Posted: 26 Feb 2010 06:35 AM PST

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Fountain Valley, Calif.-based CarMD.com Corporation's consumer automotive diagnostic product earns top spot in the Electronics and Computers Category of the prestigious Edison Best New Product Awards. Winners will be announced on April 29, 2010, during a gala in New York.

New York (PRWEB) -- CarMD.com Corp. is pleased to announce its CarMD® Handheld Tester & Software Kit was named a finalist in the 2010 Edison Best New Product Awards. The announcement was made earlier this month on the 163rd birthday of renowned inventor Thomas Alva Edison, during a press conference at the legendary Friars Club in New York City. Edison created many of the products and technologies taken for granted today. The announcement was webcast live by The Discovery Channel, a premier cable TV non-fiction network, at www.discovery.com/edisonawards, where it is archived and may still be seen. At the Friars Club event, presented by Discovery, the list of Edison Finalists was read by Sarah Miller Caldicott, great grandniece of Thomas Edison, co-author of the book, "Innovate Like Edison," and chair of the Edison Awards steering committee, assisted by Edison Awards spokesman Ted Faraone.

"Innovation is more important now than ever," said Caldicott. "The finalists are the moving parts in the engine of economic growth. They inspire people to think outside the box and improve the lives of people around the world. "My great, great uncle, Thomas Edison, mastered five different forms of innovation. Most often, we think of technological innovation as the only form of innovation, but actually there are many others. Edison knew this, and drew upon them all."

The CarMD® Handheld Tester & Software Kit is a finalist in the Electronics and Computers category, one of more than 10 categories honored by the Edison Awards. CarMD marks a breakthrough in consumer automotive empowerment as the first product to offer consumers both the tools and information needed to monitor their vehicle's health, and solve related problems before they harm the environment or inflate repair costs. Fellow finalists in the category include the Droid Cell Phone from Motorola, Littmann® Electronic Stethoscope Model 3200 from 3M and Zargis and the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach from Zeo Inc.

CarMD works on all 1996 and newer OBD2 cars, light trucks, SUVs and minivans manufactured for use in the U.S. – foreign and domestic. In seconds, the easy-to-use CarMD device can be used by the average driver to check for hidden problems, determine if the vehicle is ready to pass its emissions test, inspect a used car, solve "check engine" light issues and more. When a problem is found, CarMD customers gain free access to an unprecedented online diagnostic database to generate a personal report with probable cause, estimated repair costs, vehicle recalls and more.

"The development team at CarMD has made a concerted effort to conceive, patent and produce innovative products that truly make life easier for drivers," said Ieon C. Chen, CEO of CarMD.com Corp. "We are honored to have our hard work recognized by such an esteemed award and to be in the company of such reputable fellow finalists."

About The Edison Awards
The Edison Awards, a peer-review honor similar to the Oscars, is voted on by roughly 2,000 members of the not-for-profit Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), America's top executives and academics. The awards symbolize the persistence and excellence personified by Thomas Alva Edison, inspiring America's drive to remain in the forefront of innovation, creativity and ingenuity in the global economy. Thomas Edison created four industries without which modern life cannot function. The four, now among the world's largest, are Electric Power Generation, Recorded Sound, Motion Pictures, and Electric Light Bulbs. Edison also made crucial contributions to a host of other industries including the Storage Battery, Telecommunications, Cement, Chemicals, and Mining. Edison Awards are judged on Marketplace Innovation, Marketplace Success, Technological Innovation, Market Structure Innovation, Societal Impact, and Design Innovation. The 2010 Edison Awards are sponsored by TV's Discovery Channel, Google, The Nielsen Company (a leader in market research and intelligence best known for TV's "Nielsen ratings"), and Strategyn, a global leader in innovation management. The Edison Awards are associated with The Thomas Edison Papers at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey.

About CarMD.com Corp.
The mission of Fountain Valley, Calif.-based CarMD.com Corp., is to empower consumers by providing the tools and information needed to make better-educated decisions about their vehicles' health and maintenance. Distributed by CarMD.com Corp., CarMD is priced at $98.99 and is available in the U.S. direct to consumers at www.CarMD.com. The product is supported Monday – Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m (Pacific Time) by live Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certified technicians based in the U.S.A.

