Lovely flats in Chelsea shoe factory

This sunny corner unit at the Spencer Lofts in Chelsea has 10 large windows and 15-foot ceilings in a building that used to be a Buster Brown shoe factory.

The price of Unit 210 is just $289,000, and that includes two deeded outdoor parking spaces.

Built, in 1910, the brick factory building housed the Brown Shoe Co. before being converted into 100 condos in 2004. Along the ground floor is an attached art gallery that shows local artists, a number of whom live in the complex.

The 1,126-square-foot unit has an open floor plan with the bedroom set off by a large walk-in closet.

You enter into an open ­living/dining area with a wall of 10-foot-high windows and a light/fan hanging from 15-foot ceilings. Jelly-jar lamps add to the industrial feel, along with exposed ductwork bracketed wood posts and concrete floors.

To the right is a galley kitchen with Ikea wood and frosted cabinets, Formica counters, stainless-steel Frigidaire gas stove and refrigerator, and a Kitchen­Aid dishwasher that was added in 2009.

The adjacent full bathroom has a white porcelain sink, a white-tiled tub and shower, and also has a stacked Kenmore washer/dryer. There's additional storage above the bathroom, which also holds the unit's just-replaced electric water heater and gas-fired heating and central air conditioning system.

On the wall separating the living area from the bedroom is built-in shelving.

A large walk-in closet with built-in wardrobes on either side screens the corner bedroom, with walls of windows on two sides.

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HubSpot looks to raise $120M

Cambridge enterprise software company HubSpot plans to raise up to 
$120 million from its initial public offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the filing, HubSpot said it will sell 5 million shares of common stock with an option for 750,000 more for between $19 and $21 per share. That would value the company at more than $600 million.

Renaissance Capital, which manages an IPO ETF, expects shares of Hubspot to hit the market within two weeks.

Kathleen Smith, chairman of Renaissance Capital, said HubSpot will have to convince investors it is different from other enterprise software companies, many of which have struggled in the public markets so far this year.

"This sector sold off back in March," Smith said. "Investors weren't making any money."

HubSpot, best known for its software for marketers, announced several new products last week designed to move the company into the sales industry.

At its annual customer conference last week, CEO Brian Halligan said he is trying to build an "anchor company" in Boston that can help lead the region's charge as a global technology leader.

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Electric hikes will shock poor

Organizations that rely on government aid to help pay for low-income residents' heat during the winter say the dramatic rate hikes utilities are planning could leave people in the cold.

Liz Berube, assistant director of Citizens for Citizens in Fall River, called National Grid's plan to hike rates by 37 percent "the worst news of the day."

"We're just hoping and praying the most vulnerable people — the elderly and the disabled — don't choose not to eat or fill a prescription just to cover their bill," said Berube, most of whose clients use National Grid.

Of the 17,000 people Citizens for Citizens helped with fuel last winter with the $9 million it received in federal aid and the $1 million it received from the state, she said, more than 4,000 people already have applied for help so far this year, roughly a
33 percent increase over the number of applications received by this time last year.

Action for Boston Community Development — about 60 percent of whose clients are NStar customers and the rest of whom rely primarily on oil for heat — has received more than 10,000 applications as of yesterday, about half the total number received last year, said President and CEO John J. Drew.

Since NStar has warned customers to brace for a rate increase, Drew worries that if ABCD receives about $2 million from the state and $10 million in federal aid, as it did last year, the benefits his clients will receive could be less.

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Coakley: Partners agrees to price cap under deal

BOSTON — Attorney General Martha Coakley said Partners HealthCare has agreed to cap prices at Hallmark Health Centers for six and a half years if it's allowed to acquire Hallmark under a revised deal.

Coakley's office renegotiated the agreement after the state's Health Policy Commission criticized part of the original deal to allow Partners to acquire Hallmark, which owns Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.

The original agreement included a provision that allowed Coakley and Partners to reopen negotiations if the commission determined there would be a "likelihood of materially increased prices" as a result of Partners' acquisition of Hallmark.

Coakley said Thursday that her office pushed for the cap. The agreement is part of Coakley's anti-trust investigation into Partners.

Coakley said Partners also has jointly agreed to maintain the current level of psychiatric and behavioral health services at its Hallmark and North Shore facilities.

"These additional concessions will mitigate the potential for higher prices related to this transaction and ensure that mental health treatment remains fully accessible to the surrounding community," Coakley said Thursday in a written statement.

The revised agreement was filed in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday. Coakley said the amended consent judgment is expected to be considered by Judge Janet Sanders. The next court date is Monday.

If approved by the court, the consent judgment will also resolve the antitrust investigation by Coakley's office into Partners and its acquisition of South Shore Hospital.

Coakley also said Thursday that her office filed its formal response to the more than 100 comments received as part of the public comment period ordered by the court.

Coakley, who is running for governor, has been criticized over the deal by her political rivals.

Republican candidate for governor Charlie Baker, the former head of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, has said the agreement is too complicated and too hard to enforce.

Baker has said the deal should have focused on two or three items, like requiring Partners to post the prices of its medical services and freezing any expansion of its physician network.

Under the agreement a monitor — selected by Coakley's office and paid for by Partners — will ensure that Partners complies with the terms of the consent judgment for the duration of the agreement.

If Partners violates the terms of the consent judgment, the organization could be held in contempt of court and face penalties, Coakley has said.

