Victorian features tasteful updates

This 1895 country Queen Anne Victorian in West Concord has a lot of its original charm, but has been updated with an expanded kitchen, master bedroom suite and bedroom/office addition.

The four-bedroom house at 1394 Main St. sits on a 16,000-square-foot lot that includes a large backyard and a two-car garage that opens onto a side street. One of the current owners, an interior designer, has restored the home to its Victorian glory while adding a high-end kitchen in a 1998 bumpout addition, turning the master bedroom into a suite and expanding another bedroom with a home office addition in 2004. The house, with new windows and an updated furnace, is on the market for $925,000.

The home's exterior is white clapboard and aluminum with black shutters and an octagonal turret with 
diagonally set windows. A flagstone walk flanked by hedges leads up to a large covered front porch.

The front door opens into a foyer with restored oak floors. To the right of the foyer is a sitting room with crown molding. To the left is a large Victorian living room with five windows, including a three-bay bumpout addition, crown molding and restored oak floors as well as a brick woodburning fireplace with a white wood mantel.

The expanded kitchen off this room features white cabinets, including a large pantry, and two cabinets with leaded-glass fronts and brown granite countertops. There's a wood-topped 
peninsula, a beautiful tin ceiling with recessed lighting and white beadboard backsplashes. High-end stainless steel appliances include a Jenn-Air electric burner/oven, refrigerator and dishwasher as well as a second oven, an Electrolux. There's a large eat-in area in a bumpout addition with a chandelier.

Off the kitchen is a wallpapered half-bath — redone in 1998 — with a white marble floor, beadboard walls and an antique vanity topped with black granite.

On the far right end of the kitchen sits a formal Victorian dining room with a glass chandelier hanging from a plaster medallion and chair rail wainscoting.

At the other end of the kitchen, a mud room leads out to a rear porch and a large backyard. At the end of the yard sits the garage and a driveway that holds three more vehicles.

Back inside, the house's four bedrooms are on the second floor, up a carpeted staircase with a stained-glass window on the landing.

The redone master bedroom suite retains its original wide-pine floors. An en-suite bathroom, added in 2004, has a green granite vanity with double sinks and a glass-enclosed steam shower with white subway tile walls and a green granite bench. There are also two walk-in closets, and right outside the bedroom are original built-in linen closets.

The large second bedroom was expanded with a connected home office with new pine floors and a wall-length built-in desk.

The third and fourth bedrooms are on the small side, but have restored oak floors and good-sized closets.

There is a second full bathroom on this floor, with beige ceramic tile floors, a pedestal sink and an off-white tiled tub and shower.

A stairway to the third floor leads to a heated attic home office. The rest of the attic space is unfinished, providing lots of storage space.

The home's basement holds a laundry room with a full-size Kenmore washer and dryer and a slop sink. The rest of the basement is unfinished with lots of storage space. It also holds the house's water heater and a 10-year-old furnace for an oil heating system fed through original radiators. There are two zones of central air conditioning in the home.

• Address: 1394 Main St., Concord
• Bedrooms: Four
• Bathrooms: Two full, one half
• List price: $925,000
• Square feet: 3,160
• Price per square foot: $293
• Annual taxes: $10,116
• Features: Original woodwork throughout including hardwood floors and moldings; expanded redone kitchen with tin ceiling, high-end appliances and large eat-in area; formal Victorian-style living, dining and sitting rooms; master bedroom turned into suite with granite bathroom in 2004; home office addition with built-in desk added to second bedroom; third-floor home office; updated oil heating and central air systems; basement laundry room; large backyard; two-car garage.
• Location: Three-tenths of a mile from shops and restaurants in West Concord center and the West Concord MBTA commuter rail station.
• Built in: 1895; kitchen expanded and redone in 1998; master bedroom suite and bedroom/office addition done in 2004
• Broker: William Raveis Real Estate agents Marjorie Gold at 617-549-0181 and Shari Jacobson at 617-512-5169.

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Zucker: GOP being run from Fox News headquarters

PASADENA, Calif. — The chiefs of CNN and Fox News Channel are throwing shots at each other, each suggesting the other's network is essentially out of the news business.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes struck first, saying in an interview published this week that it was interesting for CNN "to throw in the towel and announce they're out of the news business." It was a reference to CNN President Jeff Zucker's efforts to expand CNN's offerings beyond breaking news.

