San Francisco lawmakers OK Airbnb rentals

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco lawmakers have tentatively approved a measure that would allow city residents to rent out their homes to travelers on sites such as Airbnb.

The Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 on Tuesday in favor of short-term rentals with some restrictions, including a cap on the number of days an entire home can be rented out each year.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports  that a second vote is still needed for the measure to go into effect. But that is expected to be perfunctory.

Supervisor David Chiu, who crafted the regulation, said he was trying to strike a balance between preserving affordable housing and allowing residents to earn extra income. Critics had called for more stringent restrictions.

San Francisco currently bans residential rentals of less than 30 days.

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UK cleared to heavily subsidize $39B nuclear plant

BRUSSELS — The European Union has approved Britain's bid to heavily subsidize a new nuclear power plant, overriding opposition from environmentalists and questions over the project's 24.5 billion pound ($39 billion) price tag.

The EU's executive Commission said Wednesday it found the subsidies for construction and operation of the Hinkley Point plant won't distort fair competition.

Britain will guarantee all the loans for the project's construction and grant plant operators a fixed above-market electricity price — roughly double the current wholesale price — for 35 years to ensure their investment will break even.

To gain EU approval, Britain agreed to change some terms, including raising the price for the loan guarantees, which should save British taxpayers 1 billion pounds, the Commission said.

The project is to be carried out by France's EDF energy and a group of Chinese investors who estimate the construction costs to be 16 billion pounds. However, the EU Commission says it will cost 24.5 billion pounds plus another 10 billion pounds for operational costs such as waste management.

The big difference in cost estimates could not be fully explained Wednesday. However, EDF spokesman Aurelien Cassuto said the Commission's estimate was higher because it takes the cost of borrowing and inflation into account.

The few nuclear power plants built in the West over the past decades were all plagued by significant cost overruns. Analysts say building new nuclear power plants isn't economically viable without state subsidies.

The EU decision was controversial as the 28-nation bloc seeks to switch its electricity supply to renewable sources like wind and solar energy. But securing approval for the two Hinkley Point reactors was a top priority for the British government as older plants will go offline in coming years. British Treasury chief George Osborne hailed the EU decision as "excellent news."

Environmental groups were furious.

"This is a world record sell-out to the nuclear industry at the expense of taxpayers and the environment," said Andrea Carta, a legal adviser for Greenpeace EU. "There is absolutely no legal, moral or environmental justification in turning taxes into guaranteed profits for a nuclear power company whose only legacy will be a pile of radioactive waste," she added.

Several EU countries, including Germany and Austria, are also hostile to new nuclear power projects as they bet on renewables. The Austrian government has floated the idea of suing the Commission at a European court to overthrow the approval of the Hinkley Point subsidy.

The Commission said its decision didn't involve a judgment on the merits of nuclear power, only the legality of this particular subsidy.

"This will not create any precedents," said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

The two nuclear reactors, planned to start working in 2023 for 60 years, would have a production capacity equivalent to 7 percent of Britain's electricity generation. The government contract guarantees operators an electricity price of 92.5 pounds per megawatt hour, or about twice the current wholesale price. The guaranteed price will be raised annually in line with inflation.

The reactors will use the so-called EPR technology, which has yet to go online anywhere in the world. There are only three similar projects currently under construction, in France, Finland and China. Finland's Olkiluoto 3 power plant is already nine years behind schedule and faces billions of dollars in cost overruns.

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Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki and Greg Katz in London contributed to this report.

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Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

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Company recalls floor mats fitting GM trucks

DETROIT — A company that makes after-market floor mats for General Motors full-size pickup trucks and SUVs is recalling more than 45,000 of them because they can interfere with the gas pedals.

Omix Ada of Suwanee, Georgia, says the recall covers Cabela's Custom Fit, Line-X Truck Gear, Rugged Ridge All-Terrain and Tread Lightly mats. They can move forward unintentionally and stop the gas pedal from returning to the idle position. That can increase the risk of a crash.

The plastic mats fit Chevrolet and GMC trucks and SUVs from 1999 through 2014. The mats were made from Nov. 1, 2009 to Aug. 27, 2014, and most were sold at O'Reilly Auto Parts stores.

Omix Ada will furnish an anchor-and-hook system to fix the problem that should take about 10 minutes for a customer to install. Those that don't want to install it themselves will be sent to a service center.

The company redesigned the mats to add hooks in the first quarter of this year. It received three consumer complaints about older mats touching the bottom of the gas pedal. No crashes or injuries have been reported to the company, said Engineering Manager Alain Eboli.

