Today in Globe Business

Air base partner avoids closure

The agency charged with overseeing one of the largest developments in Massachusetts, the conversion of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, narrowly avoided closing down thanks to a $250,000 cash infusion from its corporate partner yesterday.

The South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp., made up of officials from Abington, Rockland, and Weymouth, said the funds, from Miami developer LNR Property Corp., will allow it to operate through September. The agency would have closed “within a week’’ without additional funding from LNR, said its chief executive, Kevin Donovan.

The emergency funding is a stark example of the many struggles Tri-Town and LNR have had obtaining 900 acres of the old Navy station and converting it into a minicity known as SouthField. Under the arrangement, LNR would build more than 2,800 housing units, a golf course, a sports complex, and 2 million feet of commercial space.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------

Car insurance rates 8 percent, state says

The cost of auto insurance in Massachusetts has fallen since the state stopped setting rates a little more than a year ago, the Division of Insurance said yesterday.

According to a state study, auto insurance rates dropped 8.2 percent from April 2008 to April 2009, compared with a 5.2 percent decline from 2006 to 2007. The state allowed insurance companies to start setting their own rates on April 1, 2008, under what officials called a “managed competition’’ plan. Previous to that, auto insurance had been highly regulated.

Since the regulations were relaxed, nine auto insurers have entered the Massachusetts market, including two of the nation’s largest - Geico and Progressive Insurance.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------

BOSTON CAPITAL: Biting hands that feed

Biotech companies fight with each other over the commercial rights to ideas and technology all the time. Patent lawsuits are as much a part of the business as lab work and clinical trials.

But those companies rarely go to court against big universities or scientific institutions, the source of talent and so many initial discoveries for the biotech industry. They don’t compete directly and, besides, do you really want to risk biting the hand that feeds you?

That’s partly why a lawsuit filed last week in Suffolk Superior Court is so extraordinary. The case involves a cast of world-renowned scientists and institutions in a dispute over key intellectual property rights in an emerging field that could change biotechnology, and possibly create vast fortunes.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------

Gas retailers face slow July Fourth

ACTON - Coffee in hand, Jeff Bursaw eyes the live feed on the flatscreen monitor at a rolltop desk inside his gas station. A blue bar ticks across the gray background, highlighting the constantly-shifting prices of crude oil, gasoline, and home heating oil as traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange bid the commodities up and down.

He does this every day, all day to make sure what he’s charging per gallon at Bursaw Gas & Oil in Acton not only stays competitive with, but is cheaper than, prices at the Mobil station down the street. In a span of 75 minutes on a recent day, the market swung up 5 cents and down 2.

“You can get up, go get a cup of water and everything is different,’’ Bursaw explains of his steady monitoring.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------

Two suitors for Globe join forces to submit bid

Former advertising executive Jack Connors and private equity investor Stephen Pagliuca have joined forces to prepare for a potential bid to buy The Boston Globe, according to people briefed on the sales process.

This week the two got approval from the Globe’s owner, The New York Times Co., to team up for a potential bid, the sources said. Connors and Pagliuca had been weighing separate bids for New England’s largest daily. Nondisclosure agreements had stipulated bidders could not work together, but the two sought permission to collaborate.

As that team and at least one rival local group craft preliminary bids, due Wednesday, the Times Co. has moved to make a sale more palatable by asking would-be buyers to assume only a portion of the Globe’s pension liability, a major concern to prospective owners, the sources said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sales process.

To read the full story, please click here.
------------------------------------------------------