The Ticker

Columbia Gas capped

Massachusetts utility regulators approved a $7.8 million rate hike for Columbia Gas — far lower than the company's original request for a $29.2 million increase.

The decision by the state Department of Public Utilities came after Attorney General Martha Coakley criticized the company for passing on $114,000 in corporate jet travel costs to ratepayers.

The former Bay State Gas Co., which serves 300,000 customers in the Brockton, Lawrence and Springfield areas, voluntarily withdrew $1.8 million from its request, before the DPU knocked off another $19.6 million.

Schilling rips R.I. lawsuit as 'political'

Former Red Sox [team stats] pitcher Curt Schilling [stats] is calling a lawsuit brought against him by Rhode Island economic development officials "political" and denying wrongdoing in connection with a $75 million state loan guarantee the state gave his now defunct video game company 38 Studios.

Schilling said the state's decision was made "with its eyes wide open and with full understanding of any risks."

Crane adds Hallmark unit to fold

Dalton stationery company Crane & Co. will acquire William Arthur, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards Inc. based in West Kennebunk, Maine, for an undisclosed amount.

In the second half of next year, business operations will be consolidated to Crane's North Adams facility with integrated sales, customer service and marketing.

South Shore Plaza to add two stores

DSW will open a designer shoe "warehouse" — its 15th Bay State store — at South Shore Plaza next spring, taking over the former Filene's Basement location on the first level of the Braintree mall. A Christmas Tree Shops Express store will also open soon at the mall, in the first-floor space formerly occupied by Crate & Barrel.

Wall Street sells after stormy week

Stocks ended an unusual storm-shortened trading week with a sell-off yesterday, as major indexes erased early gains sparked by a stronger-than-expected payrolls report.

(THE SHUFFLE logo)

L Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP has hired Stephen G. Howard as a partner in the firm's litigation department, where his work will include representation of institutional clients, fiduciaries, as well as individuals in probate and business litigation matters.

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New developers to change Lovejoy potion

New developers have taken on Lovejoy Wharf, Boston's largely abandoned and dilapidated northern gateway that has the potential to become a bustling waterfront office, residential and retail complex.

Hub-based Beal Cos. and Related Cos. of New York filed revised plans to renovate the historic Hoffman building at 160 North Washington St. for offices instead of condos. Sneaker maker Converse is reportedly eyeing the space.

The project, across Interstate 93 from the TD Garden, also includes demolishing the adjacent 131 Beverly St. and erecting a 14-story residential tower.

"This project will play a central role in rejuvenating Lovejoy Wharf and making it a vibrant waterfront center reflective of both its history and its distinguished location," the developers wrote to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The developers are buying the property from Ajax Partners. The Lexington firm won city approval in 2007 but its $200 million project bogged down in a lawsuit with abutters.

With the dispute settled, the new developers plan to start construction early next year. The filing indicates a single tenant will lease the 187,000 square feet of office space and bring in 300 employees.

A Converse spokeswoman said the North Andover-based company is "exploring options for an expanded company headquarters" in Greater Boston but "no decision has been made."

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Economy at 'standstill'

A mixed October jobs report is fueling the final weekend presidential pitch with President Obama admitting his work is far from over, and GOP nominee Mitt Romney decrying the nation's nearly unchanged jobless rate as proof the economy remains in a "virtual standstill."

"We have made real progress," Obama said yesterday. "But we are here ... because we know we've got more work to do. As long as there's a single American who wants a job and can't find one, as long as there are families working harder but falling behind ... our fight goes on."

The nation added 171,000 jobs last month, as the U.S. unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point to 7.9 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised upward the numbers of jobs created in September and August to 148,000 and 192,000, respectively.

But Romney, who has pledged to create 12 million jobs in his first term if elected president, blasted Obama yesterday, saying that come Tuesday the nation will make a choice between "stagnation and prosperity."

"For four years, President Obama's policies have crushed America's middle class. For four years, President Obama has told us that things are getting better and that we're making progress," Romney said. "For too many American families, those words ring hollow."

Yesterday's jobs numbers are the last broad snapshot of the economy before Election Day. Obama now faces voters with the highest unemployment rate of any incumbent since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Elliot Winer, chief economist for Northeast Economic Analysis Group, said while the economy "is at a standstill," it would take time for the nation to produce at least 200,000 jobs a month, even if Romney is elected to office.

"We're seeing modest job growth at best right now," he said. "It's not as if all of a sudden things have turned around the last couple of months and are booming."

But some saw a positive trend in the data.

"We have a long way to go back to 2007," said UMass Dartmouth public policy professor Michael Goodman. "However, when you see the labor force growing; when you see jobs growing across a reasonable range of industries; when you see the previous months' data rise up ... that's certainly good news for the national economy."

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Today's look in 1860 townhouse

This 1860-built Charlestown townhouse has been given a high-end gut-rehab and interior makeover, turning it into a showpiece contemporary single-family with four floors of living space.

The four-bedroom attached brick rowhouse at 6 Washington St. features a new Spanish mahogany cabinet kitchen with high-end appliances and a third-floor master bedroom suite with a large walk-in closet and a private rear deck off the bedroom. It's on the market for $1,589,000.

