N. Korea proposes joint probe over Sony hacking

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday proposed a joint investigation with the U.S. into the hacking attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, warning of "serious" consequences if Washington rejects a probe that it believes would prove Pyongyang had nothing to do with the cyberattack.

The proposal was seen by analysts as a typical ploy by the North to try to show that it is sincere, even though it knows the U.S. would never accept its offer for a joint investigation.

U.S. officials blame North Korea for the hacking, citing the tools used in the Sony attack and previous hacks linked to the North, and have vowed to respond. The break-in resulted in the disclosure of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files, and escalated to threats of terror attacks against U.S. movie theaters that caused Sony to cancel the Christmas Day release of "The Interview," a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

On Saturday, an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang proposed the joint investigation with the U.S., saying the North knows how to prove it's not responsible for the hacking. He also said Washington was slandering Pyongyang by spreading unfounded rumors.

"The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation and presses for what it called countermeasures while finding fault with" North Korea, the spokesman said in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA.

"We have a way to prove that we have nothing to do with the case without resorting to torture, as the CIA does," he said, adding that the U.S. lacks any specific evidence tying North Korea to the hacking.

The White House had no immediate comment Saturday.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, called the North's proposal a "typical" tactic the country has taken in similar disputes with rival countries. In 2010, North Korea proposed a joint investigation after a South Korean-led international team concluded that the North was behind a torpedo attack that killed 46 South Korean sailors, though Pyongyang denied its involvement. South Korea rejected the North's offer for the joint probe.

"They are now talking about a joint investigation because they think there is no conclusive evidence," Koh said. "But the U.S. won't accede to a joint investigation for the crime."

On Friday, President Barack Obama declared that Sony "made a mistake" in shelving the satirical film about a plot to assassinate the North Korean leader, and pledged that the U.S. would respond "in a place and manner and time that we choose" to the hacking attack on Sony that led to the movie's withdrawal.

"I wish they had spoken to me first. ... We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship," Obama said at a year-end news conference, speaking of executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Sony said it had had no choice but to cancel distribution of the movie because theaters were refusing to show it.

U.S. options for acting against North Korea are limited. The U.S. already has severe trade sanctions in place, and there is no appetite for military action. Even if investigators could identify and prosecute the individual hackers believed responsible, there's no guarantee that any located are overseas would ever see a U.S. courtroom. Hacking back at North Korean targets by U.S. government experts could encourage further attacks against American targets.

North Korea and the U.S. remain in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The rivals also are locked in an international standoff over the North's nuclear and missile programs and its alleged human rights abuses.

Earlier Saturday, North Korea angrily denounced a move by the United Nations to bring its human rights record before the Security Council and renewed its threat to further bolster its nuclear deterrent against what it called a hostile policy by the U.S. to topple its ruling regime.

Pyongyang "vehemently and categorically rejects" the resolution passed by the U.N. General Assembly that could open the door for its leaders, including Kim Jong Un, to be hauled before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, according to a Foreign Ministry statement carried by KCNA.

The Security Council is due to meet Monday to discuss Pyongyang's human rights situation for the first time.

The meeting caps almost a year of international pressure, and even though ally China could use its veto power to block any action against the North, the nonbinding resolution has broad support in the General Assembly and has drawn unusually strong and vitriolic protests from Pyongyang.

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Associated Press writer Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Apple ‘deeply offended’ by BBC report claiming poor working conditions

LOS ANGELES — A senior Apple executive said he was "deeply offended" by the BBC's allegations that Apple mistreats its workers in overseas factories.

Footage from an undercover BBC investigation, which aired Thursday, shows what the British broadcaster said were child laborers in Indonesia digging through mud pits for the tin used in phones and tablets. The report also shed light on the treatment of employees in factories of Apple supplier Pegatron near Shanghai, some of whom were seen sleeping at their workstations during their 12-hour shifts.

One undercover reporter was hired to make Apple computer parts, the BBC said, working 18 days in a row without reprieve.

"Like many of you, Tim (Chief Executive Tim Cook) and I were deeply offended by the suggestion that Apple would break a promise to the workers in our supply chain or mislead our customers in any way," Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of operations, wrote in an email to the staff.

The email, published by the Telegraph, reached nearly 5,000 Apple employees in Britain.

Williams said he "(knows) of no other company doing as much as Apple does" to ensure safe working conditions, investigate complaints and fix problems with transparency in suppliers' operations.

"I want you to know that more than 1,400 of your Apple coworkers are stationed in China to manage our manufacturing operations," he said in the email. "They are in the factories constantly — talented engineers and managers who are also compassionate people, trained to speak up when they see safety risks or mistreatment."

While the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has worked to improve factory conditions in recent years, the BBC investigation is the latest in a spate of reports that have revealed evidence that Apple's suppliers mistreat their workers. Previous investigations uncovered hellish conditions in China's Foxconn factories, which also serve Sony.

Following reports of suicides and dangerous working conditions in the facilities, Apple and its suppliers allowed the Fair Labor Association to inspect Foxconn factories in February and March of 2012. The audits uncovered "significant issues," including excessive overtime and health and safety risks, the organization said.

The Taiwan-based supplier had successfully completed more than 280 recommended actions by August of that year, the watchdog group said.

But Williams admitted Apple and its manufacturers could "still do better" in the employee email.

"Several years ago, the vast majority of workers in our supply chain worked in excess of 60 hours, and 70+ hour workweeks were typical," he wrote. "After years of slow progress and industry excuses, Apple decided to attack the problem by tracking the weekly hours of over one million workers, driving corrective actions with our suppliers and publishing the results on our website monthly — something no other company had ever done."

This year, Williams added, Apple suppliers achieved an average of 93 percent compliance with the company's 60-hour workweek limit.

The BBC's report uncovered other workplace hazards, including overcrowding — a problem also prevalent in Foxconn factories. In one Pegatron dormitory, 12 workers shared a single room. Apple's guidelines note a maximum of eight people.

"We will not rest until every person in our supply chain is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve," Williams said.

———

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Health care signups increasing, but many unpaid

BOSTON — State officials say the number of people enrolling for insurance through the state's health connector is increasing with a key deadline just days away.

Figures released Friday show that more than 18,000 people have selected, signed up and paid for coverage through the connector beginning Jan. 1. Officials say that's more than double the number from a week ago.

But more than 35,000 people who have gotten as far as choosing plans have yet to pay — which they must do by Tuesday to be covered on the first of the year.

The connector says its call center will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to handle consumer questions.

In all, more than 210,000 have used the connector's revamped website since Nov. 15 to determine eligibility for coverage.

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Three T rail lines reopen on weekends

The MBTA is restoring weekend service to three commuter rail lines beginning next Saturday, two years after budget constraints forced it to cut the runs.

Saturday and Sunday service will resume for the Kingston/Plymouth and Greenbush lines, and Saturday service will restart for the Needham line.

"We are happy to be delivering weekend service on these three commuter rail lines once again in response to customer demand and opening up more transportation options and access for the communities they serve," acting Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary Frank DePaola said in a statement.

The same service schedules as those previously offered will be in effect.

MassDOT and the MBTA said the resumption of service was in response to requests from commuters and state legislators.

This year's state budget included $2 million in funding that allowed the weekend service to be restored.

The MBTA also will start a new weekday schedule for the Needham line Dec. 27, while adjustments in the Newburyport/Rockport line schedule will allow for a new weekday 11:45 p.m. departure from North Station to Newburyport.

All of the new MBTA commuter rail schedules are posted at mbta.com/about_the_mbta/news_events/?id=6442453545&month=&year.

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Russia dismisses new US sanctions as useless

MOSCOW — Russia on Saturday dismissed new U.S. sanctions as useless and said it was poised to wait as long as it takes for the U.S. to recognize its historic right to the Crimean peninsula.

Following several rounds of sanctions earlier this year, President Barack Obama on Friday approved new restrictions on Crimea which Russia annexed in March after a hastily called referendum.

The Russian foreign ministry on Saturday expressed regret that "the United States and Canada still cannot get over the results of a free vote in Crimea in March," the referendum that was condemned by the international community as illegal and held under the guns of Russian troops.

Canada on Friday announced travel bans for dozens of individuals as well as restrictions on the export of technology used in Russia's oil industry.

In a pithy statement, Moscow insisted that the new sanctions won't push Russia to give up Crimea since it is a "historic and integral part of Russia" and said it was working on unspecified measures to retaliate.

The ministry referred to Cuba where it took the U.S. decades to restore diplomatic relations. "The White House took half a century to admit that blockading Cuba with sanctions was useless: well, we can wait too," the statement said.

Obama's order prohibited U.S. companies and individuals from exporting or importing any goods, services or technology to or from Crimea. Likewise, U.S. individuals or companies cannot buy real estate or businesses in Crimea or finance Crimean companies.

It also freezes any assets in the U.S. of individuals determined by the U.S. Treasury Department to be operating in Crimea.

Obama's order follows a European Union ban on investment in Crimea, and other economic restrictions including measures aimed at keeping tourists away.The new measures on investment, services and trade, announced Thursday, beef up the EU's previous response to Russia's annexation of the peninsula.

Europeans and EU-based companies are barred from buying real estate or businesses in Crimea, financing Crimean companies or supplying services as of Saturday.

In addition, EU operators will no longer be allowed to offer tourism services to Crimea's Black Sea beaches or other destinations. Cruise ships owned by an EU-based company or flying an EU member state's flag will also no longer be allowed to call at Sevastopol or other Crimean ports, except in an emergency.

