What's changing, what's not, in a shutdown

WASHINGTON — Campers in national parks are to pull up stakes and leave, some veterans waiting to have disability benefits approved will have to cool their heels even longer, many routine food inspections will be suspended and panda-cams will go dark at the shuttered National Zoo.

Those are among the immediate effects when parts of the government shut Tuesday because of the budget impasse in Congress.

In this time of argument and political gridlock, a blueprint to manage federal dysfunction is one function that appears to have gone smoothly. Throughout government, plans are ready to roll out to keep essential services running and numb the impact for the public. The longer a shutdown goes on, the more it will be felt in day-to-day lives and in the economy as a whole.

A look at what is bound to happen, and what probably won't:

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THIS: Washington's paralysis will be felt early on in distant lands as well as in the capital; namely, at national parks. All park services will close. Campers have 48 hours to leave their sites. Many parks, such as Yellowstone, will close to traffic, and some will become completely inaccessible. Smithsonian museums in Washington will close and so will the zoo, where panda cams record every twitch and cuddle of the panda cub born Aug. 23 but are to be turned off in the first day of a shutdown.

The Statue of Liberty in New York, the loop road at Acadia National Park in Maine, Skyline Drive in Virginia, and Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, home of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, will be off limits. At Grand Canyon National Park, people will be turned back from entrance gates and overlooks will be cordoned off along a state road inside the park that will remain open.

"People who waited a year to get a reservation to go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon all of a sudden will find themselves without an opportunity to take that trip," said Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service.

BUT NOT THIS: At some parks, where access is not controlled by gates or entrance stations, people can continue to drive, bike and hike. People won't be shooed off the Appalachian Trail, for example, and parks with highways running through them, like the Great Smokies, also are likely to be accessible. Officials won't scour the entire 1.2 million-acre Grand Canyon park looking for people; those already hiking or camping in the backcountry and on rafting trips on the Colorado River will be able to complete their trips. The care and feeding of the National Zoo's animals will all go on as usual.

The shutdown won't affect Ellis Island or the Washington Monument because they are already closed for repairs.

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THIS: The Board of Veterans Appeals will stop issuing rulings, meaning decisions about some disability claims by veterans will wait even longer than usual. Interments at national cemeteries will slow. If a shutdown drags on for weeks, disability and pension payments may be interrupted.

BUT NOT THIS: Most Department of Veterans Affairs services will continue; 95 percent of staff are either exempted from a shutdown or have the budget to keep paying them already in place. The department's health programs get their money a year in advance, so veterans can still see their doctor, get prescriptions filled and visit fully operational VA hospitals and outpatient clinics. Claims workers can process benefit payments until late in October, when that money starts to run out.

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THIS: New patients won't be accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, including 255 trials for cancer patients; care will continue for current patients. Federal medical research will be curtailed and the government's ability to detect and investigate disease outbreaks will be harmed. Grant applications will be accepted but not dealt with.

BUT NOT THIS: The show goes on for President Barack Obama's health care law. Tuesday heralds the debut of health insurance markets across the country, which begin accepting customers for coverage that begins in January. Core elements of the law are an entitlement, like Social Security, so their flow of money does not depend on congressional appropriations. That's why Republicans have been trying explicitly to starve the law of money. An impasse in approving a federal budget has little effect on Obamacare. As for NIH operations, reduced hospital staff at the NIH Clinical Center will care for current patients, and research animals will get their usual care.

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THIS: Most routine food inspections by the Food and Drug Administration will be suspended.

BUT NOT THIS: Meat inspection, done by the Agriculture Department, continues. The FDA will still handle high-risk recalls.

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THIS: Complaints from airline passengers to the government will fall on deaf ears. The government won't be able to do new car safety testing and ratings or handle automobile recall information. Internal Transportation Department investigations of waste and fraud will be put on ice, and progress will be slowed on replacing the country's radar-based air traffic system with GPS-based navigation. Most accident investigators who respond to air crashes, train collisions, pipeline explosions and other accidents will be furloughed but could be called back if needed.

Kristie Greco, speaking for the Federal Aviation Administration, said nearly 2,500 safety office personnel will be furloughed but may be called back incrementally over the next two weeks. The union representing aviation safety inspectors said it was told by FAA Administrator Michael Huerta that nearly 3,000 inspectors will be off work. Greco did not confirm that.

