Some growers win, some lose in Market Basket tiff

CONCORD, N.H. — From farmers markets teeming with new customers in New Hampshire to a Massachusetts flower grower desperately seeking new buyers for tens of thousands of mums, fallout from the Market Basket supermarket stalemate has been a mixed bag.

The 2-month-old employee revolt at the 71-store New England grocery chain coincides with what farmers say has been one of the best growing seasons in recent memory. But some growers who rely on big orders from Market Basket are not reaping the benefits as well as others.

Market Basket patrons are boycotting stores. Most deliveries have stopped. Shelves are empty. Farmers who grew produce and flowers to fill Market Basket orders are scrambling to find other outlets. Those who saw the promise of profits in June are now counting their losses.

"There's just been so many ripple effects," said Lorraine Merrill, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food. "It's nothing like anything we've ever seen."

John Simone of Simone's Riverside Farm in Methuen, Massachusetts, said the first day he was to begin shipping produce to Market Basket was the day employees walked off the job to protest the June 23 ouster of CEO Arthur T. Demoulas by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and his allies.

There have been weeks of talks, competing bids to buy out the chain and even the involvement of governors in Massachusetts and New Hampshire as the stalemate drags on.

"It's going to be hard to recover from," said Simone as he stared at 20,000 mums that were grown and bound for Market Basket stores. "It's completely stressing me out."

Rich Bonanno of Pleasant Valley Gardens, also in Methuen, feels Simone's pain four-fold. He grew 80,000 mums destined for Market Basket. He's managed to offload 50,000 of those to another chain store, at 50 cents less per plant than Market Basket had agreed to pay.

"It's a $40,000 loss," Bonanno said. "But if I'm able to move them, I'll still be in business at the end of the year."

Bonanno is now wrestling with whether to invest $18,000 by ordering bulbs from Holland to fill Market Basket's Easter 2015 order — a decision that has to be made this week. "I honestly don't know what to do," he said.

Thirty miles north in Hollis, Massachusetts, Tyler Hardy of Brookdale Fruit Farm is working 95 hours a week to meet the demands of competing grocery chains that have seen a boom in business during the protracted protest.

He said he usually delivers to Shaw's and Hannaford's three to four times a week. He's now making deliveries seven days a week.

"It's tough to get enough picked during the day to keep up with the demand," Hardy said.

Farm stands and farmers markets also are booming this summer, a phenomenon Jane Lang attributes to the Market Basket standoff. She is president of the New Hampshire Farmer's Market Association.

"We have seen a tremendous growth," said Lang, who hopes people who come to the markets for the first time will be smitten and return.

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Graduate to a Davis Square condo

This stylish three-unit condo complex has been carved out of a traditional triple decker just outside Somerville's Davis Square.

The three-bedroom duplex units range from $849,000 to $969,000, and all have red oak floors throughout, quartz and cherrywood kitchens and open living/dining areas.

The exterior of the building has been re-sided with blue HardiePlank with white trim, and has all new windows, roof and systems, including gas-fired heat and central air conditioning.

We took a look at staged model Unit 2, a 1,647-square-foot three-bedroom duplex selling for $969,000 on the second and third floor with two decks that overlook a park.

The unit has an open living/dining area with recessed lighting, 9-foot ceilings and lots of windows. Off this area is a half bathroom with porcelain tile floors.

The adjacent kitchen has white quartz countertops and glass mosaic tile backsplashes, with a breakfast bar that seats two and contemporary pendant lamps overhead. There are 15 cherrywood cabinets and top-of-the line Jenn Air refrigerator, dishwasher and six-burner gas stove with a fluted stainless steel hood.

Off the kitchen is a very tiny "third" bedroom, which is actually more of a home office.

The other two bedrooms are on the second floor. The master bedroom suite has oak floors and lots of front-facing windows. A leaded glass door leads out to a second private front deck overlooking a park. There's a large walk-in closet and an en-suite bathroom with porcelain tile floors, a dual sink vanity and a ceramic-tiled glass-doored walk-in shower.

The second bedroom has three windows and two closets. Across the hall, a second full bathroom features porcelain tile floors, and white subway tile surround for a tub/shower with a rainhead fixture. A closet inside the bathroom holds a washer/dryer hookup.

