'Lego Dimensions' game from Warner Bros. to meld Batman, 'Lord of the Rings' and more

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment this fall is slated to launch "Lego Dimensions," a videogame that combines physical toy figurines and fuses together universes from multiple WB and Lego properties, including DC Comics' Batman, "The Lord of the Rings," "The Lego Movie, "The Wizard of Oz," Lego Ninjago, "Back to the Future" and others yet to be announced.

The game, set to launch Sept. 27, 2015, is developed by TT Games in partnership with Lego Group. "Lego Dimensions" will be available for Microsoft's Xbox One, Sony's PlayStation 4 and PS3, and Nintendo's Wii U.

With "Lego Dimensions," for the first time in a Lego videogame, characters from multiple entertainment franchises will join forces to battle in worlds outside of their own -- a concept borrowed from titles like Disney Infinity, the Mouse House's successful game.

"'Lego Dimensions' expands our Lego videogame franchise with a breakthrough, immersive interactive entertainment experience that will redefine the toys-to-life games category," Jeff Junge, Warner Bros. Entertainment's SVP for Lego and TT Games. "'Lego Dimensions' will bring fans innovative and joyful gameplay with an amazing mashup of huge brands in both the physical and digital worlds."

In addition to the game, the "Lego Dimensions" starter pack will include: the Lego Toy Pad, letting players transport special Lego minifigures and other Lego objects into the game; bricks to build the Lego Gateway; and three Lego minifigures: Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle from "The Lego Movie"; plus the Lego Batmobile.

The "Lego Dimensions" starter pack will be priced at $99.99; level packs will be listed at $29.99, with team packs at $24.99 and fun packs at $14.99 each.

Separately, WB Interactive last month announced plans for mobile game "Lego Batman: Beyond Gotham," also produced by TT Games, in which the Caped Crusader joins forces with superheroes of the DC Comics universe.

In addition to the three minifigures included in the starter pack, WB will sell additional expansion packs, which will provide new buildable characters, vehicles, tools and gadgets, as well as game content with mission-based levels and unique in-game abilities.

The expansion packs for "Lego Dimensions" to be available in 2015 include: a "Back to the Future" level pack with a Lego Marty McFly minifigure; a Lego Ninjago team pack with Kai and Cole minifigures; three Ninjago "fun packs" with Jay, Nya and Zane minifigures; two DC Comics fun packs with Wonder Woman and Cyborg minifigures; three "Lord of the Rings" packs with Gollum, Gimli and Legolas minifigures; four "Lego Movie" packs with Emmet, Bad Cop, Benny and Unikitty characters; and a "Wizard of Oz" pack with a Wicked Witch of the West minifigure.

"'Lego Dimensions' is unlike anything that we have ever done," commented Niels Jørgensen, VP of digital games for Lego. "It further extends the Lego play experience into the digital world with all of the characters, humor and action of Lego videogames now combined with the fun of Lego minifigure and model building."

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

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GE pares off financial unit and returns to industrial roots

General Electric is leaving the lending business, a major source of both profit and risk, as it continues to whittle its focus down to an industrial core.

The company said Friday that it will sell most of its GE Capital assets over the next two years, shedding businesses in a sector where it has had a tough time generating acceptable returns. GE also plans to repurchase as much as $50 billion of its own stock.

Shares of GE climbed to their highest price in almost two years Friday after the company announced the buybacks and the return to a simpler focus that investors have favored.

In addition to the GE Capital sale, the company will sell most of its GE Capital Real Estate to funds managed by the investment firm Blackstone. Wells Fargo will buy a portion of the loans at closing. The company plans to sell additional commercial real estate assets that will bring the total value of the deals to around $26.5 billion.

The once broadly diverse conglomerate has been steadily shedding businesses as it focuses more on building industrial machines like aircraft engines and medical imaging equipment and selling big, complex products like power generators and oil and gas equipment.

Last September, it announced the sale of its appliance division to the Swedish appliance maker Electrolux for $3.3 billion. Before that deal, it spun off its consumer credit card business into a new company, Synchrony Financial. In recent years it also has sold NBC Universal and its insurance operations.

An extended run of low-interest rates has made GE's latest divestiture more feasible for the company.

"We see a very attractive market for selling our assets," GE Capital Chairman and CEO Keith Sherin told investors during a conference call. "Bottom line, we think the timing's right to execute this strategic shift."

With the shift, GE expects that more than 90 percent of its earnings will be generated by its industrial business by 2018. That compares with 58 percent in 2014.

While the financial division generates nearly half of the company's profit, is also presents a huge regulatory burden and has caused some anxiety for investors. Heavy exposure to commercial and residential mortgages threatened GE's existence during the financial crisis.

Company officials noted that GE Capital's return on equity slipped to 8.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year from 13.1 percent in the final quarter of 2008. The company plans to shed most of its commercial lending and leasing segment, including all of its U.S. and international banking assets.

GE is moving back toward a business that investors can understand better, said Edward Jones analyst Logan Purk.

"At the end of the day, when half your business is a bank, you get a lower valuation and less credit in the marketplace," he said.

GE is already in talks with regulators about removing its designation as a "Systemically Important Financial Institution," which comes with a myriad of requirements not asked of an almost purely industrial entity.

The company will keep parts of its financing business related to its industrial operations, like GE Capital Aviation Services, Energy Financial Services and Healthcare Equipment Finance. The company says it will record about $16 billion in after-tax charges in the first quarter.

But the company also said it expects to return $90 billion to shareholders through the buyback, its dividend and the Synchrony split.

Shares of GE soared almost 8 percent, or $2.04, to $27.77 in midday trading Friday, while broader indexes were largely flat.

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Healey: Forgive student debt

Attorney General Maura Healey, along with attorneys general across the country, is asking the federal Department of Education to forgive the student loan debt of students who they say fell victim to unfair and misleading practices by for-profit schools.

"These are situations where students are simply seeking a way to better themselves, and they get lured in by these false promises, and then they're on the hook for $15,000, $20,000," Healey said. "I've heard from so many people who were victimized by these schools."

Healey and the top law enforcement officials for eight other states sent a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan yesterday, saying students at schools operated by Corinthian Colleges, including Everest Institute in Chelsea and Brighton, were taken advantage of and asking that their federal loan debt be wiped out.

"At the end of the day, these students were nothing but a pass-through for these schools to get their hands on federal dollars," Healey said. "The welfare and education of students was not their priority; it never has been."

Corinthian reached an agreement last year with the DOE to sell or shut down its campuses. The AG's office sued Corinthian a year ago, claiming students were misled about the schools' track record, and were pressured into accepting loans. The AG has also targeted three other for-profit schools, and Healey said "there are a number of schools under investigation."

A spokesman for Corinthian said the allegations against it focus on isolated incidents.

"Corinthian continues to dispute the allegations made against it and continues to believe its schools provide significant value for its students," the spokesman said.

The letter also asks the Department of Education to create a framework for students of other schools that have been deemed predatory.

"Through their predatory practices, these unscrupulous for-profit schools have co-opted a public loan program intended to increase access to higher education and left hundreds of thousands of students in financial ruin," the letter says. "Aggressive recruitment is the only thing these for-profit schools do well."

The letter says for-profit schools are responsible for nearly half of all student loan defaults, despite only enrolling 13 percent of all students who borrow.

In December, a group of U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, sent a similar letter to the DOE.

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Lawsuit says Wall Street executive overcharged on contracts

WASHINGTON — Two former employees of a helicopter company owned by a prominent Wall Street financier allege that she exploited a connection with an Army colonel to charge the U.S. government inflated prices for rotorcraft.

In documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alabama, the whistleblowers said Lynn Tilton offered the officer, Norbert Vergez, a lucrative job long before he retired from military service as a way of inducing him to make contract decisions favorable to her company, MD Helicopters of Mesa, Arizona.

Attorneys for Tilton have disputed the allegations, calling them weak and implausible.

In a separate but related move, Vergez, who went to work for Tilton after hanging up his uniform, has agreed to plead guilty to false statement and conflict of interest charges. The plea deal with U.S. government attorneys follows a lengthy Justice Department investigation into his stewardship of an Army acquisition office in Alabama and subsequent hiring by the flamboyant and outspoken Tilton.

An arraignment and plea hearing for Vergez, 49, are scheduled for April 20 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The civil suit filed by former MD Helicopter employees Philip Marsteller and Robert Swisher under the False Claims Act came two days after U.S. attorneys unveiled the plea agreement with Vergez. Their lawsuit, which expands on a complaint they first lodged nearly two years ago, paints a dark and more detailed picture than the one presented in the plea agreement Tuesday by the federal government.

That agreement indicated that Vergez's actions, while serious, were limited. He failed to disclose a $30,000 check from his future employer and a $4,000 Rolex wristwatch his wife received as a gift from a foreign company. Vergez also caused the terms of a contract with MD Helicopters to be adjusted in its favor and made a false statement to the Pentagon's inspector general.

The agreement does not mention by name Tilton, MD Helicopters, or Patriarch Partners, her private equity firm and holding company. Tilton and her companies have not been charged.

Marsteller and Swisher, by contrast, depict a prolonged and mutually beneficial business relationship between Tilton and Vergez that covered a period during which MD Helicopters was awarded tens of millions of dollars in helicopter contracts managed by Vergez's office. Tilton and Vergez talked and met frequently — over drinks in Arizona and dinner in Dallas, at Vergez's home in Huntsville, Alabama, and aboard Tilton's private jet, according to the whistleblowers.

MD Helicopters has described Marsteller and Swisher as "disgruntled former employees." Tilton's lawyers said the allegations that her dealings with Vergez were improper or nefarious are baseless. MD Helicopters "sold helicopters to the government at fair and reasonable prices based on proposals that were truthful," they said in a motion requesting that the court dismiss the case.

Tilton describes herself as the business world's "turnaround queen." She buys financially struggling companies and attempts to make them profitable. When she acquired MD Helicopters in 2005, it had fewer than three dozen employees and was on the brink of bankruptcy. Eight years later, it had nearly 500 employees, according to an interview Tilton gave in 2013 to Bloomberg's Businessweek. The about-face, she said, was due largely to "a lot of new business with the U.S. Army."

