Employers have now added at least 200,000 jobs for nine straight months, the longest such stretch since 1995.

CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three days after voters registered their sourness about the U.S. economy, the government said Friday that employers added a solid 214,000 jobs in October, extending the healthiest pace of hiring in eight years.

The Labor Department also said 31,000 more jobs were added in August and September than it had previously estimated. Employers have now added at least 200,000 jobs for nine straight months, the longest such stretch since 1995.

The burst of hiring lowered the unemployment rate to 5.8 percent from 5.9 percent. It's lowest rate since July 2008.

Along with the job gains, economic growth has accelerated this year. Yet despite the improvement, voters identified economic anxiety as their top concern in Tuesday's elections. That suggests the improvement hasn't yet been felt by many Americans.

Nearly 60 percent of voters said they thought the economy was stagnating or worsening. Only one-third saw it as improving.

The picture has still improved enough that the Federal Reserve announced last month that it was ending its bond purchase program, which had been intended to lower interest rates and stimulate economic growth.

At the same time, better hiring and growth have barely boosted paychecks for the vast majority of earners. Adjusted for inflation, average hourly pay rose just 0.3 percent over the 12 months that ended in September, according to government data.

And what wage gains have occurred have benefited mainly the wealthiest. Average income grew 10 percent from 2010 through 2013 for the wealthiest one-tenth of Americans, after adjusting for inflation, according to the Fed. For everyone else, incomes stagnated or declined.

Analysts say the economic expansion remains strong enough to support the current pace of hiring. Over the past six months, the economy has grown at a 4.1 percent annual rate.

U.S. manufacturers are expanding at the fastest pace in three years, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group. A measure of new orders showed that factory output will likely continue to grow in coming months. A separate survey by the ISM found that retailers, restaurants and other service companies grew at a healthy pace last month.

Home sales rose in September at their fastest rate this year, a sign that housing could pick up after a sluggish performance for most of this year.

Still, faltering global growth could create trouble for the U.S. economy in the months ahead. Exports fell in September, the government said this week, widening the trade deficit. That led many economists to shave their predictions of economic growth in the July-September quarter to an annual rate of 3 percent or less, down from the government's initial estimate of 3.5 percent.

The owners of the Route 9 Diner have responded to claims by 10 former employees - nine female former waitresses and one male former manager - that there were daily instances of sexual harassment at the 24-hour diner.

HADLEY -- The owners of the Route 9 Diner have responded to claims by 10 former employees - nine female former waitresses and one male former manager - that there were daily instances of sexual harassment at the 24-hour diner.

Multiple attempts were made to speak with Chris Karabetsos and Archie Sedaris, the owners of the Route 9 Diner in Hadley. The pair released a statement, which has been published in its entirety, below.

Statement - Route 9 Diner Ownership

The pedestrian was taken to Baystate Medical Center's Emergency & Trauma Center, West Springfield Police Capt. Thomas Wilkinson said. An update on the victim's condition was unavailable.

 

The pedestrian was taken to Baystate Medical Center's Emergency & Trauma Center, according to West Springfield Police Capt. Thomas Wilkinson, who had no information about the victim's condition.

The accident happened in the vicinity of Piper Road and Duke Street, or just south of West Springfield High School.

Authorities said it was too early to determine if the driver would be charged. "It's still under investigation," Wilkinson said.

The pickup truck the victims were traveling in ended up on its side, according to a Massachusetts State Police trooper from the Cheshire barracks.

STONEHAM - A state trooper and Stoneham police officer rescued a suicidal man from Spot Pond on Oct. 24. The Republican file 

A trooper from the State Police barracks in Cheshire said a pickup truck went off the road and wound up on its side just after 7 p.m.

"They were flown to Albany Medical Center. ... Their injuries were very serious," Trooper David McKearney told 22News. Updates on the victims' conditions were unavailable.

Traffic lanes were closed and drivers were being diverted away from the crash scene, which is near the New York state line. The incident remains under investigation.

A security camera caught an image of a man picking up a package left at the front door of a home.

Details of the shooting weren't immediately available, including which section of the city the incident took place.

 

An initial West Springfield police report indicated a citizen contacted authorities about 8:15 p.m. to say a neighbor had just shot a bear, but the animal didn't die.

West Springfield police couldn't immediately be reached for more details, including whether the animal was a so-called nuisance bear. It remains unclear if the incident happened in a rural corner of the city, or the more urban sections closer to the Connecticut River.