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CarMD.com Corp.
KRISTIN BROCOFF
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Suggestion of intent in ’86 shooting - Boston Globe

Posted: 26 Feb 2010 07:54 AM PST

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Judge to review Bishop brother's death; district attorney initiates inquest

By Donovan Slack and Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | February 26, 2010

Investigators have discovered evidence they say suggests Amy Bishop may have purposely shot her brother with a 12-gauge shotgun in 1986, prompting Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating yesterday to initiate a judicial inquest into the death, which had been ruled accidental.

Keating said his investigators enlarged crime scene photos and, next to 12-gauge ammunition in Bishop's bedroom, found a news article that chronicled a crime spree similar to Bishop's actions on the day of her brother's death. He said the story could reflect Bishop's intent.

Bishop took her father's shotgun on Dec. 6, 1986, and loaded it in her bedroom before fatally shooting her 18-year-old brother in the kitchen of the family's Braintree home. She then ran to an auto dealership, where she held two workers at gunpoint and demanded a car.

Keating declined to identify the news article or publication. A search of news reports published at the time shows that two weeks earlier, the parents of the actor who played Bobby Ewing on the popular television show "Dallas'' were killed by an assailant wielding a 12-gauge shotgun, who then held up a car dealership, stole a pickup truck, and fled.

Keating - who said the article they found "closely mirrors what happened that day'' in Braintree - also said there were contradictions in the witness statements taken at the time of Seth Bishop's death. One said Amy Bishop fled through the back door of her house, while another said she ran out the front door. One said her brother's body was found face up; another said it was face down.

Keating also said that when his investigators recently tried to interview Bishop's parents - her mother, Judy, was the only eyewitness, and her father, Samuel, was a material witness - they refused to cooperate.

Bishop, 45, a professor of biology at the University of Alabama, is accused of slaying three colleagues in a shooting rampage at the school earlier this month.

"We owe this process to the Commonwealth,'' Keating said at a press conference yesterday announcing the inquest. "We also owe this to the grieving families in Alabama.''

Keating said that he believed serious mistakes were made in the initial investigation of Seth Bishop's death, and that he could not help but wonder whether the deaths in Alabama could have been prevented if the original investigation had been more thorough.

Quincy attorney Bryan J. Stevens, who represents Bishop's parents, declined to comment on Keating's call for an inquest or his statement that the parents have been uncooperative.

"No comment,'' Stevens said in a brief telephone conversation. "There's nothing to report and nothing to be said.''

Keating sent a letter yesterday to Quincy District Court Judge Mark S. Coven, initiating the judicial inquiry into the 1986 shooting. The judge will conduct the proceedings, questioning witnesses under oath, issuing subpoenas for documents, and ultimately issuing a report on his findings.

The inquest will be closed to the public, although the findings could be released.

Keating will then decide whether to present evidence to a grand jury, which could indict Bishop for homicide, the only crime for which there is no statute of limitations. The statutes have run out on other charges that Bishop could have faced for her alleged actions that day, including assault with a dangerous weapon.

US Representative William D. Delahunt, who as Norfolk District attorney ruled Seth Bishop's death accidental at the time, blamed Braintree Police earlier this week for mistakes that were made in the case, even though Delahunt acknowledged that he was responsible for leading and directing the investigation. He initially stood by his ruling that the death was accidental.

But yesterday Delahunt agreed that the new developments and the questions they raise warrant further scrutiny. He declined to answer questions about mistakes his office may have made but issued a statement supporting the inquest, "given the many questions that have been raised surrounding the death of Seth Bishop and its immediate aftermath, combined with the review by the DA and the lack of cooperation from Judith and Samuel Bishop.''

"I believe that this approach is necessary as it will provide us with facts developed in a manner that should clarify events that occurred on Dec. 6, 1986,'' Delahunt said.

Delahunt's top prosecutor at the time, John Kivlan, said yesterday that no one, including State Police assigned to his office, had told prosecutors about the newspaper found at the crime scene. He said it should have been seized and turned over to prosecutors with other evidence.

"Clearly that would have been significant and should have been included,'' said Kivlan, who at the time recommended to Delahunt that Seth Bishop's death be ruled accidental.

