Gun background check deal in jeopardy in Senate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.

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Business leaders come together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Ticker

Thermo Fisher buys Life Tech for $13.6B

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

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

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

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

Dish Network bids for Sprint Nextel

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

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

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

Mass. gas prices drop 9 cents

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

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

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

TODAY

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

TOMORROW

• The Federal Reserve releases the Beige Book.

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

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WEEI yakker Pete Sheppard quits with flair - while on air

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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No ‘home’ run for Facebook

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Ticker

$13B buy eyed for Thermo

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

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

TODAY

 Citigroup Inc. reports quarterly financial earnings.

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

TOMORROW

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

 The Labor Department releases the Consumer Price Index for March.

 The Federal Reserve releases industrial production for March.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Going ape over new gadget for wallet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Babson holding food boot camp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Ticker

Taylor family may bid to buy back Globe

Members of the Taylor family, longtime owners of the Boston Globe who sold the paper to the New York Times Co. in 1993 for $1.1 billion, are reportedly considering a bid to buy back the paper.

In February, the New York Times Co. announced plans to try to sell its New England Media Group, including the Globe, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and their websites. The company had tried to sell the Globe in 2009, but was unable to get its asking price from a handful of bidders, including the Taylors.

Initial bids for the Globe this time around are reportedly due April 18.

Former Globe exec Rick Daniels and private-equity firm Boston Post Partners, led by Heb Ryan, offered about $100 million for the paper earlier this year, including an agreement to assume some of the paper's pension liability.

Rosengren: Fed easing should continue

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said the central bank should continue its bond-buying stimulus program as long as the unemployment rate remains above its goal and inflation is below its objective.

Inflation in February was 1.3 percent, below the Fed's 2 percent target and close to the lowest level since 2009, while growth has been too weak to generate jobs for millions who are out of work. The jobless rate fell to 7.6 percent in March, a four-year low, as more Americans abandoned the search for work.

Fed officials are debating how and when they will curtail asset purchases that have swollen the central bank's balance sheet to a record $3.23 trillion. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee led by Chairman Ben Bernanke decided last month to continue $85 billion in monthly bond buying until the labor-market outlook improves "substantially."

• 451 Marketing has hired Valerie Umana as a senior account executive for the firm's consumer public relations team. Umana previously worked at Boston-based communications agency Regan Communications on consumer accounts including the Boston Celtics, New Balance and Mohegan Sun.
• Circor International Inc. of Burlington has hired Scott Buckhout as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Wayne Robbins, who has served as acting president and CEO since December, will continue as the company's executive vice president and chief operating officer.
• Boston-based law firm Posternak Blankstein & Lund LLP has elected David Barbash as the firm's newest managing partner. Barbash is a partner in the firm's corporate department, where he has served as co-chairman for the past three years.
• American Science and Engineering Inc. of Billerica has appointed Jennifer L. Vogel to the company's board of directors. Vogel was most recently senior vice president, general counsel, secretary and chief compliance officer of Continental Airlines Inc.

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