Somerville pols laud $1B for Green Line expansion fed

The economic future of Somerville and Medford is on a fast track after the Green Line extension passed one of the last key financing milestones for a plan that calls for adding six stops to the popular MBTA route.

"The economic impact is unlimited for Somerville," said city Mayor Joseph Curtatone.

Curtatone said the extension will be more transformative to the city than even Assembly Square, a project that was made possible by a new Orange Line station.

The project will add six stations in Somerville and Medford, including a new branch to Union Square and a stop at College Avenue in Medford.

In its evaluation of the extension, federal transportation officials said the area's future development is largely dependent on transportation improvements.

"The corridor's capacity to accommodate additional development depends on the improvement in the transportation access that would be provided by the Green Line Extension," the report says.

The project will get nearly $1 billion in federal money, the Federal Transit Administration said in a letter to a U.S. Senate committee.

The rest of the project will be paid for by 
$996 million in state bonds and $305 million in state operating funds.

U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, who represents Somerville and served as mayor of Somerville, said the project will have more than just economic benefits, adding that the line "is really intended — in my mind — to serve people who have been underserved for forever."

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Medical mistake numbers alarm experts

One of four Bay Staters say they or their loved ones have fallen victim to alarming medical mistakes like misdiagnoses and faulty treatments, according to a bombshell report that has local experts calling for more action to prevent such errors among state hospitals and agencies.

"This is a problem of just incredible magnitude," said Barbara Fain, director of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error, which funded the survey. "From our perspective there needs to be a greater urgency around making greater progress."

Misdiagnoses were the largest problem among those surveyed, comprising 51 percent of people who had encountered errors. Thirty-eight percent say they were given the wrong surgery or test, and 34 percent say they were given bad instructions.

The survey, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, asked 1,224 Massachusetts residents if they or someone close to them had experienced a medical misstep within the last five years.

The survey is one of several new reports funded by the Lehman Center, named after a Boston Globe health reporter who died in 1994 after an overdose of chemotherapy treatments.

Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor of health policy and political analysis who led the survey, said the results speak volumes about how little progress has been made since Lehman's death.

"Twenty years ago there was an event that spurred national and statewide movement with an awful death of a reporter," Blendon said. "What do you have 20 years later? You have an issue that's still a problem in people's lives. This is not a problem that went away decades later."

Patricia Folcarelli, senior director of patient safety for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said better systems need to be put into place to prevent human error. "The major take-away is that we still have a lot of work to do," said Folcarelli.

She said the sheer number of health care workers involved in the treatment of each patient — and breakdowns in communication among them — is the major problem behind these errors. "There's multiple people delivering care, and there are a lot of opportunities for information to get lost in the hand-off," she said. "The devil happens in the transitions."

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Obama to discuss economic ideas with CEOs

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is meeting with leading CEOs to discuss ways to promote the economy and create jobs during his last two years in office.

Obama on Wednesday will attend the quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs. Obama plans to give a speech and take questions.

The White House says Obama will use the meeting to promote bipartisan opportunities to grow the economy and the middle class, such as tax reform, infrastructure spending and trade agreements.

In the weeks since the midterm elections, Obama has cited those three issues as examples of where Democrats and Republicans might be able to compromise. Heavy Democratic losses in the elections diminished Obama's prospects for passing most of his other legislative priorities before leaving office.

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Roslindale group battles Petco store in Village

A Roslindale Village group is trying to stop a pet store chain from opening amid its small, locally owned stores, and is seeking city regulations to cap the number of big-box stores and national restaurants in its neighborhood business district.

"We believe that national chains like Unleashed by Petco degrade the community character and make it difficult for local mom-and- pop businesses to thrive," said Christina DiLisio, executive director of Roslindale Village Main Street.

Unleashed, Petco's neighborhood version, is eyeing a new location at 745 South St., the former JB Edwards uniform store near Adams Park, but has faced stiff opposition from residents.

"People understand Roslindale Village to be something special," DiLisio said. "Chains are soulless."

The Roslindale Village Main Street is the oldest neighborhood business district in the city, established in 1985 thanks in part to then-city councilor Thomas M. Menino. There are now 20 Main Streets districts in Boston, whose aim is to revitalize and promote the city's neighborhood commercial centers.