There's a stairway with a skylight opening onto the roof. The owner has roof rights, but will have to secure permission from the city to build a roof deck. But gas, electricity and water have already been brought up to the roof.

The unit comes with one deeded outdoor parking space behind the building.

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Koch 101: Some basics on the billionaire brothers

WASHINGTON — A primer on the Koch brothers and their role in politics.

Q: Who are the Koch brothers?

A: Charles and David Koch, ages 78 and 74, are billionaire brothers who helped create a broad network of nonprofit groups that control hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into politics. Through their deep pockets, they are reshaping politics with an uncompromising agenda of reducing regulation, advancing libertarian ideas, promoting free-market Republican candidates and ousting Democrats. They have two other brothers, William and Frederick, who aren't involved in the effort.

Q: Where did they get their money?

A: The Kochs inherited their father's company in Kansas, and turned Wichita-based Koch Industries into the second-largest privately held company in the nation. The conglomerate makes a wide range of products including Dixie cups, chemicals, jet fuel, fertilizer, electronics, toilet paper and much more. William and Frederick cashed out in 1983 and no longer have a stake in the company.

Q: How rich are Charles and David?

A: With a fortune estimated at $41 billion each, Charles and David tie for fourth on Forbes' list of the richest Americans, and tie for sixth on Forbes' worldwide billionaires list.

Q: What's their secret?

A: Charles, chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, attributes the company's success to his business philosophy, "Market-Based Management," which he's trademarked. Among its components: hiring and retaining people with the right values, and giving employees a bigger voice in decision-making. The company's growth strategy also includes reinvesting 90 percent of earnings.

Q: How much money do Charles and David put into politics?

A: That's the big question. It's unanswered because the Kochs channel lots of money into nonprofit groups that don't have to identify their donors. The Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics have calculated that the donor network organized by the Kochs took in at least $407 million in the 2012 election cycle. However, not all of that money came from the Kochs themselves. David Koch's charitable giving has included $58 million donated to nonprofits that could include groups such as Americans for Prosperity, the CATO Institute and the Heritage Foundation, according to company spokeswoman Missy Cohlmia. In addition, the two brothers' direct political contributions to federal candidates and party committees totaled at least than $2 million over the past two decades.

Q: What motivates them?

A: Family patriarch Fred Koch, who built refineries in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, became convinced of the evils of communism and instilled in his sons an aversion to government intrusion. As David said of their father in a 2012 interview with The Wichita Eagle newspaper in Kansas, he "was extraordinarily fearful of our government becoming much more socialistic and domineering. ... So from the time we were teenagers to the present, we've been very concerned and worried about our government evolving into a very controlling, socialist type of government."

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Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nbenac

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The Ticker

Goldman Sachs in $1.2B settlement with feds

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has agreed to a settlement worth $1.2 billion to resolve a U.S. regulator's claims the bank sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac faulty mortgage bonds, the regulator announced yesterday.

Under the settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for the two government-controlled mortgage finance companies, Goldman Sachs said it agreed to pay $3.15 billion to repurchase mortgage-backed securities from Fannie and Freddie. The FHFA, which valued the settlement at $1.2 billion, said the accord "effectively makes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac whole on their investments in the securities at issue."

Fed review of report of cod decline in Gulf of Maine set to begin

Regulators are set to begin reviewing a report that says the amount of cod spawning in the Gulf of Maine is at an all-time low.

Scientists at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service said the amount of cod spawning in the gulf is estimated to be only 3 percent to 4 percent of its target level. Their updated assessment of the Gulf of Maine cod fish stock could be used to create new regulatory measures for the fishery, but it must first be peer reviewed. An assessment oversight panel was to meet with peer reviewers and New England Fishery Management Council staff yesterday to begin that process. The peer review is set to take place next week, Aug. 28 and 29 in Portsmouth, N.H.

Google buys Gecko Design

Google has acquired Gecko Design, which will become part of the Internet company's unit developing cutting-edge products such as Glass and balloons for Internet access. Terms of the deal, announced yesterday, were not disclosed. Gecko President Jacques Gagne and its four other employees will join Google's "X" research division next month. In addition to Glass and Internet balloons, other projects at Google X include self-driving cars and contact lenses for measuring blood glucose levels.

