Home Showcase: Mystic views accent Charlestown duplex

This newly renovated duplex is one of two in a Charlestown row house on a hill with views of the waterfront along the Mystic River.

The exterior of 100 Baldwin St. has been redone with yellow HardiePlank siding, all new Pella windows with white trim and a new rubber roof. The condo, which is near the Schrafft Center and a quarter-mile from the Sullivan Square Orange Line T stop, is on the market for $685,000.

Unit 2 is on the second and third floors and you enter into an open living/dining area with three front-facing windows, a light/fan, paneled wainscoting and new dark-stained oak floors.

The adjacent recessed-lit oak-floored kitchen has 22 gray custom cabinets atop polished white granite countertops and a breakfast bar that seats two. Stainless steel appliances include a Fisher Paykel refrigerator and gas stove, and a Bosch dishwasher.

Off the kitchen, through a red door, sits a 6-by-8-foot rear deck with panoramic views of Charlestown.

Behind the kitchen is a full bathroom with marble tile floors and surround for a shower and deep soaking tub, as well as a white granite-topped vanity. There are two closets outside the bathroom.

The unit's three bedrooms, all with dark-stained oak floors, are on the second level, off a hallway with a closet holding a stacked washer and dryer.

The master bedroom has two windows, high ceilings and a white 15-cabinet custom built-in over and around the bed location, plus a large walk-in closet. Its en-suite master bathroom features a marble tile floor and a large marble-lined walk-in shower, in addition to a white polished granite-topped vanity.

The second bedroom has white cabinets built in around a bed opening, and two windows with views out over the Mystic River.

A small third bedroom, more suitable as a home office, also has built-in white cabinets, a light/fan and a window with views of the Mystic River.

One floor up is a 12-by-14-foot private roof deck with views of Charlestown.

The unit has its own gas-fired central heating and air-conditioning system.

There is no on-site parking space, so the option is street parking with a residential permit.

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U.S. slaps more sanctions on N. Korea

HONOLULU — Opening a new front in its cyber spat with North Korea, the United States slapped new sanctions yesterday on government officials and the North's defense industry in its first public act of retribution for a cyberattack against Sony.

Despite lingering doubts in the cyber community, the U.S. insisted that North Korea was to blame and the White House warned that this was just the opening salvo in the U.S. response.

While the fresh sanctions will have limited effect, American officials portrayed the move as a swift and decisive response to North Korean behavior they said had gone far over the line. Never before has the U.S. imposed sanctions on another nation in direct retaliation for a cyberattack on an American company.

"The order is not targeted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others," President Obama wrote in a letter to House and Senate leaders.

The 10 North Koreans singled out for sanctions didn't necessarily have anything to do with the attack on Sony, senior U.S. officials said. Anyone who works for or helps North Korea's government is now fair game, said the officials.

The sanctions also apply to three organizations closely tied to North Korea's government: the country's primary intelligence agency, a state-owned arms dealer that exports missile and weapons technology, and the Korea Tangun Trading Corp., which supports defense research. All three of those entities were already subject to U.S. sanctions, so yesterday's move against those groups appeared primarily symbolic.

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Redesigned Volvo safe and sound

Do you want safety, technology and outstanding performance? Throw in head-turning curb appeal and the 2015.5 Volvo XC60 R-design has it and then some.

Safety features abound, and upgraded with the Technology and Blindspot packages, you have at your fingertips lane-departure warning, drowsy-driving alerts, in-town braking, front and rear pedestrian monitoring, and dynamic cruise control that will sense if another car has slowed or gotten too close to you. Add parking-assist cameras, cross-traffic alerts, merge-assist warnings and the legendary tough Volvo chassis, frames and body construction, and you have it all. This car has extremely high crash and safety ratings.

A new smartphone app that can start or stop the engine, unlock the doors and provide a wide variety of systems info such as gas consumption, remaining mileage, odometer average speed and fluid levels round out many of the updates to the 2015.5 XC60. It even has a built-in hotspot and Wi-Fi connection accessible through one of the drop-down menus.

The R-design T6 features the inline, six-cylinder, 3.0-liter, 325-horsepower turbo engine, which gets this handsome SUV rolling quickly and powerfully, but does not enjoy the improved mileage of the four-cylinder Drive-E engines. I had no qualms about giving up a little bit of fuel economy to enjoy the best engine for this vehicle. The refined chassis configuration demands the better-performing engine and this power plant delivers.

The R-design upgrades the chassis to a sport configuration, and with the oversized 20-inch wheels it handles like a sports sedan. The firm shocks, anti-roll bars, traction controls and all-wheel-drive keep the SUV planted firmly on the road. Steering response is sensational and the XC60 feels secure and solid.