While DiLisio and Roslindale Village Main Street battle Petco, they are also calling on the city to pass an ordinance to cap the number of so-called formula businesses — chain stores and restaurants — that could open in the future.

"Chains are never going to be able to have the face of a person and a real, live business owner putting their heart, sweat and tears to keep that business alive," DiLisio said.

City Councilor Tim McCarthy, who represents Roslindale, doesn't dismiss outright the idea of limits on chain stores in Roslindale Village, but said it would be complicated.

"We've kicked this around," McCarthy said. "If we're going to venture into this, we've got to do it right."

He said any ordinance would have to be specifically tailored.

"We may want to tweak it to make it Main Street specific," he said. "It can't be a general, sweeping regulation or ordinance."

Each Main Street program is an independent nonprofit overseen by the city's Department of Neighborhood Development.

"While we encourage innovative thinking about these issues, a formula business ordinance would have citywide implications, and will require thoughtful analysis," Neighborhood Development spokeswoman Lisa Pollack said.

Petco representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

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FBI seizes Los Angeles schools' iPad documents

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. attorney's office subpoenaed the Los Angeles Unified School District for records pertaining to its $1 billion iPad project as part of a federal grand jury probe.

A copy of the subpoena released Tuesday requests all documents related to proposals for the district's cornerstone technology initiative, which has been plagued with problems since its rollout last year. The requested records include proposal scoring documents, review committee files and employee information, among other materials.

LAUSD general counsel David Holmquist told The Associated Press the district was expecting federal agents to visit and retrieve documents toward the end of the week. Instead FBI agents arrived at district offices on Monday, carting away about 20 boxes worth of records.

"We turned over all documents that we think are responsive to the subpoena," Holmquist said.

He said the district has not been provided any information on what federal authorities are investigating.

The district's Common Core Technology Project aimed to provide 21st century learning devices to all of the district's 650,000 students, chipping away at the technology divide that often leaves lower-income students at a disadvantage from their more affluent peers.

The program was championed by then-Superintendent John Deasy and approved unanimously by the school board in 2013.

"The idea of providing first-class learning technology to all the kids in the district, not just the kids who could afford it, is certainly a worthy educational goal," said Charles Taylor Kerchner, a professor at Claremont Graduate University. "That worthy goal runs up against problems of organizational feasibility, and it did from the beginning."

Hundreds of students initially given iPads last school year found ways to bypass security installations, downloading games and freely surfing the Web. Teachers complained they were not properly trained to instruct students with the new technology. And questions were raised after emails were disclosed showing Deasy had been in communication with vendors Apple and Pearson before the contracts were put to bid. He resigned under pressure, in part from the iPad troubles, in October.

While it remained unclear exactly what aspect of the iPad project — one of the biggest technological undertakings by an urban district in the U.S. — the FBI was investigating, legal experts and education observers immediately focused on Deasy's relationship with Apple and Pearson and the use of construction bond proceeds to spend money on a short-term device purchase.

Ariel Neuman, a former federal prosecutor, said the government is likely investigating possible fraud involving the contracts.

"If someone doesn't disclose a relationship they have with Apple," he said, "those could be material omissions that could lead to a wire or mail fraud case."

Interim Superintendent Ramon Cortines had planned to move forward with equipping an additional 27 schools with learning devices, but said Tuesday he was canceling the contract and starting another. Cortines said he made the decision based on "identified flaws" in the L.A. Unified inspector general's report on device procurement.

He added that the district would continue with a different contract with Apple to provide iPads and another vendor, Arey Jones, to provide Chromebooks for a new set of exams in the spring aligned to the Common Core, the new academic benchmarks being implemented in California and other states around the nation.

"My intent is that the students attending these schools will receive devices under a new contract at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year," Cortines said.

To date, the district has spent $70 million on the project, purchasing 90,713 devices.

News of the probe immediately drew rebuke from United Teachers Los Angeles, a frequent Deasy critic. Union president Alex Caputo-Pearl said Deasy "cannot escape the tough questions about the ill-fated iPad project. He cannot simply resign and leave a mess for others to clean up."

Deasy did not return a request for comment.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed to this report.

