Charming Colonial in Braintree makes splash

This attractive single-family Colonial in Braintree Highlands has a classic elegance with a nicely landscaped yard and an in-ground heated pool with a cabana.

Built in 1998, the well-maintained three-bedroom house with a hip roof at 130 Catherine Drive has been updated several times by its current owners since 2007. Renovations include a central air-conditioning system, renovated master bathroom and all-new toilets, new high-efficiency burner and refinished oak floors. The 2,660-square-foot home, which was recently repainted outside and inside, is on the market for $639,900.

The house sits on a cul de sac at the end of a long driveway with an attached two-car garage and brick walkway. The exterior is blue clapboard with black shutters and white trim. The entrance has a widow's walk framed by a large Palladian window.

A grand two-story ceramic-tiled entry foyer has a large brass chandelier above and two closets, one for storage and the other for coats.

To the right of the foyer is a formal dining room with oak floors, crown molding, 8-over-8 windows and a built-in mantel.

On the other side of the foyer is an open living

dining area with oak floors, 8-over-8 windows and a ceramic-tiled wood-burning fireplace. There are glass doors from the dining area out to a rear deck and down to a granite patio with a heated in-ground pool enclosed by a wrought-iron fence. The pool's heater and propane tanks were recently replaced and there's a cabana at one end.

Back inside, the stylish kitchen features 26 white bargeboard-faced cabinets and built-in racks. There's a center island with grayish granite counters and a built-in electric range. All-white appliances include a cabinet-front Amana side-by-side refrigerator, built-in General Electric wall oven and new microwave and a Bosch dishwasher.

Off the kitchen is a half bathroom with gray ceramic tile floors, a linen closet and a cabinet that holds a washer

dryer hookup with shelving above. Adjacent is direct access to the home's two-car attached garage.

The stairway and second-floor landing that overlooks the foyer have paneled wainscoting.

There are three bedrooms on the second floor, including a master suite. The carpeted master bedroom has four 8-over-8 windows and a fan

light overhead. There's a deep walk-in closet with a built-in shelving system. The en-suite master bathroom, renovated last year, has beige ceramic tile floors and tile that surrounds a raised whirlpool bathtub. There's a separate glass-doored Fiberglas shower, a granite-topped double-sink vanity and a linen closet.

There are two other carpeted bedrooms ideal for children. There's also a second full bathroom with a ceramic tile floor, a linen closet, a Corian-topped vanity and a one-piece Fiberglas tub and shower.

The finished basement has a carpeted media

family room with a big storage closet for games and toys. There's also a carpeted home office with a built-in added by the current owner with desk space for two and cabinets above. And there's even a full bathroom in the basement, with access to the outdoor pool through a door.

Pros:

 Stylish kitchen with bargeboard-faced white cabinets and gray granite counters

 Open living

dining area with wood fireplace and glass doors out to in-ground pool with granite patio

 Master bedroom suite has large walk-in closet and newly renovated bathroom

Cons:

Fiberglas showers in bathrooms

 Some appliances and tile finishes are average grade

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Kia Sorento rebuild kicks it

Well, the Koreans just keep doing the unexpected and consumers are benefiting from it.

The 2014 Kia Sorento SX AWD SUV has had a mid-cycle rebuild and I think this may now be a better car than its popular brand mate the Hyundai Santa Fe for about the same money.

The Sorento had been taking a bit of a beating from consumers and critics for its poor handling and modest adornments. Hyundai/Kia listened and responded loudly. With a new engine, rebuilt suspension and more refinement in style and substance, you've got a contender for the your crossover dollar.

In the past few years, Hyundai/Kia's hallmark has been bang for your buck and the '14 Sorento fills the SUV side of the equation nicely. Starting at base MSRP of $24,900, the Sorento offers a high-quality and stylish interior with the easy-to-use and intuitive UVO infotainment system. It has sleek textured interior panels with some soft touches and wood accents along with comfortable and high-quality leather-trimmed seats. Our AWD SX is not quite top of the line, but is jam-packed with goodies.

The $36,700 SX package includes the panoramic sunroof, blind-spot monitoring, backup camera and sonar warning, power folding side-view mirrors, three driving modes, along with features you'd expect such as cruise control and power lift gate.

Under the sheet metal is where Kia has made significant changes.

Earlier Hyundai/Kia cars we've tested have had vague, underwhelming steering and suspensions.

This extensive re-engineering of the 2014 chassis includes stiffening of the front suspension, adding larger rear suspension components and constructing a more rigid frame. Add in the new electric steering and all lead to better handling than earlier models.

