Audi SQ5 SUV is spacious and sporty

The SQ5, Audi's first utility vehicle available in a sport version, has the capacity of a midsize vehicle with the performance and handling of a sport sedan.

Our tester with its blue paint and 21-inch wheels had an understated appearance that shrouds the SQ5's power and performance. A 3.0-liter, supercharged V6 produces 354 horsepower that was accentuated by a beefy exhaust note. An eight-speed Tiptronic transmission made acceleration silky smooth and provided the option to shift manually. Paddle shifters on the steering wheel were useful for a quick downshift for highway passing.

The Audi's throttle response was swift and I was pinned back in the seat while accelerating on straightaways. The SQ5's sport suspension reduced body roll through tight turns. Ride quality remained reasonable considering its size and weight.

Audi's quattro permanent all-wheel drive that sends power to wheels with the most grip gives the SQ5 an edge on both dry roads and in adverse driving conditions. Our tester's low-profile tires would have to be replaced for the snow. The SQ5 yields an average of 19 miles per gallon in fuel economy and burns premium fuel.

The SQ5's black interior was highlighted with a bulging flat-bottomed steering wheel and supple Nappa leather seats. Heated front bucket seats were comfortable and reduced fatigue on long drives. Extended seat belt buckles that stayed on top of the rear seats made strapping in our children with boosters a breeze. A panoramic sunroof made the interior feel much larger. Audi takes navigation to another level with its system enhanced with Google Earth satellite imagery that provides a realistic picture of the route. Other interior highlights were an excellent Bang & Olufsen sound system with 14 speakers, a rearview camera, thermal cupholders and a three-zone climate control system.

Many of the interior features were part of a $7,500 prestige package that was included in our $64,770 tester. The SQ5 has a base price of $51,900. My only gripe with the SQ5 was the location of the cruise control stalk. It's difficult to see behind the steering wheel, which made it hard to use.

A non-sport version Q5 with a turbocharged four cylinder starts at $37,700. Audi also offers the Q5 with hybrid and turbo diesel engine options. Other SUVs to consider are the BMW X3, the Land Rover Evoque, or the Volvo EC60.

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Cold weather stalls U.S. auto sales in December

U.S. auto sales fell short of expectations last month, thanks to strong November sales and cold December weather, but the industry is in a good position for 2014, experts said.

General Motors sales fell 6.3 percent last month, Toyota sales fell 1.7 percent, and Ford and Chrysler both missed analysts' expectations.

Still, the industry had its best year since 2007, and the Ford F-series truck was the top-selling vehicle for the 32nd year.

Chris Hopson, an auto analyst for IHS, said he sees a recent trend of strong sales continuing.

"If you look at this five-month period as a whole, it reflects a nice running rate for sales," Hopson said. "The strength that we've seen in the second half of 2013 will continue in 2014."

Hopson said auto sales will follow the trajectory of the economy as a whole.

"We're hoping that sales are going to be supported by a recovery economy," Hopson said.

Both analysts and automakers blamed poor weather for slow sales at the year's end.

"When you start taking a look at the end in terms of when we closed in the month of December, there was some bad winter weather," said Erich Merkle, U.S. sales analyst for Ford.

Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Edmunds.com, said, "The sales pace at the beginning of the month was slower than expected as a lot of places were hit by bad weather."

Hopson said the end of November was strong, and that may have played a factor in the slow month.

"It looks like the pace of sales might have been attributable to sales in November," Hopson said.

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Kitchens, baths go for simplicity

If you're aiming to create kitchens with a unique look and bathrooms with atmosphere, think gray, silver and white rather than beige and brown, say local kitchen designers.

Black granite counters and cherrywood/maple/oak cabinets in the kitchen along with beige ceramic tile bathrooms have been done to death, and homeowners are yearning for something different.

"There's a move away from granite countertops to quartz counters that are easy to maintain and come in a lot of solid colors," says Mariette Barsoum, principal at Divine Kitchens in Wellesley.

Barsoum says that people are looking for cleaner lines and simplicity — tall, flat-panel cabinets painted white or light gray rather than stained wood.

Cassia Wyner of CW Design in Brookline is doing more transitional kitchens, ones that combine traditional and contemporary styles. She has been mixing color schemes — white, grays, taupe and even red.

"New England tends to be conservative," she says. "But my clients, many of whom own old Victorians, are getting more adventurous by adding color, creating two-tone kitchens that are more modern-looking."

The two-tone color scheme is also coming to bathrooms, says Mary Porzelt, manager of Boston Kitchen Designs in Needham.

"Bathrooms are going for the Zen minimalist look," says Porzelt. "People are doing creams and light grays with dark wood vanities."

