Top US labor official arrives as West Coast ports back up

LOS ANGELES — The nation's top labor official flew Monday to California in an attempt to resolve a damaging contract dispute between West Coast dockworkers and their employers.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez arrived in San Francisco, where months-long negotiations between the dockworkers union and a maritime association of companies have come to a halt.

So, too, has the movement of billions of dollars of cargo that is supposed to pass through 29 seaports from Southern California to Seattle. The ports are a critical trade link with Asia and the gateway not just for imports such as electronics, household goods and clothing but also U.S. exports including produce and meat.

Starting Saturday, companies locked out workers who would load or unload ships, saying they would not pay weekend or holiday wage premiums to crews they accuse of intentionally slowing work to gain bargaining leverage. As a result, cranes that would otherwise be moving containers onto dockside yards were raised up, stationary and eerily quiet on normally bustling waterfronts.

Dockworkers deny slowing down and say they want to work.

Full port operations are supposed to resume Tuesday, when Perez is scheduled to speak formally with both sides for the first time. He already has been in touch by phone with representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping lines that carry cargo and the terminal operators that handle it once the ships dock.

For now, those massive vessels are forming ever-longer lines outside the ports, laden with imports that are now delayed by weeks. Off the coast of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for example, 33 "congestion vessels" were awaiting space at the docks, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California — a new high since this round of disruptions began.

Cargo congestion at the coast's largest ports predated the contract dispute, though the problems were nothing like those now seen. Congestion worsened in the fall, which is when the maritime association says dockworkers began slowing down. The union blames the slow movement of cargo on larger problems with the supply chain, including a shortage of truck beds to carry containers from dockside yards to distribution warehouses.

Contract negotiations began in May. The last contract expired in July. The two sides have reached tentative agreements on many of the key issues, but are stuck on whether to change the process of arbitrating workplace disputes.

Several other issues have been on the table, including pay. The maritime association says average wages exceed $50 an hour; the union says wages are set between $26 to $36 an hour — though many shifts carry a premium over that range.

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Contact Justin Pritchard at http://twitter.com/lalanewsman

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Pharrell Williams has deal for 'Happy' picture book, 3 more

NEW YORK — Pharrell Williams has a "Happy" deal for a series of children's picture books.

The Grammy Award-winning performer has an agreement with Putnam Books for Young Readers for four picture books, starting with one inspired by his hit song.

Putnam announced Tuesday that the book, "Happy," will be published Sept. 22 and will feature photographs of children from around the world "celebrating what it means to be happy." It plans a first printing of 250,000 copies.

Pharrell has won 10 Grammys, including two for "Happy."

"Happy" was featured on the soundtrack of "Despicable Me 2" and was an Oscar nominee last year for best song.

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American lobster: the new Chinese New Year delicacy

PORTLAND, Maine — Now on the menu in Beijing for Chinese New Year: lots and lots of American lobster.

Exports of U.S. lobster to China have rocketed in the past few years, largely to satisfy the appetites of the communist country's growing middle class, to whom a steamed, whole crustacean — flown in live from the United States — is not just a festive delicacy and a good-luck symbol but also a mark of prosperity.

And that's good news for Maine, far and away the nation's No. 1 lobster state, where the boom has put more money in the pockets of lobstermen and kept shippers and processors busy during the usually slack midwinter months.

For Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Co., a wholesaler in Arundel, Maine, the demand has meant 14-hour nights spent stuffing wriggling lobsters into crates so they can reach China in time for the Lunar New Year, which falls on Thursday this year. She said she sends 100,000 pounds a week to China this time of year.

"There's lot of orders, lots of demand right now — it is a race to get them there for Chinese New Year," Nadeau said.

On the other side of the world, every morning at 9, the Auspicious Garden restaurant in Beijing receives 800 lobsters that have just crossed the Pacific aboard a cargo plane. In the evening, hundreds of diners fill the two-story restaurant in the gigantic Pangu Seven Stars Hotel for a nearly $80 all-you-can-eat buffet with the New England specialty as the main attraction.

