Modern style lights up Southie home

This architect-­designed freestanding contemporary townhouse offers a mix of Manhattan and the South End in a traditional neighborhood on South Boston's East Side.

Designed by Boston architectural firm Touloukian Touloukian Inc., this three-­bedroom unit has an open, airy feel on its four levels of living space. Winner of a Boston Society of ­Architects design award, this stylish abode was added to the rear of an 1890s brick bowfront home, and features a custom full-wall maple built-in in the living/dining area, a high-end kitchen and lots of picture windows, skylights and a three-floor light shaft that bring in daylight. It's on the market for $825,000.

The house has a clapboard exterior and is topped with a decorative fin. A private ­entrance leads into a double-height foyer with a two-tier chandelier.

To the left is a ­recessed-lit open living/dining/kitchen area with high ceilings, maple floors and a large picture window. Along one full wall sits a custom maple built-in with bookshelves above, a granite shelf and cabinets below.

The dining area segues into a kitchen with custom maple cabinetry, granite counters and a full-wall granite backsplash with glass shelves. There's a granite-topped island with stainless-steel cabinets and stainless-steel appliances including a Bosch refrigerator and dishwasher and a Frigidaire four-burner gas stove.

Off the kitchen is a half bath with basket-weave Carrara marble floors and a pedestal sink.

The turning stair­cases to bedrooms on the second and third floors have metal and glass rails and there are corner windows at the top of the landings.

The second floor has an en-suite guest bedroom with maple floors and a bathroom with Carrara marble floors and lined shower. The bath also opens onto a third small bedroom, which is nursery-sized but with a large closet with built-in storage. Along the second-floor hallway is a closet with a stacked Bosch washer and dryer.

The townhouse's master bedroom suite takes up the entire third floor, which is crowned with a series of skylights and a light well that make it very sunny. There's a decent-sized bedroom with maple floors and a large picture window and the room steps down to a light-filled home office. The master suite has a large walk-in closet with built-in storage and frosted-glass wardrobe space. The master bathroom has a radiant heated marble floor as well as a marble-lined steam shower. There's also a lot of extra cabinet space along the outside wall of the bedroom.

The carpeted lower level of the unit has a family room/home ­office with built-in maple cabinets and a decent amount of storage space in an unfinished area behind. This area also houses a gas-fired two-zone heating and central air-conditioning system.

There is garage parking for this unit behind, along with one tandem outside space. But there is no green space in the backyard.

Broker: Colin Sullivan of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage at 617-529-6622

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Baker’s cooks up a problem

There's a meltdown in the baking aisle as consumers, angered at Baker's Chocolate shaving the size of its iconic bars, took their fudgy feud to Facebook.

Baker's Chocolate, which originated in Dorchester, halved its package from 8 ounces to 4 ounces in the spring, but the cocoa cacophony went viral this week when the pop culture site Buzzfeed harvested and posted the best barbs from Baker's Facebook page.

Cambridge resident Amy Todd, 47, was among those brought to the boiling point.

"The box has been the same size my entire life. I stood in the aisle thinking there is something strange about this. I really wondered if there had been a mistake. Why was the price so high?" Todd told the Herald about her Facebook rant.

Todd, an anthropology professor at UMass Boston, was prompted to post a complaint after paying $4.99 for a 4-ounce package at a local supermarket in May.

Kraft Foods, Baker's parent company, responded to a Herald inquiry with a statement. The size reduction was "consumer driven" and the "suggested retail price was lowered to $2.89," wrote a Kraft spokesman.

At Shaw's in Brighton, a 4-ounce box of Baker's Chocolate was priced at $3.29. Nearby at Stop & Shop, Baker's was selling for $3.19.

Excerpts from the vitriol on Baker's Facebook page included this from Sarah Carol Bing: "Another loyal customer lost. I have been making my great aunt's recipe using Baker's Chocolate for 25 years now. The original recipe, written in her own handwriting calls for an 8 oz package of 'Baker's Chocolate.'"

Another user, Shannon Harris, quipped, "Christmas is coming, and baking season. Too bad, I will be switching brand for all my zillion kitchen adventures." Tammy Borushko railed, "Wow! What a crappy way to treat your customers."

Edgar Dworsky, a Somerville-based consumer advocate, said a communication meltdown may be to blame.

"Did they cut the price in half? No, there's a bit of a premium. The product was cut in half content-wise but the price wasn't, but the price was definitely reduced," said Dworsky. Even if sold at Kraft's suggested retail price of $2.89, the chocolate is now 72 cents per ounce as compared to 62 cents.

