Top area innovators on tap at Tedx-Boston event

The fifth annual TedxBoston gets underway today at the Seaport World Trade Center, where innovators in technology and other fields will showcase their game-changing ideas.

"The mission of Ted is to deliver talks that are full of ideas worth spreading," said Jimmy Guterman, one of the event's curators. "We are lucky enough to be in a community that is full of innovators."

Among this year's speakers are:

• Daniel Clarke and Joshua Trautwein, co-founders of Fresh Truck, who took a retrofitted school bus and are turning it into a mobile market for Boston residents who don't live near a grocery store. Beginning next month, Fresh Truck will bring healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and granola to people at prices 20 percent lower than those of an average grocery store.

"Food access is a big issue," Clarke said, "and it's causing a lot of health disparity, particularly in urban areas."

• Nikita Bier, founder and CEO of Outline.com, which builds public policy simulators to see what the financial impact of those policies are at the ZIP code level. Using his app, Bier will do a demonstration showing the impact of cutting the income tax and education spending in Massachusetts.

"The big problem is, when assessing public policy, people tend to base their decisions more on emotion or rhetoric than empirical evidence," Bier said.

• Helen Greiner, CEO of CyPhy Works, whose flying robots are in the development stage to work with the military. Her robots also could be used for everything from farming to bridge inspections but are restricted by the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial applications.

"These are applications where you could save time and lives," Greiner said.

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Downtown may bag grocer

Roche Bros. is in lease negotiations to open its first Boston grocery store in Downtown Crossing, sources told the Herald.

The Wellesley-based, family-owned chain of suburban supermarkets is hammering out plans for its first urban market at Millennium Partners' $630 million Millennium Tower project, which includes redevelopment of the adjacent Filene's building, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Roche Bros. spokeswoman Lisa Lazarczyk, meanwhile, said the company was considering a number of locations within its market area. "However, at this time, we can't discuss any other locations than the Medfield one," she said.

Millennium principal Anthony Pangaro yesterday said he'd neither confirm nor deny the negotiations.

"It's fantastic news," Rosemarie Sansone, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, a property owner-funded group that's been working to revitalize Downtown Crossing, said of the reported talks.

"It's absolutely the right brand," Sansone said. "Roche Bros. has a fabulous reputation, and people in this neighborhood and people in this district will be pleased. It is the first question in every conversation with residents, with people interested in what's going on in the district and other businesses that are moving into the district: What about a grocery store?"

Roche Bros., which has 18 Massachusetts stores, announced last week that it would open a new smaller, neighborhood store format in Medfield next February, with approximately 9,000 square feet.

Millennium's Downtown Crossing project includes 240,000 square feet of retail space. Both the developer and the city have wanted to bring in a grocery store to cater to the growing number of condo residents in the area — including those who will move into Millennium Tower's 450 luxury units — in addition to workers.

The 61-year-old Roche Bros. chain is small, but very well-respected, according to Mike Berger, senior editor of the Griffin Report of Food Marketing in Duxbury. "(They're) very big on fresh and perishables, quality stuff," he said. "They really do a lot of customer services. They've (also) really grown in catering and prepared foods."

A Downtown Crossing location would be a unique opportunity for the company, according to Norwell retail consultant Michael Tesler. "It gives them the opportunity to be very innovative, very creative," he said. "It upgrades their brand and the opportunities for their brand."

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Asian stocks extend fall on China worries

SEOUL, South Korea — Asian stock markets were mostly lower Tuesday as investors continued their flight from risky assets on the prospect of slower Chinese growth and the winding down of the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus.

Markets in China extended declines from the previous day as investors worried that measures to curb underground lending would hurt growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.2 percent to 1,958.62 after earlier plunging nearly 4 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.2 percent to 19,780.12, trimming earlier losses.

Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.7 percent to 12,969.34. South Korea's Kospi dropped 1 percent to 1,780.63 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.3 percent to 4,656. Stocks in the Philippines and Indonesia also declined while India and Singapore gained.

A rise in the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note compounded worries for investors, an analyst said, which could spur more selling of stocks in emerging markets as the cost of borrowing increases.

"A rise in interest rates is a very bad variable for the market," said YS Ryoo, an analyst at Hyundai Securities in Seoul. "Because the cost of borrowing the dollar rises, dollar funds will try to return home quickly."

