Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com September 28, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 7 an alternative supplier for ground trans- portation. Zoning and permitting reform advo- cates resumed their uphill fight to make the first major overhaul to the state's zoning and subdivision laws since the 1970s. "We are managing, at the same time, to produce fewer homes than our residents want, at a higher cost than many can afford, making it harder to attract employers, forcing municipalities to spend on unsustainable infrastruc- ture, not producing enough of the walk- able neighborhoods that make our com- munities healthy, consuming too much forest and farmland, and putting too much greenhouse gas into the air. That is quite a feat," the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance wrote in testimony to the Community Development and Small Business Committee. Legislative leaders failed to agree last session on a bill to help crack down on scrap metal thieves, and a metal industry official and realtors were back on Beacon Hill to renew the call for a law that would facilitate communica- tions between industry and law enforce- ment officials to help catch criminals. A scrap metal bill cleared the Senate in November 2013, but never advanced beyond the House Ways and Means Committee in 2014. According to Colin Kelly, director of public affairs at Schnitzer Steel Industries in Everett, last session's Senate bill would have imposed an expansive tag-and-hold requirement on metal yards, while a previous House bill offered a more workable plan for the industry to cooperate with law enforce- ment officials to identify suspect deliv- eries. The chairman of a Boston-based bio- medical company was arrested on federal charges of conspiracy and fraud stemming from an alleged scheme to inflate the company's stock prices, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced. Endeavor Power Corp. Chairman Edward Withrow III, 51, of Malibu, Calif., was charged in U.S. District Court with one count of securities fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and two counts of making false statements. Another person involved with the com- pany, Marco Babini, was charged with one count each of conspiracy and secu- rities fraud, and two counts of wire fraud. Babini, 54, is at large and believed to live in Vancouver. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also announced securities fraud charges against Withrow, Babini and Idaho stock promoter Samuel Brown. Withrow is also charged by the SEC with failure to disclose his stock hold- ings. Withrow and Babini, the indict- ment alleges, worked to orchestrate a promotional campaign and engage in manipulative trading designed to boost investor interest, while concealing their own significant control of the compa- ny's publicly traded stock. The Northeast, which includes New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, had the highest total employee com- pensation cost in the country in June, at $38.35, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The figure includes wages and benefits. Wages and salaries accounted for two-thirds of the $38.35, while benefits accounted for a third. For New England alone, the figure for June was $37.07 per hour worked, according to a statement from the BLS's New England Information Office of the BLS. The average total compensation cost across the country in June was $31.39. The South had the lowest com- pensation cost, at $28.25 per hour worked. Seeking to protect children from the harms of nicotine products, Attorney General Maura Healey has published the final set of regulations regarding elec- tronic smoking devices, or e-cigarettes. The regulations prohibit sales to minors, and require child-resistant packaging for e-liquids and gels. The regulations were filed with the Secretary of State's office. The statement from Healey's office said businesses in the Bay State will be pro- vided with information on the new reg- ulations in order to stay in compliance and know what steps to take when sell- ing the products. Ride-for-hire services such as Uber and Lyft represent big business in Greater Boston, but the companies and their drivers aren't the only ones making a buck off the booming technology. As the public debate over regulating these com- panies intensifies on Beacon Hill, lobby- ists and public relations firms are gob- bling up slivers of a lucrative pie. According to disclosures filed with the Secretary of State's office, more than $200,000 was spent on lobbying activi- ties from January through June by Uber, Lyft and the New England Livery Association. The Joint Committee on Financial Services held a public hearing on legislation to regulate the so-called "transportation network companies," including bills that would impose vary- ing levels of insurance requirements and driver background checks. The Massachusetts House is advancing a bill that would allow certain ethnic food markets to open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, two of the holidays on which grocery stores and other retailers are not permitted to do business in Massachusetts. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Tackey Chan, would require any store seeking to open on Thanksgiving or Christmas to prove that over half of its inventory is labeled in a language other than English, get local approval to do business on the holiday and pay workers at a holiday rate. 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