Mercedes S550 worth its high price

When the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S550 4matic sedan was delivered for testing, my first thought was, why would anyone spend $128,000 on a car? After a few days behind the wheel, I now wish I had $128,000 to buy this car.

Opulence, elegance, style, superb engineering and tech goodies are hallmarks of this flagship four-door.

A 4.6-liter V-8 biturbo engine produces a prodigious 449 horsepower and easily pushes this full-sized and heavy all-wheel-drive. Select your driving mode and the car will adjust the suspension and shift points to maximize your driving pleasure. From gas-sipping ECO to quick-reacting Sport, the S550 has it all for your driving pleasure. And it's a pleasure to motor about in this car.

The cabin is adorned with full-grain, supple, perforated leather seats that can be heated or cooled. The driver's seat features a massage mode along with multiple adjustable settings. Tech features run the gamut from navigation to the extraordinary Distronic Plus with steering assist that will make hands-free steering lane adjustments in cruise control.

Active Blind Spot assist, night-vision cameras and a pedestrian-recognition back up camera are just some of the long list of equipment available. Our tester came with the optional $6,400 Burmester surround sound system that absolutely fills the interior with symphony hall quality audio. Even AM news sounded special. The interface could have been a tad more user-friendly, but after a day or two it was mastered.

But as expected, it's the marvelous fit and finish that make a Mercedes so attractive. The polished wood-grain inlay and leather-trimmed door panels, the velvety head and pillar liners and the pillowed rear seat headrests all caress you in luxury. Add the reclining rear seats, separate rear climate control and sun roof and you see why you may have to get a driver to chauffeur you about. And it has a built-in air freshening system — just pick your fragrance.

The exterior remains simple and elegant. The five-louvered grille has only the radar panel embedded, the famed hood ornament is back on the nose and the LED lights wrap around the fender flares. The simple lines still imbue class yet have single creases along the hood that draw your eye toward the slightly upturned trunk. Despite its length and width, the car maneuvers easily and parking assist helps swing the four-door into tight spots.

The car handles like a dream for a full-sized cruiser. The seven-speed automatic shifts seamlessly and the 19 miles per gallon in the city and 26 on the highway won't have you pulling into the gas station at every exit. Step onto the accelerator and the Benz responds with aplomb. The car almost feels like it pulls itself closer to the ground, drops down a couple of gears and just rockets forward without making a fuss of it or snapping your head backward. It may not have the explosiveness of a pure sports car, but there's an effortless muscular engine under the hood.

In the ultra luxury class, only a few cars demand your attention. The Jaguar XJL, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and maybe the Lexus LS among them. But having­ tested the Jag and the Lexus­, I think the S-Class easily outduels them.

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B.R.A. vows no more secrets

The BRA's acting director hopes a new policy requiring the agency to hold public meetings and a 10-day open comment session before giving away any city-owned land will help restore some of the credibility it lost in the backlash over last fall's secret dealings that gave the Red Sox rights to use Yawkey Way forever.

"The public should have had an opportunity to scrutinize the deal and comment on it before it was presented to the board for action," Boston Redevelopment Authority chief Brian Golden told the Herald yesterday. "That is what this policy does. If we are going to convey an interest in public land, there must be a public process. … We think it is absolutely essential to the long-term credibility of our agency and the legitimacy of our decisions. That's what really hangs in the balance."

Golden said a new edict adopted Thursday by the BRA board will greatly increase transparency and prevent what happened in September, when the agency kept the public in the dark on the terms of its deal with the Red Sox up until just before the board's vote on the 
$7.3 million pact. No public forum was ever held.

The board also approved a disclosure policy that requires developers to divulge the names of all investors — to "1/10th of one percent" — involved in their projects. Another measure will require developers seeking "Public Development Area" designations, which allows them to skirt zoning regulations, to provide community benefits.

"They appear to be trying to institute policies where there weren't any," Matt Cahill, head of the Boston Finance Commission, a watchdog agency, said of the new policies. "That is a step in the right direction."

Golden served as secretary and executive director of the BRA at the time of the Yawkey Way deal but said he — and most other BRA staff — was cut out of the Sox negotiations because they were handled exclusively by then-BRA chief Peter Meade and chief of staff Jim Tierney.

