North Adams Police Director Michael Cozzaglio says 56-year-old Deborah Pierce was ejected from the vehicle van after she struck the pole near the Hillside Cemetery on West Main Street shortly after 6:30 a.m. Friday.

 

NORTH ADAMS — Police say a North Adams woman has died after her van crashed into a utility pole in the city.

Police Director Michael Cozzaglio says 56-year-old Deborah Pierce was ejected from the vehicle van after she struck the pole near the Hillside Cemetery on West Main Street shortly after 6:30 a.m. Friday.

Cozzaglio told The Berkshire Eagle she died on impact.

He says speed appears to be a factor.

SA section of the street was closed during the investigation and to fix the pole.

Two people were injured in a two car crash on I-91 Friday night,.

MassLive.com photo [file] 

State Police Sgt. Michael Andrews, attached to the Springfield Barracks, said the 8:06 p.m. crash involved two passenger cars, one registered to a Connecticut address and the other a Massachusetts registration, collided just after they crossed the state line. Andrews said the troopers responded to the incident approximately one mile into Massachusetts.

The Longmeadow Fire Department responded with two ambulances to take the injured to the Baystate Medical Center for treatment. Andrews said police do not have a current condition on the injured but said the injuries are believed to be non-life threatening.

The accident created a traffic backup for approximately 90 minutes. Traffic returned to normal at approximately 9:30 p.m.

A high-speed chase loops through three towns before it ends with a crash on the South End Bridge.

 

The driver of the car will face "multiple" motor vehicle charges, Andrews said, including failure to stop for a police officer, speeding, marked lanes violations and defective equipment, among others. The unidentified driver is also the subject of an active arrest warrant out of New York state.

State Police Sgt. Michael Andrews said the chase started at approximately 12:25 a.m. on Route-291 when a trooper attempted to stop the vehicle in the westbound lane. The driver refused to stop and fled onto I-91 northbound, Andrews said, and traveled north to Exit 13 into West Springfield.

The chase continued onto Riverdale Street with up to five State Police cruisers joining the chase, as well as West Springfield police. The fleeing car continued to Route 5 and turned onto city streets at the North End Bridge rotary

Police said the car looped through the city winding up on Memorial Avenue eastbound to Route 5. From there the pursuit continued south to Agawam, entering Route 57 westbound at the South End Bridge rotary.

Agawam police joined the chase as the car turned off onto Agawam streets and circled back to Route 57, now traveling eastbound.

Andrews said the vehicle tried to cross the South End bridge into Springfield, but the driver lost control near the Springfield side and crashed. Police took three people into custody.

Andrews said troopers were still on the scene at the time of publication and information is limited at this time. MassLive.com will update this report as information becomes available.

Search and rescue crews across Southeast Asia scrambled on Saturday to find a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared from air traffic control screens over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Search and rescue crews across Southeast Asia scrambled on Saturday to find a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared from air traffic control screens over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam early that morning, leaving the fates of the 239 people aboard in doubt.

CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said at a news conference that Flight MH370 lost contact with Malaysian air traffic control at 2:40 a.m. (18:40 GMT Friday), about two hours after it had taken off from Kuala Lumpur. The plane, which carried passengers mostly from China but also from other Asian countries, North America and Europe, had been expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. Saturday (22:30 GMT Friday).

Pham Hien, a Vietnamese search and rescue official, said the last signal detected from the plane was 120 nautical miles (140 miles; 225 kilometers) southwest of Vietnam's southernmost Ca Mau province, which is close to where the South China Sea meets the Gulf of Thailand.

Lai Xuan Thanh, director of Vietnam's civil aviation authority, said air traffic officials in the country never made contact with the plane.

The plane "lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam's air traffic control," Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said in a statement issued by the government.

The South China Sea is a tense region with competing territorial claims that have led to several low-level conflicts, particularly between China and the Philippines. That antipathy briefly faded as nations of the region rushed to aid in the search, with China dispatching two maritime rescue ships and the Philippines deploying three air force planes and three navy patrol ships to help.

"In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues," said Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military's Western Command.

The Malaysian Airlines plane was carrying 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew members, the airline said. It said there were 153 passengers from China, 38 from Malaysia, seven each from Indonesia and Australia, five from India, four from the U.S. and others from Indonesia, France, New Zealand, Canada, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Austria.

At Beijing's airport, authorities posted a notice asking relatives and friends of passengers to gather to a hotel about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the airport to wait for further information, and provided a shuttle bus service. A woman wept aboard the shuttle bus while saying on a mobile phone, "They want us to go to the hotel. It cannot be good!"

In Kuala Lumpur, family members gathered at the airport but were kept away from reporters.

"Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew. Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support," Yahya, the airline CEO, said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members."