But the damage has been done for Dorchester baker Chirelle Hitt. Hitt, 40, tackles the holiday baking for her family and is known for whipping up batches of chocolate crinkles for workmates.

"At this point, I'm so used to using the 8-ounce it feels like I'm cheated even if the prices are lower," said Hitt, a staff assistant at Harvard Medical School. "I'm already looking for different chocolate."

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’EEI assures duo after boss axed

WEEI morning men John Dennis and Gerry Callahan — blindsided by the firing of boss Jason Wolfe yesterday — said they have been assured that station suits want them to be "part of the solution" to the once-dominant sports station's ratings woes.

Callahan, a Herald sports columnist, said Entercom Boston general manager Jeff Brown told him and Kirk Minihane, who was added to the morning show in February, that "we're going nowhere." And Dennis, who is on vacation this week, said Brown called him after Wolfe got the ax to reiterate that the morning show was not in any danger.

"I take him at his word," Dennis said. "I'm not worried. I'm fine with what we've done so far, but almost everyone who gets into this business knows that at some point it will come to an end and whenever that day comes, I'll be fine with that too."

Wolfe, WEEI's vice president of programming and operations, who oversaw the station during years of Boston radio dominance, was shown the door yesterday, the victim of spiraling ratings and competition from 98.5 The Sports Hub, the upstart that stole much of the longtime sports-talker's audience.

Immediately, speculation began about the future of 'EEI's longtime morning drive duo, who were partnered and supported by Wolfe but whose ratings have slipped since the emergence of CBS-owned Sports Hub.

"That is everyone's first question," Brown told the Herald. "There's no fait accompli regarding Dennis and Callahan, no imminent shoe to drop on Dennis and Callahan."

But others speculated that the departure of Wolfe means the current morning show is on borrowed time.

"I think they have to do something," said one station insider, referencing the duo's dwindling numbers.

In the most recent ratings period, The Sports Hub's top-rated morning show, Toucher and Rich, dominated with a 13.4 share. Dennis and Callahan finished fifth with a 6.0. The Sports Hub was No. 1 overall with men age 25-54, both stations' target audience, while WEEI was fifth, according to Arbitron.

However, both Dennis and Callahan have a year remaining on their contracts and the station's move last February to dump longtime afternoon drive host Glenn Ordway didn't do anything to improve numbers.

There were reports yesterday that Brown's choice to replace Wolfe is Kevin Graham, program director at KFAN in Salt Lake City. Brown declined to discuss it other than to say he will make an announcement in the next couple of days.

Whoever succeeds Wolfe will have a major rebuilding project. All three of WEEI's daytime shows — morning drive, middays with Mike Mutnansky and Lou Merloni, and afternoon drive with Mike Salk and Michael Holley — lag behind The Sports Hub's shows.

Wolfe's successor will have to try to figure out how to increase listeners and decrease station costs — a tough act to pull off especially given the fact that WEEI is saddled with a whopping 10-year, $200 million contract to air Red Sox games that runs for three more years. The station also has the broadcast rights to the Celtics.

Brooming Ordway likely saved Entercom a bundle in salary costs and, at the time, former 'EEI announcer Pete Sheppard predicted that the station will cut even further, eliminating most local programming in favor of syndicated ESPN content. But Brown said he believes the 'EEI "ecosystem" is strong.

"At the end of the day we want to make it better," he said, "and we are going to work to make it better."

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State jobless rate shows growth halt

The state's jobless rate is at the highest level since September 2011, continuing a pattern of slowing economic growth, experts said.

The rate for July rose to 7.2 percent, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said yesterday.

"It appears job growth has basically come to a halt in Massachusetts," said Christopher Geehern of Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

The latest numbers are consistent with the state's economic growth rate, which fell to 0.8 percent during the second quarter, Geehern said.

"The slowing of state growth that began in the second quarter appears to be continuing," said Michael D. Goodman, of the Department of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

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Karen Spilka flips tech tax vote

An Ashland state senator running for Congress is trying to lead the charge to repeal the so-called "tech tax" just weeks after she voted at least three times to support the measure — a flip-flop her rivals say is a conveniently timed attempt to score "political points."

State Sen. Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) joined fellow Democrats to slap a 6.25 percent tax on software sales and services last month as part of the Legislature's transportation bill. Spilka voted to enact the bill and at least twice voted against Republican-sponsored amendments to strip the tax from the bill.

But after weeks of pushback from the tech industry, Spilka yesterday filed a bill to repeal the tax, saying new information has surfaced since the vote.