Gecko, founded in 1996 and based in Los Gatos, Calif., could help Google in the physical design of these products as Google expands beyond software. Products designed with Gecko's services include the wearable Fitbit activity tracker, Hewlett-Packard computer towers and laptops, and low-cost computers for Third World countries from the One Laptop per Child project.

•  CBRE/New England has announced Meredith Christensen, left, has joined its Boston office as vice president with the urban brokerage team in New England. Christensen is a 13-plus-year veteran of the business, specializing in leasing laboratory, office, industrial and retail assets. Christensen was most recently a vice president of asset management, LEED A.P. at Jamestown L.P., an owner and operator of assets in core urban markets throughout North America. In this role, she directed a 1.4 million-square-foot redevelopment project in Boston's Seaport District.

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Obama urges renewal of US Export-Import Bank

EDGARTOWN, Mass. — President Barack Obama is trying to rally support for a taxpayer-subsidized bank that he says creates jobs.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama urges business owners to lobby Congress to renew the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

The bank provides loans, loan guarantees and credit insurance to foreign buyers of U.S. products. But it will cease functioning unless Congress renews its charter before October. Some Republican lawmakers who supported the bank in past years now want to put it out of business.

In the Republican address, party chairman Reince Priebus (ryns PREE'-bus) says there will be less government spending, flexible health care and better education under complete GOP control of Congress. The party needs to pick up six seats in the November elections to win back the Senate.

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Obama's address: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Republican address: https://www.youtube.com/user/gopweeklyaddress

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Deck the Faneuil Hall

The managers of Faneuil Hall Marketplace are seeking city approval to build a large deck off the south side of the Quincy Market building for an outside "lounge" — one of a series of changes in the works to attract new visitors.

The year-round, 61-foot by 31-foot wooden platform, which would be placed over the cobblestones, would provide a level surface for musical performances and more interactive programming, including yoga classes and an authors' series, according to general manager Kristin Keefe. It also would include an outdoor reading room with books, magazines and newspapers, a piano, a chess table, and moveable chairs and tables.

"It will be stuff for visitors to do instead of just watch," Keefe said. "Currently most of our programming is 'watch a street performer perform.'"

New historic tours of the retail center and tourist mecca's Quincy Market, South Market and North Market buildings also will be launched from the deck.

"We're just acknowledging that ... we're surrounded by amazing historical sites, but often (they're) overlooked," Keefe said. "They will focus on the history of our three buildings."

New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which purchased the lease for the city-owned Faneuil Hall Marketplace in 2011, hired New York's Biederman Redevelopment Ventures last year to create outdoor programming for the center as part of larger revitalization plans to attract more locals. Those proposed changes are expected in the form of a master plan that Ashkenazy originally said it would release in the spring of 2012.

"We're continuing to work diligently on it and hope to have an unveiling soon," Keefe said. "We're trying to be extremely thoughtful on this process and make sure we come out with the best product."

A spokesman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority said it anticipates seeing a master plan this fall and looks forward to "working with the merchants of the marketplace and Ashkenazy on next steps."

Ashkenazy pitched plans last year to add a pair of two-story tenant additions encased in glass "sheds," along with two escalators, to the Quincy Market building, but the city's Landmark Commission panned the proposal. The real estate investment firm is not proceeding with the addition "in that form," according to Keefe, who declined further comment.

Ashkenazy also is seeking Landmarks Commission approval of the deck.

The Quincy Market building has historic landmark status, and the commission plans to study this year whether the South Market and North Market buildings also are worthy of the designation. The status affects proposed changes to buildings, plans for which are subject to the commission's review.

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Jaguar Coupe’s 
a sexy sportster

To say that the 2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe is a head-turner would be an understatement.

During our four-day trial, this sexy sportster was subjected to catcalls, oglers, hoots and hollers whether parked or rolling through town.

This coupe screams "look at me!" Sporting a gorgeous front grille, sleek profile, shapely sides and a well-rounded backside, this Jaguar is a tantalizing hot rod that fascinates anyone it passes.

Retractable door handles and a rear spoiler that automatically rises at speeds of over 70 mph add to its already aerodynamic body.

Beautiful 19-inch black centrifuge alloy wheels give the salsa red exterior a striking contrast that will get you noticed.

And if they don't see you coming, they'll hear you.