Partners HealthCare is Massachusetts' largest hospital and physicians' network.

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Boston needs 100K new workers in manufacturing

Massachusetts will need 100,000 new manufacturing workers in the next decade just to keep employment levels where they are today and stay competitive, according to the state's head of economic development.

"We're at a moment in time where either we're going to rise to the challenge in the next 10 to 15 years (or) ...we may lose some things irretrievably," said Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki. "It's big."

There are currently 250,000 people working in the manufacturing sector, a number that has stayed more or less level for the past five years after 20 years of continuous decline.

Bialecki said the state's training programs for manufacturing workers — largely in community colleges and vocational technical schools — will need to greatly expand to supply the manpower to replenish a manufacturing workforce where the average age is 56.

"The industry is going to need everyone that we are producing and more to meet that challenge," he said. "We don't need 10 or 20 percent more, we really need to double (the number of people in training programs)."

Bialecki said the industry can remain competitive — particularly in advanced manufacturing producing products such as medical devices — as long as the workforce is there.

Steve Sawin, president and CEO of Operon Resource Management, a manufacturing staffing firm, said one of the most difficult things will be convincing new workers — especially younger workers — that manufacturing is a desirable industry.

"We need to initiate some type of public relations initiative that really changes the perception of manufacturing and brings young people to the door," Sawin said. "It's not their grandparents' manufacturing factory anymore, it's not a dirty, dank, unsafe environment."

Next week, Bialecki will be going across the state for Manufacturing Week, promoting the industry, especially to new and recent graduates. He will be going to community colleges and vocational and technical schools to showcase the opportunities in manufacturing.

"Our target audience is young people," Bialecki said. "There are good-paying jobs available, it is a good career, it's not a dying industry."

Still, manufacturing workers soon will start to leave the workforce faster than they can be replaced.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better," Sawin said. "Attrition in the next few years is going to create a tremendous number of job (openings)."

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Renters show appetite for luxury

Renters are snapping up the first wave of new luxury apartment buildings in the Hub even as a second wave of high-end rentals are starting to pre-lease.

"People ask how many more people can afford these rents, but there are a lot of well-paid, dual-income households who can," said Travis D'Amato, a senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle who focuses on multihousing. "We've gained 67,000 new jobs since the bottom of the recession and Boston's population is growing 1 percent a year. The rental base is increasing."

D'Amato believes that 8,800 new Hub apartments already completed or scheduled to be by 2017 will not be enough to meet demand. First-wave projects such as 315 on A and the Kensington are nearly full, but other buildings are offering concessions to stay on target for leasing up within a year of opening.

"It's marketing magic," D'Amato said. "You get people in the door with one or two months free but they're still getting the high monthly rents over the life of the lease."

High-end buildings such as Avalon Exeter have been attracting empty nesters.

"Many of these renters still own properties on the Cape or in Florida, but want to rent in the city," said Dennis Gramolini, community manager of Avalon Exeter.

Avalon Exeter, which is about 55 percent leased, has rents ranging from $2,600 to more than $13,000. A 1,621-square-foot 27th-floor two-bedroom penthouse with panoramic views of the Back Bay and Charles River on two sides just rented for $12,800 a month

"The first wave of luxury apartments in Boston is doing well because it addressed the pent-up demand from the years that there was no new production," said Michael Roberts, vice present of development for AvalonBay Communities. "The second wave is all about the new demographics of the city and the growth of the local economy."

Along with baby boomers, a big part of new urban demographic is the millennials, young professionals between 25 and 35.

"Millennials are willing to pay a higher percentage of their income for rent because many don't have cars, but they need apartments near public transportation," D'Amato said.

Avalon Bay is targeting millennials with its new Ava brand in a 398-unit Theater District project under construction as well as a nearly completed 250-apartment building in Somerville's Assembly Row. The Ava brand features Twitter walls, modern interior design and social spaces that encourage networking.

The upcoming 378-unit Troy Boston in the South End will have an eco-friendly focus much like 315 on A.

The neighboring Ink Block's 392 apartments, on the former site of the Boston Herald, will be in three buildings, each with a unique look.

"1 Ink will have sophisticated Euro-style interiors, 2 Ink will be more edgy and colorful and 3 Ink will use a lot of natural materials," said Ted Tye, managing partner of National Development, who said pre-leasing will start next week for an early 2015 opening. "We are taking a different approach to appeal to a wide variety of renters."

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Amazon to get state, local tax breaks

Amazon.com will receive nearly $3.5 million in state tax incentives and a tax exemption from the town of Stoughton in exchange for creating 125 jobs at a package-handling facility it's considering opening there — an announcement that drew outrage from one taxpayer advocate.

"Amazon needs a tax credit?" said Barbara Anderson, president of Citizens for Limited Taxation. "Amazon's going to own the world someday. This might finally be the example we need of why the entire economic incentive program is ridiculous."

The online retailer is considering expanding its
network by leasing a 328,000-square-foot facility through which packages from larger distribution centers would get passed onto trucks delivering in New England, according to state officials.

Amazon would invest $20 million to upgrade the facility and fit it with about $17 million in machinery and equipment, officials said, and the project would create 125 full-time jobs in Stoughton.

In exchange, the town would grant the company a 10-year personal property tax exemption worth $2.89 million.

Neither Amazon nor Stoughton Town Manager Michael Hartman returned calls yesterday.

