Cooley Dickinson plans to increase staffing to help alleviate the need for overtime.

This story is a response to: Cooley Dickinson nurses plan picket Sept. 30, contract hung up on overtime, charge nurse rules

NORTHAMPTON - Cooley Dickinson Hospital management called its contract proposals fair and competitive Monday after the Massachusetts Nurses Association announced an informational picket for Sept. 30 in front of the hospital.

The union, which represents 216 registered nurses at the hospital, is calling for:

• Wage increases beyond what Cooley Dickinson is offering now.
• The preservation of overtime rules guaranteeing time-and-half after an 8, 10- or 12-hour shifts regardless of whether a nurse works a full 40-hour week.
• Rules guaranteeing smaller work loads for charge nurses so those nurses can concentrate on their supervisory role and serve as a failsafe if other nurses get overwhelmed.

In response, Cooley Dickinson said Monday:

Cooley Dickinson said it agrees with the need to free up charge nurses, but it says  adding language in the contract would make it impossible to deal with surges in patient population when the hospital is busy.

As for overtime, Cooley Dickinson said federal law calls for overtime only after 40 hours in a week. All the incidental overtime is adding up.

But Cooley Dickinson said it is taking steps to increase staffing and help reduce the need for nurses to stay past the regular end of their shifts. The new fiscal year budget that goes into force next month calls for the equivalent of 27 additional full-time, that is 40 hours a week, patient care staff each week.

The planned staff increase would include more than 16 registered nurse full-time equivalents, eight patient care associates, and almost four food service assistants so other staff don't have to bring meals to patients.

In some cases, Cooley Dickinson said it has hired additional staff. In other cases it plans to add hours to employee's scheduled to staff the additional hours.

The project offers 28 affordable rental apartments for seniors, ages 62 and older.

LUDLOW – A ribbon cutting and grand opening will be held this morning at 10 a.m. at the newly renovated HAPHousing’s Stevens Memorial Senior Housing at 12 Chestnut Street.

Located in the center of Ludlow, the Stevens Memorial Senior Housing offers 28 affordable rental apartments for seniors citizens, ages 62 and older, in the newly-renovated historic building.

The facility now includes community and activity rooms, a laundry room and four fully handicapped-accessible apartments. HAPHousing has made all apartments energy efficient, including the replacement of original windows with energy efficient windows.

A tenant selection lottery was held in July, and initial occupancy is scheduled for October.

HAPHousing served as developer for the $7.4 million conversion of the historic brick building and is managing the 28-rental apartment community for senior citizens. The nonprofit organization acquired the Stevens Memorial Building from the town of Ludlow in August 2013 and began construction in September 2013.

The Stevens Memorial Building was built in 1906 by the Ludlow Manufacturing Co. as a recreation facility for its employees. It was acquired by the town of Ludlow in 1949 and operated as the Ludlow Boys & Girls Club until 2005.

HAPHousing Executive Director Peter Gagliardi said, “It is gratifying to see this historic building come to life while providing the much needed additional affordable housing to serve seniors in this community.”

Stevens Memorial Senior Housing was made possible by funds provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, MassHousing and the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.

Studio One of Springfield served as architect for the project. Lupachino & Salvatore Inc. of Bloomfield, Conn., served as general contractor.

HAPHousing provides a broad range of housing services to meet the needs of low and moderate-income households and is the region’s largest nonprofit developer of affordable housing.

Speakers this morning will include U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, state Sen. Gale Candaras, D-Wilbraham, and state Rep. Thomas Petrolati, C-Ludlow, as well as Manuel Silva, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Maurice Barry, director of project management for the U.?S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Thomas Gleason, executive director of MassHousing.

The rally is scheduled to take place at the MGM Springfield Community Office at 1441 Main Street.

SPRINGFIELD - The group organized to defeat the ballot question proposing to repeal the state's casino gambling law plan to formally launch its campaign Tuesday in Springfield with Mayor Domenic Sarno and executives of MGM Springfield.