Moscow's harsh anti-American rhetoric comes a time when the Kremlin seems to be departing from its defiant stance on a settlement in eastern Ukraine. It has, for instance, given up its persistent suggestion that the only solution to the bloody conflict in the east is the federalization of Ukraine.

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Tick-tock: Tips for last-minute shoppers

PORTLAND, Ore. — The clock is ticking, and your holiday shopping list isn't complete.

Don't fret — you aren't alone.

The National Retail Federation found that only about half of shoppers had finished shopping as of Dec. 10. That means tens of millions will be ticking those final items off their lists in the coming days.

But procrastination doesn't have to mean desperation. Here are a few tips to help survive last-minute shopping:

—SEIZE THE DAY: Retailers know the rush is coming, and they are doing everything they can to attract last-minute shoppers. This includes extended shopping hours, expedited shipping and exclusive promotions.

That opens up lots of strategies for shopping that will keep you out of the crazy lines in stores at noon on Christmas Eve.

One tactic is to become a night owl. Many retailers are open longer in the week before Christmas. For example, Wal-Mart says its stores are open 24 hours a day up until 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve and it is offering shipping options up until Dec. 23. Toys R Us stores are open around the clock from the morning of Dec. 23 through 9 p.m. Christmas Eve; it also is extending its hours in the days preceding.

And many retailers, such as Best Buy, allow shoppers to find an item online and pick it up at a store. Even 7-Eleven is targeting shoppers, offering gift cards, toys and stocking stuffers in its stores.

The bottom line: Take advantage of those last-minute discounts and other deals.

— DO YOUR HOMEWORK: Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market researcher NPD Group, says many people do not yet know what they want to give, or get.

"These consumers are the ones who put themselves in a stressful situation," he said. "The one saving grace is online (shopping) is a chance for a lot of people to do their homework."

He said shoppers can narrow down their options ahead of time by looking online.

You can also check Amazon.com to see if the person has a wish list you didn't know about, or study Facebook or Pinterest pages for ideas.

Such prep work can save a lot of headaches and potentially limit last-minute impulse purchases that can prove costly.

— WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES: Seriously, this is a common-sense step many shoppers skip.

"Wear comfortable shoes for goodness sake," Cohen said. "It (shopping) is exercise and it's not very comfortable."

Don't waste time cruising to find the closest spot to the store either, he said. Those comfortable shoes will make it easier to just park and walk.

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Hopes, fears, doubts surround Cuba's oil future

MIAMI — One of the most prolific oil and gas basins on the planet sits just off Cuba's northwest coast, and the thaw in relations with the United States is giving rise to hopes that Cuba can now get in on the action.

It's a prospect welcomed by Cubans desperate for economic growth yet deeply concerning for environmentalists and the tourism industry in the region.

But a Cuban oil boom is unlikely anytime soon even if restrictions on U.S. businesses are relaxed because of low oil prices and far better drilling opportunities elsewhere.

"(Cuba) is not going to be the place where operators come rolling in," says Bob Fryklund, chief strategist for oil and gas exploration and production at the analysis firm IHS.

Although Cuba's oil and gas industry has long been open to foreign investment, the U.S. embargo has denied it some of the world's best deep-water drilling technology and expertise. As a result, Cuba produces just 55,000 barrels of oil per day. About one-third of that is produced by a Canadian firm called Sherritt International.

Cuba needs 155,000 barrels per day, and it fills the gap with oil from Venezuela, part of a trade agreement established under former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. By comparison, a single large oil platform in the deep water U.S. Gulf of Mexico can produce 200,000 barrels per day.

The few major exploration projects in Cuba in recent years have had little success. Most recently, the Spanish company Repsol abandoned a yearslong exploration project in 2012 when an offshore exploratory well failed to find much oil.

Fryklund says that U.S. oil services firms, which have been prevented from working in Cuba, could provide technology to operators in Cuba to help increase production somewhat. Also, U.S. refiners could find a new market in Cuba for gasoline and diesel or refining technology. Cuba has been struggling to find a partner to finance an upgrade an expansion of its largest refinery, in Cienfuegos.

But a factor that helped push Cuba to seek closer ties with the United States also could impede major oil exploration there: low oil prices.

A plunge of nearly 50 percent in the global price of oil has crushed the oil-dependent economies of Venezuela and Russia, threatening aid from Cuba's biggest benefactors.

"None of Cuba's friends have the financial capability to throw a safety net or a safety line to Cuba," says Jorge Pinon, former Amoco Oil Latin America president now at the University of Texas. Cuba suffered enormously when foreign aid dried up after the fall of the Soviet Union, and it wants to avoid similar economic pain now that Venezuelan aid is uncertain.

Low oil prices also force drillers to shy away from risky projects because the potential for a big financial return is so much smaller.

Even though Cuba sits relatively close to some of the biggest deep-water oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, the geology under Cuba's waters is drastically different from that of the rest of the Gulf.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are 4.6 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in Cuba — a substantial but not enormous amount because not all of that oil could possibly be produced. The U.S. Gulf of Mexico contains an estimated 10 times that much.

Also, there are also bigger and better-known fields in Mexico, which recently amended its constitution to allow foreign investment in its oil industry.

Cuba could offer very favorable terms to entice drillers to come, however, and smaller firms willing to take bigger risks may give Cuba a shot.

A major concern for environmentalists and the tourism industry in the region is Cuba's ability to drill at international safety standards, including its response to any spill, according to Bob Graham, who co-chaired the national commission on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They fear a spill could quickly spread to ecologically rich and economically important reefs and beaches in nearby Florida and throughout the Caribbean.

Under the U.S. embargo of Cuba, which remains in place, anything comprised of more than 10 percent U.S. parts cannot be sold to Cuba or a Cuban contractor. That covers almost all modern drilling systems, Graham says. "It's going to require some modification of the embargo to allow state-of-the-art equipment to be used for Cuban drilling."

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has been working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to study the possible threats posed by offshore oil drilling near the Florida Straits and the Bahamas, says NOAA spokesman Ben Sherman. The agency also shares technical expertise on oil spill planning and response with Caribbean nations, including Cuba, Sherman says.

When William Reilly, Graham's co-chair on Deepwater Horizon spill commission and head of the EPA under President George H. W. Bush, presented the commission's final report to Cuban regulators in Havana, he found they had already made plans to follow the commission's recommendations with the resources they had. That included sending staff to Canada to learn English to improve communications in the event of an oil spill.

Reilly says Cuban officials had high hopes for their oil industry. A delegation had a telescope trained on an offshore rig that was exploring for oil and gas, though it could be seen without a telescope. "It was like a beacon of economic hope to Cubans in Havana," he says.

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Fahey reported from New York. He can be reached at http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey . Jennifer Kay can be reached at http://twitter.com/jnkay .

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A Facebook TV show? HLN teams with social-media giant on pilot

Facebook is trying its hand at TV, teaming with Time Warner's HLN network to produce a pilot for a series that will use the popular social network to find and tell interesting stories.

"We don't and they don't want this to feel like 'The Facebook Show,'" said Kari Kim, vice president of development at HLN, in an interview. "It's really about the stories and how we are using their tools" to discover information and identify what's happening around the world.

Executives at the network, which is part of CNN Worldwide, said initial details remain sketchy. The pilot will make it to air in the first half of 2015, said Lila King, HLN's senior director of product strategy and partnerships, but the network remains uncertain so far as to what form the program will ultimately take.

Options ranging from a weekly format to a series of specials have all been discussed, said Kim. No hosts have been decided upon either.

Social-media outlets like Twitter and Facebook have all put forth the notion that the conversations they host about popular culture, celebrity and TV programming boosts the ratings of any show one can name. But Facebook's alliance with HLN suggests, in at least this one instance, that one of the big consumer-chatter giants sees a chance to generate more of the same with its own series.

"The initial ideas HLN came up with are very encouraging, and we are looking forward to getting to work and seeing what comes out of the production process," said Andy Mitchell, director of news and global partnerships at Facebook, in a prepared statement.

Facebook teams with HLN as the network moves forward with a broad reworking of its content that centers more around social media than the traditional news updates that were once its stock in trade. That process was interrupted earlier this year when parent Time Warner considered an arrangement that would have let Vice Media, which has a reputation for you-are-there video journalism that takes viewers to far-flung parts of the world, essentially take over HLN. The arrangement would have created a new venture in which Time Warner might have had an ownership stake, but the two sides remained far apart on several aspects of the potential deal, which fell apart.

Now HLN is returning to its mission: Sifting through tweets, memes, posts and more to find cultural shifts and interesting stories. Among the programs HLN put on its development slate last February were a show that counts down the most-talked about entertainment properties, a game show that uses search and tag terms and a third that looks behind the scenes at online phenomena. Albie Hecht, a Viacom programming veteran, is leading the effort. Hosts like Nancy Grace and Dr. Drew remain on air.

"As HLN refines their programming to reflect the social conversation, which happens at an unprecedented scale on Facebook, we are excited to produce a pilot that reflects Facebook on TV in a very unique and creative way," said Mitchell.

