The Boston Globe - 07.08.2019

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 The Boston Globe Business B9

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THEBOSTONGLOBE

Indexof publicly tradedcompaniesin Massachusetts

Stocks closed broadly higher as Wall Street regainedits
footing a day after the market had its biggest decline in a
year. The bounce pushed the Dow more than 300 points
higher and snappeda six-day losing streak for the market,
though the benchmark S&P 500 recouped only a little more
than a third of Monday’s losses. China’s decision to stabilize
its currency put investors in a buyingmood. News that Chi-
na had allowedits currency to depreciate against the dollar
to its lowest level in 11 years sparked Monday’s sell-off. In-
vestors have grown more nervous about the US-China trade
war, even as negotiations resumed.But China’s decision to
allow its currency to stabilize Tuesday suggests it may hold
off from aggressively allowingthe yuan to weaken as a way
to respond to US tariffs. Tech stocks,whichbore the brunt
of Monday’s sell-off, accounted for a big share of Tuesday’s
gains. Appleand Microsoft rose 1.9 percent. Financial com-
panies also helped lift the market. Wells Fargo gained 1.7
percent, and Bank of America rose 1.2 percent. Retail, com-
munications services, and industrial companies’ stocks also
notched solid gains. Foot Locker rose 3.4 percent.

Markets

Stock market regainsitsfooting

DOW JONES industrialaverage

NASDAQComposite index

S&P 500 index

Globe 25index

SOURCE:BloombergNews

stable housing — committed in

2017 to spending $6.5 million

on housingprograms over five

years.Children’s Hospital and

the Brighamlater joinedBMC

to create the new Innovative

Stable Housing Initiative. Orga-

nizers hope the effort eventual-

ly expands to include other hos-

pitals.

“Affordable housing is the

numberone concernthat we’ve

heard,” in Greater Boston, said

Dr. Megan Sandel, a pediatri-

cian and associate director of

BMC’s Grow Clinic, which

treats children.

“We can provide the best

medical care possible — but if

you’re homeless or housing un-

stable, you’re not going to be

able to meet your health poten-

tial.”

Research by Sandeland oth-

ers has shownthat children, in

particular, face health issues

and developmental delays if

uHOUSING

ContinuedfromPageB6

they lack a safe and stable home.

The Massachusetts Medic-

aid program, whichprovides

health coverage for low-income

families,is also pushingcare

providers to address social and

economic issues, including

housing, to helppreventseri-

ous and expensive medical

problems in their patients.

BMC,Children’s, and the

Brigham are funding programs

that helpstruggling Boston

families who are behind on rent

so they can avoid eviction. A

relatively modest amountof

money, about $1,500, often can

help a family avoid homeless-

ness.

More than4,600 eviction

cases werefiled in Boston

Housing Court in 2016,the

most recent year for which data

are available,accordingto city

officials. Most involved tenants

in subsidized housing.

“The hospitalsare making

an exceptionalstatementthat

housing stability is a primary

social determinant of health,”

said Matt Pritchard, president

of HomeStart, one of the first

organizations to win a grant

from the hospitals. “It’s going to

allow us to prevent a lot of evic-

tions.”

City Life/Vida Urbanawill

use the hospitals’ donation to

provide legalaid to familiesat

immediate risk of eviction, and

to help families pay rent or oth-

er urgent expenses, such as util-

ity and medical bills.

These efforts are expected to

helpstabilizethehomesof 75

families,said Lisa Owens, exec-

utive director of City Life.

CasaMyrna, which works

withsurvivorsof domestic vio-

lence, expects to stabilize an-

other 85 households.

The organization plansto

use the hospital grant, in part,

to pay housing-related expenses

that typically aren’t covered by

other sourcesof funding —

such as broker fees for people

searching for a new apartment

and rental trucks for those

moving to a new home.

“Rents just continue to rise

in Boston, and it’s getting hard-

er and harder for people to

maintain housing,” said Stepha-

nie Brown,chief executiveof

Casa Myrna.

Dr. ShariNethersole,execu-

tive director for community

healthat Children’s Hospital,

said it’s important for hospitals

to study the impact of their do-

nationsas they developstrate-

gies for combating housing in-

stability.

“The hospitals don’t think

they’re going to fix the housing

problem,” she said.“We recog-

nize this is a societal problem.

We’re trying to helpidentify

wherewe do have a role, where

we can help.”

PriyankaDayal McCluskey

canbe reached at

[email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@priyanka_dayal.

Hospitals team up on housing aid

tinue to thrive, benefiting from

innate adaptability.

In theirlarval stage they

look nothinglike crabs, more

like minuscule horned shrimp.

After several moltings, they fi-

nallyemerge on landas eight-

legged specks that freakily re-

semble ticks.

And it’s those littlest ones —

a week or two postlarva — that

Tepolt is looking for. She wants

to compare their genetic make-

up with that of older green

crabs that have survived many

seasons. She’s also comparing

local green crabs with ones she

recently collected in Nova Sco-

tia.