Sliding into the luxurious and refined leather interior is a joy. Comfort and support is second to none. The leather-wrapped dash is sleek and sports a ghostly electronic speedometer and display. Your car and running information is located on the side and the safety features are projected in the gauge as you call them up. Rear-seat passengers will enjoy ample legroom and the cargo area goes from good to fantastic if the rear seats are dropped.

The simple, elegant and functional controls and interior hide a sophisticated electronic setup. The powerful Harman Kardon audio system is navigated through a number of interfaces including voice, steering wheel and manual controls. Phone setup was easy and the transmission quality excellent.

With a base price of $46,650, our optioned-up tester R-design T6 rang in at $54,420, slotting this luxury performer competitively with similar cars such as the BMW X series, Audi QX5 and Acura RDX.

The solid construction, quality materials and excellent repair record give this an edge over many cars in class.

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GM recalls 92K trucks, SUVs for ignition lock defect

DETROIT — General Motors is recalling 92,221 full-size trucks and SUVs for a defect in ignition lock systems that can cause safety problems in hot conditions.

Thursday's recall covers certain 2011-2012-models and certain 2007-2014-models that were repaired with defective parts. The recall is for U.S., Canadian, Mexican and exported vehicles.

The affected models re Chevrolet Silverado light-duty and heavy-duty pickups; Avalanche, Tahoe and Suburban; GMC Sierra light duty and heavy-duty pickups; and Yukon and Yukon XL; Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV and Escalade EXT.

GM says the ignition lock actuators may be too wide, making turning the key difficult when it's hot inside the cab. No crashes or injuries have been reported.

Last year, GM recalled 2.6 million small cars for defective ignition switches, linked to at least 42 deaths and 58 injuries.

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Smart devices prey to hackers

An unprecedented boom in wearable technology and smart homes will make 2015 a year of huge rewards for American consumers — and terrifying opportunities for hackers.

Did you think North Korea's hack into Sony Pictures was bad? Try a hack of your insulin pump, your heart monitor, your light bulbs or your door locks.

Data thefts are about to hit us where we live. As sensors on your wrists and your walls become ubiquitous, the data derived from them is being collected and stored — and its security is about to be tested in a major way in 2015.

Central to the year's digital plot line is what is known as the Internet of Things — think of it as a revolution akin to the World Wide Web in the 1990s.

Instead of wiring computers together, we're wiring devices together, bringing online nearly everything that was previously inert.

Exhibit A: Google has acquired digital thermostat-maker Nest. Exhibit B: Apple's upcoming release of the iWatch.

From your thermostat to your health tracker, everything will start to have its own Internet protocol, or IP Address, starting this year.

The opportunities for the tech industry are huge.

Cable companies and wireless providers alike are trying to dominate in this space, offering monthly smart-home packages with huge install costs and monthly fees. But they'll fail.

What's likely to win out are the easy-setup piecemeal options that communicate well together. Those include the Philips Hue connected light bulbs, Microsoft's Kinect sensor, which straddles the line of smart home and fitness devices, the Apple HealthKit platform and, of course, Nest.

Eventually, smart home technology and wearables will work seamlessly together and you'll think of both as part of one big category, the Internet of Things.

But here's the spark that will ignite a revolution: The biggest providers of cloud computing, Amazon and Microsoft, have made it easier than ever for smaller startups to have the capability to analyze the reams of data coming from all those sensors.

Within the past several months, smaller companies have been able to take these massive quantities of intel — streams of data so big and so smart they're more like neural networks — and apply a type of artificial intelligence known as "machine learning" to them. That's when computers become so smart they program themselves.

That would usually take millions of dollars in capital investments. But advances in cloud computing mean the cost is close to zero.

In 2015, companies will start to be able to provide amazing services we can't even anticipate today, driving the entire smart home and health revolution forward and solidifying it as a central part of our consumer culture.

But as all this data is pulled and stored, access points for cyberattackers increase. And no matter what these companies tell you, our security capabilities have not caught up — and won't in 2015.

Devices that digitally secure your home may seem smart now, but what if a state-sponsored group implanted them with a virus programmed to lay dormant until one day it unlocks all the homes in a particular city? Or those smart thermostats that provide great intel on when people are home and even in a particular room? They might give rise to smart burglars.

So while corporations are worried about being the next Sony Pictures, my concern for 2015 is an attack on the Internet of Things — the digital epitome of a double-edged sword.

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Hot Property: In 2015, new digs on the block

What we will see in Greater Boston residential real estate this year will be a lot like what we saw last year.