"We happen to be in the business, as opposed to some other fair and balanced network," Zucker responded at a news conference on Friday.

He suggested that Ailes' remarks, published in the Hollywood Reporter, were silly and an attempt to deflect attention from "The Loudest Voice in the Room," a book on Ailes and Fox by New York magazine writer Gabriel Sherman that is being published this month.

Zucker said he hadn't read the book, but that from what he heard it confirmed that "the Republican Party is being run out of News Corp. headquarters masquerading as a cable news channel."

A Fox News spokeswoman said that Ailes gave his Hollywood Reporter interview in December, suggesting it had nothing to do with Sherman's book. She had no other comment on what Zucker said during a meeting with journalists who cover television on Friday.

Zucker, in charge at CNN for a year now, has taken note of flat ratings in pushing CNN to diversify. Non-fiction shows with chef Anthony Bourdain and Morgan Spurlock, ordered before Zucker came to CNN, are consistently among the networks' highest-rated shows. CNN has also beefed up its documentary film unit.

The films drew some barbs from Ailes, as well, particularly the successful "Blackfish," about killer whales. "I guess he's going to do whales a lot," Ailes said. "If I were Discovery, I'd be worried."

Zucker said CNN had several other new non-fiction series in the works. In March, CNN will premiere "Death Row Stories," a crime series produced by Robert Redford and Alex Gibney and narrated by Susan Sarandon. CNN is also continuing its concentration on the 1960s with a 10-part series beginning in May. Later this month, CNN will air "The Sixties: The British Invasion" in the days before the 50th anniversary of the Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Despite such efforts, Zucker said CNN's first priority remains news. A succession of CNN leaders over the past two decades have struggled to figure out how CNN could get a consistent audience during slow news periods. Fox and MSNBC, which appeal heavily to audiences on opposite ends of the political spectrum, have taken viewers away from CNN.

"CNN is not and never will abandon our first and fundamental brand equity, which is news and breaking news," Zucker said.

He also shot down reports that CNN is looking to get into the late-night entertainment business, perhaps by hiring Jay Leno when Jimmy Fallon takes over on NBC's "Tonight" show next month. Zucker was once Leno's boss when he was head of NBC Universal.

"That's really not a priority for us at this time," he said. "We have some other things I'd like to concentrate on first."

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On jobs, Obama calls 2014 'a year of action'

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is calling 2014 "a year of action" for creating jobs and economic opportunities for American families.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the first step is for Congress to extend unemployment insurance for those without work.

The president also points to a new initiative to boost high-tech manufacturing and other steps he plans to announce next week to put people back to work.

Obama's message comes after the government reported just 74,000 new jobs in December and a dip in unemployment that's fueled by people giving up their search for work.

In the Republican address, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi is pushing for Obama's health care law to be repealed or defunded. He says the nation should go back to the drawing board.

___

Online:

White House address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

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Massive Target breach could have lasting effects

NEW YORK — Fallout from Target's pre-Christmas security breach is likely to affect the company's sales and profits well into the new year.

The company disclosed on Friday that the massive data theft was significantly more extensive and affected millions more shoppers than the company reported in December. As a result of the breach, millions of Target customers have become vulnerable to identity theft, experts say.

The nation's second largest discounter said hackers stole personal information — including names, phone numbers as well as email and mailing addresses — from as many as 70 million customers as part of a data breach it discovered last month.

Target announced on Dec. 19 that some 40 million credit and debit card accounts had been affected by a data breach that happened between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 — just as the holiday shopping season was getting into gear.

As part of that announcement, the company said customers' names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates, debit-card PINs and the embedded code on the magnetic strip on the back of cards had been stolen.

According to new information gleaned from its investigation with the Secret Service and the Department of Justice, Target said Friday that criminals also took non-credit card related data for some 70 million individuals. This is information Target obtained from customers who, among other things, used a call center and offered their phone number or shopped online and provided an email address.

Some overlap exists between the 70 million individuals and the 40 million compromised credit and debit accounts, the company said.

The revelations mean more than 70 million people may have had their data stolen. And when the company releases a final tally, the theft could become the largest data breach on record for a retailer, surpassing an incident uncovered in 2007 that saw more than 90 million records pilfered from TJX Cos. Inc.