HLN's King said she reached out to major social-media outlets as soon as she joined the network in February. "I think Facebook was the first call I made," she said. "We've been trying to figure out what the right thing to do is, and I think we've hit on it." Viewers of the show can likely take to Facebook to register their opinions on the program when it actually surfaces.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Sony hit with fourth class action lawsuit over hacking attack

The litigation continues: Sony Pictures Entertainment now faces yet another class action lawsuit from ex-employees alleging that the studio failed to take adequate precautions to protect private information.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday is similar to three others filed earlier this week. It alleges negligence on the part of SPE and violations of privacy laws.

SPE, which "engages in the entertainment industry as part of a vast multinational corporate conglomerate, knows or should know that it may be the target of the world's most sophisticated data hackers or cybercriminals," and it failed to take "adequate steps" to protect itself from the possibility of an attack, says the suit filed by Michael Levine, former technical director for Sony Pictures Imageworks from 2003 to 2012, and Lionel Felix, a former director of technology who ran IT infrastructure for Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment from 2001 to 2004.

The plaintiffs were represented by Michael Sobol and RoseMarie Maliekel of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Why the Sony hack isn't big news in Japan

Japan's biggest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, featured a story about Sony Corp. on its website Friday. It wasn't about hacking. It was about the company's struggling tablet business.

Over at newswire Kyodo News, just after the FBI formally blamed North Korea for the cyberattack, mega pop group AKB48 topped headlines online instead.

While American journalists have extensively covered the fallout from the unprecedented Sony hacking attack, it hasn't exactly been massive news in Japan. Stories certainly surfaced after President Barack Obama weighed in on the issue at his year-end press conference Friday. But overall it has received relatively modest attention, mostly in short stories on the inside pages of Japan's major newspapers.

This might all be perplexing to the rest of the world since Sony is one of Japan's most iconic global brands. Here are a few reasons why the story hasn't gotten major play in Japan's mainstream media:

SONY vs SONY PICTURES

While Sony Pictures is technically part of the Sony empire, it has long been run as an entirely separate U.S. company. So far, the Japanese media seems to view the hack as an American problem rather than a domestic one. Indeed, at Sony headquarters itself, officials have refused all comment and referred questions about Sony Pictures to the movie division's headquarters in Culver City, California.

"This is seen mainly as an attack on Hollywood," Damian Thong, a senior analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities in Tokyo, said earlier this week. "I feel they want to clean it up as fast they can and just get on with life."

The studio shelved the Christmas Day release of the North Korea spoof movie "The Interview" after the hackers threatened to attack theaters that showed the film. But for Japan, the movie's demise hardly matters. Sony Pictures never planned to show the film there.

NEWSPAPER DEMOGRAPHICS

Japan's newspapers, which have the highest daily circulations in the world, are inclined to avoid news that is technologically complex. Like hacking. Nobuyuki Hayashi, a veteran freelance tech journalist and consultant based in Tokyo, said the tendency stems from reporters and editors who often don't have a deep understanding of technology. And neither do their aging readers.

"If you are technically savvy and need information (about the Sony hack), you will get it from the Web news media," Hayashi said. "Some technically-savvy people subscribe to a printed newspaper as well, but that's only to read other kinds of news."

OTHER NEWS

It has been a newsy December in Japan, especially with national elections last weekend. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party locked up a solid majority in the lower house and reaffirmed his hold on power for up to four more years. In addition to politics, the national chatter was focused on a big blizzard that hit the northern island of Hokkaido this week, dumping heavy snow, derailing trains and killing several people.

__

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

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'Selma' director calls Sony emails 'sickening and sad'

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On the same day that she became the first black woman to receive a Golden Globe nomination for best director, "Selma" filmmaker Ava DuVernay took a moment to remark on the controversial email exchange that, for some, has highlighted a dispiriting lack of progress in some of the higher echelons of Hollywood.

"I have two words: sickening and sad," DuVernay told Variety at Thursday night's Washington, D.C., premiere of "Selma." "That's really all I have to say."

The director was referring to one of many conversations between producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal that were made public as a result of the massive Sony hack attack by Guardians of Peace, a group protesting the upcoming release of the studio's North Korea-skewering satire "The Interview." In the exchange in question, Pascal and Rudin traded quips about President Obama's movie tastes -- which, the two speculated, might run toward the likes of "Django Unchained," "12 Years a Slave," "The Butler" and the comedies of Kevin Hart.

A later version of that conversation might well have included mention of "Selma," which re-creates the 1965 voting-rights marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. in heavily segregated Alabama. On Thursday morning, the much-lauded Paramount release picked up Golden Globe nominations not only for DuVernay's direction but also for picture and best actor for David Oyelowo for his portrayal of King.

During the post-screening Q&A held at the Newseum in D.C., the first question taken from the audience concerned the Sony hacking scandal. While DuVernay was circumspect about the matter onstage, "Selma" producer Dede Gardner spoke at greater length, acknowledging that Pascal and Rudin were being judged on the basis of a private communication.

"It's confusing because it's obviously a private conversation that was exposed and made public to the world, and it's hard, I think, for people who know those people," Gardner said. "You get let into spaces that you're not meant to be in."

"I'd like to think that it can be a very valuable lesson in how powerful the slightest words can be, and how lasting and impactful they are," she added. "It is no joke. There are not grades of racism. There's racism."

Pascal and Rudin both issued apologies for their remarks on Thursday, with Pascal personally reaching out to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who had criticized the emails in question. He wasn't alone. Earlier that day, Shonda Rhimes wrote on Twitter: "Calling Sony comments 'racially insensitive remarks' instead of 'racist'? U can put a cherry on a pile of sh*t but it don't make it a sundae."

The "Selma" Q&A, which was well attended by local elected officials and moderated by "NewsHour" co-anchor Gwen Ifill, also included actors Oyelowo and Lorraine Toussaint, producers Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner (who are both among the producers of "12 Years a Slave") and cinematographer Bradford Young. But the undisputed star of the panel was congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis, a 25-year-old version of whom is portrayed in the film by Stephan James.

"I was deeply moved and touched to see myself played by a young guy, with all of his hair," Lewis said to much laughter, before turning sober and reflective. "You know, when I was growing up in rural Alabama, a few miles from Selma ... when we went to the theater as young black children, we had to go upstairs to the balcony. And all of the white children headed downstairs to the first floor."

"You didn't see anybody who looked like you on that screen," Ifill said.

Lewis replied, "Seeing myself being played is almost too much."

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Consumers reminded about health insurance deadline

CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire residents shopping for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act during the second enrollment period have nearly four times more choices but only half the time to make their decision.

While the first enrollment period lasted six months, the health law's second sign-up season started Nov. 15 and ends Feb. 15. And Monday marks a key deadline — it's the last day to enroll in coverage that will start Jan. 1.

As that date nears, insurance company officials want consumers to carefully consider all their options given that the number of companies offering health plans has increased from one to five, and the number of plans available to individuals has jumped from 11 to 40. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has been joined by Assurant, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Maine Community Health Options and Minuteman Health.

The nearly 42,000 New Hampshire residents who purchased plans through the healthcare.gov marketplace during the first sign-up period will automatically be re-enrolled, but health care advocates, and the insurance companies competing for those customers, say renewal may not be the best option because the tax credits that subsidize coverage could have changed.

"If they do nothing, they could potentially be stuck with the same plan but paying higher premiums," said Sean Caron of Minuteman, which is pitching that new customers also will have access to the company's provider network in Massachusetts as well as New Hampshire.

Michael Gendreau of Maine Community Health said most consumers likely will sort through plans based on affordability, but they should take a closer look at the details.

"Is your doctor or hospital in the network? Is your prescription medication covered?" he said. "You have to look beyond the premium, because while the premium may be affordable, can you afford to get sick?"

Anthem spokesman Colin Manning echoed that advice, and said those who enrolled last year should update their information before Monday to ensure any subsidy information is accurately recorded.

"It is important that as consumers evaluate their plan options, they go beyond comparing the premium rates and look closely the differences in copays, deductibles and co-insurance, as the cost-sharing associated with the benefit plans can vary greatly," he said.

Beth Roberts, a vice president at Harvard Pilgrim, wanted to remind residents insurance brokers can help them sort through the maze of plans at no cost. While most of the insurance companies said they could not provide details of how many consumers have enrolled since Nov. 15, Roberts said about 1,400 people have signed up with her company so far. Nearly two-thirds have opted for plans that use the company's smaller but more affordable provider network, she said.

"We're thrilled to be on the exchange and we think things have gone quite smoothly," she said.

At Assurant, its Preferred Provider Organization networks will allow consumers to pick the doctor they want without needing referrals from a primary care doctor, unlike HMO plans that typically require referrals, said Mary Hinderliter, vice president of communications for the company.

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Sony emails reveal failed efforts to recruit 'Lego' directors to run animation unit

Stolen emails from Sony Pictures reveal the studio tried and failed last summer to recruit Phil Lord and Chris Miller to take over its animation division.

The emails from the hacked documents, obtained by Variety, show studio toppers Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton looking to animation "to turn the studio around." They hoped to install a Pixar-style "brain trust" of filmmakers at the top of Sony Pictures Animation. Lord and Miller were being courted to head that group; other names being floated included Brad Bird.

Lord and Miller, who directed "The Lego Movie" as well as SPA's "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and the studio's "Jump Street" live-action comedy hits, met with Pascal last summer to discuss what such a brain trust might look like. Lord and Miller even suggested they would approach Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to join that team. "Can you imagine that world -- the projects, the talent we'd attract, the money we'd make," Pascal wrote to Lynton.

