Ford recalls some 2013 C-Max hybrids over roofs

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is recalling 33,021 C-Max hybrid cars because they may not adequately protect occupants' heads in a crash.

Vehicles involved were made between Jan. 19, 2012, and June 25, 2013 and don't have panoramic roofs. C-Max hybrids with panoramic glass roofs aren't involved in the recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discovered during vehicle testing that the car failed to conform to safety standards pertaining to head injury risk. Ford says there have been no reported injuries related to the issue.

Ford will notify owners of the recall next month. Dealers will install additional energy absorbing material between the car's headliner and the roof.

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

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Translating the tech

When Joe Morone, Jon Warman and Diana Brazzell were dorm mates at Brown University, they shared a vision of the importance of higher education and academic research, but they also knew that research, detailed in academic journals, could often be long, dense and inaccessible to the general public.

So in the fall of 2011, years after their graduation, they founded Footnote, a startup that collaborates with scholars to translate the most technical language into layman's terms — a CliffsNotes, if you will, for academic journals.

"Every year, 1.6 million articles are published in academic journals, but once the research is published, very few people end up seeing it because it's written for an audience of peers," Morone said.

"Our goal is to be a conduit between academic research and intellectually curious readers, policymakers, entrepreneurs and educators."

To do that, Footnote's editorial team works with researchers from Harvard, MIT, Yale and some of the nation's other top universities to craft articles based on those found in academic journals.

Subjects range broadly, from what happens to children when a parent goes to prison, to whether government should intervene to make people healthier.

"We look for issues we think are important and that can be impacted by the latest research," said Morone, whose company was named one of 128 MassChallenge finalists earlier this year.

"The challenge is how do we make better use of this information? We want to deliver brilliant research and expertise on issues that matter in a way that people can use."

Jesse Lyons, a postdoctoral researcher in systems biology at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital, has written Footnote articles on multiple subjects, including how light affects the brain, whether stem cells offer a cure for deafness, and whether a drug that decreases sperm count in mice could lead to a birth control pill for men.

"The goal is to make specialized academic research accessible and engaging without losing the complexity," Lyons explained.

"We want to make it understandable without dumbing it down."

Footnote is partnering with the College and University Research Collaborative in Providence, where top policymakers in Rhode Island have gone with questions about economic development.

The collaborative takes their questions to researchers, whose answers Footnote then translates.

"It's absolutely so important to the work we're doing," said Amber Gilfert, the collaborative's program director.

"We see Footnote providing that key piece, taking research and putting it into a format that our policy leaders and community can easily understand," Gilfert said.

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Student entrepreneurs venture into business

Fresh-roasted coffee, artisan mango liqueur and glow-in-the-dark ultimate frisbee gear — those are some of the products ready to launch out of a Babson College summer crash course for young entrepreneurs.

The 10-week summer venture program featured 14 proposals from undergraduate and MBA students, hand-picked from more than 100 applications. The students presented their products last week to an auditorium packed with potential investors and mentors at the Wellesley school.

"It's a 10-week summer camp for our best and brightest young entrepreneurs," program director Steve Gold said.

Many of the companies were the result of years of planning and experience, but were jump-started by the program.

Hans Homberger, an MBA student from Costa Rica, unveiled a plan to sell the coffee beans his family has grown for four generations directly to consumers under the family name for the first time.

"I grew up looking at my grandpa and my dad going every week to the farms. It's not just the business, it's something I feel passionate about," Homberger said.

Homberger presented Fourth Wheel Coffee, his business that will ship Central American coffee directly to customers' front doors within 15 days of roasting instead of the months that commercial coffee can spend in a warehouse, 
he said.

"I've been working on this concept for over a year. In these past 10 weeks, I feel like I was really pushed to question everything I had learned already," said MBA student Emily Lagasse. "Because of that, I have a final product that I am 100 percent confident in and ready to move forward with."

Her gourmet dog food business, Fedwell, was inspired by the near-death experience of her dog. Lagasse said her high-end dog food is made without chemicals or preservatives and is more nutritious than conventional dog food.