MGM Resorts International was awarded the first commercial casino license in Massachusetts to open a resort gambling facility in the western Massachusetts city.

Sarno will be joined at the kickoff of the No on Question 3 campaign by Jeff Ciuffreda, president of Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield; Wooten Johnson, campaign manager for the Coalition to Protect Mass Jobs; Ivette Cruz, president of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center; Judy Matt, president of Spirit of Springfield; Jason Garand, business agent for Carpenter's Local 108; and Kelley Tucky, vice president of community relations and public affairs for MGM Resorts.

The rally is scheduled to take place at the MGM Springfield Community Office at 1441 Main Street.

The opening of the RiverMills Center will be considered a soft one with a celebratory ribbon cutting later in the year.

CHICOPEE – After months of waiting, the new senior center is opening Thursday.

“We have had a number of delays,” Mayor Richard J. Kos said in announcing the opening to the City Council. “The building was ready but the parking lot had to be torn up and partially repaved.”

The building will be officially called the RiverMills Center and will be open for regular business including, exercise classes, counseling, art classes, socializing and other things, with little fanfare.

Kos said it will be a “soft opening” and expects a celebratory ribbon cutting later this year.

“There have been numerous delays with the opening, which has been unfortunate but we are very excited to open RiverMills,” he said in a written announcement. “This center will serve Chicopee for generations to come and will become a pillar of our community.”

Construction on the about $10 million building was completed early this summer, as planned, but officials discovered problems with the pavement on the driveway and parking lots on the property, he said.

The building, on 5 West Main St., was constructed on the former Facemate property. The city spent about $9 million tearing down the seven dilapidated buildings and cleaning up hazardous waste on the property before construction could start.

The cost of the cleanup was far more than the about $3 million initial cost estimate. Although test samples were taken on the soils around the factory campus, they failed to find four unknown buried fuel tanks and debris from four buildings that had been demolished many years ago and buried. The additional waste was discovered during construction.

The entire cost of the project is estimated at $19.4 million, but most of the cleanup work was funded with a variety of state and federal grants. It plans to sell two parcels on either side of the senior center for development.

The Friends of the Senior Center have also pledged to raise $2 million to fund the building. The campaign, which was headed by now-retired treasurer Ernest Laflamme and Kos before he became mayor, has raised more than half of that amount.

At 22,500 square feet, the building is more than twice the size of the existing senior center on Valley View Drive. It includes exercise rooms with specialized locker rooms, a separate art room, a number of private areas where seniors can receive counseling and other amenities.

The City Council recently agreed to allocate an additional $53,000 so the center could purchase furnishings and equipment needed for the larger building. The center will also use existing furniture and items from other municipal departments and have received donations from area businesses, Kos said.

The Senior Center on Valley View Drive is expected to be closed much of the week while staff moves into the new building.

A Washington state man was charged with placing a device in the TD Bank branch in East Longmeadow that would record passwords and other confidential information.

Two weeks after securing her reelection with a decisive win in the September primary, Worcester State Rep. Mary Keefe found herself in Ireland meeting up with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh during his trip there.

GALWAY, Ireland --Two weeks after securing her reelection with a decisive win in the September primary, Worcester State Rep. Mary Keefe found herself in Ireland meeting up with Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh during his trip there.

Keefe planned the trip months ago, but only found out in August that it was going to coincide with Walsh's visit. Keefe is visiting her family in the seaside Galway town of Spiddal.

"It was a nice fortunate coincidence," said Keefe, the fifteenth Worcester State Representative.

Even though Keefe is on a personal trip, she still noted the business connections between Ireland and Massachusetts.

The pharmaceutical giant AbbVie recently purchased Irish biopharmaceuticals company Shire in a major $54 billion deal. Both companies had locations in Massachusetts before the deal, with Shire running an office in Lexington and AbbVie operating a 400,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Worcester where they conduct research and development.

The deal will make the new AbbVie/Shire entity one of the largest companies in the world.

