 12,000 acre-feet of water.

Competition for water in California is heightened by the state's geography: The north has the water resources but the biggest water consumers are to the south, including most of the country's produce crops.

The amount shipped south through a network of pumps, pipes and aqueducts is limited by the drought and legal restrictions on pumping to save a threatened fish.

During the last drought, the state Department of Water Resources ran a drought water bank, which helped broker deals between those who were short of water and those who had plenty. But several environmental groups sued, alleging the state failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act in approving the sales, and won.

This year, the state is standing aside, saying buyers and sellers have not asked for the state's help. "We think that buyers and sellers can negotiate their own deals better than the state," said Nancy Quan, a supervising engineer with the department.

Quan's department, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the State Water Resources Control Board have tracked at least 38 separate sales this year, but the agencies are not aware of all sales, nor do they keep track of the price of water sold, officials said.

The maximum volume that could change hands through the 38 transactions is 730,323 acre-feet, which is about 25 percent of what the State Water Project has delivered to farms and cities in an average year in the last decade.

That figure still doesn't include the many private water sales that do not require any use of government-run pipes or canals, including the three chronicled by the AP. It's not clear however how much of this water will be sold via auctions.

Some of those in the best position to sell water this year have been able to store their excess supplies in underground banks, a tool widely embraced in the West for making water supplies reliable and marketable. The area surrounding Bakersfield is home to some of the country's largest water banks.

The drought is so severe that aggressive pumping of the banked supplies may cause some wells to run dry by year's end, said Eric Averett, general manager the Rosedale Rio Bravo District, located next to several of the state's largest underground caches.

Farther north in the long, flat Central Valley, others are drilling new wells to sell off groundwater.

A water district board in Stanislaus County approved a pilot project this month to buy up to 26,000 acre-feet of groundwater pumped over two years from 14 wells on two landowners' parcels in neighboring Merced County.

Since the district is getting no water from the federal government this year, the extra water will let farmers keep their trees alive, said Anthea Hansen, general manager of the arid Del Puerto Water District.

Hansen estimated growers would ultimately pay $775 to $980 an acre-foot — a total of roughly $20 million to $25.5 million.

"We have to try to keep them alive," Hansen said. "It's too much loss in the investment and the local economy to not try."

___

Follow Garance Burke at http://www.twitter.com/garanceburke

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T-Mobile accused of making money off bogus billing

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are urging consumers to go through their phone bills line by line after they accused T-Mobile US of wrongly charging customers for premium services, like horoscope texts and quirky ringtones, the customers never authorized.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it is suing T-Mobile in a federal court in Seattle with the goal of making sure every unfairly charged customer sees a full refund. The lawsuit, the first of its kind against a mobile provider, is the result of months of stalled negotiations with T-Mobile, which says it is already offering refunds.

"It's wrong for a company like T-Mobile to profit from scams against its customers when there were clear warning signs the charges it was imposing were fraudulent," FTC Chair Edith Ramirez in a statement.

The practice is called "cramming": A third party stuffs a customer's bill with bogus charges such as $10-per-month horoscopes or updates on celebrity gossip. In this case, the FTC said, T-Mobile was working with third-party vendors being investigated by regulators and known to be the subject of numerous customer complaints. T-Mobile then made it difficult for customers to notice the added charge to their bill and pocketed up to 40 percent of the total, according to the FTC.

In a statement, T-Mobile called the allegations "unfounded and without merit" and said it blames the third-party vendors for the erroneous charges. T-Mobile also said it is already reaching out to customers to provide refunds.

The Federal Communications Commission says it has launched a separate inquiry into allegations that T-Mobile potentially made hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent charges.

"T-Mobile is fighting harder than any of the carriers to change the way the wireless industry operates, and we are disappointed that the FTC has chosen to file this action against the most pro-consumer company in the industry rather than the real bad actors," said John Legere, the company's CEO, in a statement.

The FTC told reporters in a conference call Tuesday that it had been in negotiations with T-Mobile for months in an attempt to guarantee refunds would be provided to customers but that the two sides couldn't reach an agreement.

T-Mobile appears to have been laying the groundwork to head off the federal complaint. Last November, the company announced that it would no longer allow premium text services because they were waning in popularity and not all vendors had acted responsibly. In June, it announced it would reach out to consumers to provide refunds. But the FTC says that in many cases, the refunds are only partial and T-Mobile often refers customer complaints to the third-party vendors.

The FTC said consumers can file a complaint with the FTC if they believe they were victimized. They can also prevent fraudulent charges in the first place by asking their providers to block all third-party businesses from providing services on their phones.

Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile US Inc. is a publicly traded company. T-Mobile's stock fell 21 cents to close Tuesday at $33.41.

___

Associated Press writer Anick Jesdanun contributed to this report.

___

Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneKFlaherty

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Unapproved device buys time for new pair of lungs

PITTSBURGH — An Oklahoma man is slowly gaining strength at a Pittsburgh hospital with a second set of transplanted lungs in a procedure that was possible only through a device that until now hasn't been used in the U.S.

The Hemolung essentially works like dialysis for the lungs, cleansing a patient's blood of carbon dioxide. The 33-year-old John Sacker was near death at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Cystic fibrosis destroyed his lungs and a severe infection caused his body to reject an initial set of transplanted lungs.

Doctors feared they couldn't get him strong enough to get another lung transplant but decided to gamble on the unapproved Hemolung. One of the devices was found in Toronto and brought to Pittsburgh, and Sacker improved to the point that in mid-March he got a transplant. Sacker calls the machine a lifesaver.

The Hemolung has been approved for use in Canada and Europe. Its maker, ALung Technologies Inc., is currently planning the stricter U.S. testing required by the Food and Drug Administration.

Sound:

%@AP Links

263-a-12-(Dr. William Federspiel, professior of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, in AP interview)-"the native lung"-Bioengineering professor Dr William Federspiel says the Hemolung removes dangerous C-O-2 from the blood. (1 Jul 2014)

<<CUT *263 (07/01/14)££ 00:12 "the native lung"

264-a-06-(Jonathan Sacker, transplant patient, in AP interview)-"hadn't got it"-Jonathan Sacker says the hemolung bought him critical time until he was able to get a set of new donor lungs. (1 Jul 2014)

<<CUT *264 (07/01/14)££ 00:06 "hadn't got it"

262-a-05-(Sallie Sacker, patient's wife, in AP interview)-"off the ventilator"-Sallie Sacker says the Hemolung saved her husband by buying him enough time to get donor lungs. (1 Jul 2014)

<<CUT *262 (07/01/14)££ 00:05 "off the ventilator"

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Audit shows problems at Samsung suppliers in China

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung said Tuesday an external audit found labor violations at dozens of its suppliers in China including failure to provide safety gear and excessive working hours.

Samsung Electronics Co. released the findings covering 100 of the company's Chinese suppliers in its annual social responsibility report. It has at least 200 suppliers in China.

Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, faced allegations in 2012 of child labor and other violations in China. New York-based labor rights group, China Labor Watch, said working conditions at Samsung suppliers were "inhumane" and the company vowed to eliminate illegal overtime by the end of 2014.

The audit conducted last year found 59 Chinese suppliers did not provide sufficient protective goggles, masks and other safety equipment to workers while 48 let minors, which were classified as employees aged 16-18, handle chemicals. Most of the audited factories did not comply with legally permitted overtime hours.

Other violations included lack of evacuation drills or exclusion of night shift workers from the drills at 40 suppliers. Part-time workers were not compensated for overtime working hours at 39 suppliers.

The South Korean company said it had subsequently demanded suppliers comply with legal hours and reduce overtime. It said it asked suppliers to provide protective gear and conduct regular training. Suppliers that get low marks would face penalties.

Samsung conducted its own audit of Chinese suppliers in 2012 and said it found instances of Chinese workers working beyond legal hours.

It said no instance of child labor was found in the latest audit, which was carried out by a third party auditor certified by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, an electronics industry group.

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Birth control ruling sparks political clash

WASHINGTON — Republicans called it a win for religious freedom. The decision of the Supreme Court, they said, is further evidence the country's new health care law is deeply flawed.

The claims of victory arrived almost immediately after the high court ruled Monday that some companies need not provide contraception to women as required by President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement. Yet there's a risk for the GOP in crowing too loudly.

Republicans for years have tried to make inroads with two groups that tend to favor Democrats: women and younger voters. And as popular as the court's decision will be with the Republican base, it's likely to be just as unpopular this year and into 2016 with those who depend on insurance to pay for birth control — a group that includes women and younger voters.

"The thought of your boss telling you what kind of birth control you can and can't get is offensive and it certainly is motivating to women to vote," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which plans to spend several million dollars this year to campaign for Senate candidates.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that some companies can hold religious objections allowing them to opt out of health law's birth control coverage requirement. While the ruling does not address the heart of the Affordable Care Act, it's a setback for Democrats and amplifies a longstanding argument from conservatives that the law they call "Obamacare" intrudes on religious liberties as part of a larger government overreach.