The roar of the F-Type's switchable active twin exhaust yowls with a loud throaty roar, which gives way to a barking burble when stepping off the accelerator.

If you prefer a bit more stealth, you can lower the volume of the exhaust with the flick of a switch. But seriously, who would want that?

Stimulating steering and a heart-pounding 340-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 engine make this two-seater exciting to drive. A punch of the gas pedal puts you well over the speed limit in a flash — the F-Type's speed combined with its bright red exterior will certainly attract law enforcement. Somewhere there are pin-up posters of this car in police departments.

This Jaguar's suspension keeps you glued to every bend in the road.

The F-Type's dynamic mode gives you all the thrills without having to manage the 8-speed Quickshift transmission. Manual override is also possible with both steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters and drive selector control. The dynamic mode does seem to use more gas, so don't expect to get 28 miles per gallon on the highway with a lead foot.

With an MSRP of $77,375 as tested, the F-Type has 14-way adjustable bucket seats that are both supportive and comfortable. Seating is very low to the ground with a great feel for the car's center of gravity. Visibility was surprisingly good in spite of a small rear view mirror and window. One puzzling omission is the lack of a back-up camera. With such a beautiful car, you would want every chance to keep its exterior scratchless.

The stitched leather interior is also pretty. It has a smart look and good ergonomics, but a clumsy GPS/entertainment interface that is a real let down. A Meridian sound system pumps 380 watts into the cockpit and sounded great doing it, but quite frankly the exhaust sound is more fun to hear.

The bottom line is that the F-Type is the red-hot roadster that will make your friends jealous. Of course, you can share the experience with them — one at a time. Just tell them to leave the luggage home as this coupe has virtually no room for bags.

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6 thoughts from William Koch on family, politics

Six thoughts from William Koch, on family, money and politics. From an interview with The Associated Press:

—On his brother Charles: "He likes to do things his own way. He likes to be the boss, as most older brothers do. ... He does like control."

—On his siblings overall: "I once used to say that my brother David collected girlfriends till he got married, then my brother Charles collects money and my brother Fred collects houses and then I collect everything I can."

—On Charles' and David's involvement in politics: "I wonder a little bit about the high profile they've taken but admire them for their passionate beliefs and their putting their money where their mouths are."

—On Charles' political views: "He's a born-again libertarian or a born-again conservative and sometimes born-agains take positions that are a bit extreme."

—On misconceptions about his family: "We're all branded as right-wing extremists or right-wing conservatives and I know my brother David and particularly I don't care if two guys want to get married or two women want to get married. So what? And so I don't think we have what you'd call the Bible-belt attitudes that are thrown onto conservatives. ... Some of my brothers are socially liberal and economically conservative."

—On life: "I've really enjoyed the ride I've had since I left Koch Industries. ... What money does is allow you to act out a lot of your eccentricities. ... I've put a lot of it to good use and I've had a lot of fun with the rest."

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Gay bathhouses nationwide face uncertain future

LOS ANGELES — Gay bathhouses that once remained in the shadows to stay in business are now seeking attention to keep their doors open.

Some are doing aggressive online advertising and community outreach. Others tout their upscale amenities like plush towels and marble baths. A bathhouse in Ohio has even added hotel rooms and a nightclub.

Gone are the days when bathhouses drew crowds just by offering a discreet place for gays to meet, share saunas and, often, have sex.

"The acceptance of gays has changed the whole world. It's taken away the need to sneak into back-alley places," said Dennis Holding, 75, who owns a Miami-based bathhouse.

In the heyday of bathhouses in the late 1970s, there were nearly 200 gay bathhouses in cities across the U.S., but by 1990, the total had dropped to approximately 90, according to Damron, the publisher of an annual gay travel guide. In the last decade, bathhouses, including ones in San Diego, Syracuse, Seattle and San Antonio, have shut down and the total nationwide is less than 70. Most patrons are older.

Hollywood Spa — one of the largest bathhouses in Los Angeles, a city regarded as the country's bathhouse capital — closed in April. Owner Peter D. Sykes said fewer customers and rising rent put an end to four decades in business.

"Bathhouses were like dirty bookstores and parks: a venue to meet people," said Sykes, who still owns the smaller North Hollywood Spa. "Today, you can go to the supermarket."