Green crabs actually came to

this continent in two invasions

— the secondone happeningin

the late 20th century. The later-

arrivingcrabs seemto have

come from Northern Europe,

possibly carrying genes that en-

able themto survive cold wa-

ters.

As they commingledwith

the earlier invaders,overthe

past few decades the green crab

population has explodednorth-

ward, reaching as far as New-

foundland.

Tepolt is trying to identify

the genes that enablethe crabs

to tolerate those cold waters.

Meanwhile,can anythingbe

doneto control them?How

about tapping into humans’

craving for seafood? In Europe

the greencrabs’ relativesare

used to flavor bouillabaisse.

The Portugueseenjoy eating

themover a long, slow evening.

“They taste good,” says

uWORKSPACE

Continued fromPageB6

Tepolt, who onceserved green

crabs as an appetizer at a din-

ner party. But each shell holds

just a shred of meat, and it’s

hard to extract it. She doesn’t

see muchimmediate potential

for green crabs in the gourmet

marketplace.

Otherpossibilities are to use

themas fertilizer or bait.

Tepolt’s mission is not to get

rid of greencrabs, but to learn

the genetic secret to their

adaptability. Suchunderstand-

ing can informpreparations for

global climate change. Which

species will make it, which will

perish?

“Traditionallywe thought of

evolutionas a nice,long, slow

process,” Tepolt said. But in-

creasingly, scientists are finding

animalsthat evolve rapidly, in

decades. Animals that possess

the genes for faster evolution —

genes that endow the flexibility

to adapt, as green crabs have —

are morelikely to survive cli-

mate change.

Tepolt, 38, has been working

at Woods Hole since2017,after

earninga doctorate in marine

biology at Stanford and doing

postdoctoral work at the Smith-

sonian.

She cameto studyinginva-

sive crabs by a circuitousroute.

As a youngster growing up in

New Hampshire, she loved ob-

serving sea creatures and col-

lecting seashells, but never en-

visionedthosepleasures as con-

duits to a career.

Instead, in college she got in-

terested in genetics. She consid-

eredmedicalschoolbut aban-

doned the idea after earninga

master’s degree in New Zealand

on bird conservation.

Later, she worked on inva-

sive species researchas a con-

tractor for the Environmental

Protection Agency.

That’s when Tepoltfirst

started studyingcrabs,and

when,she says, “I decidedto

become a marine biologist, go-

ing backto my roots as a kid

playing on the beach.”

Felice J. Freyer can be reached

at [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@felicejfreyer

Cracking

the secret

of invasive

green crabs

acrossthe Mystic Riverto As-

sembly Row in Somerville.

In June, DeMaria told the

Globehe hopedthe next phase

for the area near Encore would

include lots of hotel rooms,

funky outdoor spaces, little ca-

fes, breweries, displays from

artists — a place where a family

could spend an afternoon (per-

hapswith one parent ducking

into the casino).

Still, on Tuesday, Maddox of-

fered a dose of Boston-area real-

ity when it comesto a timeline.

“The planning and permit-

ting processdoestake quitea

long time in Massachusetts,” he

said with — was that a hint of

exasperation in his voice?

For benchmarking purpos-

es: The act legalizing casino

gamingin the state was signed

into law on Nov. 22, 2011; En-

core Boston Harbor, the state’s

first casinoin the lucrative Bos-

ton area,didn’t openuntillate

June, seven yearsand seven

months later.

On the conference call, exec-

utivesdidn’t offer muchin the

way of details on early Encore

revenues, otherthan to say that

tablegamesare performing

uWYNN

ContinuedfromPageB6

well. Maddox said Encore is

workingon offers and promo-

tions “to really understand the

highly competitive slot market

in the Northeast.”

Massachusetts has two other

casinos: MGMSpringfield and

slots parlor Plainridge Park Ca-

sino in Plainville. And there are

plenty of gamingestablish-

mentsnearby, from Mohegan

Sun and FoxwoodsResort Casi-

no in Connecticut to Twin River

Casino in Lincoln, R.I.

Encore Boston Harbor,

which has 671 hotel rooms, 143

table games, and 3,158 slot ma-

chines, pulled in $16.8 million

in gamblingrevenueduring its

first week after opening June

23, according to figures re-

leasedby the Massachusetts

GamingCommission.Revenue

figures for July will become

public later this month.

But it will likely take a year

or more,specialists say, to get a

true sense of howWynn Re-

sorts’s bet in Everett is paying

out.

Joshua Miller canbe reachedat

[email protected].

Wynn Resortshints at encore to Everett casino

PHOTOS BY JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF

Marinebiologist CarolynTepoltworkedona DNA test ona greencrabin herlabin Woods

Hole.Her missionis to learnthegeneticsecret to theiradaptability.

WYNNRESORTS

A WynnResorts graphicwithproposeddevelopmentplansforlandparcelsthecompany

recentlyacquiredin theareasurroundingtheEncoreBostonHarborcasinoin Everett.