"I've heard from a lot of tech businesses and a lot of people — more than I think we normally hear from," said Spilka. "There's a lot of information that has come to light about the tech tax and the potential impact. ... It's the opposite message we want to send the tech industry."

Asked if she still would have introduced the bill even if she weren't running for Congress, Spilka replied, "Absolutely," but also denied having any regrets for voting for the tax.

"No, I voted on the best information I had at the time," said Spilka. "There wasn't the human outcry that there is now."

Spilka, former chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, is squaring off against Democrats Peter Koutoujian, Carl M. Sciortino, William N. Brownsberger and Katherine M. Clark for the congressional seat vacated by U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey.

"While others try to score political points off of this issue, I have said from day one that I preferred a reform of our tax code to make it more progressive for families and small businesses," said Sciortino in a statement.

But a spokesman for Brownsberger said, he, too, now supports a tech tax repeal and believes Spilka is right.

"It's not lost on me that she's a candidate for Congress and that we found out about her filing this bill in the media as opposed to an email to her colleagues," said House Minority Leader Brad Jones.

Critics of the tax accused lawmakers of not doing their homework.

"We were on a very dangerous path of tax-first, ask questions later," said Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, whose two amendments Spilka voted against. "There was such a rush to increase taxes that a lot of time was not taken to fully consider this."

Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said Spilka's position change reflects the epiphany other lawmakers are having on the tech tax.

"It's certainly striking that a tax of this enormity could be passed without having a greater scrutiny and understanding in advance," he said.

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Finish line cos. struggling

Four months after the Boston Marathon bombings, some Boylston Street businesses are still struggling to return to a sense of normalcy, even as the one that was closed the longest marks a welcome milestone with its relaunch today.

Forum General Manager Christopher Loper called the brass band processional that will make its way from the site of the marathon finish line to the renovated bar and restaurant at 5:15 p.m. "a relief and a show of strength."

"It's the light at the end of the tunnel for a lot of us who work here and for the city of Boston," Loper said.

But while the Forum officially will reopen to the public tomorrow, other businesses that reopened within days of the bombings have met with varying degrees of success.

Joy Lee, manager of Samurai Boston, said the eatery lost about $45,000 in the 10 days it was closed, but insurance covered only $20,000 of that. Lee had to replace one dishwasher who left because he couldn't afford to go that long without pay. And business is down, she said, by about 25 percent.

"Hopefully next month, when students come back, business will be better," Lee said.

Farther down Boylston Street, Bangkok Blue lost about $18,000 in sales in the 10 days it was closed, but insurance covered only $5,000, said Pornsri Lawton, the restaurant's owner.

Business generally has been flat.

"I'm doing my part, trying to make quality food," Lawton said. "We just need more business."

The Back Bay Association is joining with other groups and businesses to encourage more diners and shoppers to visit the area with "Back Bay on Display," which will include two neighborhood-wide events.

"Back Bay Night Out" will be held Sept. 12, when stores and restaurants will offer special discounts. "Back Bay Holly-Days," a holiday decorating competition, will be held in November and December.

"The bottom line is, neighborhood-wide, we are still struggling," said Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the association. "It's not over. It's ongoing."

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The Ticker

BlackBerry weighs sale

One of the most recognizable names in smartphones could be up for sale.

BlackBerry will form a special committee to review "strategic alternatives" including a potential sale of the company, the latest blow to the troubled smartphone maker.

In a statement released yesterday, the committee will also weigh potential joint ventures and other partnerships in an effort to boost interest in its line of BlackBerry 10 devices.

Belmont man to pay $170G to settle insider trading charges from SEC

A Belmont man and former executive of Massachusetts-based American Superconductor Corp. will pay more than $170,000 to settle charges of insider trading brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Joseph M. Tocci, the former assistant treasurer, used information about a shipment delivery that fell apart to make $80,000 in profit while his company's stock tumbled 42 percent.

W giving away $1 million condo

The Residences at W Boston will be giving away a $1 million unit to one lucky winner this fall.

The HGTV Urban Oasis is a custom-designed 1,000-square-foot unit located on the 24th floor of the Residences at W Boston. It is the centerpiece of a grand prize package that will be awarded by HGTV.

Somerville Whole Foods opening Sept. 4

Whole Foods Market has set a Sept. 4 opening for its new Somerville store.

The 24,780-square-foot store at 45 Beacon St. will be Whole Foods' 27th Massachusetts location. It's one of six former Johnnie's Foodmaster stores purchased by the Austin, Tex.-based natural and organic grocery chain in November.

TODAY

 Commerce Department releases retail sales data for July.