BUT NOT THIS: Air traffic controllers and many of the technicians who keep air traffic equipment working will remain on the job. Amtrak says it can continue normal operations for a while, relying on ticket revenue, but will suffer without federal subsidies over the longer term. FAA employees who make grants to airports, most Federal Highway Administration workers and federal bus and truck safety inspectors will also stay on the job because they are paid with user fees. Railroad and pipeline safety inspectors will also remain at work.

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THIS: About half the Defense Department's civilian employees will be furloughed.

BUT NOT THIS: The 1.4 million active-duty military personnel stay on duty and under a last-minute bill, they should keep getting paychecks on time. Most Homeland Security agents and border officers, as well as other law enforcement agents and officers, keep working.

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THIS: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, could shut down. It provides supplemental food, health care referrals and nutrition education for pregnant women, mothers and their children.

BUT NOT THIS: School lunches and breakfasts will continue to be served, and food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will still be distributed.

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THIS: A shutdown that lasts two weeks or more would probably start to slow an already sluggish economy, analysts say. Closures of national parks would hurt hotels, restaurants and other tourism-related businesses. And federal workers who lost pay would spend less, thereby curbing economic growth. A three-week shutdown would slow the economy's annual growth rate in the October-December quarter by up to 0.9 of a percentage point, Goldman Sachs has estimated. If so, that could mean a growth rate of 1.6 percent, compared with the 2.5 percent that many economists now forecast.

BUT NOT THIS: Little impact on the economy if the shutdown only lasts a few days.

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THIS: Economic data will be interrupted as the Bureau of Labor Statistics ceases almost all operations. This will leave the stock market without some of the benchmark economic indicators that drive the market up or down. The key September jobs report, due Friday, could still be released on time if the White House authorizes that, but that's not been determined. Statistical gathering also is being interrupted at the Commerce Department and Census Bureau. This means the government won't come out on time with its monthly report on construction spending Tuesday or a factory orders report Thursday.

BUT NOT THIS: The weekly report on applications for unemployment benefits is still expected Thursday. The Treasury Department's daily report on government finances will be released normally and government debt auctions are to proceed as scheduled. And at Commerce, these functions continue, among others: weather and climate observation, fisheries law enforcement and patent and trademark application processing.

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THIS: Some passport services located in federal buildings might be disrupted — only if those buildings are forced to close because of a disruption in building support services.

BUT NOT THIS: Except in those instances, passport and visas will be handled as usual, both at home and abroad. These activities of the Bureau of Consular Affairs are fully supported by user fees instead of appropriated money, so are not affected. As well, the government will keep handling green card applications.

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THIS: The Federal Housing Administration, which insures about 15 percent of new loans for home purchases, will approve fewer loans for its client base — borrowers with low to moderate income — because of reduced staff. Only 67 of 349 employees will keep working. The agency will focus on single-family homes during a shutdown, setting aside loan applications for multi-family dwellings. The Housing and Urban Development Department won't make additional payments to the nation's 3,300 public housing authorities, but the agency estimates that most of them have enough money to keep giving people rental assistance until the end of October.

BUT NOT THIS: It will be business as usual for borrowers seeking loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together own or guarantee nearly half of all U.S. mortgages and 90 percent of new ones.

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THIS: Possible delays in processing new disability applications.

BUT NOT THIS: Social Security and Medicare benefits still keep coming.

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Associated Press writers Sam Hananel, Matthew Daly, Joan Lowy, Kevin Freking, Hope Yen, Lauran Neergaard, Andrew Miga, Deb Riechmann, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Lolita C. Baldor, Jesse Holland, Mary Clare Jalonick and Alicia Caldwell in Washington; and Felicia Fonseca at Grand Canyon National Park, contributed to this report.

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Obama focuses on military as government shuts down

WASHINGTON — As much of the federal government grinds to a halt, President Barack Obama is telling the U.S. military he'll push Congress to re-open the government as soon as possible.

In his sole response early Tuesday to Congress' failure to avert the first shutdown in nearly two decades, Obama addressed his comments in a video to American troops, rather than the lawmakers he's been scolding for weeks.

There was no reference in the three-minute video message to Republicans, whose insistence that Obama's health care law be scaled back has been at the center of a grueling back-and-forth between the GOP-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate.