Pascal acknowledged in the email that Lord and Miller were tied up making four "Lego" pictures at Warner Bros. through 2015. But when the pair were asked to detail any concerns they might have about coming to Sony, Lord wrote an email to Hannah Minghella, the former Sony Pictures Animation chief who now works for Pascal exclusively on the live-action side. He cited the bad reputation of Sony Pictures Animation and the studio's visual effects unit Sony Pictures Imageworks, a reputation that developed from the loss of key talent from both divisions and Imageworks' move to Vancouver.

"It's too hard to do great work there," wrote Lord to Minghella, in answer to Sony's query.

Their assessment was only slightly harsher than an internal assessment that Minghella had sent to Pascal a day earlier. On July 31, she emailed Pascal, with subject line "Confidential" (ellipses in original):

"Objective: We want the creative direction of the company, and the projects, to be run by creatives… either an individual or a brain trust: Lord & Miller, Brad Bird, Will Gluck… (Lindsay Doran)."

Minghella outlined how such a brain trust might work, then turned to:

"Current Problems:
- low morale negatively impacts talent retention.

- studio reputation negatively impacts talent recruitment
- only one (proven) director in-house: Genndy.
- SPA no longer has the competitive edge it had before Fox, Universal, and Paramount started their animation divisions.

- ImageWorks moving to Vancouver also impacts the competitive edge that came from being LA based
- limited financial success compared with other animated titles - what are the drivers of this: Quality? Originality? Marketing? Dating?
- limited number of active projects/franchises - Cloudy, Hotel T, Smurfs, Popeye
- does the relationship with ImageWorks help or hinder SPA?"

(Genndy is "Hotel Transylvania" director Genndy Tartakovsky.)

The ensuing emails suggest that until they attempted to recruit Lord and Miller, Sony's top brass was generally uninformed about the decline of Imageworks and the ill will that the studio's personnel practices had generated in the vfx and animation community.

After receiving Minghella's honest assessment, Pascal had an email exchange with Lynton about their efforts to make Lord & Miller "our john lassiter" (sic). Pascal wrote to Lynton that Lord & Miller were excited about taking such a leadership role, but:

"... they say we have lost every good person we had there and it's a travesty"

She also added that Lord & Miller had floated the idea of approaching Rogen and Goldberg, among others, to join that brain trust. "i'm having lunch with brad bird today to talk about it with him as well…this is our shot," wrote Pascal.

Lynton responded: "why have all the good people left our place????"

Later that morning Lord emailed Minghella a list of key talent that had left Imageworks; according to Lord and Miller's reps, they sent that message in response to a request from Sony for feedback on why they were reluctant to return. Lord wrote that he and Miller felt that at Sony "artists have been treated like paper, and it's too hard to do great work there," adding, "What's not measured by who left is who never came because the reputation was so bad." Minghella forwarded the message to Pascal.

Lynton wrote to Pascal and pointed a finger at Sony Pictures Digital president Bob Osher, who oversees Sony Animation and Imageworks. Lynton implied that Osher would have to be fired. Pascal responded that Osher's "cost savings stuff" at Imageworks was "amazing."

"I am only sorry that left bob to his own devices and let it get to this point. And we just renewed Bob which is also a problem given what we will probably have to do. That being said we should do it," Lynton said in his email to Pascal.

Pascal wrote back to Lynton about the brain drain at SPA and Imageworks. She repeated some of the names Lord had provided and added: "we gotta hold on to these folks."

"we know this is an impossible situation… a much tooo great an asset to waste not to mention a real way to turn the studio around…..we have lost the competitive advantages we had when we were th eonly option for people who wanted to leave disney dreamworks or pixar as well as the advantages we had to get local talent when imageworks was one of the few remaining la based options. more than ever we have to rely on our reputation as a place for creative innovation and excellence and we don't have that reputation or reality anymore."

In the early years of this century, Imageworks was known for driving up wages for vfx pros, to the dismay of management at its competitors. One of the "big four" vfx studios, along with Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain and Rhythm & Hues Studios, it was a regular Oscar contender and would work on several tentpoles each year, in addition to supplying the animation for SPA. Imageworks planned to support the low-margin vfx business with profits from animation, which has been successful for every other studio.

But SPA's pictures have underperformed relative to the competition. One of the studio's biggest hits was Lord and Miller's "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."

Over the years Imageworks shifted away from permanent jobs to a crew model, where artists are hired only for the duration of a show, which slashed personnel costs. Imageworks shifted more and more work from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and employees have complained that they were pressured to move to Vancouver, only to find that there was no job waiting for them, just an opportunity to be hired onto the next Imageworks project. In May, the division moved its HQ and all production to Vancouver.

During the summer of 2013, Imageworks did not work on a single summer tentpole. This year it had Sony's own "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and contributed to Marvel's releases.

All this has larger implications. First, Lord and Miller's complaints about the move to Vancouver bolster arguments that runaway production -- and the unchecked pursuit of short-term profit -- will ultimately do these companies more harm than good.

Second, it suggests that Sony's top leaders were somehow unaware of the issues afflicting not just Imageworks, but the entire vfx industry, despite numerous news reports, public protests, and even the grievances raised by the Imageworks unionization org SPI Union.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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National Grid increasing solar energy sites

BOSTON — National Grid is planning to expand its solar energy capacity.

The Boston Globe reports  the utility is announcing Monday it will install solar panels at 19 sites that would produce enough electricity for about 3,200 homes a year.

Ed White, National Grid's vice president of environmental and customer strategy, says it is "thrilled" about the $75 million project expected to be completed by June.

The project will give National Grid 24 solar facilities with a total capacity of 21 megawatts. They will be in Abington, Attleboro, Ayer, Brockton, Charlton, Dighton, Fall River, Grafton, Leicester, Millbury, Shirley, and Sturbridge. National Grid has small solar facilities across the state generating a combined 5 megawatts.

Northeast Utilities, parent of NStar and Western Massachusetts Electric, has three facilities in western Massachusetts with a generation capacity of 8 megawatts.

___

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.bostonglobe.com

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Spanish police investigates large meat plant fire

MADRID — Spain's national police says it has deployed sniffer dogs to help investigate a large fire that destroyed one of the country's largest meat plants last month in the northern city of Burgos.

The fire on Nov. 16 gutted the Campofrio plant where 1,000 employees had worked, causing evacuation of parts of the city.

Police say dogs trained to detect fire accelerants have been brought onto the site. They were not deployed earlier because of the dangerous condition of the ruined plant.

The company's owners have said they want to rebuild the plant, which produced ham and sausages, but the future of the workforce remains uncertain during the two-year period that the reconstruction work is expected to take.

Campofrio is Europe's largest producer of packaged meat, with operations in eight countires.

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White House: public likely 'cringed' when reading Sony e-mails

White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Friday said he thinks "a lot of people cringed a bit" when reading Amy Pascal's hacked Sony emails in which she jokes with producer Scott Rudin about President Obama's tastes in movies.

Pascal apologized for the racially tinged emails, which she called "insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am."

Speaking at the White House press briefing, Earnest noted that "at least one of the Sony executives whose emails were made public has apologized for the contents of those emails, and I think that was appropriate."

"I think a lot of people who read those emails, maybe not everybody, but I think a lot of people cringed a bit when they were reading them," Earnest said.

CBS News' Major Garrett pressed Earnest on what he meant, saying, "Because [the emails] were what?"

Earnest joked, "Garrett may think it is my first day here."

Earnest said that he had not spoken to Obama about the stolen emails.

Pascal and Rudin apologized for the emails on Thursday after Buzzfeed published the leaked exchange.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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House intelligence chairman: evidence points to North Korea in Sony hack attack

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that evidence seems to be pointing to North Korea's involvement in the hacking attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

According to the Hill, Rogers said on Friday that even though the North Korean government has denied responsibility, they praised the action.

"I would argue as a former FBI guy, that when a nation state says that this group who doesn't know who we are but did this on behalf of the North Korean people ... and we appreciate it...As we would say in the FBI, 'That is a clue.'"

He declined to say what what he has been told in intelligence briefings, but said that public information is pointing toward North Korean responsibility.

He also said that the hack attack on Sony was a"game changer" when it came to cybersecurity, although legislation he has been championing has stalled in the Senate.

North Korea has condemned Sony's release of the movie "The Interview," a comedy in which Seth Rogen and James Franco play entertainment journalists recruited to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jung-un.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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UK airspace manager calls glitch unprecedented

LONDON — An unprecedented computer systems failure touched off the recent mayhem that caused delays and canceled flights for thousands of passengers, the U.K.-based air traffic management company said Saturday.

In its first detailed explanation of the computer glitch that led to flight disruptions Friday, NATS said the problems at its control center in Swanwick occurred as more workstations were being brought on line to deal with an increase in traffic.

"In normal operations the number of workstations in use versus in standby fluctuates with the demands of the traffic being controlled," NATS said in a statement. "In this instance a transition between the two states caused a failure in the system which has not been seen before."

The computer failure made it impossible for the controllers to access data regarding individual flight plans. Planes were prevented from taking off, but those in the air and close to airports were allowed to land during the shutdown that lasted about 35 minutes.

Britain's government reacted with fury over the meltdown ahead of the holiday season, when travel demand is particularly high. Ministers are demanding a thorough explanation.

Parliament's Transport Committee chair Louise Ellman said the transport secretary will appear before her panel on Monday and will be asked about the incident.