Xu Daqiang, a 35-year-old businessman who was at the restaurant for the first time on a romantic date with his girlfriend, said food-safety concerns in China make him choose expensive high-class restaurants where he can find imported seafood.

Cao Lijun, a 24-year-old Shanghai resident celebrating her friend's birthday in a party of four, alluded to lobster's reputed aphrodisiac properties when she said with a half-laugh: "How to say it? It makes my husband healthier. Really, this is what we say, because it is high in proteins."

Lobsters and other foods seen as luxuries are popular at Lunar New Year and other festive occasions. The bright red of a cooked lobster is considered lucky, as is its resemblance to a dragon.

China also imports lobsters from Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere, but the market for the U.S. variety is exploding, with the demand strong year-round, not just at New Year's.

American exports of live or processed lobster to China climbed from $2.1 million in 2009 to $90.5 million in 2014, federal statistics show. China took about 12 percent of U.S. lobster exports in 2014, up from 0.6 percent in 2009.

American lobsters often appear on menus in China as "Boston lobster" and sell for $50 to $100 each in restaurants — expensive, but more affordable than the Australian rock lobster, which can cost hundreds of dollars and doesn't have the big meaty claws of the American variety.

For the Chinese, the preferred way of enjoying lobster is to cook it in plain water and then dip the pieces in soy sauce and wasabi. Another popular way is to braise it with green bean vermicelli noodles in garlic sauce, said Lv Hui, the cook in charge of the daily buffet at the Auspicious Garden.

Wang Kang, a marketing manager at Zhangzidao Group, a seafood distributor and processor in Shanghai, attributed lobster's popularity in China to rising incomes.

"That naturally means that people are buying more foreign luxury goods," Wang said. "Chinese people are also more concerned with healthy living, as well as foreign goods still being a new thing to them."

New England lobstermen have been recording epic catches in recent years and are grateful for the business from the world's second-largest economy. Maine, which accounts for more 80 percent of all U.S. lobster, hauled in more than 250 million pounds in 2012-13, the highest two-year total in the record books, which go back to the 1800s.

Chinese New Year is on the verge of becoming Maine's second-biggest lobster shipping week of the year, behind Christmas week, according to industry officials. As for the lobstermen, Gerry Cushman of Port Clyde said the year-round demand from China has helped drive prices up, and he is using the extra money to build a new boat.

But so far, Cushman said, the surge has not driven large numbers of Maine fishermen to go out in the middle of winter, a punishingly cold and wet time of year in the Atlantic when lobsters head out into deeper, more dangerous waters and most lobstermen pack it in.

Maine's small corps of winter lobstermen, Cushman said, consists of "stragglers who are stupid like me, or who have kids."

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Associated Press writers Paul Traynor in Shanghai and Aritz Parra in Beijing contributed to this report.

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Wynn: Poor quarter no impact on Everett

Wynn Resorts this month reported fourth-quarter revenue and earnings far below expectations — causing analysts to revise their estimates downward for both this year and next — but gaming experts doubt it will affect the company's planned Everett casino.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.20, missing the Zacks Investment Research consensus estimate of $1.44 and plunging 47 percent from the same quarter last year.

Net revenue also fell 25 percent year-over-year to $1.14 billion, well below the consensus of $1.24 billion.

This was due in large part to a 32 percent drop in net revenue from Wynn's Macau casino, which accounted for about two-thirds of total net revenue in the quarter, Zacks said. Net revenue from the company's Las Vegas casino decreased 6 percent.

Michael Weaver, a Wynn spokesman, said fourth-quarter results will have no impact on the company's plans to build a $1.75 billion resort casino in Everett.

"Although the slowdown in Macau has been universally felt by every operator there," Weaver said in an email, "Wynn Las Vegas did achieve record earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $515.2 million for 2014, which is also an earnings record for any Las Vegas casino."

I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif., and a leading expert on gaming law, said he thinks Wynn's fourth-quarter results will have no effect on the resort casino the company plans to open in Everett in 2017.

"(CEO Steve) Wynn has always been smart or lucky or both," Rose said. "He got into Macau early, didn't over-expand before the Great Recession and now started diversifying before the Macau market crashed."