 Commerce Department releases business inventories for June.

TOMORROW

 Labor Department releases the Producer Price Index for July.

 Deere & Co., Macy's and Cisco Systems report quarterly results.

 BankFive announced the appointment of William N. Beauchene, left, as vice president, commercial lender. Beauchene has more than 20 years of experience in New England in business banking.

 Robert C. Moss has joined CohnReznick LLP as principal and national director of governmental affairs. Moss will lead the firm's federal and state government relations efforts, particularly in the area of affordable housing, and will be operating out of CohnReznick's Boston and D.C.-metro offices.

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New bid keys up Steinway stock

A $475 million takeover offer for Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. raised the prospect of a bidding war for the Waltham maker of the celebrated Steinway piano and sent its shares to a 52-week high yesterday.

The $38-per-share offer from an undisclosed investment firm eclipsed a $438 million, or $35-per-share, July bid from Kohlberg & Co., which has until Wednesday to submit a superior offer. Otherwise, Steinway — whose namesake piano was introduced by a German immigrant in Manhattan in 1853 — will cancel its agreement with the New York private equity company.

The new cash offer from the unnamed investment firm, which Steinway says has $15 billion under management, does not include a financing contingency.

"We're very pleased that another credible buyer is interested in Steinway and understands the value of the business and the brands," spokeswoman Julie Theriault said.

Steinway posted net income of $13.5 million in the last fiscal year, on sales that rose 2.2 percent to 
$353.7 million. Just six of its 1,698 employees are based in Waltham. The company's Steinway & Sons piano division operates from Long Island City, N.Y., and its Conn-Selmer Inc. band and orchestra instruments division is in Elkhart, Ind.. It also has 11 U.S. and European manufacturing facilities and owns online classic music retailer ArkivMusic.

After the July bid by Kohlberg, analysts had expected better offers such as the one announced yesterday for Steinway, which sold its interest in Manhattan's Steinway Hall for $46 million earlier this year.

"There's a good chance we see another offer, a higher offer from Kohlberg, because there was little incentive for them to provide their best offer on the first round of bidding," Bradd Kern, a portfolio manager for Irvine, Calif.-based Armored Wolf, told Bloomberg. "It's time for Kohlberg to play Beethoven or get off the bench."

Steinway also can solicit alternative bids until Kohlberg's 11:59 p.m. tomorrow deadline. Its largest shareholder, South Korea's Samick Musical Instruments, last month said it's contemplating a proposal.

Public since 1996, Steinway hired a financial adviser to explore a whole or partial sale in 2011 after an unsolicited offer for its band instrument and online music units. It shelved those plans in December.

Its shares closed at $39.59 yesterday, up 9.27 percent, after hitting a $39.90 high.

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Handy pebble rocks a little

With the flood of Apple iWatch and Samsung Galaxy Gear rumors, it would be easy to see a future where everything we need is in a mobile device on our wrist, or in frames around our eyes. Still, that literal version of a constantly connected society isn't here yet — Google Glass notwithstanding. Until then, there's Pebble smartwatch.

The waterproof watch is not the most fashionable thing that can go on a wrist, but does look much better than other smartwatches, which tend to have massive faces to accommodate touchscreens, something Pebble does not have.

Instead, three physical buttons on the right and one of the left are used to navigate through Pebble's simple menu interface.

It is a simple approach, and it's one that I didn't fully appreciate until I had worn it for a couple weeks. We're all flooded with unwanted emails, but you still have to take your phone out and have a look.

Pebble receives emails and texts, showing the sender, subject and the first few lines. It also can show who is calling your phone and control your phone's music, through a phone app.

One of Pebble's most promising features is app integration. The watch automatically pairs with the popular fitness app Runkeeper, for example, and support for a golf range-finding app has been promised. For Android phones, apps now send breaking news alerts and Twitter notifications to the Pebble.

You can get custom watch faces — Star Trek-inspired, "Beer O'Clock" (hint: it's always beer o'clock) and Etch A Sketch among them.

Pebble has released software updates every couple weeks to improve performance and make improvements, so many of early gripes have been addressed.

Pebble, the California-based company that sells the watch — it's their only product — made news last year when their Kickstarter campaign shattered the record for a crowd-funding effort, topping $10 million in contributions and selling more than 85,000 watches. This happened before any watches had been produced, based entirely on the concept.

The fact that an essentially unknown company pulled that off speaks to the desire for wearable devices, but the backlash against Google Glass also speaks to the lack of acceptance for an always-on, always-connected, piece of hardware that is an intrinsic part of our lives. Pebble is not a five-to-10-year jump ahead like Glass, but it is a step toward what seems to be the next generation of devices.