Kathie Bonchack, showroom manager at Frank Webb's Bath Center in Bedford and Needham, says she is selling more larger-sized 18-by-18 inch and 12-by-24 inch tiles for bathroom floors and shower and tub walls.

"Smaller tiles are out," said Bonchack, "and wall-mounted vanities and toilets are in. And we're also seeing chrome fixtures, which are the best value, making a real comeback."

One noticeable trend in bathrooms is the look of tubs.

"People are walking away from the jacuzzi with marble surround in favor of free-standing soaking or air jet tubs," says Barsoum.

To get a unique bathroom look, Wyner points clients to porcelain tile, which comes in a wide variety of stylish textures and colors.

"Porcelain tile is just exploding in bathrooms," she says. "It really looks like stone."

Designers say people don't have to spend a lot more money to create a stylish kitchen. Quartz counters cost about the same as granite, and some of the most reliable and attractive appliances aren't the high-end brands.

As for kitchen sinks, there are some new choices besides the ubiquitous stainless steel, with soapstone and farmer's sinks becoming popular. New sinks that are 80 percent granite and 20 percent resin can add color. And while stainless steel appliances are still king, designers say, black and glossy-finish white appliances are making inroads.

LED recessed lighting, which now comes in warmer, yellower tones, has come into its own, and LED strips are being increasingly used for under-cabinet lighting or in tray ceilings.

Kathy Cremone, design manager of Carole Kitchen & Bath Design in Woburn, says she's seeing more wood than tile on kitchen floors to make them look bigger and blend in with adjacent rooms. But bamboo wood floors are out of style, as the softer wood loses its luster quickly and dents easily.

"Everyone wants a kitchen that looks like a chef owns it but never uses it," Cremone said. "They want 60-inch stoves, double ovens, oversized refrigerators. You have to bring people down to reality and to what they can afford. You don't design for the Taj Mahal for a little house on the corner."

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Unifying Boylston St.

The city is eyeing a 10-year reconstruction project to unify the streetscape of one of Boston's major commercial streets.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is seeking a consultant to develop new design standards for the sidewalks of Boylston Street, from the Fenway to Arlington Street in the Back Bay, where the thoroughfare is the neighborhood's commercial "spine."

"Boylston Street is one of Boston's premiere shopping, dining and tourist destinations," BRA spokeswoman Melina Schuler said in a statement. "The Boylston Street design study will lay the groundwork for the future reconstruction of the street, which seeks to improve sidewalk conditions while preserving the distinct character of the pedestrian experience."

The BRA has budgeted $300,000 for the consultant to develop recommendations that will cover the sidewalks, including pavement materials, from the curb line to the building faces on both sides of the street in the 10-block area.

In 1991, the city hired consultants to create a master plan for unified Boylston Street improvements block by block.

Since then, the BRA and Back Bay Architectural Commission have been "primarily responsible for the design review of new development along Boylston and mandating the implementation of the design standards and material palette, but with varying degrees of success," the BRA's request for proposals states.

The two sides of Boylston Street have different design identities — the south side is comparatively modern and aligned with the city's "high spine," an urban design concept that's governed development of many office and residential towers. The north side, where projects have been more "piecemeal," is monitored by the BBAC, which has preserved the historic architecture and provided generous sidewalk widths, according to the city's request for proposal.

While design standards have been maintained on the street's north side, the "application and construction of projects have been diverse, with mixed results," according to the RFP.

The new design standards also will incorporate the city's "Complete Streets" program adopted in 2009 to create multi-modal, green and "smart" streets suitable for cars, pedestrians, people with disabilities, bicyclists and public transportation.

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Anti-casino groups unite

Groups from Palmer and East Boston plan to campaign with casino opponents in Revere ahead of the Mohegan/Suffolk Downs referendum in February, tapping into their experience barring the Suffolk Downs proposal in Eastie and first-hand dealings with Mohegan Sun in Palmer.

"We have pledged our support to the opposition in Revere," said Celeste Myers, a leader of the 
anti-casino group No Eastie Casino, which successfully led the charge to reject a Suffolk Downs proposal in East Boston in November. Suffolk Downs, partnering with Mohegan Sun after it was narrowly rejected in Palmer, convinced the Gaming Commission to allow a Feb. 25 referendum in Revere.

"I thought my job was over on Nov. 5," Myers said. The Revere group fighting the casino, Don't Gamble on Revere, has reached out to Myers for suggestions and pointers.

"They reached out to us and asked us for tips," Myers said. "We're going to be making ourselves available to them."