If anything, the company's fourth-quarter revenue and earnings "would indicate that he needs the Everett site even more than when he bid for it," said Richard McGowan, a Boston College casino expert. "It is the last big market in the Northeast and has the potential to be a successful site. It will be interesting if he will cooperate with Boston and other towns a bit more."

Boston sued the Gaming Commission last month, asking the court to void the commission's endorsement of the Wynn project and to grant the city the right to hold a binding vote on the planned casino, partly because of the increased traffic it will bring to an already congested Rutherford Avenue and Sullivan Square.

Revere and Somerville also have sued the Gaming Commission since it awarded Wynn the Boston area's sole gaming license.

In an earnings call earlier this month, Wynn told investors, "We are going to be responsible for $50 million a month in revenue for this state, probably another $50 million in related revenues to all the surrounding communities."

On Friday, shares of Wynn Resorts were up 2.99 percent to $159.34.

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Device improves your pics in a Flash

Nova Flash (various retailers, $59 and up)

Between Pinterest and Instagram, the competition for good smartphone photos is fierce. This wireless, Bluetooth-enabled flash is supposed to give you an edge. Nova, a former Kickstarter product, is going mainstream, but does it live up to the hype?

The good: This is a great flash that comes in the size of a playing card, with an internal battery that is charged using a Micro USB cable. Just holding it off to the side of your smartphone camera will make your photos look like they could not possibly come from a smartphone. Apps for both iPhone and Android are available.

The bad: It can be a little tricky to hold your phone in one hand and the flash in the other. Some sort of stand or hold mechanism would be nice.

The bottom line: This is a must for anyone who wants to take their mobile photo game to the next level. Yes, it lives up to the hype.

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Booting Up: Picture app popular in health care field

A new mobile app — like an Instagram for doctors — has taken the medical community by storm.

Figure 1, developed by a Toronto-based startup, is not for those with weak stomachs. But for more than 150,000 doctors, nurses and dentists who have uploaded case photos, and for an estimated 30 percent of medical students nationwide who use it, Figure 1 is a tool that makes digital collaboration simpler and easier than ever.

And for people like you and me, it's a rare, unfiltered window into the medical world. Some of the sights I came upon include: an extremely rare brain melanoma that was just removed, a 25-year-old with a pocket knife embedded in his skull, and an X-ray of a child's stomach after he swallowed a coin. But for every bit of morbid curiosity Figure 1 satisfies, there are many things of poignance and interest.

One user, PunkRockDoc, posted a photo of a brain harvested from a dementia patient. Upon viewing the photo, which showed an atrophied frontal lobe, one registered nurse commented: "My dad is in the last stages of Alzheimers … This is very interesting and very sad to see what my sweet dad's brain looks like."

Some photos elicited spirited debates, while others overwhelmed with sadness. "Please keep us updated," wrote one user to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon who uploaded a photo of a severely deformed infant.

The app has the ground rules of medical privacy one would expect — faces are automatically blurred, users must manually block any identifying marks like tattoos, and the rarest conditions found only in a few patients are not permitted to be featured, for fear of compromising anonymity. Only verified doctors who have provided credentials are allowed to post, according to the app-makers. And the app's founder, Dr. Josh Landy, has vowed to reject sensationalist images that do not have an educational purpose — though I'm not sure how a 25-year-old with a pocket-knife protruding from his skull is educational. Doctors are advised to seek written permission from patents before posting.

What's so striking about this app is that it doesn't try too hard. It's simple. Other medical image-sharing services aren't as simple — they require subscriptions, are highly curated and include the dense articles you'd expect from a medical journal.

This app — just like Instagram — is all images and comments.

"I have learned A LOT from this app," wrote one nursing student. "I am mostly a visual learner and the pictures posted here are awesome."

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Booting Up: App shows drivers the best Waze to go

Something is very wrong when Google has better traffic data than government transportation departments. That's why I applaud Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh for successfully ensuring Boston was one of 10 cities in the world selected to share and receive data with Waze, the groundbreaking social navigation app that Google scooped up for 
$1.3 billion two years ago.

