Community Health details attack on patient records

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Hospital operator Community Health Systems said a cyberattack took information on more than 4 million patients from its computer network earlier this year.

The Franklin, Tennessee, company said Monday that no medical or credit card records were taken in the attack, which may have happened in April and June. But Community said the attack did bypass its security systems to take patient names, addresses, birthdates, and phone and Social Security numbers.

The hospital operator said it believes the attack came from a group in China that used sophisticated malware and technology to get the information. Community Health has since removed the malware from its system and finalized "other remediation efforts" to prevent future attacks.

A spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press seeking comment on the attacks.

The information that was taken came from patients who were referred to or received care from doctors tied to the company over the past five years.

Community Health Systems Inc. is notifying patients affected by the attack and offering them identity theft protection services. The company owns, leases or operates 206 hospitals in 29 states.

The attack follows other high-profile data security problems that have hit retailers like the e-commerce site eBay and Target Corp. Last year, hackers stole from Target about 40 million debit and credit card numbers and personal information for 70 million people.

Shares of Community Health climbed 38 cents to $51.38 late Monday morning, while broader trading indexes also rose less than 1 percent.

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Massachusetts gas prices continue to drop

BOSTON — Massachusetts motorists are getting more good news as the price of gas continues to fall.

AAA Southern New England reports Monday that self-serve regular has dropped another 3 cents in the past week to an average of $3.47 per gallon, and is now down 15 cents in the past month.

The current price is also 17 cents lower than at the same time last year, but 2 cents per gallon higher than the national average.

AAA found self-serve regular selling for as low as $3.29 per gallon and as high as $3.69.

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Pro, anti-casino groups launch political campaigns

BOSTON — Pro and anti-casino groups are launching their campaign operations this week as voters will decide in November whether to repeal the state's casino law.

The Committee to Protect Massachusetts Jobs, a recently-formed political group funded by gambling giants MGM Resorts International, Mohegan Sun and Penn National Gaming, said Monday they've been planning their campaign for the past three weeks and expect to launch "an extensive ground effort throughout the fall."

Meanwhile, Repeal the Casino Deal says it launched canvassing and field operations this past weekend.

Some 25 to 50 volunteers were expected to canvass neighborhoods in five communities while others staffed phone banks from the campaign's Springfield and East Boston field offices.

Massachusetts lawmakers in 2011 authorized the licensing of up to three resort casinos and one slot parlor.

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McDonald's confronts its junk food image

NEW YORK — At a dinner McDonald's hosted for reporters and bloggers, waiters served cuisine prepared by celebrity chefs using ingredients from the chain's menu.

A Kung Pao chicken appetizer was made with Chicken McNuggets doused in sweet and sour sauce and garnished with parsley. Slow-cooked beef was served with gnocchi fashioned out of McDonald's french fries and a fruit sauce from its smoothie mix. For dessert, its biscuit mix was used to make a pumpkin spice "biznut," a biscuit-doughnut hybrid.

The event, held in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood, was billed "A transforming dining experience of 'fast food' to 'good food served fast.'" Attendees tweeted out photos and the night was written up on various websites.

The dishes aren't intended for McDonald's restaurants. Instead, the evening is part of a campaign by McDonald's to shake its reputation for serving cheap, unhealthy food. At a time when Americans are playing closer attention to what they eat, the company is trying to sway public opinion by first reaching out to the reporters, bloggers and other so-called "influencers" who write and speak about McDonald's.

It's just one way McDonald's is trying to change its image. In the past 18 months, the chain has introduced the option to substitute egg whites in breakfast sandwiches and rolled out chicken wraps as its first menu item with cucumbers. Last fall, it announced plans to give people the choice of a salad instead of fries in combo meals. And in coming months, mandarins will be offered in Happy Meals, with other fruits being explored as well.

McDonald's declined to make an executive available for this story, but CEO Don Thompson said early this year: "We've got to make sure that the food is relevant and that the awareness around McDonald's as a kitchen and a restaurant that cooks and prepares fresh, high quality food is strong and pronounced."