"Unfortunately, Congress has not fulfilled its responsibility," Obama said. "It has failed to pass a budget and, as a result, much of our government must now shut down until Congress funds it again."

Troops in uniform in Afghanistan and elsewhere will stay on duty, Obama said, noting he'd signed a law Monday to ensure they get their paychecks on time. That GOP bill began in the House and was taken up by the Senate, reflecting a rare measure of agreement among Democrats and Republicans: No one wants to be blamed for the military not getting paid.

But thousands of civilians who work for the Defense Department face furloughs, compounding the damage already inflicted on the military by automatic spending cuts.

"I know this comes on top of the furloughs that many of you already endured this summer," Obama said. "You and your families deserve better than the dysfunction we're seeing in Congress."

Hundreds of thousands of government workers will be off the job Tuesday after a short work period to wind down operations, but some essential services, including border patrols, air traffic controllers and Social Security benefits, will continue. Meanwhile, it was unclear how long the shutdown would last or how Congress would find a way to agree on restoring funding.

As the shutdown approached hours earlier with Congress gridlocked, Obama called Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, but there was no breakthrough in the budget impasse.

Obama said a "shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away," with hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed and veterans' centers, national parks, most of the space agency and other government operations shuttered.

He blamed House Republicans, whom he accused of seeking to tie government funding to ideological demands, "all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party."

On Tuesday, Obama planned to meet with Americans who will enroll in new insurance exchanges created by his health care law; ironically, implementation of the law and the opening of the exchanges on Tuesday will proceed despite the shutdown.

The spending fight is a prelude to the bigger confrontation over the nation's credit limit, expected to hit its $16.7 trillion cap in mid-October. Obama on Monday urged Republicans not to saddle the legislation to increase the debt ceiling with measures designed to undermine the health care law. He has vowed not to negotiate over the debt ceiling, saying that a default would be worse for the economy than a partial government shutdown.

On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to meet with top Wall Street CEOs to discuss the state of the economy, including the debt ceiling. The meeting will be with members of the Financial Services Forum, a trade group representing the 19 biggest financial service institutions doing business in the United States, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup. The Forum joined 250 other business organizations in a letter to Congress on Monday calling on lawmakers to avoid a shutdown, raise the debt ceiling and then address long-term spending issues and deficits.

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Online:

Obama video: http://vimeo.com/75834646

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Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP and Jim Kuhnhenn at http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

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Secretive Vatican bank takes step to transparency

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican took another step in its efforts to be more financially transparent by publishing a first-ever annual report for the Vatican bank on Tuesday. It comes as Italian prosecutors investigate alleged money-laundering there, a Vatican monsignor remains in detention and the pope himself probes the problems that have brought such scandal to the institution.

Earnings at the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, rose more than four-fold in 2012 as net trading income rebounded from a loss in 2011, the report said. The IOR said it earned 86.6 million euros ($116.95 million) as the value of the securities it held and sold rose to 51.1 million euros from a loss of 38.2 million in 2011. More than 50 million euros of that profit was given to the pope for his charitable works.

The picture may not be so rosy for 2013, with rising interest rates cutting into profits and millions of euros earmarked for the IOR's ongoing transparency process, which has involved hiring outside legal, financial and communications experts to revamp its procedures, review its client base and remake its image.

"Overall, we expect 2013 to be marked by the extraordinary expenses for the ongoing reform and remediation process, and the effects of rising interest rates," bank president Ernst von Freyberg said in a statement.

He said the publication of the report meets the bank's commitment to providing transparency about its activities.

Aside from the earnings, the 100-page report published Tuesday provides some fascinating reading about the secretive institution: The IOR in 2012 had 41.3 million euros in gold, metals and precious coins, owned a real estate company and was bequeathed two investment properties worth 1.9 million euros. It also made some 25.8 million euros in loans in 2012.

The Vatican has long insisted the IOR isn't a bank but a unique financial institution aimed at managing assets for religious or charitable works — a distinction that presumably helped it avoid typical banking regulations. Yet in the past year, the IOR has slowly revealed itself to work very much like a bank, providing asset management services to its clients, earning some 12.2 million euros in fees and commissions for such services in 2012 and making loans.