Tapped by Mayor Martin J. Walsh to lead the BRA and carry out his mission of creating greater transparency and accountability at the agency, Golden has publicly criticized the sale that gave the Sox permanent rights to close Yawkey Way on game days and concert dates for as long as the team plays at Fenway Park, calling it a "bad deal" for taxpayers. The contract also gave the Sox the air rights below its pricey Green Monster seats on Lansdowne Street.

On the disclosure policy, Golden said citizens have a right to know the investors in projects in their neighborhoods, and the agency needs to know as well to prevent conflicts of interest among its staff and board members. Failure to comply could result in the agency rescinding its approval of a project, said Enrico Lopez, the BRA's policy director who drafted the three policies.

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Hackers hit Shaw’s, Star Market chains

If you used your debit or credit card at Star Market or Shaw's between June 22 and July 17, double-check your statements — you may be a victim of the latest high-profile security breach.

The chains' owner, AB Acquisition LLC, yesterday said it recently learned of an "unlawful intrusion to obtain credit and debit card payment information in some of its stores."

"As soon as we were notified of the incident, we began working closely with (IT services provider) Supervalu to determine what happened," Mark Bates, senior vice president and chief information officer at AB Acquisition, said in a statement. "It's important to note that there is no evidence at this point that consumer data has been misused."

Nevertheless, the company is offering customers whose cards may have been affected a free year of identity protection.

Supervalu disclosed the breach in its grocery and liquor stores yesterday and said the chain stores — including Star Market and Shaw's — it sold last year to Cerberus Capital Management LP also were affected because it still provides them with IT services.

"Each one of these breaches — Target, Neiman Marcus, P.F. Chang's, now Supervalu — is a wake-up call to businesses that hackers will keep finding more sophisticated ways to get at treasure troves of credit and debit card data, and that they need to be laser-focused on cybersecurity, not only to prevent breaches, but because the SEC, the FTC, and state attorneys general ... are increasingly conducting investigations of businesses that experience attacks, and because plaintiff's lawyers are increasingly suing them," said Gus P. Coldebella, a partner at the law firm Goodwin Procter.

Because hackers "count on the failure of vigilance," both businesses and individuals should update their anti-virus software the moment it becomes available; regularly change passwords, and never use public Wi-Fi unless it's encrypted, said Anthony Roman, president of Roman and Associates, a global investigation and risk-management firm.

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Radio Disney sells most of its U.S. stations as it makes switch to digital

Radio Disney is making a big switch to digital, unloading all of its 24 stations, with the exception of KDIS-AM 1110 in Los Angeles.

Variety was first to report last year that Disney was planning to sell more of its stations in the U.S. Move comes after Radio Disney realized that only 18% of its listeners access the channels on the radio, opting for other platforms, instead, including the Watch Disney Channel app.

As a result of the sale, 184 positions will be eliminated. The sale of the 23 stations will be completed Sept. 26.

KDIS-AM 1110 will oversee Radio Disney's national network programming and provide content to partners.

Radio Disney recently partnered with app maker ShowMobile to aggregate stories it tells on social media, and also distributes its content to SiriusXM, Slacker, Aha Radio and TuneIn. Dee's Entertainment also syndicates Radio Disney to U.S. stations in 30 markets.

It will build out new Radio Disney apps for smartphones and tablets, as well.

"Radio Disney will be increasing investment in both digital distribution platforms and music-centric programming," Phil Guerini, Radio Disney's general manager, told staff in a memo on Aug. 13. "These decisions will optimize Radio Disney for long-term growth and better reflect the habits of the consumers we serve -- a national audience of kids and families."

"Radio Disney will increase its investment in both digital distribution platforms and music-centric programming to optimize the network for long-term growth and to better reflect the habits of its listeners, a national audience of kids and families," the company said.

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

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Sony sells its 10 millionth PlayStation 4 as hardware drives video game sales in July

Sony reached a milestone with its PlayStation 4 in July, selling the 10 million of the video game console worldwide, the company said.

Microsoft has yet to disclose updated numbers for its Xbox One, but hardware drove much of the sales generated by the video game industry last month, according to the NPD Group, to generate $198.8 million.

In fact, the overall industry rose 16% to $514.3 million because of a 100% surge in hardware sales.