The company faces an uphill battle, especially if the past is any indication. The salads it introduced more than a decade ago account for just 2 to 3 percent of sales. And the chain last year discontinued its Fruit & Walnut salad and premium Angus burgers, which analysts said were priced too high for McDonald's customers at around $5.

The problem is that some simply people don't consider McDonald's a place to get high quality food, in part because the prices are so low. And while McDonald's has added salads and a yogurt parfait to its menu over the years, Americans are gravitating toward other attributes, like organic produce and meat raised without antibiotics.

"People just don't think of McDonald's as having that premium quality," said Sara Senatore, a restaurant industry analyst with Bernstein Research.

In some ways, the image McDonald's is battling is ironic, given its reputation for exacting standards with suppliers. Thompson has also noted the ingredients tend to be fresh because restaurants go through them so quickly.

"The produce and the products that we have at breakfast and across the menu are fresher than — no disrespect intended — what most of you have in your refrigerators," he said at an analyst conference in May.

But even that reputation for supply chain rigor was recently tarnished when the chain's longtime supplier was reported to have sold expired meat to its restaurants in China.

The Price Conundrum

The low-cost burgers, ice cream cones and other food that made McDonald's so popular since it was founded in 1955 have come to define it. And some people can't get over the idea that low prices equal low quality.

"It's the whole perception people get when you sell something cheaply," said Richard Adams, who used to own McDonald's restaurants in San Diego and now runs a consulting firm for franchisees.

Anne Johnson, for instance, said she eats at McDonald's because she can get a burger, fries and drink for about $5. But Johnson, a New York resident, doesn't think there are any healthy options there.

"Basically, it's junk food," she said.

Adding to its challenge, McDonald's can't seem to raise prices without driving people away. Pressured by rising costs for beef and other ingredients, the chain tried to move away from the Dollar Menu in 2012 with an "Extra Value Menu" where items were priced at around $2.

But customers are apparently righteous about the $1 price point, and the strategy was scrapped. Last year, McDonald's changed its tactic a bit, hoping not to turn off customers. It tweaked the name of the "Dollar Menu" to the "Dollar Menu & More."

McDonald's low prices also are part of what keeps it from competing with places such as Chipotle, which is touting the removal of genetically modified ingredients from its menu, and Panera, which recently said it will eliminated all artificial ingredients by 2016. Such moves would be Herculean feats for McDonald's, given its pricing model and the complexity of its menu.

Meanwhile, the company acknowledges there are problems with how people perceive its food. "A lot of our guests don't believe our food is real," said Dan Coudreaut, director of culinary innovation at McDonald's, in an interview last year.

Taking Control of The Narrative

The image of McDonald's food is a growing concern for the company at a time when U.S. sales have been weak for two years. The last time McDonald's managed to boost a monthly sales figure at home was in October, and the company warns its performance isn't expected to improve anytime soon.

McDonald's has said it has other problems, including slow and inaccurate service at its restaurants. But improving perceptions about its food is also a priority.

Following the dinner in New York last fall, the company hosted a similar event last month for reporters covering the Essence Festival in New Orleans. Beignets filled with grilled chicken and dusted with sugar were served alongside a packet of McDonald's honey mustard sauce.

Other "chef events" in local markets are planned for coming months, according to Lisa McComb, a McDonald's spokeswoman. She declined to provide details but said the events will be a spin on a recent contest between two friends to make a gourmet dish out of a Big Mac meal.

McComb said McDonald's wasn't associated with that particular contest, which was posted online.

The company continues to tweak the menu, too. The new Bacon Club burger McDonald's is promoting comes on a brioche bun and looks more like something that might be found at a trendy burger joint. It costs $5 or $6, depending on where you live, making it the most expensive sandwich on the menu.

In Southern California, McDonald's also is testing a "Build Your Own Burger" concept, with the patties being cooked to order more slowly on a separate grill.

Beyond the menu, the company is determined to take control of its narrative.

