WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 The Boston Globe Business B9
25
THEBOSTONGLOBE
Indexof publicly traded companiesin MassachusettsMajor stock indexes closed mostly higher as investors
favored smaller, US-focused companies for a second
straight day. Industrial, energy, and health care stocks
helped power the gains, as did banks amid a broad pull-
back in demand for government bonds, which pushed
yields higher. (Lenders rely on higher yields to set more lu-
crative interest rates on loans.) Bank of America rose 2.5
percent, and State Street rose 9 percent. Traders unloaded
tech stocks and shares in companies that rely on consumer
spending. Microsoft lost 1.1 percent; Visa and Mastercard
fell 2.8 and 3.9 percent, respectively. Investors continued to
flock to smaller-company stocks, seen as better shielded
from the US-China trade war. Among small-cap gainers
were ABM Industries, up 3.1 percent, and Spectrum Phar-
maceuticals, up 16.9 percent. The market has been gaining
ground for two weeks as investors remain confident in the
strength of the economy, despite the trade feud. Apple rose
1.2 percent after unveiling new iPhones and a streaming
video service. Netflix and Disney each fell 2.2 percent. Ford
fell 1.3 percent after Moody’s cut its credit rating to ‘‘junk.’’
Markets
Stock indexes close mostly higher
DOW JONES industrial average
NASDAQ Composite index
S&P 500 index
Globe 25 index
SOURCE:BloombergNewsed States.
As a series of closely watched Al-
zheimer’s drug development pro-
grams have failed, US officials have
become increasingly worried about
the mounting burden of treating the
patient population — and the lack of
a national standard of care for peo-
ple with dementia.
“It’s a real hodgepodge of care,”
said John Haaga, director of behav-
ioral and social research at the aging
institute in Baltimore, one of more
than two dozen research centers
that make up the National Institutes
for Health. “What happens to you
depends on where you are, what
health care system you’re in, and
when you get diagnosed. There
hasn’t been enough research on
care.”
Vince Mor, the collaboratory’s
other coleader, and a professor atuALZHEIMER'S
Continued from Page B6Brown’s School of Public Health in
Providence, said the new collabora-
tion can be a kind of incubator for
innovation in care practices.
The goal, he said, is to test new
ideas on a large scale quickly.
“We’re focusing on a population
that is often ignored by health care
systems,” he said.
Haaga said the outcomes could
help millions of people for years to
come.
“We want to see researchers do-
ing trials in realistic settings on
ways to improve care for people
with dementia,” he said. “Even if the
science goes the way we hope, and
we get a disease-altering treatment,
we’ve still got millions of people
who will be living with this for
years.”
Researchers at Hebrew Senior-
Life, a Harvard-affiliated senior ser-
vices and research nonprofit based
in Roslindale, have worked on de-mentia care for decades in partner-
ship with their counterparts at
Brown’s School of Public Health.
The two parties were selected to
manage the collaboratory.
While the grant is expected to to-
tal$ 53 .4millionoverfiveyears,the
outlay will be subject to annual
changes in federal budget alloca-
tions.
Mitchell called the ballooning
population of people with dementia
a public health crisis.
“The focus has been on prevent-
ing and reducing the symptoms,
and finding a treatment,” she said.
“There is no cure right now, and a
cure is many years away. But we
have to have a strategy for manag-
ing the millions of people who have
this disease.”Robert Weisman can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow
him on Twitter @GlobeRobW.Partiesget$53mdementiacaregrant
2½, ushering in an era of neighbor-
hood policing, and creating a vision
of Boston as a world-class city.
“I feel like we planted the seeds
for a new Boston despite all that
angst,” Spring said.
Grogan had been working in the
White administration for several
years and was ready to leave after
being accepted into Stanford Busi-
ness School. Grogan said that be-
cause of his good relationship with
the press and the business commu-
nity, White implored him to defer
school for a year, saying, “I need
people like you to get me through
this.”
“When he asked me to stay, the
number one clear message was: ‘Do
your job, and don’t let this distract
you from the very important work,’ ”
Grogan recounted.
At times, it was hard to focus.
Several mornings, FBI agents came
into the office unannounced, rifled
through files and whisked them
away, said Grogan, who was the
city’s director of neighborhood de-
velopment.
“It was like out of a movie,” he
said. “It was hard to maintain [the
appearance] that nothing was hap-
pening.”
Grogan, the longtime CEO of the
nonprofit Boston Foundation, never
did go to business school, but he
said he has no regrets.
He also believes that Weld’s at-
tention helped clean up mayoral ad-
ministrations post-White.
“The lack of municipal corrup-
tion has sped this city’s renais-
sance,” Grogan said. “Whatever is
there, get to the bottom of it and
deal with it properly.”
For Regan, who was White’s
press secretary, the worst part was
that the investigation felt like it keptuLEUNG
Continued from Page B6going and going.
“There is never a beginning or an
end — relentless everyday,” said
Regan, who now runs his own pub-
lic relations firm.
Regan has two pieces of advice
for current City Hall workers:
RNever speak to the FBI without
a lawyer, and remember that a US
attorney is not your friend. “They
are looking for headlines,” he said.