The company plans to begin notifying wholesale customers and to find as many mat owners as possible starting this month. People with questions can call (844) 642-7625.

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Report: Federal budget deficit falls to $486B

WASHINGTON — The federal government's budget deficit has fallen to $486 billion, the smallest pool of red ink of President Barack Obama's six-year span in office, a new report said Wednesday.

The Congressional Budget Office's latest estimate shows better results than earlier projections by both CBO and the White House budget office.

It comes as Congress has mostly paused in its wrangling over the deficit in the run-up to the midterm elections next month.

Obama inherited a trillion-dollar-plus deficit after the 2008 financial crisis but that red-ink figure has improved in recent years as the economy has recovered. Last year's deficit registered at $680 billion.

The government registered deficits exceeding $1 trillion during Obama's first term, but the recovering economy has boosted revenues while Republican-imposed curbs on agency operating budgets have combined to shrink the deficit.

The Treasury Department and the White House budget office will issue an official report on the budget in the next week or so, but their findings are likely to mirror CBO's data, which is based on the daily cash flow that Treasury reports.

The good news may be temporary. CBO and budget hawks warn that the retirement of the Baby Boom generation will balloon deficits in coming years unless Washington can bridge its divides and curb the growth of expensive programs like Medicare.

The deficit hit a record $1.4 trillion in 2009 but fell to $680 billion last year. The government's budget year ended Sept. 30.

While the numbers are large, economists agree that the truest measure of the deficit is to compare it to the size of the economy. By that measure, the 2014 deficit was less than 3 percent of gross domestic product, which economists say is sustainable.

But CBO and other budget officials warn that long-term projections are unsustainable as more and more people claim Social Security and Medicare benefits. The growth in health care spending, however, is down and long-term estimates have proven unreliable.

Obama and his GOP rivals combined to curb agency budgets in 2011 and the president won a tax increase on upper-rate taxpayers last year, but any future action on the government's budget woes will likely have to wait until after this year's mid-term elections or beyond.

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Fox plays hardball with affiliation renewals in NFL markets

As Fox completes its station swap in the San Francisco market, the station group turns its focus to consolidating its grip on another lucrative NFL market: Seattle.

Fox has been playing hardball for months with Tribune Media in an effort to acquire Tribune's KCPQ-TV Seattle. The Fox Television Stations group is taking steps to purchase a small indie broadcast station that serves the Seattle market, KBCB-TV, in a bid to add pressure to Tribune to agree to a station swap that would result in the Fox O&O group acquiring KCPQ. Word of Fox's plan to purchase KBCB was first reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.

Seattle is an attractive market to Fox because it its home to the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise, which is part of the NFC conference game package for which Fox pays billions of dollars every year. Owning the hometown Seattle Fox affiliate would help 21st Century Fox wring more profits out of its NFL rights deal.

The Seattle scenario that Fox has put to Tribune is similar to the deal it just closed in the San Francisco market. Fox and Cox Media Group completed a swap in which Fox acquired Cox's KTVU-TV, a longstanding Fox affiliate, and KICU-TV in exchange for Fox's O&O stations in Memphis (WHBQ) and Boston (WFXT). Both Memphis and Boston have teams in the NFL's AFC conference, which means they are not as valuable to Fox as stations in NFC markets.

In exchange for Cox agreeing to the swap, Fox has ensured that the Memphis and Boston stations will remain Fox affils. Had Cox balked about giving up San Francisco, Fox surely would have threatened to yank the network affiliation from KTVU. The loss of a Big Four affiliation deal amounts to a major financial wallop for a broadcast station at a time when local outlets are already struggling to compete in a crowded media landscape.

One industry veteran noted that Fox is on a mission to grab as much turf in NFL markets as possible simply because it has the clout and the club to do so as station owners fear the loss of network affiliation deals.

Tribune Media, headed by former Fox and FX exec Peter Liguori, is said to be balking at the Seattle swap offer, even after Fox informed the company that KCPQ would lose its Fox affiliation on Jan. 17. Owning KBCB gives Fox an alternative in the Seattle market if Tribune holds fast on KCPQ, even though moving the Fox affiliation would require a major marketing effort as KBCB is a much more low-profile outlet that now carries home-shopping programming.

Tribune declined comment on Seattle other than to point to a statement issued Sept. 23 after it received the formal affiliation termination notice from Fox.

"We are continuing to engage in discussions with Fox and moreover have prepared for all operational and economic possibilities for our Seattle Fox station," Tribune said. Tribune has 13 other Fox affils. The Seattle station contributed $13 million in fiscal 2013 earnings, Tribune said.