The move was controversial in nature because AbbVie will officially move its corporate headquarters to Great Britain and secure a lower a corporate tax rate in an act known as "immersion."

The issue has come up frequently with Irish companies, as their corporate tax rate for large companies is 12.5 percent, while the American rate is 35 percent.

Keefe said she spoke with the company around the time of the move, and added that she has mixed feelings about immersion moves.

"How can we both be building something that's good for both of our communities?" said Keefe.

Keefe said that the United States needs to react proactively and consider lowering its corporate tax rates to keep companies headquartered there, but that, in the end, it's a difficult situation.

"We're losing tremendous resources and at the same they're here and we need those jobs, so it's a mixed bag," said Keefe.

In the thick of a difficult re-election campaign, Gov. Tom Corbett could have been tempted to place himself front and center of the effort to capture the gunman who ambushed a Pennsylvania State Police barracks, killing a trooper and injuring another.

In the thick of a difficult re-election campaign, Gov. Tom Corbett could have been tempted to place himself front and center of the effort to capture the gunman who ambushed a Pennsylvania State Police barracks, killing a trooper and injuring another.

Instead, Corbett has largely stayed in the background as he allows state police officials to be the public face of a manhunt for Eric Frein, the 31-year-old survivalist who's believed to be hiding in the Poconos Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Corbett spoke briefly three days after the ambush, asking the public to "pray for the soul" of slain Cpl. Bryon Dickson and declaring that investigators wouldn't rest until they captured his killer. The first-term Republican attended Dickson's funeral last week but didn't speak. And on Monday, the 10th full day of the search, he held a news conference and expressed confidence that state police would capture the man he called an assassin.

"My fervent wish is that we conclude this as quickly as possible, and I'm sure that's everybody's wish out there," he said.

Corbett's approach to the crisis is drawing a muted response from Democrats who usually love to bash him.

The former state attorney general has not politicized the crisis, said Bill Patton, spokesman for House Democrats.

"His background is obviously law enforcement and this is an area he knows well," Patton said. "He's doing the things a governor should do."

For months, independent polls have shown Corbett trailing Democratic challenger Tom Wolf by a wide margin. Even his Republican allies have criticized Corbett for not doing enough to tout his accomplishments.

True to form, Corbett said little Monday about his own role.

"My thoughts and prayers are constantly with those individuals out there, the men and women out there who are looking for this individual, because they are doing their sworn duty," he said. "Yet they know they are putting their life on the line for someone who has the intended purpose of killing police officers."

Authorities have called Frein a self-taught survivalist with a vendetta against law enforcement. They say he had been planning a confrontation for months, if not years, and believe he might be concealing himself in homemade bunkers.

Trackers found items they believe Frein hid or abandoned in the woods -- including an AK-47-style assault rifle and ammunition -- raising the possibility he also has hidden supplies of food, water and fuel.

Frein not only needs supplies to sustain himself, but tremendous stamina to secure them in difficult terrain while eluding hundred of law enforcement officials tracking him with choppers, thermal imaging equipment and other high-tech tools, survival experts said Monday.

"When you teach a person to survive, you're teaching them a way to be found. There's a difference between surviving and needing to evade, and that really handcuffs you," said Erik Kulick, founder of True North Wilderness Survival School in western Pennsylvania.

Frein could conceivably sustain himself by hunting, trapping or foraging, but Kulick considers it unlikely he would last long. He'd risk giving away his position by firing a gun at game; trapping takes time, patience and know-how; and it often takes more energy to find edible plants than the plants provide in return, he said.

Frein could conceivably break into a Scout camp or hunting cabin to look for canned goods or take shelter, though police have said they are trying to eliminate that as a possibility.

Frein is believed to have covered 15 or 20 miles on foot, the distance between the barracks where he is accused of opening fire and the woods around his parents' home in Canadensis where police are focusing their search.

Ron Tussel, an outdoors expert and native of the area, said Frein initially held an advantage because he knew the terrain -- a rugged, heavily forested area with large boulders, steep cliffs and wetlands.