In Seoul, market heavyweight Samsung Electronics Co. sank 1.2 percent to close at the lowest level since November. In Tokyo, Nissan Motor Co. fell 1.1 percent even after its chief executive promised strong sales growth to shareholders.

Shanghai's stock index endured its biggest loss in four years Monday after the country's central bank allowed commercial lending rates to spike higher. Analysts say the move was part of an effort to curb off-balance-sheet lending in China that could threaten the country's financial stability.

But the higher lending rates could also hurt economic growth. The impact for stock markets would be all the greater if the U.S. Federal Reserve tightens its own ultra-loose monetary policy over the coming months, as it has signaled it would do so long as the U.S. economy improves according to its forecasts.

On Monday, Wall Street closed lower. The Dow Jones industrial finished down 139.84 points, or 0.9 percent, at 14,659.56. The S&P 500 index fell 19.34 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,573.09.

Analysts at Moody's Investors Service said they saw the Chinese central bank's action to allow lending rates to rise as "a conscious decision" to curb credit growth.

Moody's said a prolonged credit crunch could threaten Chinese companies, "especially those in the private sector with weak credit quality, because it heightens the risk that banks will scale back lending to those companies." The credit ratings agency said that China's central government finances remain strong, but that rapid credit growth and liabilities at the local level pose a threat to growth.

The concerns over China's credit market were magnified by existing worries that access to money will tighten in the world's largest economy, the U.S.

Investors are concerned what will happen as the U.S. Federal Reserve slows down its monetary stimulus program, which has been pumping $85 billion into the financial system every month and helped many stock indexes reach multiyear or record highs. Markets tumbled last week when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the program would likely slow down this year and end in 2014.

Benchmark oil for August delivery was up 12 cents to $95.30 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.49 to close at $95.18 in New York on Monday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.314 from $1.3125 late Monday. The dollar fell slightly to 97.52 yen from 97.54 yen.

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Springfield mom sells personal-protection devices

Fear can be a powerful motivator — powerful enough, Deborah Halpin found, to make you brave the treacherous waters of entrepreneurship.

About four years ago, the Springfield mother had what she calls a "triple flat" — her home was broken into, her daughter was going away to college in New York City, and her father died, leaving her elderly mother living alone in Milwaukee.

"The combination of events made me feel uncomfortable and insecure," she said. "I started to look for personal security products for us."

Halpin went to a gun store looking for pepper spray, but felt uncomfortable because she was the only woman there. So she looked online, but most of what she found was for the military or for hunters.

"There wasn't any place where women could go to comfortably buy safety and security products without feeling intimidated," she said.

After stints in marketing and product development at two Fortune 500 companies, Halpin decided to start ArmHer to sell a carefully curated selection of what she considered the most effective and affordable personal protection devices on the market for women.

They range from $2.50 security decals for your home or car window to $20 cameras with motion detectors that can be mounted on your home. They also come in different "survival kits" for students, mothers, seniors and active women. Those kits sell for between $29 and $75 and, depending on whom they're for, can include safes disguised as soda cans, alarms as loud as 120 decibels or cards that detect date-rape drugs in drinks.

You won't find guns, knives or even pepper spray on ArmHer.net, though, because those weapons can be taken away by an assailant and used against a woman, said Halpin, who's now a finalist in the $1 million MassChallenge startup accelerator and competition.

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New Galaxy S4 Active has features that work when submerged

It's the next frontier for mobile devices, and it's just in time for beach season: underwater smartphones.

The just-released Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is the first high-end smartphone available in the U.S. that works underwater. Priced at $200 with a two-year contract from AT&T, the Active may just spawn a legion of sea-faring technology if it's marketed well.

Think of it as the Galaxy S4's underwater twin. The only physical differences between the Active and the regular S4 is that the Active is thicker, and the three main buttons that navigate to the menu, homescreen and backward are raised rather than part of the touchscreen.

The Active will soon have competition from Sony, which is due to release its own water-friendly smartphone, the Xperia Z, sometime this summer.

Since we're all used to treating our smartphones like china plates and arming them with rugged covers, I found there's a psychological barrier to actually dipping a $200 piece of technology into a bowl of water. But don't worry, you're not gonna kill it.

To work the camera in water, simply open the camera and select "aqua mode." That turns your volume rocker into a shutter button. The 8-megapixel camera takes clear underwater photos. And if watching HD videos and listening to music in the shower is your thing, you'll be pleasantly surprised by those features as well.