Another big wave of high-end apartment complexes will open between winter and spring, including 315 apartments at the Ink Block in the South End, 378 in neighboring Troy Boston, 359 apartments at 100 Pier 4 in the Seaport District and 398 units at the Ava Theater District. One Greenway in Chinatown will add another 217 market-rate apartments by summer.

East Cambridge's NorthPoint area will see two large apartment complexes opening this year: 355 units at Twenty 20 and 392 apartments at the Zinc at 22 Water St., near the new Lechmere Green Line station.

Over in the Fenway, two large luxury apartment projects will debut this spring: the Viridian with 322 units and the Van Ness with 172 units. And One Canal will add 320 new apartments on the Greenway this fall.

Whether the Hub can absorb this second wave of high-end rentals will indicate whether Boston is seeing exponential job growth and an increasing influx of millennials, empty-nesters and internationals, or if there's an oversupply, which will result in cutthroat competition that reduces rents.

"The first half of 2015 will be a lot like what we saw last year, with lots of new luxury apartments and a restricted condo inventory," said real estate columnist and William Raveis agent David Bates.

Bates sees the growth of emerging markets such as East Boston, and Dorchester neighborhoods such as Fields Corner and Savin Hill, as places for buyers looking in the $500,000 range as more are priced out of neighborhoods such as South Boston and Jamaica Plain and most of Cambridge and Somerville.

The city is seeking to encourage building denser housing in corridors along Dorchester Avenue between Broadway and Andrews and around the Forest Hills Orange Line station, but there will remain a shortage of more moderately priced condos and apartments for the foreseeable future. But a few, such as the 43-apartment Parkside on Adams in Roslindale, are slated to open this year.

And the shortage also goes for the high-end condo
market. Twenty Two Liberty in the Seaport District will debut at the end of the year, but its 109 condos are nearly sold out. So, too, are almost all of the 83 units at Sepia in the South End opening in the fall.

Two big luxury condo projects are breaking ground on Dalton Street near the Christian Science Center. Construction also will start on Lovejoy Wharf, 40 Trinity Place and Copley Place Tower, but delivery on these are two years away.

What will be available this year are smaller condo projects such as the 12-unit Royal in the South End and small South Boston and Back Bay projects.

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Hasbro to replace penis-shaped Play-Doh toy

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It was an embarrassing Christmas for Nivea Cabrera after she was accused by her fiance's mother of letting her 5-year-old granddaughter play with a sex toy. A mortified Carbrera asked the child where she got the penis-shaped plastic cylinder.

"It's from my Play-Doh," the girl replied.

Hasbro, the Pawtucket-based toy company, is now doing damage control over the extruder tool in its Play-Doh Cake Mountain toy. The two-piece syringe-like tool, which includes a tube with corkscrew-type ridges around the outside and a dome-shaped top with a hole at the tip, can be used to squeeze Play-Doh to look like decorative cake frosting.

Complaints have been surfacing since at least November, when Tulsa, Oklahoma, TV station KTUL showed the tool to parents and asked them what they thought. The station blurred the image of the tool during the piece, saying it was due to parents' reactions. One woman told the station it was "a pretty phallic cake-decorating piece."

After Christmas, comments started pouring in to Play-Doh's Facebook page, including from Cabrera, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She said Hasbro called her after she posted a photo of the tool and asked about the shape on Christmas Day. She said the company offered to send her a replacement tool in a different shape, which she has not received.

Erin Rivers, a mother of two from Melbourne, Florida, thought it was hilarious when she helped her 6-year-old daughter open the box.

"I pulled out this extruder tool, and I just started cracking up at it, I couldn't help it. Then I immediately put the Play-Doh in it and took a picture of," she said.

Then, she posted it on Facebook.

"My friends have just as dirty minds as I do," she said. "It was hysterical to me. And then I gave it my daughter to play with."

She said her daughter and 4-year-old son don't notice anything strange about the toy.

Hasbro Inc. has received thousands of comments on the Play-Doh Facebook page pointing out the obvious.

"We are in the process of updating all future Play-Doh products with a different tool," it said in a statement posted on the page Tuesday.

It also offered to replace the tool for anyone who has complaints.

Rivers, who works in a pediatric dental office, says she's not upset at all. But she is flabbergasted that the toy slipped past so many layers of people at Hasbro.

"They have to have someone who creates it, someone who makes the plastic mold, someone who plays with it," she said. "I can't imagine that as many people that probably saw the toy, not one person said, 'Does anyone else think this looks like a penis?'"