The Vatican is about to enter a second round of international scrutiny by the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee, which helps countries comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. The Vatican passed Moneyval's inaugural inspection last year, but evaluators gave the IOR and the Vatican's financial oversight agency poor or failing grades for insufficient controls to ensure that its clients and assets were clean.

The report was released as Rome prosecutors continue to investigate a Vatican accountant, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was arrested in an alleged plot to bring 20 million euros into Italy from Switzerland without declaring it at customs. Scarano is also under investigation in his native Salerno for allegedly laundering money through his IOR account. His lawyer has insisted the money was clean and that he was only trying to help out friends.

The IOR's former top managers, Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulli, meanwhile, are under investigation by Rome prosecutors for alleged violations of Italy's anti-money laundering norms. Rome financial police launched the investigation in 2010, seizing 23 million euros ($30 million) from a Vatican account at an Italian bank after determining that the IOR hadn't provided sufficient information about the transaction. The Vatican has said it was a misunderstanding and money was eventually ordered released.

Cipriani and Tulli resigned in July.

Around the same time, Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the IOR to look into every aspect of its operations to get to the bottom of the scandals that have bedeviled it. The commission has wide-ranging authority to obtain documents, data and information, even overriding traditional banking secrecy rules to get it. Francis also named a trusted prelate to be his eyes inside the bank to figure out what really goes on inside the tower just inside the Vatican walls.

The Vatican bank was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII. It employs 114 people, runs the Vatican pension system and oversees about 6.3 billion euros in customer assets. Its customer base has been reduced from some 21,000 customers in 2011 to 18,900 last year, thanks to efforts to close inactive accounts. Customers include religious orders; Vatican offices, embassies and employees; individual cardinals, bishops and priests and foreign embassies accredited to the Holy See.

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Report is at www.ior.va

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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Report is at www.ior.va

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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Dead delivery dotcom a tease

There have been lots of media reports over the past several days saying that the beloved, iconic dotcom failure Kozmo.com is about to make a comeback. Such reports are false.

Allow me to explain.

Kozmo, you may recall, was the delivery service that held a special place in the hearts of late-'90s college students such as myself. Kozmo's sweaty and oft-underfed bike couriers would arrive in an hour with what you craved, whether a pint of Ben & Jerry's, a pack of gum or a CD. That is, until the spectacular failure of this business model played out. There was no delivery charge or minimum order. And back then, some people were still loathe to divulge credit card info online. The implosion of Kozmo was predictable.

Fast-forward 13 years, and the Kozmo.com website was suddenly live last week with the declaration: "Remember us? We're relaunching soon with the vision to fulfill your online order incredibly fast, and on-demand."

Bloggers jumped on the Kozmo rebirth story. I wanted to as well. So I emailed an address listed for the defunct darling, half-hoping I'd soon hear back from one of the cofounders, Joseph Park or Yong Kang.

What I got instead was a canned statement from a man named Barnaby Montgomery, the CEO of Yummy.com, a same-day grocery service based in Los Angeles. It delivered the disappointing truth: Basically, Yummy plans to assume the old brand and capitalize on the name recognition. They've purchased the URL, and, apparently, the rights to the name. I'm betting they'll launch a same-day delivery service called Kozmo in locations where people still get wistful when they hear the name — like right here in Boston. It's not the old Kozmo; it's just called Kozmo.

The truth is that same-day delivery of goods and groceries is the next, maybe final frontier of online commerce. Foreseeing this, large chain stores have begun pulling out all the stops to keep you coming back. Like the Walgreens in Downtown Crossing, where you can buy sushi or live lobster in addition to all the regular standbys such as paper towels and dish detergent. Having been reared on Amazon.com, Millennials want what they want, when they want it. The term "convenience store" is actually an oxymoron for them. The decades-old ritual of wheeling a giant cart up and down the aisles and leaving with a week's worth of groceries could therefore come to an end. It could be that eventually, the only reason to roam the aisles is to acquire specialty goods — the lobster you want to pick it out yourself (yes, at Walgreens!) or the rare bacon only found at Bees Knees Supply Co. in Fort Point (true story).

With Amazon and Walmart hoping to dominate the same-day delivery space, the time is right for Kozmo to make a comeback. It's too bad that's not exactly what's happening, but here's hoping Yummy.com — or someone — gets it right this time.