"This is a clear and decisive defeat against Obamacare and a victory for the rights of all Americans," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a fundraising appeal distributed less than three hours after the Supreme Court ruling.

But Republican leaders such as Priebus were careful to avoid mentioning the impact on women and their reproductive rights, underscoring the delicate balance the GOP must strike as it works to improve its image among women. The party is still recovering from a series of insensitive comments made by GOP candidates in the 2012 election, including Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, whose campaign crumbled after he said women's bodies were able to avoid pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."

"Republicans have to be careful about not appearing as though they're anti-contraception. This is a constitutional issue," said Katie Packer Gage, a GOP strategist whose firm advises Republicans on navigating women's issues. "We have to be very, very cautious as a party."

Polls suggest that most people — and a larger majority of women — think for-profit companies should be required to cover the cost of birth control. A Gallup survey conducted in May found that 90 percent of Americans, including 88 percent of Republicans, see the use of birth control as morally acceptable.

Democrats said the ruling would shine a spotlight on access to birth control and dovetail with a strategy by the party to mobilize female voters on issues such as raising the minimum wage and supporting pay equity for women.

In Colorado, for example, Democratic Sen. Mark Udall's first TV ad noted Republican Rep. Cory Gardner's past sponsorship of a bill to outlaw abortions in cases of rape and incest and support for an effort to grant an embryo the same legal rights as a person, which could have outlawed some types of birth control and all abortions. Gardner now says he opposes the "personhood" measure.

In Iowa, Democrats have signaled plans to highlight Republican Joni Ernst's support of a personhood amendment to the state's constitution. In Michigan, Democrats backing Senate candidate Gary Peters have sought to tarnish Republican Terri Lynn Land's record on reproductive rights, prompting her to air her own ad in April declaring, "As a woman, I might know a little bit more about women than Gary Peters."

It won't be clear until November whether women will respond to such appeals.

Fewer young women typically vote in midterm elections compared with presidential years. And they are particularly disengaged from this year's races: 63 percent of women under age 30 in an AP-GfK poll conducted before the ruling reported they "don't care very much" which party wins control of Congress. Just 21 percent said they were certain to vote in November.

Writing for the court's conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito suggested the White House could resolve the issue by broadening a birth control compromise it created earlier for religion-oriented nonprofits. In those cases a third party — usually an insurer — can cover contraceptives at no charge to the affected employees, and the government absorbs the cost.

But White House spokesman Josh Earnest signaled the administration may not take that route. Instead, he challenged Congress to pass legislation to address the coverage gap for women. That could put some Republicans in a difficult spot politically, but not right away. For now, they're enjoying what many viewed as a win.

"When Obamacare and its impact on people is front and center in the political debate, it's just not good news for Democrats," Republican strategist Kevin Madden said.

___

Peoples reported from Boston. Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

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New recalls and questions about auto parts safety

DETROIT — The ignition switch recalls now engulfing General Motors and Chrysler are raising new questions about the safety of the parts across the American auto industry.

GM's safety crisis deepened dramatically Monday when the automaker added 8.2 million vehicles in North America to its ballooning list of cars recalled over faulty ignition switches. GM has now issued five recalls for 17.1 million cars with defective switches, spanning every model year since 1997.

On the same day, Chrysler recalled almost 700,000 vehicles in North America because its ignition switches — like GM's — can slip from the "run" to the "accessory" position while driving. The Chrysler action expands an earlier recall of 2010 Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans and Dodge Journey crossovers. Models from 2007 to 2009 are now included.

GM's debacle caused other manufacturers to investigate their own switches and other potential defects. A recent spate of air bag recalls is probably tied to those internal investigations, said Karl Brauer, a senior industry analyst with Kelley Blue Book.

The government is also reviewing the switches.

Brauer said he does not think the ignition switch recalls will expand across the industry. Manufacturers all have their own switch designs and use different suppliers.

But the possibility is there, and buyers should be aware of the potential for cars to slip into the wrong mode. If a car comes out of the "run" position, the power steering and brakes can stop working, which can cause drivers to lose control. The air bags also won't function. GM has urged drivers to remove excess items from their key chains that could weigh down the keys.

"I think the ignition switch thing is fairly specific to GM, but it will be interesting to see. Were other companies letting their standards fall?" Brauer said.

GM's latest recalls involve mainly older midsize cars and bring its total recalls in North America to 29 million this year, surpassing the 22 million recalled by all automakers last year.

The new GM recalls cover seven vehicles, including the Chevrolet Malibu from 1997 to 2005, the Pontiac Grand Prix from 2004 to 2008, and the 2003-2014 Cadillac CTS.