Available for pre-orders in red, white, orange, gray and black from getpebble.com and in stores now in red and black at Best Buy, Pebble will set you back $150.

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White House calls for increased grid spending

NEW YORK — The cost of weather-related power outages is rising as storms grow more severe and the U.S. electric grid gets older, an Obama Administration report says. It calls for increased spending on the nation's electric power system.

Power outages cost $18 billion to $33 billion per year, according to the report, a figure that has been rising steadily over the past 20 years. That can rise to $40 billion to $75 billion in years with severe storms such as 2008's Hurricane Ike and last year's Superstorm Sandy.

The White House report says spending to make the grid stronger and more flexible will save the economy billions.

Thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards and other extreme weather caused 58 percent of all outages since 2002 and 87 percent of outages affecting 50,000 or more customers.

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Biotechs push to save tax credit for rare-disease medicine makers

Some of the Bay State's biggest biotech companies are teaming up with drug makers and patient advocacy groups across the country to wage battle to protect the crucial federal tax credit that provides a key incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for "orphan diseases."

The measure, slated for debate as part of upcoming tax reform discussions in Congress, allows pharmaceutical companies to claim a tax credit of 50 percent of research and testing costs for drugs meant for diseases affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. — such a small market that they would not otherwise be worthwhile for large pharmaceutical companies to target.

Development of the so-called orphan drugs has skyrocketed since the tax credit was approved in 1983, with some of Massachusetts' powerhouse biotechs specializing in the market.

"We believe it provides an important incentive for companies to pursue research into serious diseases that despite affecting a small number of people are often life-threatening and have few available treatments," said Nikki Levy, a spokeswoman for Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals, maker of Kalydeco, a drug for people with cystic fibrosis who have a specific genetic mutation.

The cost and limited potential for profit would make such drugs difficult to develop without the tax credit, pharmaceutical companies say.

"The Orphan Drug Tax Credit has been a crucial incentive to those companies as they have made significant breakthroughs in areas such as cystic fibrosis, Parkinson's disease and sickle cell anemia," said Massachusetts Biotechnology Council President and CEO Robert K. Coughlin.

There are roughly 7,000 rare diseases, and around 50 percent of those affected are children.

"We strongly urge you to keep this critical tax credit in place," the National 
Organization for Rare Disorders, which represents a number of health organizations, said in a letter to congressmen who have questioned the credit.

"Repeal of the tax credit would cause irreparable harm to the goal of promoting development of therapies for patients with rare diseases," said Lori Gorski, a spokeswoman for Genzyme, a Cambridge-based company that spent 12 years developing 
Kynamro, which targets an inherited high-cholesterol condition that affects one in a million people.

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City eyes authority on liquor licenses

A Boston city councilor is making a fresh push to wrest control of Boston's liquor licensing process from the Legislature, arguing that giving the city the power to increase the number of licenses issued would help revitalize neighborhoods by reducing costs for prospective restaurateurs.

"This is not about changing Main Street into New Orleans' Bourbon Street," City Councilor Ayanna Pressley said. "One of the critical factors I see for thriving neighborhoods are successful restaurants."

State lawmakers have had control of the number of liquor licenses in the city since the 1930s. Pressley's home rule petition seeking the change is scheduled to be vetted at a public hearing Wednesday.

Pressley also wants to stop licenses being moved from empowerment zones, urban renewal districts and transit-oriented developments.

"The current law is hurting small business," Pressley said. "There's a limited number of licenses, so there's not enough to go around, and they just go to the highest bidders."

Restaurants can sell their licenses for as much as $350,000 for an all-alcohol version — and $500,000 in the Back Bay, where residents oppose adding new licenses.

Boston's 1,030 liquor licenses are given out with wide divergences in neighborhoods. Of 99 North End licenses, 91 are for restaurants and bars while 17 of Roxbury's 26 licenses are for liquor stores.

"There's a disparity issue," Pressley said. "The city should be able to work with neighborhoods and decide how best to allocate them. Clearly, a restaurant cannot be successful without a beer and wine or full alcohol license. Most of your profit margin is not going to come from your food, it's going to come from your bar."

She will face some pushback from the restaurant industry, which is concerned about disruption if more licenses are given out, with a resulting drop in the value of licenses.

"Existing restaurants have based their whole business model ... on an asset with a certain value," said Massachusetts Restaurant Association CEO Bob Luz. "To negate that value now would be unfair to existing businesses."

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