Robert Young, spokesman for the pro-casino Palmer Businesses for a Palmer Casino, said his group will have a presence in Revere leading up to the vote. His group wrote to the state Gaming Commission claiming Mohegan Sun didn't act in good faith in Palmer.

"If they have a rally, or if they need to speak to somebody, I will come out; other citizens will directly come out and let the people from a first-hand experience what we went through," Young said.

Revere voters will be casting ballots on a completely redesigned project, made to fit in the smaller portion of Suffolk Downs property that is in Revere.

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HP to cut 5,000 more employees this year

Hewlett-Packard, the computing giant, has confirmed that it will lay off 5,000 more employees than originally planned by next fall.

In 2012, the California-based company announced plans to cut 29,000 workers by October 2014, but said that number could vary by 15 percent.

In a securities filing on Tuesday, the company said the number will end up at 34,000 total, citing "continued market and business pressures."

An HP spokesman would not comment on any effect the additional cuts would have on HP's 800 employees in Andover, or what departments would see layoffs.

Cutting costs has helped HP weather increased competition and declining PC sales. Revenue fell 7 percent through Oct. 31, but the company posted 
$5.1 billion in net profit.

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Lavish parties, uninhibited tourists rule in Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas was revving up Tuesday for what could be its biggest New Year's Eve celebration yet, featuring sold-out concerts and a fireworks show billed as the largest in the country.

Big-ticket musical acts including Bruno Mars, John Legend and Maroon 5 were expected to help lure 335,000 visitors to Las Vegas by nightfall — 5,000 more than last year, tourism officials said.

The holiday was seemingly custom-made to align with Sin City's boozy, bad-judgment ethos.

The Minus5 Ice Bar Mandalay Bay started handing out free champagne for hourly toasts at 11 a.m. Tourists were seen toting novelty drinks into casinos by noon.

For Lester Arnold, 50, the desert weather made Las Vegas the obvious place to ring in the New Year. Temperatures dropped from 60 to 40 degrees as the sun set.

"There are people outside here. It's minus twenty in Springfield and there's no party there," the Massachusetts native said, sipping from a red Solo cup full to the brim with champagne as nearly naked showgirls strutted past.

A Gene Simmons impersonator sat in a motorized scooter nearby, wagging his tongue at tourists in novelty hats.

Police shut down traffic on the Las Vegas Strip at 6 p.m. so revelers could spill into the 4-mile stretch of road normally packed with cars.

Randy and Patty Harkin, of Salt Lake City, were dressed in their finest. The couple had just eloped at the Stained Glass Chapel, on the anniversary of their first kiss.

"I called my mom and was like, 'We're married now, and happy New Year," Randy Harkin said.

At midnight, an eight-minute fireworks display will shoot from the rooftops of seven hotel-casinos.

Law enforcement officers were keeping a close eye on the festivities.

Hotels were dealing a full house, with occupancy approaching 100 percent and $200 rooms going for $600. New Year's Eve is typically the most profitable night of the year for casinos, and their executives worked to persuade visitors to make it a long weekend.

Many casinos offered up special "New Year's Eve Eve" events on Monday and advertised the two days before that as the biggest weekend of the year. DJs were counting down to 2014 as early as Sunday at the Mirage hotel-casino's 1OAK club.

Las Vegas was light this year on hosted nightclub bashes in which guests pay for proximity to a famous person. Original celebutante Paris Hilton was hosting one of the only such parties.

New Year's Eve crowds in the city have doubled since 1990 but still lag other parties in New York City's Times Square and Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

In seedier downtown Las Vegas, organizers planned a block party along the Fremont Street Experience pedestrian mall featuring Blues Traveler and Papa Roach. Some revelers were disappointed to learn that they had to pay $40 to get in.

Grace Champion, 25, had come with her husband from Wasilla, Alaska. The couple bought their own yard-long plastic drink cups for 99 cents and was saving money by getting them refilled inside casinos.

Her hope for the New Year was that it would bring her a job. Her goal for the night: catch a glimpse of Papa Roach.

___

Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier.

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Justice delays health law's birth control mandate

WASHINGTON — Only hours before the law was to take effect, a Supreme Court justice on Tuesday blocked implementation of part of President Barack Obama's health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor's decision came after a flurry of efforts by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the nation. Those groups had rushed to the federal courts to stop Wednesday's start of portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Sotomayor acted on a request from an organization of Catholic nuns in Denver, the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged. Its request for an emergency stay had been denied earlier in the day by a federal appeals court.

The government is "temporarily enjoined from enforcing against applicants the contraceptive coverage requirements imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Sotomayor said in the order.

