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Feds award $20M grant to upgrade Ruggles T station

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 14 September 2014 | 00.48

Local and federal officials gathered in front of the Ruggles MBTA station yesterday to announce a $20 million federal grant that will help fund the construction of a new 800-foot commuter rail platform and a host of other improvements at the 27-year-old Roxbury transit facility.

"The vision set forth by President Obama for the TIGER grant program called for smart investment in transportation that will lead to expanded growth and opportunity," Gov. Deval Patrick said. "The improvements that will be made to Ruggles encapsulate that vision — shortening commutes, increasing transit access and catalyzing growth for this neighborhood and the city."

In addition to the new 9,600-square-foot rail platform, the project calls for replacing existing elevators, making the station fully accessible to riders with disabilities and restoring rail tracks at the station, which is served by 14 MBTA bus routes, seven private bus shuttles and Orange Line and commuter rail trains.

After completing the project's design work next spring, the MBTA will solicit bids from contractors and the two-year construction period is expected to begin in the fall of 2015, MBTA officials said.

"Transportation infrastructure is what gives us the opportunity for people to get to their jobs, for people to get to an education, for people to live in one place and get to another and keep a strong, vital city operating," U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said.

After the construction of the new platform more commuter rail trains will be able to stop at Ruggles, making the station a more convenient alternative for thousands of people traveling to and from the Columbus Avenue/Lower Roxbury corridor, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said.

Patrick said the project is a critical element in MassDOT's statewide goal of tripling the share of non-auto-based travel in Massachusetts by 2030.


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Hard to get over this Range Rover

As it turns out, perfection does have its price.

And at $121,390, the 2014 Range Rover Supercharged LWB comes close enough to achieving it. This car is a beauty with classic looks and impeccable road manners. It's a luxury SUV that drives like a sedan while making you feel like you're in your living room. It has style, speed and splendor.

This thoroughly refined SUV starts with comfortable, soft, supple leather seats. In summer, the Range Rover will keep you cool with ventilation emanating from perforated leather. In winter, heat greets you from the seat, the steering wheel as well as the dual zone climate control system. The front seat of the Range Rover even has a built-in massaging feature for recuperating from those long days at work.

Rear passengers will also experience the luxury. The 122.8-inch wheelbase increases the legroom to 47.5 inches so there's plenty of room to stretch your legs. The plush seats also recline up to 17 degrees. Rear passengers can also operate the panoramic sunroof while watching a video on screens mounted to the headrest.

Sporting the same engine as the Jaguar F-Type, the 5.0-liter supercharged 510 horsepower V8 gets you places fast. Going 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5.5 seconds, it smoothly accelerates thanks to a well-engineered 8-speed automatic transmission.

Snazzy 21-inch alloy wheels complement the Range Rover's distinctive front grille and sleek all-aluminum exterior.

The Rover has great safety features like side view mirrors with blind spot monitors and adaptive cruise control to keep the car collision free. The cruise control slows the vehicle down automatically to keep it from gaining on the car in front of you. Radar built-in to the rear bumper saves you from hitting objects and people in reverse.

The automatic terrain response system adjusts the suspension to match the speed and terrain. It handles so well in turns that you may forget you are in a top-heavy SUV that can roll over if you are careless. Speaking of things that can go wrong in a SUV, Land Rover even boasts that this vehicle can wade in 35.4 inches of water should it get caught in a flood.

The automatic parallel parking feature will blow your socks off. Push to activate the parking mode and it instructs you to drive until it sees an opening it can fit in. Once it sees a worthy spot, it instructs you to stop and put the car in reverse – then keep your hands off the wheel and watch as the car parks itself with finesse. Your only job, other than changing gears and touching the gas pedal, is to make sure the spot is legal.

This car is packed with features including a built-in 8-inch touchscreen GPS and a Meridian sound system which pumps out 825 watts.