Waze, which integrates with social networking apps, allows users to report road hazards and accidents in real-time. But the real gamechanger is how it calculates the best routes: by tracking the speed of its users in real-time rather than relying on traffic cameras. Waze recalculates your route frequently, adapting to a live-stream of traffic data and basically putting every other navigation service to shame.

Hub officials say the city will be able to share information on expected road closures with all of Waze's 400,000 users in Greater Boston, making the mobile navigation app even more accurate for those users. Waze, in turn, will provide streams of traffic data to the city's Traffic Management Center, which is akin to our municipal command center. City officials promise that engineers will use that data to better calibrate the city's 550 intersections with traffic signals.

"This partnership will help engineers in the TMC respond to traffic jams, accidents and road hazards quicker," said Boston Transportation Department Commissioner Gina Fiandaca.

"And, looking forward, the Waze data will support us in implementing — and measuring the results of — new congestion management strategies."

The Waze data-
sharing partnership launched several weeks ago after months of development. Time will tell whether — or when — these new data efficiencies will trickle down to the commuters on the ground. Road relief doesn't appear to have happened yet, but that should be motivation for Boston drivers to use Waze. The more drivers use it, the more accurate it becomes.

It's natural to wonder why this new partnership didn't prevent Boston from becoming a commuter abyss over the last week. I wondered the same thing while chatting with Fiandaca yesterday, but then I remembered: that black hole of vehicle gridlock and agonizing public transit? The MBTA's fault.

So while this is a great example of government embracing innovation, we're only as strong as our weakest link, or in this case, rail. Here's hoping Waze and Google turn their attention to public transit next.

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Docs track patients live via mobile apps

Boston area doctors are relying more on mobile apps and social media to keep tabs on their youngest patients — giving new insight into a group whose health updates can get lost in translation, experts say.

"Children use behaviors and code language at times to communicate symptoms that wouldn't be used by adults," said Dr. Alisa Niksch, a pediatric cardiologist at Tufts Medical Center. "It is very difficult to interpret, and they need that extra tool to help discern what's happening."

Niksch said she tracks about 15 to 20 of her patients using an AliveCor monitor and free mobile app which collects data with a heart-monitoring device that reads activity from the patient's fingertips or chest wall and attaches to a mobile phone.

"Parents of children with heart issues are afraid that things like an irregular heartbeat won't be caught early enough," she said. "It's important to get some actually objective data."

It's not just patients with physical ailments who benefit from remote monitoring, according to Dr. Marilyn Augustyn, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center, who gets updates on patients with Attention Deficit Disorder through an app from Boston-based startup mehealth for ADHD.

The app allows doctors to gather more information for diagnosis and assessment, Augustyn said, and gives teachers and parents easier ways to report their own observations.

"It's really useful for children with certain behavioral and developmental problems to see them in different settings. I may see them in my office, but that's not where they live or where they learn," she said.

Ken Tubman, chief technology officer for Optimal Medicine and its mehealth for ADHD app — which was founded in 2009 and gained venture capital funding in 2012 — said health apps are gaining traction with doctors.

"Health care is a growing industry, especially in software," he said. "As far as I can tell, it'll continue to grow over the next 10 years or so."

Dr. Joseph Kvedar, director of Partners Center for Connected Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, which conducts research on health care outside of medical centers, said using tools like apps and social media can be especially useful for teenagers, who are most comfortable with digital interactions.

He said the center just wrapped up a yearlong study that used Facebook to connect teens with asthma to one another, which helped them be more in tune with their illness, and as a result they were more aware of their symptoms.

"During the trial, the kids were so enthusiastic that we had to ask for an extension on the study because they didn't want to leave the group," he said.

He added that using technology like apps can also be effective in diagnosing and managing autism spectrum disorders, because different cues are used to make assessments.

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Homeowner tax breaks appear safe, for now

WASHINGTON — Tax reform is revving up again on Capitol Hill, with the heads of key committees pledging to work toward a simpler and fairer tax code, possibly one with lower tax rates. Sounds intriguing.

