Buick LaCrosse gets stuck in park

My car is a 2008 Buick 
LaCrosse with the automatic shift on the steering column. It has begun sticking when in "park" and won't release even though I press the brake pedal hard. I had to push the car forward and back before the shift-lever would release. This has happened about five times, the last time while at a GM dealership. They told me that when the car is parked on any type of incline the pressure on the parking "pawl" may cause the problem. They suggest that while the engine is still running in "drive," set the parking brake, then step on the brake pedal, shift into park and then shut off the engine. This seems a rather strange and unorthodox way to solve my problem. And why did it take four-plus years to develop?

Actually, the procedure outlined by the dealer — and the owner's manual — is correct. In setting the parking brake first to immobilize the vehicle, there will be no pressure or leverage on the parking pawl, which physically locks the transmission. This eliminates what's known as torque lock — where the weight of the vehicle is "leaning" on the parking pawl, making disengagement difficult.

The other remote possibility is an issue with the automatic transmission shift-lock mechanism, which requires depressing the brake pedal with the ignition switch turned on to electronically release the shift mechanism.

I don't have a solid answer for why this problem has developed recently other than wear on the pawl or final drive internal gear that the pawl locks when in park. I'd ask the dealer to use the "range selector lever cable adjustment" procedure to check that the shift cable is correctly adjusted.

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I have a 1988 Ford F150 with a 4.9-liter engine and a manual transmission. I have an intermittent problem with the engine cutting out at high rpm. Sometimes it cuts out at a lower rpm or sometimes not at all. The ignition system is the TFI-IV system, which requires no timing adjustment. Any ideas?

The most common cause for intermittent ignition problems with this generation Ford is the module itself. I've removed problematic modules for inspection and found visible air bubbles on the surface of the PC board sealed with a thick layer of silicone. You may be able to find a parts store that can test the module to determine if you need a new one.

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I have a 2006 Toyota 
Sienna V6 with 59,200 miles. A notice from the dealer indicated that a valve adjustment should be done on the vehicle. Is this something that needs to be done at this low mileage? The maintenance manual does not have any mention of this requirement.

According to my ALLDATA automotive database, Toyota recommends inspecting that valve adjustment at 60,000-mile intervals. Inspecting valve adjustment requires removing the valve covers, rotating the crankshaft into specific positions and using a feeler gauge to measure valve clearance. On the other hand, adjusting the valves is listed as a 5.9-hour job, meaning a cost of $600 or more.

I can't recommend not having the inspection done at 60,000 miles, but if it were my vehicle and I wasn't hearing any clicking, tapping or unusual valve train noises, well, let's just say I'd keep driving the vehicle.

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I have a 2006 Toyota Highlander, 6-cylinder, that I purchased new. I have an issue that seems to be getting worse since I've had the car. Sometimes when the car is shifting into third gear and going between 35 to 40 miles per hour, the car jerks. If you accelerate quickly it doesn't do it. The Toyota dealer and a transmission shop have looked at it but could not find the problem.

Remember my comments about torque-converter slippage described as shudder, chatter or flutter? Could this be the "jerks"? If this only occurs shifting into third, service literature points toward the "direct and overdrive clutch."

Readers may write Paul Brand at Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn., 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com.

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Patent sought for infant-saving AIR

A pioneering MIT researcher is tackling the huge problem of infant deaths with a simple device he put together on the night he learned that nearly 2 million children die on the day they are born.

"I had a few sensors literally lying in the trash in my lab, so we built it and it works," said Kevin 
Cedrone, whose Augmented Infant Resuscitator might just become the next international lifesaver. "When you want to save a life, you really don't want to have to wait until a baby dies to find out you're doing it wrong."

The so-called AIR — 
designed to attach to existing infant ventilation equipment — relies on tiny sensors to measure the rate and pressure of air entering a newborn's lungs.

This way, doctors and nurses can immediately tell if they need to speed up or slow down the air flow, or just readjust the ventilation mask covering the baby's nose and mouth.