Massachusetts Environmental Police officials said they were aware of the incident, but they did not send officers to the scene. "That was handled by West Springfield police," a spokeswoman for the law enforcement agency said.

Bear hunting season in Massachusetts runs from Nov. 3-22.

In September, West Side authorities kept a watchful eye on a bear that was hanging out in a tree near a school bus stop.

The Montana native says more and more people were becoming aware of his role and that his name was bound to become public anyway.

By KEN DILANIAN

WASHINGTON -- Some special operations service members and veterans are unhappy that one of their own has taken credit publicly for killing Osama bin Laden. Others say they have gotten used to the idea that their brethren might break the code of silence and seek to profit from their deeds.

That internal debate gained intensity this week when retired Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill acknowledged that he had fired two rounds into the forehead of the al-Qaida leader during the 2011 raid on his secret compound in Pakistan. O'Neill says more and more people were becoming aware of his role and that his name was bound to become public anyway.

O'Neill had recounted his version of the bin Laden raid in February 2013 to Esquire magazine, which identified him only as "the shooter." In a story Thursday, The Washington Post identified him by name as he described shooting the leader of the terrorist group behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

One current and one former SEAL confirmed to The Associated Press that O'Neill was long known to have killed bin Laden. Defense Department officials confirmed that the Montana native was a member of SEAL Team Six and was part of the raid, but they said they could not confirm who fired the fatal shot, noting that other SEALs on the mission also fired at bin Laden.

If O'Neill discloses classified information during the interviews he could be subject to an investigation or action by the Justice Department, the Defense Department officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name.

O'Neill told the Post that shots also were fired by two other SEAL team members, including Matt Bissonnette, who described the raid somewhat differently in his book "No Easy Day." His lawyer said Bissonnette is under federal criminal investigation over whether he disclosed classified information in the book, which he did not vet with the military. In the Esquire piece, O'Neill makes no mention of Bissonnette shooting bin Laden.

Well before the Post interview, O'Neill discussed his role in the raid during a private meeting with relatives of victims of the 9/11 attack on New York's World Trade Center before the recent opening of the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum. He donated the shirt he was wearing in the operation, which is now on display there.

O'Neill is scheduled to be featured in lengthy segments next week on Fox News. He told the Post he decided to go public because he feared his identity was going to be leaked by others. Indeed, his name appeared Monday on the website SOFREP, which is operated by former special operations troops.

The actions of both O'Neill and Bissonnette have drawn scorn from some of their colleagues. In an Oct. 31 open letter, Rear Adm. Brian Losey, who commands the Naval Special Warfare Group, and Force Master Chief Michael Magaraci, the top noncommissioned officer of the group, urged SEALs to lower their public profile. Their comments were widely perceived as being aimed at O'Neill and Bissonnette.

"At Naval Special Warfare's core is the SEAL ethos," the letter says. "A critical tenant of our ethos is 'I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions.'"

The letter added, "We do not abide willful or selfish disregard for our core values in return for public notoriety or financial gain."

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon, attended the 9/11 museum ceremony. She said O'Neill, whose name was not divulged at the event, offered the families clarity on conflicting information they had received about the raid.

She said she didn't have an opinion about whether SEALs should disclose information about their deeds. "Whatever that (SEALs') ethos is, is between the SEALS," she said. "The 9/11 families are the beneficiaries of any rules he might have broken or whatever lines he might have crossed."

"He went through the mission in really in great detail. All that information was very helpful to me because this is a figure in a terror organization that has loomed large in our lives," she said, adding that she listened to him so intently that the 9/11 commemorative coin she was clasping tightly in her hand left a bruise.

Rick Woolard, a former SEAL team commander who previously urged his comrades to avoid discussing recent operations, said active-duty SEALs are "pretty much very disappointed and I'd have to say angry with guys who have used their deeds and those of their companions for personal gain."

"No Easy Day" was published in 2012 under the pseudonym Mark Owen. Bissonnette recounted on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" program that he sent a text to the commander of SEAL Team Six after its publication. He said the commander replied, "Delete me."

At the same time, Woolard said, there is frustration among some special operations soldiers that senior government officials have left office and written memoirs revealing and profiting from actions involving troops who are sworn to secrecy. However, one active-duty SEAL officer, who declined to be quoted by name because he had no permission to speak publicly, said some SEALs had grown accustomed to some of their members seeking to profit from their connections to the elite group, upon retirement.