But what might that mean for homeowners — many of whom benefit from tax breaks such as mortgage interest and property tax deductions, plus tax-free writeoffs of up to $250,000 or $500,000 of home sale capital gains, depending on whether they file returns as singles or married couples? Renters get none of these.

Homeowner writeoffs become targets for cutbacks or elimination whenever tax code reforms get serious attention because of their costs in uncollected federal revenues. The mortgage interest deduction alone cost the Treasury $113.4 billion in fiscal 2015, property tax writeoffs $27.8 billion, according to estimates by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

President Obama kicked off the tax legislative season with a budget proposal that would limit mortgage interest and other deductions for upper income taxpayers. No surprise there. He called for essentially the same change last year, and this year's version was widely viewed as dead on arrival in a Congress controlled by Republicans.

But what might Republican tax reformers themselves have up their sleeves? Last February, the top Republican tax writer, Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the then-chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, came out with a tax code overhaul blueprint that would offer lower tax rates and a big increase in the standard deduction in exchange for drastic cutbacks in special-interest deductions and credits, including the benefits traditionally enjoyed by homeowners.

Camp's plan would have shrunk marginal rates for most taxpayers to just two brackets, 10 percent and 
25 percent; phased down mortgage interest deductions from the current
$1 million limit on eligible mortgage amounts to $500,000; eliminated deductions on home equity loans and credit lines altogether; and stretched out the time period needed to qualify for tax-free capital gains exclusions from the present two years out of the preceding five years to five years out of the preceding eight years. Camp's plan also would have eliminated homeowners' writeoffs of local property tax payments and ended penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs to assist with first-time home purchases.

Camp retired from Congress at the end of the last session. His reform plans — considered too controversial to pass in an election year — never moved out of committee. But the impetus for some sort of wholesale reform of the sprawling Internal Revenue Code remains alive and well. Is anything likely or even possible this year, and if so, could it create problems for current or future owners?

Conversations with tax experts and Capitol Hill legislative analysts suggest a couple of things: There is bipartisan support for the broad concept of streamlining the tax code. The new Ways and Means Committee chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on NBC's Meet the Press that he is prepared to work on reforms with the White House — even compromise on some issues — "if we can find common ground." Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) Senate Finance Committee chairman, has created working groups tasked with coming up with tax reform plans with the objective of introducing a bill, probably by late this spring.

And there is already common ground to build on: bipartisan support, including at the White House, for a broad package of tax changes affecting businesses. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew recently said the administration could support reforms that lower top tax rates for big corporations, eliminate unfair loopholes and simplify the entire system for businesses. Republicans generally are on board, but insist that small businesses be part of the solution.

So there's a chance that a bipartisan corporate tax reform bill could be cobbled together this year.

What about comprehensive tax reforms for individuals of the type that inevitably would involve significant changes in current preferences for homeowners and tax increases for higher income households? Highly unlikely.

Bottom line: Homeowner tax breaks are safe for the time being, probably until 2017 at the earliest.

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Partners income up despite insurance activity losses

Partners HealthCare Systems's operating income climbed during the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, but it continues to see losses in insurance activity.

Health care provider activity brought in $67 million in operating income, and the Neighborhood Health Plan saw $7 million in operating income in the three months that ended Dec. 31.

However, the $7 million includes a premium deficiency reserve set aside in fiscal year 2014 — without that, insurance activity would have seen a loss of $20 million.

Partners, the state's largest hospital and doctors' group, reported $45 million in operating income for the first quarter of last year, including $44 million from provider activity and $1 million from insurance activity.

"Maintaining our focus on the cost-effective, efficient delivery of care, Partners' health care providers generated a strong operating margin, which enables us to reinvest in population health management programs to further improve the patient experience," said Peter K. Markell, chief financial officer and treasurer for Partners HealthCare, in a statement yesterday. "However, our insurance plan, NHP, still faces a significant challenge with respect to receiving adequate rates from the state for the care of MassHealth members."

Total operating revenue at Partners increased $201 million to $2.8 billion in the first quarter.

According to Partners' quarterly report, "total operating expenses increased $173 million (7 percent) to $2.8 billion, due to higher wages and benefits, supplies and medical insurance claims."

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