Ga. man sentenced for stealing from Building 19

THE REGION

A Georgia man was sentenced to three years of probation, fined $5,000, and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service for his involvement in a scheme to steal more than $4 million from Building 19, a discount retail chain based in Hingham. Michael Brown, 63, pleaded guilty to six counts of larceny and three counts of conspiracy in Plymouth Superior Court. According to the Massachusetts attorney general's office, Brown was allegedly part of a five-person scheme to steal from International Floor Craft, a Building 19 unit. (Se Young Lee)

Raising the price of water is more effective than using regulations like water bans in promoting conservation, according to a study by Sheila M. Olmstead of Yale University and Robert N. Stavins of Harvard University. The study, released this week by the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in Boston, concluded that residential water use varies according to price, as electricity and gasoline use do. Mandatory water-use bans work better than voluntary ones, the study found, but do not reduce use as much as price increases. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Exact Sciences Corp. said it is expanding its relationship with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings and that chief executive Don Hardison will resign to join LabCorp as chief operating officer, effective Sept. 4. Marlborough-based Exact Sciences uses applied genomics to develop screening technologies for detecting cancer. Exact also said Patrick Zenner has been appointed executive chairman and interim chief executive and that chief financial officer Jeffrey Luber has been promoted to president. (Chris Reidy)

Shares of Airvana Inc., a Chelmsford provider of network infrastructure products, rose 2.4 percent to $7.17 after the initial public offering priced at $7 per share, below the expected price range. The company had expected its offering of 8.3 million shares to price between $8 and $10 per share. Airvana plans to use net proceeds from the IPO to fund research and development and to expand the sales and marketing functions outside the United States. (AP)

THE NATION

Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan outlined a proposal to keep Dow Jones & Co. Inc. out of Rupert Murdoch's hands, saying his plan could help boost the stock price to more than $100. Urging shareholders to reject Murdoch's $5 billion takeover bid, Greenspan offered to lend members of the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones, $400 million to $600 million to buy out other Bancrofts who want to cash out at $60 per share -- the price Murdoch's News Corp. has offered. In exchange, Greenspan said he would get two board seats and the rights to all value created in the stock above $60 per share. (Reuters)

Investors in Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that were virtually wiped out from large bets on risky mortgages are planning to sue the company as early as Monday, television channel CNBC reported. The lawsuit will be brought by the firm of Bernstein Litowitz Berger and Grossman LLP, which represented investors against WorldCom Inc. over a massive accounting fraud, CNBC said. (Reuters)

State Street Corp., the world's biggest institutional money manager, plans to spend $1 billion in the next six months to buy back shares after they lagged behind those of rival Bank of New York Mellon Corp. . . . InterGen, the Burlington-based power producer, delayed its proposed bond sale until next week as a surge in the perceived risk of corporate debt damped investor demand. The company planned to sell $1.975 billion of 10-year high-yield, high-risk notes, which were scheduled to be priced yesterday, in dollars, euros, and pounds, according to KDP Investment Advisors Inc. The sale is now set for July 23. . . . A bankruptcy judge approved the sale by Interstate Bakeries Corp. of two properties that would net a total of about $2.95 million. The properties are in Worcester and Charlotte, N.C. Six Academy LLC will buy the Worcester property -- a 46,800-square-foot building on 1.55 acres -- for $850,000. (Globe wire services)