The company is aware of three deaths, eight injuries and seven crashes involving the vehicles, although it says there's no clear evidence that faulty switches caused the accidents. Air bags did not deploy in the three fatal accidents, which is a sign that the ignition was out of position. But air bags may not deploy for other reasons as well.

A GM spokesman could not say Monday if more recalls are imminent. But this may be the end of the recalls associated with a 60-day review of all of the company's ignition switches. At the company's annual meeting earlier in June, CEO Mary Barra said she hoped most recalls related to that review would be completed by the end of the month.

Brauer said the number of recalls — while huge — may be a good thing for the company in the long run.

"I think there's a new standard for what GM considers a potential safety defect, and Mary Barra has no tolerance or patience for potential safety defects that are unresolved," he said.

In a statement Monday, Barra said the company "will act appropriately and without hesitation" if any new issues come to light.

Lance Cooper, a Marietta, Georgia, attorney who is suing GM, said he expects even more recalls. A company funded investigation of the ignition switch problems by former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas found that GM had a dysfunctional corporate culture in which people failed to take responsibility to fix the problems, Cooper said.

"Cars got made that were defective. The buck kept getting passed, and this is what happened as a result," Cooper said.

The announcement of more recalls extends a crisis for GM that began in February with small-car ignition switch problems. GM recalled 2.6 million older small cars worldwide because of the switches.

The problem has drawn the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the government's road safety agency. On June 18, the agency opened two investigations into ignition switches in Chrysler minivans and SUVs, and acknowledged that it's looking at the whole industry.

The agency is looking into how long air bags remain active after the switches are moved out of the run position. In many cases, the answer is less than a second.

GM's recalls on Monday bring this year's total so far to more than 40 million for the U.S. industry, far surpassing the old full-year record of 30.8 million from 2004.

The latest recalls came the same day the company's compensation consultant, Kenneth Feinberg, announced plans to pay victims of crashes caused by the defective small-car switches. Attorneys and lawmakers say about 100 people have died and hundreds were injured in crashes, although Feinberg said he didn't have a total.

Feinberg said the company has placed no limit on how much he can spend in total to compensate victims. But victims of the new set of recalls announced Monday can't file claims to the fund, which deals only with the small cars.

In the original recall, the ignition switches did not meet GM's specifications but were used anyway, and they slipped too easily out of the "run" position.

The vehicles recalled Monday have switches that do conform to GM's specifications. In these cases, the keys can move the ignition out of position because of jarring, bumps from the driver's knee or the weight of a heavy key chain, GM says. The cars recalled Monday will get replacement keys. The small cars recalled in February are getting new ignitions.

The Detroit company said it plans to take a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter for recall-related expenses. Added to a $1.3 billion charge in the first quarter, that brings total recall expenses for the year to $2.5 billion.

GM also announced four other recalls Monday covering more than 200,000 additional vehicles. Most are to fix an electrical short in the driver's door that could disable the power locks and windows and even cause overheating.

GM has announced 54 separate recalls this year. The company's stock fell 32 cents, or just under 1 percent, to close Monday at $36.30.

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Asian stock markets inch higher

SEOUL, South Korea — Global stock markets mostly inched higher Monday as investors prepared for a busy week of economic news that will give new clues about the strength of the global recovery.

European markets were steady in early trading. Britain's FTSE and France's CAC 40 were nearly flat at 6,761.24 and 4,438.43 respectively while Germany's DAX added 0.3 percent to 9,845.17.

Wall Street was set for a tepid session. Dow Jones futures were down 0.1 percent and S&P 500 futures were little changed.

Trading this week is likely to turn on data from China and the U.S. and a European Central Bank meeting. Last week, Asian stock markets were buffeted by weak U.S. consumer spending and sluggish growth in Chinese industrial profits.

A preliminary reading of China's manufacturing for June, due Tuesday, will be scrutinized for evidence the slowdown in the world's No. 2 economy has stabilized.

Monthly U.S. employment figures are due Thursday. On the same day, the European Central Bank holds its monthly rate-setting meeting, where it is widely expected to stick with its easing stance.

In Asia, most markets closed higher. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.4 percent to 15,162.10, reversing morning losses. Japan's economy ministry said the country's industrial output recovered slightly in May from a fall in the previous month.

South Korea's Kospi was up 0.7 percent to 2,002.21 and China's Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.6 percent to 2,048.33.

Stocks in Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia also rose. But Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9 percent to 5,395.70, one day ahead of the central bank's rate-setting meeting.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.1 percent to 23,190.72.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for August delivery was down 42 cents to $105.32 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 10 cents on Friday.