Sotomayor, who was in New York Tuesday night to lead the final 60-second countdown and push the ceremonial button to signal the descent of the Times Square New Year's Eve ball, gave government officials until 10 a.m. EST Friday to respond to her order.

The law requires employers to provide insurance that covers a range of preventive care, free of charge, including contraception. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of contraceptives.

The Obama administration crafted a compromise, or accommodation, that attempted to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. The law requires insurers or the health plan's outside administrator to pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them.

But for that to work, the nuns would have to sign a form authorizing their insurance company to provide contraceptive coverage, which would still violate their beliefs, argued their attorney, Mark Rienzi.

"Without an emergency injunction, Mother Provincial Loraine Marie Maguire has to decide between two courses of action: (a) sign and submit a self-certification form, thereby violating her religious beliefs; or (b) refuse to sign the form and pay ruinous fines," Rienzi said.

The White House did not comment on the order Tuesday night. In a statement Tuesday night, Rienzi said he was delighted by Sotomayor's order. "The government has lots of ways to deliver contraceptives to people," he said. "It doesn't need to force nuns to participate."

Sotomayor's decision to delay the contraceptive portion of the law was joined by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which also issued an emergency stay for Catholic-affiliated groups challenging the contraceptive provision, including the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and Catholic University. But one judge on the three-judge panel that made the decision, Judge David S. Tatel, said he would have denied their motion.

"Because I believe that appellants are unlikely to prevail on their claim that the challenged provision imposes a 'substantial burden' under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, I would deny their application for an injunction pending appeal," Tatel said.

The archdiocese praised the appeals court's action in a statement.

"This action by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is in line with the rulings of courts all across the country which have held that the HHS mandate imposes a substantial and impermissible burden on the free exercise of religion," the archdiocese said. "These decisions also vindicate the pledge of the U.S. Catholic bishops to stand united in resolute defense of the first and most sacred freedom - religious liberty."

The Supreme Court already has decided to rule on whether businesses may use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees. That case, which involves Hobby Lobby Inc., an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees, is expected to be argued in March and decided by summer.

___

Follow Jesse J. Holland on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland.

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Mass. home sales slide in Nov.

There was a slight chill in the Massachusetts housing market last month.

November saw the first year-over-year decline in single-family home sales — and the fewest number of monthly sales — since April, driven by a tight supply of available properties and rising interest rates.

Sales fell 2 percent compared to November of 2012, according to data released yesterday by the Warren Group, the Boston publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

The median sales price for single-family homes, meanwhile, climbed 4 percent to $307,000, for the 14th straight month of year-over-year increases.

"The low inventory of homes for sale is affecting the number of sales, because people who are eager to buy are not finding much to their liking," Warren Group CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. said. And while historically low, interest rates have been rising since May.

Single-family homes for sale as of Nov. 30 numbered 18,428, down 20.6 percent compared to the same month last year — marking the 21st consecutive month of inventory decreases.

And, unlike some buyers during the mid-2000s inventory shortage who purchased homes beyond their financial means, buyers today aren't willing to make that leap, according to MAR president Kimberly Allard-Moccia, broker-owner of Century 21 Professionals in Braintree.

"They're not interested in repeating past mistakes, and the lending requirements are far more strict now," she said. "Even if a buyer wanted to overpay for a property, or get involved in a multiple bid situation, their lender may not approve the loan."

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Drone research funds to fly into Bay State

The announcement of six states that will host testing areas for commercial drones is a significant step toward approving unmanned aircraft in U.S. skies, experts said, and will pay dividends for Massachusetts — even though the Bay State isn't on the list.

The FAA announced yesterday that Alaska, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia and New York will host research sites for drones, but the New York site, at Griffiss International Airport, will be run by an alliance of organizations from New York and Massachusetts, including Joint Base Cape Cod.

"It's a great economic opportunity because it will mean jobs," said Missy Cummings, a professor at MIT and a drone expert.

"This selection recognizes the importance of Massachusetts' military installations and our special role as an innovation hub," Sen. Edward J. Markey said in a statement.

Markey has filed a bill that would require the FAA to enact privacy guidelines before allowing drones to take to the skies.

"These test sites will give us valuable information about how best to ensure the safe introduction of this advanced technology into our nation's skies," transportation secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

The FAA is scheduled to put the regulations in place by 2015, but that is not likely to happen, Cummings said.

"The FAA is not known to move fast," she said.

The regulations, whenever they are finalized, will allow commercial drones like those that Amazon proposed to be used for package delivery, as shown in an attention-grabbing CBS "60 Minutes" segment, and would also have larger possibilities, like search and rescue and agricultural uses, Cummings said.

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