"But now you've got a crew that knows as much as he does, so that makes it a lot harder for him," he said.

Investigators say no foul play is suspected.

Republican file photo

WARWICK – The Massachusetts state police assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney’s office is investigating the finding of a body in a car in Warwick on Sunday.

Mary Carey, spokesman for the Northwestern District Attorney, said Warwick police and Massachusetts state police responded to a car parked in the snowmobile parking area off Wendell Road in Warwick Sunday around 5:30 p.m.

The body of a woman was recovered from the car, Carey said. She said the vehicle’s windows were closed and several glass mason jars containing an unknown substance were visible.

As a precaution against contamination by possibly hazardous chemicals, the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services Hazardous Materials Division was called to clear the vehicle. The Hazardous Materials Division determined the scene to be safe.

The office of the chief medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The identity of the woman has not been released.

No foul play is suspected, Carey said.

The Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office continue to investigate the cause of the crash.

This report updates a story published at 7:23 p.m. Sunday.

NEW SALEM – A 19-year-old Mansfield man remains in the hospital and is being treated with serious head and neck injuries following a three-car collision on Route 202 that also sent four others to the hospital Sunday.

The 19-year-old, whose name was not released, was flown to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester by helicopter Sunday afternoon following the accident. He was in critical condition as of early Monday morning, said Mary Carey, communications director for the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.

The Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office continue to investigate the cause of the crash, she said.

The accident occurred at about 1:25 p.m. about a mile south of the New Salem General Store when a 49-year-old Athol man driving a pickup truck north crossed into the northbound lane. He grazed the rear of one driver’s car and then collided with the car driven by the 19-year-old, Carey said.

Witnesses described the crash as a head-on collision, Carey said.

There were three passengers in the vehicle driven by the Mansfield man. They were all taken to Athol Memorial Hospital by ambulance and treated and released. The driver of the truck was also treated and released for injuries at Athol Memorial Hospital.

The third driver, a 49-year-old Orange man, was not injured in the crash, Carey said.

Retired boxer Mike Tyson may be famous for his aggressiveness, but he showed his compassionate side last week when he came to the rescue of an injured motorcyclist who had crashed on a Las Vegas interstate.

LAS VEGAS -- Retired boxer Mike Tyson may be famous for his aggressiveness, but he showed his compassionate side last week when he came to the rescue of an injured motorcyclist who had crashed on a Las Vegas interstate.

Attorney Stephen Stubbs said his client, 29-year-old Ryan Chesley, was on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when a taxi cut him off and he went down.

Stubbs said Chesley was lying on the ground when he looked up and recognized Tyson, who was yelling at people not to touch Chesley.

"He thought he was hallucinating," Stubbs said. "He thought he was in some other world."

Chesley, who had broken bones and torn ligaments, could still use his right hand and snapped a cellphone picture of the heavyweight boxer. As soon as paramedics arrived, Tyson "just left, like some kind of superhero," Stubbs said.

Mike Tyson's assistant, Steve Lott, said the fighter received a fruit basket a handwritten thank-you note from Chesley on Friday.

"Thank you so much for looking over me after my accident," said the note, which Lott provided to The Associated Press. "It has to be the most reassuring thing in the world to have Mike Tyson telling people not to touch me."

Half the fruit in the basket had been consumed by Monday, Lott said, and the pistachios were a particularly popular item.

Chesley will need surgery but has since been released from the hospital, Stubbs said.

Coakley and Healey are sending a letter to the president and vice-president of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association urging them to take more steps to curb teen dating violence, in light of recent incidents involving domestic violence in the NFL.

Martha Coakley and Maura Healey, the Democratic nominees for governor and attorney general, are sending a letter to the president and vice-president of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association on Monday urging them to take more steps to curb teen dating violence.

The issue has come up recently due to several incidents of domestic violence by players in the National Football League.

"The actions by these professional athletes, and the insufficient response by the National Football League, have sent the wrong message to our young people about the seriousness of domestic violence and violence against women," Coakley and Healey wrote.