A lot of that new business came from the Army office Vergez commanded from early 2010 until he retired nearly three years later.

According to the lawsuit, Tilton first became impressed with Vergez after he informed her in March 2011 that an announcement would soon be made that MD Helicopters had won an Army contract potentially worth $186 million for helicopters to train Afghan air force pilots. The helicopters the Army would buy for the Afghans cost $2.3 million each. But MD Helicopters was selling that same model to commercial customers for $400,000 less, the lawsuit said.

"Tilton told her employees that Vergez 'got us this Afghan contract, he has great connections and he will drive our Army business,'" the lawsuit said.

From that point, it was known among a small group of MD employees that Tilton intended to hire Vergez when he retired from the army, according to Marsteller and Swisher.

MD Helicopters received what the lawsuit called a "highly unusual concession" in June 2012 when the company received a nearly $41 million contract to deliver helicopters to the Saudi Arabia National Guard. MD Helicopters was struggling financially at that point, according to the lawsuit, and Vergez used his influence to ensure the company was paid more quickly than normal so it could meet the terms of the contract.

The lawsuit said Marsteller and Swisher told their superiors that employing Vergez at MD Helicopters would be illegal. Vergez ultimately was hired to work for Patriarch, they said, although they said he was directly involved in MD Helicopters' day-to-day business.

Doubts about the hire also echoed in the office of the company's top lawyer, according to a wrongful termination lawsuit filed in Arizona state court by David Ruppert, former general counsel at MD Helicopters.

Ruppert, a Naval Academy graduate and a former Marine, said he expressed concern when he was asked about the possibility of the company hiring "a former United States military employee." The lawsuit, filed in late December, doesn't include names, but the circumstances and timing of events described in it make clear he is referring to Vergez.

Ruppert's lawsuit has been sealed by the court, but the Associated Press obtained a copy.

In August 2013, MD Helicopters and Patriarch Partners received notice that the Justice Department's investigation was underway. Ruppert was wrongfully accused by his employer of being an informant and assisting the government with its inquiry, according to the lawsuit. He was fired by MD Helicopters in early January 2014.

Vergez is no longer employed by any of Tilton's companies, a spokeswoman for Patriarch said.

"Col. Vergez has fully accepted responsibility for his conduct," said Lee Stein, his attorney. "This has been a difficult process and Col. Vergez is looking forward to putting it behind him."

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Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rplardner

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Connector OKs risk adjustment

The state Health Connector board yesterday voted to proceed with an Obamacare provision that small health plans say will move millions of dollars from them to the state's largest insurer based on flawed data.

"We remain very concerned about the impact it will have on the Massachusetts marketplace," said Eric Linzer, vice president of public affairs and operations for the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. "Our preference would have been for the connector board to delay finalizing those regulations, given the ongoing data integrity issues."

The connector board voted to approve regulations to implement the Affordable Care Act's risk adjustment provision, which would require insurers to pay into a pool that would be distributed among companies based on the overall health of their members.

Smaller insurance companies have lamented that the data used to calculate this is imperfect, and say they will have to pay more, while larger insurers with sicker populations such as Blue Cross Blue Shield will reap the benefits.

The state is required by the federal government to start the process to adopt the risk adjustment provision this year, according to the connector.

But Linzer said state and federal agencies have compromised on other Obama­care issues, such as rating factors, and that the MAHP "would consider this to be in the same bucket."

According to a Blue Cross Blue Shield spokeswoman, "Nearly every major government program uses risk adjustment, including Medicare and Medicaid," and it is "standard practice" in the health care industry.

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Prep Charter plans to build new $24.5M school

Boston Preparatory Charter Public School has filed formal plans with the city to build a permanent school in Hyde Park for an estimated $24.5 million.

The college preparatory middle and high school, which has been leasing the former Most Precious Blood parochial school in Hyde Park since its 2004 founding, plans a three-story, approximately 48,000-square-foot school about a mile away at 875 River St., across from the Shops at Riverwood plaza.

"The new building will provide many program areas and design features that BPCPS does not have in its current leased facility, including dedicated science labs, a library, small-group instructional spaces, a gym, cafeteria, outdoor athletic space and seamless technology integration," according to plans filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The school, which accepts students in grades 6 through 12 through a public lottery, has about 400 enrolled, primarily low-income minority youths from Hyde Park, Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury.

It is raising equity through a capital campaign and plans to finance the rest of the privately funded project through a bank, according to executive director Sharon Liszanckie.

"All public charter schools get a per-pupil rate (of funding from the Department of Education) ... and we get a small allocation for facilities spending, but we don't get any money at all to support the building and construction," she said.

Another Boston charter school, the 17-year-old music-oriented Conservatory Lab Charter School, also has plans for a new school in Roxbury that would replace two temporary locations in Brighton and Dorchester for about 450 pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

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Parking fines go up for Red Sox game days

Beginning Monday on Opening Day, people who park in resident-only spaces in the neighborhoods around Fenway Park during Red Sox games will have to pay more than double the usual fine.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday signed an ordinance — passed by the City Council Wednesday — that will pilot increasing the fine from $40 to $100 to discourage game attendees who don't live in those neighborhoods from parking in resident-only zones.

"This ordinance is a great step forward for residents of the Fenway, Kenmore Square and Audubon Circle," said City Councilor Josh Zakim, who sponsored the ordinance. "These changes will help restore the parking balance in the neighborhoods around Fenway Park during some of the busiest months of the year."

The increase in fines will take effect two hours before any Major League game at Fenway Park and extend to two hours after the game. Fines also may be hiked during other Fenway Park events on a case-by-case basis.

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Hot Property: Communities the ‘new neighborhoods’

From pet-washing stations and green roofs to bocce courts, yoga studios, fire pits and screening rooms, Boston-area apartment and condo complexes are piling on the amenities.

With studios fetching upward of $2,000 per month and $1 million-plus condos, developers are sweetening the deal — so much so that the complexes are becoming the "new neighborhood," according to Boston Realtor David Bates.

"The new buildings have so many exciting amenities," Bates said. "A lot of them go out of their way to create community, to create that sense of things you get from a neighborhood."

Millennium Partners is exporting its La Vie lifestyle program — exclusive activities and social events for condo residents that have included fireside chats with notable guests and culinary and theatrical events — to its new Millennium Tower project in Boston's Downtown Crossing after success at its nearby Millennium Place.

"It's so hot they copyrighted the whole thing," Bates said. "It really goes over well."

Tenants are looking to connect, whether it's electronically or in person, said Kay Nilakantan, general manager of Van Ness, Samuels & Associates' 172-unit luxury apartment complex in the Fenway neighborhood, where residents will start moving in June 1.

"There seems to be more focus and attention on communal spaces where customers can gather together," Nilakantan said.

But communal spaces these days go far beyond a bland shell of a community room. At the Van Ness, there's a poker area in an alcove and a TV lounge with a billiards table connected to a separate conference room. There's also a rooftop lounge with grills and a fifth-floor green terrace.

"Since we're developing a lot of buildings in one neighborhood, we want each building to have its own personality and be different from each other," said Peter Sougarides, Samuels' executive vice president of development.

The Van Ness' green design and amenities take cues from the Emerald Necklace park system that extends through the Fenway. Thousands of plants will be growing on the "living wall" in the lobby, and the green terrace is almost a half-acre of green space with trees and grass.

Amenities also are geared toward pet owners: a secure "bark park" at Atmark in Cambridge and even an "indoor dog relief area" at 315 on A in Fort Point.

The Merc at Moody & Main, Northland Investment's Waltham apartment complex that started leasing this week, has a dog-bathing room. "We're also arranging for other services we can bring in for pet owners," senior vice president Peter Standish said.

The Merc will include a lounge with a fireplace, a billiards room, a library, a rooftop deck and a club room with a full kitchen that can be used for parties or cooking demonstrations. "One of the important things we like to include is areas where people can gather together and really use that as an extension of their apartment," Standish said.

Developers also up the ante to rival outside fitness centers, with yoga and spinning rooms, and virtual training. "You can have an instructor who's offsite, and they get on the screen and take you through your workout," Bates said. "Some have exercises bikes that connect over the Internet, and you can race your friend in California."

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Latest on Apple Watch release: Shopping begins

11:09 a.m. EDT.

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster estimates that launch day supply (the models available for shipping on April 24th) was largely sold out within the first 10 to 30 minutes of going on sale. "We view this as an indication of solid demand paired with very limited supply, with supply being the most significant limiting factor," he writes in a note Friday morning.

___

10:57 a.m. EDT (6:57 a.m. PDT).

It's quiet outside the Apple store in downtown Palo Alto, California, which is one of the company's flagship retail locations, on University Avenue in the heart of Silicon Valley. In past years, Apple fans have held festive overnight vigils outside the store and lined up on the sidewalk to be among the first to buy the latest models of iPhones and iPads.

But three hours before the store is scheduled to open, the only people outside are a local television crew and a couple of passersby who stopped briefly to watch the crew file a live report. Inside the store, Apple retail workers can be seen through the glass doors setting up displays, including a line of glass-topped cases containing the new watches.

— AP Technology Reporter, Brandon Bailey

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10:45 a.m. EDT.

If you haven't already ordered an Apple Watch, don't expect to get one when it starts shipping on April 24.

Apple's store in the U.S. is citing delivery of June or "4-6 weeks" for most models, including large expensive luxury versions with leather bands. The large version of a stainless-steel model with a black link bracelet won't be shipping until July — for $1,099.

When Apple has done advance orders in the past, it makes inventory available in stores for launch day — in this case, April 24. But Apple has no plans for that this time. For the foreseeable future, all orders must be handled online, even if you visit a store to try one on.

— Anick Jesdanun, AP Technology Writer

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10:28 a.m. EDT.