The company also would receive $600,000 in state tax credits, which could be recouped if Amazon fails to make the investment or create jobs, said Matt Sheaff, a spokesman for the Office of Housing and Economic Development.

Still, Anderson wanted to know why taxpayers should help the online retail giant.

"The state and towns shouldn't be picking winners and losers," she said. "Instead, they should create the best economic environment they can for all taxpayers."

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Asian stocks up as US data boost sentiment

SEOUL, South Korea — Asian stock markets were mostly higher Thursday after a surge in new home sales in the U.S. bolstered sentiment. But gains were limited by worries about Europe's stagnant economy and violence in Iraq and Syria.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan outperformed the region with the Nikkei 225 up 1.2 percent to 16,364.74 after the dollar rose above 109 yen overnight, a fresh six-year high. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.3 percent to 2,351.39. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1 percent to 5,380.30. Stocks in Southeast Asia rose. South Korea's Kospi drifted 0.1 percent lower to 2,034.80 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged down 0.2 percent to 23,884.90.

HOUSING JUMP: The Commerce Department said new home sales climbed 18 percent in August to an annual rate of 504,000 homes, beating the 430,000 expected by economists. It was the fastest clip since May 2008 and a sign that the real estate market might improve after the recovery from the Great Recession stalled during the past year because of sluggish wage growth and rising prices.

ANALYST TAKE: The unexpected increase in U.S. home sales may "indicate that young people are perhaps now starting to feel economically secure enough to buy their own homes," Chang Wei Liang of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. "Continuation of this strength would provide further concrete evidence that even the labor market for young people is already near normality."

SLOW EUROPE: On Wednesday, data showed that business confidence in Germany, Europe's largest economy, dropped for the fifth straight month. The Ifo institute said its confidence index dropped to 104.7 points for September from 106.3 last month as the mood among executives darkened regarding both the current situation and the outlook for the next six months. The fall was bigger than anticipated.

WALL STREET: The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 0.9 percent to 17,210.06 on Wednesday, its best day since Aug. 18. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.8 percent to 1,998.30 and the Nasdaq composite rose 1 percent to 4,555.22.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude oil edged down 7 cents to $92.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract rose $1.24 to $92.80 after the government reported a larger-than-expected decline in oil stocks.

CURRENCY: The euro dropped to $1.2767 from $1.2777 late Wednesday. The dollar fell to 109.14 yen from 109.19 yen.

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ESPN suspends Bill Simmons for NFL comments

ESPN has suspended analyst Bill Simmons for three weeks over a profanity-laced rant in which he called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a "liar" and challenged his bosses at ESPN to punish him for criticizing the league's recent handling of its domestic violence issues.

The network made the announcement on Wednesday.

"Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN's journalistic standards," the company said in a statement. "We have worked hard to ensure that our recent NFL coverage has met that criteria. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks."

Simmons, who was suspended by ESPN last year for criticizing one of the network's football segments on Twitter, made the Goodell remarks on his Monday podcast.

"I'm just saying it. He is lying," he said on the B.S. Report. "I think that dude is lying. If you put him up on a lie detector test that guy would fail. For all these people to pretend they didn't know is such f-king bullsh-t. It really is. It's such f-king bullsh-t. And for him to go in that press conference and pretend otherwise, I was so insulted. I really was."

Goodell has claimed that nobody from the NFL saw the video of Ray Rice assault his fiance in a casino elevator last February until TMZ posted it on Sept. 8.

"I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I'm in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell," Simmons said. "Because if one person says that to me, I'm going public. You leave me alone. The Commissioner's a liar and I get to talk about that on my podcast. . . . Please, call me and say I'm in trouble. I dare you."

ESPN suspension of Simmons was quickly denounced on Twitter, where #FreeBillSimmons was the top trend in the U.S. late Wednesday.

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

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Ex-worker sues parenting retailer

A former instructor for a Needham-based prenatal and parenting retailer that abruptly shut down this year is suing the company for allegedly failing to give proper notification to employees and for back pay.

Nancy Gair, who worked for Isis Parenting since 2007, has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the 11-year-old company, which had a devoted following, didn't adequately warn employees that they would be laid off or pay prenatal and parenting class instructors for the time spent setting up and breaking down classes.

Isis Parenting announced Jan. 14 that it was ending its classes — without prior warning to employees or customers — and would close its four stores, which were shuttered by Jan. 27.

In addition to the compensation for an estimated 100 class instructors, the lawsuit seeks 60 days of back pay for approximately 200 Isis employees.

"Far from seeking any sort of windfall, (Gair) — on the behalf of former employees — is simply trying to recover the wages and compensation due to them as a matter of law," said Nicholas J. Rosenberg, Gair's Boston attorney. "We believe the named defendants had the requisite involvement and control over the operations of Isis and are responsible for the employee damages."

Filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, the suit also names as defendants former Isis Parenting CFO Peter Delahunt, and former director Mark Schwartz and his Hub investment firm, Palladin Consumer Retail Partners. Delahunt couldn't be reached; Schwartz declined comment.

Court documents allege Isis Parenting failed to give proper employee notice under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which generally requires certain employers to provide 60 days' notice before layoffs.

"The WARN Act is designed to ensure that when a company is shut down and terminates a large number of employees, that the employees have ample notice so that they can get unemployment and job transition assistance, make financial arrangements, look for new work, etc.," Rosenberg said. "The Isis employees here didn't have that chance."