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Reebok to outfit all UFC fighters

Reebok is expanding its fitness focus by stepping into the Octagon under a six-year deal as the new exclusive outfitter of the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts organization.

The Canton athletic brand also will be the official clothing provider for fans of the 21-year-old UFC and will develop a new line of training gear for the 35 million people worldwide who use MMA, boxing and kickboxing in their exercise regimes.

"It's a very significant commitment, and we think it will generate significant commercial opportunity," said Reebok president Matt O'Toole, who declined to put a dollar figure on the deal. "It's one of the few sports that's popular in every continent, and its viewership numbers keep climbing — similar to ... the NBA or other sports leagues."

The alliance is the biggest non-broadcast deal signed by the Las Vegas-based UFC and will further professionalize the sport, chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said. "Working with another global brand with such a strong history in training and fitness will deliver long-term value for UFC athletes and their brands by elevating and further professionalizing the events and the sport," he said in a statement.

UFC athletes will be required to wear Reebok gear at all official UFC events starting in July and will no longer be permitted to exhibit other sponsors' logos during them. In turn, the UFC will compensate them based on their rankings during event weigh-ins.

Reebok currently sponsors UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks and lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and expects to add more UFC fighters to its roster.

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The Ticker

Three cos. buy retail at hotel in Kenmore Sq.

Three real estate investment firms have purchased the 37,000-square-foot retail portion of Hotel Commonwealth in Boston's Kenmore Square in a $38.5 million deal.

Boston's UrbanMeritage and Novaya Real Estate Ventures and Atlanta-based Invesco Real Estate plan to re-tenant and reposition the more than 10,000 square feet of space that's currently vacant at the Shoppes at the Hotel Commonwealth in the next 12 to 18 months.

"The retail space has never been focused on by any of the hotel owner/operators," UrbanMeritage principal Michael Jammen said. "As a specialist in retail and mixed-use properties, we believe we can find the retail users that will work well with the hotel use and continue the revitalization of Kenmore Square and the Fenway area."

Current tenants in the hotel include the Eastern Standard and Island Creek Oyster Bar restaurants, as well as The Hawthorne, Starbucks and Hunt's Photo & Video.

The sellers were Denver-based Sage Hospitality, which purchased the hotel two years ago, and co-owner Fundamental Advisors of New York. The 149-room hotel is undergoing a 134,000-square-foot expansion that will add 96 more rooms, event space and parking.

Jobs emails in Apple iPod trial

The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., led the company to violate antitrust laws by restricting music purchases for iPod users to Apple's iTunes digital store, an attorney for consumers suing Apple said in court.

Opening statements began yesterday in an Oakland, Calif., federal court in the long-running class action, which harks back to Apple's pre-iPhone era. The plaintiffs, a group of individuals and businesses who purchased iPods from 2006 to 2009, are seeking about $350 million in damages from Apple for unfairly blocking competing device makers. That amount would be automatically tripled under antitrust laws.

Today

 Labor Department releases revised third-quarter productivity data.

 Institute for Supply Management releases its service sector index for November.

 Federal Reserve releases Beige Book.

THE SHUFFLE

JLL Construction has hired Cosmas Papanikolaous and Bill Guzowski to join the firm's New England Construction group as an estimating manager and senior construction manager, respectively. Papanikolaous comes to JLL from Bond Brothers. He brings more than 14 years of industry experience having previously worked for Suffolk Construction and Tocci Building Corp. Guzowski joins JLL from AZ Corp. He has more than 21 years of experience in the institutional, life sciences, and health care industries.

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Steve Grossman blasts $65G raise for state pension chief

The salary of the state pension fund's executive director could catapult past $500,000 after its board yesterday gave him a $65,000 raise, prompting a warning from outgoing board chairman Treasurer Steve Grossman about the pay hike's optics amid financial unrest on Beacon Hill.

"We are ultimately spending taxpayer dollars and (it comes) at a time when cuts are taking place and budgetary belt-tightening is going on," said Grossman, who voted against boosting director Michael Trotsky's salary to $360,000, which, when combined with a bonus of up to 40 percent, could send his pay past a half-million dollars.

The state, Grossman noted, is trying to fill a $329 million budget gap, and the treasurer said he wanted to see a phased-in raise for Trotsky, who he still lauded for "outstanding" work.

