Chrysler 300 a real head-turner

A bold grille, brawny proportions and plenty of chrome combine to give the 2015 Chrysler 300 a distinguished appearance.

All-wheel-drive gives the big American sedan an intrepid personality while the 300's interior is luxurious and roomy. Chrysler offers the 300 in four trim levels with standard rear-wheel drive, but all-wheel-drive is available throughout the lineup.

The 300's size and weight were offset by a capable 3.6-liter V6 engine that delivers 292 horsepower. An optional V8 is available for those wanting more power. Chrysler's smooth shifting eight-speed automatic transmission conveyed the power to an optional all-wheel-drive system that seamlessly engages at any speed.

The 300's 19-inch wheels provided excellent traction as I navigated Boston's narrow, snow-choked streets. While electronic steering gave the sedan a heavy feel on the open road, the 300 was easy to maneuver at slower speeds. Four-wheel independent suspension provided precise handling while neutralizing frost heaves and other bumps. My 300C did 27 miles per gallon on the highway and 16 in the city.

My tester's dark gray exterior had an off-white leather interior with a black dashboard and black panels that extended into the upper half of the doors. A wood-and-leather-wrapped steering wheel was heated as were the front and rear seats. Front seats were also ventilated. I found ample head and foot room up front and my children had plenty of space in the second row on a day trip during February vacation. A power rear sunshade added to the 300's luxury.

The 300's center console had a streamlined appearance. A cluster of three dials tuned the radio, controlled the volume and the fan output. An 8.4-inch full-color touchscreen was intuitive and made programing the radio, navigation system and climate controls a hassle-free experience.

My Chrysler 300 tester was packed with safety technology including adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection and a lane departure warning system that keeps the sedan on the road. The 300 also had a high resolution rear-view camera for backing up that worked well as long as the camera's lens was clear of salt and other road grime.

The 300's steering wheel and instrument panel leaves drivers few reasons to take their eyes off the road. Hands-free calling, radio and adaptive cruise control can all be managed via steering-mounted buttons. A 7-inch display between the tachometer and speedometer can be customized by the driver.

The base model Chrysler 300 with rear-wheel-drive starts at $31,395 and my tester with the advanced safety technology topped out at $45,675. Other sedans to consider when looking at the 300 are the Buick LaCrosse, Kia Cadenza, Lincoln MKS and Toyota Avalon.

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Tests may be breakthrough against Azheimer's

An experimental Azheimer's drug from Biogen Idec dramatically slowed the disease's progression in a small study — a stunning finding that analysts and doctors say could save millions of lives and lead to a financial boon for the Cambridge biotech firm.

"The results are incredibly promising," said Ravi Mehrotra, head of Global Biotechnology Research at Credit Suisse in New York. "What's very interesting with Alzheimer's is it's obviously a huge market, and because of the aging population, that number is going to continue to grow."

The 166-person study showed a significant decrease in both cognitive decline and amyloid plaque — the sticky substance that builds up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients — in those who took the drug aducanumab rather than a placebo.

Biogen's stock soared after the findings were announced yesterday, spiking briefly to a record high of $480.18 per share, before closing up 9.76 percent.

If the drug's success holds up in later trial phases, Biogen has the potential to produce a $10 billion worldwide drug, and see as much as a 50 percent increase in revenue, said Michael Yee a San Francisco-based analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

"The big picture is that these results are very exciting," said Yee. "Obviously that's tremendous because it could be transformative for the company."

Biogen Idec said the initial results were so promising that it will skip Phase II and go directly to Phase III of the trial, which will involve a participant pool of at least 1,000 people.

This is "relatively rare" in the research world, according to Dr. Tinatin Chabrashvili, neurologist and director of the Dementia Clinic at Tufts Medical Center.

"Something like this only happens when there are quite convincing results," Chabrashvili said. "The results look very good."

There are more than 5 million Americans with Alzheimer's disease, and that number could triple by 2050 without medical innovations, according to Jim Wessler, president and CEO of Alzheimer's Association Massachusetts New Hampshire chapter.

It's the only disease on the list of the top 10 causes of death in the United States that does not have a treatment that slows or stops progression, he said.

"Alzheimer's is the most expensive disease in America, more than heart disease and cancer, because you have both medical care and care-giving requirements," he said. "People on average after diagnosis will live for eight years and the range can be up to 20 years. It's a long, slow, deteriorating disease."

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Events celebrate start of maple syrup season

BOSTON — It's yet another welcome sign of spring: The start of the local maple syrup season.