The only caveat besides the massive price tag is the need for premium unleaded and lots of it. At 14 mpg in the city, you will be making plenty of fuel stops. But if you can afford a $121,390 car, you can probably afford to pay for the fuel.


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Prosecutors target credit card thieves overseas

WASHINGTON — Criminals from around the world buy and sell stolen credit card information with ease in today's digital age. But if they commit their crime entirely outside the United States, they may be beyond the reach of federal prosecutors.

Justice Department officials are seeking a tougher law to combat overseas credit card trafficking, an increasingly lucrative crime that crosses national boundaries.

Authorities say the current statute is too weak because it allows people in other countries to avoid prosecution if they stay outside the United States when buying and selling the data and don't pass their illicit business through the U.S. The Justice Department is asking Congress to amend the law to make it illegal for an international criminal to possess, buy or sell a stolen credit card issued by a U.S. bank no matter where in the world the transaction occurs.

Though prosecutors do have existing tools and have brought international cybertheft cases in the past year, the Justice Department says a new law is needed at a time when criminals operating largely in Eastern Europe are able to gobble up millions of stolen credit card numbers and commit widespread fraud in a matter of mouse clicks. Companies and banks, too, have been stung by faraway hackers who have siphoned away personal information.

"It's a very simple fix, and it makes perfect sense to fix it," Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell, the Justice Department's criminal division chief, said in an interview. "This is a huge law enforcement issue when it's our financial institutions and our citizens' credit card data that's being stolen ... by overseas people who never set foot in the United States."

The problem, though certainly not new, has evolved to the point that "a lot of these folks who are trafficking in these devices are overseas," Caldwell said.

The issue is more than hypothetical, Caldwell told a Senate subcommittee, as law enforcement agencies have identified criminals in other nations who are selling large quantities of stolen credit cards without passing the business through the U.S.

Officials say the crime is facilitated by online marketplaces where participants, cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet and trading data with the ease of eBay commodities, advertise, buy and sell credit card information stolen in data breaches. The credit cards are valued at different prices, generally depending on the balance, and swapped on Web forums that often operate in foreign languages and are primarily hosted in non-U.S. countries.

The cards are sometimes used to purchase valuable goods and sometimes converted into gift cards, Caldwell said. Some schemes dispatch large bands of criminals to make withdrawals from automated teller machines.

"It's a well built-up and sophisticated marketplace," said Chris Wysopal, a computer security expert and chief technology officer of the software-security firm Veracode.

The legislative request comes as prosecutors deal, more generally, with a growing cybercrime threat. Several recent cases illustrate the ease with which cybercriminals have managed to steal personal information.

In June, prosecutors announced charges against a prolific Russian hacker accused of running an operation that infected computers with malicious software, captured bank account numbers and passwords and then siphoned away millions of dollars. The man, Evgeniy Bogachev, remains at large.

The following month, authorities arrested the son of a Russian lawmaker on charges that he hacked into computerized cash registers and stole hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers. Roman Seleznev has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Seattle.

The Justice Department is hardly toothless in fighting the illegal sale of credit cards and has been able to make do with current statutes. Existing law would cover, among other crimes, anyone abroad who hacks into a U.S. computer, uses a stolen credit card inside the U.S. or transfers money into the country. And prosecutors can still bring a conspiracy charge when they can prove the suspect is part of a broader operation that reaches into the U.S.

But authorities say the loophole did surface in the case of Vladislav Horohorin, an international credit card trafficker arrested in France in 2010 for his role in the theft of more than $9 million from an Atlanta-based credit card processor. He was ultimately convicted for crimes committed in the United States, including selling stolen credit cards to an undercover agent, but the 2.5 million credit cards he had at the time of his arrest were not, by themselves, enough for a prosecution.

"The likelihood that a hacker in Russia can be brought to prosecution in the United States is very low," said Thomas Holt, an associate professor and cyberhacking expert at Michigan State University. "Any mechanism that can be employed to improve the potential for prosecution is absolutely a necessity at this point."