Healey previously worked as a bureau chief for Coakley, who is the state's attorney general.

Coakley is facing a tough race against Republican gubernatorial nominee Charlie Baker. Healey is facing Republican John Miller.

Coakley and Healey did not accuse the MIAA of doing anything wrong, and noted that the organization has offered training on teen dating violence and some coaches have talked to their players about the issue.

But they urged the MIAA to provide student athletes with instruction about the prevention of and consequences of dating violence before each athletic season. They suggested that each student athlete should be required to pledge not to commit to acts of dating violence as a condition of participating in high school sports.

"These new policies will help educate student-athletes about healthy relationships, spark a dialogue between the students and their coaches, and send a strong message about the seriousness of teen dating violence," Coakley and Healey wrote.

Coakley has discussed the issue of domestic violence among athletes in recent days on the campaign trail. On Friday, she said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should resign or be removed after questions were raised about the NFL's response to NFL player Ray Rice's videotaped assault of his fiance. Coakley also criticized Baker, who originally said he needed more information before calling for Goodell's ouster.

Baker said Friday, "I feel the commissioner and the NFL acted irresponsibly, owe the public a much more detailed explanation than they have provided thus far and if it turns out the commissioner knew about what really took place, he should be fired."

Massachusetts Republican Party chairwoman Kirsten Hughes criticized Coakley on Friday for "trying to score political points" over domestic violence after Coakley defended the actions of Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan relating to the case of Jared Remy, the son of a Red Sox broadcaster, who stands accused of murdering his girlfriend. Remy had a history of domestic violence, and Ryan acknowledged deficiencies in the way her office handled the case.

MIAA Letter Final 9.21.2014

Authorities said the three officers were placed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday. In a statement, the agency said the Afghan officers were being charged with administrative immigration violations.

It's still unclear why three Afghan National Army officers left a training exercise on Cape Cod and headed for the Canadian border last Saturday. But according to the Boston Globe, the three officers stopped at a strip club the night before their disappearance.

Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar were participating in a program called Regional Cooperation 2014 at Camp Edwards. The program brings officers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and several other Middle Eastern countries to Camp Edwards for peacekeeping training exercises. 

From the Globe:

The branch, located in the main hallway across from the principal’s office, will operate during school hours; besides the six student tellers who will work alongside credit union employees, others Putnam students help design and build the branch.

SPRINGFIELD – There was no shortage of credit being given out Tuesday as the Freedom Credit Union opened a new branch at the Roger L. Putnam Vocational and Technical Academy to be staffed by six student tellers.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Superintendent Daniel Warwick and others praised the partnership between Putnam and the Freedom Credit Union as a prime example of cooperation between business community and the vocational school.

The arrangement will allow Putnam students to acquire job skills at the credit union while promoting financial literacy to the 1,400-student school, Sarno said during a ribbon cutting ceremony at the State Street high school.

As part of the arrangement, the credit union is opening an account for each Putnam student and depositing $5 in it, with a matching $5 to be contributed by the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation.

Putnam “is going to teach you how to make the money and the Freedom Credit Union is going to teach you how to save it, invest it and make more money,” Sarno said.

The branch, located in the main hallway across from the principal’s office, will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on school days for students and credit union members; besides the six student tellers who will work alongside credit union employees, others Putnam students help design and build the branch.

“I think there’s so many positive things going on here,” said City Councilor Kateri Walsh.

The collaboration was seven years in the making, and represents an investment by the credit union in Springfield future, as well as its own, said Barry Crosby, the credit union’s chief executive officer.

By providing job training for Putnam students, the credit union will be ensuring a supply of qualified employees – and perhaps customers – in the future, Crosby said.

The six Putnam students working at the credit union spent the summer learning their jobs, which involves far more than just handing out money to customers, senior Justin Stewart said.

“There’s a lot to it,” said Stewart, who plans to pursue a business degree in college and eventually become a financial advisor.