Kivlan said he had been relying on the recommendation of the trooper handling the case for his office, who told him it was accidental.

"It's disappointing, to say the least, that a State Police officer that we respected and trusted to conduct this investigation failed to carry out his responsibilities to report significant facts to us,'' Kivlan said.

Kivlan said prosecutors generally do not review crime scene photos in cases where deaths are thought to be accidental. He also asserted that prosecutors are not responsible for police failures.

"I don't know how we can be found responsible for information that was either intentionally or unintentionally not brought to our attention,'' Kivlan said.

The state trooper who handled the case for Kivlan and Delahunt, Brian L. Howe, has retired, and the Globe's repeated efforts to contact him for comment have been unsuccessful.

Yesterday federal prosecutors announced they are reviewing a 1993 case in which a Harvard professor who supervised Bishop in his neurobiology lab received two pipe bombs in the mail three weeks after he ended her job at the lab. The bombs did not explode, and no one was injured. Bishop and her husband were questioned in the case, but no one was ever charged.

Bishop's life has come under intense scrutiny since the Feb. 12 shootings in Alabama, when she allegedly opened fire at a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, killing three colleagues and injuring three others.

The planned inquest adds a more formal level of scrutiny of her past, with greater potential consequences for Bishop and her family.

Needham attorney Timothy M. Burke, a former state homicide prosecutor, said an inquest is conducted before a judge to determine the circumstances of an unexplained death. A grand jury is a panel of 23 citizens, and its scope tends to be more general, encompassing any crime. In both cases witnesses are called to testify under oath.

"Generally an inquest is limited to causations of unexplained deaths that really need further information elicited while under oath,'' Burke said. "And a judge makes the determination as to whether there is criminality.''

Attorney General Martha Coakley applauded Keating, saying she believes an inquest is the appropriate course. "Over the past several weeks it has become clear that there was a need for an independent third-party review of what happened at the Bishop home in Braintree in December 1986,'' she said in a statement.

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com

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Putting energy in the right place - Goshen News

Posted: 26 Feb 2010 07:26 AM PST

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Published: February 26, 2010 10:17 am

Putting energy in the right place

Can Elkhart County lead the way in 'green' manufacturing jobs?

By Roger Schneider
THE GOSHEN NEWS

The trend to build energy-efficient vehicles and get more energy from alternative sources may help diversify Elkhart County's manufacturing base. But it will take time and is not a sure thing.

Those are the opinions of an economist, a business professor and others who have been watching the local economy.

With government loans and incentives in hand, two electric-vehicle companies will soon begin making products in the county. A third company is expected to unveil a prototype e-vehicle in April and continue to seek partnerships to begin producing it. And a turbine company is working to perfect its products to produce energy from existing dams and pipelines.

With these new ventures can Elkhart County become a high-tech center in the Midwest? Will it become the Detroit of the electric-vehicle industry?

"I don't know if that would be possible, but I think we could have a lot to do with it," said Wakarusa Town Manager Tom Roeder.

The small town of 1,700 people is home to two of the electric-vehicle projects. Navastar's plant is there and the company plans to build 400 electric-drive delivery trucks.

The Electric Motors Corp. has opened its office in the former Monaco Coach headquarters. That company has an electric-gasoline hybrid engine it is attempting to place in pickup trucks through partnerships with Gulf Stream Coach and other companies.

"There has been a lot of talk," Roeder said. "The president has come to Wakarusa. There has been a lot of attention. But right now, neither (EMC or Navistar) is producing any electric vehicles."

Navistar officials would not comment, but a spokesman said the company is planning to make a positive announcement about the truck plans in a couple of months.

Prototype coming

EMC intends to unveil a prototype pickup upfitted with its hybrid drive at the New York Auto Show in April.

"There is a lot of activity going on," said Linda Yoder, vice president of government affairs for EMC. "We still have connections in California and they are working on things for us."

Yoder said the prototype was recently in Michigan at an engineering company for assessment.

EMC has undergone a leadership change recently. Former chief executive officer Wil Cashen, who promoted the company to the public and politicians in 2009 with the promise of local job creation, was replaced with Ralph King. King, the financial officer for the company, is serving as interim CEO.