Tanien "David" Wang was the first to enter Apple's store on New York's Upper West Side. Employees clapped and cheered as Wang raised both arms over his head in triumph.

The 48-year old plumber knew which Apple Watch he wanted — the large Sport version with a black band for $399 — but he came to an Apple store rather than order online so that staff could walk him through it.

Friends in China have asked him to order some watches, since they are cheaper in the U.S. (The same model costs $481 in China.) Smiling, Wang says he wants to see their money first.

— Anick Jesdanun, AP Technology Writer

___

10:21 a.m. EDT.

Why is Apple insisting on online orders, even for those who come to a store to try on the watch?

Inventory management seems to be a big reason. Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president for its stores, said the company expects "strong customer demand will exceed our supply at launch. To provide the best experience and selection to as many customers as we can, we will be taking orders for Apple Watch exclusively online during the initial launch period."

The try-on visit "gives the air of concierge service and something extra to the process, while operationally it's pretty smart for them," says Anne Zybowski, vice president for retail insights at the consulting firm Kantar Retail in Boston.

It's not unprecedented in retail to have a sales representative walk you through your options before buying. Think wedding dresses and home furnishings.

These visits are "more for people who are on the fence and want to explore what it is," says Ben Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies. Those who already know what they want will likely just buy it online.

— Anick Jesdanun, AP Technology Writer

___

10:07 a.m. EDT.

Apple hasn't offered any estimates of how many watches it expects to sell, but some analysts have predicted sales could reach 10 million to 20 million units in the first year. Veteran Apple watcher Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, has offered a more conservative estimate of 8 million. He expects about 300,000 advance orders on Friday, with about 1 million watches sold in the first weekend after they become available for shipping on April 24.

By comparison, Apple sold more than 10 million of its new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones in the first weekend they were available in September, and a record total of 74.5 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of last year. Munster has said he expects the Apple Watch will see healthy sales growth over the next three years. But he cautioned in a recent report that the smartwatch is still a new product category and said "it will likely take time" for the appeal to extend beyond hard-core Apple fans.

— Brandon Bailey, AP Technology Writer

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9:51 a.m. EDT.

Victor Leung is grinning from ear to ear after finishing his watch appointment at the 5th Avenue store and ordering the sport model. The student says he's been waiting for this launch since September and is the first among his friends to get the Apple Watch.

"It's awesome," Leung says. "You get texts on your watch, make phone calls." While he has tried other smartwatches, he thinks "Apple is different," more unique.

Andrew Klink snapped a photo of the sports watch display case. "My boyfriend wants it," says the retired American who is visiting New York from his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He's "not sure this is something anybody needs," but likes the simple design, the matte color of the sports watch strap, and the clasp.

"It's handsome, and I think reasonably priced," he says.

— Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer

___

9:03 a.m. EDT.

As Apple's 5th Avenue store in New York City prepares to open, journalists and Apple employees outnumber people waiting for the watch.

Robert Jose, who has lined up in the drizzle not for a watch but to get a charger and exchange his iPhone, thought it would be a "little crazier" given the usual hoopla around iPhone launches.

"It doesn't look like Black Friday yet. No fists flying," the retail worker says. Caught up in the excitement anyway, Jose wants to "get in there" to get a glimpse at the watch.

Physician Asif Luqman has made an appointment to look at a steel version.

"I'm not getting it, just want to try it on. I like watches a lot," he says. He wants to see it because it is the first of its kind. Apple, he believes, has put in the time and the effort to make a high-quality watch. He's not getting it though.

"I'm waiting for the next version," he says. "I want a watch that can function on its own." Now it's a small screen on your wrist for your phone. "I don't need that."

As a doctor, he's also concerned about battery life. His phone already dies halfway through the day, the watch dies faster and not enough people will have it yet to have chargers laying around, he says.

— Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer

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7:30 a.m. EDT (12:30 p.m. in London)

In London's Covent Garden, a tourist hotspot, a buzz is growing in the Apple flagship store as dozens of fans come to check out the new Apple Watch.

Some crouch over glass counters to play with sample watches, while others who had pre-booked appointments try them on their wrists.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time," says Carl Walsh, a 43-year-old company director. "It's beautifully developed, but I'll probably want to wait a bit and see what people say about the battery life."

The watch is Apple's first new product category since the iPad came out five years ago. Analysts are waiting to see how well the watch will sell beyond devoted Apple fans. Apple has a better chance at succeeding than any other smartwatch maker so far, yet it will likely take time before sales reach the kind of numbers that Apple gets for iPhones and iPads.

Watch prices start at $349, but can go as high as $17,000 for a luxury edition in gold. People can try the watch on in Apple stores, but for now all orders are being handled online. Shipments begin April 24.

Regy Selsaas, 42, is here to see if the watch would make a good gift for his wife.

"It's more like a gadget than a phone," he says, wincing at the high price tag of the luxury version. "It's really beautiful but expensive. I'm not 100 percent convinced."

Jay Carroll, 15, needs no persuading. He and his mother Sarah placed an online order first thing Friday, but the two still wanted to try it out in store.

"I'm looking forward to just having it there on my wrist, so I can be on my phone all the time," he says.

—Sylvia Hui, AP writer

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5:30 a.m. EDT (6:30 p.m. in Tokyo):

The curious in Japan form a long line in Isetan department store, where a special section was built just for the Apple watch.

The 70-square-meter (750-square-foot) modernist box with black floors and walls is staffed by about a dozen workers clad in black.

Only 20 customers are allowed in at a time, and only those with advance reservations or who showed up early enough to get one of 76 lottery tickets got to try the watch on.

The rest could only look at a display of 19 watches under a glass showcase. They range in price from about 43,000 yen ($360) to 2,800,000 yen ($23,300) for the luxury edition in gold.

— Noriko Kitano, AP writer

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5 a.m. EDT (5 p.m. in Shanghai):

In central Shanghai, potential Apple watch buyers stand in lines two to five people long over their lunch hour at an Apple store to try on the watch many say they already planned to buy.

"It was beautifully made, like an expensive watch," says Li Hao, 27, a Web designer who owns a Mac, an iPad and an Apple TV. He has just traded up from an iPhone 4 to the new iPhone 6 Plus.

China was among countries where the watch had its global debut Friday, reflecting the country's fast-growing status as one of Apple's most important markets.

Li said he planned to buy the sport version of the watch at about 3,000 yuan ($500).

"I cannot do sports with the mobile phone," he said. "I need a machine to record what I did and a screen to look at."

Qi Tian, 26, who works in human resources for a real estate company, says he is "not a big fan" of Apple, though he owns four or five products. He says he plans to order a watch online that day.

"I just came to see if the size fits," says Qi.

— Fu Ting, AP researcher.

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3:01 a.m. EDT (12:01 a.m. in Cupertino, California):

Ready, set, go ...

Apple starts taking orders for the watch on its website and Apple Store app. Currently, this is the only way Apple is selling the watch. Even those visiting retail stores will have to order online — either at home or at a Web terminal inside the store.

The retail stores are meant for customers who aren't sure which watch case, band or size they want — or aren't sure they even want one. Staff will be on hand to help customers try on the watches and answer questions before buying. Customers are encouraged to make an appointment online, though walk-ins will be accepted — just expect a wait.

It's available in the U.S. and eight other markets around the world. In the U.S., the watch is available only in Apple stores. In some countries, select department stores and resellers also have it.

— Anick Jesdanun, AP Technology Writer

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Analyst downgrades Apple shares as smartwatch goes on sale

NEW YORK — As consumers trekked to Apple stores to try on the company's smartwatch for the first time, a Raymond James analyst downgraded shares of the tech giant, saying its first product launch under CEO Tim Cook poses "more risk than reward."

Analyst Tavis McCourt downgraded the shares to "Market Perform" from "Outperform," saying fiscal 2016 is shaping up to be difficult year for the company compared to this year. While sales of the Apple Watch won't be a big part of the company's earnings for some time, McCourt said reviews have not been great and investors may start to worry that the company is going to struggle with launching new products.

"Early reviews on Apple Watch suggest it will fall far short of the 'insanely great' benchmark, at least in this first iteration," he said. While Apple has launched several new versions of the iPhone in Cook's nearly four-year tenure as CEO, the Apple Watch is its first entirely new product in that time.

McCourt raised his profit and revenue forecasts because he thinks iPhones are selling well in China and expects an increased stock buyback by the company. He set a price target of $124 on the stock in January and expects shares to stay around their current prices.

Shares of Apple Inc. have climbed 69 percent over the last 12 months. They reached an all-time high of $133.60 in February and lost 29 cents to $126.27 in midday trading.

Consumers were allowed to pre-order the Apple Watch starting at 3 a.m. Eastern time on Friday. They can also make an appointment to come to Apple stores to try on the watch and test out some of its features. The first people who pre-ordered the device are expected to receive it in June.

Some analysts expect the company to sell 10 million to 20 million watches in the first year alone, but others are less optimistic. Based on a Raymond James survey, McCourt said around 22 million iPhone users plan to buy the product. That's a small percentage out of around 400 million iPhone users, he said, but it's a large number of buyers.

The Cupertino, California-based company is scheduled to report its fiscal second-quarter results after the market closes on April 27.

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Turks and Caicos Islands signs $224M hotel development plan

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — The government of the Turks and Caicos Islands has announced an agreement with a hotel developer to build a $224 million resort project on the most populous island of the British territory.

A statement from the governor's office says the Desarrollos Hotel Group will build the 124-room hotel, resort, casino and spa in the Grace Bay area of Providenciales and the Ritz Carlton Hotels Co. LLC will manage the property.

Premier Rufus Ewing welcomed the boost to the luxury tourism market during a signing ceremony Thursday in the island chain southeast of the Bahamas. Construction is scheduled to start in November and take three years.

Desarrollos Hotel Group previously announced plans to develop a 380-room JW Marriott Hotel and Casino in Providenciales. It is scheduled to open next year.

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Wage hike move sparks protest at McDonald’s

Boston-area fast-food workers and their supporters demonstrated outside a McDonald's yesterday, a day after the company announced it was giving workers at restaurants it owns a pay raise — a move protesters said was a publicity stunt that would only help about 10 percent of its employees.