RMayor Walsh should keep up
hispublicappearances.(Judgingby
the four events on his Tuesday
schedule and five on Wednesday, he
is doing that.)
Regan recalled how White resist-
ed being out in public, something
that his aides had to push back on.
“If he did nothing wrong, why hide
in the bunker?” Regan reasoned.
Regan, Spring, and Grogan were
part of a crop of talented young
White aides. They told me that the
experience of working under the
microscope left an indelible mark
on their professional lives.
“It helped me grow. I became a
stronger person,” Regan said. “Kev-
in would say ‘toughen up,’ and Idid.”
John Vitagliano spent a dozen
years working for White in a variety
of jobs, the last one overseeing the
Transportation Department. Echo-
ing the others, Vitagliano remem-
bered how White reiterated to ev-
eryone “to do our jobs.”
White also kept department
heads like Vitagliano in the loop on
the investigation and had city attor-
neys conduct regular briefings that
helped dispel the rumors that were
flying, internally and externally. The
transparency was appreciated.
“That is one of the reasons we
could do our jobs,” said Vitagliano,
who is now a transportation consul-
tant. “Mayor White took a leader-
ship role in that.”
How Marty Walsh reacts will set
the tone for employees who are try-
ing to do good work under a cloud
— and play a big part in determin-
ing his legacy.
Paralysis isn’t an option.Shirley Leung is a Globe columnist.
She can be reached at
[email protected].Along-ago
CityHall
probeoffers
somelessons
farms that are eligible for the incen-
tives, if the electricity would be sold
instead of used on-site. Developers
say many projects that once made
financial sense would fall by the
wayside.
The SMART rules were initially
put in place to wean the industry off
an earlier set of incentives, known
as solar renewable energy certifi-
cates, that were considered to be
generally more costly for ratepayers.
Now the demand for these incen-
tives has run up against caps the
state has set on the various utility
service territories — specifically in
Eversource’s Western Massachusetts
territory, and in all of National
Grid’s territory except Nantucket.
Developers are clamoring for more.
As a result, state energy officials
are ready to adopt a relatively mod-
est increase in the caps. They would
much rather see new panels go on
roofs and parking canopies, or on
old industrial properties, than in
open fields or forests where trees
would need to be cut down. The
hope in the Baker administration is
that the new version of SMART
strikes a better balance between en-
couraging solar power and preserv-
ing open space.
Another important motivation:
ensuring solar power is generated
closer to population centers, whereuCHESTO
Continued from Page B6most of the demand for electricity
exists, in part to lessen the pressure
on the power lines in rural areas.
An administration spokesman
says these rules are meant to build
on the state’s national leadership in
solar, with nearly 2,500 megawatts
of solar power up and running here
already, enough for about 6 percent
of the state’s electricity demand.
These rules, the spokesman says,
would further reduce costs, advance
energy storage, and promote solar
projects that provide the most envi-
ronmental benefits.
The new rules aren’t final, and
the state is accepting input through
Sept. 27. But developers aren’t wait-
ing around to voice their concerns.
Jeremy McDiarmid, a vice president
with trade group NECEC, says the
dramatic reduction in incentives for
most ground-mounted projects
would make it tough for developers
to make the finances work. This, he
says, could have a chilling effect on
the industry, which is already deal-
ing with delays in getting approvals
to connect to the power grid. And
the Coalition for Community Solar
Access, another critic of the change
for rural solar, points out that the
area in Massachusetts used for solar
totals only 4,100 acres, less than one
10th of one percent of the state’s
land mass.
Senator Michael Barrett, cochair-
man of the Legislature’s energycommittee, says he has watched this
backlash against solar power with
dismay. Rooftop solar is great — he
has panels on his house in Lexing-
ton. But Barrett says the state can’t
wean itself off natural gas- and oil-
fired power plants without larger,
industrial-scale solar projects get-
ting built. He worries that the anti-
solar attitudes are driven by NIMBY
attitudes among neighbors who
simply don’t want to see panels near
them.
Environmental groups are speak-
ing out against certain kinds of solar
projects, too. E. Heidi Ricci at the
Massachusetts Audubon Society
says small towns with volunteer
boards are ill-equipped to control
projects that big solar companies
are bringing their way. And Jane
Winn of the Berkshire Environmen-
tal Action Team says the state
should encourage panels to go up
on every appropriate big box store
and parking lot, before providing
incentives for them to be built on
forest land.
Moving to a future that runs on
clean energy is a noble aspiration.
But the Baker administration is
finding out that progress toward
that future isn’t easy, even when an
entire industry has been built up
around making it happen.Jon Chesto can be reached at
[email protected].BacklashcouldcomplicatelargesolarprojectsinMassachusetts
JOSEPH RUNCI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 1969‘What
happens
toyou
depends
onwhere
youare...
There
hasn’t
been
enough
research
oncare.’
JOHN HAAGA,
National Institute
on AgingState
energy
officials
would
much
rathersee
new
panelsgo
onroofs
and
parking
canopies
thanin
open
fieldsor
forests.
Mayor Kevin
White looked
out of City Hall
in 1969 at a
very different
Boston from
the current
one.