In announcing the completion of the San Francisco deal, Fox Television Stations noted that it now has stations in 12 NFC markets "allowing it to further leverage the company's NFC broadcast package." With the San Francisco stations in place, Fox also now has duopolies in the seven of the top 10 TV markets.

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

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Court hears dispute over pay for security checks

WASHINGTON — Workers who fill customer orders for Internet retailer Amazon might be out of luck in their quest to be paid for time they spend going through security checkpoints each day.

Several Supreme Court justices expressed doubts Wednesday during arguments over whether federal law entitles workers to compensation for routine security measures to prevent employee theft.

The case is being watched closely by business groups concerned that employers could be liable for billions of dollars in retroactive pay for security check procedures that have become routine in retail and other industries.

The dispute involves two former workers at a Nevada warehouse who say their employer, Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., made them to wait up to 25 minutes in security lines at the end of every shift. Integrity provides staffers for Amazon warehouses.

A federal appeals court ruled last year that the workers, Jesse Busk and Laurie Castro, deserved to be paid because the anti-theft screenings were necessary to the primary work performed by warehouse workers and it was done for the employer's benefit.

Mark Thierman, lawyer for the workers, ran into trouble Wednesday when he tried to pursue the argument that walking through security was a principal activity of the workers' job duties that requires compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

"But no one's principal activity is going through security screenings," said Chief Justice John Roberts. "It may be part of that, that you go through security at the end of the day, but that doesn't make it a principal activity."

Justice Antonin Scalia said the security check "is not indispensable to taking care of the activity in the warehouse."

"You wouldn't pay anybody just to come in and go through security," said Justice Samuel Alito.

Thierman argued that the screening was a "discrete act" that happened only after workers had clocked out and handed in their tools.

"It's work because you are told to do it," Thierman said.

Integrity claims no extra pay is required because the security clearances are unrelated to the workers' core job duties. The company's attorney, Paul Clement, said the screenings are "materially similar to the process of checking out at the end of the day or waiting to do so."

Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general, said a federal law called the Portal-to-Portal Act specifically exempted employers from paying for so-called "preliminary and postliminary" activities such as time spent commuting, waiting to pick up protective gear or waiting in line to punch the clock.

Justice Elena Kagan asked whether keeping merchandise safe from theft is an essential part of what Amazon does. But Clement said that doesn't make it "indispensable" to the work performed by the warehouse employees, which is what the law provides.

The Obama administration is siding with the company. Justice Department attorney Curtis Cannon argued that the security screenings were not "integral and indispensable to the workers' jobs. He cited a 1947 Labor Department opinion letter that makes no distinction between searches for general security and those to prevent theft, finding neither requires pay.

Justice Stephen Breyer said if he was in the workers' situation, he'd look to the Labor Department.

"They are the ones who are in charge of this," Breyer said. "And they are saying you lose."

The 9th Circuit ruling last year has spawned at least four class-action lawsuits against Amazon.com seeking compensation for time spent in post-shift security screenings. Similar suits are pending against CVS Pharmacy and Apple Inc., seeking to represent tens of thousands of workers.

Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, say in court filings that security screenings are essential to prevent employee theft, which costs the retail industry an estimated $16 billion a year.

The case is Integrity Staffing Solutions Inc. v. Busk, 13-433.

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Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

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Officials: Sudbury dealership fire sparked by damaged vehicle

Arson having been ruled out, last month's inferno at the Herb Chambers car dealership in Sudbury that damaged or destroyed 19 high-end vehicles at a loss of up to $750,000 was apparently sparked by a malfunctioning 2004 Jaguar XJ8 damaged in an unrelated fire at another location, investigators announced today.

"There is no evidence to suggest that the fire was intentionally set," Sudbury Fire Chief William L. Miles, Sudbury Police Chief Scott Nix and State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said in a joint statement of the Sept. 22 blaze.

The officials said when the sports car was initially impaired by fire, tow operators trying to release an electronic brake reconnected the engine battery that firefighters had disconnected and noticed smoke, so disconnected it again.

"At the dealership, some repair work had been done with additional work planned. The car was parked on the lot overnight with the battery connected and no signs of fire or smoke," Miles, Nix and Coan said. "Whether the dealership fire was caused by the original mechanical malfunction that the mechanics working on the car had not yet identified, or another electrical or mechanical failure, cannot be determined. Jaguar sent experts to try to determine the exact malfunction, (but) were unable to do so because of the severe destruction of the car."

According to Coan's office, in 2012, 2,502 car fires resulted in six deaths, 26 injuries to both civilians and firefighters and an estimated property damage of $15.4 million.