Early this month, Frank Jenkins was hired as president. The former GM manager of sales promotions and partnerships is bullish on the future of electric vehicles in general and the Wakarusa-based EMC hybrid-drive pickup in particular.

"The thing that intrigued me foremost about it is, we are talking about pickup trucks because that market is huge," Jenkins said. "The ability to address fuel economy in that market is very intriguing and the way they (EMC) are doing it is intriguing, also."

The EMC drive system uses a series of electric motors mounted in-line behind a small gasoline engine. That engine can be used to power the pickup or recharge the batteries, which extend the mileage rating for a pickup.

High mileage

Jenkins said that with the EMC system vehicles can get between 40 and 100 miles per gallon.

"It is a plug-in, but you don't have to plug-it in," he said. "You can rely on the internal combustion engine to recharge. What that does is allow you to get the 40 miles per gallon. But if you plug it in more often, you are not relying on the engine to recharge the battery and you can get 100 mpg. So, it is the best of both worlds."

The company plans to create two prototypes, the "Flash" and the "Thunderbolt." The Flash will be a consumer product and the Thunderbolt a commercial product. Jenkins wants to have 350 Thunderbolts produced in partnership with Gulf Stream and market them to fleet operators.

"The fleet market is very adept folks," Jenkins said. "They know the cost of ownership of a vehicle. They not only look at the initial cost, but the life cycle cost."

There are tax incentives for fleet operators to reduce the amount of gasoline their fleets use, according to Jenkins. That incentive may push electric-vehicle sales, and thus help Elkhart County manufacturers sell their e-vehicles.

"In Elkhart and Wakarusa, the traditional business model is there to upfit vehicles," Jenkins said. "Our model right now is similar. Instead of a dump body or stake body, our upfit is the drive system."

We still make things

Manufacturing is still the dominant sector in Elkhart County, according to Grant Black, a professor of economics at Indiana University at South Bend.

He said before the recession swept away jobs, about 50 percent of the county's economy was based on manufacturing. But the downturn reduced manufacturing to 41.3 percent of the local economy.

"The addition of the companies related to electric vehicle manufacturing mainly add to the overall manufacturing sector," Black said. "While they diversify the manufacturing base, they do not directly lead to much diversification of the entire industrial base.

"It is also unclear what their true impact on employment will be given that their demand for workers will not be high right away and depends on the demand for their products in the long term."

However, the addition of these companies could provide diversification away from the dominance of the RV industry, he said. That could be beneficial to the local economy by helping to support different suppliers and types of workers.

The projects

One of the electric-vehicle companies is Think Global, a company based in Oslo, Norway. The company intends to open a factory in Elkhart County this year to produce its Think City all-electric vehicle in early 2011. Getting some of its financing from the Department of Energy, Think will invest $43.5 million to improve the vacant Philips Products plant at 1000 Sako Court, east of C.R. 13 and south of Middlebury Street in Elkhart.

Along with the DOE funding, Think will be given a 10-year property tax phase-in by the city of Elkhart.

Navistar, based in Warrenville, Ill., manufactures buses and trucks. Its plant in Wakaursa customizes truck chassis with delivery-truck bodies. That plant has been chosen to produce 400 electric-drive delivery trucks in the coming year.

Navistar has partnered with Modec of Coventry, England, in the venture. Modec has been building electric-drive trucks that can carry two tons of cargo for the European market since 2007. The company is small, with about 70 employees, but has the jump on technology that can be used to produce e-vehicles in the United States quickly. With the incentives offered for e-vehicles in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the earlier Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program, companies are moving to cash in on those subsidies.

Lucid Energy Technologies

Far removed from the vehicle industry is a small start-up company in Goshen. In the roomy upstairs space on Washington Street that once housed the youth club in Goshen in the 1960s, a handful of young workers spend their days engineering unique turbines.

"It all came about through research and testing," said Josh Thomas, program manager for Lucid Energy Technologies.

The company spun off from the former Terra Group company, but has since been sold to Vigor Clean Tech of Ontario, Canada.

Lucid employees are working to create efficient non-traditional turbines. Their concept products are made of polished aluminium and shine in the light from the north windows in the office. One turbine resembles an eggbeater, the other, a globe made by twisting slats that meet at each pole.