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Marty Walsh whacks Menino appointee

A politically wired, Menino-administration appointee to the Boston Landmarks Commission and a local preservation panel has been terminated from both posts by Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who in a recent letter accused the real estate executive of "ethics" violations, the Herald has learned.

Yanni Tsipis, a senior vice president at Colliers International who Mayor Thomas M. Menino tapped to serve on the Landmarks Commission in 2007 and the Fort Point Channel Landmark District Commission in 2009, had continued to serve on both boards as a "holdover" at the will of the mayor.

That ended when Walsh moved to terminate his tenure in a scathing letter dated Aug. 22 that accused Tsipis of "violations of conflict-of-interest and ethics laws" and "poor attendance." The letter was filed with City Clerk Maureen Feeney and the City Council on Sept 10.

However, in a Monday letter signed by Walsh, who is currently in Ireland, the mayor asked the city clerk to revoke his August letter and replace it with one in which he stated that "while I am not re-appointing Mr. Tsipis to these commissions I am grateful for his years of service to our city."

Tsipis, an MIT graduate, is married to Kristin Kara, a deputy director of special projects at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and is the son-in-law of Henry Kara, a real estate attorney who is a close friend of and longtime donor to Menino.

"My understanding is that the letter has been revoked and is null and void," Tsipis told the Herald yesterday, declining to discuss its allegations.

Walsh's press office yesterday was unable to provide any information supporting the allegations, and suggested the August letter had not been fully vetted before being filed.

"Upon further scrutiny of the content of the letter, it became clear that we lacked the appropriate documentation or substantiation to support the serious allegations made in the letter. Unfortunately the letter had already been signed and filed with the Clerk's office. We took immediate steps to correct this action, filing a revocation letter," said Walsh spokeswoman Kate Norton.

Several political observers viewed Walsh's initial missive as an unusual step, noting most voluntary commissioners get a perfunctory letter thanking them for their service when being asked to step down.

"It was a harsh letter," said a City Hall insider, who questioned the mayor's sudden about face. "While it clearly was meant for Yanni Tsipis, it has a broader impact on Colliers International. In real estate circles it's the equivalent of a kiss of death for doing business with City Hall."

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Google X chief touts out-there projects

Google X — the company's top-secret research and design lab — will never immediately reject an idea, Google's "Captain of Moonshots" said yesterday at an emerging technology conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"When someone says why didn't we think about space elevators, it took days for us to discard it," said Astro Teller, head of Google X since 2010. "This is Google's DNA."

Speaking at the EmTech MIT conference hosted by MIT Technology Review at the MIT Media Lab yesterday, Teller said Google X projects have to be things that can provide significant value for society. The key, he said, is to raise expectations.

"When you unleash people's ability to be creative ... you often find solutions to that problem that are easier."

Google X is behind Google Glass, and is working on self-driving cars, smart contact lenses for people with diabetes and Project Wing, which is testing drone deliveries in Australia. He also said the balloons used in Project Loon, Google X's effort to encircle the globe with balloons that provide wireless Internet access, have traveled as far as the distance to the moon and back three times, and more will be up in the next year.

"We should have a semi-permanent ring of balloons in the southern hemisphere so we can do significant testing," he said.

The project is designed to provide reliable Internet access to the 5 billion people who do not have it now.

"Find something that would make the world a radically better place," Teller said. "If you make a lot of value (for consumers), the money will come back and find us in a fair and relevant way."

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Messaging app seeks to bring voices back to phones

SAN FRANCISCO — Longtime technology guru Ray Ozzie wants to bring back the emotions of the human voice to phones.

His mission began more than two years ago as Ozzie noticed people were increasingly communicating through texts, emails and social media posts instead of calling each other.

"When you see nothing but words and numbers, it becomes very mechanical and very transactional," Ozzie said in an interview. "But when you hear the sound of someone's voice, it really brings it much closer to home."

Ozzie, 58, Microsoft's former chief software architect, hopes to orchestrate voice's comeback through Talko, a mobile application being released Tuesday for the iPhone. A version for Android phones is expected in a few months.

Talko sends the equivalent of text messages in the form of a spoken word. Talko users can record a voice message and send it over the Internet to anyone else with the app. Recipients listen to the recording when it's convenient, rather than being interrupted by a traditional phone call.

All messages will be stored for 10 days, though users can buy a subscription — expected to be $5 to $9 per month — to permanently store messages. For the first few months, Talko will store all voice recordings for free.

Users can choose to make their recordings available to more than one person, a feature that Ozzie believes will make Talko ideal for employees working in the same department of a company.

The five DigitalGlobe workers who installed the app in July as part of Talko's testing didn't use it much initially, partly because they were so accustomed to texting and emailing each other or trying to schedule a conference call when they needed to talk, said Ed Locher, DigitalGlobe's senior vice president of corporate marketing.

But Talko turned out to be valuable in the five days leading up to the launch of a DigitalGlobe satellite last month, Locher said. "It reminded me of a walkie talkie," he said. "It was much faster than texting or trying to set up a conference call."

Ozzie isn't under the delusion that voice messages are going to supplant popular communications apps such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Tango, which combine texts and photo sharing. Talko also accommodates texts and photos to supplement the voice recordings.