Every room in the home has been redone, with new windows with built-in plantation shutters, new or refinished oak floors and contemporary lighting. There's a lot of paneled wainscoting, Gregorian runners in the hallway and newly added window trim, and the rear addition was remodeled in 2008 with radiant-heated floors.

The new black walnut entry doors have etched glass, and lead into a foyer with a coat closet. To the left is a formal dining room with a decorative wood fireplace with an original mantel.

A large opening leads into a kitchen with a breakfast nook that overlooks a fenced-in rear brick patio. The recessed-lit kitchen — redone in the mid-2000s — features new oak floors, Spanish mahogany cabinets, beige granite counters and a center island with pendant lights overhead. There's a large SubZero refrigerator, and other stainless-steel appliances include a Viking gas stove, two Bosch convection wall ovens and a Kitchen Aid dishwasher and compactor. The rear of the kitchen has a pantry area with a wine cooler.

Another dining nook with a wet bar sits in the rear addition, with radiant-heated yellow limestone floors and an adjacent redone half bath with limestone floors and a pedestal sink.

The second floor has a formal living room with contemporary lighting, restored oak floors, three front-facing windows and an original working wood fireplace.

The adjacent recessed-lit library has a floor-to-ceiling bookcase and two rear windows. A recessed-lit study in the rear addition has radiant-heated oak floors and diagonally set windows that overlook the patio. There's a newly added half bath with closet that holds a stacked Asko washer and dryer.

The entire third floor was converted into a master bedroom suite in 2011. The recessed-lit bedroom has new oak floors and glass doors out to a newly built rear deck.

The en-suite master bathroom has porcelain tile walls and floors, gold granite accents and a porcelain tiled walk-in shower. Through a frosted glass door is a large dressing room with custom maple wardrobe cabinets and storage drawers topped with a gold granite countertop.

There are three bedrooms on the fourth floor, all with reconditioned original wide-pine floors. Two are decent sized, but the smaller one is more suitable as a nursery. There's a newly added bathroom with white subway tile and a Japanese soaking tub.

The unfinished basement has been repainted and has lots of storage space. It also holds a three-zone Buderus furnace that provides heat through forced hot water for antique radiators on the first and second floors and forced hot air on the top two floors. There's also a central vacuum system, and central air conditioning with a rooftop unit replaced in 2010. The townhouse also has an alarm, intercom and CCTV systems.

Parking is on-street with a residential permit, but there is garage parking in nearby City Square.

For more information or to see this property, call Frank Celeste of Gibson Sotheby's International Realty at 617-872-3227.

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Sexy, stylish Fiat turns heads

Undersized, underpowered, but with a huge personality, the 2012 Fiat 500C is just a blast to drive.

Let's face it, you're not going to win any races with this runaround, but heads will turn as you sport about the city.

The sexy Cinquecento is the second smallest car offered in the United States — the Smart Fortwo is the smallest — but the Fiat still gives its direct competition, the British Mini Cooper, a run for its money in the subcompact class.

Despite its size, the higher roof gives two adults plenty of leg room and a comfortable, albeit a bit noisy, ride.

The car, or its maker, also likes to brag — it's splashed with at least 17 "500C" logos!

Our upgraded Lounge edition enhanced the cruising experience by including leather seats, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shifter, a six-speaker Bose stereo and Bluetooth. It also had voice-only navigation, but the highlight was the convertible roof that can be operated at up to 50 mph!

The curvaceous car resembles the 1950s Italian original, but is longer, taller and as a friend who once lived in Italy pointed out, doesn't have any dents in the doors.

It will get only minor tweaks for 2013.

The Fiat plays nicely — it's quick, spirited and responsive.

Parking is a dream; you're able to squeeze into the tightest spots.

The high-end Arbath Edition adds a sports suspension and more powerful turbo engine.

There are rear seats, but they're super-cramped. They drop for some added cargo space, but the easiest way to get my golf clubs in and out was through the open roof. And although the roof was a hit, you do sacrifice vision out the rear window. And, seriously, the Fiat needs a backup warning alert!

The 101-horsepower, 1.4-liter engine pushed out enough pep to bop around doing errands or commuting, but is a glacially slow 12.4 seconds to 60 mph.

The six-speed automatic on our tester was a drag on the fun factor of this pint-sized convertible and oddly returned rather poor gas mileage, too. Get this with the five-speed stick to maximize the personality of the 500C, but more importantly to pick nearly 5 mpg in fuel savings over the automatic's 27 mpg city/34 mpg highway. Also, stay out of the wake of tractor-trailers!

This fun car certainly has its drawbacks and the sticker is the whopper.

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Angela Merkel: Euro debt crisis will last at least 5 years

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe's sovereign debt crisis will last at least five more years.

Merkel says the continent is on the right path to overcome the crisis but "whoever thinks this can be fixed in one or two years is wrong."

Two years ago some heavily indebted European countries were dragged into the turmoil that first gripped global financial markets in 2007.

Greece in particular has been struggling with the austerity conditions imposed on it by countries such as Germany.

But Merkel told a regional meeting of her Christian Democratic Party on Saturday that the time had come for "a bit of strictness."