The latest developments come as Target said that just this week it was starting to see sales recover from the crisis. The company, however, cut its earnings outlook for the quarter that covers the crucial holiday season and warned that sales would be down for the period.

But with the latest news, some analysts believe the breach could be a financial drag on the company for several more quarters.

"This is going to linger like a black cloud over the company's financials for the first half of the year," said Brian S. Sozzi, CEO & chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General from New York announced that it is participating in an investigation into the security breach. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman called the latest news "deeply troubling."

Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman, told The Associated Press that the company had no new details to share about how the data breach was executed. The company has only said that the point-of sale system in its U.S. stores was compromised.

"I know that it is frustrating for our guests to learn that this information was taken and we are truly sorry they are having to endure this," said Gregg Steinhafel, Target chairman, president and CEO, in a statement.

Target investors have been largely unmoved by the company's disclosures. Target's stock, while volatile, has traded at about $63 since news of the breach leaked on Dec. 18. It slipped just 72 cents, or more than 1 percent, to $62.62 in trading Friday.

But some observers believe the stock could get battered if consumers stay away from Target stores. Several Wall Street analysts downgraded their earnings forecasts for the retailer on Friday.

Colleen McCarthy, 26, of Cleveland, Ohio, is among those who are avoiding Target. McCarthy used her Chase debit card at a local Target on the Friday after Thanksgiving and received a notice from Chase a few days after news of the breach first broke. The letter identified her as a potential victim of the Target breach but said, "don't worry." At the time, she was only somewhat concerned.

But Monday night McCarthy received a call from Chase, alerting her that someone tried to use her debit account twice in Michigan. The thief cleared $150, which caused her rent check to bounce. Chase restored the money to her account. "This has been a nightmare," she said. "My rent check bounced. My debit card had to be canceled. And who's to say what other people have access to my information?"

Target tried to woo scared shoppers back to stores on the last weekend before Christmas with a 10 percent discount on nearly everything in its stores. Target is also offering a year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection to customers that shopped at its stores.

Still, some experts believe the company should do more.

"Target is in a critical situation with consumers because its credibility and brand loyalty are being questioned," said David E. Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, LLC, which specializes in crisis communications. "Right now, investors think Target can weather the storm. But the longer it gets worse, the worse it is for Target."

Johnson says Target needs to rebuild shoppers' trust. He believes Target needs to air TV commercials assuring them that it's safe to shop in its stores. It also should offer more incentives like deeper discounts to woo consumers, Johnson said.

Clearly, Target shoppers were scared off during the holiday season, when stores can make roughly 20 percent to 40 percent of their annual revenue.

The Minneapolis company also said that it now foresees fourth-quarter sales at stores open at least a year will be down about 2.5 percent. It previously predicted those sales would be about flat.

This figure is a closely-watched indicator of a retailer's health.

Target cautioned that its fourth-quarter financials may include charges related to the data breach. The chain said the costs tied to the breach may have a material adverse effect on its quarterly results as well as future periods.

The company has 1,921 stores, with 1,797 locations in the U.S. and 124 in Canada.

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AP Business Writer Bree Fowler in New York contributed to this report.

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Follow Anne D'Innocenzio at http://www.Twitter.com/adinnocenzio

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PepsiCo's first premium water to make appearance

NEW YORK — If you're willing to pay a little extra for trendy bottled water, there's Evian, Smartwater and Fiji. Now, PepsiCo wants to throw "Qua" into the mix.

The world's No. 2 beverage company plans to gauge response to its first premium bottled water brand at the Golden Globes this weekend. The bottles will be passed out on the red carpet and placed on tables at the show, a way for the company to introduce it to the Hollywood types who appeal to its target audience.

A PepsiCo spokeswoman noted that the company is still working out the kinks and that the name and design for Qua may change before it's rolled out more broadly.

Aside from their higher prices, what exactly sets a premium water brand apart varies. But the superficial factor is high: they usually come in stylish bottles. The water's sourcing or filtering may also be touted on labels.

As with Coca-Cola's Smartwater, Qua is made with tap water. The brand, which PepsiCo says is "micro-filtered" and free of sodium, is slated to be tested regionally in California this summer before expanding to other markets.