Senior Pentagon and CIA officials cooperated extensively with the makers of "Zero Dark Thirty," a film that depicted both the CIA's yearslong hunt for bin Laden and the SEALs raid that killed him in Pakistan.

In the Esquire piece, O'Neill said he was one of two SEALs who went up to the third floor of the building where bin Laden was hiding. The first man fired two shots at bin Laden as he peeked out of the bedroom, but O'Neill says those shots missed. The man then tackled two women in the hallway outside of bin Laden's bedroom.

O'Neill went into the bedroom, he recounts. "There was bin Laden standing there. He had his hands on a woman's shoulders, pushing her ahead, not exactly toward me but by me, in the direction of the hallway commotion. It was his youngest wife, Amal."

O'Neill added: "In that second, I shot him two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he's going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again. Bap! Same place. ... He was dead."

AP writers Deb Riechmann and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Snow makes its appearance on the Mass Pike for the first time this season

Don Treeger | The Republican 

Trooper David Perreault, at the Westfield Barracks, said snow covered the Mass Pike at the higher elevations in Blandford, Otis and Becket earlier after snow flurries accumulated to whiten the roadway. Perreault said it is the first time that trucks have been called out for snow this season.

Officials at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle said 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg died Friday evening.

SEATTLE (AP) -- Another of the teenagers wounded in a Washington state high school shooting has died, raising to five the number of fatalities after a student opened fire in the cafeteria two weeks ago.

Andrew Fryberg, 15, died Friday evening at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Zoe Galasso, 14, was killed during the shooting Oct. 24 by a popular freshman at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. Gia Soriano, also 14, died Oct. 26 at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett and 14-year-old Shaylee Chuckulnaskit died Oct. 31 at the Everett hospital.

The shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, died of a self-inflicted wound.

"We express our thanks for the amazing support from the community, as well as from everyone around the world that have been praying for us all through this tragic event," Andrew Fryberg's family said in a statement released by the hospital. The family also thanked "all the amazing staff" who cared for the boy in Harborview's pediatric intensive care unit. The relatives asked for privacy.

Andrew Fryberg was the last wounded student still hospitalized.

On Thursday, 14-year-old Nate Hatch was released from Harborview and returned home. He had been shot in the jaw.

More than 200 friends and family gathered along the road leading onto the Tulalip Indian Reservation north of Seattle to welcome Hatch home. He was driven past the crowd in a black tribal police vehicle.

Andrew Fryberg and Nate Hatch were cousins of the shooter.

In a statement Friday night, the Tulalip Tribes said they and Marysville "will be forever changed as a result of the senseless and tragic incident that took place on the morning of Oct. 24 and know that healing will not happen overnight. We remain committed to taking this journey together, step by step, holding up the families most impacted and helping our communities heal."

The school 30 miles north of Seattle reopened Monday after being closed for a week. Hundreds of people lined the entrance. Well-wishers waved at returning students and many held candles. People cheered as buses and cars entered the school campus.

The school day started with an assembly. Students ate lunch in the gym because the cafeteria where the shooting took place remains closed.

Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary told reporters last week that Jaylen Fryberg invited his victims to lunch by text message, shot them at their table, then killed himself.

The sheriff said detectives were digging through reams of text messages, phone and social media records as part of an investigation that could take months.

"The question everybody wants is, 'Why?'" Trenary said. "I don't know that the 'why' is something we can provide."

Jaylen Fryberg, a football player who was named a prince on the school's homecoming court a week before the killings, was a member of a prominent Tulalip Tribes family. He seemed happy although he was also upset about a girl, friends said. His Twitter feed was recently full of vague, anguished postings, like "It won't last ... It'll never last," and "I should have listened. ... You were right ... The whole time you were right."

Nate Hatch was still hospitalized when he posted a message of forgiveness on Twitter.

"I love you and I forgive you jaylen rest in peace," he wrote. A friend confirmed the feed's authenticity to The Associated Press.

A woman was trapped in a crashed pickup truck for over four hours as firefighters tried to extricate her from the wreckage.

Dave Canton | dcanton@repub.com 

Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Sean Carroll, attached to the Cheshire Barracks, said two people were airlifted from the scene of the crash not far from the New York state line. However, because of extended time it took to remove the female victim, a second helicopter had to be sent to the scene to transport her to the hospital.

Carroll said the pickup truck the two were riding in shortly after 7 p.m. Friday was traveling east bound on Route 20 from New York state. Just after the state line the driver of the truck apparently lost control and it went off the road and crashed. A male in the truck was extricated soon after fire personnel arrived on the scene and was flown from the crash site to the Albany Medical Center. The female passenger, however, was trapped by her leg in the wreckage.