Passing drivers honked their horns in support as about 50 people gathered outside a McDonald's on Massachusetts Avenue, vowing to keep up pressure on the company to raise wages for all employees to at least $15 an hour and acknowledge their right to unionize.

"I shouldn't have to struggle just to survive," said Darius Cephas, 23, who has been working at a Dorchester McDonald's for 2 1⁄2 years and makes $9.25 an hour.

Beginning July 1, employees at about 1,500 restaurants McDonald's owns in the U.S. will be paid at least $1 an hour more than the local minimum wage, and those who have worked for the company a year or more can accrue paid time off. But those changes won't apply to employees of McDonald's franchisees, the bulk of the company's more than 14,300 locations, who set wages for their own employees.

"This is an important and meaningful first step as we continue to look at opportunities that will make a difference for employees," McDonald's said in a statement yesterday.

But one of the protesters, state Sen. Daniel A. Wolf (D-Harwich), who has filed legislation that would raise the minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour for workers at fast-food restaurants and big box retailers, said when companies such as McDonald's and Wal-Mart refuse to pay their workers a living wage, forcing them to turn to public assistance, taxpayers end up footing the bill.

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Helping new grads calculate rent

With cap and gown season approaching for local colleges, a new interactive mapping tool reveals the best places for newly 
minted graduates to live based on how much of their salary would go toward rent.

"College graduates today face the challenge of entering an increasingly expensive rental market on an 
entry-level salary," said John Doherty, senior marketing manager at San Francisco's HotPads, an online apartment and home rental search engine. "That's why we created this tool — to provide clarity into where they can best afford to live in the cities where they're accepting jobs."

Grads can search interactive maps for 11 of the 
nation's largest metropolitan areas, including Boston.

After selecting their profession from a drop-down menu, they can click on the neighborhoods of each city and surrounding communities to see the median per-person monthly rent for studio to three-bedroom apartments and what percentage of their gross salary would be devoted to paying rent. HotPads used census data for full-time, 22- to 30-year-old workers with four-year college degrees for the median incomes provided for entry-level occupations.

A computer programmer making $60,000, for example, would pay 52 percent of his salary on rent in the Back Bay, where the median per-person rent is $2,600 per month, according to the HotPads map. In Dorchester, where the median per-person rent is $750, the figure drops to 15 percent.

With parents likely no longer footing the bill for rent, recent grads who want to stay in Boston and avoid the college crowds can look near Cleveland Circle, off Beacon Street in the Strathmore and Chiswick roads area of Brighton, 
according to Cari Hook, a real estate broker at Metro Realty Corp. in Brookline.

"You kind of avoid a lot of the undergrad crowds, 
because students want to be closer in general to school," Hook said. "You can find one-bedrooms ranging from $1,450 to $1,650. You can find studios for $1,150 to $1,400."

First-year medical residents coming to Boston right now to work in the Longwood Medical area are heading outside of the hospital area for rentals, 
according to Hook.

"They make $59,000, and they can't afford Brookline or Fenway anymore, so they're heading to Jamaica
Plain," she said. "Hyde Square is very good."

"It's tough right now," Hook said of the rental market, pointing to the pipeline of luxury apartments in the Fenway, Seaport District and Downtown Crossing. "We have no idea who's going to afford those. Even couples are still going to have to pay $1,500 each, and that's a lot for a starting salary."

Immediately outside of Boston, a dietician or 
nutritionist earning a $36,105 salary would find themselves paying 43 percent of that on rent in Cambridge, ($1,283 per month median per-person rent) and 30 percent in Somerville ($900).

There's an influx of 23- to 27-year-olds looking to live in Somerville's Davis Square, according to Craig Scanzio of Benoit Real 
Estate Group in that city.

"It's the place where kids want to live once they get out of college," Scanzio said. "They room together in three- and four-bedrooms, and each one is paying $800, $900 month."

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Hiring slowdown: US employers added just 126K jobs in March

WASHINGTON — A weakening U.S. economy spilled into the job market in March as employers added just 126,000 jobs — the fewest since December 2013 — snapping a 12-month streak of gains above 200,000.

The unemployment rate remained at 5.5 percent, the Labor Department said in its monthly report Friday.

The March jobs data raised uncertainties about the world's largest economy, which for months has been the envy of other industrialized nations for its steadily robust hiring and growth. Employers now appear wary about the economy, especially as a strong dollar has slowed U.S. exports, home sales have sputtered and cheaper gasoline has yet to unleash more consumer spending.

Some of the weakness may prove temporary: An unseasonably cold March followed a brutal winter that slowed key sectors of the economy.

Last month's subpar job growth could make the Federal Reserve less likely to start raising interest rates from record lows in June, as some have been anticipating. The Fed may decide that the economy still needs the benefit of low borrowing costs to generate healthy growth.

Reflecting that sentiment, government bond yields fell Friday. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.84 percent from 1.90 percent before the jobs report was released. U.S. stock markets are closed in observance of Good Friday.

Economists noted that for months hiring had been stronger than other gauges of the economy, suggesting that a pullback in job gains was inevitable.

"Job growth has been running at a stupendous pace in America over the last several months, increasingly out of tune with other economic indicators, which have pointed to a slowdown," James Marple, senior economist at TD Economics, wrote in a research note. "The reckoning in March closes at least some of this gap.'"

At the same time, some said last month's data looks bleak in part because hiring had been so robust in the months that preceded it.

"Employers aren't laying people off," noted Patrick O'Keefe, director of economic research at the accounting and consulting firm CohnReznick. "What they've decided to do is slow down the pace at which they're hiring until they have more confidence."

Last month, the manufacturing, building and government sectors all shed workers. Factories cut 1,000, snapping a 19-month hiring streak. Construction jobs also fell by 1,000, the first drop in 15 months. Hiring at restaurants plunged from February. The mining and logging sector, which includes oil drilling, lost 11,000.

Some other categories showed continued gains. Health care added 22,000 workers. Professional and business services — a sector that includes lawyers, engineers, accountants and office temps — gained 40,000. Financial services expanded by 8,000, and retailers maintained their 12-month pace by adding 25,900.

In addition to reporting sluggish hiring for March, the government revised down its estimate of job gains in February and January by a combined 69,000.

Wage growth in March remained modest. Average hourly wages rose 7 cents to $24.86 an hour. That marked a year-over-year pay increase of just 2.1 percent. But because average hours worked fell in March for the first time in 15 months, Americans actually earned less on average than they did in February. Tepid pay increases have been a drag on the economy since the Great Recession ended nearly six years ago.

Many Americans remain out of the labor force, partly because many baby boomers are reaching retirement age. The percentage of Americans who are either working or looking for work fell in March to 62.7 percent, tying the lowest such rate since 1978.

Job growth had been healthy for more than a year before March. Yet the streak of strong hiring, along with cheaper gasoline, hasn't significantly boosted consumer spending.

The Fed signaled last month that it would be cautious in raising rates from record lows. The Fed has yet to rule out a June rate hike. But many analysts expect the first increase no earlier than September. In part, that's because Fed officials have revised down the range of unemployment they view as consistent with a healthy economy to 5 percent to 5.2 percent from 5.2 percent to 5.5 percent previously. The weak hiring last month could give them further pause about a June rate hike.

"I think (June) is completely off the table," said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at the financial services company Northern Trust.

The Fed won't likely raise rates until it sees evidence of consistently solid growth. But the economy has weakened in the first two months of 2015, in part because of the tough winter.

Cheaper oil has led energy companies to halt orders for pipelines and equipment, hurting manufacturers. At the same time, the strengthening dollar has made American-made goods costlier abroad, thereby cutting into exports.

This year's job growth has yet to ignite a larger boom in consumer spending. McDonald's, Wal-Mart, the Gap and other major employers have announced raises for their lowest-paid employees. But those pay raises are staggered and unlikely to fuel faster wage growth.

The economy has disproportionately added lower-paying jobs in the retail and restaurant sectors since the economic recovery began in mid-2009. Adding jobs in the lowest-paid industries can suppress average hourly wages, even when employers are rewarding cashiers, waiters and sales clerks with pay bumps.

___

AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.

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Marty Walsh, Stephen Lynch want feds to nix local pipeline OK

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and elected officials representing West Roxbury are asking federal regulators to reconsider their approval of a natural gas pipeline proposed near an active quarry, saying it's a potential public safety nightmare and they won't stop fighting it until the plans are changed.

"We can't compromise the public safety, we've got to fight," U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch said. "Most people, even a layperson, would understand that it's not a wise decision to locate a high pressure gas pipeline in an active blast zone."

The officials yesterday filed for a rehearing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which last month issued a final environmental impact statement to allow the expansion of Spectra Energy's Algonquin pipeline. In West Roxbury, the pipeline would run along Washington Street and Grove Street, with a metering and regulation station next to a quarry that uses dynamite.

"I think they've got a very dangerous three-legged stool between a high pressure pipeline in a residential neighborhood next to a highly active quarry," said Andrea Carlson, a West Roxbury resident and member of Stop the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline.

Spectra Energy defended the safety of the pipeline.

"Spectra Energy takes safety very, very seriously," said spokeswoman Marylee Hanley. "Spectra Energy spends $1 billion a year on integrity management on our pipelines."

But Walsh said the pipeline "poses real public safety risks," and Lynch said he and the mayor have met with the attorney general to discuss legal options.

"I said (to Spectra), think of us as plaintiffs, because that's where we're going," Lynch said. "We know we're going to have to get lawyered up here."

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Jury orders Chrysler to pay $150M in Jeep fire death

NEW YORK — A jury in Georgia has awarded $150 million to the family of a 4-year-old boy killed when a Jeep Grand Cherokee exploded into flames three years ago after being rear-ended. The jury said Chrysler, the maker of Jeeps, must pay nearly the full amount.