After putting together the makeshift model, Cedrone met with a team of doctors and engineers to tweak it. The team includes Santorino Data, a pediatrician who specializes in neonatal resuscitation; Craig Mielcarz, an electrical engineer who has produced low-cost, battery-operated medical devices; and Dr. Kristian Olson of Massachusetts General Hospital's Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies.

They're seeking a patent for their product, and hope to sell it someday for as little as $3 each.

Meanwhile, AIR has won top prizes in a variety of competitions, including MIT's IDEAS Global Challenge, Dow's Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge program, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Saving Lives at Birth partnership.

"It has great potential to change something that has a huge impact on the quality of life of infants all around the world," said Kate Mytty, who used to run the MIT IDEAS challenge. "People are trained on infant resuscitators all over the world, but they're still not working well. This makes it possible to understand why these resuscitators aren't working."

Money from those awards will pay to create more models and conduct a clinical trial in Uganda, 
Cedrone said.

As for Cedrone, who earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering last year, there's no telling what's next.

"I don't know what the future holds," he said. "Less than a year ago, everything I was doing was aimed at energy. This just kind of came across my radar."

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3-D Pancam's big potential

Video cameras can do a lot today, but picture one that has such varied uses as entertainment, surveillance, facial recognition — even interior design — and you've pretty much got the Pancam — or Eric Prechtl's vision of it, anyway.

With enough seed investment, the founder and president of Axis Engineering Technologies says, he's six months away from producing a polished, three-dimensional, panoramic camera that can send video to a 3-D television. And with the right analytics partners, AET could develop later models with each of those other capabilities.

At MassChallenge, the startup accelerator and competition that's named his company a finalist, "We're analyzing different markets and trying to figure out what is the best one to go after first," he said.

As unlikely as it might seem, the 43-year-old Prechtl's quest to build a smarter camera actually grew out of his efforts more than a decade ago to build a smarter helicopter.

While he was working on his doctorate in aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he developed an actuator to reduce the amount of vibration in a helicopter, helping it to fly more smoothly and quietly.

"A similar thought process led us to figure out a way to make cameras smarter, including to make them see in 3-D instead of 2-D," Prechtl said.

He describes his working prototype as a "gnarly laboratory device," 24 inches in diameter, with six spokes, each with two cameras at the end.

Each camera, in turn, is capable of capturing 20 frames per second, "creating a panorama very fast."

Because human eyes are spaced only about 2.5 inches apart, the next-generation Pancam will be only 4 inches in diameter.

To adapt it for interior design and renovations, the next step would be to add software to map a still image of a room, Prechtl said.

The same camera could be used for surveillance to track suspicious movements, raising an alert should someone try to access a restricted area, he said.

And because the camera can see in three dimensions, it could be used by police, the FBI and the military for facial recognition because it could distinguish a person's features better than a traditional two-dimensional camera.

All of this technology doesn't come cheaply. Prechtl estimates the finished product, if it's sold commercially, would likely cost between $5,000 and $10,000.

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New Mass. sales tax angers, confuses tech firms

BOSTON — A new Massachusetts sales tax on software and computer services, part of a massive transportation financing plan that became law last month, has been met with anger and confusion in the state's technology sector, prompting calls for its repeal.

Business leaders brand the measure an "innovation tax" that strikes at the heart of ingenuity in Massachusetts, a pioneering state in the computer industry and still a cradle of cutting-edge entrepreneurship. The tax, which took effect July 31, also has been criticized as being so vague as to leave companies and their accountants scratching their heads over what it applies to while state tax officials scramble to sort it all out.

Two prominent business-backed organizations, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and the Massachusetts High Technology Council, are leading an initiative petition that urges lawmakers to repeal the tax when they return from summer recess. At least one bill has already been filed that would do so. If the Legislature doesn't act, opponents will ask voters to kill the tax on next year's state ballot.

In an Aug. 14 memo to legislators, the council's president, Christopher Anderson, said the tax threatens to make the state less competitive at a time when tech companies are expected to lead an economic revival.

"We have the highest percentage of tech workers of any state, the largest number of tech clusters, and a highly educated workforce that is second to none. However, none of the states with which Massachusetts most often competes for high tech jobs has a tax like this," Anderson wrote.