Another technology industry veteran, Alan Braverman, also is trying to give voices a new outlet on phones. Last week, his San Francisco startup incubator, Giant Pixel, released an iPhone and iPad app called Sobo that offers a vocal twist to Twitter, the popular short-messaging network. Sobo users can record six-second sound bites that are then broadcast to their followers. Braverman is best known as a co-founder of Yammer, a social networking tool for businesses that Microsoft Corp. bought for $1.2 billion in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Messages app in Apple's new iOS 8 software for mobile devices also lets users record and send short audio messages. Recipients raise their iPhones to their ears to automatically play the message. Under default settings, messages expire two minutes after listening.

Ozzie was well known before Microsoft bought one of his previous startups, Groove Networks, for an undisclosed amount in 2005. In the 1980s, he played a key role in creating a suite of document-sharing tools at Lotus Development Corp., now owned by IBM Corp. Shortly after joining Microsoft, Ozzie succeeded company co-founder Bill Gates as chief software architect, a role he held until he left Microsoft in 2010.

The 11-employee startup behind Talko is funded by Ozzie's personal fortune and investments from venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners. Lotus funder Mitch Kapor also is backing Talko.

Although Talko is focusing on the business market, Ozzie said he hopes employees will have such a positive experience that they will encourage their family members and friends to install the app, too.

"I really do believe it will spread by word of mouth," Ozzie said.

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Los Angeles Register ends publication immediately

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Register has announced that it will cease publication immediately.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Orange County Register co-owner Aaron Kushner sent a memo with the news to employees of the newspaper on Monday night.

The memo, signed by Kushner and Freedom Communications co-owner Eric Spitz, said: "Pundits and local competitors who have closely followed our entry into Los Angeles will be quick to criticize our decision to launch a new newspaper and they will say that we failed."

"We believe, the true definition of failure is not taking bold steps toward growth."

The company will focus on markets in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the memo said. Freedom owns the Long Beach Register, which it opened last year, and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, which it bought in November for more than $27 million.

The memo said there will be "staff changes" but did not give specifics or mention layoffs.

In January, Freedom laid off 71 employees. In June, it imposed two-week furloughs companywide.

Kushner and Spitz said the Los Angeles Register's website will stay open and publish material from other Freedom publications.

The newspaper opened in April.

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How 'Scandal' paved the way for ABC's twitter-based '#TGIT' marketing strategy

ABC hopes to power Shonda Rhimes' takeover of Thursday night this season with an army of Twitter followers.

The network aims to build on "Scandal's" template by promoting the night with the hashtag "#TGIT," to focus fans on talking about "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal" and new entrant "How to Get Away with Murder" all night long.

Twitter, meanwhile, recently revealed the results of a study supporting the long-standing belief of uber-showrunner Rhimes and her casts that traction on Twitter -- and an investment in having stars and producers live-tweet episodes along with fans -- makes a difference in ratings.

"These are shows where they've got it down to a science to a certain extent," said Anjali Midha, head of global media and agency research at Twitter. "They really know how to integrate Twitter, and what we now see from the data is that these guys were spot on. They really knew something about how this could drive conversation about their program."

Midha explained that while Twitter has been in the game of developing metrics for television since 2010, it is now easier to aggregate data into a clearer picture of how Twitter is used in conjunction with television viewing. Twitter has examined the volume of conversation generated by shows where stars and producers actively engage fans, versus shows that have a more passive presence on the social media platform.

Twitter number crunchers are also able to track trends in the volume of conversation generated by specific episodes of a given program.

"There's actually a bump when the show handle is tweeting," Midha said, citing a 7% spike in conversation when tweets are sent from a show's official Twitter handle. "When the cast members and talent tweet, the bump goes through the roof and there's a 64% lift in conversation about that program," Midha said.

Such a lift is precisely what ABC is hoping for in branding Thursday with the "#TGIT" tag, a throwback to the network's "TGIF" themed Friday comedy block of the 1980s and '90s. Rhimes' Washington, D.C.-based sudser "Scandal" was one of the first programs that the net actively began promoting on Twitter, and was the first to feature a promoted hashtag in advertising "#WhoShotFitz" in 2012.

"That was really the jumping off point, realizing how marketing could accentuate what was being done," said Darren Schillace, senior VP of marketing strategy at ABC. "We only wanted to do it with shows that have an amazing hook - and Shonda came back with shooting the president.

"People make up hashtags, but it really rallied everyone around a single thought, and that's what made it really powerful," he added.

Schillace commented that part of why Twitter as a form of promotion, and live-tweeting during a show, is so effective is dependent on the material audiences are talking about. "Shonda writes amazing live television shows that people don't want to have spoiled," he said. It didn't take long into "Scandal's" run for the network to notice the trend, bolstered by Rhimes' personal interest in including her viewers in a more active way.

"I had been on Twitter for a long time and had originally used it to interact with fans and remind them when my shows were on," said Rhimes of her own start live-tweeting. "It later became a different tool when Kerry Washington suggested that the 'Scandal' cast join Twitter, and I mobilized everyone to live tweet the episodes."

"Twitter's become a water cooler for us," added Betsy Beers, Rhimes' partner and an exec producer on "Scandal". "Now everybody's watching shows in a different span and rate. The great thing about Twitter is that you can always find a community."

"Scandal" co-star Darby Stanchfield called the experience of live-tweeting "the closest thing I've had to theater in television. You're getting to see what people think."