Firefighters and EMTs from Hancock, Richmond, Pittsfield, Lebanon Valley, N.Y. and Chatham, N.Y. worked to get the woman out of the vehicle without further injuring her leg, Carroll said. She was finally removed from the wreckage at approximately 11:30 p.m. and flown to the hospital.

Carroll said he had no information about the crash victims' medical conditions. The incident remains under investigation by state police.

Downtown Northampton's truck-eating bridge struck again.

These were the most read stories on MassLive.com yesterday. If you missed any of them, click on the links below to read them now. The most viewed item overall was the photo gallery, above, showing pets available for adoption in Western Massachusetts this week.

1) Former Hadley Route 9 Diner employees tell tales of sexual harassment culture [Michelle Williams]

2) Agawam High School student charged after allegedly telling class he wished to shoot students and blow up school [Laura Newberry]

3) Northampton's 'truck-eating bridge' strikes again [George Graham]

4) Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno calls 19-year-old Patrick Donovan an 'animal' for allegedly assaulting elderly city man in Forest Park home invasion [Conor Berry]

5) Diocese spokesman on Cathedral High School: We are not the enemy [Peter Goonan]

An 18-year-old Torrington man will be charged with the murder of his mother.

TORRINGTON, Conn. (AP) -- The son of a Torrington woman who was found dead in her home has been arrested in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Police say 18-year-old Nicholas Hulme will be charged with murder in the killing of 49-year-old Wendy Hulme. She was found with crushing injuries to her neck. Police had gone to the home early Thursday afternoon to investigate a missing person's report and discovered her body.

Police say Nicholas Hulme was found a few hours later inside a car parked at a Metro-North train station.

He is being held as a fugitive from justice by New York authorities pending extradition to Connecticut.

A tractor trailer truck accident closed one westbound lane of the Mass Pike in Blandford

Dave Canton | dcanton@repub.com 

Trooper Anthony Boszko, attached to the Westfield Barracks, said the "creeper lane," or the third lane for very slow traffic on uphill areas, is closed just before the Blandford rest area as police wait for a heavy duty wrecker to pull the truck back onto the highway. The left two travel lanes remain open.

Boszko said the truck ran off the road but remained on its wheels. No injuries were reported. Police do not know at this writing when the roadway will be reopened.

This story will be updated as information becomes available.

Local produce, baked goods, honey, prepared foods, artisans, and musicians are part of the mix.

NORTHAMPTON -- The Northampton Winter Farmer's Market kicks off its sixth season today at the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School at 80 Locust St.

The market, which features local farms, food producers, prepared food vendors and artisans, runs every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through April 18.

Fresh greens will be available all winter long, according to Market Manager Andrew Lacasse. Apples, root vegetables, grass-fed beef and lamb, honey, maple syrup, breads and pastries are all part of the mix. Local food carts will be set up for those who want a bite to eat.

Parking is free, and EBT/SNAP cards are accepted, as well as cash, checks and credit cards. This year, Massachusetts-grown organic cranberries will be on sale to fund the market's EBT/SNAP matching program, which doubles the value of EBT dollars.

Musicians are always on hand at the winter market. This week, The Rambling Kind bring their Western Mass bluegrass beginning at 10 AM.

"The market is more than a place to buy local food. It's a place to listen to music, catch up with your neighbors, and stay connected to farmers in the winter months," said Lacasse.

The market is still accepting vendor applications from farms, food producers, and artisans.

SPRINGFIELD &#8212 Follow the evolving story of the announcement Thursday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield that the rebuilding of the tornado-damaged Cathedral High School on Surrey Road is uncertain.

SPRINGFIELD — Follow the evolving story of the announcement Thursday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield that the rebuilding of the tornado-damaged Cathedral High School on Surrey Road is uncertain.

Click on the following headlines to read the stories:

Bishop Mitchell Rozanski says further study needed before final decision on rebuilding Cathedral High School in Springfield

Future of Cathedral High School in Springfield uncertain, bishop says

Mayor Sarno to Springfield Diocese: live up to 'commitment' to rebuild Cathedral

Springfield leaders react with frustration, anger over Cathedral School rebuilding delay

Diocese spokesman on Cathedral High School: We are not the enemy

'This was a lightning bolt,' Neal says about hesitation to rebuild Cathedral High School in Springfield

Your comments: Readers respond to stories on questions about Cathedral High School's future

Editorial: Bishop Mitchell Rozanski needs to be clear about his plans for Cathedral High School

Viewpoint: Cathedral High decision puts Bishop Rozanski in no-win situation

Demolition has begun at the former Cathedral High School

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno will fight 'tooth and nail' for rebuilding Cathedral High School

During testimony earlier this week, defense lawyer Renee Steese questioned how Crncic, given her traumatized state, could continue working as a bartender in Northampton.