Fuad Sharuji, Malaysian Airlines' vice president of operations control, told CNN that the plane was flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) and that the pilots had reported no problem.

Finding planes that disappear over the ocean can be very difficult. Airliner "black boxes" -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- are equipped with "pingers" that emit ultrasonic signals that can be detected underwater.

Under good conditions, the signals can be detected from several hundred miles away, said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. If the boxes are trapped inside the wreckage, the sound may not travel as far, he said. If the boxes are at the bottom of a deep in an underwater trench, that also hinders how far the sound can travel. The signals also weaken over time.

Air France Flight 447, with 228 people on board, disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janiero to Paris on June 1, 2009. Some wreckage and bodies were recovered over the next two weeks, but it took nearly two years for the main wreckage of the Airbus 330 and its black boxes to be located and recovered.

Malaysia Airlines said the 53-year-old pilot of Flight MH370, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, has more than 18,000 flying hours and has been flying for the airline since 1981. The first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Hamid, has about 2,800 hours of experience and has flown for the airline since 2007.

The tip of the wing of the same Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 broke off Aug. 9, 2012, as it was taxiing at Pudong International Airport outside Shanghai. The wingtip collided with the tail of a China Eastern Airlines A340 plane. No one was injured.

Malaysia Airlines' last fatal incident was in 1995, when one its planes crashed near the Malaysian city of Tawau, killing 34 people. The deadliest crash in its history occurred in 1977, when a domestic Malaysian flight crashed after being hijacked, killing 100.

In August 2005, a Malaysian Airlines 777 flying from Perth, Australia, to Kuala Lumpur suddenly shot up 3,000 feet before the pilot disengaged the autopilot and landed safely. The plane's software had incorrectly measured speed and acceleration, and the software was quickly updated on planes around the world.

Malaysia Airlines has 15 Boeing 777-200s in its fleet of about 100 planes. The state-owned carrier last month reported its fourth straight quarterly loss and warned of tougher times.

The 777 had not had a fatal crash in its 19-year history until an Asiana Airlines plane crashed in San Francisco in July 2013. All 16 crew members survived, but three of the 291 passengers, all teenage girls from China, were killed.

Three men are being charged with a murder of 78-year-old Pay O'Hagan of Sheffield, Vermont.

A license picture of Pat O'Hagan,78, who was killed in September of 2010. Vermont State Police announced Friday that they have arrested two and have a warrant for a third man in connection with the murder. Vermont State Police 

On Friday, brothers Richard Fletcher, 27, of Sheffield, and 33-year-old Keith Baird of St. Johnsbury were arrested and charged with burglary, kidnapping and 1st degree murder. A third man, 22-year-old Michael Norrie of St. Johnsbury will be extradited from a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania where he is serving a sentence on firearms charges. He faces the same state charges as the others.

O'Hagan disappeared from her home in Sheffield in September of 2010, and it wasn't until nearly a month later her body was found by hunters in woods in Wheelock.

According to reports earlier, police got a break in the case when Norrie allegedly made incriminating statements about the O'Hagan death when he was being questioned in connection with the firearms charge. He was later sentenced after being found guilty of being a convicted drug user in possession of a stolen firearm. Police said they also received extraordinary help from the public in the case.

Police said earlier that Norrie and Fletcher each told stories about O'Hagan's death, but pointed fingers at the other. Police said they believe Flethcher and Norrie went to O'Hagan's home September 3, 2010 to steal pills. Once inside her home, one shot her and the two sexually assaulted her, before taking her body to Wheelock and disposing it in deep woods.

Keith Baird is currently being held at the Northeast Regional Correction center in lieu of bail on charges of violating conditions of release, violations of an abuse prevention order and being a habitual offender. Fletcher was returned to Vermont from a correctional facility in Kentucky and is being held in the Southern Regional Correctional Facility on a charge of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Baird and Fletcher will be arraigned in the Vermont Superior Court, Caledonia Criminal Division on March 10 at 12:30 p.m.

The School Committee, in adjusting the bullying policy, took the stance that bullying does not ways involve just students as the perpetrators and victims,

SPRINGFIELD – The School Committee amended the school system’s policy for bullying this week, expanding beyond the students to also cover staff and faculty as potential perpetrators or victims.

The policy was not triggered by any specific case, but was adjusted to acknowledge that bullying does not always involve just students, officials said.

“It was to reassure a learning environment that is healthy and safe for everyone,” said School Committee member Barbara Gresham, chairwoman of the School Safety Subcommittee. “We had to amend our bullying policy to expand the definition of bullying to include the school staff or anyone that could be a perpetrator.”

Azell Cavaan, chief communications officer for the Springfield public schools, said the local change further promotes the effort to ensure a “safe and caring environment” in the schools for students and staff.