The Massachusetts Maple Producers Association is celebrating its annual Maple Weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

Sugarhouses around the state are holding open houses and many restaurants are highlighting menu items made from pure maple syrup tapped in the Bay State.

The tradition of sugaring, as it is known, occurs in late winter and early spring in New England and hasn't changed much over the years.

Farmers use tubes and buckets to collect sap from sugar maple trees and then boil it down to maple syrup in sugarhouses.

The association says Massachusetts has more than 300 maple producers turning out about 50,000 gallons or more than $3 million worth of maple syrup each year.

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Milton offers mix of town, country

It can be hard to believe that the beauty and tranquility of the country is a mere half-hour's drive from the bustle of Boston, but for proof, you need look no further than this renovated farmhouse nestled in the Blue Hills of Milton.

Built in 1838 and renovated beginning in 2004, this four-bedroom, 2A-bath house includes three wood-burning fireplaces and a solarium, and sits on 1.53 acres surrounded by woodlands.

"It's a wonderful blend of old and new," said broker Karen Fallon of Keller Williams Realty. "It's also close to the city but private, with a good amount of land."

The front door opens to an entry closet and, on the left, a living area with exposed beams, built-ins and a wide-open layout that gives way to a chef's kitchen with granite countertops, ample cabinet and shelf space, a stainless steel refrigerator, a dishwasher, a Thermador stove with four burners and a grill, and a range hood. In the center of the kitchen is an island with a cutting-board top and more storage below.

Off to right is a butler's pantry with a sink and a small fridge, and an informal dining area with French doors that open onto a deck. Between the kitchen and dining area is a fireplace.

The side entrance of the house leads to a formal dining area with another fireplace and French doors that open onto the solarium. A formal living room also has a fireplace and French doors that open onto a deck.

The parlor level has hardwood floors throughout and a half bath.

In the center of the house, sunlight pours through skylights above the staircase to the second level, which also has hardwood floors. The hallway to the left leads to the master bedroom, which has recessed closet space, windows overlooking the yard and a bathroom with a steam shower and a double vanity with a marble top and cabinet and shelf space.

Back out through the hallway is a second bedroom currently being used as an office; a sitting area; two more bedrooms, each with a closet; a bathroom with a tub; and a closet concealing a washer and a dryer.

There's a detached, two-car garage and, off the side entrance of the house, a driveway that fits three to four more cars.

Home Showcase

• Address: 292 Hillside St., Milton
• Bedrooms: Four
• Bathrooms: Two and a half
• List price: $875,000
• Square feet: 2,816
• Price per square foot: $310.72
• Annual taxes: $11,463
• Location: Eight minutes to a gourmet marketplace and cafe in Milton, 10 minutes to South Shore Plaza in Braintree and about 30 minutes to Boston
• Built in: 1838 and renovated beginning in 2004
• Broker: Karen Fallon of Keller Williams Realty at (617) 861-3700

Pros:

• Spacious inside and out
• Solarium

Cons:

• No air conditioning
• No nearby public transportation

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The Ticker

Fracking reg draws criticism
The Obama administration said yesterday it is requiring companies that drill for oil and natural gas on federal lands to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, the first major federal regulation of the controversial drilling technique. A rule to take effect in June also updates requirements for well construction and disposal of water and other fluids used in fracking, as the drilling method is more commonly known.

Gaming panel extends casino filing deadline

Gaming regulators have voted to give two groups chasing a southeastern Massachusetts casino license until May 4 to file applications after the bidders pleaded for more time to identify additional equity investors. 

Somerset on the Move and Crossroads Massachusetts, hoping to bring a casino to Somerset, asked the Gaming Commission for a 21-day extension, while KG Urban, which has joined up with Foxwoods, sought a 45-day extension so they can pursue a casino on the New Bedford waterfront.

A third group, which includes Raynham Park owner George Carney and Mass Gaming and Entertainment, wants to build a casino in Brockton.

• Pyramid Hotel Group has named Timothy Wolfe, right, general manager of Revere Hotel Boston Common. Wolfe has spent the past three years as area managing director for Pyramid, responsible for 750 guest rooms and $38.5 million in annual sales through the hotel group's Colorado properties.

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Marty Walsh, mayors to focus on finance

Mayor Martin J. Walsh will join mayors from around the country tomorrow to discuss wage inequality and financial literacy as City Hall says nearly half of Bostonians would struggle to live above the poverty line for three months after a job loss or significant medical expense.