Combine the 3.3 liter, 290-horsepower, V-6 engine and six-speed automatic transmission and you've got a really powerful crossover on your hands. The V-6 and AWD can be a bit thirsty, but only give up a couple of miles per gallon fewer than the base model, testing to about 18 in the city and 24 on the highway. I averaged 21 mpg, right in the middle of the range.

The V-6 provides plenty of power, brisk acceleration and a quiet ride. Whether it's a supermarket or dump run or a cruise along the highway, the new handling characteristics make this a comfortable car to drive. Pick your favorite from one of the three Flexsteer modes — comfort, sport or normal — and feel the responsive, taut command of the car missing in other models.

The SUV includes third row seating — the Mitsubishi Outlander is the only other in class to do so — but it robs from the cargo area. Although the Sorento is larger in all dimensions than its class rivals, the Honda CRV and Ford Escape, the third-row seats are still a snug fit. I preferred to keep them stowed and make use of the full deck space.

The simple-to-use and high-tech UVO infotainment center combines all your wireless connectivity and audio needs without endless drill-down menus. It works smartly with voice command and the sound system is excellent. The 8-inch navigation screen was easy on the eyes and a snap to use, too. It's a marked improvement over earlier models.

If you're worn out with the legion of bullet-shaped competitors in this class, then this may be your vehicle. The body styling is more traditionally truck-like and Kia has some nice tweaks with wrap-around lights and body accents.

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Boston stations pull out the stops

A tension-filled day gave way to a night of celebration, relief and even revelry on the streets of Watertown as a suspected Boston Marathon bomber was apprehended and the local TV stations — WBZ, WCVB, WFXT, WHDH and NECN — tracked every moment.

As breaking news banners flashed updates on suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's location — a boat in a Franklin Street backyard — stations kept their cameras trained on the neighborhood as darkness fell. After it was confirmed that Tsarnaev was in custody and on the way to a local hospital, cheers and applause erupted from the crowd gathered near the site.

As the suspected terrorist remained on the loose for much of yesterday and with much of the Boston area under unprecedented lockdown, local TV stations responded with unparalleled wall-to-wall coverage.

Probably no one had a more harrowing day than WHDH's Adam Williams, who arrived with his cameraman in Watertown early yesterday morning and found himself pinned down as the two brothers, Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, exchanged about 200 rounds of gunfire with police.

"It was not a good position to be in," Williams stoically told viewers last night.

The most oft-repeated footage was supplied by a viewer: Against a backdrop of flashing blue lights, the Watertown shootout with rat-a-tat gunfire that left Tamerlan dead and an MBTA police officer critically injured seemed to last hours.

The stations scrambled to mute the raw audio, but the video was terrifying.

With long stretches of time to fill, the stations worked overtime to profile the alleged killers and convey a sense of the Boston area under what seemed like martial law.

"The entire city looked like a scene out of 'I Am Legend,' " commented David Gerzof Richard, professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College, referring to the 2007 post-apocalyptic film starring Will Smith. "Empty streets. It's the first time I can ever remember an entire city that was shut down."

T.J. Winick, former WBZ and ABC news reporter and now a media relations consultant in the Boston area, gave high marks to the stations' efforts.

"These are scenarios you can work 30 years in local news and never be put in," he said. "I think the reporters and the anchors did an incredible job keeping their composure and providing the very latest information" under trying circumstances.

Part of every local station's mission is public service, and that often gets overlooked, Winick said, but here the news desks kept the public updated on the search for a dangerous suspect in real time.

Because of their dogged efforts, "You'd have to be living in a cave not to know what's going on."

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Experts: Mass. economy won’t sprout in spring

The Bay State could soon hit a "spring stall" when it comes to recovery and growth as federal budget cuts and European economic weakness threaten to choke off job opportunities, experts said yesterday.

"I don't see a whole lot of oomph out there to get job growth in Massachusetts," said Robert Nakosteen, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Isenberg School of Management.

Massachusetts lost an estimated 5,500 jobs last month even as the state's unemployment rate dipped a tenth of a point to 6.4 percent, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

"There's nothing inherent about spring except this one has the sequester and the payroll tax increase and continuing uncertainty about the debt limit and budget deals," Nakosteen said. "All of those extract a price."

Nakosteen added the state could expect to see "fairly flat" job growth for the duration of the year as residents start to feel the pinch of automatic federal budget cuts, which will also cut unemployment insurance assistance by nearly 13 percent for close to 45,000 residents collecting benefits for more than 26 weeks.

Before March's jobs plunge, Massachusetts had only added 500 jobs in February.