“It is just taking a more holistic look at the culture and the climate that we in the district are trying to create,” Cavaan said.

“I think it's a great move,” committee Vice Chairman Denise Hurst said. “Once again, Springfield is really trying to lead the charge and be progressive in our thinking. We want to make sure our policy is all encompassing. Bullying is not always amongst students. It can occur with faculty and staff."

Under a state model bullying prevention and intervention policy, the definition of “perpetrator” could include school staff including but not limited to “an educator, administrator, school nurse, cafeteria worker, custodian, bus driver, athletic coach, adviser to an extracurricular activity or paraprofessional,” according to the state policy.

Springfield’s bullying policy, adopted in 2010, defined bullying as “the severe use by one or more perpetrators of a written, verbal, or electronic expression, or a physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, directed at a victim.” Bullying occurs when it causes physical or emotional harm, or reasonable fear of harm, or creates a hostile environment, or infringes on rights, or is a significant disruption of the education process, according to the policy.

There are requirements for staff to quickly report any incidents known of, or witnessed, that must be followed by a “prompt investigation” by the principal or a designee, according to the policy.

The Democratic senator from Massachusetts doesn't have the power to control space and time, at least not without a bipartisan bill behind him.

As the clock strikes 2 a.m. on Sunday and you walk around your home to change all the old school time keepers ahead an hour, you can thank Sen. Ed Markey, or wait to curse him when you lose an hour of sleep come Monday morning.

No, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts doesn't have the power to control space and time, at least not without a bipartisan bill behind him. A press release sent from his office in Washington this week reminded that in 2005, Markey, then a U.S. congressman, worked with U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., to pass a bill amending the Uniform Time Act of 1996 which shifted the "spring ahead" portion of Daylight Saving Time four weeks earlier.

The provision increased the part of the year that is subject to Daylight Savings Time, providing more hours of daylight and in the process, cutting peak-hour electricity usage.

The amendment changed the start date of Daylight Saving Time from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March beginning in 2007. The date to change clocks back an hour in the fall was also shifted from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November.

"After this long, dreary winter, people are ready to go from polar to solar. Instead of most of the United States still being covered in snow, our evenings will be bathed in sunlight a little longer, and a little sooner than before," Markey promised in the press release. "In addition to the benefits of energy savings, fewer traffic fatalities, more recreation time and increased economic activity, Daylight Saving Time helps clear away the winter blues a little earlier. Government analysis has proven that extra sunshine provides more than just smiles. Daylight Saving Time saves consumers money and also curbs the nation’s energy consumption, which means lower energy bills, less pollution, and more reasons to enjoy the outdoors. We all just feel sunnier after we set the clocks ahead."

Every state in the nation except Arizona and Hawaii spring ahead an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday. The exception among those two exceptions is the Navajo Nation in The Grand Canyon State, which changes their clocks with the rest of America.

In the press release, Markey's office noted that a Department of Energy report ordered as part of the amendment concluded in 2008 that:

• The total electricity savings of the change was about 1.3 Tera Watt-hours, or a reduction in total use per-person of .5 percent during each day of extended Daylight Saving Time.
• The savings translate to $498 million in electricity savings and reduced oil usage of 2.9 million barrels of oil.
• During extended Daylight Saving Time, electricity savings generally occurred over a three-to-five hour period in the evening with small increases in usage during the early-morning hours.

George W. Bush, then a Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor, speaks during a campaign rally at the Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine, Friday, Oct. 20, 2000. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) 

But those argued positive effects of the change to Daylight Saving Time weren't the only considerations as Markey and Upton pitched this controversial notion back when George W. Bush was president.

The Air Transport Association, which represents U.S. Airways, said changing America's clocks further would cost the airline industry $147 million, according to a report in USA Today. The National Parent Teacher Association argued that if more children go to school in the dark, accidents and abductions would no doubt skyrocket.

But in the end, the amendment passed as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and was signed by Bush on Aug. 8, 2005. It is unclear if the airline industry actually suffered as a result or if more school children were kidnapped or maimed thanks to the amendment.

So whether you love Daylight Saving Time or hate it, you can thank or blame either Markey, Upton or former President Bush, depending on your political persuasion, of course.

Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks close to where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people had crashed.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks close to where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people had crashed.

The air force planes were part of a multinational search operation launched after Flight MH370 fell off radar screens less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday morning.

The oil slicks were spotted late Saturday off the southern tip of Vietnam and were each between 10 kilometers (6 miles) and 15 kilometers (9 miles) long, the Vietnamese government said in a statement. There was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.

Two-thirds of the missing plane's passengers were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said there was no indication that the pilots had sent a distress signal, suggesting that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and possibly catastrophically.