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State extends solar panel program

The deadline for a solar power incentive program in several communities across the state has been extended after unexpected demand for solar panels, state and local agencies said.

Solarize Mass, a program that makes solar installation cheaper for individuals by aggregating installations and orders, will give residents in 10 towns — including Brookline, Newton and Medford — another month to sign up for the program. This is the third round of the program, with a fourth set to begin soon, open to communities that choose to join.

"There's been great interest and participation by residents and small businesses," said Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the state Department of Energy Resources. "Extending it allows greater participation and a great benefit of that continues to drive the price down."

Because there are several tiers of pricing that depend on the number of installations, extending the deadline is beneficial for people who already have signed up as well, Sylvia said.

Betsy Russell, a Brookline resident who has signed up for the program and decided to buy the panels upfront, said she has looked into solar in the past, but decided to make the investment because of the assistance she will get in dealing with assessments and other paperwork.

"I don't have to spend hours that I don't have trying to master solar energy," Russell said. "It made it logistically and financially more appealing."

Russell said she expects her electric bill to be cut by about a third, and said she likely will break even in six years.

Officials acknowledged that the upfront cost is large, but said the program's model allows for solar power to be more accessible.

Homeowners and businesses can lease solar panels and pay a discounted rate for their electricity to immediately see savings on electricity bills, or buy the panels outright.

The cost varies between communities, but typical residents in Medford who purchase the panels can expect to pay roughly $17,000 up front, a number that is eventually halved thanks to a rebate and state and federal tax credits.

So far, 269 people with homes and businesses deemed suitable for panels have signed contracts, for a total of 1.9 MW of power.

Alicia Hunt, director of Energy and Environment for Medford, said the town had 100 buildings that were acceptable for solar out of 300 that were considered.

Hunt said some of the interested parties have been small- and medium-sized businesses, looking to cut costs long-term.

"They see that there's financial benefit to them doing it," Hunt said. She added no businesses have signed the contract yet, but she expects several to do so by the time the new deadline passes.

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Japan manufacturing slows, but trend remains good

TOKYO — Japanese manufacturing slipped in August, but the government said Monday that output is expected to accelerate in coming months. The overall improvement since late last year could lend support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proposal to raise the sales tax in April.

Industrial output fell 0.7 percent from the previous month after a 3.4 percent jump in July, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. But the ministry also said manufacturing "shows signs of picking up at a moderate pace" and that it expected to jump 5.2 percent in September and grow more in October.

The Japanese government has long planned to raise the sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent in April to reduce its massive debt and meet higher social security costs as the country's population ages. Abe's Cabinet is expected to agree formally Tuesday to move forward with the plan.

The recovery in manufacturing is "a good sign of a sustained recovery and good enough (for) Abe to move ahead with the sales tax hike," said Junko Nishioka, chief economist at RBS Securities Japan.

Any tax hike risks derailing the modest economic recovery that Abe has engineered with the Bank of Japan since taking office in December. The hope is that the economy will be strong enough to withstand a tax increase next year.

In one encouraging sign, retails sales rose 1.1 percent in August from the same month a year ago, the ministry said.

A key economic report, the Bank of Japan's quarterly "tankan" survey of business sentiment, is due out Tuesday before the Cabinet meets.

Japan's economy, the world's third-largest, has generally been improving. In the second quarter, it expanded at an annual pace of 3.8 percent on higher spending on private and public investment.

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White House: GOP bill 'reckless,' 'irresponsible'

WASHINGTON — The White House says a House Republican bill that would delay a major provision of President Barack Obama's health care law is reckless and irresponsible.

Obama spokesman Jay Carney also says any Republican who votes for the bill is "voting for a shutdown." He notes that House Republicans have tried and failed to delay or eliminate the law's funding more than 40 times.

The House is expected to vote on the bill Saturday night.

The bill would delay for one year the requirement for nearly all uninsured people to buy health insurance or face penalties. It also would repeal a tax on medical devices.

Obama has said he will not delay his signature legislative achievement. The White House also has expressed opposition to repealing the medical devices tax.

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Friendly’s fights slide

Two years after filing for bankruptcy, Friendly's Ice Cream continues to churn away at a tall order: reinvigorating a 78-year-old chain competing against the likes of Applebee's, Panera, IHOP and Chipotle.