Bottled waters have surged in popularity over the years and represent an important opportunity for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which are struggling to sell more soda. Since hitting a peak in 1998, U.S. soda consumption has been on a downward trend, and declines have accelerated in recent years.

The problem with run-of-the-mill bottled waters, however, is that people tend to just buy whatever's cheapest. Coke's Dasani and Pepsi's Aquafina, for example, don't exactly have sexy images that make people willing to pay more for them. So the companies are focusing on brands they can market as being premium, thus commanding higher prices.

PepsiCo, which is based in Purchase, N.Y., says it hasn't yet determined pricing for the 1 liter bottles. But competing brands can sell for $2 a bottle or more.

The company's entry into the premium water segment comes well after rival Coca-Cola bought Smartwater in 2007. For the first half of last year, Smartwater's sales volume rose 16 percent, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest.

"Coke's Smartwater is growing very strongly and is becoming a real asset to Coke and its bottlers," said John Sicher, publisher of Beverage Digest.

The publication had reported this summer on PepsiCo's plans to enter the premium water category, noting that the drink would likely be called "Om." After some consumer testing, PepsiCo says it decided to drop that name in favor of Qua (as in a shortened version of the word "aqua").

Meanwhile, local government officials, including those in New York City, have touted the benefits of tap water as being free, safe and less harmful to the environment.

___

Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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Up to 70M more Target-ed

Target Corp. yesterday acknowledged a security breach was far more wide-reaching than previously announced, saying the names, mailing addresses, phone numbers or email addresses of 70 million customers also were accessed by hackers.

That data theft was separate from the credit and debit card data of up to 40 million customers that the Minneapolis retailer disclosed as stolen Dec. 19, but it was accessed during the same Nov. 27 to Dec. 15 period, the company said.

"There's a potential that there's some overlap (between the two groups of customers)," spokeswoman Molly Snyder said. "We don't know to what extent at this point."

The new details were discovered during Target's ongoing investigation of the security breach.

"I know that it is frustrating for our guests to learn that this information was taken, and we are sorry they are having to endure this," CEO Gregg Steinhafel said in a statement.

It's likely Target still doesn't know the full extent of the breach, according to security analysts.

"I think they still have no idea how big this is," David Kennedy, who runs consulting firm TrustedSec LLC, told Reuters.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said yesterday she was joining a multi-state committee to investigate the breach.

It already is taking a financial toll on Target. Yesterday it trimmed its fourth-quarter guidance, saying while sales were stronger than expected prior to the announcement of the data theft, they've been "meaningfully weaker than expected" since then.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Daniel Binder expects softer sales will continue.

In an apparent attempt to stem slipping sales and win back customers, Target yesterday took the unprecedented step of offering one free year of credit monitoring and identity theft protection to all customers who have ever shopped at its U.S. stores. Target previously planned to offer free credit monitoring only to those customers whose information was accessed.

"We want to do as much as we can to give them additional peace of mind," Snyder said.

It's a smart move, but Target needs do more to earn back consumer trust, said David Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, which specializes in crisis communications.

Steinhafel should appear on consumer-oriented shows such as "Good Moring America" rather than CNBC's investor-oriented "Squawk Box," as he's slated to do Monday, he said.

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High court to hear Aereo case

Internet TV company Aereo will square off against the nation's biggest broadcast networks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, pitting an upstart company with Boston ties against the giants of television.

The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear arguments from Aereo and the networks, which claim the service — which takes free over-the-air channels and retransmits them over the Internet to paying subscribers — violates copyright law.

"We look forward to presenting our case to the Supreme Court and we have every confidence that the court will validate and preserve a consumer's right to access local over-the-air television with an individual antenna," said Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kenojia.

Internet companies including Google and Yahoo have sided with Aereo, while sports leagues including the NFL and MLB have threatened to pull their games from broadcast TV if Aereo is allowed to continue to operate.

"We believe that Aereo's business model, and similar offerings that operate on the same principle, are built on stealing the creative content of others. We are pleased that our case will be heard and we look forward to having our day in court," CBS said in a statement.

Michael Carrier, a Rutgers University law professor, said the key issue is whether Aereo's service is a public or private performance.

"I don't know what they're going to find. It's a very discrete issue the court has not looked at before," Carrier said.

Aereo, which recently raised $34 million in funding to expand beyond the 10 cities it now operates in, has most of its employees in its Innovation District office in Boston.