Lately, Stewart has been dispensing very basic financial advice to friends at Putnam.

“They want to know when they can come to in and take out their money,” Stewart said. “I tell them they have to have money in an account before they can take it out.

In August 2011, weeks before he was to testify against Hall, David Glasser and his roommate, Edward Frampton, and their friend Robert Chadwell, all of Pittsfield, disappeared.

SPRINGFIELD — Jurors have now deliberated 17 hours in the Cauis Veiovis Berkshire County triple murder trial and will resume their work Wednesday morning.

The court day went by Tuesday with no questions from the Hampden Superior Court jury to Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder.

Prosecutors waited in the Hampden District Attorney's Office while defense lawyers came in and out of the courtroom. Veiovis was in a cell in the courthouse lockup, brought into the courtroom at the beginning and end of the day.

Veiovis' co-defendants, Adam Lee Hall and David Chalue were convicted earlier this year in separate trials of three counts of murder, three of kidnapping, and three of intimidation of a witness. Veiovis is charged with the same crimes.

They are now serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.

In August 2011, weeks before he was to testify against Hall, David Glasser and his roommate, Edward Frampton, and their friend Robert Chadwell, all of Pittsfield, disappeared. Their dismembered bodies were found in Becket 10 days later.

Prosecutors said Hall, 36, of Peru; Chalue, 46, of North Adams, and Veiovis, 32, of Pittsfield, kidnapped the three victims from Frampton's Pittsfield home sometime in the early hours of Aug. 28, 2011, and fatally shot them.

The cases were moved to Hampden Superior Court by Kinder after defense lawyers said extensive publicity in Berkshire County would prevent a fair jury from being selected.

Amherst Regional High School was evacuated because of bulletin board fire.

(This updates a story filed at 3:35 p.m.)

AMHERST – Amherst police, fire and school officials are looking for the person who set fire to papers on a bulletin board at Amherst Regional High School Tuesday afternoon

The call came in at about 1:40 p.m., said Fire Chief Tim Nelson. By the time officials arrived a student had put it out.

Nelson said that a girl was coming out of her pottery class and saw the fire and went back into her room for a bucket of water and doused it. "That was the right thing to do," he said.

At that time, the alarms had gone off and the school was evacuated, he said.

There were no injuries. Damage was assessed at $50.

He said all parties will be investigating and when they find out who started the fire "we'll take steps to address it."

 Last year, the school faced myriad incidents from lockdowns, a school closing and myriad racial graffiti incidents. 

The jury award jumped from $1.3 million to $1.6 million with five years in accrued interest, and will creep closer to the $2 million mark once attorney's fees are factored in.

SPRINGFIELD - A $1.3 million jury award in connection with the death of a 15-year-old killed in traffic during a 2009 run-in with police has crept up to $1.6 million with the addition of interest.

A nine-member jury on Monday delivered a unanimous verdict in the case of Delano Walker Jr., whose family sued Springfield police officer Sean Sullivan in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit alleged Sullivan, a 16-year-veteran of the force, caused Walker to back into the path of an oncoming car on East Columbus Avenue. Sullivan and his partner, Sgt. Peter Albano, stopped Walker and two friends while they were bicycling out of a car lot after hours.

A witness said Sullivan made repeated grabs at Walker's neck and the boy backed into the path of a Toyota Camry whizzing by just a few feet away. The jury found Sullivan violated Walker's civil rights by using excessive force with reckless intent, and found in favor of the plaintiff on an assault and battery claim. The panel found in favor of Sullivan on claims of false arrest and wrongful death. It awarded Walker's mother, Kissa Owens, $1.3 million.

It was a blockbuster award in this city's history. Under federal law, the plaintiff won an additional $350,000 because of the 12 percent in annual interest accrued since the date of the collision.

Assistant City Solicitor John Liebel said the city has a million-dollar indemnity cap on civil claims against municipal employees - meaning up to $1 million may come out of the city's public coffers. Sullivan may be personally responsible for the balance. That figure will creep closer to the $2 million mark once plaintiff's attorneys submit their fees.