Caldwell laid out the dilemma in a July appearance before the Senate Judiciary crime and terrorism subcommittee.

The panel's chairman, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., was concerned about the problem and may address it as part of a bill targeting "botnets" — networks of computers infected with malicious software — he was drafting with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., his office said.

Even though the criminal conduct occurs outside the country's borders, its impact is still felt by U.S. financial institutions, Caldwell said in the interview.

"These credit cards are basically the key to the American financial system for these people, and they can just unlock people's accounts and take their money," she said.

___

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP


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US, EU levy sanctions on Russia despite cease-fire

WASHINGTON — Unsatisfied with a fragile cease-fire in Ukraine, the United States and the European Union levied new sanctions Friday against major Russian banks and defense companies, as well as penalties aimed at curtailing Russia's ability to develop oil and gas projects.

But the restrictions on Russia's energy sector were carefully crafted to avoid impacting the country's current production of oil and gas, a move that would raise global energy prices at time of weak economic growth. Russia is the largest oil exporter outside of OPEC and the most important supplier of natural gas to Europe.

The Western sanctions came one week after Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists signed a cease-fire aimed at ending a monthslong conflict. The agreement has been routinely violated, and U.S. officials say they are yet to see signs that Russia is implementing the deal in good faith.

If Russia and the separatists do follow through on the accord, U.S. and European officials say they could roll back this current round of penalties. But officials said that because Russia moved troops and weaponry into Ukraine in recent weeks, it was necessary to levy penalties now rather than wait to see what comes of the cease-fire. Russia denies having a role in the conflict.

"Today's actions demonstrate our determination to increase the costs on Russia as long as it continues to violate Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty," said David Cohen, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The West has levied multiple rounds of sanctions on Russia, contributing to slower economic growth there. But the penalties have had little impact on Russian President Vladimir Putin's calculus and U.S. officials privately acknowledge that there's no guarantee more sanctions will get him to stop his provocations in Ukraine.

The energy sanctions aim to move beyond inflicting immediate economic pain on Russia and instead focus on clouding its energy future. But there are also concerns that those penalties could ricochet and hurt Western businesses that are working with Russia on development projects, including U.S.-based Exxon Mobil and Britain's BP.

Both Western companies have ties to Rosneft, the Russian oil giant that was subjected to U.S. and European sanctions Friday. BP owns nearly 20 percent of Rosneft. Exxon's partnership with Rosneft is for exploring for oil in the technically difficult places that the sanctions target, including deep offshore, the Arctic offshore and shale deposits onshore.

Under the terms of the U.S. sanctions, Exxon will likely have to remove its engineers from those projects by a Sept. 26 deadline, which could slow or stop work on the projects. Exxon spokesman Scott Silvestri said Friday that the company is "assessing the sanctions" and that "it's our policy to comply with all laws."

Exxon, like all oil giants, is struggling to find and develop enough new oil to replace what it produces every day. Russia represents a huge opportunity for Exxon because it is one of the few places in the world that has enormous reserves of oil and gas that are open to Western oil companies.

Potential production, both for Russia and Exxon, is still many years off even without the sanctions. For now, that means the financial impact on Russia, Exxon and on oil prices is limited, according to Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

"This is a future play," Gheit says of Exxon's Russian exploration plan. "It's like drafting a 16-year-old kid for the Yankees. You have no idea if he's going to be a big league player."

The global price of oil fell slightly Friday, reflecting little concern in the market that oil supplies would be disrupted. Exxon shares fell $1.25 Friday to close at $95.78.

Beyond the energy sanctions, the U.S. and Europe moved to tighten restrictions on access to foreign capital for Russia's top banks. For the first time, the U.S. targeted Russia's largest financial institution, Sberbank of Russia, the country's largest financial institution, which the Obama administration said accounts for approximately a quarter of Russian banking assets and a third of its banking capital.