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Coin mimics your credit cards

I'm not one to pre-order a product before I've seen it in person. But yesterday I took the unusual step of paying $55 for a new form of digital payment technology called Coin that I won't even get my hands on until the summer.

Unlike so many mainstays of the trendy digital payment revolution, Coin (onlycoin.com) doesn't require retailers to do anything. They needn't install a new point-of-sale system, one of those little smartphone scanners or make any investment of time or money at all.

Unfortunately, retailer adoption has been the impediment to digital wallet technology exploding. It's up to consumers alone to make the leap.

And unlike so many newfangled digital payment services and methods, Coin solves a real problem that I actually have: the annoyance of having to carry all those darn pieces of plastic in my wallet. Coin is a card that acts like all of your current credit cards in one, and it's the only one you need to carry around.

No more fumbling through your wallet for the Visa or MasterCard because a particular merchant doesn't take American Express. Simply press a tiny button on the Coin to select which card to use. It's like smart plastic. Setting it up involves swiping your credit cards through a reader that Coin sends you along with the card.

Even cooler: Coin has a little Bluetooth signal that links it to your phone. If you happen to leave it at the store, your phone will notify you that your Coin is out of range.

It was striking to see how the future of digital payment technology played out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week — the idea apparently being to make this more complex, not less. The conference featured several digital payment startups pitching biometric point-of-sale scanners.

In other words, you'd scan a fingerprint or your iris to confirm your identity when using a credit card, supposedly making data theft less likely. But I'm not sure biometric scans solve the underlying problem: data is vulnerable, whether it's a fingerprint or a credit card number.

Coin doesn't solve the problem of identity theft either. But I'm holding out hope that it will make one small aspect of my life just a bit easier, which is precisely what technology is supposed to do.

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Volkswagen sales up nearly 5 percent in 2013

BERLIN — Volkswagen AG said Saturday that it delivered a record 9.5 million cars and commercial vehicles last year, a 4.8 percent increase, as growing Chinese and North American demand compensated for a slight decline in Europe.

The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said that the Volkswagen Group — which includes Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat — finished the year with a strong performance in December, when sales rose 6.3 percent over a year earlier to 833,200.

European deliveries slipped 0.5 percent to 3.65 million, but Chinese sales rose 16.2 percent to 3.27 million.

North American sales climbed 5.6 percent to 888,800, including a 2.6 percent gain to 611,700 in the United States. Deliveries in South America, however, dropped 10.1 percent to 908,000, led by a 12.6 percent decline in Brazil.

Volkswagen board member Christian Klingler said the company expects "market developments on a level similar to 2013" this year.

"Even though the situation in Europe would appear to be stabilizing, economic uncertainty will continue and the challenges we will be facing on markets will remain virtually unchanged," he added in a statement.

Volkswagen said that, adding in estimated sales by the MAN and Scania heavy truck brands, total group deliveries rose to more than 9.7 million vehicles last year — an increase of almost 5 percent.

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Entrepreneur: Boost Calif wages to $12-an-hour

LOS ANGELES — Democrats across the nation are eager to make increasing the minimum wage a defining campaign issue in 2014, but in California a proposal to boost the pay rate to $12 an hour is coming from a different point on the political compass.

Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley multimillionaire and registered Republican who once ran for governor and, briefly, U.S. Senate, wants state voters to endorse the wage jump that he predicts would nourish the economy and lift low-paid workers from dependency on food stamps and other assistance bankrolled by taxpayers.

A push for bigger paychecks for workers at the lower rungs of the economic ladder is typically associated with Democrats — President Barack Obama is supporting a bill in Congress that would elevate the $7.25 federal minimum to over $10 an hour.

But entrepreneur Unz, 52, is a former publisher of The American Conservative magazine with a history of against-the-grain political activism that includes pushing a 1998 ballot proposal that dismantled California's bilingual education system, an idea he later championed in Colorado and other states.

Two decades ago, as a 32-year-old, the theoretical-physicist-turned-software-developer tried to unseat then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a fellow Republican. After a long break on the political sidelines, Unz's reappearance has startled members of both major parties, and his proposal — if it goes to voters in November — could unsettle races from governor to Congress.

"He is a wild card in the deck of California politics," said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and former Wilson speech writer.