At Beijing's airport, authorities posted a notice asking relatives and friends of passengers to gather at a nearby hotel to wait for further information, and provided a shuttle bus service. A woman wept aboard the bus while saying on a mobile phone, "They want us to go to the hotel. It cannot be good."

Relatives and friends of passengers were escorted into a private area at the hotel, but reporters were kept away. A man in a gray hooded sweatshirt later stormed out complaining about a lack of information. The man, who said he was a Beijing resident but declined to give his name, said he was anxious because his mother was on board the flight with a group of 10 tourists.

"We have been waiting for hours and there is still no verification," he said.

The plane was last detected on radar at 1:30 a.m. (1730 GMT Friday) around where the South China Sea meets the Gulf of Thailand, authorities in Malaysia and Vietnam said.

Lai Xuan Thanh, director of Vietnam's civil aviation authority, said air traffic officials in the country never made contact with the plane.

The plane "lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam's air traffic control," Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said in a statement.

The South China Sea is a tense region with competing territorial claims that have led to several low-level conflicts, particularly between China and the Philippines. That antipathy briefly faded Saturday as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia all sent ships and planes to the region.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that Malaysia had dispatched 15 planes and nine ships to the area, and that the U.S. Navy was sending some planes as well. Singapore, China and Vietnam also were sending aircraft.

It's not uncommon for it to take several days to find the wreckage of aircraft floating on the ocean. Locating and then recovering the flight data recorders, vital to any investigation, can take months or even years.

"In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues," said Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military's Western Command.

After the oil slick was spotted, the air search was suspended for the night and was to resume Sunday morning, while the sea search was ongoing, Malaysia Airlines said.

The plane was carrying 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew members, the airline said. It said there were 152 passengers from China, 38 from Malaysia, seven from Indonesia, six from Australia, five from India, three from the U.S., and others from Indonesia, France, New Zealand, Canada, Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Austria.

In Kuala Lumpur, family members gathered at the airport, but were kept away from reporters.

"Our team is currently calling the next of kin of passengers and crew. Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support," said Yahya, the airline CEO. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members."

Fuad Sharuji, Malaysia Airlines' vice president of operations control, told CNN that the plane was flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) when it disappeared and that the pilots had reported no problem with the aircraft.

Asked whether terrorism was suspected, Najib said, "We are looking at all possibilities, but it is too early to make any conclusive remarks."

Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record, as does the 777, which had not had a fatal crash in its 19-year history until an Asiana Airlines plane crashed in San Francisco in July 2013, killing three passengers, all teenagers from China.

Airliner "black boxes" -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- are equipped with "pingers" that emit ultrasonic signals that can be detected underwater. Under good conditions, the signals can be detected from several hundred miles away, said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. If the boxes are trapped inside the wreckage, the sound may not travel as far, he said. If the boxes are at the bottom of an underwater trench, that also hinders how far the sound can travel. The signals also weaken over time.

Air France Flight 447, with 228 people on board, disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009. Some wreckage and bodies were recovered over the next two weeks, but it took nearly two years for the main wreckage of the Airbus 330 and its black boxes to be located and recovered.

Malaysia Airlines said the 53-year-old pilot of Flight MH370, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, has more than 18,000 flying hours and has been flying for the airline since 1981. The first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Hamid, has about 2,800 hours of experience and has flown for the airline since 2007.

The tip of the wing of the same Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 broke off Aug. 9, 2012, as it was taxiing at Pudong International Airport outside Shanghai. The wingtip collided with the tail of a China Eastern Airlines A340 plane. No one was injured.

Malaysia Airlines' last fatal incident was in 1995, when one its planes crashed near the Malaysian city of Tawau, killing 34 people. The deadliest crash in its history occurred in 1977, when a domestic Malaysian flight crashed after being hijacked, killing 100 people.

In August 2005, a Malaysian Airlines 777 flying from Perth, Australia, to Kuala Lumpur suddenly shot up 900 meters (3,000 feet) before the pilot disengaged the autopilot and landed safely. The plane's software had incorrectly measured speed and acceleration, and the software was quickly updated on planes around the world.

Malaysia Airlines has 15 Boeing 777-200s in its fleet of about 100 planes. The state-owned carrier last month reported its fourth straight quarterly loss and warned of tougher times.

Democrats could get walloped in the November elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats could get walloped in the November elections. The party gets sleepy and distracted in the midterms. And its supporters simply may not show up to vote.

Those aren't hopeful predictions from Republicans. They're the dire warnings of President Barack Obama, who is seeking to gin up enthusiasm for the midterm elections from party activists already looking toward the 2016 race to replace him.

The remainder of his presidency hangs on Democratic performance in the November contest. If voters hand the Senate over to Republican control, Obama will lose even the uphill chance he has to get legislation passed in his remaining time in office.