To test one of the turbines, the company placed it in the Little Elkhart River at Bonneyville Mill Park.

"It worked great and it told us what we needed to know," Thomas said.

The test revealed changes need to be made to how the turbine blades are aligned, he said.

The globe-like turbine is designed to be placed inside pipelines that carry liquids. The turbine would be placed where the liquid is flowing downhill and would spin and produce power through a coupling carrying a shaft to the outside of the pipeline.

Goshen residents may be able to see one of the turbines soon. The company has initial approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to place a turbine at the tailgate of the Goshen hydraulic canal. That turbine will be placed at the end of a water-directing pipe and generate electricity.

The company is still negotiating with the city government for placement of the turbine.

Thomas said he thinks it is interesting that the new-age company was a spin-off of an old-time county RV industry. Lucid was established in the county because "everything needed was here," Thomas said.

The initial plan was to produce the aluminium turbines at The Mill, a metal manufacturing company in Goshen. That company has since gone out of business. Now, the prototype one-of-a-kind turbines are manufactured in Wisconsin, according to Thomas. But the steel fabricating for the turbines is done in Goshen.

Not there yet

The trio of e-vehicle companies want to, or will, invest many millions of dollars to produce electric vehicles here. But so far, this seachange away from RV manufacturing in the county, remains in the planning stages.

"The governor says we might become the electric car company leader of the country," said Goshen Chamber of Commerce President David Daughtery, referring to Gov. Mitch Daniels' comments he made during the announcement for the Think Car plant.

"We've said we're out to make Indiana the electric vehicle state," Daniels said at the January announcement. "It's beginning to look like the state capital will be Elkhart County."

Daugherty said the county has a work force that is skilled in manufacturing, especially in the vehicle industry.

"It allows things like Think to happen," he said.

How to do it?

"The simple answer is 'yes,' we should diversify our local economy," said Jon Geiser, business professor at Goshen College. "Any time that you have a majority of your productive eggs in one basket, you run the risk of deep economic fluctuations."

Geiser said the RV industry will always be important to the local economy and will recover. That segment of our economy will also be vulnerable to future downturns, he said.

"The difficult answer is into what areas should we diversify?" he said.

There are some promising technologies being explored as potential candidates, such as nanotechnology (at the University of Notre Dame) and renewable energy technologies relating to the production of electric vehicles and to wind and water power generation. These are exciting prospects, Geiser said, and should be pursued.

"However, the process of diversifying an economy is complex and requires broad-spectrum planning with a long-term approach," he said. "Developing the appropriate supporting infrastructure must be considered in the plans, everything from the education and training of the required work force, to the attractiveness of the community in order to persuade companies and employees to settle here.

"The good news is that some of this planning is already beginning to take shape through organizations, such as the Horizon 2.0 project, and work being carried out by the local Chambers of Commerce and the Economic Development Corp. of Elkhart County." z

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Real estate opinion - Seattle Post Intelligencer

Posted: 26 Feb 2010 07:26 AM PST

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Last month the NWMLS amended some of the most frequently used state-wide forms. This piece will address some of the changes to the financing contingency forms, and those related thereto.

Under the old financing addendum (Form 22A), after a period of 30 days (the default duration that could be changed) the buyer was to provide the seller with an updated letter of loan commitment. After that deadline, or the earlier receipt of such a letter, whichever was first, the seller could send a three day notice, in which time the buyer would need to waive the financing contingency or the agreement would terminate. Alternatively the seller could ask for updated letters every 5 days. As a practical matter, this seldom occurred. Even the updated letter of loan commitments were seldom requested. And the reason was the seller typically wants the sale to go through. Absent some concern about the buyer, all of this was ignored.

The new rule does away with the letter of loan commitment. Now Form 22A provides that at any time after a period of 30 days (again the default duration that can be changed) the seller can send a "Right to Terminate" notice indicating that after 3 days they can terminate the agreement by sending a termination notice. Form 22A specifically references using Form 22AR for this purpose. The buyer can avoid the seller having the right to terminate by waiving the "financing contingency" within that 3 day period. Form 22A does not specify what form should be used for this purpose. If the financing contingency is not waived, then the seller can terminate at any time by sending a termination notice. Form 22A says that Form 22AR can be used for this purpose.