The U.S. also sanctioned Rostec, the Russian state-owned defense conglomerate that manufactures weapons and military equipment. The EU levied a travel ban and asset freezes on the head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, who was hit with similar penalties by the U.S. earlier this year.

The EU sanctions list included travel bans and asset freezes on 23 other officials, including four deputy Parliament speakers and leaders of the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

___

Fahey reported from New York. Associated Press writer Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed to this report.


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Art of stone exists in Roxbury

This one-of-a-kind stone house in Roxbury's Fort Hill neighborhood sits on a large lot in an area zoned for three-­families, offering an ­investor a chance to add to this charming single-family home.

The five-bedroom house at 34 Lambert St. was built in 1905 with native Roxbury puddingstone. It has five levels of living space, with a nice flow of rooms on front and rear levels separated by half-flights of stairs. The home has oak floors throughout, added by the current owner in 1984, and many of the original interior wood moldings and triangular-topped windows have been maintained.

Factored into the $895,000 asking price for the 2,556-square-foot home is the right to add two more connected units on its empty rear lot facing Norfolk Street.

A wood-sided entry foyer has oak floors and a coat closet, and there's stone facing along one wall.

To the right is a living room with 11-foot ceilings, a brick fireplace, two front windows and a side bay window bump-out. There's also an ­alcove that is used as a home ­office. Stairs from here lead down to a formal dining room with oak floors.

Adjacent to the dining room is a spacious kitchen that has lots of windows, white cabinets and white ceramic-tile floors. Redone in the mid-1980s, the Formica counters and black Jenn Air and Kenmore appliances could use some updating.

A half-bathroom added in 1984 is off the kitchen, along with an alcove holding a full-size washer and dryer.

The master bedroom is in the rear of the house up a half-flight from the living room. This oak-floored double-height room has a triangle-topped window set into a puddingstone wall and a light/fan suspended from the ceiling. A second, front bedroom also has oak floors. Between them is a full bathroom, redone in 1984, with ceramic tile floors and surround for a deep soaking tub as well as a walk-in shower.

A half-flight up is a bedroom currently used as a family room with oak floors and a fireplace, with views out another triangular-topped window.

A final half-flight leads up to two rear-facing bedrooms with hardwood floors that both offer decent city views.

The basement heating system was added in 1984, but there is no central air conditioning. The full basement has a workshop area and lots of additional storage space.

There's a shared driveway along the side of the house, and more parking in the large backyard lot.


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Cape Wind inks staging lease

Developers touted a lease agreement between Cape Wind and the state to use New Bedford for staging and construction of the controversial offshore wind project as a major milestone yesterday, but opponents say it won't bring the long-delayed plan any closer to fruition.

"It's just more of the same," said Audra Parker, president and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. "They've said since 2005 that it will begin construction next year."

Cape Wind will use South Terminal in New Bedford for its 130-turbine offshore wind project, Gov. Deval Patrick announced yesterday at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown. The agreement is a $4.5 million two-year lease, with two one-year extensions.

Officials said work will begin at the 28-acre facility in January.

"Cape Wind is not just going to serve Massachusetts, it's going to be built in Massachusetts, and we're very excited about that," said Patrick.

Cape Wind initially signed lease options with both the South Coast Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford and Quonset Point in Rhode Island. Cape Wind will file paperwork with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Tuesday to modify its plans, which Parker said could create further delays.

Patrick touted offshore wind as one of the solutions to the roughly 8,300 megawatts worth of power plants going offline.

"The world is changing; there's no doubt about that, and we need offshore more than ever," he said.

But Associated Industries of Massachusetts Vice President Robert Rio, who believes the estimated
$2.5 billion project is too costly to be beneficial to Massachusetts residents, said, "If we're relying on projects like Cape Wind to solve our energy crisis, we're in for an expensive run."