Jurors in Decatur County ruled Thursday that Chrysler acted with reckless disregard for human life in selling the family of Remington "Remi" Walden a 1999 Jeep with a gas tank mounted behind the rear axle.

Walden, of Bainbridge, Georgia, was killed when the Jeep driven by his aunt was hit from behind by a pickup truck in March 2012. The fuel tank leaked, engulfing the Jeep in flames and killing the boy.

The verdict comes nearly two years after Chrysler compromised with a federal safety agency and agreed to a scaled-down recall of some older-model Jeeps with the rear-mounted tanks. The tanks have little structure to protect them if struck from behind, making them susceptible to punctures and fires.

Federal documents show that at least 75 people have died in post-crash fires because of the rear-mounted fuel tanks.

The 11-woman, one-man jury ruled after a nine day trial that Chrysler was 99 percent at fault for the crash and the pickup driver was 1 percent at fault. Jurors also determined that Chrysler failed to warn the family of the hazards of driving the Jeep. They ruled that the Waldens should get $30 million for Remi's pain and suffering and $120 million for the full value of his life, according to a verdict form.

Mike Palese, spokesman for Chrysler parent company FCA US, said the company is disappointed with the verdict and would appeal. Chrysler, he said, was prevented from presenting data submitted to federal safety regulators showing that the vehicles did not pose an unreasonable safety risk.

"The vehicles are not defective," Palese said.

Although the verdict is large, it isn't the largest judgment ever against an automaker in a personal injury case. In 1999, for example, a California jury ordered General Motors Co. to pay $4.9 billion to Patricia Anderson and Jo Tigner after their Chevrolet Malibu was rear-ended and burst into flames. In that case, four children in the back seat were severely injured. The amount was reduced on appeal to $1.2 billion.

And in 2004, a woman paralyzed when her Ford Explorer rolled over won a $369 million verdict from Ford Motor Co. That was later reduced to $83 million, which Ford eventually paid after exhausting its appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond law school, said it will be difficult for Chrysler to overturn a jury verdict, but an appeals court might reduce the amount. He questioned Chrysler's decision to take the case to trial because of the horrific nature of the crash.

Tobias said the Walden verdict is likely to lead others to sue the company or to speed along cases that are already in the system.

Chrysler has long contended that the Jeeps were no more dangerous than comparable SUVs built at the time. It used that argument to convince the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2013 to allow it to recall 1.56 million Jeeps after the government agency initially recommended that 2.7 million be repaired. Under the recall, Chrysler agreed to install trailer hitches in the rear as an extra layer of protection.

Safety advocates have called the size of the recall and the fix inadequate. On Thursday, Clarence Ditlow, the head of the Center for Auto Safety, called on the government to reopen its investigation against Chrysler.

NHTSA spokesman Gordon Trowbridge said late Thursday that the agency monitors legal decisions and "if new information emerges, we take it into account and act appropriately."

Atlanta attorney Jim Butler argued during the trial that Remi's death resulted from the fire because of the gas tank's poor position. The child was on his way to a tennis lesson when the SUV was struck from behind.

"Numerous witnesses saw Remi struggling to escape and heard him screaming for help," the family's lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit alleged that Chrysler placed the gas tank in a "crush zone" behind the rear axle and knew the location was dangerous, and that the company failed to protect the gas tank against rupturing.

Trial testimony showed that the compromise with safety regulators over the recall was worked out in a Chicago airport meeting between Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and ex-NHTSA Administrator David Strickland. Ditlow noted that Strickland now works for Venable, a law firm that has represented Chrysler.

___

Durbin reported from Detroit.

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The Ticker

Plans filed for 69-room hotel in West Roxbury

Plans have been filed with the city for a 69-room hotel — the King David Hotel — in West Roxbury.

Builder Nissim Trabelsi is proposing a four-story limestone and brick hotel with a restaurant and bar, ballroom, indoor pool and exercise room on a three-acre site at 1625 VFW Parkway.

"We intend this location to serve as a model first hotel in a national hotel chain," Trabelsi said in documents submitted to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, noting King David Hotels Corp. plans a public offering to raise $10 million.

Adidas, BAA, and Marathon Sports team up for RunBase museum, store on Boylston St.

Adidas and the Boston Athletic Association are collaborating with Marathon Sports to open RunBase — a store and museum that will sell running shoes and clothing and celebrate the Boston Marathon.

The 2,000-square-foot store at 855 Boylston St., at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, will be an "epicenter" for running, according to the companies and BAA, which organizes the marathon. It's slated to open this month.

The year-round RunBase will sell Adidas footwear and seasonal and official Boston Marathon merchandise and sport inspirational displays with items from the BAA archives. Hosted events will include community runs, expert speakers, visits from elite athletes, training plan assistance and nutrition education. A special treadmill will allow customers to run any part of the marathon route with simulated visuals and terrain, and runners also will be able to use RunBase's changing room, lockers and showers.

Revere mayor: Probe MBTA-Wynn land sale

The mayor of Revere is asking the state inspector general and the attorney general to investigate the sale of MBTA land to a subsidiary of Wynn Resorts, which is seeking to build a casino in Everett.

Gov. Charlie Baker said yesterday his administration is looking into the issue, while a Wynn spokesman declined comment.

In a letter Wednesday to Inspector General Glenn Cunha, Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo said the MBTA and Wynn knowingly closed on the land transaction before the completion of a review under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). Rizzo sent a similar letter yesterday to Attorney General Maura Healey.

Rizzo wrote that the MEPA office has confirmed the MBTA's conveyance of the land to Wynn was "illegal."

On March 3, Wynn Resorts reported it closed on a $6 million purchase of 1.75 acres of MBTA land next to the site of its $1.6 billion casino.

TODAY

• Labor Department releases employment data for March.
• The Savings Bank Life Insurance Co. of Massachusetts has announced that Matthew C. Regan III has joined the company as senior vice president and general counsel. Prior to joining SBLI, Regan spent 17 years with the Massachusetts Division of Insurance.

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Boston Redevelopment Authority joins digital world

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has converted its 108 property leases into digital files and is preparing to audit if it has received all of the money it was owed after a scathing report last year faulted the agency for losing track of delinquent rent payments and having no centralized way to track them.

Some 100,000 pages of lease documents — most of them with tenants of BRA-owned property at the Marine Industrial Park in the Seaport District and the Charlestown Navy Yard — have been scanned and will be entered into a property management system the BRA has purchased.

The system will send agency staffers automatic reminders when lease payments are due, when deals are expiring, and if tenants owe money and are up to date on insurance. Previously, the complex lease agreements were only on paper and housed in a variety of locations.

"It's going to bring us into the 21st century," BRA Comptroller LeAnn Coleman said. "We're going to be able to proactively manage it to look at what leases have option dates that are upcoming, so we can make better decisions about what's happening with our lease portfolio."

The agency, for instance, will be able to use the system to ensure new rental rates are negotiated in advance of leases expiring, Coleman said.

In an audit last year, accounting giant KPMG found that the BRA and its subsidiary, the Economic Development Industrial Corp., had allowed a combined $5.1 million in delinquent rent to go uncollected as of last April because of the agency's lax, archaic record-keeping. By November, the BRA said it had brought the outstanding rents down to $950,000.

The audit also faulted the agency for not having a "central repository" for its documents and for lacking "internal controls" and standard business "document protocols."

The new system — which the BRA will pay $30,000 a year to license, in addition to startup costs — will also allow the BRA to easily track the hodgepodge of different payment clauses contained in leases.

Once the system is up and running, Coleman said the BRA will perform an audit to ensure it is properly billing for and collecting all payments.

"There will be no detail left unturned, believe me," Coleman said.

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Belk department store chain considers sale

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Department store chain Belk is considering a possible sale.

The company issued a statement Thursday saying it was considering all options for its future.

Belk said it has retained the Goldman Sachs investment bank to help study its best options. That process is expected to take several months.

There are nearly 300 Belk's stores in 16 Southern states. The company has more than 1,300 employees at its corporate offices.

Goldman Sachs would not talk about the situation.

Belk was founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk. Most of Belk's 41 million shares of stock are still owned by the Belk family.

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Some maple sap this season headed from tree tap to beer tap

CHATHAM, N.Y. — The maple sap bubbling away in Ron Davis' upstate New York sugar house is destined for pancakes, waffles, sweets and — for years now — beer kegs.

The local syrup adds a touch of woodsy sweetness to the maple amber beer made by nearby Chatham Brewing, one of a cadre of craft brewers nationwide bridging the gap between tree tap and bar tap. The amount of syrup destined for pint glasses from this spring's maple run is a relative trickle, but maple beers offer something for the growing numbers of local food lovers and craft beers aficionados.

"It's not sugary or something like a cider," said Will Richard, drinking a pint with friends at the brewery's bar near the Massachusetts line. "You have that almost like a hickory taste that you get from maple syrup but just not the overwhelming sweetness of it."

Maple beers fit into an artisanal age that sees craft brewers extracting flavor from bananas, oysters, Sriracha sauce and, inevitably, bacon.

Many maple brews are often offered seasonally to coincide with spring maple runs or autumnal leaf falls. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Hinterland sells its maple bock January through April. Chatham's maple amber is a year-round offering. And while craft brewers will add syrup at different points in the brewing process, Chatham head brewer Matt Perry pours it into to the maple amber after fermentation so that the syrup flavor comes through. He favors the darker, heavier syrup from later in the run.

In Vermont — the woodsy heart of America's syrup-making belt — brewer Sean Lawson of Lawson's Finest Liquids has become a sort of maple maestro with brews like Sticky Ale and Maple Tripple Ale, which is brewed with maple sap.

"It's amazing the way the maple flavor carries through to the finished beer," Lawson said.

On a recent day at Chatham Brewing, Perry slowly poured some of Davis' sticky syrup from a pitcher into a stainless steel carbonation tank, where it dissipated into the bubbling brew. Perry said the maple mixes better with a malty beer as opposed to the assertively hoppy beers popular now among craft drinkers.

"This is a really good gateway beer to craft for a lot of folks," Perry said. "It's a little bit more agreeable to the palates that aren't used to craft beer."