"When combining life-to-date sales of Xbox One and PS4 after nine months, and comparing them to the combined totals of nine months of sales for Xbox 360 and PS3, sales of the newest consoles are larger than the prior generation by close to 80%," NPD's Liam Callahan said, which could rub off on future game sales.

Microsoft said it had sold 5 million Xbox One consoles in May.

New software fell 17% in July, however, to earn $178.2 million.

The top selling games in July were the remastered version of Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us," for Sony; "Minecraft," Electronic Arts' "FIFA 14," Ubisoft's "Watch Dogs;" and Nintendo's "Mario Kart 8."

NPD does not release individual unit sales for game titles.

Fewer new games were released during the month as compared with previous years.

"July is typically a quiet month for software sales, representing about 5% of annual sales," NPD's Liam Callahan said.

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

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Police: Chemicals in tea due to earlier mix-up

SALT LAKE CITY — An industrial cleaning solution that ended up in tea that a woman drank at a Utah restaurant was unintentionally mixed into a bag of sugar a month earlier, authorities said Friday.

South Jordan Cpl. Sam Winkler said a former employee told authorities the mixing of the cleaning product into the sugar bag happened July 5.

On Sunday, a worker took large quantities of the substance thought to be sugar and poured it into the iced-tea dispenser, he said.

A 67-year-old customer, Jan Harding, drank the tea that day at Dickey's Barbecue in South Jordan, severely burning her esophagus and mouth. She remained hospitalized Friday in critical condition.

The cleaning product is meant for degreasing deep fryers and contains the odorless chemical lye, the active ingredient in drain cleaners.

Winkler said police are waiting to see what happens with Harding's condition before moving forward with any arrests or charges.

KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City first reported what led to the mix-up.

Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants Inc. said in a statement late Friday that it was an isolated incident and nothing like it had happened in the 73 years the Dallas-based chain has operated.

"There is nothing more important to us than the trust and safety of our guests," the statement said, adding that the franchise owner, John Thomson, was deeply saddened and is cooperating with authorities.

His restaurant is one of 400 Dickey's around the country. South Jordan is a suburb of 60,000 about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Doctors have determined Harding has deep, ulcerated burns in her upper esophagus, family attorney Paxton Guymon said. They found the internal damage Thursday while doing an endoscopy, which involves inserting a tube with a light and camera into the digestive tract.

"The news was very disappointing and disheartening for the family," Guymon said in a statement. "The burns were deeper and more extensive than we had hoped."

Harding and her husband had just arrived at the restaurant for lunch with friends when she filled her cup with sweet tea from a self-serve beverage station. She took one sip before spitting it out and exclaiming to her husband: "I think I just drank acid."

Police have determined Harding is the only victim, Winkler said. It appears she was the first to drink the tea that day, and Dickey's employees disposed of it after she was burned, he said.

The establishment remains open after county health officials inspected it and found all chemicals properly labeled and separated from food items.

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Rowhouse renovated with style

This stylish duplex in the South End was completely renovated into a sunny condo in 2010 and the owners have added built-ins and other amenities in the past four years.

Unit 2 at 77 Rutland St., one of three condos in the 1900-built rowhouse, occupies the first and second floors and has new windows, systems and roof.

From the outside, the building looks like a traditional rowhouse with a brick exterior, carved wood entryway and projecting bay and ornamental wrought-iron railings.

But the first-floor interior of the unit has an open floor plan, with a front-to-back dining/living and kitchen area with new red oak floors, custom crown molding and 9-foot-9 ceilings with recessed lighting. The dining area has two large windows, and the owners recently added paneled wainscoting with a deep closet running behind the wall. The living area has a gas fireplace with a carved wood mantel with new built-ins added on either side.

The kitchen has 20 cabinets, including several that are pantry sized, and beige granite countertops with newly added glass mosaic tile backsplash. A bi-level granite island with new pendant lamps overhead seats four. High-end stainless-steel appliances include a Sub Zero refrigerator, a Viking gas stove and wine cooler and a Bosch dishwasher. Off the back of the kitchen is a glass door leading out to a private deck with a gas line to an outdoor grill.

Off to the side of the kitchen is a half-bathroom with a small white marble tile floor.

A turning oak staircase leads to two bedrooms on the second floor off an oak hallway with a closet holding a stacked Bosch washer/dryer.