"There's a tremendous need for this in the city of Boston as far as the literacy we have, but it goes deeper than that. People don't have the means for employment and we have to work on that," Walsh said in an interview. "It's a pretty big issue. You hear a lot about people being priced out of the city of Boston."

Close to half of Boston residents do not have enough money saved to survive above the poverty level for three months if they lost a job, Walsh's office said. That number jumps to 
69 percent for African-American households and 75 percent for 
Hispanic households.

"Our unemployment rate is about 5 percent, but in areas like Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan, our unemployment rate is higher," the mayor said.

Walsh, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and others in town for a U.S. Conference of Mayors leadership meeting will speak at UMass Boston on a panel moderated by Boston Federal Reserve president Eric Rosengren.
"It's not just a Boston issue, it's a nationwide issue," Walsh said. "It's an opportunity to bring mayors to the city of Boston to be able to hear testimony from residents of our city, but also talk about sharing best practices on how different cities are handling the issue."

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Hotel builder changing up plans again

The company behind a proposed hotel in Boston's Theatre District has again switched its development strategy, this time reverting to plans for a microhotel, with increases in the number of rooms and the building's height.

Amherst Media Investors now is planning a 23-story microhotel with 346 smaller rooms and a rooftop bar at 240 Tremont St.

The microhotel concept attracts younger, mobile guests who rely to a greater degree on walking and public transportation, the Summit, N.J.-based outdoor advertising company said in a Boston Redevelopment Authority filing, arguing the project's effects on traffic and parking therefore would be "negligible" despite its increased size.

Amherst also has new development partners: Dallas' Highgate Capital Investments, which has a hospitality arm, and New York real estate investment firm Faros Properties.

"These changes are needed to allow a promising but challenging development site to become an economically feasible hotel," Amherst said in the filing.

The changes follow a string of project revisions since the BRA named Amherst as the city-owned site's developer in 2007, when it proposed a 14-story condo building.

The last changes came in August 2013, when Amherst said it wanted to reduce the hotel rooms from 240 to 202 to increase room sizes and increase the building from 19 stories to 22. Amherst's plans for a three-story, Times Square-like digital video billboard on the hotel's facade were consolidated to the building's corner at Tremont and Stuart streets, and the rooftop bar was removed from the design. Amherst never proceeded with permitting approvals for those changes, however.

The three-story corner digital video billboard remains in the current plans.

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Potent groups take sides on bipartisan House Medicare plan

WASHINGTON — A budding bipartisan deal to shelter physicians from Medicare cuts, championed by the House's two top leaders, is drawing powerful allies including the American Medical Association and a rainbow of conservative and liberal groups.

House aides released an outline of the emerging measure late Friday, and it confirmed what lawmakers, aides and lobbyists have described for days. The package is studded with provisions that draw many Democrats, including two more years of money for the Children's Health Insurance Program and community health centers, plus language boosting Medicare costs for some beneficiaries that appeals to Republicans eager to retool the costly program's finances.

The effort to resolve a problem that has exasperated Congress for years has been pressed by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Their rare alliance has given the proposed deal momentum among lawmakers of both parties eager to be rid of the issue.

The proposal is also attracting powerful foes and its fate is not guaranteed. A House vote seems likely late next week, shortly before Congress begins a two-week spring recess, but what will happen in the Senate is less clear.

Citing the plan's increased Medicare premiums for high earners and other increased costs for beneficiaries, AARP — the senior citizens' lobby — said the package "is not a balanced deal for older Americans." With most of the measure financed with deeper federal deficits, the conservative Club for Growth urged lawmakers to vote "no" because it "falls woefully short" of being paid for.

Some House liberals and Senate Democrats have criticized the measure for not extending the children's health program for four years, raising Medicare premiums and restricting abortions at community health centers.

The measure got a boost Friday from the liberal Families USA, which cited the importance of financing the children's health program and providing for the 8 million children it serves. "Keeping the program's funding extension is essential so we don't move backwards," said Ron Pollack, the group's executive director.

Also voicing support was Robert Wah, president of the American Medical Association, who said it was time for Congress "to seize the moment and finally put in place reforms" that would end the constant threatened cuts and strengthen Medicare.

At its core, the plan would block a 21 percent cut in doctors' Medicare fees looming April 1. It would replace a 1997 law that has threatened similar reductions for years — which Congress has repeatedly blocked — with a new formula aimed at prodding doctors to charge Medicare patients for the quality, not quantity, of care.