Because of the presentations, many of the students made connections with key investors and industry insiders, Gold said.

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Death at Pinehills spurs probe

The owner of Diaz Construction Co., whose worker was killed on a Plymouth job site Tuesday, said the Avon company tries to go "by the book" when it comes to safety.

But Leonel Diaz's company has been cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration for 19 safety violations totaling $46,000 in initial fines — 15 of which were deemed serious violations — since 2005, according to OSHA records.

OSHA is investigating the death of Jason Faria, a Diaz Construction employee who died at The Pinehills residential community in Plymouth, where the Mirabeau Inn & Spa is under development. The Fall River man was killed when a concrete form to which he was harnessed came loose and fell, according to Mike Fish, a partner at the project's general contractor, JK Scanlon Co.

Diaz Construction is a subcontractor on the project for whom Faria had worked for four years.

"Everything looked safe," Diaz told the Herald yesterday. "Nobody knows how it happened. We have a safety officer, and we try to do everything by the book. That's why he was tied up."

Faria would have turned 27 years old yesterday.

His stepfather, Mario Benjamin, said he was unaware of Diaz Construction's past safety violations.

"I work in construction, and a lot of companies do get fined," Benjamin said. "This is just a tough situation. What I know is he was tied up on his harness on a concrete form … and the form started to slip down, and he tried to unhook the harness to jump off, but he couldn't."

An OSHA spokesman confirmed the agency has launched an investigation. OSHA has fined Diaz Construction for safety violations on eight separate occasions after job site inspections that were planned or the result of complaints in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011, according to OSHA documents.

The violations ranged from issues with scaffolding, protruding steel, protective helmets and protecting employees from potentially hazardous loose rock or soil to daily excavation inspections, protecting employees from cave-ins, portable ladders, safety training, and eye and face protection, the documents state.

Diaz, who told the Herald that he wasn't on the job site when Faria died, said he was awaiting OSHA's report on the incident.

"The hard part is that we lost Jason," Diaz said. "Everybody feels sorry about that. He was a good worker, a nice kid. We're sorry for him and his family."

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Cambridge single-family fresh from makeover

This unassuming two-family in North Cambridge has been converted into an upscale single-family home.

Built in 1894, the 2,100-
square-foot three-bedroom home at 225 Rindge Ave. was recently renovated with new systems and wiring, higher ceilings, slate and wide-plank wood laminate floors, recessed lighting and all-new marble bathrooms. It's on the market for the just-reduced price of $839,900.

Geared for low maintenance, the home has new vinyl siding and a tankless water-heating system. And although there is no front yard, there is a fenced-in grass backyard.

The exterior has been nicely restyled with gray siding and white trim with plum-colored shutters. A small front porch leads into a foyer with brown slate floors and a cutout that opens up to the adjoining living room, which has 10-foot ceilings with white soffits, wood floors and recessed lighting.

Straight ahead from the foyer, through French doors, sits a sunny formal dining room with two windows, recessed lighting and slate floors. At the far end of this room, under a metal overhead fixture, is a granite-topped cutout leading into the kitchen.

The home's recessed-lit kitchen has white soffits, brown slate floors, 15 custom wood cabinets and granite counters and backsplash. There are Samsung, Kitchen Aid and Whirlpool stainless-steel appliances.

Off the kitchen is a half bath and at the end of a slate hallway, there's a laundry room with a full-size Whirlpool washer and dryer.

The home's three bedrooms are on the second floor, reached via a turning staircase. The master bedroom suite, with wood floors and two closets with built-ins, has a high-end bathroom with brown marble floors and walls around a tub and shower and a stylish double-sink vanity. There's a back porch leading from this bedroom.

There are two other bedrooms, one good for a children's room and a third that's nursery sized. There's a stylish, second full marble bathroom with tiled surround for a tub/shower and white sink vanity.

The home's finished basement has a slate-floored family room plus an adjoining home office. There's also a full ceramic-tiled bath here with a tub/shower and white sink vanity.