Trotsky, who also serves as the $60.2 billion fund's chief investment officer, told the board that the fund's balance was up 9.4 percent in the year ending Oct. 31, but also warned of waves of market volatility amid the recent gains.

"We think this signals the late stage of the boom that we've been in for the past five years and we have prepared for," Trotsky said, according to the State House News Service.

A representative of Glen Shor, Gov. Deval Patrick's administration and finance secretary, was the only other board member to vote against Trotsky's raise.

Treasurer-elect Deb Goldberg said in a statement while a "significant raise" is well-deserved, the spike was "uncomfortable and not necessarily appropriate at this time."

Trotsky said in a statement he's "extremely proud" of the gains the fund has made.

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Takata: Evidence doesn't support national recall

DETROIT — A defiant Takata Corp. told a U.S. safety agency that its demand for a nationwide air bag recall isn't supported by evidence, and the government doesn't have authority to tell a parts maker to do a recall.

The company laid out its position in a Tuesday letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration obtained by The Associated Press that rejected the agency's demand for a recall.

It sets the stage for a confrontation at a House subcommittee hearing on the matter Wednesday morning.

In a statement, NHTSA called Takata's response "disappointing" and said it will review the response to determine the agency's next steps. A week ago, the agency threatened civil fines and legal action if Takata didn't declare the driver's air bag inflators defective and agree to the recall. It can impose fines of up to $35 million.

The inflators can explode with too much force, spewing shrapnel into the passenger compartment. At least five deaths and dozens of injuries have been linked to the problem worldwide.

But in its letter, Takata told Frank Borris, director of NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation, that the agency is basing its demand for a national recall on slim evidence.

A national recall would add 8 million vehicles to previous recalls, Takata said. Those have been limited to high-humidity areas in Florida, Hawaii, along the Gulf Coast and in some U.S. territories. Takata has maintained that prolonged exposure to airborne moisture can cause the inflator propellant to burn faster than designed, causing it to explode with too much force.

But NHTSA, in its letter demanding a national recall, pointed to inflator ruptures that injured drivers in California and North Carolina — both outside the recall zone.

Takata, however, told the agency that the California case involving a 2005 Honda Accord already is covered by a Honda service campaign, making a recall unnecessary. A 2007 Ford Mustang in the North Carolina case has not been examined by either Takata or NHTSA, the letter said. "Therefore, there is no way to ascertain what actually occurred during the incident, whether any inflator ruptured," it said.

Takata also contends that NHTSA only has authority to seek recalls from auto manufacturers and makers of replacement parts, not original parts suppliers. NHTSA disagrees.

The company said Tuesday night in Japan that its answer to NHTSA was "neither a yes nor a no." But the letter clearly shows the company rejected the recall demand. "It is Takata's current view that the currently available, reliable information does not support a nationwide determination of a safety defect in all vehicles equipped with the subject driver-side inflators,'" the company's head of product safety wrote in the letter.

A Takata quality executive and David Friedman, deputy NHTSA administrator, are scheduled to appear at Wednesday's hearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Takata also said that it has tested 1,057 driver and passenger inflators taken from locations outside the high-humidity zone, and none of them has ruptured. The company said it will expand production of replacement inflators for the current recalls and will expand the recalls if warranted.

"If those testing efforts or data from other sources indicate the existence of a safety defect beyond the scope of the current campaigns, Takata will promptly take appropriate action," the company said.

NHTSA said in a statement Tuesday night Takata shares responsibility for keeping driver's safe. "We believe anything short of a national recall does not live up to that responsibility," the statement said.

The dispute between the government and Takata left automakers caught in the middle, not knowing whether they should start the recall process or not. NHTSA has told the affected automakers — Ford, Honda, Chrysler, Mazda and BMW — that they need to recall the driver's side inflators soon. Takata passenger air bag recalls remain limited to high-humidity areas.

BMW has said its recalls are national already, while Ford and Chrysler wouldn't comment. Honda said Tuesday it is "seriously considering" a nationwide recall.

So far automakers have recalled about 14 million vehicles worldwide for Takata air bag problems, including 8 million in the U.S.

____

Kageyama reported from Tokyo.