The measure imposes the state's 6.25 percent sales tax on certain computer system design services and the "modification, integration, enhancement, installation, or configuration of standardized or prewritten software." It's unclear if the Democratic-controlled Legislature will revisit the issue.

Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee and one of the principal architects of the transportation finance law, said no decisions had been made.

"I would welcome ideas if people had other alternatives," said Brewer. "We are not intractable."

Brewer noted that the tax, originally proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick, is one of several contained in the law that promises $800 million in new revenue for transportation and came in response to concerns from the private sector that the state's aging infrastructure was stunting economic growth.

The state estimated the tax would generate $161 million in the current fiscal year, but a Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation analysis concluded that estimate was based on faulty assumptions about the scope of the tax and pegged the actual impact on businesses at about $500 million.

Responding to the criticism, state officials promised to be as "narrow and conservative" as possible in interpreting the tax, said Amy Pitter, commissioner of the Department of Revenue. Acknowledging her agency was relying on "tax lawyers, not computer programmers," Pitter invited industry representatives to participate in focus groups and share their concerns.

The department issued new guidance last week seeking to clarify aspects of the tax, though it remains a complex patchwork of rules.

For example, customized software that incorporates pre-written software would be taxable, unless the extent of the pre-written material was "inconsequential." A plug-in that helps create a customized version of a product, such as an Excel spreadsheet, would be taxed. But enhancements made to open source software, generally free and downloadable from the Internet, would be exempt.

The revisions did not appear to be softening opposition to the tax, especially among smaller software services firms that say they'll be hurt the most.

"It's a very bad law," said Andy Singleton, founder and chief executive of Assembla, a 7-year-old Needham company that makes Web-based software. "They can't narrow it to the point where it makes sense. It's written to apply to almost anything that a computer programmer does."

The tax could prompt firms to shed jobs or produce more work outside of Massachusetts, Singleton says. Many of Assembla's 40 employees already work outside the state or even the U.S., using an online platform to share tasks.

State officials dispute critics' assertion that the levy is unique, saying most states tax information technology in one form or another. But opponents maintain that only four other states tax computer and software services, all at a lower rate than Massachusetts.

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German magazine: NSA spied on United Nations

BERLIN — The German magazine Der Spiegel says the U.S. National Security Agency secretly monitored the U.N.'s internal video conferencing system by decrypting it last year.

The weekly said Sunday that documents it obtained from American leaker Edward Snowden show the NSA decoded the system at the U.N.'s headquarters in New York last summer.

Quoting leaked NSA documents, the article said the decryption "dramatically increased the data from video phone conferences and the ability to decode the data traffic."

In three weeks, Der Spiegel said, the NSA increased the number of decrypted communications at the U.N. from 12 to 458.

Snowden's leaks have exposed details of the United States' global surveillance apparatus, sparking an international debate over the limits of American spying.

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States that allow private lobbyists in pension

At least 20 states allow some private lobbying groups to tap into often lucrative and safe state pension systems, according to a review by Associated Press reporters across the nation. Legislatures granted such groups access decades ago on the premise that they serve governments and the public, but several states have started to question whether they should be included since they are private entities.

States that allow at least one private lobbying group into the public pension:

— Alabama

— Arizona

— California

— Colorado

— Idaho

— Illinois

— Kansas

— Kentucky

— Maine

— Missouri

— Nevada

— New York

— New Jersey

— North Carolina

— Pennsylvania

— South Carolina

— South Dakota

— Tennessee

— Utah

— Washington

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Source: AP reporting

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Private lobbyists get public pensions in 20 states

ALBANY, N.Y. — As a lobbyist in New York's statehouse, Stephen Acquario is doing pretty well. He pulls down $204,000 a year, more than the governor makes, gets a Ford Explorer as his company car and is afforded another special perk:

Even though he's not a government employee, he is entitled to a full state pension.

He's among hundreds of lobbyists in at least 20 states who get public pensions because they represent associations of counties, cities and school boards, an Associated Press review found. Legislatures granted them access decades ago on the premise that they serve governments and the public. In many cases, such access also includes state health care benefits.