"We're going to start really, really telling our story in a much more proactive manner," said Kevin Newell, U.S. brand and strategy officer for McDonald's said late last year.

He added that McDonald's has gone too long in "letting other folks frame the story for us."

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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NBC's 'Blacklist' gets A-list marketing treatment

LOS ANGELES — With TV viewers awash in choices, how can a network bolster a freshman hit's chances of repeating its success in year two? Plot a marketing extravaganza that's nearly inescapable.

For NBC's top-rated drama "The Blacklist," the network has devised a promotion and advertising campaign that will put the show and star James Spader front and center on billboards, faux magazine covers and online before its Sept. 22 return.

Various images of Spader as master criminal Raymond "Red" Reddington will decorate the mock covers on the flip side of 10 magazines, including the August or September issues of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Wired and the New Yorker. Playboy will feature a "Blacklist" cover ad fronting the issue out Tuesday, NBC said.

Among the eye-catching fakes: the back of the men's magazine GQ, re-labeled BQ, showing a sharp-dressed Spader with a headline that pays homage to Reddington's style: "The Blacklist of criminal chic: fedoras, trenchcoats & more."

The network declined to put a price tag on the campaign, but its pull-out-the-stops approach makes sense. "The Blacklist" was among the reasons NBC finished the 2013-14 season as No. 1 among advertiser-favored young adult viewers for the first time in a decade.

"The size and scope of this campaign speak to both the importance of the series to NBC and the creative ways in which we can get that message out," said Len Fogge, president of marketing and digital for NBC Entertainment.

Megan Boone, Ryan Eggold, Diego Klattenhoff and Harry Lennix co-star in the drama about Reddington's mysterious relationship to a novice FBI agent (Boone) that has made him an unlikely partner in stopping the world's foremost bad guys.

The show already has gotten serious love from the network, which gave it the January 2015 post-Super Bowl slot — a chance to introduce it to TV's largest audience and garner new fans. That placement comes after "The Blacklist," which debuts Monday, Sept. 22, moves to a Thursday home in February.

One thing the network can't boast about: the show's Emmy Awards cachet. Both "The Blacklist" and Spader, a three-time best-actor Emmy winner (for "Boston Legal," ''The Practice") were overlooked for major nominations at the Aug. 25 ceremony as cable dramas once again dominated.

Also part of NBC's marketing plan:

— Murals of Reddington created by six artists will be displayed in busy areas of major cities and made available to view online.

— One-liners by the darkly droll Reddington will be set to the rock tune "Back in Black" and played from morning to late night on NBC and on sister cable channels that are part of NBCUniversal.

— Los Angeles and New York billboards will feature the magazine cover campaign, with other billboard displays nationally.

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Online:

http://www.nbc.com/the-blacklist

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Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber.

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US homebuilder confidence rises in August

U.S. homebuilders are feeling more confident in their sales prospects headed into next year, a sign that home construction and sales of newly built homes may pick up after stalling this summer.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Monday rose this month to 55, up two points from a revised reading of 53 in July.

The latest reading is the third monthly increase in a row and the highest since January, when it was 56. Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good, rather than poor.

Builders' view of current sales conditions for single-family homes, their outlook for sales over the next six months and traffic by prospective buyers each increased since July.

The brighter outlook bodes is a positive sign for the new-home market after a lackluster summer.

Sales of new homes are running behind last year's pace. They slid 8.1 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 406,000.

A mix of rising home prices, higher mortgage rates and meager wage growth has made it more difficult for would-be homebuyers to purchase a newly built home, particularly first-time buyers.

At the same time, the U.S. economy has been adding jobs at a solid clip, with gains topping 200,000 jobs every month in the six months through July.

And the pickup in home values has spurred homeowners to trade up to a nicer home. These so-called move-up buyers are generally in a better financial position to buy than first-time buyers and have helped drive sales for some of the nation's biggest homebuilders.

In the latest NAHB index, which was based on responses from 366 builders, builder confidence improved nationally and on a regional basis, with readings for the Midwest, West, Northeast and South all posting gains from last month.