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Baker, Coakley spar over DCF, PACs

Twelve hours after their first televised debate Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley bitterly sparred this morning over Super PAC attack ads and the embattled Department of Children and Families.

With just 27 days until voters elect their next governor, Republican Baker, 57, and Democratic Attorney General Coakley, 61, took full advantage of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce's Government Affairs Forum at the Westin Copley Place hotel in Back Bay. Afterward, Coakley pooh-poohed today's Herald story showing some Democratic power brokers are throwing their money and support behind her rival.

"Absolutely not," Coakley said, when asked if she's feeling a shift away from her. "I think that every time we have a governor's race the race is about who's going to be a good leader. We have people lining up for different reasons. I'm really proud of the support I have from Democrats, independents and, frankly, from Republicans. This race is going to be run on ideas and organizing on the ground, plain and simple."

Bank of America Massachusetts President Robert Gallery said, "I don't think I could generalize the corporate community being in favor of either candidate. I think the important part about a morning like this is to just convene the public sector and the political leadership — they're both great leaders in their own right — with the business community and have a constructive dialogue. We heard today a very good conversation between two very good candidates and it just helps everybody ... frame your decision-making for the decision you make 27 days from now."

During the hour-long squabble, event moderator Bob Oakes of WBUR's (90.9 FM) "Morning Edition" challenged each candidate to disavow Super PAC ads the other took umbrage with — one, behind Coakley, criticizing Baker's rise in salary from $600,000 to $1.7 million while CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health; the other, pro-Baker, accusing Coakley of fighting a 2010 federal lawsuit seeking to overhaul DCF at the expense of children's lives. Neither pol bit, though Coakley said if Baker did, she would, too.

Slamming the ad attacking her as "deceitful," Coakley, a career prosecutor, said, "I'm the one that for 25 years has sat with those families. I know what they go through. I know what we have to fix. The tone is completely deceitful, and I made the right call."

Defending the content of the DCF ad, Baker responded, "Shortly after that suit was filed, and shortly after the sides had engaged in litigation, the commonwealth of Mass cut the DCF budget by more than $40 million. No one on Beacon Hill, including the attorney general, said one word about that, despite all the evidence that had been brought forth in that case. I think the issue is worthy of discussion."

Baker also defended his Harvard Pilgrim pay hike, telling the audience that when he took the job, "My family did not see me when they were awake for a year." He also elicited murmurs from the crowd when he pointed out that in 2008, when he made $1.7 million, Coakley, as attorney general, was in charge of overseeing executive compensation at not-for-profit companies.

"No one said boo about how Harvard Pilgrim's board of directors calculated executive compensation," he said.

Coakley, who became the state's first female attorney general in January 2007, initially denied she was even in office in 2008. She later told reporters, "I misspoke about that, I had the years wrong in my head. But, let me be clear on this: attorneys general don't authorize or OK salaries ... they don't OK executive compensation for not-for-profit organizations. First of all, we don't that. Second, that's not the issue. The issue is not whether it's legal or not, it's whether it's right. The focus here has to be on his decision-making, what drives him, what his priorities are."

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Ebola training focuses on astronaut-like gear

CHICAGO — The serious-faced physicians practice pulling on bulky white suits and helmets that make them look more like astronauts than doctors preparing to fight a deadly enemy. These training sessions at U.S. hospitals on Ebola alert and for health workers heading to Africa can make the reality sink in: Learning how to safely put on and take off the medical armor is crucial.

"When you're in the real deal, remember to take your time," biosafety expert John Bivona told doctors during a course this week at the University of Chicago's medical center. Suits splashed with patients' vomit or blood must be removed carefully, he explained.

"As much as possible, grab from the inside" to avoid touching contaminated parts of the suits, he said. "Be liberal with disinfectant."

Looking stoic after this week's training, Dr. Mark Nunnally said he's "not overly worried, but I think there's a legitimate concern" that someone with Ebola may arrive at the hospital's door.

An anesthesiologist, he's among about 35 doctors and nurses who've volunteered to treat any Ebola patients who may show up at the Chicago hospital. Nunnally said he volunteered because "somebody has to do it, and I think it's important to give care where there's a need."

The University of Chicago medical staffers get several hours of Ebola training, plus refresher courses and videos in donning and doffing protective gear.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week started training volunteer health workers heading to Africa to help fight the epidemic.

Dr. David Sugerman, an Emory University emergency room doctor heading soon to Sierra Leone, was among students in a CDC training session Monday in Anniston, Alabama.