Bathhouses date to the Roman Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, American bathhouses were built in many cities to maintain public hygiene among poor and immigrant communities. Chicago and Manhattan each had about 20 public bathhouses.

But the need for public places to wash up declined and by the 1950s and '60s, bathhouses largely had become rendezvous spots for gays, prompting occasional raids because sodomy was still criminalized.

Privately run, gay-owned bathhouses proliferated in the 1970s, offering a haven for gay and bisexual men to meet. Clubs like New York City's Continental bathhouse and Los Angeles' 8709 Club saw a steady stream of patrons.

Each venue was operated like a speakeasy: a nondescript building often located in the urban fringe. In-house entertainment was common, from DJs to live performers. Bette Midler even launched her career from the stage of the Continental.

Amid the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, bathhouses were vilified for enabling promiscuity and helping spread the disease, and many either closed voluntarily or by legal pressure. Those that remained were stigmatized, and now many younger gays see them as anachronisms.

"The younger generation's main fear is that it's some dark, seedy place," said T.J. Nibbio, the executive director of the North American Bathhouse Association. NABA formed two years ago for bathhouse owners to pool best practices for marketing and operations.

To attract younger patrons, some bathhouses offer steep discounts, cutting admission by as much as 60 percent. At the three-story Midtowne Spa in downtown Los Angeles, 18- to 20-year-olds get in for $5 any time. On Tuesdays, Los Angeles' Melrose Spa lets those 18 to 25 in for free, a deal that brought 22-year-old Brett Sparks on a recent midweek visit.

"You're either hooking up online or you are here, or you go to bars in West Hollywood, get drunk and hook up," said Sparks, acknowledging that although the bathhouse crowd skews older, it's not as risky as going home with a stranger. "Here it's a safer environment — there's condoms and other protection."

The CEO of Ohio-based Flex Spas, Todd Saporito, has positioned his bathhouse chain as a pillar of the gay community. Saporito uses the chain's Cleveland-based flagship spa, whose 50,000 square feet include luxury hotel rooms and a nightclub, to run the city's annual pride parade and this year's Gay Games, an international LGBT athletic competition.

Flex Spas also has sponsored the White Party, an annual electronic music festival in Palm Springs, and partnered with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, part of an effort to frame the bathhouse as an opportunity for preventing risky behavior.

Flex Spas has had mixed success over the past few years. Its location in Atlanta has seen "exponential" growth, but clubs in New Orleans and Columbus, Ohio, have closed, Saporito said.

Saporito said more progressive views on homosexuality aren't evenly spread across the country, underscoring the need for modern bathhouses in some areas. Still, he takes nothing for granted, regardless of the location.

"Bathhouses at some level will go extinct if you don't offer something more than a towel," Saporito said.

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2 Europe navigation satellites in the wrong orbits

PARIS — European space officials say they're investigating whether the inaccurate deployment of two satellites will complicate their efforts to develop a new Galileo satellite navigation system that would rival America's GPS network.

The European Space Agency and launch company Arianespace say the satellites ended up in off-target orbits after being launched Friday from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a Soyuz rocket.

Saturday's agency statement did not explain the difference between the satellites' intended orbits and its current ones, nor whether their orbital paths could be corrected. Arianespace said they settled into an orbit lower than intended.

The European Union hopes to have its 30-satellite Galileo navigation network operating fully by 2020. The Prague-based program oversaw the launch of its first two satellites in 2011, two more in 2012, and two more Friday.

Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the French space agency CNES, said the investigation still needed to determine precisely how far off course the satellites were. He said European Space Agency experts in Toulouse, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, were calculating whether small motors inside the satellites would be strong enough to push them into the correct orbit.

Le Gall told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the investigation would take "several days to understand what has happened. And then we'll see about the possible consequences on the launch calendar," he said, referring to plans to launch more satellites in coming months.

He called the Galileo navigation network "a very complex program, and even if we have some failures, that's unfortunately part of the life of operations."

If the two satellites cannot be pushed to the correct altitude above the earth, he said, subsequent satellites launched would have to take up the slack.

The program has faced other delays and operational hiccups. European Space Agency officials said Wednesday they had to reduce the strength of another Galileo satellite's signal because of unspecified problems.

The European agency says it hopes Galileo will provide greater precision for satellite navigation systems than the GPS system already used worldwide to pinpoint locations and plot routes.

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