ABC's Schillace has been surprised at how granular the conversation becomes. Viewers often want to know everything from what Olivia Pope is wearing on "Scandal," to the title and teasing lines from the next "Once Upon a Time" script, to the set details on "Castle."

"People are really watching these shows with an eagle eye and when you start allowing fans the access to get an insider's look and somebody answers, it's really cool. It makes us very aware of how broad marketing really is," he said. "It's not just that weekly tune-in. All week long you can engage different parts of the shows."

Live-tweeting alone, explains Midha, has the potential to further grow a program's presence online, which will hopefully translate to more viewers on-air. "It builds a vast, very deep set of conversation, meaning that many more people are exposed to that program and conversation," she said. "Conversation in turn is driving the kind of behavior that advertisers and networks really care about."

Part of the new study discovered that 77% of users surveyed reported taking some kind of action after seeing TV-related tweets, including planning on watching the show later, catching episodes online, looking for more information or social media comments, and changing the channel.

"It's so hard to close the loop," said Schillace on how closely Twitter data compares to ratings increases. While it is still difficult to draw direct connections between the conversation online and the number of viewers, Schillace said networks can't afford to ignore the platform.

"We say there's a causation not a correlation. When #WhoShotFitz happened, our ratings went up and up and up and never went down again, so it's very much tied to the noise," Schillace said.

"It's really exciting," added "Scandal" star Washington, "because we don't learn about what's going to happen ahead of time, so we're always really shocked and surprised. We love being able to interact on Twitter with our fans because we can really relate to that feeling."

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

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NASA's Maven explorer arrives at Mars after a year

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's Maven spacecraft arrived at Mars late Sunday after a 442 million-mile journey that began nearly a year ago.

The robotic explorer fired its brakes and successfully slipped into orbit around the red planet, officials confirmed.

"I think my heart's about ready to start again," said Maven's chief investigator, Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado. "All I can say at this point is, 'We're in orbit at Mars, guys!'"

Now the real work begins for the $671 million mission, the first dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere.

Flight controllers in Colorado will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven's altitude and checking its science instruments, and observing a comet streaking by. Then in early November, Maven will start probing the upper atmosphere of Mars. The spacecraft will conduct its observations from orbit; it's not meant to land.

Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth's neighbor went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry. That early wet world may have harbored microbial life, a tantalizing question yet to be answered.

NASA launched Maven last November from Cape Canaveral, the 10th U.S. mission sent to orbit the red planet. Three earlier ones failed, and until the official word came of success late Sunday night, the entire team was on edge.

"I don't have any fingernails any more, but we've made it," said Colleen Hartman, deputy director for science at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's incredible."

The spacecraft was clocking more than 10,000 mph when it hit the brakes for the so-called orbital insertion, a half-hour process. The world had to wait 12 minutes to learn the outcome, once it occurred, because of the lag in spacecraft signals given the 138 million miles between the two planets on Sunday.

"Based on observed navigation data, congratulations, Maven is now in Mars orbit," came the official announcement. Flight controllers applauded the news and shook hands; laughter filled the previously tension-filled room.

Noted NASA project manager David Mitchell: "Wow, what a night. You get one shot with Mars orbit insertion, and Maven nailed it tonight."

Maven joins three spacecraft already circling Mars, two American and one European. And the traffic jam isn't over: India's first interplanetary probe, Mangalyaan, will reach Mars in two days and also aim for orbit. Jakosky wished the team well.

Jakosky, who's with the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, hopes to learn where all the water on Mars went, along with the carbon dioxide that once comprised an atmosphere thick enough to hold moist clouds.

The gases may have been stripped away by the sun early in Mars' existence, escaping into the upper atmosphere and out into space. Maven's observations should be able to extrapolate back in time, Jakosky said.

Maven — short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission — will spend at least a year collecting data. That's a full Earth year, half a Martian one. Its orbit will dip as low as 78 miles above the Martian surface as its eight instruments make measurements. The craft is as long as a school bus, from solar wingtip to tip, and as hefty as an SUV.

Maven will have a rare brush with a comet next month.

The nucleus of newly discovered Comet Siding Spring will pass 82,000 miles from Mars on Oct. 19. The risk of comet dust damaging Maven is low, officials said, and the spacecraft should be able to observe Siding Spring as a science bonus.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Maven's maker, is operating the mission from its control center at Littleton, Colorado.

This is NASA's 21st shot at Mars and the first since the Curiosity rover landed on the red planet in 2012. Just this month, Curiosity arrived at its prime science target, a mountain named Sharp, ripe for drilling. The Opportunity rover is also still active a decade after landing.

All these robotic scouts are paving the way for the human explorers that NASA hopes to send in the 2030s.

___

Online:

NASA: http://mars.nasa.gov/maven/

University of Colorado: http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/

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US firm in China meat scandal lays off 340 staff

BEIJING — A U.S. meat supplier said Monday it is laying off most of the workforce of a Chinese subsidiary accused of selling expired beef and chicken to McDonald's, KFC and other major restaurant chains.

Shanghai Husi Food Co. has been under investigation since a Shanghai TV station reported in July it repackaged and sold old meat. Six employees were arrested in August on suspicion of producing substandard products.

Its owner, OSI Group of Aurora, Illinois, said it will lay off 340 people at the Shanghai unit. It said a small number of employees would be kept on while the investigation is underway. The website of Shanghai Husi says it employs about 500 people.