While the state's education and health services, and leisure and hospitality sectors added 2,200 and 300 jobs, respectively, last month, Massachusetts' professional, scientific and business services sector took a big hit — losing 3,400 jobs in March.

"That sector has been growing quite strongly in recent years, fueled by the innovation economy here," said Michael Goodman, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who called March's jobs figures "clearly disappointing."

"The decline in professional and business services is consistent with what one would expect from the kinds of cuts that have been taking place at the federal level," he said.

Northeastern University economist Alan Clayton-Matthews added that unrest in Europe has continued to be "a drag" on the state's economy.

"I expect to see slower job growth over the next several months, but I do not expect to see continued job losses of this magnitude," he said.

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UMass cites Harvard flaw

News that a UMass Amherst graduate student had uncovered significant flaws in an influential paper by two eminent Harvard University economists roiled the profession this week, raising questions about the policies it influences at home and abroad.

Thomas Herndon, a 28-year-old doctoral student in economics, discovered what he saw as glaring omissions in the spreadsheets used for Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff's 2010 study, which had asserted that economic growth slows sharply when government debt exceeds 90 percent of annual economic output.

The study was widely cited by policymakers worldwide, including former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, to justify cutting spending. So when a working paper by Herndon and two of his professors, Michael Ash and Robert Pollin, pointing out the errors was posted on the UMass Political Economy Research Institute website this week, it quickly went viral.

"It really indicates the profession needs to question its own methods and standards," said Barbara Alexander, an economist and visiting lecturer at Babson College. "Published research needs to be audited and cross-checked, and the data needs to be freely available. ... It's really disturbing because the results in this case have been used to support policies that have been extremely painful for many people in this country and around the world."

In a joint statement, Reinhart and Rogoff said they were "grateful" to Herndon, Ash and Pollin for pointing out a "coding error," but they maintained there is a correlation between high government debt and slow economic growth.

"It is sobering that such an error slipped into one of our papers despite our best efforts to be consistently careful. We will redouble our efforts to avoid such errors in the future," they said. "We do not, however, believe this regrettable slip affects in any significant way the central message of the paper or that in our subsequent work."

Herndon and his professors disagree with that conclusion.

"People argue that spending cuts are a bitter medicine you have to take to get out of a recession," he said, "but we provide strong evidence that disputes that."

Ash, a professor of economics and public policy, said it is "quite likely" that high public debt is not a cause of poor economic performance, but an effect.

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The Ticker

Merrill Lynch fined $250G

Merrill Lynch has been fined $250,000 in connection with improperly selling more than $39 million in unregistered securities, including auction-rate securities to two Massachusetts cooperative banks in violation of federal law, Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin said.

According to Galvin's complaint, the securities were sold by a Boston branch of Merrill Lynch that did not follow procedures for determining if the banks were qualified and failed to train its personnel on its own policies and procedures

Winthrop Square garage to close

The Boston Redevelopment Authority will close the Winthrop Square Parking Garage indefinitely at midnight after identifying infrastructure issues with the 240 Devonshire St. facility. No vehicles will be allowed to enter the garage after 3 p.m.

THE SHUFFLE

L Acella Construction Corp. of Norwell has promoted Ryan Klebes, left, to the position of senior project manager. Klebes first joined the company in 2003 as a project manager, and was previously an assistant project manager at Lee Kennedy Construction in Boston.

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Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez dies at 94

MEXICO CITY — Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez has died at the age of 94.

Ramirez Vazquez designed some of Mexico's biggest landmark modernist structures, including the new Basilica of Guadalupe, the Anthropology Museum and the Azteca Stadium, all in Mexico City.

Mexico's National Arts Council said Ramirez Vazquez died late Tuesday of pneumonia. He is survived by four children. No burial plans have been announced.

The sweeping, curvy lines of the basilica and the cantilevered central pavilion of the anthropology museum became hallmarks of Mexico's modernist architectural boom, led by figures like Luis Barragan from the 1940s to the 70s. He also designed a low-cost, pre-fab rural school.

While less well-known than Barragan, architects such as Ramirez Vazquez and Mario Pani designed the biggest projects of the era.

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Yahoo adds 2 more applications to mobile arsenal

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo is taking the next step in its effort to make some of its most popular services more appealing and accessible to the growing audience connecting to the Internet on smartphones and tablets.

The mobile push being orchestrated by CEO Marissa Mayer has hatched Yahoo's first email application for Apple Inc.'s iPad and other tablet computers running on Google Inc.'s Android software.

Yahoo also has created a new weather app for Apple's iPhone that will provide forecasts on top of slideshows feature pictures of landmarks in the cities chosen by a user.