In currencies, the dollar slipped to 101.38 yen from 101.41 yen late Friday. The euro rose to $1.3660 from $1.3648, reversing an earlier drop.

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Philips to separate its LED parts arm

AMSTERDAM — Royal Philips NV said Monday it plans to spin off its fast-growing LED parts business into a separate company, to win new customers and to capitalize as manufacturers integrate LED lights into an ever-widening array of products.

Philips, the world's largest lighting producer, says the separation will be complete by early 2015 but it is not clear yet whether the division will seek a separate listing, or if it will remain within Philips for a time before it is sold. Philips executive Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, who currently heads the parts division, will remain as CEO of the new company.

LED sales are surging, as they can be programmed to emit light of different colors and need less energy than traditional lights. Manufacturers such as Philips, General Electric and Cree of the United States, as well as Germany's Osram, which was spun off from Siemens last year, all saw their LED sales rise at well above double digit rates in 2013, even as the price per bulb fell.

Philips' LED parts business, which is a major supplier to carmakers, had sales of 1.4 billion euros ($1.91 billion) in 2013.

Philips is prepared to become a minority shareholder in the parts business and will remain a big customer as it continues to sell its own branded lights and services, said Philips Chief Executive Frans van Houten.

Van Houten said the spin-off was not due to concerns LEDs themselves are becoming a commodity, despite recent price declines.

"I can assure you it is a very sound business with great margins and good profitability," he said. "At this stage, given the strong intellectual property and differentiation" of Philips' LEDs, "we think we can compete very well with Asian competitors."

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Japan's mixed data for May show economy slowing

TOKYO — Mixed economic data for May suggests Japan's economy is continuing to slow after a sales tax increase at the beginning of the second quarter.

Government figures released Monday and last Friday showed that housing starts and household spending fell in May while industrial output grew less than expected.

Japan's economy was the one of the best performing in the industrial world in the first three months of the year, growing 6.7 percent from the year before. But the April 1 increase in Japan's sales tax to 8 percent from 5 percent is expected to cause a contraction in the economy for the April-June quarter because demand has fallen off following a rush of purchasing to beat the tax hike.

Factory output in the world's third-largest economy climbed 0.8 percent in May from a year earlier, and was up 0.5 percent from the month before, the economy ministry reported. That was lower than most forecasts, but an improvement from a 2.8 percent drop in April.

Higher output of machinery, cars and electronic devices accounted for most of the increase, the ministry said. Since manufacturers are reporting rising inventories, they are forecasting a decline in output in June before a further recovery in July and beyond, the report said.

Housing starts fell 15 percent in May from the year before, the government reported. Construction starts have slowed since hitting a peak in October last year.

Much of the growth in demand before the sales tax was raised was attributed to construction of new homes. Now, many lots that were cleared of older structures last year remain idle due to the fall-off in construction. The tax increase is part of measures aimed at containing Japan's vast public debt.

Household spending fell 8 percent in May, the sharpest drop in three years, following a surge in spending early in the year.

Assuming output falls as expected in June, Japan's manufacturing will likely contract 3.1 percent in the April-June quarter, Marcel Thieliant, an economist with Capita Economics, said in a commentary Monday.

"The rise in industrial production in May suggests that the sector is recovering from the weakness caused by the consumption tax hike," he said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has championed an economic strategy aimed at breaking Japan free of years of deflation. The theory is that companies and households will spend more now if they expect things to cost more in the future due to inflation.

Last week, Abe released the latest iteration of reforms he is proposing to help sustain growth and boost competitiveness, vowing to trim the country's massive public debt and spur companies to spend more and diversify their employment practices.

But for most families struggling to get by on incomes that have been falling since 1997, wages must rise to increase or keep purchasing power constant. Despite some of the biggest wage increases in years for employees of some of the biggest companies, such as Toyota Motor Corp., income of salaried households dropped a real 4.6 percent from the year before in May, to an average 421,117 yen (about $4,160), the eighth straight monthly decline.

So far, wage increases have been mainly in limited categories of workers, most of whom are contract or freelance employees in areas such as trucking and construction.

While there are shortages of labor in some key industries, the recovery so far is not helping push base wages higher for workers as a whole. Similar to the "jobless recovery" in the U.S., Japan's rebound so far has mostly boosted the hiring of temporary or contract workers, as rising prices and tax hikes eat into consumer purchasing power.

The consumer price index climbed 3.4 percent in May from a year earlier, the fastest increase since the oil shock in 1982, as 10 percent higher rates for electricity and a hike in the sales tax pushed costs sharply higher.

The central bank estimates that about 2 percent of the increase can be attributed to the increase in the tax rate to 8 percent from 5 percent.

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