Computer software experts have said the problem appears to lie in the age of the systems — some of which date to the 1960s. The Swanwick center has been troubled since it opened 2002 — six years late and at twice its anticipated cost.

Problems over the past two days were particularly acute at London's Heathrow Airport, where flights were canceled both Friday and Saturday.

Though the shutdown was brief, Heathrow operates at nearly full capacity. So when the flights were canceled, there was no place in the schedule to slot them.

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Initiative aimed at preventing sudden infant deaths

WOBURN, Mass. — Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan has begun a campaign aimed at preventing sudden unexpected infant deaths.

The campaign will include outreach to OB/GYN and pediatric offices, free regional community workshops for expectant and new parents on infant sleep safety, and a smartphone app that promotes safe sleep tips.

Sudden unexpected infant death is the leading cause of death among babies in the first year of life. More than 2,000 babies die each year in sleep-related deaths across the United States. In Massachusetts, it is the third leading cause of death statewide for children under the age of one, ranging from between 30 and 50 deaths each year.

Over the last five years, the District Attorney's Office has responded to and investigated 19 sleep-related infant deaths throughout Middlesex County.

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Wealth gap widens between whites and minorities

PORTLAND, Ore. — The economic recovery has not been equal among the races, according to a Pew Research Center study released Friday.

The study found that the wealth gap between white households and minorities has widened in recent years.

The wealth of white households was 13 times greater than that of black households in 2013, versus eight times the wealth in 2010. And the wealth of white households was more than 10 times that of Hispanic households, up from nine times the wealth in 2010.

Pew researchers — analyzing data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances— found that the gap between whites and blacks has reached its highest point since 1989. The wealth ratio for whites-to-Hispanics is at a level not seen since 2001.

Net worth is a measure of the difference between the household's assets and their liabilities. The typical household had a net worth of $81,400 in 2013, according to the Fed's survey.

The recession was universally hard on American families as a stock market crash and plunging house prices ate into their net worth. From 2007 to 2010, the median net worth of American families fell 39 percent.

But this is the first time researchers have been able to look closely at the impact of the economic recovery on households.

"I think this strikes on what many people have felt, the slow and uneven nature of the recovery," said Rakesh Kochhar, one of the study's authors.

Researchers say a number of factors may be responsible for the widening gap: falling income, lower savings rate and different asset holdings.

The median income in minority households fell 9 percent from 2010 and 2013, versus a 1 percent drop in white households. And in turn, researchers say, minority households may have either been forced to draw down from savings to get by or were unable to replenish their savings as much as white households.

Additionally, certain financial assets, such as stocks, recovered more quickly than housing since the recession ended. And white households are more likely than minorities to own stocks, putting them in a better position for a recovery.

Still, the researchers say that income has been under pressure across the races.

"It's been almost a decade now since the typical American has seen an increase in income," Kochhar said. "It's really historical in the duration of time that incomes have not risen."

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Seasonal, full-time work adds 321,000 jobs in Nov.

Hiring surged in November, with employers adding 321,000 jobs — the best month in nearly three years and the third best month since the end of the recession.

The unemployment rate kept steady at 5.8 percent, the Labor Department said yesterday.

A portion of the growth can be attributed to above-average seasonal hiring and consumers spending their savings from low gas prices, said Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington.

"But it shows the economy is still adding jobs at a fairly aggressive pace," said Handler, who forecast an acceleration in real gross domestic product from 2.2 percent this year to 2.7 percent in 2015.

Retailers added 50,200 jobs, about double the average over the past year, suggesting they are expecting above-average holiday sales, he said.

But the gains the Labor Department reported were not just from seasonal workers. Construction and manufacturing jobs were also up, as were jobs in business services and health care, while the numbers of long-term unemployed and of people working part time because they couldn't find full-time jobs fell.

"Now, not only are there more jobs, there are more full-time jobs," said Andre Mayer, senior adviser at Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "It won't take very much more growth for people who are willing and qualified to find a job readily."

Average hourly earnings for all employees increased by 9 cents — the best gain since January 2011 — although average hourly earnings growth among production and non-supervisory workers was a more typical 4 cents.

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Candy Crowley to leave CNN

Candy Crowley, a longtime political journalist who has been with CNN since 1987, is leaving the Time Warner-owned cable-news outlet after a 27-year tenure, a person familiar with the matter confirmed Friday. She has been CNN's chief political correspondent.

"State of the Union," the Sunday-morning talk show about politics she has hosted since 2010, is expected to continue on the network, this person said.

Crowley has held forth on "State" since 2010, when she took over the show from John King. Since that time, she has served as the CNN's face, of sorts, in the Sunday morning talk-show wars, competing with "Face The Nation," "Meet The Press" and others for "gets" of prominent political operatives in discussions of the issues of the day.

"I wanted to let you know that Candy has let us know that she has made the decision to move on, so she can embark on the next chapter of her already prolific career," said Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, in a memo to staff. "As difficult as it is for us to imagine CNN without Candy, we know that she comes to this decision thoughtfully, and she has our full support."

"State of the Union" is not the most-watched Sunday news program - that distinction is held most weeks by CBS' "Face The Nation" - but the show represents CNN's efforts to be part of the news cycle at that time, when influential viewers tune in to see what they can glean from U.S. Senators, Cabinet members and the like. Crowley's departure takes place as NBC is attempting to retool its venerable "Meet The Press" with a new host, Chuck Todd, while ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" has made strides in attracting the viewer demographic most coveted by advertisers in news programs, people between 25 and 54.

"We have adapted a blend at the moment that tries to strike the balance between CNN's commitment to reporting what's going on right now, and the traditional Sunday Show mandate for viewers who want to 'take a breath' for deeper insight, analysis, perspective and longer interviews. It means we include our reporters when a story is breaking, and usually a panel to dissect the Big Washington Story," she told Variety by email in August. "When we can, we take the show somewhere else, not just for the visual perspective but because you do tend to get different interviews when you visit the guest rather than when the guest visits you. For us, it is less about big change than about constantly challenging ourselves about what we do -- to make it better."

Crowley has covered the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, among others. Since the presidential nomination of Jimmy Carter, she has covered all but one of the national political conventions. She was also granted an exclusive sit-down interview with President George W. Bush just days before he left office.

Crowley began her broadcast journalism career in Washington, D.C., as a newsroom assistant for Metromedia radio station WASH-FM. She served as an anchor for Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, as well as a general assignment and White House correspondent for the Associated Press, where she covered part of the Reagan era before moving on to NBC-TV to become a general assignment correspondent in NBC's Washington bureau.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Surge pricing: Uber's $40B valuation. Worth it?

NEW YORK — Can a company that didn't exist five years ago, an upstart with a knack for angering regulators who could close it down, really be worth $40 billion?

That is the figure that had investors from Wall Street to Silicon Valley abuzz a day after Uber announced it had received more money from venture capitalists than any private company this year. The investment places a value on the car-service company that is higher than American Airlines or Kraft Foods — a stunning vote of confidence.

Or maybe it's just too optimistic.

"It gives me a nosebleed," says Sam Hamadeh, CEO of PrivCo, a research firm. "You're being asked to buy on pure speculation."

The cash infusion from investors — $1.2 billion for a small stake — comes at a time when values for private companies backed by venture capitalists are rising fast. New investments in Dropbox, a file-sharing service, and Airbnb, a website for people renting out their homes, have sent their valuations soaring.

But, at $40 billion, the prize may go to Uber. That is more than double what investors valued the company at just six months ago.

With an easy-to-use app, the company promises to tap a big market that links drivers and customers who need rides. But it also faces regulatory hurdles, competition and questions about how it will make money.

A breakdown of the pros and cons of an investment in Uber:

THE PROMISE:

— BIG MARKET: Uber is offering car service in 250 cities in 50 countries now, up from 60 cities in 21 countries just a year ago. You can order a car using its popular mobile app in Asia, North America, and Europe. That's a big market. Taxi and limousine companies around the world generate maybe $100 billion a year, estimates New York University's Aswath Damodaran, a finance professor who blogs about Uber.

— POWERFUL NETWORK EFFECTS: In some businesses, the more people who use a service, the more valuable it becomes. Think telephone companies or Facebook. With 1.35 billion people on Facebook, more people want to get on line to connect with friends, and that drives ad revenue. The same dynamic — called the network effect — may apply to Uber, at least on a local level. The idea is that more people using Uber will attract more drivers, which will cut wait times and attract still more drivers, which will attract more passengers in a virtuous feedback loop of growth and profits. "If you can get these networks going, it's very powerful," says Anand Sanwal, CEO of CB Insights, which tracks data on venture capital.

— FIRST TAXIS, NEXT THE WORLD: Uber has its sights on expanding into many other businesses, like delivery services. It has teased customers with one-day deliveries of ice cream and kittens. Investors are hoping it will take on rental car companies like Hertz and Avis. Its payments system also offers promise as mobile wallets gain traction.

What else? How about subprime car loans? In a video promoting its financing program to potential Uber car drivers, Uber touts that anyone can buy or lease a car even if they have "bad credit or no credit at all."

"Based on its current car service business, you can't make the case (its valuation) is even close to $40 billion. But that's the not the pitch the company is making," says PrivCo's Hamadeh. "They can take on UPS, FedEx, even the Postal Service."

THE PERILS:

—REGULATORY BACKLASH: Uber has been accused of flouting rules and regulations as it muscles its way into the taxi business. The company is fighting regulatory battles in Chicago and Miami. In Nevada, some of its cars have been impounded. Anti-Uber protests have broken out in Europe. In Berlin and Frankfurt, the service has been banned.