While analysts cite progress important to a turnaround — in customer service, and menu and restaurant updates — some question whether the Wilbraham-based chain can survive in the long run.

Customer satisfaction surveys show consumers like the changes, according to Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago food industry consulting and research firm.

"The important element is will they be able to sustain that positive reaction?" he said. "It will take continuous effort. As some of these older brands continue to age, it gets increasingly difficult to turn them around."

Friendly's CEO John Maguire — a Weymouth native and former Panera COO who joined the company in April 2012 — said Friendly's has seen steady progress in three focus areas: the friendliness and retraining of employees; food quality and menu changes; and the cleanliness and energy level of its restaurants.

By year's end, Friendly's expects to have renovated 45 restaurants, with another 50 planned for 2014.

"We have a long ways to go," Maguire said. "We're just starting out, so sales increases will come as we get more consistent and make the improvements we need to make."

Friendly's expects about $500 million in revenue this year — down from 
$700 million in 2011 — from 355 restaurants and ice cream sales at 7,500 supermarkets and other retailers.

"We're going to exceed our profit expectation for 2013," Maguire said. "We grew in 2012, and we'll grow our earnings in 2013."

Friendly's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2011, citing the economic downturn and rising commodity prices. Over time, it had stopped investing in its employees, quality of its food, and the cleanliness and upkeep of its restaurants, according to Maguire. "If we (address those issues), we'll survive," he said.

Friendly's closed about 100 restaurants before emerging from bankruptcy protection in January 2012 as a leaner chain under an affiliate of private investment firm Sun Capital Partners, which acquired Friendly's in 2007.

Maguire disagrees with those who view Friendly's as past its time, noting the chain holds a special place for many customers who visited as children with parents or grandparents.

"There are people who love and always did love and probably always will love Friendly's," agreed Michael Tesler, senior marketing lecturer at Bentley College. "But I don't know if there is enough. Time has sort of passed by Friendly's between Panera and Chipotle and Shake Shack and Tasty Burger."

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App’s the way to monitor baby

A Boston-based MassChallenge finalist is taking baby-monitoring beyond devices that record only sight or sound.

The SensibleBaby SmartOne is a onesie with a front pocket containing an embedded sensor that sends a constant signal to a nearby smartphone via an app that alerts parents when a sleeping infant is too hot, too cold or sleeping on his or her stomach.

"We want to be a co-parenting tool that empowers people with information so that they don't have to worry about their child," said SensibleBaby CEO Ben Cooper, who's expecting his first child in December.

Cooper and his three co-founders — Jeff Tagen, Jill Ju and Jack Sivak — met as strangers in March at Start-up Weekend, a 54-hour marathon during which aspiring entrepreneurs form teams, pitch an idea and make it a reality.

The four decided to try to create something better than baby-monitoring audio recorders and video cameras on the market.

"Audio monitors are wonderful, but if you're not listening, they don't help," said Cooper, 29. "We wanted to only alert parents when they need to act."

By the end of the weekend, they had a name for their new company, a logo, a website and a working prototype consisting of a taped-together sensor that dropped into a hand-sewn sock.

"It wasn't very pretty," Cooper recalled with a laugh, "but it worked."

It worked well enough that the four won, and one of their prizes was a waived application fee to MassChallenge, the Boston start-up accelerator and $1 million competition, which wraps up on Oct. 30.

In the meantime, the team won $100,000 through Founder.org and is using the money to refine and test their product for what they hope will be a launch in the first quarter of next year.

SmartOne sets will contain a sensor and three onesies, and will sell for between $100 and $150 in baby boutiques and on the company's website, mysensiblebaby.com.

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State Senate votes 38-0 to repeal tech tax

The state Senate followed the House's lead yesterday, unanimously voting to repeal the so-called tech tax and sending the bill to Gov. Deval Patrick for his signature.

"Today is corrections day," said Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, (R-Gloucester). "We can correct this mistake of trying to impose a tax on our innovation economy, trying to impose a tax on one of our most promising sectors as we try to recover from a recession."

The Senate voted 38-0 to repeal the 6.25 percent tax on software services, which prompted an outcry from the tech industry after it was passed in July as part of the $500 million transportation financing bill.

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