He added that the agreement "doesn't mean anything," and will likely have no bearing on the project's ability to move forward.


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Newspaper giant buyer unlikely to be big chain

Newspaper behemoth Digital First Media's announcement yesterday that it's exploring the sale of its publications, which include 16 Bay State papers, came as little surprise to industry analysts, who say any buyer will most likely be someone with deep pockets, rather than a traditional newspaper company.

"There might be attempts by local private investors, wealthy people who feel a sense of obligation to the community," said Boston University journalism professor Lou Ureneck.

Both Ureneck and Alan Mutter, a San Francisco-based media consultant, cited as an example Red Sox owner John Henry, who bought the Boston Globe last year. Ureneck also cited H.F. Lenfester, who bought the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News this year.

"The first people who will not buy it is someone like Gannett or Tribune Company ... because the newspaper business has been shrinking," Mutter said, "and there's no end in sight."

Ureneck said the announcement by Digital First Media, whose newspapers include the Lowell Sun and the Berkshire Eagle, was expected because the company — the nation's second largest newspaper publisher — is the combination of two previous newspaper companies that had a "reputation for a strong focus on the bottom line."

"The owner of Digital First is a hedge fund, and its private equity bet ... appears not to have worked out," he said. "If it sells, it is likely to be broken into regional pieces that make sense in terms of content, advertising and audiences."

Digital First said it has not set a timeline for completing its review process.


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Pike traffic woes to grow

Mass Pike commuters, already tested by construction that's reduced lanes and clogged traffic, have another, larger project to look forward to when the current one is finished.

The state Department of Transportation's launch of its estimated $260 million Allston interchange realignment likely will start in early 2017 — on the heels of the current Commonwealth Avenue bridge and median barrier project — and continue through 2020.

MassDOT wants to address significant structural deficiencies in the I-90 Allston viaduct and shift the Pike's alignment in that area so the curve is not as sharp — changes made possible when CSX Corp. discontinued its rail container operation in the Beacon Park Yard, MassDOT spokesman Michael Verseckes said.

It's too early in the design process to determine associated traffic restrictions, according to Verseckes. "Ultimately, the new segment of highway will have to be tied in to the ends on either side," he said.

Another public meeting on the interchange project's preliminary design and work schedule is set for Thursday.

Current work on the Pike — rehabbing of the Commonwealth Avenue bridge foundation and median barrier upgrades — has prompted the shutdown of a portion of the Pike's left lanes in both directions and snarled traffic. An on-ramp lane from Cambridge Street in Allston, for Pike eastbound travel, also has been closed. That $22.2 million project is expected to be finished in spring 2016.

"We understand that this project has created some traffic congestion ... particularly in the morning commute," Verseckes said. "Due to the various constraints with the physical, available right-of-way and the very close proximity to the commuter rail lines, we feel that this design is the only means to get the project done on a timely basis and still maintain safe operation."

Work in the Prudential tunnel portion of the Pike that has prompted night and early morning lane shutdowns, meanwhile, is expected to wrap up Oct. 15, according to the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. The MCCA project, which entailed removing the tunnel ceiling beneath the Hynes Convention Center, is now in cleanup phase, executive director Jim Rooney said.

"We've got to do some fireproofing to the underside of the Hynes, install some heat tracing on some exposed water pipes and drain pipes, and we've got some uneven walls that need to be repaired," he said. "It's kind of the finish work of the job."


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Will Apple's digital wallet kill the card swipe?

NEW YORK — Apple wants the plastic credit card to become as rare as the paper check.

On Tuesday, the company announced Apple Pay, a digital payment system that lets people pay for retail store purchases using their phones rather than cash or credit cards. The service, which will work both with iPhones and Apple's new Watch, is backed by a host of big retailers, along with most major banks and credit card issuers, including Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

So-called contactless payment isn't new. Starbucks, McDonald's, PayPal, Google and Square offer their own services, but only a small portion of customers use them. Some experts believe Apple Pay —with its presence on millions of iPhones and its advanced security features— could be the service that leads to widespread adoption of the digital wallet.