Samsung says the phone can withstand 30 minutes in three feet of water. Though you can't make calls while submerged, phone calls don't interrupt while under water. So, you could conceivably begin a conversation, jump into a pool with the phone in your hand and then keep talking to that person when you come up for air.

The speakerphone works surprisingly well while submerged. But because the touchscreen becomes disabled, the phone has to be mostly dry to actually make the call.

My only regret with Samsung's latest offering is that I conducted this little experiment in front of my 21-month-old son. He's now got an unfortunate desire to replicate what he saw with my iPhone 5. It's probably just a matter of time before I find it at the bottom of the toilet bowl. I may have no choice but to invest in the Active after all … and maybe that was Samsung's plan all along.

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World stocks fall after China aims at shadow loans

BANGKOK — Global stock markets reeled Monday, with Shanghai's index enduring its biggest loss in four years, after China allowed commercial lending rates to soar in a move analysts said was aimed at curbing a booming underground lending industry.

Analysts say the spike late Thursday in the country's interbank lending rate to over 13 percent was part of an effort to trim off-balance-sheet lending that could threaten the financial stability of the world's second-largest economy.

But markets feared the move could also hurt economic growth. China's major state-owned banks are unwilling to lend to any but their biggest clients, so the vast majority of smaller businesses must rely on informal lending.

Mainland China's Shanghai Composite Index plummeted 5 percent to 1,968.51 while the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index plunged 6.1 percent to 881.87.

Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 1.5 percent to 6,067.35. Germany's DAX fell 1.1 percent to 7,704.88. France's CAC-40 fell 1.5 percent to 3,601.88.

Wall Street also appeared headed for losses, with Dow Jones industrial futures down 0.7 percent to 14,614. S&P 500 futures lost 0.7 percent to 1,573.70.

On Monday, the central bank told China's commercial lenders to focus on lending to the "real economy" rather than financial speculation. A statement on the bank's website made no mention of informal banking but told lenders to do a better job of forecasting credit and liquidity needs.

The government's Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary that Chinese banks had been taking growing risks by diverting money into speculative investments and largely unmonitored underground banking.

"It is not that there is no money but that the money is being put in the wrong place," the government's Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary. "The more important question to consider is not whether there is a shortage of money but how it is being used."

Analysts at Moody's Investors Service said that they interpret the central bank's action as "having been the result of a conscious decision" to curb credit growth.

Moody's added that a prolonged credit crunch could threaten Chinese companies, "especially those in the private sector with weak credit quality, because it heightens the risk that banks will scale back lending to those companies." Moody's says that China's central government finances remain strong, but that rapid credit growth and liabilities at the local level pose a threat to growth.

Andrew Sullivan of Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong said China's new leaders want credit to be available to keep the economy moving but not so much as to promote asset bubbles.

"After six months in power, the new leadership is putting its policies in place. It's signaling that credit is going to remain tight," Sullivan said. "All that is in line with moving China from being an export driven economy to being a domestic consumption economy."

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.2 percent to 19,813.98. Japan's Nikkei 225 index, the regional heavyweight, fell 1.3 percent to 13,062.78. South Korea's Kospi lost 1.3 percent to 1,799.01. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.5 percent at 4,666.50.

Among individual stocks, Australia's Newcrest Mining Ltd. tumbled 7.9 percent. Shanghai-listed Poly Real Estate Group, China's top real estate developer, nosedived the daily limit of 10 percent.

In energy markets, benchmark oil for August delivery was down 54 cents to $93.15 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.71 to close at $93.69 in New York on Friday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3103 from $1.3139 late Friday in New York. The dollar rose to 98.04 yen from 97.76 yen.

___

AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed from Beijing and researcher Fu Ting contributed from Shanghai.

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Voters in Mass. city approve Wynn casino deal

EVERETT, Mass. — Voters in Everett overwhelmingly approved an agreement between city officials and Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn, who wants to build a $1.2 billion resort casino at the site of a former chemical plant on the Mystic River.

Saturday's vote was the first binding referendum on a casino proposal since passage of the state's expanded gambling law in 2011.

The host community agreement was backed by a better than 6-1 margin, according to the city clerk. Passage was required before Wynn could apply to the state gambling commission for one of the three casino licenses allowed under the law.