Republican National Committee member Shawn Steel praised Unz for his 1998 initiative, which abolished most bilingual education programs for students who speak little, if any, English and replaced them with English-only instruction. But Steel predicted a jump in the minimum wage would eliminate jobs, penalizing young people who often hold them.

Unz "is an innovator, he's extremely bright and he's a lone wolf," Steel said.

To Unz, who's spoken out over the years on issues as varied as campaign finance to IQ and race, the proposal simply makes sense. As drafted, it would increase the minimum wage in two steps — to $10 an hour in 2015, and $12 the following year, which would be the highest among states at current levels.

His push comes as Seattle's new mayor, Democrat Ed Murray, has said he wants workers there to earn a minimum of $15 an hour, and after fast-food workers staged nationwide rallies calling for higher income.

Unz says taxpayers for too long have been subsidizing low-wage paying businesses, since the government pays for food stamps and other programs those workers often need to get by. He posits that the increase — at $12-an-hour, up from the current $8 — would lift millions of Californians out of poverty, drive up income and sales tax revenue and save taxpayers billions of dollars, since those workers would no longer qualify for many welfare benefits.

He dismisses the notion that countless jobs would evaporate, noting that most of the state's lower-wage jobs are in agriculture and the service sector, which can't be easily automated or transported elsewhere. He believes higher wages would make the jobs more attractive to U.S. residents, curtailing a lure for illegal immigration.

For California, among the world's 10 largest economies in 2012, the jump "would be a gigantic economic stimulus package," Unz said in an interview. He hopes its passage in the nation's most populous state would have a ripple effect, prompting other states to increases wages.

Unz is an unusual figure in California's largely left-of-center political culture, untethered to traditional party apparatus, libertarian in his leanings and wealthy enough to make potential rivals nervous.

He declined to provide specifics on his personal wealth — he founded Wall Street Analytics, Inc., which was acquired by Moody's Corp. in 2006.

He calls the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "totally disastrous," lambasts the government for bailing out Wall Street banks and sees little difference between Obama and predecessor George W. Bush.

In high school, he ranked among the top math students in the U.S. and studied theoretical physics at Harvard University, Stanford University and Cambridge University, according to his website.

His journalism and writings over the years — touching on subjects as diverse as college admissions, immigration and homosexuality — have been described as everything from insightful to offensive.

In an article for the New America Foundation, he wrote that the government's "vast and leaky conglomeration" of assistance and benefit programs had failed to ensure a decent living for workers, so "perhaps we should just try raising wages instead."

Businesses could raise their prices a fractional amount to cover much or most of the cost of the higher wages, which in turn would feed the economy with spending, he argues.

He estimates that discount retailer Wal-Mart, for example, could cover the cost with a one-time price increase of about 1 percent. Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg said he did not know the source of Unz's calculation and added, "It seems kind of hard to believe."

Would it be a wash for taxpayers if social spending decreases but the price of consumer goods rises?

Unz acknowledged it would be difficult to craft a precise analysis, since it's difficult to predict if governments would lower taxes or how different industries would cover the cost, through higher prices or cutting into profits. But overall, he argued higher wages and lower welfare spending would be "a very beneficial result."

The proposal is under review by the state attorney general, and if it clears that hurdle Unz can then begin gathering tens of thousands of petition signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.

It's hard to predict its chances of passage, but raising the minimum wage has had appeal in California in the past — voters endorsed a wage increase by a landslide in 1996.

Bob Mulholland, a longtime adviser to the state Democratic Party, predicted the proposal would help Democrats, defining them as candidates in touch with Main Street.

"I think (Democrats) will see him as a sinner in the past but a welcome angel now," Mulholland said.

But it could become a tricky issue for Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who is seeking another term and just signed a law that will raise California's minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2016. Businesses are unlikely to welcome another boost.

"This is the essence of insanity," said John Kabateck of the National Federation of Independent Business in California, who said every bump in the wage threatens jobs created by mom-and-pop businesses also struggling with a new national health care law.

State labor leaders might seem likely potential supporters, but at this point, Unz is being viewed cautiously because of his history in conservative causes. Also, labor is eager to link future increases in the state minimum wage to the rate of inflation.

"We are not totally clear on his motivation or his strategy at this point," said Steve Smith of the California Labor Federation. "He's not someone who has a record of supporting workers."

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