Chatham Brewery is in a rural area popular with weekenders from New York City and distributes its beers regionally. Davis is a retiree whose Blackberry Hill Farm is close by. He has been tapping trees since the early 1970s, even using metal buckets in the early days.

Maple tappers like Davis log long hours in the sugar house this time of year, when daytime temperatures creep higher amid cool nights. It took a little longer this year because of the frigid winter, but by the end of March, the plastic tubes spider-webbed from some 800 taps were flowing with clear, watery sap.

Davis boils an average of 150 gallons each spring in his sugar house in a wood-fired boiler that fills the small space with billowing steam. Most will still be bottled as syrup for local sales. About 25 to 35 gallons of syrup a year goes to the nearby brewery, an extra flow of business that Davis is happy to have.

"He takes it in five-gallon containers," Davis said. "So it's a lot less bottling."

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Spruce up home for spring rush

With the busy spring real estate season starting, it's time for sellers to spruce up their property.

The work can go a long way toward luring potential buyers clicking through the photos that accompany online listings as well as bump up a home's selling price.

For sellers on a limited budget, painting can work wonders.

"Paint is our No. 1 go-to tip and trick before we do anything," said Peter Souhleris, co-star of the A&E TV show "Flipping Boston" and co-owner of CityLight Homes of Peabody. "Just $200 in paint has given us back $20,000 to $30,000 versus if you left it and you thought to yourself, 'Oh well, someone is going to come in and paint it the way they want.' It's just the biggest bang."

For those with bigger budgets, stagers are an option for empty homes.

"Every builder, every flipper is watching every penny they have, so the fact that so many of them do stages attests to the fact that it obviously brings added value to the house," said Betsy Konaxis of BK Classic Collections Home Stagers in Beverly. "I basically can bring in furniture for empty homes so that ... each room is identified for what it is. It helps create that image of how (buyers) want to live."

Stagers also will work with a sellers' own decor, laying out furniture and redistributing wall art.

"The process starts online," Konaxis said, referring to photos illustrating home listings.

"You don't know who you eliminated because they didn't like what they saw online. I look at everything through the camera lens."

De-cluttering a home is something that owners can tackle on their own. "It's packing up as much as necessary, making your space look as big as possible," said Rosalee DiScipio of McGeough Lamacchia Realty in Waltham. "Knickknacks, personal items, excessive family pictures — stuff like that we always recommend to put away."

Buyers should be able to picture themselves in a home.

"If they see your family in this house, it's going to be harder for them to imagine being (there)," DiScipio said. "It's a mental thing."

Lighting is an easy way to modernize and brighten up a home for short money, said Souhleris, who suggests fixtures that are simple and clean. "Get rid of anything that has brass and oak in it or any of the old ceiling ones that have brass and gold," he said.

Curb appeal also is key. Clear gutters, make sure downspouts drain water away from the house, clean up yard debris, mow the lawn, weed, and trim overgrown bushes.

"If the front is looking bad, it becomes a 'drive-by,'" Souhleris said.

But in a tight real estate market, with not as much inventory of homes for sale, do sellers really have to bother with a spruce-up?

"We see some houses sitting that are bruised and abused," DiScipio said. "Had they done some upgrades, maybe they wouldn't be sitting for as long. But if you just want to be done, list it at the right price, and it will sell."

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New Balance gives Boston its sole

New Balance is releasing a new running shoe with a distinctive Boston flavor just in time for next month's 119th Boston Marathon.

The limited-edition Fresh Foam Zante Boston sneaker features the Boston skyline on its insole and the word "Fastah" on the sole — that's "faster" in Boston parlance. New Balance also inscribed its logo with "Boston."

"With its extraordinary culture of both sports fanatics and fitness fanatics, it's safe to say that nobody runs like Boston," the company said in a statement.

The sneakers go on sale for $114.95 at New Balance's Boston store and on newbalance.com on April 6.

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The Ticker

House votes Suffolk Downs simulcast race extension

With just days until a license is set to expire for Suffolk Downs, the House passed a bill yesterday giving the racetrack another month to simulcast races while lawmakers continue work on legislation allowing live racing to continue for the next two years at the track.

Suffolk Downs' license to simulcast is due to expire March 31 and the bill passed in the House gives the track until April 30.

Suffolk Downs announced in late February that it had reached an agreement with the New England Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association on a two-year deal to lease the East Boston track to the horsemen. The agreement, which would allow for live horse racing in 2015 and 2016, is subject to approval by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the Legislature. The House and Senate both passed measures in a midyear spending bill that would authorize simulcasting and up to 50 days of live horse racing at Suffolk Downs through July 31, 2016. That bill has bogged down over disagreements between Democratic legislative leaders on other policy matters.

Treasurer wants pension fund changes

Treasurer Deborah Goldberg yesterday proposed using the $61 billion pension fund to make a stand on corporate diversity, environmental stewardship and wage equality issues.

A subcommittee of the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board signed off yesterday on a new policy developed by Goldberg that would direct the Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board to use its proxy vote as an investor to oppose nominees to corporate boards unless at least 25 percent of a board's membership is made up of women and minorities.

Goldberg's policy would also direct PRIM to vote for corporate policies that invest in renewable energy and would ask companies in which PRIM invests to provide energy efficiency policies, to stop "misleading advertising" to young people, to increase health warnings on cigarettes, to adopt formal recycling policies, and to implement human rights standards and workplace codes of conduct.

PRIM holds stock in roughly 9,000 companies, and can vote on corporate policies and board appointments as a shareholder.

Baker names new revenue commissioner

The Baker administration yesterday introduced a former managing director of Bain Capital as the state's next revenue commissioner.

Mark Nunnelly next week will take over the post from Amy Pitter. Nunnelly was also named as special advisor to Baker for technology and innovation competitiveness.

Nunnelly, who joined Bain Capital in 1989 as a managing director, has held a number of leadership roles as part of the firm's growth and global expansion, and worked extensively in the business services and technology industries. Nunnelly became a special limited partner of Bain Capital in 2014 and serves on several not-for-profit and for-profit boards of directors.

• ROI Corp. has announced the appointment of Denis Mezheritskiy of Concord to the position of business broker. Mezheritskiy will assist individuals interested in selling their businesses as well as potential buyers.

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Obama praises payday lender rules, vows veto of limitations

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Embracing proposed new rules aimed at payday lenders, President Barack Obama on Thursday said working families need protections from heavy debt burdens and warned Republicans that he would veto attempts to unravel regulations that govern the financial industry.

Obama praised the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for its proposal to set standards on a multibillion-dollar industry that has historically been regulated only at the state level.

"One of the main ways to make sure paychecks go farther is to make sure working families don't get ripped off," Obama told about 1,800 people at Lawson State Community College.

Obama's remarks come on the same day the consumer agency was announcing the proposed payday lending rules in a hearing in Richmond, Virginia. Payday loans provide cash to borrowers who run out of money between paychecks. The short-term loans carry high interest rates.

The rule would require lenders to make sure that borrowers can afford to pay the money back.

"If somebody lends you money then we expect you to charge interest on that loan," Obama said. "But if you're making that profit by trapping hard-working Americans into a vicious cycle of debt, you've got to find a new business model. You've got to find a new way of doing business."

Before his remarks, Obama met with community leaders working on lending protections and later praised bipartisan efforts to address potentially catastrophic debt loads on families.

"You have some very conservative folks here in Alabama who ... are reading their Bible, they're saying, 'Well, that ain't right," Obama said.

Obama says the Republican budget, a version of which just passed the House of Representatives, would make it harder for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to do its job. The budget is a nonbinding measure that serves as a blueprint for ensuing legislation.

"If Republicans in Congress send me a bill to unravel Wall Street reform, I will veto it," he said.

Obama also used his speech in Alabama for a broader attack on the Republican budget. He said Republicans aim to cut taxes for wealthy individuals.

"I don't think our top economic priority should be helping a tiny number of Americans who are already doing extraordinarily well, and asking everybody else to foot the bill," he said.

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Hotel bid process seen as ripe for collusion

Massport is allowing development groups seeking to build an $800 million Seaport District hotel to team up with the same hotel partners, creating an unusual situation that critics say could be exploited and lead to collusion if a hotel chain was to share one bidder's sensitive financial information with its competitor.

"If a bidder is clued in on another's bid, the integrity of the process could be compromised and the public may wind up with a raw deal," said Mary Z. Connaughton, director of government transparency for the Pioneer Institute. "I would hope there would be some type of firewall. The hotels themselves would be privy to two different bids and each one will be asking for some form of public subsidy ... They need tight controls to make sure collusion does not exist."

According to Massport, it has received six bids from developers to build the new headquarters hotel on two Massport-owned parcels at Summer and D streets as part of the planned $1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

One development group, Boston-based Fallon Co. and Capstone Development of Washington, D.C., has submitted three separate bids, each with a different hotel brand: Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels and Marriott International.

Another development team, Boston-based Accordia Partners and RIDA Development of Houston, has submitted two bids, one with Hilton Worldwide and another with Marriott International.

A third group, New Boston Hospitality, has teamed up with only one hotel partner, Omni.

Massport spokesman Matthew Brelis defended its request-for-proposals process, saying it will spur more bids and greater options for the authority.

"This is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country and the more bids we receive, the greater the competition and ability to negotiate on behalf of the public. Four different hotel brands expressed interest, including Hilton and Marriott, with more than one developer. That speaks to the strong market, and the national hotel brands' eagerness to win," Brelis said. "Each of the hotel bids are unique. If any evidence of collusion by national hotel brands surfaces in our review, then we will take appropriate action."

David Tuerck of the Beacon Hill Institute said the "potential clearly exists" for hotel operators to share information between the different bidders, raising the issue of how the hotels could uphold a fiduciary responsibility to competing clients. It could also weaken Massport's leverage, he said.

"It seems to me they have already lost bargaining power when they have permitted bids from companies that are sharing hotel operators in their proposals," he said. "It creates a downward pressure because it is in the interest of the bidders to bid as little as possible."