The free apps are being released Thursday morning.

Like many other Internet companies, Yahoo Inc. is pouring more engineering talent and money into developing mobile applications as people spend more time on consuming content on smartphones and tablets.

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World stocks choppy as global economy wanes

BANGKOK — Global stock markets were choppy Thursday as evidence of weakness in the global economy kept many investors at bay.

Markets were also cautious after disappointing U.S. corporate earnings on Wednesday, although there was some positive news in the U.S. Federal Reserve's so-called Beige Book. The survey, released late Wednesday, showed modest growth across the U.S.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent to 6,255.91. Germany's DAX added 0.3 percent to 7,552.25. France's CAC-40 rose 0.6 percent to 3,620.86.

Wall Street looked set for a rebound. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 14,579 and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.2 percent to 1,549.20.

Asian stock markets dropped, however, with investors in Hong Kong still feeling cautious due to a bird flu outbreak in eastern China and the rapid rise of Chinese government debt.

"Funds are still staying with those stock markets that are under monetary easing mode," said Kwong Man Bun, the chief operating officer at KGI Securities in Hong Kong. "Investors remain on sidelines to wait for signals that recent corrections have come to an end. So far this signal is not clear."

Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.3 percent to 21,512.52. Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.2 percent to close at 13,220.07.

South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.2 percent to 1,900.06. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slid 1.6 percent to 4,924.40. Benchmarks in Taiwan and New Zealand also fell. Mainland China, Thailand and the Philippines rose.

European economic indicators this week also raised concerns: Germany reported a drop in investor confidence while car sales have plummeted across the region. Labor market figures for the U.K. were also negative, suggesting the British economy is unlikely to stage a significant recovery in coming months.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday lowered its outlook for the world economy, predicting that government spending cuts will slow U.S. growth and keep the euro currency countries in recession this year.

The week got off to a bad start Monday, when China said its economic growth slowed in the first three months of the year to 7.7 percent, below the 8 percent level anticipated by markets. That caused U.S. stocks, energy and other commodities to plunge. Gold fell the most in 30 years.

On Wednesday, stock markets in the U.S. again turned sour on disappointing earnings from Bank of America. The bank has been mired in mortgage-related lawsuits related to its acquisition of Countrywide, which played a major role in the U.S. financial crisis by issuing subprime loans. Traders also began to worry about Apple Inc.'s sales after a supplier hinted at a slowdown in iPhone and iPad production.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 35 cents to $87.03 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $2.04, or 2.3 percent, to close at $86.68 in New York on Wednesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3047 from $1.3014 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 98.18 yen from 97.84 yen.

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Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

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Social media spurs character-building acts of kindness

In the chaotic aftermath of Monday's fatal marathon bombings, Jarrett Goetz was on his way to his South End home when a friend called and asked if Goetz would give him, his girlfriend and a stranded runner they had found a ride.

Goetz did, and was on his way home, again, when he saw two sisters — also marathoners — who looked cold and lost, and offered to give them a ride and spare jackets he kept in the trunk of his Land Rover.

By the time he finally arrived home some four hours after he left work, he had given rides to five runners, two marathon volunteers and one bystander, updating his Facebook status about it along the way.

By last night, 237 of his friends had "liked" it and many had offered to give people rides themselves or places to spend the night.

"It was a chain reaction of free taxi services," said Goetz, 37, who works for a technology startup. "But really, it's about grace under pressure. You've got to put yourself in other people's shoes and rise to the occasion. And if you do it, it makes you feel good and inspires others to do the same."

And so it went on social media Monday, as the news outlet of first resort for many morphed into a mirror of the soul.

Twitter saw 180-day peaks in use of the words "donate," "volunteer" and "help" as people heralded the heroic first responders at the scene of the two fatal bombings and searched for ways they could be of use themselves.

"What was really great was word spread very quickly, so that people were able to slow and stop marathoners from running into what was essentially a war zone," said David Gerzof Richard, professor of social media and marketing at Emerson College.

Afterward, Google set up a Boston Marathon Explosions page in Google Person Finder to help people look for and find loved ones who might be missing.

New England Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola tweeted that he'll donate $100 for every reception and $200 for every drop in the 2013 season to a Boston Marathon relief fund.

And then there was the dark side of social media in the form of a Twitter account with the handle @_BostonMarathon, which claimed it would donate $1 to victims of the explosions for every retweet it received. The account racked up more than 65,000 retweets before Twitter suspended it.

"I don't know what their motives were," Gerzof Richard said, "but it takes a lot for Twitter to turn someone's account off. You have to do something atrocious."

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