In a first hint of some of the measure's fine print, Friday's summary said it would let the government withhold 100 percent of any delinquent taxes providers owe from their Medicare reimbursements.

As for winners, the agreement would prolong federal payments to Tennessee hospitals that treat low-income people through 2025.

It would also help major producers of durable medical goods and prosthetic devices by penalizing low-ball bidders for Medicare business. That provision comes from a House-passed bill sponsored by Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, whose state is home to Invacare Corp., one of the country's largest makers of home medical devices like wheelchairs.

The one-page document provides no price tags and few specifics. But as lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists have said for days, it would cost roughly $210 billion over a decade, with around $140 billion financed by adding to federal deficits, aides said Friday. The remaining $70 billion would be split about evenly between Medicare providers and beneficiaries.

In a letter to House Democrats on Friday, Pelosi hailed the measure for "providing certainty to our seniors and stability to providers." On Thursday, Boehner said it was a chance to "solve this problem once and for all."

According to the summary and aides familiar with details:

—About 2 percent of the country's highest-earning Medicare recipients would face higher premiums for doctor and prescription drug coverage. The higher premiums would apply to individuals earning between $134,000 and $214,000 and couples earning between $267,000 and $428,000.

—Starting in 2020, some people buying Medigap plans — they insure expenses Medicare does not cover — would pay higher out-of-pocket costs up to the Medicare deductible for doctors' coverage, currently $147 annually.

—A 3.2 percent increase in Medicare payments to hospitals in 2018 would instead be phased in over six years.

—Nursing homes, hospices and home health providers would be held to a 1 percent Medicare increase in 2018.

—Scheduled cuts in payments to states for hospitals treating poor patients would be delayed a year to 2018 but also extended through 2025.

—Programs that help poor seniors pay Medicare deductibles and help some families keep Medicaid coverage as they move from welfare to jobs would become permanent.

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Lisa Colagrossi, WABC-TV reporter, dies of brain hemorrhage at 49

Lisa Colagrossi, a reporter for ABC's flagship New York station, died Friday following a brain hemorrhage suffered while she was returning to the station after covering a house fire in Queens. She was 49.

WABC-TV colleagues were stunned by her death. They remembered Colagrossi as a tenacious reporter with a warm spirit who was a dedicated wife and hockey mom to her two sons, ages 11 and 14.

"Lisa Colagrossi embodied the 'Eyewitness News' spirit -- a straightforward reporter who told the truth, empathetic to the everyday citizens of the New York area, and demanding of those in power," said Dave Davis, president and g.m. of WABC-TV. "All of us in the Channel 7 family are in shock over her sudden death. Our attention is now focused on helping her husband and two children though this difficult time."

Colagrossi collapsed Thursday morning while riding in an WABC-TV news van. She had just finished a report for "Eyewitness News This Morning" on the house fire. A photographer who was with her in the van managed to flag down an ambulance. She was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital but never regained consciousness. She was pronounced dead on Friday.

"Lisa will be terribly missed," said WABC-TV news director Camille Edwards. "Her bright smile and big blue eyes lit up our newsroom. She was a reporter with two wonderful qualities: grace and grit. Her 'Eyewitness News' family is overwhelmed with grief right now. Our hearts are truly broken."

Colagrossi joined WABC-TV in 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She covered a wide range of breaking news in the tri-state area during her time at the station, notably the crash of Flight 587 over New York City in November 2001 and the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. She had also served as a substitute anchor on various newscasts.

A native of Cleveland, Colagrossi got her start in TV as a reporter for the city's WKYC-TV. She moved on to reporting jobs at stations in Alabama and West Virginia. Before joining WABC, she was a primary news anchor for CBS affiliate WKMG-TV in Orlando, Fla.

In addition to her sons, Colagrossi's survivors include her husband, Todd, of Stamford, Conn.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Paris hit by air pollution spike, halves cars on roads

PARIS — Paris will cut the number of cars on the road in half beginning Monday and is making public transit free to combat a spike in pollution that has obscured even the Eiffel Tower under a smoggy haze.

The mayor's office announced Saturday that only cars with odd-numbered plates will be permitted to drive Monday, as well as any electric or hybrid vehicles and any vehicles with more than three people. Public transit will be free, as will the electric car-sharing and bike sharing-programs

Pollution has spiked in the Paris region since Wednesday, when the city briefly had the world's dirtiest air, according to a monitoring company called Plume Labs.

Other cities in northern France affected by air pollution are also imposing various restrictions.

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