Fallon, Capstone and Marriott did not return repeated messages. Kirk Sykes, manager of Accordia, and RIDA both declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Hilton defended its decision to partner with competing developers, saying in a statement, "This process was mandated by the MCCA and Massport ... All parties involved were simply following the rules they've outlined."

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Census: Florida city tops list of fastest-growing areas

ORLANDO, Fla. — Sure, Florida's got sunshine, beaches and palm trees. But the driving force behind it being home to many of the nation's fastest-growing cities has been the return of hospitality, trade and construction jobs.

New figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau showed Florida was home to six of the nation's 20 fastest-growing metro areas from July 1, 2013, to July 1, 2014. During that time, the state added another 192,000 people and surpassed New York to become the nation's third most-populous state with 19.9 million residents. Only California and Texas have more people.

"Part of the population growth is everybody is coming back since there are jobs aplenty and construction is on fire," said Jeff Briggs, planning manager for the City of Winter Park, one of the most affluent communities in metro Orlando.

RETIREMENT HAVEN

The Villages retirement community located northwest of Orlando was the nation's fastest-growing metro area last year with a 5.4 percent increase that raised the population to 114,000 residents. The community is known for its golf carts, which are used almost as much as cars, and for the sometimes frisky behavior of its 55-and-older residents.

"It's always hectic in The Villages," said Paula Roberts, an office manager for Ronnie's Plumbing, which services The Villages. "The traffic can be bad, bumper to bumper, especially when the snowbirds are down here."

The other Florida metro areas in the top 20 were Fort Myers, Naples, Orlando, Sarasota and Panama City. Of those metro areas, Sarasota, Fort Myers and Naples would have had negative or stagnant growth if not for the influx of new residents. Those areas recorded low numbers of births and high numbers of deaths.

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BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITIES

While some of Florida's smaller metro areas were the nation's fastest-growing communities, in pure numbers, Florida's population growth was driven by new people moving to the state's largest cities along the Interstate 4 corridor and in South Florida.

More than half of Florida's growth last year came from three metropolitan areas: South Florida, Orlando and Tampa.

South Florida, an area stretching from Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade County with 5.9 million residents, had the eighth-highest population increase in the nation with a jump of 66,000 new residents from July 2013 to July 2014. International migration — people moving in from other countries — accounted for three-quarters of the growth, while natural population growth made up the rest.

Metro Orlando, with a population of 2.3 million people, increased by about 50,000 new residents. Domestic migration accounted for under half of the growth, international migration represented less than a third of the growth and natural increase made up less than a quarter of the growth. Natural growth compares the number of babies born to the number of deaths.

The Tampa region increased by 41,000 people and now stands at 2.9 million residents. Domestic migration made up more than two-thirds of the growth and international migration accounted for more than a quarter of the increase. Natural growth barely registered.

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DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS

Texas snagged the top spots in both numerical increase by person for counties and metro areas.

Harris County, Texas, leads the nation in population growth by person, with the county surrounding Houston adding 89,000 people between July 2013 and 2014, followed by Maricopa County, Arizona, with 74,000 and Los Angeles County with 63,000.

The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metro area was also the top in metro area numerical increase with 156,371 people added between 2013 and 2014, followed by the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area with a 131,217-person increase and the New York-Newark-Jersey City-Pennsylvania area with a 90,797-person increase.

Texas had four of the fastest-growing metro areas: Austin, Odessa, Midland and Houston. South Carolina had three: Myrtle Beach, Beaufort, and Charleston. Colorado had two: Greeley and Fort Collins.

OTHER FACTS

—California was the nation's most populous state in 2014, with 38.8 million residents. Texas came in second at 27 million.

—Los Angeles County had the nation's largest population among counties with more than 10.1 million people.

—New York was the nation's largest metro area, with about 20.1 million people.

—Williams County, North Dakota, remained the nation's fastest-growing county with a population of more than 10,000 people. It increased by 8.7 percent from 2013 to 2014, followed by Stark County, North Dakota, at 7 percent. Sumter County, home of The Villages, grew at 5.4 percent.

—Detroit was still losing people. Wayne County, Michigan, has the nation's largest numerical decline at just less than 11,000. The next closest county? Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland, lost slightly more than 4,000 people.

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Holland reported from Washington.

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Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mikeschneiderap

Online:

U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov

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Twitter launches Periscope live-streaming video app

Twitter has launched live-streaming video app Periscope, developed by the startup it bought earlier in 2015 for a reported $100 million, upping the battle with overnight mobile-app streaming sensation Meerkat.

"We think it's a perfect complement to Twitter, which is why we acquired the company in January," VP of product Kevin Weil wrote in a blog post Thursday.

The Periscope app is available as a free download for iOS devices from Apple's iTunes Store. The launch of Periscope comes after Twitter in January upgraded its mobile apps to let users capture, edit and post videos -- up to 30 seconds in length -- complementing the company's six-second looping Vine clips.

The sudden mania for live-streaming personal video comes after Twitch last summer shut down Justin.tv, one of the first live-streaming video services on the Internet. Meerkat, which launched last month, quickly captured the attention of the digerati -- providing a simple, instant way to broadcast live video to followers. (Twitter responded by cutting off the Meerkat app's access to the Twitter social graph service.)

Separately, Meerkat has reportedly raised $12 million in additional funding led by venture-capital firm Greylock. Other investors in Meerkat include YouTube founder Chad Hurley; Jared Leto; Sound Ventures; Comcast Ventures; Universal Music Group; Raine Ventures; Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video; WME; CAA; and UTA.

The Periscope app, according to the company, lets users push a button -- and inform followers on Twitter that they're live-streaming video. "We wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation," the Periscope team writes in a blog post. "A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around."

How Periscope or Meerkat will make money, though, remains in question. Neither company has explained the business model for live-streamed video. But already, Meerkat has attracted high-profile experimenters including Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," who has used the service to broadcast behind-the-scenes segments from his show.

Twitter's new Periscope app could be a long-term "positive game-changer for the company," Rosenblatt Securities analyst Martin Pyykkonen wrote in a research note Thursday.

"Periscope enables live streaming video from mobile and other devices, which effectively can mean personalized live video content delivery over the Twitter platform," Pyykkonen wrote. "We think this could have profound implications for usage/engagement on Twitter and be one other challenge for traditional linear media delivery, as users would spend more time selectively watching live-streaming video from people and subjects that they follow as part of their Interest Graph."

According to Twitter, Periscope requires iOS 7.1 or later and is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. When a live broadcast is over, users can make it available for replays for up to 24 hours. In addition, the Periscope app tracks how many "hearts" (favorites) each broadcast receives from followers.

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

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Uber, insurance companies agree on bill

Ride-sharing company Uber has reached an agreement with major insurance companies on a model bill that would cover drivers anytime they are working.

"It's a national agreement with a number of major insurance carriers to come together and agree on some negotiated insurance language for state legislation of transportation network companies," said Meghan Joyce, general manager of Uber East Coast. "We can use (the agreement) to provide clarity to insurance across the nation."

Uber and Lyft — which also signed the agreement — have been criticized for gaps in insurance coverage, as well as blurring the line between personal and commercial insurance policies. The agreement, which will be sent to state legislators across the country, provides lawmakers with a compromise both sides have already agreed to.

"Auto insurance carriers, Transportation Network Companies, and trade associations stand together in support of this insurance legislation, and encourage you to utilize this language," the letter to legislators says.

Uber and Lyft have faced scrutiny from cab drivers and local governments that want regulations for ride-sharing companies to put them on a level playing field with taxi companies.

Gov. Charlie Baker's administration is in the middle of its own regulatory process, and expects to file a bill in the coming weeks.

Bill Pitman, a Baker spokesman, said: "The administration continues to engage with municipalities, industry leaders and public safety advocates as it works to draft a statewide regulatory framework that embraces innovation and enhances the safety of riders and drivers."

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Meerkat vs. Periscope: Live-stream video apps ride latest digital wave

Live-streaming video is the next big thing in social media, and now Twitter has thrown its hat into the ring with Periscope, a new app that lets anyone with a cellphone show off their ukulele chops in real time around the world.

Released yesterday, Periscope will go head-to-head with Meerkat, which also lets users live stream video from cellphones with a single touch and was a breakout hit at the South By Southwest Interactive tech gathering in Texas earlier this month, quickly gaining a following among celebrities.

Between the "having my coffee" and countless office tour videos that dominated Periscope yesterday, some users already were getting creative: a band in Detroit streamed its practice, and Jimmy Fallon live-streamed the rehearsal of his opening monologue from "The Tonight Show."

Periscope also quickly found what could be its first signature moment.

When a building collapsed and fire erupted in New York City yesterday, dozens of people were quick to take to Periscope to live-stream the aftermath, in some cases before first responders got to the scene.

"It's a terrible situation, but it's an amazing use-case scenario on literally the day they're coming out," said David Gerzof, a social media and marketing professor at Emerson College. "The day of personal, live broadcasting is here, and it's not going to go away."

Founder Collective, a Boston venture capital firm, was one of the investors in Periscope prior to its acquisition by Twitter in January.

"Every event, every place that the news broadcasts from, there's no reason why anyone with a smartphone can't do that broadcast," said Eric Paley, managing partner at Founder Collective.

Perhaps anticipating Periscope's launch, Meerkat yesterday announced it had raised $14 million in venture capital.

A key difference between the two live-streaming apps — and one that may give the Twitter app the edge — is that Periscope saves videos to be replayed, while Meerkat does not. And, after Meerkat gained popularity, Twitter began limiting its access to its service.

Still, there is likely room for both, Gerzof said.

"I see them both coexisting. ... They are very much similar services that are definitely competitors to each other, but they may find their own way in differentiating over time," he said. "It could be that one of the platforms becomes the news reporting platform and the other becomes the fun and kiddie one."