"I hope that just because I'm not on the ballot that people aren't going to take it easy this time, because the ideas I care about and am fighting for are on the ballot," Obama said to about 75 donors who paid $5,000 to $20,000 to hear him speak over dinner at a swanky Boston art gallery Wednesday night.

Obama's challenge is to set an agenda for a party that is not always embracing him, especially after the problems with his health care law. There are areas of the country where he can't campaign since he would only be a drag on more moderate Democratic candidates.

"Our message to candidates is: How can we help?" White House political director David Simas said in an interview. If showing up for a rally isn't the answer in moderate districts, Simas said the president can give candidates a boost by raising money and setting a national debate on economic opportunity.

"The president is the only individual who can really set what the national narrative is going to be," Simas said.

White House advisers say the president's economic agenda, including an increase in the minimum wage, particularly appeals to the Democratic base voters they most need to turn out in the midterm elections, including single women, young people and minorities. Obama will be holding events this week specifically targeting women's economic issues.

He's also committed to 30 party fundraisers through June, with more being scheduled, and into the fall will campaign with candidates running where he still has appeal, White House advisers say.

Brad Dayspring, a strategist working on the Republican campaign to win Senate seats, said Democratic candidates in battleground states still are going to have to answer for Obama policies they supported, including health care, and overall disapproval of Washington leadership.

"Obviously their plan is to hide Obama in deep blue states and use him to raise money in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles," Dayspring said. "The problem is that Democratic senators and candidates in the top 14 battleground states -- from Mary Landrieu in Louisiana to Mark Warner in Virginia -- have voted with President Obama an average of 94 percent of the time, a remarkable disconnect considering his approval rating in those states averages just 36 percent."

Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Obama is effective in firing up the party's base. Israel said fundraising emails signed by Obama that the group sends raise more money than requests from any other individual.

"When the president does an email for us to our grass-roots donors, the results are just overpowering," Israel said in an interview.

Democratic Party leaders say perhaps the most important asset Obama can contribute to the midterm is his voter network data and technology, which delivered decisive victories in both his presidential campaigns.

"We are really good at presidential elections these days, if I do say so myself," Obama said to laughter from about four dozen donors gathered Tuesday night in the suburban Washington dining room of former Virginia Sen. Chuck Robb to raise money for Senate candidates. But he said in midterms, "we get a little sleepy, we get a little distracted. We don't turn out to vote. We don't fund campaigns as passionately."

Obama said he feared there could be a repeat of 2010, when the Democratic Party suffered a sweeping defeat nationwide and lost control of the House. "We paid a dear price for not paying enough attention to these midterm elections," the president said. "We cannot repeat that same mistake this year."

Israel said the DCCC has learned the lesson from 2010 and is sending staff into key districts earlier than ever to start organizing outreach to voters inclined to support Democratic candidates who are more likely to sit out a midterm election. They are modeling the operation after Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's playbook from last year, which was based on the Obama campaign field program.

Israel said although midterms traditionally have been a test of which party better turns out base voters, they must expand the electorate this year since evolving campaign strategy and technology are leaving tradition in the dust.

At fundraisers this week, Obama has been trying to focus attention back on the present as he watches the media and party moving on to the lure of potential 2016 candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and others.

"Nobody is going to be more invested than me in having a Democrat succeed me, to consolidate and solidify the gains that we've made during my presidency," Obama told the Boston donors. "But right now, we've got to make sure we're fighting in this election."

The crowd was bathed in blue lighting that made the event feel more like a gala than a fundraiser.

"Too often, when there's not a presidential election we don't think it's sexy, we don't think it's interesting. People tune out. And because the electorate has changed, we get walloped," the president said. "It's happened before and it could happen again if we do not fight on behalf of the things we care about in this election."

Residents from across Cape Cod are planning to converge on the Statehouse to call on Gov. Deval Patrick to help shut down the Pilgrim nuclear power plant.

BOSTON (AP) --€” Residents from across Cape Cod are planning to converge on the Statehouse to call on Gov. Deval Patrick to help shut down the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth.

Activists are tying their visit Monday to the eve of the third anniversary of the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan.

Residents say they want Patrick to press the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to shutter the plant. The commission voted in 2012 to relicense Pilgrim through 2032.

The plant's operators say the facility is safe and secure, adding that it produces 10 percent of Massachusetts' electrical needs.

Patrick said last year that it was not clear to him that Massachusetts needs Pilgrim to meet all of the state's electricity needs.

Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is set to close this year

Obituaries from The Republican.

James Dixon 

James E. Dixon, 35, of Springfield, passed away on Sunday. He was born in Springfield, and had been a lifelong resident of the city. He was employed as a real estate agent at Keller Williams Realty, and was also the founder of the Fight to Live, Live to Fight Foundation.