Sugerman, who also works for the CDC, said breaches in health workers' protective gear in West Africa have contributed to Ebola's spread.

"You realize going through these exercises how easy that is," he said.

"In Sierra Leone or Liberia or Guinea it's going to be quite hot and humid. And you start sweating. And some of the procedures, like placing an IV, you get pretty nervous with a patient that you know has a high viral load," he said. "Then you get fogged up and you get anxious and you could start pulling at your" equipment, which could be contaminated with virus. "So you have to mentally go through this a number of times and become well-versed. So it becomes a routine."

For U.S. hospitals, the CDC has issued guidance on how to spot suspicious cases and isolate them if necessary, with an emphasis on the importance of asking patients about recent travel to the outbreak region, where more than 3,400 people have died from the disease.

The only person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. had traveled from Liberia. When he first sought medical care for a fever and abdominal pain at a Dallas hospital, Ebola wasn't suspected. Hospital officials initially said they didn't know about his travel, but later said that information had been provided and was available to the medical staff caring for him at that time. He was diagnosed with Ebola when he went back to the hospital days later; he died there Wednesday.

"It's so easy to forget to ask about travel," said Dr. Emily Landon, director of a University of Chicago infection control program. "That's our one vulnerability."

Emergency room staffers are trained to focus on the most critical problem, like providing fast treatment for a heart attack or broken leg, she explained. If the same patient also has a fever and headache — common problems but also Ebola symptoms — "it's hard to break that autopilot and say, 'Oh, by the way, did you travel'" recently, Landon said. "We have to get them to break that autopilot every time."

Across town, at Rush University Medical Center, doctors got a frightening test run this past weekend when a man coughing up blood said he had been in contact with someone from Nigeria, one of the countries in West Africa where Ebola spread.

ER staffers donned protective gear and immediately escorted him to a nearby isolation room, but tests showed he had bronchitis, not Ebola, said Dr. Dino Rumoro, Rush's emergency medicine chief.

Rumoro said he's worked through similar scary disease threats — AIDS, SARS, swine flu and smallpox after 9/11 — that were in some ways more worrisome because many of them can spread invisibly through the air. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with blood, vomit and other body fluids, or contact with needles, syringes or other objects contaminated by the virus.

"At least with Ebola we have a fighting chance," Rumoro said, "because I know that it is coming from body fluid and I know if I wear my (protective) suit I'm safe and I know if I don't stick myself with a needle or cut myself with a scalpel I'm safe."

"There's always going to be a little bit of fear in your head," Rumoro said. "But that's OK. That's what keeps us safe."

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AP video journalist Alex Sanz in Anniston, Alabama, contributed to this report.

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Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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AT&T to refund $80 million in settlement of mobile cramming case

AT&T Inc. agreed to pay $105 million, including $80 million in consumer refunds, to settle federal and state investigations that the company illegally billed mobile phone customers for unauthorized charges for ringtones and other services, officials said Wednesday.

The practice, known as mobile cramming, began in 2011 and involved hundreds of millions of dollars in charges for third-party services, the Federal Trade Commission said.

The services, such as subscriptions for ringtones and text messages with love tips and horoscopes, usually cost customers $9.99 a month. AT&T Mobility, a subsidiary of the telecommunications giant, kept at least 35 percent of those payments, the FTC said.

"This case underscores the important fact that basic consumer protections — including that consumers should not be billed for charges they did not authorize — are fully applicable in the mobile environment," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.

The agency has been cracking down on mobile cramming, and the AT&T case is the seventh since last year.

The settlement was with the FTC, the Federal Communications Commission and all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.

In addition to the $80 million in customer refunds, AT&T will pay a $5 million penalty to the FCC and a total of $20 million in penalties and fees to states and D.C., the FTC said.

The FTC said AT&T received 1.3 million calls from customers questioning third-party charges on their bills in 2011 alone.

Despite the complaints, AT&T tightened its refund policy in October 2011. The company had offered refunds for up to three months worth of charges but limited refunds to just two months, the FTC said.

AT&T's bills made it difficult for customers to identify third-party payments they did not authorize. The payments were listed as "AT&T Monthly Subscription," which led customers to believe the charges were part of their service with the company.

The settlement requires AT&T to obtain "express, informed consent" from customers before placing any third-party charges on their bills. The charges need to be clearly identified as coming from a third party and customers must be provided with an option to block the charges.

AT&T agreed to send notices about the refund to all current customers who were billed for unauthorized third-party services. The FTC's refund administrator will notify former customers.

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©2014 Los Angeles Times

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