The front-facing master bedroom suite has three large windows, including a three-part bay window with a window seat. The room has 9-foot 7-inch ceilings with recessed lighting, oak floors and a built-in bookcase. There's a large walk-in closet with built-in storage. The en-suite master bathroom has a white Carrara marble floor and vanity top, as well as a marble surround for a deep soaking tub and a glass walk-in shower with rainhead and handheld fixtures.

The rear-facing second bedroom also has oak floors and an en-suite bathroom with a beige marble tile floor and surround for a tub/shower. There's also a granite-topped vanity.

This unit has central air conditioning but does not come with a parking space, so owners will have to park on the street with residential permit or rent a garage space nearby.

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Boston online retailer Wayfair files for public offering

Boston-based online home goods retailer Wayfair filed paperwork for its initial public offering yesterday, a long-awaited move for a company that has seen more than $1 billion in sales during the past 12 months.

According to the paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wayfair is hoping to raise up to $350 million in its IPO.

Wayfair sells furniture and other home goods, and said it took in $574.1 million in the first half of the year. Still, Wayfair took a $51.4 million loss, largely because of sales and marketing expenses.

William Preston, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, said e-commerce companies have done well with their IPOs recently.

"We've seen pretty good success in e-commerce this year," he said.

Founded in 2002, Wayfair will likely be the first U.S. e-commerce company to go public this year. Other e-commerce offerings this year have been from foreign companies.

Preston said one of Wayfair's biggest challenges will be proving to investors it can coexist alongside Amazon, the established king of e-commerce.

Wayfair has raised $363 million in venture funding, but co-founders Niraj Shah and Steve Conine each still own 28.9 percent of the company.

Wayfair said in the filing it will trade under the symbol "W" on the New York Stock Exchange.

A spokeswoman for Wayfair declined to comment.

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MCCA plays up $1.1M temporary Lawn on D

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority spent $1.1 million to build a lush open space in the Seaport District to host concerts, artwork and lawn games, but it will be usable for no more than two years before the acres of newly laid sod and rows of fencing are ripped up to make way for an expanded convention center.

James E. Rooney, head of the MCCA justified the expense of creating the new, 2.7-acre open space, dubbed The Lawn on D, as a working experiment that will help fine-tune plans for a permanent green space farther up the block where there are currently state transportation department buildings.

"The idea in our research on great open spaces is that most of it has been redesigned two or three times before it achieves greatness," Rooney said. "And there is a lot of money in building open space and then rebuilding it, and then rebuilding it again. Our idea is to make this part of the design process, experiment with it, figure out what we did wrong, program it, figure out what worked and didn't work. Then build it once."

Rooney acknowledged that much of the area that has been spruced up — a once rock- and gravel-covered field now wired with electricity and Wi-Fi, hooked up with water and landscaped with trees and grass — will be torn up in 18 months to two years as the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center gets a $1 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot add-on.

"It's not all throw-away. Some of it we will be able to reuse," said Rooney, who noted that the event space, when not in use by conventioneers, will be open to the public to play bocce and ping-pong, and enjoy live music and interactive art. "We wanted to create a sense of space in the South Boston waterfront. ... Think of it as a college quad, that you just go out and just hang out with your friends, with Wi-Fi."

The MCCA said in May it was paying HR&A Advisors $200,000 for the concept and the design, and Chris Wangro, another New York consultant, $50,000 to develop programming for the space.

It is also a walkable connection to and from the Convention Center, D Street and the Aloft and Element hotels, as required under an agreement the MCCA has with their developers.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh called the lawn "really a great way of showcasing our city."

"It gives the neighborhood a sense of pride," Walsh said. "Having The Lawn on D is another way to make our city more innovative."

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Shoppers gear up to sales tax holiday weekend

BOSTON — Massachusetts shoppers hitting the stores this weekend will be able to enjoy a discount as part of the state's sales tax free holiday.

On Saturday and Sunday items at stores costing $2,500 or less will be exempt from the 6.25 percent sales tax.

A few items don't qualify for the tax break, including cars, motorboats, meals, telecommunications services, gas, steam, electricity and tobacco products.

For items costing more than $2,500, the sales tax applies to the entire price of the item. For example, if an item is sold for $3,000, the entire sales price of the item is taxable, not just the amount that exceeds $2,500.

Many retailers have welcomed the tax free weekend as way to lure in customers during a slow time of year.

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