The party is perhaps the quintessential although unofficial UMass event of the year, and it is expected to bring thousands of students to bars and house parties across the city.

AMHERST — For UMass Amherst senior Mike Tobias, Saturday morning's breakfast consisted of coffee, with a side of Bailey's and Jameson as he and his crew prepared to hit the bars downtown for the annual Blarney Blowout.

The party is perhaps the quintessential although unofficial UMass event of the year, and it is expected to bring thousands of students to bars and house parties across the city.

As of this story being posted, Amherst police had already dispersed a crowd of a couple thousand students dressed in green who had gathered in an area around large apartment complexes in North Amherst. An Amherst police sergeant confirmed that some arrests had taken place, but he said details weren't immediately available.

For many of the students seen decked out in green, this isn't their first time partying for the occasion. But as police crack down on house parties where past years have shown the potential for chaos and riots, many students decided to celebrate officially with the participating bars.

"We've been up since 7:30 a.m. getting ready for this," said UMass Amherst senior Dillon Curtis. "We read the warning emails from the school but they just send those to scare the freshmen. Today might get crazy but we're just looking forward to having a good time."

Tim Stager, a UMass senior from New Jersey, said that the Blarney Blowout is something he looks forward to because of the care-free atmosphere that is synonymous with the down time you have as a college student.

"Today is one of those magnificent days of life you will always remember. I mean, look around. You can't beat this," he said. "I will miss this some day soon."

The Blarney Blowout officially takes place at the bars downtown, but in past years house parties have turned into full-blown riots pitting students against uniformed police in riot gear. Many of the students downtown at the bars are aware of the potential for complete craziness, but are just looking to have fun with their friends.

"Maybe we'll see some burning couches," Stager said. "You never can tell which way this thing will go."

Jenna Ziemba, a bartender at Bistro 63/ The Monkey Bar said that last year business was solid and that with so much green visible on the streets early Saturday, that she is hopeful for another good Blarney Blowout.

"I expect that today will be another good day," she said. "They start drinking early and you see a lot of intoxication out here, but things typically start to die down by 5 or 6 p.m., at least downtown."

In 2013, six students were arrested following a riot at an apartment building in North Amherst.

Police in Connecticut are investigating after prison inmates found five garbage bags along a stretch of road containing the body parts of a dismembered Shetland pony.

PLYMOUTH, Conn. — Authorities in Connecticut are investigating after prison inmates on a work detail made a gruesome discovery earlier this week.

According to published reports, the inmates were picking up trash along a stretch of Route 262 in the town of Plymouth on Wednesday when they came across five black garbage bags not far from the road. Inside the bags, according to police, were the dismembered body parts of a Shetland Pony.

Assistant Police Chief Robert Wright told the Waterbury Republican American newspaper that the animal's remains could have been there since Monday and that they do not know how the animal, which appeared to be of an older age, died. He said the bags may have been thrown from a car since no footprints were seen in the wooded area near the road where the bags were found.

The discovery in Connecticut came just days before a similar discovery was made in the village of Bursledon in England. In that case, a "butchered" bay horse was found dismembered in bags found near some railroad tracks on Friday.

Anyone with information on the case in Connecticut is asked to call the animal control division at the Plymouth Police Department at 860-589-7779.

Shannon Trembley, 87, was doing takeoff and landing maneuvers Saturday in his Cessna at the South Lakeland Airport in Mulberry.

MULBERRY, Fla. -- A plane became entangled in the strings of a skydiver's parachute, sending both crashing into the ground near Tampa, Fla., with both the pilot and jumper hospitalized with minor injuries.

Shannon Trembley, 87, was doing takeoff and landing maneuvers Saturday in his Cessna at the South Lakeland Airport in Mulberry, Polk County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Carrie Eleazer said.

On his third landing pass, the wing of his plane became entangled in the strings of 49-year-old Gainesville skydiver John Frost's parachute about 75 feet above the ground.

Frost was flung to the ground, and Trembley's plan nose-dived to the surface as well.

Eleazer says neither sustained serious injury, but went to the hospital. Frost was treated and released. Trembley was held for observation.

The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating.

On Saturday, foreign ministries in Italy and Austria said the names of two citizens listed on the flight's manifest matched the names on two passports reported stolen in Thailand,

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Planes and ships from across Asia resumed the hunt Sunday for a Malaysian jetliner missing with 239 people on board for more than 24 hours, while Malaysian aviation authorities investigated how two passengers were apparently able to get on the aircraft using stolen passports.

There was still no confirmed sighting of wreckage from the Boeing 777 in the seas between Malaysia and Vietnam where it vanished from screens early Saturday morning en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The weather was fine, the plane was already cruising and the pilots had no time to send a distress signal -- unusual circumstances for a modern jetliner to crash.