The index gauging current sales conditions for single-family homes rose two points to 58, while builders' outlook for sales over the next six months also rose two points, climbing to 65. A measure of traffic by prospective buyers increased three points to 42.

Housing, while still a long way from the boom of several years ago, has been recovering over the past two years.

Though new homes represent only a fraction of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to NAHB data.

The builder confidence survey sent shares in U.S. homebuilders higher in morning trading Monday. TRI Pointe Homes Inc. led the sector. The stock rose 52 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $14.26.

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Report: Cost to raise today's child tops $245,000

WASHINGTON — A child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 until he or she becomes an adult, with families living in the Northeast taking on a greater burden, according to a report out Monday.

Those costs — food, housing, childcare and education — rose 1.8 percent over the previous year, the Agriculture Department's new "Expenditures on Children and Families" report said. As in the past, families in the urban Northeast will spend more than families in the urban South and rural parts of the U.S., or roughly $282,480.

When adjusting for projected inflation, the report found that a child born last year could cost a middle-income family an average of about $304,480.

The USDA's annual report, based on the government's Consumer Expenditure Survey, found families were consistent in how they spent their money across all categories from 2012 to 2013. The costs associated with pregnancy or expenses accumulated after a child becomes an adult, such as college tuition, were not included.

In 1960, the first year the report was issued, a middle-income family could spend about $25,230, equivalent to $198,560 in 2013 dollars, to raise a child until the age of 18. Housing costs remain the greatest child-rearing expense, as they did in the 1960s, although current-day costs like childcare were negligible back then.

For middle-income families, the USDA found, housing expenses made up roughly 30 percent of the total cost of raising a child. Child care and education were the second-largest expenses, at 18 percent, followed by food at 16 percent.

Expenses per child decrease as a family has more children, the report found, as families with three or more children spend 22 percent less per child than families with two children. That's because more children share bedrooms, clothing and toys, and food can be purchased in larger, bulk quantities.

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Online:

The USDA's full report: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/CRC/crc2013.pdf

USDA's "Cost of Raising a Child" calculator: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/tools/CRC_Calculator/default.aspx

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Unemployment rises in most US states in July

WASHINGTON — Unemployment rates rose in 30 U.S. states last month, even as employers in two-thirds of the states stepped up hiring. The trends reflect an increase in job-hunters nationwide as an improving economy has encouraged more people to seek work.

The Labor Department said Monday that unemployment rates fell in eight states in July and were unchanged in 12. At the same time, hiring rose in 36 states, fell in 13, and was unchanged in Iowa.

The national unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2 percent in July from 6.1 percent in June, the government said earlier this month, even as employers added 209,000 jobs.

The reason the rate rose nationwide even as hiring increased is that more Americans launched job searches but didn't find work. That lifted the number of unemployed. Still, the rise in people seeking jobs suggests they're more optimistic about their prospects.

The jobless aren't counted as unemployed unless they're actively seeking work.

Mississippi had the highest unemployment rate in July, at 8 percent, its first month with the highest since the 2008-2009 Great Recession. In June, Mississippi and Rhode Island had tied with rates of 7.9 percent. Rhode Island had the highest rate for several months earlier this year. After recession ended in June 2009, Michigan and then Nevada typically had the highest rates.

In July, Georgia had the second-highest rate, at 7.8 percent. Michigan, Rhode Island and Nevada were tied with the third-highest, at 7.7 percent.

North Dakota had the lowest rate in the nation, as it has for many years, at 2.8 percent. The state is benefiting from an oil and gas drilling boom. Utah and Nebraska were tied with the next lowest rates, at 3.6 percent.

The biggest job gains were in Texas, which added 46,600 jobs, followed by California, with 27,700 and Michigan, with 17,900.

Despite this month's increases, state unemployment rates have significantly improved nationwide in the past year. That trend has reduced regional differences.

The Midwest had the lowest rate of the nation's four largest regions in July, at 5.9 percent. The West had the highest, at 6.6 percent. The rate was 6.1 percent in the South and the Northeast.