"Over the past two months, Shanghai Husi has experienced significant financial and customer losses," said an OSI Group statement. "It is very unlikely that production will be resumed soon."

The scandal has alarmed Chinese diners and disrupted operations for fast food brands.

Product safety is unusually sensitive in China following scandals over the past decade in which infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or sickened by phony or adulterated milk powder, drugs and other goods.

KFC owner Yum Brands Inc. and McDonald's Corp. said they immediately stopped using products from Husi.

Burger King Corp., Starbucks Corp., pizza chain Papa John's International Inc. and a Dicos, a chain of sandwich shops, withdrew products with ingredients from suppliers that dealt with Husi.

OSI has announced plans for a "quality control center" in Shanghai and said it will spend 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) on a food safety education campaign.

The company announced Sept. 1 it was turning over management of a separate facility in the southern city of Guangzhou that produces vegetable and fruit products to KanPak China, owned by Golden State Foods of Irvine, California.

KFC has broken all ties with OSI Group in China, the United States and Australia.

McDonald's, which has bought meat from OSI in the United States since the 1950s, complained it felt deceived but has said it will stick with the company, possibly because Chinese food processors cannot match OSI's scale and technology.

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World stock markets slip on China growth jitters

TOKYO — Stock markets fell Monday ahead of a preliminary manufacturing survey from China that might show renewed weakness in the world's second-largest economy.

KEEPING SCORE: Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.3 percent to 6,799.98 after shares in major retailer Tesco plunged on the news it had overestimated its half-year expected profit by 250 million pounds (about $409 million). France's CAC 40 dropped 0.4 percent to 4,442.70 and Germany's DAX slipped 0.4 percent to 9,764.44. U.S stocks were set to start the week lower, with Dow futures down 0.3 percent to 17,156. S&P 500 futures lost 0.5 percent to 1,993.30.

THE QUOTE: "All eyes will be on China's HSBC flash PMI after the recent spate of soft data, especially industrial production and property prices last week," Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. HSBC's gauge of China manufacturing is due Tuesday.

CURRENCIES: The yen has been trading at six-year lows as the dollar has surged in anticipation the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next year while the Bank of Japan keeps its easy monetary policy. However on Monday the dollar was slightly lower, at 108.90 yen, after closing Friday at 109.05 yen. The euro rose to $1.2855 from $1.2831.

G-20 PLEDGE: A pledge of further stimulus from finance chiefs of the Group of 20 industrial nations over the weekend appeared to fall flat amid deepening concern over faltering recoveries in major economies apart from the U.S. Finance chiefs from the G-20, representing about 85 percent of the global economy, said Sunday they are close to reaching a goal set in February of boosting world GDP by more than $2 trillion over the next five years, and will focus on infrastructure investment to help reach the target. But they also warned that despite improving economic conditions in some key economies, growth remains uneven and below the pace necessary to generate critically needed jobs.

ASIA'S DAY: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.7 percent to 16,205.90 as the yen regained some strength against the U.S. dollar. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.7 percent to 2,039.27 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4 percent to 23,955.67. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.3 percent to 5,363 on selling of materials-related shares and financials. Shares in Southeast Asia and India also fell.

NZ VOTE: New Zealand's share market benchmark rose 1.3 percent to 5,619.97 on gains in energy stocks following an election victory Saturday for the ruling National Party over the Labour Party, which had promised to lower energy prices.

ENERGY: Benchmark crude oil slipped 34 cents to $91.31 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 33 cents to close at $91.65 a barrel on Friday.

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Pet care comes to Walgreens

A Florida veterinary company is partnering with Walgreens to offer lower-cost, walk-up clinics for dogs and cats in the parking lots of about 50 of the drugstore chain's Massachusetts stores.

Starting this weekend, ShotVet is offering preventative care services — including rabies and other vaccines, heartworm and Lyme disease tests, and micro-chipping — by state-licensed veterinarians.

"The price is probably about a 70 percent savings (from traditional vet offices)," said Jen Borgman, CEO of ShotVet, which has been offering its services in conjunction with Walgreens in Florida and Georgia for several years. "It's challenging for people to afford veterinary care, and many, many pets are going without. That's not good for the communities, and that's not good for the animals."

ShotVet will visit each participating Walgreens for an hour each month with a vet, technician and "client educator" who explains its packages. No appointments are required.

"There's usually a long line … so we advise people to get there early," Borgman said. "It's no exam fees. What customers say over and over again is this was fast, convenient, easy. And the experience is much less stressful for the pet as well as the owner."

The service is aligned with Walgreens' mission "to help people get, stay and live well," said Phil Caruso, spokesman for the Deerfield, Ill.-based company. "Pets are valued members of many families, and an opportunity to provide a service like this in our parking lots just helps us reiterate our mission," he said.

But the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association finds ShotVet's services "very problematic," according to executive director Susan Curtis. "We want what's in the best interest of the animals and public health, and we want to see all animals properly vaccinated, but this issue is very concerning," she said.

State law requires a "veterinary-client patient relationship" be established before any vaccination is given, Curtis notes. That requires sufficient knowledge of an animal by a vet to "initiate at least a general or preliminary diagnosis" of its medical condition. This means the vet has recently seen and is personally acquainted with the keeping and care of the animals by virtue of an examination and/or by medically appropriate and timely visits to where the animal is kept, the law states.