Li Jiaxiang, administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said some debris had been spotted, but it was unclear whether it came from the plane. Vietnamese authorities said they had seen nothing close to two large oil slicks they saw Saturday and said might be from the missing plane.

Malaysia's civil aviation chief Azaharuddin Abdul Rahman said his country had expanded its area of operation to the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, on the other side of the country from where the plane disappeared. "This is standard procedure. If we can't find it here, we go to other places," he said.

Finding traces of an aircraft that crashes over sea can take days or longer, even with a sustained search effort. Depending on the circumstances of the crash, wreckage can be scattered over many square kilometers (miles). If the plane enters the water before breaking up, there can be relatively little debris.

Investigators will need access to the flight data recorders to determine what happened. Terrorism is always considered a possibility, but the sudden disappearance of Flight MH370 has given extra emphasis to speculation a bomb might have been on board.

On Saturday, foreign ministries in Italy and Austria said the names of two citizens listed on the flight's manifest matched the names on two passports reported stolen in Thailand. It's unclear how common it is for people to get on flights with fake passports, but the news added to fears of terrorism.

Azaharuddin said Sunday that authorities were "aware of the situation and we are doing an investigation at the moment."

Just 9 percent of fatal accidents happen when a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet accidents done by Boeing. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Saturday there was no indication the pilots had sent a distress signal.

The lack of a radio call "suggests something very sudden and very violent happened," said William Waldock, who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

The plane was last inspected 10 days ago and found to be "in proper condition," Ignatius Ong, CEO of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly airlines, said at a news conference.

Two-thirds of the jet's passengers were from China. The rest were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

Asked whether terrorism was suspected, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said authorities were "looking at all possibilities, but it is too early to make any conclusive remarks."

The South China Sea is a tense region with competing territorial claims that have led to several low-level conflicts, particularly between China and the Philippines. That antipathy briefly faded Saturday as China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia all sent ships and planes to the region.

Malaysia had dispatched 15 planes and nine ships to the area. The U.S. Navy was sending a warship and a surveillance plane, while Singapore said it would send a submarine and a plane. China and Vietnam also sent aircraft to help in the search.

Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record, as does the 777, which had not had a fatal crash in its 19-year history until an Asiana Airlines plane crashed last July in San Francisco, killing three passengers, all teenagers from China.

A city resident sustained serious burns while helping a neighbor extinguish a fire sparked by cooking oil on the stove.

SPRINGFIELD — A city resident sustained serious burns while helping a neighbor extinguish a fire sparked by cooking oil on the stove.

 

According to Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, a 911 call summoned firefighters to apartment 249 in the large apartment building located at 303 Maple Street around 2:09 a.m. Friday. Upon arrival, the kitchen fire was mostly out but the good neighbor suffered 1st and 2nd-degree burns in helping the neighbor out.

Leger said the man was taken to Baystate Medical Center for treatment. The residents in the fire-damaged apartment weren't able to stay in their home, Leger said, and the cause of the fire was ruled accidental. He estimated that approximately $5,000 in damage was done to the unit.

The boy called 911 at about 4:30 a.m. to report the house fire.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Authorities are praising a 9-year-old boy for helping save the lives of two people after he called 911 to report that his two-story home was on fire in New Bedford.

 

Both victims were received emergency treatment at the scene before they were taken to Rhode Island Hospital.

The boy called 911 at about 4:30 a.m. to report the house fire. Police and firefighters found the smoke visible on the first and second floor, authorities said.

No one else was injured in the blaze and investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.

Air force chief Rodzali Daud didn't say which direction the plane might have taken when it apparently went off route.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Military radar indicates that the missing Boeing 777 jet may have turned back, Malaysia's air force chief said Sunday as scores of ships and aircraft from across Asia resumed a hunt for the plane and its 239 passengers.

There was still no confirmed sighting of debris in the seas between Malaysia and Vietnam where it vanished from screens early Saturday morning en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The weather was fine, the plane was already cruising and the pilots didn't send a distress signal -- unusual circumstance for a modern jetliner to crash.

Air force chief Rodzali Daud didn't say which direction the plane might have taken when it apparently went off route.

"We are trying to make sense of this," he told a media conference. "The military radar indicated that the aircraft may have made a turn back and in some parts, this was corroborated by civilian radar."

Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said pilots were supposed to inform the airline and traffic control authorities if the plane does start to return. "From what we have, there was no such distress signal or distress call per say, so we are equally puzzled," he said.

Authorities were checking on the suspect identities of at least two passengers who appear to have boarded with stolen passports. On Saturday, the foreign ministries in Italy and Austria said the names of two citizens listed on the flight's manifest matched the names on two passports reported stolen in Thailand.