This is where the problems arise. Note that Form 22A does not specify the form that the buyer should use to waive the financing contingency. Also amended at the same time as Form 22A were Form 22AR and Form 22AW. If Form 22AR is used, the buyer merely states: "Buyer waives the financing contingency set forth in the Financing Addendum (Form 22A)." Form 22AW has the same language, but adds: "Paragraph 6 of the Financing Addendum (Appraisal Less Than Sales Price) survives Buyer's waiver of the financing contingency. . . . Seller may not terminate the Agreement under Paragraph 2 of the Financing Addendum (Seller's Right to Terminate)."

This is very problematic. Seemingly what was intended was to offer the buyer a choice to waive the financing contingency and the appraisal provisions, or merely waive the financing contingency, but not the appraisal provisions. The problem is, Form 22A doesn't say that the the buyer can use either Form 22AR or Form 22AW to deal with the seller sending a Right to Terminate notice. Absent saying that, the seller has not consented to the limited waiver of Form 22AW, assuming that Form 22A even requires the appraisal provisions of Form 22A to be waived. Arguably, if not probably, all that is required is that the buyer waive what is waived in form 22AW. And arguably, if not probably, what is waived by using Form 22AR is exactly the same as what is waived by using Form 22AW. Personally I don't understand why anyone would think that Form 22AR would waive the appraisal provisions of Form 22A. The main reason to think that is simply that both Form 22AR and Form 22AW were created at the same time. The only other thing would be that paragraph 8 of Form 22A, pertaining to an extension of time for Reg. Z does contain a provision indicating it survives the waiver of the financing contingency, but presumably a lot of the other paragraphs of Form 22A survive too. The problem is, the result is simply not clear because Form 22A is not clear.

[Edit: After talking/corresponding with several attorneys, I believe now that what was intended was that the buyer using Form 22AR to respond to the seller, and that the form would waive both the financing contingency and the appraisal provisions of Form 22A. I doubt the courts would rule that way on any consistent basis, but that's what was intended. And despite Form 22AW being drafted as a notice, it was intended to be a negotiated amendment to the contract, with the seller needing to sign off on it. The remedy to end any confusion to and obtain the intended results would be relatively simple. First, a sentence should be added to Paragraph 6 of Form 22A indicating that paragraph does not survive the waiver of the financing contingency. Second, Form 22AW should be amended such that it's drafted as an amendment to the contract, with a place for the sellers to sign, as opposed to initial.]

So where does that leave us? If a buyer uses Form 22AR, then arguably they have waived the appraisal provisions of Form 22A. Personally I don't think that they have, but why would they want to take that risk? If the buyer uses Form 22AW, then arguably they haven't done enough to comply with Form 22A, and the seller could terminate the agreement. Again, why would a buyer want to take that risk?

While I don't want to suggest what others should do, I will tell others what I intend to do as of this point in time. Until there is better guidance on this matter, my offers on behalf of buyers will also include the new form 22AA. That form has the same basic appraisal provisions of Form 22A. It was intended to be used for a cash buyer, but there is no reason it has to be so limited. Then what I would do is in the unlikely event a seller sends a Right to Terminate notice, I would use Form 22AR to waive the financing contingency. Since the appraisal provisions of Form 22AA are not part of any financing contingency form, presumably they would survive. The point is, eliminating the uncertainty created by the new forms would require your original offer contain an additional form. [Edit: Assuming the forms are some day amended to clarify the result as suggested above, I would still continue to use Form 22AA for buyers, because I don't believe most buyers would want to risk losing their earnest money if the appraisal came in low and they couldn't otherwise perform.]

Finally, as a side note, I've complained in the past that the powers that be never request public comment on forms before they make forms changes. I come from a different world, where even judges ask for public comment before they change the rules. They do that because public comment improves the final product. I think it's time that the powers that be for our form changes realize that too. Yes it would take more work for them to review comments, but a lot is at stake with the use of the statewide forms.

Note: This piece is not specific legal advice and is merely one person's interpretation of the new forms. As noted in the piece, there is a lot of uncertainty as to exactly how the forms work. To the extent anyone wants legal advice regarding the forms, they should consult their own attorney.

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