Friday, October 28, 2011

Daily Business Update from the Boston Globe

To ensure you receive your Boston.com e-mails, please add newsletters@boston.com to your address book.

If you have trouble reading this e-mail, go to http://www.boston.com/business/ticker_headlines


Get up-to-the-minute Globe Business Updates   |  More Business News
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Fri. Oct. 28, 2011

Massachusetts women earn 80.5 percent of what men do
Massachusetts women who were full-time wage and salary workers in 2010 had median weekly earnings of $832, or 80.5 percent of the $1,033 median for their male counterparts, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The women’s-to-men’s earnings ratio in Massachusetts for 2010 was at its highest point since 1997. The ratio for 2009 was 76.3 percent. The Massachusetts earnings ratio reached a low of 74.8 percent in 2007. Since then, it has trended upwards.

Appeals court overturns key Cape Wind clearance
A federal appeals court has rejected the Federal Aviation Administration’s ruling that the Cape Wind project’s turbines present “no hazard” to aviation, overturning a vital clearance for the nation’s first offshore wind farm. A decision today from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the FAA didn’t adequately determine whether the planned 130 turbines, each 440 feet tall, would pose a danger to pilots flying by visual flight rules. The court ordered the “no hazard” determinations vacated and remanded back to the FAA.

Mass. Eye and Ear expands to Longwood area with new building on Huntington Ave.
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary broke ground on a new treatment facility at 800 Huntington Ave. in Mission hill, near the Longwood Medical Area. The $75 million complex is being built for the specialty hospital by the Beal Cos. and will house outpatient clinics and surgical facilities. The Beal Cos. is renovating and expanding an existing building on the property and will incorporate retail shops, a cafe and 150 garage parking spaces.

NH man convicted in mortgage fraud scheme
A New Hampshire man has been convicted of leading a scheme that defrauded lenders and homebuyers of more than $2 million in connection with mortgages loaned for the purchase of 26 multi-family properties in the Boston area, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said today. Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Joshua Brown, 31, on such charges as larceny and making or publishing false or exaggerated statements. Brown is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 10.

Women in biosciences group launches Hub chapter
Women In Bio, a national nonprofit group that looks to provide educational, networking, and mentoring opportunities for women in the biotechnology industry, said that it is launching a Greater Boston chapter. Established in 2001, Women in Bio, or WIB, has existing chapters in such places as Washington, D.C.; Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, Seattle, and Chicago.

Consumer Reports ‘mystery fish’ story finds similar results to Globe’s investigation into seafood mislabeling
A new Consumer Reports story on “mystery fish” reaches similar conclusions to a five-month long investigation by The Globe that found that consumers regularly and unwittingly overpay for less valued fish or buy seafood that is not what it is advertised to be. A lab that conducted DNA tests on fish purchased by The Globe showed that 48 percent were sold with the wrong species name. The Consumer Reports story found that one-fifth of its samples were mislabeled.

Venture that includes Gordon Brothers to sell Sharper Image assets for $65.6m
Iconix Brand Group Inc., which owns, licenses, and markets such brands as Joe Boxer, London Fog, Mossimo, Danskin, and Cannon, said it has agreed to buy the Sharper Image brand and intellectual property assets for $65.6 million. Iconix has agreed to buy the assets from a joint venture that includes Gordon Brothers Group, a Boston company that specializes in retail investments and restructuring. The joint venture also includes Hilco Consumer Capital and Bluestar Alliance.

TA Associates buys Nebraska IT company
TA Associates, a private equity firm with offices in Boston, said it has completed the acquisition of CoSentry, a Nebraska-based provider of outsourced IT infrastructure services. CoSentry serves as a one-source provider of data center, cloud computing, and managed technical services. TA partnered with CoSentry management to buy the company. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed. Selling shareholders include McCarthy Capital, a private equity fund, and WaittCorp Investments, an investment company.

Disaster loan deadline nears in Mass., Conn., RI
Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island victims of the remnants of Hurricane Irene are running out of time to apply for federal disaster loans to replace lost property. The US Small Business Administration says homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofit organizations have a deadline of Nov. 25 to apply for low-interest loans. Authorities say anyone with insured losses should not wait for an insurance settlement before applying for a federal loan.

Comcast is expanding broadband services in Boston’s ‘Innovation District’
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said today that Comcast Corp. has begun to expand the availability of its advanced fiber network in a section of the South Boston waterfront that Menino has dubbed the Innovation District. The City of Boston is seeking to convince technology and biotechnology companies that they should relocate all or some of their operations to the Innovation District, and those types of businesses often require broadband services such as Comcast provides.

Mass. economic recovery continues to outpace nation’s
The state’s economic recovery continued to outpace the nation’s, though economists predicted shrinking global demand for the state’s technology products could hurt future growth, according to a new report by the University of Massachusetts. Massachusetts’ economy grew at an annual rate of 3.9 percent between July and September, up from 3.4 percent in the previous quarter. The US economy saw even better growth during the same period, nearly doubling its rate of growth from 1.3 to 2.5 percent growth during the same period.

No comments:

Post a Comment