This, and the sudden disappearance of the plane that experts say is consistent with a possible onboard explosion, strengthened existing concerns about terrorism as a possible cause for the disappearance. Al-Qaida militants have used similar tactics to try and disguise their identities.

Earlier Sunday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that authorities were looking at four possible cases of suspect identities, and that Malaysian intelligence agencies were in contact with their international counterparts, including the FBI, in this regard.

Later, civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman mentioned only two passengers with unverified identities.

Two-thirds of the jet's passengers were from China. The rest were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

A total of 22 aircraft and 40 ships have been deployed to the area by Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, China and the United States, not counting Vietnam's fleet.

Li Jiaxiang, administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said some debris had been spotted, but it was unclear whether it came from the plane. Vietnamese authorities said they had seen nothing close to two large oil slicks they saw Saturday and said might be from the missing plane.

Finding traces of an aircraft that disappears over sea can take days or longer, even with a sustained search effort. Depending on the circumstances of the crash, wreckage can be scattered over many square kilometers (miles). If the plane enters the water before breaking up, there can be relatively little debris.

A team of American experts was en route to Asia to be ready to assist in the investigation into the crash. The team includes accident investigators from National Transportation Safety Board, as well as technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, the safety board said in a statement.

Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record, as does the 777, which had not had a fatal crash in its 19-year history until an Asiana Airlines plane crashed last July in San Francisco, killing three passengers, all teenagers from China.

Investigators will need access to the flight data recorders to determine what happened.

Aviation and terrorism experts said revelations about stolen passports would strengthen speculation of foul play. They also acknowledged other scenarios, including some catastrophic failure of the engines or structure of the plane, extreme turbulence or pilot error or even suicide, were also possible.

Jason Middleton, the head of the Sydney-based University of New South Wales' School of Aviation, said terrorism or some other form of foul play seemed a likely explanation.

"You're looking at some highly unexpected thing, and the only ones people can think of are basically foul play, being either a bomb or some immediate incapacitating of the pilots by someone doing the wrong thing and that might lead to an airplane going straight into the ocean," Middleton said on Sunday. "With two stolen passports (on board), you'd have to suspect that that's one of the likely options."

Just 9 percent of fatal accidents happen when a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet accidents done by Boeing. Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Saturday there was no indication the pilots had sent a distress signal.

The plane was last inspected 10 days ago and found to be "in proper condition," Ignatius Ong, CEO of Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly airlines, said at a news conference.

Greg Barton, a professor of international politics at Australia's Monash University and a terrorism expert, said if the disaster was the result of terrorism, there is no obvious suspect. If it was terrorism, Barton expected China would be quick to blame separatists from the ethnic Uighur minority, as authorities did recently when 29 people were killed in knife attacks at a train station in the southern city of Kunming.

"If a group like that is behind it, then suddenly they've got a capacity that we didn't know they had before, they've executed it very well -- that's very scary," Barton told AP. "It's safe to start with the assumption that that's not very likely, but possible."

What was supposed to be a routine noise complaint has turned into a significant New York City drug bust.

In this Jan. 30, 2014 photo provided by New York City's Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, an oven is shown loaded with bricks of heroin. (AP Photo/Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor)

NEW YORK (AP) — What was supposed to be a routine noise complaint has turned into a significant New York City drug bust.

Police say Saturday uniformed officers knocking on the door of a third floor Queens apartment that was blasting music Friday had every intention of writing the tenant a summons.

But they say when Frank Giardina opened the door, they noticed him holding a marijuana pipe and asked him for identification. That's when they say Giardina invited them inside.

Police say when the officers spotted about five pounds of heroin on Giardina's kitchen table, they arrested him and obtained a court-issued warrant.

They say further search revealed 1,948 glassines of heroin as well as packing materials and equipment.

Giardina's been charged with multiple counts of drug possession. Attorney information wasn't immediately available.

Positives in the report included strength in consumer spending, business investment and net exports, and manufacturers continue to be mostly upbeat about demand and production.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy grew 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter, down from the earlier estimate of 3.2 percent, according to a report made public Monday by the National Association of Manufacturers.

Given some of the recent weaker manufacturing, retail and housing data, the downward revision was largely expected. Still, there are some positives in the report, with strength in consumer spending, business investment and net exports. Fixed investment was higher in this revision, which was welcome news. Federal government spending accounted for the biggest drag on growth during the fourth quarter, subtracting one percentage point from the total figure, the report said.

"The bottom line is that real GDP increased 3.3 percent in the second half of 2013, providing some momentum for growth moving into this year. While weather and other factors have dampened the economy recently (and will also reduce real GDP in the current quarter), we still expect 3.0 percent growth for 2014. Manufacturers continue to be mostly upbeat about demand and production over the coming months," economists working for the manufacturers said.