Even its wins can sometime feel like a loss. Last month, Pennsylvania regulators granted Uber an "experimental license" to operate in much of the state, but warned that this was a "last chance" for the company, and that it should "abandon its anarchist ways."

Of course, there is another way of looking at regulatory backlash. According to a recent 50-page report from Morgan Stanley on Uber's threat to the rental car industry, "The level of acrimony is a testament to the success of the model and how starved consumers are for choice."

— NEW COMPETITORS: Uber faces competition not just from a taxi industry eager to protect its turf, but from a bevy of smaller startups such as Lyft, Sidecar, Hailo and Bandwagon. Lyft, which was founded three years after Uber, is pitching a cheery corporate image, with pink moustaches on its cars and the slogan "your friend with a car." It hired a chief financial officer this week, a sign that its business is maturing.

Some cities also have local taxi hailing apps.

—WHERE'S THE MONEY?: Uber hasn't released key financial figures to the public, so valuing the company is guesswork. But it's a pretty safe bet that its revenue and profits, if there are any, don't justify its $40 billion valuation, says PrivCo's Hamadeh. To get to that number, you have to buy into a rosy vision of success in not just the taxi business, but many others, he says. "It's really blind faith that they can compete."

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Range Rover Evoques urban luxury

The Range Rover Evoque, with its attitude for pavement with loads of off-road fortitude, is the most urban-oriented sport utility vehicle in the British automaker's lineup.

Our tester included an all-wheel-drive system that automatically switches to two-wheel-drive for improved fuel economy when the vehicle exceeds 22 miles per hour on a smooth surface. The Evoque also has a selectable terrain response system that allows the driver to dial in modes for general, snow, mud, and sand conditions. Both are features that come standard on the 2015 model.

Our tester, which topped out at more than $60,000, included a $15,000 Dynamic premium package.

The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the Evoque is $41,130.

At the heart of the Evoque is a Ford-supplied 2.0-liter, turbocharged, four-cylinder engine that cranks out 240 horsepower. Acceleration was swift in the lightweight SUV. A nine-speed automatic transmission equipped with paddle shifters and a manual shift mode allowed for spirited driving. The engine and transmission combined to yield 21 mpg in the city and 30 on the highway.

The Range Rover proved to be streetwise maneuvering throughout the city. A parallel park assist function that takes charge of the task of maneuvering into a spot on a busy street gets it done on the first try. I found ample visibility when checking for traffic at intersections. A surround camera system and sensors that monitored the Evoque's blind spot and detected traffic while in reverse helped me steer clear of trouble.

Monstrous 20-inch Blizzak tires seemed to restrict the Evoque's handling at the extremes when cornering. Despite the oversized wheels, the Range Rover was quiet and comfortable on the highway. Adaptive cruise control made for an easygoing drive on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Two-tone black and ivory leather seating with conspicuous stitching highlighted our metallic black Evoque's swanky interior. An 825-watt, 17-speaker Meridian surround sound system seemed like overkill for the audio books and podcasts that I listen to while commuting, but delivered great sound when I cranked up the earworms from the satellite radio stations.

While the Evoque's rear seats were of the same luxurious quality as the front, they lacked foot and head room. A fixed panoramic roof did help to open up the otherwise cramped backseats. A power tailgate provided convenient access to the rear storage area.

After pushing a button located on the dashboard to wake up the Range Rover, I was greeted by a shift knob that automatically rises out the center console. In addition to conventional navigation, the Evoque had an off-road mode that allowed me to retrace my route if I needed to turn around. Both were accessed via an eight-inch touchscreen.

The 2015 Range Rover Evoque suits the driver not willing to compromise on capability or luxury. The nimble SUV, which is also available as a coupe, is equipped to handle New England driving conditions, in the city or on a trip up north.

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Advocates fear impact of Rolling Stone apology

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Advocates for sexual-assault victims say Rolling Stone's backpedaling from an explosive account of a gang rape at the University of Virginia doesn't change the fact that rape is a problem on college campuses and must be confronted — even as some expressed concern that the magazine's apology could discourage victims from coming forward.

Students, state government and education leaders, meanwhile, pledged to continue ongoing efforts to adequately respond to — and prevent — sexual assaults on campus.

Rolling Stone cast doubt on its story Friday of a gang rape by a woman it identified only as "Jackie," saying it has since learned of "discrepancies" in her account.

"Our trust in her was misplaced," the magazine's editor, Will Dana, wrote in a signed apology.

The lengthy article published last month used Jackie's case as an example of what it called a culture of sexual violence hiding in plain sight at U.Va.

Alison Kiss, executive director of the Clery Center for Security On Campus, said groups who work in the area will be concerned about a "chilling effect" Rolling Stone's apology could have on sexual-assault victims reporting the crimes.

But she said the magazine's announcement Friday "doesn't change the facts: Sexual assault on campus is drastically underreported and false reports are incredibly rare."

Emily Renda, U.Va.'s project coordinator for sexual misconduct, policy and prevention, and a member of the governor's Task Force on Combating Campus Sexual Violence, said she didn't question Jackie's credibility because that wasn't her role. Renda knows Jackie and also was interviewed for the Rolling Stone article.

"Rolling Stone played adjudicator, investigator and advocate — and did a slipshod job at that," added Renda, a May graduate who said she was raped her freshman year at the school. "As a result Jackie suffers, the young men in Phi Kappa Psi suffered, and survivors everywhere can unfairly be called into question."

Karen Chase, an English professor at U.Va. and Jackie's faculty adviser, said that she doesn't believe Jackie would knowingly say something that wasn't true.

"Jackie is a lovely person who never sought and who thoroughly disdains publicity or sensation," Chase said. "She spoke in good faith, and she deserves respect."

She added that regardless of whether there were incorrect details in the student's account, "We don't need Jackie's story to substantiate the problem of rape on this, or any other campus."

Victoria Olwell, one of the organizers of a protest rally on campus after the magazine story came out, said that it was Rolling Stone's credibility that was damaged.

"Actually, campus activists have been disputing one aspect of the story all along," which was the magazine's "depiction of them as quiescent," she said. "I think that we've seen in the last two weeks how effective we can be in mobilizing students, staff, faculty, and the administration to prevent sexual assault and penalize it more severely."

Rolling Stone said that because Jackie's story was sensitive, the magazine honored her request not to contact the men who she claimed organized and participated in the attack. That prompted criticism from other news organizations.

"We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account," the magazine's statement said. "We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story."

The statement Rolling Stone posted on its website said discrepancies in the woman's account became apparent "in the face of new information," but provided no details about what facts might be in question.

That wasn't enough for some.

"It is deeply troubling that Rolling Stone magazine is now publicly walking away from its central storyline in its bombshell report on the University of Virginia without correcting what errors its editors believe were made," Attorney General Mark Herring said in a statement.

The original story noted that a dangerous mix of alcohol, date-rape drugs and forced sex at fraternity parties is by no means unique to any one U.S. university. In fact, U.Va. is one of 90 schools facing Title IX sexual-violence investigations from the Education Department, a list that includes four others in Virginia: the College of William and Mary; James Madison University; the University of Richmond; and Virginia Military Institute.

But U.Va was roiled by the article, whose main allegation was that too many people at the university put protecting the school's image and their own reputations above seeking justice for sex crimes. The story prompted protests, classroom debates, formal investigations and a suspension of fraternity activities.

Phi Kappa Psi, where the gang rape allegedly occurred on Sept. 28, 2012, was attacked after the article was published, with cinderblocks thrown through the fraternity house's windows.

The fraternity issued its own statement disputing the account of Jackie, who described being led upstairs by her date, who then allegedly orchestrated her gang-rape by seven men as he and another watched.

"No ritualized sexual assault is part of our pledging or initiation process," the statement said. "This notion is vile, and we vehemently" dispute the claim. "We continue to be shocked by the allegations and saddened by this story. We have no knowledge of these alleged acts being committed at our house or by our members. Anyone who commits any form of sexual assault, wherever or whenever, should be identified and brought to justice."

College officials and state leaders said Friday's developments would not stop ongoing efforts to respond to — and prevent — sexual assaults on campus.

Over the past two weeks, the college community "has been more focused than ever" on the issue, U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan said Friday in a statement.

"Today's news must not alter this focus," Sullivan said.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe's spokeswoman, Rachel Thomas, said the governor has asked for an investigation while continuing to work with state and educational leaders "to ensure that Virginia's college campuses are leaders in prevention, response, and awareness efforts."

Some state lawmakers proposed legislation requiring university officials to report sex assault allegations to the criminal justice system, rather than try to handle cases themselves. Another proposed requiring campus police to report assaults to local prosecutors within 48 hours.

Sullivan asked Charlottesville police to investigate the alleged gang rape. The police inquiry continued Friday.

A vigil organized by high school students in support of sexual-assault victims prior to Rolling Stone's announcement took place as planned on the U.Va. campus Friday evening, with several dozen high school and college students in attendance.

___

Frommer reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Greg Schreier in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Mass. cos. rocket to success

Two companies with Bay State ties had key roles in NASA's new Orion spacecraft's historic 3,600-mile journey yesterday, developing the state-of the-art heat shield that protected it and the software that guided it to a safe landing.

"One of the key points of this test flight was to make sure that the heat shield could tolerate this more stressful re-entry," MIT aerospace engineering Professor Jeffrey Hoffman said. "It seems to have worked quite well, which is great news."