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Tinkerbell to shine in Walmart ads for NBC's 'Peter Pan'

Don't be surprised if elements of "Peter Pan" show up in the commercial breaks during NBC's live Thursday telecast of the famous 1904 play.

Walmart, which ran ads during NBC's live broadcast of "The Sound of Music" last year that used songs from the play to make a marketing point, will again serve as lead sponsor of the live event, and will use commercials that echo the action that just took place in the play just before the production cuts to advertising. All five of the spots will also feature Tinkerbell (or, at least, the version of the character being used in the NBC production).

Walmart will have the heaviest presence in what is a sold-out program, said Dan Lovinger, executive vice president of entertainment ad sales at NBCUniversal. "I think that the industry, and certainly America, is really falling in love with concepts like this," he said. "It's a great family event. It gives people the opportunity during the holidays to sit down together to watch a show that everyone can be comfortable with."

Set to air live at 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 4, NBC's "Peter Pan" production shows the network doubling down on a gambit that worked well last year - and is gaining traction across the TV-scape. Just as Discovery Channel's recent broadcasts of daredevil Nik Wallenda walking a tightrope over Chicago and in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon have lured viewers, so too has the prospect of seeing up-and-coming celebrities hold forth in the title role of NBC's theatrical events. Allison Williams will play Peter Pan while Christopher Walken will play Captain Hook.

The network's live broadcast of "The Sound of Music" attracted more than 18 million viewers. NBC has already unveiled plans to mount a live production of "The Music Man" in 2015.

Demand for the show has been high, as more advertisers demonstrate a craving to link to the growing number of live events TV networks are testing to lure bigger crowds. NBC sought more than $350,000 for a 30-second spot in the show, Lovinger said, confirming a previous report in Variety. He declined to name other advertisers in the event, but said the show had support from the restaurant, electronics, movie-studio and wireless categories.

In five Walmart ads slated to run at specific moments during the program, viewers will see actress Melissa Joan Hart and her actual family in scenes that play off "Peter Pan" moments while also showcasing products available at Walmart. Hart is currently involved in Walmart's holiday campaign.

In the first of the spots produced by NBCUniversal, Hart will read a bedtime story to her family as they talk about pajamas (available, as it might happen, for purchase at the large retailer. In a second, the family will play with a Tinkerbell toy and Hart will show her family a "Lost Boys" tree hour lit up in the backyard. In a third, Hart's sons play in the tree house while shouting "Wendy." In a fourth, Hart's family sits around the dinner table preparing to make homemade cookies. In the fifth, and last, Hart reads "Peter Pan" to her kids and talks to them about growing up.

NBC was not able to say whether all the Walmart ads will run immediately after the broadcast cuts to an ad break - where they would have the most relevance - or deeper in the mix of promotions that run in each commercial interruption.

The concept sounds easier to put into practice than the idea Walmart used during its 2013 sponsorship of "The Sound of Music." As part of that effort, NBC produced a series of spots featuring the Brooks family of Gardner, Kansas, which has 12 children. The clan was spotted at various points in the broadcast doing activities to the strains of the popular tunes from the play. Each spot appeared after the song being featured had been sung in the show.

NBCUniversal actually did a four-day talent search for the family that eventually appeared in the ads, which were also produced by the company without the use of an ad agency.

Mediavest, an ad-buying firm that is part of France's Publicis Groupe, helped Walmart negotiate the price and placement of its "Peter Pan" campaign.

Marketers have shown new interest in crafting commercials for very specific occasions, a reflection, perhaps, of a desire to emulate the content that drew viewers in the first place, instead of interrupting the experience. "Clients in general are getting more and more creative and more demanding to create content that's relevant and resonates with not only our viewers but their consumers," said Lovinger.

NBC and Walmart have a history of teaming up for family fare. In 2010, the retailer and Procter & Gamble joined with NBC to create a TV movie, "Secrets of the Mountain," that aimed to offer an alternative to what the advertisers viewed as an increase in risqué fare on the boob tube. After "Mountain" ran in April, a similar effort, "The Jensen Project," aired in July of that year. Broadcasts of the films featured both ads from each company as well as placements of their products and logos in the content itself.

Walmart has been spotted sponsoring other pieces of family fare this week. Last night, the retailer had two different commercials run during ABC's "Toy Story That Time Forgot."

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

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