There's extra storage space in an unfinished area of the basement, along with the home's high-efficiency gas-fired heating and cooling system, as well as a Rinnai tankless water-heating system.

A driveway next to the house accommodates three vehicles.

Broker: Bremis Realty, brokers Brenda Bremis at 617-828-1872 and Stephen Bremis at 617-828-1070

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Scion FR-S: Sporty ride
 at a great price

I loved the reaction I got to the 2013 Scion FR-S — is this a Porsche? Not quite, but this is a true sports car indeed.

I was quickly relieved to find the FR-S wasn't just a sports car lite made for kids fresh out of school looking for glitz with nothing under the hood to back it up. This is truly a high-performance car meant to be driven and a car that willingly returns the favor by being a blast to drive. As soon as the first exhaust note growls out, you know you've got a tiger by the tail.

The 2.0-liter 200-horsepower FR-S is born of a collaboration between independent Subaru and powerhouse Toyota. The Subaru boxer engine mated to a six-speed transmission is wrapped by aggressive styling, creating one very fun car to drive. The shark-like sweeping lines harken back to European sports cars of the '60s and '70s but with 2013 engineering.

The front and rear independent MacPherson struts with 17-inch alloy wheels turn this coupe into a quick, spirited and tight car to drive. The roadster handles crisply and stops confidently with precise steering and powerful ventilated brakes. Throw this nimble car into a turn, happily motor down the highway and it'll pay you back with immense feedback.

What is truly great about this hot little number is the little number — the price. As tested the FR-S will cost you just $26,166. The only upgrade that is available is the $635 stereo, so what you see is what you get with this rear-wheel-drive sportster. The FR-S is a little more than half the cost of the Porsche Boxster and a more powerful car than the Mazda Miata.

A race-inspired interior sports an extremely supportive seat and the thick, red stitched, leather-wrapped steering wheel moves the car with just a flick of the wrist. Even without the six-speed stick the car is powerful, quick and fast. A punch of the gas, downshift with the paddles and you go. There's no lag and when you drop it into sport mode, the shift points switch to aggressive gearing allowing you to wring out every RPM.

The clean dash has a speedometer, tach and gauges in plain view. The stereo was a bit cumbersome, but once I figured it out setting my stations and phone was not too hard. The interior is well-fitted and good-looking with cloth and mixed plastics. Aluminum trimming and accents finished the cockpit. Humorously, it has two "rear" seats that really are for stowing some gear, but my golf clubs had to ride in the passenger seat.

The FR-S returns a solid average of 28 mpg, rating at 25 in the city and 34 mpg on the highway. Although it's a twin mechanically to the Subaru BRS, it has different standard equipment so it cost about $1,000 less.

Compare this sports car to the Honda Civic Si, Hyundai Genesis and don't be afraid to sneak a peak at the Porsche and Nissan 370z to see how favorably it stacks up.

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The Ticker

Initial jobless claims up

Initial jobless claims rose by 7,000 last week, according to the Labor Department, but the overall trend points to an improving job market.

New jobless claims rose to 343,000 last week after dropping by 22,000 the week before. The four-week average, which is seen as a less volatile number, fell by 1,250 to 345,250.

New unemployment applications indicate layoffs in the country.

More than 4.8 million Americans received unemployment benefits in the week that ended July 6, down nearly 20 percent from a year before. July unemployment numbers will be released on Aug. 2.

Starbucks profit rises on U.S. sales

Starbucks Corp. yesterday posted a bigger than expected jump in quarterly profit after new "Refresher" fruit beverages and seasonal Frappuccino iced drinks helped drive more visits to its shops in the United States, its top market. The world's biggest coffee chain also raised its full-year profit forecast, sending shares soaring almost 6 percent in after-hours trading.

Amazon reports $7 million loss

Amazon reported a loss of $7 million for the second quarter, or 2 cents per share for the three months through June.

Wall Street analysts had expected Amazon to earn 
5 cents per share in the second quarter.

The company reported sales of $15.7 billion, a 
22 percent increase from the same quarter last year. The growth in sales was just shy of analysts' expectations of $15.73 billion. Amazon shares dropped by almost 2 percent in after hours trading.