But several states have started to question whether these organizations should qualify for such benefits, since they are private entities in most respects: They face no public oversight of their activities, can pay their top executives private-sector salaries and sometimes lobby for positions in conflict with taxpayers. New Jersey and Illinois are among the states considering legislation that would end their inclusion.

"It's a question of, 'Why are we providing government pensions to these private organizations?'" said Illinois Democratic Rep. Elaine Nekritz.

Acquario, executive director and general counsel of the New York State Association of Counties, argues that his group gives local government a voice in the statehouse, and the perk of a state pension makes it easier to hire people with government expertise.

"We want the people that work in local governments to continue to be part of the solution," he said. "We represent the same taxpayers."

The debate is more about principle than big money, since the staffs of such organizations are relatively small and make barely a ripple in huge state retirement systems. The eight New York associations, for example, have fewer than 120 total employees out of 633,100 current workers in the state's $158.7 billion pension system.

Still, the issue raises a public policy question as many states and taxpayers struggle to fund their pension obligations required by law.

"There is liability for taxpayers," said Keith Brainard, research director of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. "Providing a pension benefit involves some amount of risk for the state and when you provide access to employees of entities that are not in control of the state."

Unlike state government, for example, these groups aren't bound by salary restrictions — significant salary increases would result in increasing pension benefits.

New York Conference of Mayors Executive Director Peter Baynes, who makes $196,000 a year and gets a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, argues that his and other associations have been at the fore of pushing to reduce taxpayers' costs, including reducing the costs of the pension system they share.

New York lawmakers recently acted to reduce benefits for future government hires and are proposing 401(k) savings programs for employees instead of traditional pensions.

But such cuts won't affect Baynes. Under the New York Constitution and that of most states, the benefits of those already in the pension system are protected from future cuts.

"It's clear that there's a big problem with hypocrisy when these lobbyists have been pushing austerity and benefit cuts for other government workers while they themselves enjoy solid state pensions," said Michael Kink of the progressive group Strong Economy for All Coalition. "'Do as I say, not as I do' seems to be their approach on retirement cuts."

"Workers who have faced cuts in pay and pensioners have a right to be angry — as do voters," Kink said.

In many states, lobbying groups for states and counties take positions that could conflict with taxpayer interests, such as advocating to weaken caps on property tax increases and boosting state school aid.

But associations of cities, counties and school boards argue that a plausible case can be made for allowing them to get state pensions. These quasi-government organizations operate mostly or solely on dues from their members — local governments or school boards typically — which are paid out of taxpayer-funded budgets. They argue they pool their resources to give a voice to government entities that serve taxpayers.

"It's a technical truism that lobbying groups are not supposed to be in the system," said Richard Brodsky, a former New York assemblyman. "But what they are doing is carrying out missions assigned to them by public officials in the public interest as they understand it."

Which groups get the pension benefit vary widely across the nation.

In Colorado, the list includes the Colorado High School Activities Associations, which runs state sports tournaments. Alabama gives it to the state affiliate of the National Education Association teachers' union. Washington state includes the Washington Apple Commission, which operates like a trade group. North Carolina's state Athletic Coaches Association is included, as is Tennessee's private Industry Council.

New York lawmakers decided years ago to bar any more lobbying and nonprofit groups in the pension system, grandfathering in eight groups.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who supports legislation to cut future hires from such groups out of his state's pension, issued an executive order this month creating a Pension Fraud and Abuse Unit. Among its mandates is to look at "claims of improper participation in the retirement systems."

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Small farmers: Rules could halt local food trend

CONCORD, N.H. — Federal officials say they appreciated hearing from northern New England farmers about proposed food safety rules, but some of the farmers didn't find the experience very valuable.

Hundreds of farmers from Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire attended Food and Drug Administration public hearings last week to discuss proposed rules that require them to take new precautions against contamination. Deputy FDA Commissioner Michael Taylor says many of them likely will be exempt from the rules but don't realize it.

New England farmers have argued that many aspects of the rules were derived from large-scale farming practices that don't apply to smaller farms, and they fear the cost of compliance will drive them out of business. Others say the uncertainty will stifle growth just when the local food movement is gaining steam.