"The decision of the Massachusetts Legislature to require community approval of gaming developments was a wise one," Wynn said after the vote in a statement released by his firm, Wynn Resorts. "It is rooted in the common sense notion that for any development to be meaningful, it must have robust support within the community.

"The voters of Everett have spoken clearly and decisively. The vote heightens our enthusiasm and dedication to this fine project," added Wynn, whose prominent Las Vegas properties include Bellagio and The Mirage.

The deal struck with Mayor Carlo DeMaria and other city officials calls for Wynn to make $30 million in advance payments to Everett and more than $25 million in annual payments if the casino is built.

In the agreement, Wynn also promised to mitigate traffic impacts in the city and complete a multimillion-dollar cleanup of pollution at the site, plus give hiring preference to Everett residents for the estimated 8,000 temporary and permanent jobs the project would bring.

Wynn turned his focus to Everett, a city of about 42,000 residents just north of Boston, after an earlier proposal to build a casino in Foxborough ran into opposition from many residents and officials.

City Councilor Michael McLaughlin, whose district includes the proposed casino site, said he was thrilled by the resounding vote of support for the project but acknowledged many hurdles remain.

"This is the first step of many milestones we have to cross," McLaughlin said. "This gives us the momentum and the energy to go forward."

One challenge facing Wynn and Everett officials is convincing neighboring communities to also sign on to the casino proposal. Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone is among those who have expressed major reservations about the plan.

McLaughlin said he hopes to sit down with Curtatone and others in the coming weeks and try to convince them that the proposed development will bring regional economic benefits.

No organized group formed in Everett to oppose the plan, but some residents were wary of a casino bringing traffic gridlock, crime, and other social ills.

"This is just round one of a very long fight," said Evmorphia Stratis, a local artist who emerged as an unofficial spokeswoman against the project, of Saturday's vote. She called casinos a "predatory business."

Wynn's plan could be in competition for the eastern Massachusetts casino license with proposals from Suffolk Downs and Foxwoods Resorts, which is backing a proposed casino in Milford. Host agreements have not been signed yet in those communities and votes have not been scheduled.

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Crowdfunders push SEC for investor OK

The startup community is anxiously awaiting SEC regulations that would allow crowdfunders to invest in a company instead of receiving a reward like a sticker, but some, including one state official, want to make sure the rules are clear and prevent fraud.

"If they're going to have this, the rules need to be laid out," Secretary of State William F. Galvin said.

The regulations, part of the JOBS act, originally were due by Jan. 1, but have been delayed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Title III of the JOBS act, called the Crowdfund Act, will provide an exemption to the current requirement that companies offering stock or other investment opportunities register with the SEC, which can be resource and time intensive. The SEC has not yet written the specific rules to regulate the exemption, although it has said the rule-making process is a top priority.

In the public comments section on the SEC's website, Galvin has submitted several letters outlining potential concerns.

"We want to make sure the potential for misrepresentation is not there," Galvin said. "There has to be some protections there to make sure it wouldn't be abused."

Instead of individual companies registering with the SEC, the funding portal, likely to take the form of a website, would register. The portal would be required to take anti-fraud measures, among other responsibilities.

Once the rules are in place, the potential for new companies will be huge, according to Tanya Prive, founder of RockThePost, an online funding site for startups.

"It democratizes the process of funding for startups," she said. "The power of fundraising is going to be substantially increased."

Still, not everyone is convinced that crowdfunded investments are smart. "I think it's bad for everybody," said Daniel Isenberg, the executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project. "This will lead people to unexpectedly lose more money than they think. It will be lots and lots of people losing small amounts of money."

"Equity crowd-funding can't work," he said.

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Upstarts raise money for startups

Some recent graduates — hoping to escape from student debt, start a business or learn new skills — are using an innovative crowdfunding site to promise a percentage of their future earnings in exchange for cash in the short term.

Rachel Honeth Kim, a Harvard Business School graduate living in San Francisco, is raising $100,000 so she can pay off her loans and jump-start her business. To get the cash, she signed on with the crowdfunding site Upstart.com. She committed to paying back the money over 10 years, through a percentage of her income that will depend on the final amount of money she raises.

"The biggest thing for me was the financial implications of going out on my own," she said. "The only thing that's kind of been holding me back is the debt I have."

