For the city, today’s tragic explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line could not have occurred at a worse time or place. Owing to the rich history and prominence of the annual race, there is no other time of the year when the city is more crowded with locals and visitors alike. Runners and spectators […]

Katherine Tucker, a professor of nutritional epidemiology at Northeastern University in Boston, said it’s possible that the low-fat Ornish plan might be more beneficial for those with heart disease. “People who have had heart attacks might have a genetic predisposition to having more damaging effects on their arteries from higher fat diets,” she said, but […]

In drawing the funds, J.C. Penney is taking advantage of the money while it remained available, since banks could reduce the next credit line, said Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University. “If they had not drawn down the money, it would have come down on its own; they would have lost the availability,” Platt said. […]

Here’s one big reason why America’s unemployment crisis may be here to stay. Thanks to the lasting effects of the recession, there are currently 4.7 million workers who have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. And new research suggests that employers will almost never consider hiring them. Matthew O’Brien reports on a striking recent experiment by […]

“I’ve looked through J.C. Penney’s financials, and they’ve had the same number of stores – 1,100 – for the last five years,” said Bruce Clark, a professor of marketing at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business. “Some of them are really old and really sad. I’m having a hard time believing all these stores are valuable.”

GUEST MENTOR, Frederick G. Crane, executive professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business: There are three basic ways to go about setting a price for your product or service: cost-based, competitive-based or customer-based. Many startups are tempted to start with a cost-based approach, which in my opinion is the worst possible option. Why? Because basing […]

Laurie Edwards: Watching so much slip away from my parents made my time with my daughter that much more sacrosanct. It also made nurturing her relationship with her grandparents that much more important. (deflam/Flickr) I never expected to be initiated into the “sandwich generation” of care-giving at age 30, but my daughter’s birth two years […]

Because weapons can be easily carried across state lines, states that try to impose tight controls on gun purchases can be undercut by other states that are more permissive, analysts say. “There’s no metal detectors at the borders,” said Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox. “Any state’s ability to deal with the gun problem is […]