The heat shield's coating, which protected the crew module as the spacecraft endured temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit upon re-entering the Earth's atmosphere at more than 20,000 mph from a high altitude orbit, was applied by workers at Textron Defense Systems in Wilmington.

Technicians and engineers there spent months applying Avcoat, a material that wears away as it heats up during re-entry, to the largest heat shield of its kind ever built.

And Cambridge-based Draper Laboratory developed guidance and navigation algorithms for Orion, which ensured it made a "bulls-eye" splashdown at its intended site in the Pacific.

NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts beyond Earth's orbit in the decades ahead, to asteroids and ultimately the grand prize: Mars.

"The first use of Orion for a human mission that NASA is talking about is actually to go into orbit around the moon to visit this asteroid they want to bring back," said Hoffman. "NASA is developing the technologies that will be necessary ultimately for deep space exploration and so I think it is fair to say that this is a first step toward Mars."

Officials expect it will be at least seven years from now — 2021 — before Orion carries people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sox again eye adding booze concessions

A year after the city endorsed extended alcohol sales at Fenway Park, the Red Sox are looking to further increase the number of concession stands selling booze at games and other events.

The team is seeking city approval for liquor sales at two more grandstand concession stands, which would bring the number to 10. It also wants to add two more stands, with the "location to be determined by the type of event, at management('s) discretion," according to a Boston Licensing Board notice.

"The request to add stands and extend flexibility of locations would help ease lines and congestion during games and other non-baseball events at Fenway Park," Red Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran said.

Last December, the team won city approval to ramp up the number of liquor concessions from five to eight, including on Yawkey Way, and to extend all alcohol sales until the end of the seventh inning or earlier at "management's discretion." It also got the OK to sell beer in light aluminum and plastic bottles in addition to the long-time plastic cups used at the ballpark.

Those requests were made less than three months after the Boston Redevelopment Authority signed a controversial 
$7.3 million deal that allows the Red Sox to shut down part of Yawkey Way for concessions during games and other city-approved, non-baseball events.

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Leather District loft an open book

This redone New York-style Leather District loft was designed for book lovers, with built-in bookcases lining walls and dividing the open space into distinct rooms.

The two-bedroom loft condo at 134 Beach St., Unit 3B, has white-painted wood-beam ceilings, columns, and brick walls as well as exposed ducts and pipes that attest to the 1889-built former leather works building's industrial feel. There's also lots of wall space for artwork.

Completely redone in 1999 with bleached maple floors, custom built-ins, a raised central kitchen and track lighting, the unit is on the market for $1,395,000.

The condo has 12-foot ceilings and 2,836 square feet of living space all on one floor, but it was re­designed with different elevations for the kitchen, living room, study/home offices and second bedroom.

An entryway with original industrial wood floors has a large storage room as well as a closet holding the unit's water heater and heating and central air-conditioning systems.

Entry into the main living spaces is via a long, narrow foyer with built-in cabinets and three windows.

At the end of the foyer sits a reception area with built-in bookcases and cabinets as well as a study desk and a home office nook.

A passageway from the reception space flows into a living room, whose edges are defined by low-slung bookcases. The living room has white-painted brick walls and three windows.

Several steps up to the left is the central kitchen, redone in 1999 with open oak shelving and three floor-level pantry cabinets. It features a white-tile backsplash and black matte Formica countertops, in­cluding an island with pendant lighting. Stainless-steel appliances include a Frigidaire refrigerator and gas stove and a Bosch dishwasher and microwave. There's a separate dining area with a polished granite-topped counter and a granite kitchen table in the same color.

A step up from the kitchen is a second bedroom currently used as a study, which steps down into a library space with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on one side and down to a walk-in closet/half bathroom on the other. Off this bedroom sits a full white tile bathroom with a pedestal sink and walk-in shower.

One step up from the living room is a home office space with even more built-in bookcases.

The unit's master bedroom is off the front reception hall, and features white-painted brick walls, one window, a large walk-in closet and a dressing area with built-in storage and wardrobe space. A few steps up is an en-suite master bathroom with white-tile floors and walls with a walk-in shower. There's a pedestal sink, as well as a closet that holds a full-size Hotpoint washer and dryer.

The condo does not have an on-site parking space, and the options are either a residential parking permit or one of several Leather District garages, which charge about $450 a month.

• Address: 134 Beach St., Unit 3B, Leather District
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: Two full, one half
• List price: $1,395,000
• Square feet: 2,836
• Price per square foot: $492
• Annual taxes: $14,366
• Monthly condo fee: $626
• Location: In the city's Leather District a half block from South Station and offerings on South Street; three blocks to downtown
• Built In: 1889; updated to condos 1980; redone 1999
• Broker: Rob Cohen of Engel & Volkers at 617-962-0142

Pros:

• Space nicely divided into distinct rooms with slightly elevated levels
• Floor-to-ceiling custom bookcases and cabinets throughout
• Kitchen with open shelving, pantry cabinets, granite dining table
• Big storage space off front entryway

Cons:

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After brief blackout, CBS, Dish reach carriage deal covering WBZ and WSBK

CBS and Dish Network on Saturday morning said they reached a multiyear pact for carriage of CBS-owned stations across the U.S. as well as the Eye's cable networks, coming after CBS pulled its signals Friday night from the satcaster.

The deal covers 27 CBS-owned stations as well as CBS Sports Network, Smithsonian Channel, TVGN and Showtime Networks, which includes Showtime TV Everywhere and video-on-demand rights.

Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed. The sticking points in the talks, were dragged on for months and included two short-term extensions granted by CBS last month, were as much about digital rights issues as about retrans dollars and cents.

CBS' signal were yanked shortly after 7 p.m. ET on Friday after days of wrangling between Eye execs in New York and Dish execs at the satcaster's HQ in Englewood, Colo. The weekend timing of the blackout was bad for Dish as CBS today is airing college football's SEC championship game featuring top-ranked Alabama vs. Missouri. That's the kind of event that would lead to irate calls from fans who suddenly lost access to local CBS stations.

The stations went back on up Dish just before 7:30 a.m. ET Saturday.

Under the deal, according to a joint statement from CBS and Dish, all pending litigation between the two companies will be dismissed. That includes the broadcaster's lawsuit over Dish's PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop services, which allow subscribers with the Hopper DVR to automatically skip commercials in shows. As part of the pact, Dish's AutoHop commercial-skipping functionality will not be available for CBS-owned stations and affiliates during Nielsen's C7 window.

Among other issues, CBS and Dish had been at odds over the value of CBS Sports Network, the satcaster said in its statement Friday.

"We are very pleased with this deal, which meets all of our economic and strategic objectives," Ray Hopkins, president of CBS Television Networks Distribution, said in a statement. "We look forward to having Dish as a valued partner for many years to come."

Added Warren Schlichting, Dish senior VP of programming, "We are pleased to continue delivering CBS programming to our customers, while expanding their digital access to Showtime content through Showtime Anytime."

The agreement includes retransmission of 27 CBS-owned stations on Dish in the following markets: New York (WCBS and WLNY), Los Angeles (KCBS and KCAL), San Francisco (KPIX and KBCW), Dallas (KTVT and KTXA), Denver (KCNC), Boston (WBZ and WSBK), Chicago (WBBM), Pittsburgh (KDKA and WPCW), Atlanta (WUPA), Baltimore (WJZ), Detroit (WWJ and WKBD), Miami (WFOR and WBFS), Minneapolis (WCCO), Philadelphia (KYW and WPSG), Sacramento (KOVR and KMAX), Seattle (KSTW) and Tampa (WTOG).

The CBS-Dish deal also grants Dish rights to Showtime video-on-demand content and authentication rights for Showtime Anytime. In addition, the agreement includes "a path" to over-the-top distribution of Showtime. Dish has said it plans to launch an OTT service before the end of 2014, having secured deals with Disney/ESPN, Scripps Networks Interactive and A+E Networks.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Vatican probes 2 ex-bank managers for embezzlement

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican says two former managers of its bank have been put under investigation by the Holy See for suspected embezzlement in connection with real estate deals from 2001-2008.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi gave no details in his statement Saturday. A separate statement by the bank said that the investigation of against the two ex-managers and a lawyer was launched months ago.

It described the probe as reflecting the bank's resolve to achieve transparency as internal housekeeping continues, and gave no further details.

Getting the Holy See's financial operations in order is a priority of Pope Francis' papacy

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China exports up 11.6 percent, imports 4.6 percent

BEIJING — China's trade growth slowed in October but remained robust, with exports rising 11.6 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

The Customs Administration said Sunday that last month's exports of $206.9 billion reflected a deceleration from September's rate of 15.3 percent, which was the fastest growth rate in more than 1 ½ year.

October imports of $161.5 billion were up 4.6 percent from the previous year, a growth rate somewhat less than expected by some economists.

China's communist leaders are hoping to nurture domestic consumption to fuel growth as an alternative to relying on exports to support employment.

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China trade growth decelerates

BEIJING — China's trade growth decelerated in October but still was relatively robust as Chinese leaders try to reverse a deepening economic slowdown.

Exports rose 11.6 percent to $206.9 billion, down from September's 18-month high of 15.3 percent growth, trade data showed Saturday. Imports rose 4.6 percent to $161.5 billion, below forecasts.

Weaker trade represents a new source of possible risk after economic growth slipped to a five-year low of 7.3 percent in the quarter ending in September.