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Nordic editors protest moves against the Guardian

STOCKHOLM — Top editors of the largest Nordic newspapers say that Britain's use of anti-terror legislation to "harass" the Guardian newspaper and people associated with it could threaten news media around the world.

The editors-in-chief of Sweden's Dagens Nyheter, Norway's Aftenposten, Finland's Helsingin Sanomat and Denmark's Politiken said in a joint letter Sunday that they are surprised and concerned "that a stout defender of democracy and free debate such as the United Kingdom uses anti-terror legislation in order to legalize what amounts to harassment of both the paper and individuals associated with it."

British officials have been criticized after using the legislation to confiscate data being ferried to journalist Glenn Greenwald by his partner, David Miranda, and ordering the destruction of computer equipment belonging to Greenwald's newspaper, the Guardian.

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Online: http://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/dear-prime-minister-cameron

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Housing market cools as summer heats up

WASHINGTON — The chill starting to swirl through the housing market is slight, but it's for real. Home prices are not rising as fast in most metro areas as they did earlier this year and much of 2012. Multiple-bid competitions — fierce in many places this spring and late last year — aren't as intense. Inventories of homes for sale have risen this summer, reversing near-droughts of listings that helped fuel higher prices.

Add rising mortgage rates, and you've got a distinct, measurable momentum shift in the pace of the housing recovery. The recovery is still well underway — it's just not as effervescent as it once was.

Consider some of the key numbers:

•   Asking prices on homes listed for sale declined by one-third of a percent in July, the first drop on a monthly basis since November, according to data compiled by Trulia.com. Quarter-to-quarter data through July confirm the moderating trend line.

•   Pending home sales — under contract but not yet closed — dropped by four-tenths of a percent in June, according to the National Association of Realtors. Resales in June dipped by 1.2 percent.

•   Inventories of homes listed for sale rose in a number of the hottest markets recently, after hovering near record lows for a year or more. Low inventories stoke buyer competition and bidding wars that can send prices up sharply. More plentiful inventories give buyers more to choose from and tend to calm things down. According to data compiled by realtor.com from multiple listing services around the country, inventories of homes listed for sale rose 7.8 percent during July in Los Angeles; 12.5 percent in San Diego; 8.3 percent in Seattle; 6.5 percent in Tampa-St. Petersburg; and 4.5 percent in Boston. Trulia estimates that national inventories of homes for sale are up 6 percent since January.

•   Not as many potential buyers are out shopping. Redfin, the online real estate brokerage, measured a 3.5-percent drop in home showings by agents last month. That compares with a 3.1-percent monthly gain a year earlier. Not surprisingly, signed contract offers were down by 11 percent in July compared with June. Plus the number of multiple-bid competitions is dropping in major markets — down by 5.3 percentage points from June to July alone. In San Diego, the monthly decline exceeded 10 percent. Redfin says it's seeing signs of "buyer fatigue."

•   Affordability is beginning to erode as a result of cumulative home price increases plus higher mortgage interest rates. The National Association of Home Builders' housing opportunity index covering 225 metro areas, released last week, found affordability down by 4.4 percent from the previous quarter. The index measures the percentage of households who can afford to purchase the median priced home with a 10 percent down payment.

None of this is surprising — or alarming — to housing and mortgage economists who track market movements. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac, the big mortgage investor, says the recovery is moving into a "second, more sustainable" phase. During the last 18 months, he said, "we saw eye-popping numbers (on prices and sales)," though the outsized increases were coming off the lows of a recession and housing bust.

But price gains in the double digits that were commonplace in coastal California, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and parts of Florida starting 24 months ago have gradually begun to self-correct. When prices get out of reach of a growing percentage of borrowers, demand slacks off and price hikes slow. That's the trend taking hold now, according to Nothaft. Sales should continue to see "healthy" growth and prices should continue to rise, "but the percentages will be less."

Jed Kolko, chief economist for Trulia, said the second phase of the recovery started earlier this year, "when inventories began bottoming out." Kolko sees the current, more moderate phase continuing for what could be an extended period. But the true housing market potential won't fully be realized, he said, until younger, first-time buyers who have been missing in action thus far finally jump into the marketplace and start buying homes.

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