Citi Investment Research analyst Mark May believes the sum total of mobile payments could grow from $1 billion in 2013 to $58.4 billion by 2017.

Payment digitization paints an enticing vision of shopping's future: simply tap your device against a checkout screen and walk away with your new shoes.

But despite the flashy Apple Pay launch, Apple faces challenges making that vision a reality. The company and other digital wallet providers must convince shoppers that the transactions are safe —especially in the wake of recent high-profile data breaches at Home Depot and Target. Meanwhile, the company must also make a case to retailers that it's worth it for them to invest in new point-of-sale systems.

Many U.S. merchants still aren't sold on the idea. About 220,000 stores are set up to accept Apple Pay. That's only 5.5 percent of the 3.6 million retail locations in the U.S., according to the National Retail Federation. The biggest U.S. retailers, including Wal-Mart and Best Buy, are not participating in Apple Pay.

The main reason is cost. Each point-of-sale device, which uses something called near-field communication technology, costs hundreds of dollars, plus hours of worker training. And there's been little customer demand for the systems.

That may change now that Apple has entered the arena, says Gartner analyst Avivah Litan.

"There's no doubt young people want to use phones to make payments, but they have to have a place to pay," says Litan. She predicts bigger retailers will see how well Apple partners like McDonald's do before they move into mobile payments.

"If it goes well at other retailers, Wal-Mart and other companies may break down and start taking it," Litan says.

In countries such as Canada and the U.K., contactless point-of-sale systems are widespread, and as a result, such payments are far more common. In Canada, for instance, about 20 percent of transactions at registers processed by MasterCard are completed by contactless payment, according to MasterCard.

"What you learn from that is when consumers start 'tapping' two or three times, they never go back to their old behavior at that merchant. ... It's just a much better experience," says Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard.

One of the strengths of Apple Pay is its security. Its system uses the company's Touch ID fingerprint technology, a secure chip, and payments that require a one-time security code.

That kind of security — similar to the chip-and-pin credit card system used in Europe — would prevent the type of breaches that happened at Target and Home Depot. And it could be a compelling reason for retailers to adopt Apple Pay, Litan says.

"If you get enough people using the service, it would cut down on retailers' security costs, and that's why over time it may really take off," she says.

Still, not everyone is convinced that swiping a credit or debit card is that much of an inconvenience in the first place. Bill Ready, head of next generation commerce at PayPal, points out that near-field communication has been around for 10 years without catching on. His vision of the mobile payment future is more akin to an "e-commerce style transaction happening in the physical world," he says, citing the example of car-sharing service Uber, which works with PayPal to processes riders' payments by way of a mobile phone app.

"Uber addressed a real pain point, in that hailing a taxi and payment for a taxi is cumbersome," he says. "We're focused on those types of things more than killing the card swipe."

Even amid the differing visions, most experts agree that the march toward the digitization of payment will continue.

"Someone is going to figure out how to make mobile payments easy and cheap and then we're talking a real shift in consumer behavior," says Gartner's Litan.


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Patrick jetting off to Denmark on trade mission

BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is jetting off to Denmark on his latest trade mission.

Patrick is departing Massachusetts for Copenhagen on Saturday. On Sunday he plans to tour the Lilligrund Wind Farm off the Denmark coast with business leaders in the offshore wind industry.

On Monday Patrick meets with leaders in the biotech, life sciences offshore wind energy industries before heading off to London.

After visiting London, Patrick's European tour continues in France with stops in Paris and Lyon.

Patrick is being joined by cabinet secretaries, academic officials and business leaders.

Patrick said his goal is to expand opportunities between Massachusetts and European countries in the innovation economy, clean tech, digital gambling, financial services, and education sectors.

It's his fourth major trade mission this year.

The trip wraps up on Friday.


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