Otherwise, she says, Europe won't be able to attract international investment.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Meat club members beef with New Bedford butcher after sudden closing

NEW BEDFORD — Loyal patrons of Normand's Meat Specialties Inc. say they have been left with hundreds of dollars of meat vouchers and little explanation after the longtime North End butcher shut its doors abruptly last week.

"This was like a shock," said Marie Almeida, 44, New Bedford, a member of one of the store's many "meat clubs," which allow customers to put a portion of their pay each week toward a final ticket.

The system worked like a layaway plan, said Almeida, a medical secretary, who was counting on her $400 worth of tickets to get her through the winter months when her fisherman husband doesn't bring home pay.

Now, Almeida doesn't know...Click here to read the rest of the story .

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IPad mini is Apple's sweetest tablet ever

This might just be Apple's best tablet yet.

Holding it for the first time, I couldn't help but think that the size of the iPad mini is what iPad should have been all along. At 7.9 inches, you can grip it with one hand and type with the other. It feels like an e-reader, the size of a book. It's the best content consumption device on the market, and it makes its predecessor seem as if it has been trying to be too many things.

The screen resolution is the same as the iPad 2; the pixel density is higher. The camera is better, and battery life is far better. The overall design is sleeker, with its thin, rounded corners reminiscent of the iPod Touch's slim frame.

The amount of innovation that Apple packs into such a svelte form is impressive. For that reason, this isn't just a shrunken down iPad.

No, this doesn't boast Retina Display. But requiring that on a sub-10-inch tablet is like trying to win a spec horse race. Unless you're hovering over it with a monocle, who cares?

The question many will have is whether it's worth sinking between $329 and $659 into the mini, or if it's better to spend $199 for the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire. There are two big considerations: Heavy movie-watchers might prefer the picture on Nexus 7, and voracious readers might like Kindle's lack of glare. But while the Kindle and Nexus don't feel quite as high-end, the mini is pure top-shelf.

One thing that confounds me is why Apple still sells iPad 2. The iPad 2 costs $399 for the WiFi-only 16 GB version. For up to $60 more you can purchase a version of the mini that will have far better rear- and front-facing cameras, HD video recording capability, higher storage capacity and Siri. Plus, at about .68 pounds, the mini is half the weight.

So while a choice between the mini and its similarly sized competition can be a tough one given pricing, the choice between a mini and the iPad 2 is a no-brainer.

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who famously knocked the idea of a smaller iPad, was, it seems, very wrong on this one.

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Grocers check out

There were big shakeups in the local grocery landscape yesterday when Shaw's Supermarkets announced layoffs for 700 New England store workers, and Johnnie's Foodmaster started a going-out-of-business sale.

West Bridgewater-based Shaw's job cuts at its 169 Shaw's and Star Markets represent about 4 percent of its 17,000-strong workforce. The chain said it's facing the same challenges as its struggling parent company, Minnesota's Supervalu Inc. The nation's third largest grocery chain with annual sales of about $35 billion from 4,400 stores, Supervalu has enacted waves of layoffs, store closings and millions in cost-cutting and in July said it would explore a possible sale of all or part of the company.

"We continue to operate in a tough competitive landscape and a challenging economy," Shaw's spokesman Steve Sylven said. "We've experienced sales losses that have made it challenging to manage labor costs."

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791 had 260 part-time members let go. All had worked for Shaw's for under a year, spokesman Peter Derouen said.

In June, the union reached an agreement with Shaw's that protects all union store employees hired before Jan. 1, 2011, from layoffs until its contract expires in August.

"It's no secret that Shaw's is struggling," Derouen said. "We worked out an agreement ... to give them relief in areas of the contract for certain stores."

Meanwhile, store-closing sales started yesterday at all 10 Johnnie's Foodmasters, with up to 30 percent discounts. John DeJesus, owner of the 65-year-old, Chelsea-based chain, did not return calls seeking comment. Texas-based upscale natural food chain Whole Foods Market [WFMI] said last week that it would convert six Foodmasters in South Weymouth, Arlington, Charlestown, Brookline, Melrose and on Beacon Street in Somerville to its own stores after acquiring their leases. That left four Foodmaster stores in Medford, Lynn, Whitman and Somerville that now also will close after the liquidation sale.

That's bad news for people in those neighborhoods, Somerville consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky said. "They're smaller format, yet they were still price-competitive," he said.

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Ohio transportation company settles with the MBTA

BOSTON - The Massachusetts attorney general's office says a transportation company that allegedly backed out of a contract to run "The Ride" service for disabled customers will pay a $7.3 million settlement.

The AG said Friday that the deal with Cincinnati, Ohio-based First Transit Inc. will settle breach of contract allegations by the MBTA.

Authorities said in 2009, First Transit was awarded a five-year deal to run "The Ride" after submitting a $97 million bid. But officials said First Transit backed out after learning its bid was much lower than competing bidders.

First Transit said it received inaccurate information when the state solicited the bids, a charge the state denied.

In a statement, First Transit said it never had a contract with the MBTA. The company said it settled to avoid the costs and uncertainty of litigation.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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