That gap of 0.7 percentage points from the lowest to highest is narrower than a year earlier. In July 2013, the South had the lowest rate, at 7.1 percent, and the West the highest, at 8.1 percent.

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Government wants to make cars talk to each other

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Monday it is taking a first step toward requiring that future cars and light trucks be equipped with technology that enables them to warn each other of potential danger in time to avoid collisions.

A research report released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that the technology could eventually prevent 592,000 left-turn and intersection crashes a year, saving 1,083 lives. The agency said it will begin drafting rules to require the technology in new vehicles.

The technology uses a radio signal to continually transmit a vehicle's position, heading, speed and other information. Similarly equipped cars and trucks would receive the same information, and their computers would alert drivers to an impending collision.

A car would "see" when another car or truck equipped with the same technology was about to run a red light, even if that vehicle were hidden around a corner. A car would also know when a car several vehicles ahead in a line of traffic had made a sudden stop and alert the driver even before the brake lights of the vehicle directly in front illuminate. The technology works up to about 300 yards away.

If communities choose to invest in the technology, roadways and traffic lights could start talking to cars, as well, sending warnings of traffic congestion or road hazards ahead in time for drivers to take a detour.

The technology is separate from automated safety features using sensors and radar that are already being built into some high-end vehicles today and which are seen as the basis for future self-driving cars. But government and industry officials see the two technologies as compatible. If continuous conversations between cars make driving safer, then self-driving cars would become safer as well.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx called the vehicle-to-vehicle technology "the next great advance in saving lives."

"This technology could move us from helping people survive crashes to helping them avoid crashes altogether — saving lives, saving money and even saving fuel thanks to the widespread benefits it offers," Foxx said.

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Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

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PriceWaterhouseCoopers to pay $25M in bank case

ALBANY, N.Y. — PriceWaterhouseCoopers will pay $25 million and face a two-year suspension from consulting for new bank clients under an agreement with New York regulators following an investigation that showed the company improperly altered a report about Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi laundering money.

Monday's agreement followed a $250 million settlement between the bank and the same regulators last year.

New York's Department of Financial Services said its investigation showed PriceWaterhouseCoopers, under pressure from bank executives, improperly altered a report to regulators on bank wire transfers on behalf of Iran, Sudan and other countries under U.S. sanctions.

"We are continuing to find examples of improper influence and misconduct in the bank consulting industry," department Superintendent Ben Lawsky said. "When bank executives pressure a consultant to whitewash a supposedly 'objective' report to regulators — and the consultant goes along with it — that can strike at the very heart of our system of prudential oversight."

Miles Everson, U.S. advisory leader for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said the agreement related to a single engagement completed more than six years ago in which the company searched for and identified transactions that were self-reported by the bank to regulators. Its detailed report "disclosed the relevant facts" that it learned, he said.

The resolution of the case reinforces PriceWaterhouseCoopers' commitment to meeting changes in regulatory expectations, he said.

The department said PriceWaterhouseCoopers reviewed the Tokyo bank's dollar-clearing activity and transactions that potentially should have been blocked. The company found the bank had issued special instructions to employees to strip out wire messages that would have triggered alerts, the department said. The bank had denied having such a policy only weeks earlier when meeting with regulators.

The consultant revised its draft report to delete the English translation of the bank's wire-stripping instructions and other information about it, according to the department. Versions of the report "were progressively sanitized based on changes demanded by the bank," the department said. Two PriceWaterhouseCoopers partners responsible for supervising the report are now retired.

The $25 million represents an approximation of the fees and expenses the company received for the report plus the department's investigation cost.

The regulators also noted that PriceWaterhouseCoopers withheld more than 20 percent of one director's compensation after it came to light the director repeatedly had suggested the company stop conducting further analysis that might show bank wrongdoing. The director, presently a partner, was quoted in the settlement agreement signed Monday but was not named.

The deal requires PriceWaterhouseCoopers within a year to establish procedures that include requiring the consultant and its bank clients to submit work plans to New York regulators and that the banks consent to independent contact between the consultant and regulators.

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