"In this type of environment, there isn't that relationship," Curtis said. "There should be a physical exam, there should be an assessment, there should be a knowledge of the animal and the animal's living situation, and there should be a relationship."

But ShotVet founder Dr. Wesley Borgman counters that ShotVet vets examine every animal before preventative action is taken.

"Many animals are going unvaccinated," he said. "We go out and service clients that many times aren't going to see a veterinarian. We don't replace the (animal hospital) services. In fact, we refer cases to our colleagues at the animal hospitals … to take care of things we can't handle."

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EdTrip’s a field day for teachers

For most students, field trips are something to look forward to as a day away from the classroom and, every so often, as a chance to see for themselves something truly transformative, something they've only heard about in school or read about in books.

But for teachers, coordinating these trips can be a logistical nightmare of finding the right destination, drawing up an itinerary and collecting dozens of parental-consent forms — all things that take time away from teaching.

So a MassChallenge finalist offers to do all of that for them, all the while drumming up business for Bay State venues.

"Coordinating field trips is a massive investment of time if you're a teacher," said EdTrips CEO Jakob Garrow, who used to work for an educational travel company with his co-founder, Laura Wallendal. "We realized if there were a way to make it easier for teachers, more of them would take trips."

The two teamed up with Jillian Kando, their chief technology officer, to create a website that, in addition to collecting payments and parents' permission, allows teachers to search for a destination by name, subject or the grade they teach. Or they can use EdTrips' concierge service, which passes along a 20 percent discount off the cost of tickets to their destinations if they choose from a curated list of field-trip matches based on criteria such as their grade, their budget and the distance they want to travel.

Teachers pay nothing to use the website, while venues pay EdTrips a percentage of overall ticket sales for each trip organized through the site.

Since April, the company has partnered with 247 Massachusetts destinations, including Boston PhotoWalks Tours and Scavenger Hunts, Peabody Essex Museum and Woods Hole Science Aquarium, with plans to expand to venues in other states.

Peter McGovern, who teaches Spanish and Mandarin Chinese at Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury, hopes to use the website to organize trips that would incorporate cultural opportunities such as a show or a tour of Chinatown, where his students could practice their Mandarin.

"Students could see the real-world value of being able to communicate with people in their language," he said. "And having the permission slip collection and payment online would save a lot of time."

Since Labor Day, at least four teachers have used EdTrips to pay by credit card for field trips to the Paul Revere House, which otherwise takes only cash or checks the day of the trip, said Emily Holmes, education director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association, which runs the historic North End site.

"Definitely we're hoping we'll have exposure to a new audience," Holmes said.

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Hyundai Santa Fe’s onetime brake lockup is puzzling

Last week I parallel-parked my 2003 Hyundai Sante Fe. I came out to drive away and went about 3 feet before the car stopped like the brakes had locked up. I went back and forth about 3 feet at least three more times with the same results. I left the car and came back the next morning and drove to a garage with no problems. The garage scanned all vehicle control modules for codes — none found. They also found no service bulletins from Hyundai pertaining to this symptom. They inspected all brake components — all are in good condition. Any suggestion?

I'm not often completely stumped by an automotive question, but this one has me really intrigued. Looking at the issue logically, my first thought is something physically stopping the vehicle from moving more than 3 feet.

Do you have any friends — or enemies — who might play a trick on you like a strategically placed pair of cinder blocks? I remember an unnamed friend who, for the fun of it, chained the rear axle of an old Chevy wagon to the adjacent fire hydrant and watched as his friend tried to pull away. I'll leave the results to your imagination!

What kind of mechanical or electronic issue could have caused this and then suddenly disappeared without a trace? I'm open to suggestions, but the only normal "action" that might have somehow compounded into this is initialization of the antilock braking system (ABS). Each time the vehicle is started, in the first few miles per hour of driving, the ABS tests itself by actuating the pump, dump valves and solenoids to make sure they're working. This may be felt as a slight vibration in the brake pedal.

With that said, this initialization only occurs once per key cycle, so it doesn't seem particularly likely to be the culprit. In fact, no brake lockup would seem likely because the vehicle rolls roughly one tire revolution before the lockup.

Anyone else want to take a shot at this?

Oh, almost forgot — was there a parking ticket on the windshield? And did you check for a wheel lock to disable the car?

I have a 2014 Acura RDX that is a very nice vehicle except for the fact that the passenger seat cannot be raised vertically. My wife is fairly short and sits too low compared with the driver's side, which has an electric lift. The dealer said that there is no fix for this. It seems like a simple problem. Have you heard of any electric, or manual lifts for this ? Or, simply some wedges installed under the seat mounts?

You could try a mobility store to find a booster for her seat, or perhaps an auto upholstery shop could build up the seat with thicker or firmer foam.

The reason it seems simple yet there's no solution from the dealer is that any change that alters a motor vehicle creates a liability issue for the dealer and carmaker.

Personally, I have installed spacers under the seat mounts on a couple of my personal vehicles, but like I said, I'd suggest a visit to a mobility store.

When I was topping off the oil in my car I accidentally put in half a quart of DEX/MERC automatic transmission fluid. Can I drive it? If yes, how far before changing the oil? Or do I need to change it now?

Automatic transmission fluid is primarily a high-quality lubricating oil with special additives for the transmission, so you probably don't have an immediate problem. But the fact that you were topping up the oil means it's been in the crankcase for a while, so why not get the oil changed now and put the worry aside?

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

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