In an apparent effort to shore up growth, Chinese leaders have approved tens of billions of dollars of spending in recent weeks on building new railway lines and airports.

The Communist Party leadership is trying to nurture growth based on domestic consumption and reduce reliance on trade and investment. But trade-driven manufacturing employs millions of Chinese, and the government's reform plans depend on preserving those jobs.

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Hannaford sales up $100M during Basket walkout

Market Basket's multimillion-dollar loss during this summer's six-week employee walkout and virtual shutdown was rival supermarket Hannaford's gain.

The Maine-based Hannaford chain saw a $100 million jump in sales when Market Basket customers defected to other supermarkets — largely in its approximately 30 stores that overlap with Market Basket territory — its parent company, Belgium's Delhaize Group, said in an earnings call Thursday.

The boost from the "temporary competitive dynamics" at Hannaford helped Delhaize America, which also includes the Food Lion chain, to same-store sales growth of 5.3 percent for the third quarter. Total U.S. revenue grew 5.9 percent to $4.66 billion.

"We estimate that such market disruption has increased Delhaize America's comparable store sales by around 210 basis points for the quarter," Delhaize Group CFO Pierre Bouchut said. But, he qualified, the additional revenue didn't translate into a significant gain as Hannaford incurred extra cost, mainly for labor, "to serve our clients as best as possible during these exceptional circumstances."

"We saw a substantial increase in transaction count during that time," said Kevin Holt, CEO of Delhaize America. "At the same time, we also worked very hard on trying to improve our store operation and present ourselves better, as well as making some strategic price investments. Our intent is to hold on to all of the customers that we can."

Market Basket got back into business very quickly, Holt said.

"It's a little early for us to tell right now how many customers it will actually hold on to," he said.

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State will hand out $2M to fledgling biotech firms

A quasi-public state agency will give out up to $2 million to early stage life sciences companies, a move that industry insiders say will help fill a gap in funding for promising companies.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center will award up to $200,000 each to early stage companies selected by a panel of experts.

Pamela Norton, who is in charge of the MLSC's programs, said the grants will be a key piece in the center's support of the industry.

"This is to fuel the entire continuum of companies from the earliest to the latest," Norton said.

In a report released earlier this year, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, an industry trade group, identified increasing seed funding for startups as an important piece of the future of the state's biotech industry.

"This additional funding and focus will be a big help to the early state ecosystem," said John Hallinan, chief business officer for MassBio. "One of the things we identified (as an issue) is the lack of early stage funding."

Abi Barrow, director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, said even a little funding for an early stage company can do wonders.

"The hardest thing is for newly formed startups to get their first funding in," Barrow said. "Anything they can do to get a little bit of funding in and do a little bit of research to validate what they're doing can only be helpful."

Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement that the state must continue to invest in all stages of life sciences development.

"The MLSC will deepen the pool of early stage companies that are creating jobs and new technologies here," he said.

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Gulfstream accountant held in $8.5M theft scheme

LOS ANGELES — An embezzler who served time in federal prison was arrested Friday in a scheme to steal at least $8.5 million from Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. to finance a lavish lifestyle, the FBI said.

Marvin Caukin of Calabasas was held without bail after his initial appearance in federal court on charges of identity theft and conspiracies to launder money and commit mail fraud, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.

Caukin, 66, was finance director at Gulfstream's Long Beach and Las Vegas operations when he orchestrated a sophisticated embezzlement scheme using friends and relatives to set up phony businesses to bill the company for services never provided, Special Agent Sherine Ebadi said in court papers.

The bogus companies had names that sounded like they were in the aerospace industry, such as Jetco Aviation Services. Caukin approved payments and the proceeds were funneled back to him and also used by his co-conspirators, who have not been charged.

Caukin spent the money on two houses, including his $2 million Calabasas residence that he purchased with cash, fancy cars, pricey restaurants, five-star hotels, expensive jewelry, luxury furnishings as well as mundane expenses such as insurance premiums, utilities and other living expenses.

The FBI and investigators the U.S. Postal Inspection Service searched Caukin's two homes Friday and recovered several thousand dollars in cash from his Mercedes Benz, Eimiller said.

Gulfstream fired Caukin in May 2013 when it discovered that he had lied on his application in 2000 when he said he hadn't been convicted of a felony in seven years.

Caukin spent nearly three years in federal prison in the mid-1990s for embezzling $2.4 million from USA Petroleum Corp., where he was finance director. He pleaded guilty in that case to wire fraud.

Two of the co-conspirators, including one of his sons, were unindicted accomplices in Caukin's previous scheme, according to Ebadi.

Another co-conspirator who was authorized to handle bank accounts for phony companies and rented mail boxes where checks from Gulfstream were sent is believed to run an Orange County escort service that was paid more than $55,000 between 2001 and 2012 for catering and support at events such as the company Christmas party.

The woman who ran those events said Gulfstream had never hired that company.

Spokespeople for Gulfstream, a wholly owned subsidiary Falls Church, Virginia-based General Dynamics, did not immediately return calls or emails seeking comment.

Caukin, who did not enter a plea Friday in federal court, was ordered to appear at a Nov. 17 bail hearing.

His lawyer had no comment.

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Volvo V60 no ordinary wagon

A brilliant red paint job on my Volvo tester dismissed any notion that the V60 was an ordinary wagon.

This, of course, was validated by a turbocharged, 6-cylinder engine that yielded 325 horsepower. Our test model, which topped out at just under $50,000, had Volvo's R-Design trim package that gave the wagon a sporty edge with an upmarket interior.

Low-profile summer tires mounted on 19-inch wheels combined with shallow ground clearance and sport-tuned suspension gave the V60 impressive handling. While the blend made the wagon exhilarating to drive, the downside was a harsh ride, especially in the city and over bridge expansion joints on the highway.

A silky, six-speed automatic transmission produced brisk acceleration. Aluminum paddle shifters, tucked behind the steering wheel, were ready at the finger- tips to wind out those gears. All-wheel-drive certainly makes the V60 an attractive choice for the New England driver, but a second set of all-weather tires is a must. My V60 tester did 19 miles per gallon in the city and 28 on the highway in fuel economy.

An understated interior, finished in flat black, blended comfort and luxury. Brushed aluminum highlights on the leather-wrapped steering wheel, center console and doors broke up the darkness. Leather seats were supportive and fatigue-reducing.

Volvo's climate package takes heated components to another level.

In addition to heated front and rear seats, the V60 had a heated steering wheel, windshield, windshield nozzles, and mirrors.

Rear seating was decent, but lacked footroom with two adults in the front. Three children across the back was a squeeze. While our tester had an opening over the cockpit, a panoramic moonroof would help to brighten the backseat environment and provide better light for the deep, rear storage compartment.

Volvo includes an abundance of safety and security features as standard equipment on the V60's base model. Our tester also had a $900 exterior sensor technology package that included blind spot warning, cross traffic alert, lane change merge, and parking assist.

Volvo also offers a smartphone app that not only provides a remote starter, but also provides access to the V60's dashboard to check fuel levels and maintenance warnings, and provides a journal of where the wagon has been. I liked the fact that I could tap my iPhone to confirm if the doors where locked before I went to bed.

I looked forward to every opportunity to get behind the wheel of the V60 as the combination of modest power and sharp handling made the wagon entertaining to drive. An entry level V60 starts at just under $36,000 and Volvo offers 4- and 5-cylinder engine options.

I recommend taking a close look at the sport wagon segment to anyone considering a compact SUV. Other wagons to consider are the Audi Allroad, Subaru Outback, or the Volkswagen Jetta. The Volvo V60 is a sports car disguised as a wagon.

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NStar wants to charge 29 percent more on Jan. 1

NStar is seeking to hike its electricity rates by 
29 percent beginning Jan. 1, citing constraints in the pipelines that bring natural gas to regional generating companies.

The utility filed the rate increase request with state regulators yesterday. If the Department of Public Utilities approves the proposal, the average customer using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity would see a $28 monthly bill increase to $123.41, said Mike Durand, an NStar spokesman.

"This change we've filed represents the exact price we pay for the electricity we buy from generators on behalf of our customers," Durand said.

That price has increased, he said, because more than half of New England's electricity is now produced using natural gas. And although gas remains an abundant and inexpensive fuel, regional pipelines are not equipped to meet the growing dependence on gas to produce electricity, Durand said.

Mary-Leah Assad, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said the Patrick administration and the Department of Public Utilities are working with all of the state's electric utilities to ensure residents and businesses are aware of the programs available to help manage energy costs this winter.

"The basic-service rate increases underscore the importance of continued aggressive investments in energy efficiency and a diverse energy mix to stabilize prices and secure our energy future," Assad said.

National Grid, Massachusetts' other major electric utility, proposed a 
37 percent rate hike earlier this fall, prompting Attorney General Martha Coakley's office to request that the company's winter electricity rates be recalculated to spread the impact over a 12-month period. But the Department of Public Utilities denied the request, saying it would be contrary to department precedent and disrupt the competitive market, potentially resulting in higher future prices.

Yesterday, Jillian Fennimore, a spokeswoman for Coakley, said: "Our office remains very concerned about these increases in electricity bills, and we will continue to advocate for ways to mitigate rate hikes this winter season and in the future. We have encouraged the DPU to educate and protect consumers considering alternatives offered by competitive suppliers, and examine additional solutions to help reduce this impact on ratepayers in Massachusetts."

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