But, Liebel said that speculation over who may pay the bill and for how much is premature.

"I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. The city is by no means accepting the jury award at face value. It would be premature to speculate who may be responsible at this point," Liebel said.

The city has 30 days to appeal the verdict; officials have said an appeal is likely.

When a plaintiff prevails on a federal civil rights claim, lawyers are entitled to additional fees above the jury award.

Walker's mother, co-owner of a small beauty salon, said she believed the jury's decision served justice but did not necessarily feel like a victory.

"That's like asking how much my son's life was worth. To me, he was the Mona Lisa. I feel the same about all my kids," Owens said outside court after the verdict was delivered.

For his part, Sullivan testified that he believed he had just cause to stop the boys, as there had been a rash of car break-ins that summer. However, none had been documented at the car lot. They were instead concentrated on cars in lots and on side streets with cell phones and other valuables inside.

Sullivan took the witness stand and told jurors Walker became immediately combative during the stop and stumbled into traffic himself.

Springfield attorney John Pucci said he believes the verdict will not only pose a financial burden for the city but has substantial import for how police should make decisions about stopping potential suspects in the future.

"The district attorney's office has a strong interest in this as well, since it is called upon to prosecute the cases the police make. The police are simply not permitted to make stops without reasonable suspicion. This has been the law for more than 40 years per the U.S. Supreme Court. The stop should not have been made in this instance and this tragic loss of life would never have occurred if the law had been followed," Pucci said.

He said police misconduct cases can be difficult to win.

"I prosecuted police misconduct cases with the U.S. Attorney's Office for years, and am quite familiar with the difficulty of cracking through that culture, which is dense and deeply self-protective," Pucci said.

He added that believes Walker himself was the distinguishing factor in the Owens lawsuit.

"In most, if not all of these cases, the police misconduct occurs after an arrest where the victim is a defendant and has committed a crime and/or has a long criminal record. So, you end up with an unsympathetic victim who lacks credibility. In this case you had a completely innocent 15-year-old kid without any of those issues who was victimized," he said.

A Chelmsford man has been arraigned in connection with an alleged scheme to hire someone to injure or kill his wife. Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_26589320/police-chelmsford-man-tried-hire-hit-man-kill#ixzz3EAsnM3gX

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The disease, which mostly affects youths, can be very tricky for a person with breathing problems

The lane closure is scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday and from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday.

EASTHAMPTON – A section of Cottage Street will be closed to westbound traffic for parts of Wednesday and Thursday in order for work to be conducted on a water main, according to the Easthampton police.

The lane closure is scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday and from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday.

Eastbound traffic heading from downtown Easthampton toward Holyoke will still be able to use Cottage Street.

Westbound traffic will be detoured down Adams Street.

The work is being done in the area of 15 Cottage Street.

Map showing work area. Green line is eastbound traffic. Red line is detour for westbound traffic.

Gov. Deval Patrick will be among local and state officials touring the new University of Massachusetts downtown center at Tower Square.

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Deval Patrick will be among local and state officials gathering at the new University of Massachusetts downtown center at Tower Square on Wednesday, to celebrate its opening and to take part in tours.

Tours for the public officials are slated to begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by a speaking program at 11 a.m., at the site, located on the second floor of Tower Square, 1500 Main St.

The UMass Center at Springfield occupies 26,000 square feet of space at Tower Square including classrooms, specialized nursing facilities, conference rooms, a computer lab and a reception area where prospective students can learn about programs and enrollment. Classes began Sept. 2.

The speaking program on Wednesday is slated to include brief remarks by UMass President Robert L. Caret, UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy, university Board of Trustee Chairman Henry M. Thomas III, UMass Building Authority Chairman Philip W. Johnston, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, state Sen. James T. Welch, D-West Springfield.

Patrick had visited the center in July during construction, and had also visited the center last November to announce the university’s plans for the downtown center.