GM sales increase 3.9 percent

General Motors second-quarter sales rose 3.9 percent, signaling the largest U.S. automaker is poised for growth with one of the biggest waves of new models in its history.

While net income dropped on falling profit from the unit that includes India and southeast Asia, earnings excluding some items beat analysts' estimates. Revenue rose to $39.1 billion from $37.6 billion.

TODAY

• Samsung Electronics reports quarterly financial results.

THE SHUFFLE

• Seven Step RPO announced that Jason Berkowitz, above, has joined the company as vice president of client services. Berkowitz will maintain strategic client relationships, while further developing Seven Step's high-performing strategic directors and delivery teams across its Boston and Denver offices.
• Newton-Wellesley Hospital's board of trustees voted to approve the search committee's recommendation to name Kerry Watson as the next president of Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Watson will join Newton-Wellesley from the Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C., where he has been president of Duke Regional Hospital.

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USO not sweet on NECCO

A Revere candy maker's 2009 "salute to the troops" partnership with the USO has turned sour.

The nonprofit United Service Organizations Inc., which supports American troops and their families, is suing New England Confectionery Co. for alleged trademark infringement and false advertising.

NECCO continued to market its "Red, White & You Sweethearts" candies featuring sentiments such as "Proud of U," "USO" and "Home Safe" long after its sponsorship deal with the USO ended — and without compensating the USO, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston.

The USO yesterday declined comment on the ongoing litigation and 
NECCO did not return calls from the Herald.

Under a one-year agreement in 2009, the USO signed NECCO as exclusive confections sponsor of its Operation USO Care Package program for May through September of that year. The deal allowed NECCO to use the USO trademarks and logo to market its specially themed red, white and blue Sweethearts in return for a $75,000 donation. The Sweethearts were included in USO care packages sent to American military troops, and NECCO sold them online and in stores in packaging that promoted the program.

But NECCO continued to sell the USO-branded candies and tout a USO partnership from May 2010 through February 2011, even though both sides failed to negotiate a new contract for that period, according to court documents.

"…Without the consent or authorization of USO, NECCO unilaterally produced and packaged candy displaying USO trademarks and logos, and commenced a marketing campaign using USO's trademarks and logos for candies identified as "Red White & You Sweethearts," court documents state.

And despite repeated demands from the USO, NECCO "failed and refused to pay" the additional $75,000 donation referenced in its marketing campaign and product packaging, the court documents allege.

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Study: Consolidate state’s 105 pension systems

Consolidating the administration of the state's 105 public employee retirement systems would save nearly $25 million annually in employment costs and stipends that could be used to pay off unfunded pension liability, according to a new study.

The Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank, estimates that consolidation could save up to $22.5 million in annual labor costs and another $2.3 million in retirement board member stipends. Each local retirement system is overseen by a board, each of whose five members receives a $4,500 annual stipend, plus travel and other expenses.

"We have so many retirement systems it's very hard to know whether they're doing the right thing," said Iliya Atanasov, Pioneer's senior fellow on finance and one of the study's authors. "If we consolidated that system, we would be able to have substantial savings and have much more transparency about what is going on with pension assets because it would be clear where the responsibility lies and what's happening with those dollars."

Atanasov and co-
author Casey Miles found that the median local board had 524 beneficiaries for every board member, but one of the least staffed boards — Middlesex County — was almost four times as efficient. Only the state employees' system had a lower staffing level, with 2,597 beneficiaries per employee compared with Middlesex's 1,968.
 The largest local system, Boston, has 2 1⁄2 times as many beneficiaries as the Middlesex system but employs almost six times as many staff.

Daniel J. Greene, executive officer of the Boston Retirement Board, could not be reached for comment.

Jon Carlisle, a spokesman for state Treasurer Steven Grossman, who oversees the state retirement board, said the treasury strongly supports cost-saving initiatives but cannot compel independent retirement boards to merge into the state system.