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Business leaders bullish on 2015

After a year of strong economic growth in Boston, local business leaders tell the Herald they predict booming startups, cheap gas and steady development in 2015. Here are their forecasts:

Robby Bitting, marketing director at MassChallenge, on Boston startups: "We're super optimistic on 2015. There's a lot of momentum and success. On one hand, you see the big IPOs from this year with Wayfair and HubSpot that have generated a lot of excitement and ... attention for the startup community in Boston. But, on another level, what's really important is there's a lot of activity for earlier-stage entrepreneurs. Not only do you see it in the consumer web and enterprise software, but you also see that in healthcare, biotech and energy, and even in social enterprises."

Oil expert Andrew Reed, principal of ESAI Energy: "The price decreases (for heating oil and gasoline at the pump) we saw in the last few months put us at a new level where we should be staying — not just this winter, but for the next several years. OPEC ... had a decision coming for some time: Either you cut production (of crude oil) to defend the price or you keep producing to protect your market share. They've chosen the latter, which means there's a lot of crude oil out there."

Ernie Boch Jr., CEO of Boch Enterprises: "2014 was a great year for the automotive industry. 2015 looks like a better year, as long as the domestic (automakers) keep their production in line. In 2014, there was a great balance of supply and demand, but there were signs that the domestics were starting to over-produce, which could be dangerous."

Pat Moscaritolo, CEO of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau: "We've had three consecutive years of strong growth and are hitting new highs in visitors and hotel activity and tax revenue generated." International visitors have been the strongest market segment. "That's been fueled by the aggressive marketing that we've been doing internationally for Boston and Cambridge, but also the success of Massport's new international air service activity."

John B. Hynes III, CEO of Boston Global Investors, on real estate development: "I think you're going to see an average development year, with another 4 or 5 million square feet put under construction citywide. I would like to think it will be good for another million square feet of starts in Seaport Square, having started a million feet this year."

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State clears dispensary to grow, sell medical pot in Salem

A Massachusetts company will begin growing cannabis and selling medical marijuana from a Salem dispensary, thanks to the first certificate of registration issued by the state.

The state Department of Public Health yesterday announced the clearance for Alternative Therapies Group Inc.

Alternative Therapies plans to sell its medical marijuana — which Massachusetts law requires must be grown from seed — to 1,526 patients in its first year, according to its filing with the state. The plants will be grown at its Amesbury cultivation site.

"Providing safe patient access is a priority of the Medical Use of Marijuana Program, and we are proud to take this important step forward," state Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz said in a statement. "Selecting dispensaries that meet our high standards takes time, but ensuring a launch of this new industry the right way for the people of Massachusetts is a top priority."

State public health officials visited Alternative Therapies' dispensary and cultivation sites to review its floor plans, security and cultivation operations to ensure product safety and quality; its storage and transportation standards; and responsiveness to patient needs, the DPH said.

The company will be subject to further oversight, including inspection of its transportation plans and testing of its marijuana plants once they are grown, before it's permitted to move or sell its marijuana for medical use. Ongoing oversight will include unannounced inspections before and after sales begin.

Other companies seeking to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts are in the inspection phase.

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Workers: $1 hike in Mass. minimum wage is welcome

An estimated 280,000 Massachusetts workers — including 28,000 in Boston — will ring in the new year with a welcome addition to their paychecks.

That's the number of minimum-wage earners expected to get a $1-per-hour boost in their pay starting Jan. 1, when the first of three state Legislature-approved minimum-wage hikes takes effect, bringing the rate to $9-an-hour for 2015.

"That helps me very much," said Rita Dias, a 26-year-old Dorchester resident who helps support her mother and brother. "When it's going to be more up, it's going to be more helpful."

Dias earns the minimum wage for the 20 hours per week she works at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Roslindale and CW Price in Dorchester.

"It's not enough," Dias said. "Sometime I need to think about the rent I need to pay or buy food and help my family."

The $1-per-hour increase in the minimum wage will be the first increase since 2006 and will be followed by $1 increases in 2016 and 2017.

"It's not a living wage, but it's at least a step toward it," said Lew Finfer, director of the faith-based Massachusetts Communities Action Network and co-chairman of Raise Up Massachusetts.

According to the MIT living-wage calculator, a single adult in Boston needs to make $12.65 an hour and work full time to earn a living to meet average monthly expenses.

Raise Up Massachusetts, a coalition of community, religious and labor groups, collected 193,000-plus signatures to put a minimum-wage increase on the November ballot, prompting the Legislature to approve the wage hikes.

"We can come back in 2017 and hopefully get it up further," Finfer said.

Meanwhile, Mattapan resident Wendelly Innocent said the extra $1 per hour will provide a little help when it comes to making ends meet.

"It's better than the $8," said Innocent, 19, who works about 30 hours a week at a Dunkin' Donuts in Dorchester. "It's a struggle to make ends meet, paying bills. It's going to be less of a struggle, but it still will be a struggle."

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