Kim quit her job four weeks ago, and started Nailed Kit, a custom nail art kit for parties. "It's so liberating to finally be able to take the plunge," she said.

What makes Upstart different than many other crowdfunding services is the investment in people's future earnings.

"It's actual investment in a person as opposed to stock or companies," said founder and CEO Dave Girouard, a former Google executive.

Unlike Kickstarter, where backers support a specific product, Upstart backers invest in the people behind the business or product. If the first business fails, as many startups do, the relationship between backer and the young entrepreneur, or "Upstart," remains the same, but so does the financial obligation.

This is why, Girouard said, many Upstarts use the money to pay off debt or learn a new skill, such as coding, instead of funding a specific project or product.

"They might be pursuing something where they might not be making money" but it will pay off in the future, he said.

Trina Spear, a Harvard Business grad who successfully raised $20,000 through Upstart, used the money to pay for her move from New York City to Los Angeles, where she started a business.

Her company, Figs Scrubs, a fashionable and tailored line of medical scrubs that donates a set of scrubs to doctors in need for every set sold, was invested in further by some of the backers that supported Spear initially, she said.

"The money wasn't the primary reason I was doing it," she said, adding the partnerships she has made with backers has been invaluable. Girouard calls Upstart one part bank, three parts social network.

Backers must be accredited investors in the eyes of the Securities and Exchange Commission, with a minimum net worth or annual income, but Girouard hopes to open up investments to more people. So far, about 200 backers have invested about $1.4 million in 100 people, Girouard said.

Upstart provides a fundraising goal based on a proprietary income prediction model where higher potential earners can raise more money through the site. A Harvard Business School graduate who finished their MBA in 2012 can raise $43,400 in exchange for 3 percent of their income over the next 10 years, but an art history major who graduated from Boston College can raise $14,700 for the same income percentage, for example.

"Computer science majors from great schools earn a lot of money, it's relatively predictable," Girouard said, in response to concerns about putting a monetary value on people. "We don't try to position things as a judgment on a person. We're sensitive to that."

Spear likened the practice to an advance on a book deal, or a record contract.

"Why is it that companies can finance their growth through both equity and debt, but people can only finance their growth through debt?" she said.

Kim said she's optimistic about the payoff from Upstart.

"The worst case scenario is I pay my student debt," she said. "Anybody who has an idea should have an opportunity."

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Land Rover inherits fleet’s style, power

Renowned for trekking the African Sahara, climbing the Scottish Highlands and working the acreage, Land Rover now easily tames city streets. Having driven and reviewed its big brothers, the LR4 and Range Rover Sport, I found the 2013 LR2 to be a handsome and pleasant sport 
utility vehicle to drive.

The baby of the Land ­Rover fleet, the LR2 slots in with other high-end SUVs such as the BMW X3, the Audi Q5 and the Infiniti JX35, sporting a new 2.0-liter 240-horsepower turbocharged engine, beautiful leather interior and panoramic sunroof. This fine handling all-wheel-drive shares the Terrain ­Response System of the fleet, allowing you to adjust the truck to a wide variety of preprogrammed settings for off-road, wet and snowy conditions with the push of a button. Traction, height and power distribution to the wheels make driving the LR2 on or off the road easy and fun.

All the highly engineered mechanicals lead to a great driving experience. Although it does not have the girth or brawn of the LR4, it is highly maneuverable and a breeze on the highway. The engine, which it shares with the Evoque, packs plenty of punch while averaging nearly 22 mpg in mixed driving. I did better than the estimated 24 highway mpg — pushing out nearly 26 despite driving in the Sport mode, one of three available.

Easy on the eyes with a lot of traditional curb appeal, the LR2 sticks with a classic truck-like styling that has subtle textures and allows for a bigger payload, particularly with the rear seats down.

The interior has been revamped for the 2013 and the top-of-the-line HSE. I really enjoyed the butter-soft leather seats, a leather wrapped steering wheel, soft touch surfaces and the chestnut wood trim pieces.

The cockpit is comfortable and the dash display an uncomplicated electronic readout. The infotainment center worked easily, and the 7-inch touchscreen made adjusting the navigation and stereo settings quick and effort­less. Phone pairing was a breeze.

The HSE upgrades, however, quickly run the reasonably priced base MSRP of $36,400 up to $48,050.

If you're looking for a proper English ride without breaking the bank then check out the LR2.

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