"Instead, the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, the investment arm of the state retirement system, has encouraged local boards to invest their holdings with it and has attracted those investments through strong performance and outstanding customer service," Carlisle said. 
"The management fees that an independent board can save through this arrangement are substantial."

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Gov't needs $95.51 per share to break even on GM

DETROIT — General Motors stock would have to sell for $95.51 per share for taxpayers to break even on bailing out the company, according to a government watchdog's report released Wednesday.

That price is about three times what GM shares are selling for now, even after a 25 percent increase in the price so far this year.

"There's no question that Treasury, the taxpayers, are going to lose money on the GM investment," Special Inspector General Christy Romero, author of the July quarterly report to Congress, said in an interview.

GM needed the $49.5 billion bailout to survive its trip through bankruptcy restructuring in 2009. Since emerging from bankruptcy, the restructured company has piled up $17.2 billion in profits. In exchange for the bailout, the government got 61 percent of GM's stock. It cut that to 33 percent in GM's November 2010 initial public offering.

The government has gradually been selling off the rest of the stock, with the goal of exiting the investment by April of next year. As of June 6, it still owned 189 million shares, or about 14 percent of the company, according to the report.

Taxpayers are still $18.1 billion in the hole on the $49.5 billion bailout, including interest and dividends, according to the report.

If the government sells its remaining shares of GM for the current stock price of $36.61, it would get just over $6.9 billion, meaning taxpayers would lose about $11.2 billion on the bailout.

When GM was bailed out in 2008 and 2009, the government said it was necessary to stop the industrial Midwest economy from collapsing. Chrysler was bailed out for $12.5 billion at the same time. Taxpayers wound up losing $2.9 billion on that bailout, Romero's report said.

The report says that taxpayers still are owed $14.6 billion for bailing out Ally Financial Inc., which once was GM's auto lending arm. Treasury still owns 74 percent of the company, plus $5.9 billion worth of preferred stock.

Ally has made one principal payment of $2.5 billion since the bailout 4 ½ years ago. It also has paid the government $3.4 billion in dividends, according to the report.

Residential Capital LLC, or ResCap, Ally's troubled mortgage arm, filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Romero criticized Treasury for having no clear plan to deal with mortgage liabilities, which he said is preventing the government from selling its stock.

"We really want to see what's the plan here. How are taxpayers going to recoup our money? Are we taking a loss?" Romero asked.

Overall, the government allocated $474.8 billion to the TARP program to bail out banks, insurers, auto companies and others during the financial crisis. Taxpayers are still owed $57.6 billion, the report stated. Of that, the Treasury Department has written off losses of $29.6 billion, leaving a balance of $28.6 billion outstanding.

That figure excludes $8.6 billion spent on the government's bailout program for struggling homeowners. That money is designated as government subsidies and no repayment is expected, the report said. Romero said Treasury has yet to spend $29.9 billion available for the housing program.

Her report also cited continuing problems with the mortgage aid program, which has been criticized for years for failing to help enough homeowners at risk of foreclosure. The program allows modifications of mortgages for eligible homeowners. The report says the longer homeowners have stayed in the program, the greater their chance of missing payments and defaulting on their modified mortgages.

It says the oldest modifications, from the third and fourth quarters of 2009, have an average default rate of 46 percent, compared with modifications granted in 2010, which have an average rate of 38 percent. About 306,000 homeowners have defaulted of a total 865,000 or so in the program. The original goal was to help 3 million to 4 million struggling homeowners, in a program based on banks participating and reworking mortgages for borrowers — including some with weak credit histories.

Treasury said there will always be a risk of defaults in such a program. But Treasury disputed the idea that homeowners are more likely to default the longer they're in the program, saying that in fact the longer they remain in it, the more likely they are to keep up payments and avoid default.

Treasury has taken steps to improve its ability to give "as many struggling homeowners as possible the chance to keep their home while recognizing that not all will succeed," Mark McArdle, the acting chief of homeownership preservation, said in a post on the department's website. For example, he said, the program established eligibility rules so that mortgage aid would go to those homeowners most in need, and standards to make the modifications provided sustainable for homeowners.

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AP Business Writer Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report.

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