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Internet outages reveal gaps in US broadband infrastructure

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — When vandals sliced a fiber-optic cable in the Arizona desert last month, they did more than time-warp thousands of people back to an era before computers, credit cards or even phones. They exposed a glaring vulnerability in the nation's Internet infrastructure: no backup systems in many places.

Because Internet service is largely unregulated by the federal government and the states, decisions about network reliability are left to the service providers. Industry analysts say these companies generally do not build alternative routes, or redundancies, unless they believe it is worthwhile financially.

The result: While most major metropolitan areas in the U.S. have backup systems, some smaller cities and many rural areas do not.

"The more rural the location, the more likely that there's only one road in and out of that location," said Sean Donelan, a former infrastructure security manager in the U.S. Homeland Security Department who now works for a cybersecurity firm. "If someone manages to cut that fiber, you'll generally see a one- or two- or three-day outage."

Despite its own warnings about such vulnerabilities two decades ago, the federal government has taken no steps to require Internet companies to have backup systems, even as it has provided billions of dollars in subsidies to expand broadband Internet into unserved areas.

"Our first responsibility is to make sure that people actually have service," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, co-chairman of President Barack Obama's newly created Broadband Opportunity Council.

In northern Arizona last month, tens of thousands of residents were without Internet service — some for up to 15 hours — after vandals cut through an underground bundle of fiber-optic cables owned by CenturyLink. ATMs went down, stores couldn't process credit cards, college students in Flagstaff had to put their research on hold, and even 911 emergency service was lost.

Earlier this month, several thousand people lost Internet and phone service for half a day when an electric company crew accidentally cut a fiber-optic line in northern New Mexico.

When an underwater fiber-optic cable became wrapped around a big rock and broke in 2013, some residents of Washington state's San Juan Islands were without Internet and telephone service for 10 days.

Among them was aerospace consultant Mike Loucks, who said he was shocked to find out his home phone, cellphone and Internet service did not work independently of each other. All went down because they relied on the same cable. He ended up taking a ferry to the mainland to dial in to conference calls from his car outside a McDonald's.

"When I figured out what all had been routed to this cable, it's a single-point failure thing," he said. "That's pretty dumb. Why don't you guys have a backup cable?"

He was so frustrated that he switched Internet providers.

CenturyLink, the broadband provider in the Arizona and Washington outages, declined to make officials available for an interview about its Internet infrastructure. But spokeswoman Linda Johnson said in an email that the company acts quickly to restore service and "is constantly investing in its local network and strives to deliver new services and build redundancy where possible."

After the San Juan Islands outage, CenturyLink spent $500,000 to install a microwave system that now backs up the underwater cable. A microwave system is wireless technology that relies on a series of above-ground antennas or towers to transmit data. It's more often used in rural areas.

Companies have been deploying more than 10 million miles of fiber annually in the U.S., increasing the risk of damage from backhoes, trench-diggers and shovels, according to an analysis by a network reliability committee of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. The number of outages on high-capacity fiber-optic lines in the U.S. more than doubled from 221 in 2010 to 487 last year, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Fiber-optic cables form the spine of the Internet. A fiber bundle contains dozens of tiny glass fibers — each about the width of a human hair — that use light waves to transmit data. The fibers often are buried along existing rights of way for highways, railroads or pipelines. It is common for a telecommunications company to install the cables and then lease space on them to others.

That saves money for everyone involved. But it also means outages can affect a wide variety of services.

As early as 1995, the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology warned that the "power of optical fiber technology is diminishing the number of geographic transmission routes," concentrating the flow of information and "resulting in an increase in network vulnerability."

Since 2009, the U.S. Agriculture and Commerce departments have provided about $10 billion in grants and loans to expand broadband Internet access. The departments said recipients were encouraged but not required to build redundancies into their projects.

The FCC says about half the rural U.S. lacks access to high-speed Internet service. It plans to distribute about $20 billion over the next five years to support rural broadband. It does not require recipients to build network backup systems against outages.

The funding "is designed to expand broadband to as many rural Americans as possible while not increasing the cost of the program" to customers, FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield said.

The FCC recently increased its oversight of Internet providers by classifying them as "telecommunications services" that must operate in the public interest. But that doesn't carry any new mandate for Internet network redundancies, because such backups aren't required of phone companies, he said.

Some states have laws specifically barring the regulation of Internet service, and it's outside the jurisdiction of many state utility regulatory agencies.

Washington state Rep. Jeff Morris, who represents the San Juan Islands and is chairman of the House Technology and Economic Development Committee, said lawmakers are hesitant to require redundant lines for fear they will lead to higher Internet and phone bills for their constituents. His colleagues have discussed taxing access to Internet services, but that is prohibited by federal law.

"It really spoils our ability to generate revenue to give better service and reliability to our constituents," he said.

Some state officials are nonetheless trying to nudge Internet providers to develop backup plans.

"Dependability is premier to the Internet these days," said Sandy Jones, a member of New Mexico's Public Regulation Commission. "Redundancy — two paths out, three paths out — is really critical for businesses. Just think of restaurants, gas stations, all the things that shut down when there's no Internet line."

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

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Follow David A. Lieb at https://twitter.com/DavidLieb and Felicia Fonseca at https://twitter.com/FonsecaAP .

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Boston firm unveils latest in ‘collaborative robots’

A Boston robotics company has unveiled the latest in what it says will be a "family" of manufacturing robots that work alongside humans.

"We've always envisioned a family of smart, collaborative robots," said Jim Lawton, an executive with Rethink Robotics. "Sawyer is smaller, more compact, and easier to integrate into manufacturing."

Sawyer is the company's second manufacturing robot, and it is designed to automate routine, monotonous tasks including what's known as machine tending, which includes actions as simple as pushing a button and then waiting. Rethink's first robot, Baxter, can do the same thing, but it has two arms and is more suited for tasks such as packing and organizing.

"Sawyer's designed to do a whole new set of tasks," Lawton said. "We'll have Sawyers and Baxters operating next to each other, with each other."

Retailing for $29,000, Sawyer has one arm and the same friendly computer face as Baxter. Called "collaborative robots" by the company, Sawyer and Baxter can work next to humans, and are easy to teach and program by moving them and showing them what to do.

Sawyer and Baxter are part of Rethink's efforts to have robots rather than people do the mindless, boring jobs in manufacturing rather than people, and Lawton said Rethink is already working on its next robot.

"You'll see more people supervising robotics technology and less people doing these dangerous and repetitive tasks," Lawton said. "Instead of being the person standing in front of the test, I'm the person managing a dozen robots."

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Obama drives ahead on climate with government emissions cuts

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama ordered the federal government on Thursday to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half over the next decade, driving his climate change agenda forward despite percolating challenges from Republican-led states.

By curtailing pollution within the U.S. government, Obama sought to increase political pressure on other nations to deal seriously with climate change. The U.S. and other nations will soon announce how much they're willing to cut their national emissions as part of a global climate treaty to be finalized in December; scientists warn that if those pledges are too lax, the treaty could be too weak to stop the worst effects of global warming.

"We thought it was important for us to lead by example," Obama said at the Energy Department headquarters, where he toured a sprawling installation of solar panels on the building's roof. "These are ambitious goals, but we know they're achievable goals."

Under an executive order signed by Obama, the government must cut its emissions of the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming by 40 percent, compared to 2008 levels — a move the White House said could save taxpayers up to $18 billion in electricity costs. Obama also directed agencies to ramp up use of renewable energy so that within a decade, roughly one-third of the government's power consumption will come from sources like solar, wind and hydropower.

Yet it was unclear how the government would meet those targets. The White House said it was providing agencies with new tools to track their progress and "sustainability plans," but offered no specifics.

Already, Obama's administration has gone after most of the major sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including cars and trucks, power plants, methane from natural gas production and refrigerants. The administration was also expected to release new rules for "fracking" — hydraulic fracturing for gas or oil — on public lands as early as Friday.

Most of those regulations have faced intense opposition from the energy industry and from Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who wrote the nation's 50 governors on Thursday urging them to defy Obama's power plant rules by refusing to submit compliance plans to Washington. In contrast, Obama's order cutting emissions within the government elicited no immediate criticism.

Although the government is the largest U.S. energy consumer, it's responsible for less than 1 percent of annual U.S. emissions — and a far smaller chunk of emissions worldwide. Still, the Obama administration was betting that aggressive federal cuts would spur private industry and other nations to follow suit.

"The truth is the U.S. has only a few additional levers they can pull to reduce emissions," said Paul Bledsoe, a climate adviser in the Clinton White House. "One of those is the federal government's own emission profile."

Major companies that sell to the federal government like GE, HP, Northrop Grumman and Honeywell also announced voluntary commitments to cut their own emissions of the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. IBM, for example, said it will cut its energy consumption 35 percent by 2020 and buy at least 20 percent of its power from renewably sources by that year.

All told, the government pollution cuts along with industry contributions will have the effect of keeping 26 million metric tons of greenhouse gases out of the air by 2025, or the equivalent of what about 5.5 million cars would pump out through their tailpipes in an average year, the White House said.

The global climate treaty, in the works for years, is supposed to be concluded in December in Paris, but most countries will miss the end-of-March deadline to announce their national contributions. One prominent exception: the European Union, which earlier in March vowed to cut emissions at least 40 percent by 2030, compared to 1990.

The U.S. has yet to announce its contribution to the treaty. But in a bid to build momentum, last year Obama set a U.S. goal to cut emissions up to 28 percent by 2025 — compared to 2005 levels — in a joint announcement with China that boosted hopes for an aggressive global pact.

"Certainly our hope is that we are laying forth template that other countries could also learn from and look at as well," said Brian Deese, a senior adviser to Obama.

Under Obama's executive order, the government must:

— Cut energy use in federal buildings 2.5 percent every year through 2025.

— Reduce the amount of water used in federal buildings 2 percent every year through 2025.

— Decrease federal vehicle emissions by 30 percent per mile by 2025, compared to 2014 levels.

— Ensure federal agencies get 25 percent of their energy — both heat and electricity — from clean sources by 2025.

— Put more hybrid and zero-emission vehicles in the federal fleet.

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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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