SPRINGFIELD - Childhood abuse suffered by Northampton bartender Cara Lyn Crncic left her especially vulnerable to an alleged attack by owner of a Whately strip club, a therapist told jurors Friday.

Testifying in U.S. District Court, psychologist Anne Pratt said an alleged assault by Club Castaway owner Demetrious Konstantopoulos in 2011 triggered flashbacks of physical, emotional and sexual violence that Crncic endured growing up in Pittsburgh.

"It reawakened the fears of a terrified child," Pratt said.

The therapist testified on the fifth day of trial in a lawsuit filed by Crncic, a former Club Castaway bartender who accused her boss of verbally and physically abusing her and other female employees at the strip club.

The owner grabbed, groped, fondled and punched her and routinely mistreated the club's dancers, Crncic claimed in a lawsuit filed in August 2012. The 32-year old plaintiff seeks financial damages for lost wages, emotional distress and deprivation of civil rights.

The owner, also known as Jimmy the Greek, has denied all charges and challenged Crncic's motives for filing the lawsuit. The plaintiff suffered no injuries from an alleged assault during her Nov. 29 work shift, and gave conflicting accounts about the incident to club employees and police, the defendant contends.

Testifying as an expert witness Friday, Pratt said the plaintiff lived with depression and post traumatic stress disorder since being abused as a child.

As she got older, Crncic learned to control her fear, anxiety and panic attacks, but remained vulnerable to flashbacks triggered by seemingly minor events, Pratt said.

In recent years, the plaintiff has flourished, working multiple bartending and restaurant jobs in the Northampton area and hoping to start her own bar, Pratt said.

But when the Club Castaway owner cornered her in the kitchen on Nov. 29, 2011, allegedly punching her and throwing her into a wall, the plaintiff's past trauma "came flooding back," Pratt said.

Psychologically, the alleged assault "hit her where it hurts," reviving her childhood fears and her paranoia and panic attacks, Pratt said.

As her therapist testified, Crncic sat sobbing at the plaintiff's table.

During testimony earlier this week, defense lawyer Renee Steese questioned how Crncic, given her traumatized state, could continue working as a bartender in Northampton.

The plaintiff only sought therapy for the alleged assault after hiring a lawyer to prepare a lawsuit against Konstantopoulos, Steese noted.

Under questioning from plaintiff lawyer Thomas McCormick, Pratt questioned how "anyone in good conscience" would not steer Crncic toward therapy, given her mental state at that time.

Pratt also said Facebook postings showing a socially-connected, fun-loving side of Crncic's personality were not at odds with her post traumatic stress disorder. Like everyone else, people with the disorder can "have good day, a good hour, a good laugh," Pratt said.

Testimony resumes Monday before Judge Mark G. Mastroianni and a nine-member jury.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Most of the witnesses testifying so far, including Konstantopoulous's wife, Barbara, were called by the plaintiff from a list of 16 names. The defendant also has 16 names on his witness list, many of whom are expected to testify next week.

The 20 year agreement the Council will review also includes a one-time $10,000 "processing fee payment."

PALMER - At Monday's meeting the Town Council is scheduled to act on a payment in lieu of taxes agreement related to solar energy production that was negotiated by the town manager and the firm Syncarpha Palmer, LLC.

The company's 4.95 megawatt solar farm proposal, at 273-311 Emery St., site of the former airport, would provide Palmer $59,400 per year, data provided by the town shows.

The solar farm would use about one-fifth of the 105 acre property.

The 20 year agreement the council will review also includes a one-time $10,000 "processing fee payment."

Language in the proposed agreement entitles Palmer to 14 percent interest on arrears, should Syncarpha fall behind on the payments.

Accoring to Town Manager Charles Blanchard, the company has expressed interest in leasing the Emery Street Landfill site for an additional solar farm. Blanchard said that a new request for proposals process would be required.

The council is also expected to review the rules that govern their meetings.

The Nov. 10 meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Council Meeting Room, 4417 Main St.

Casino companies, which poured roughly $14 million into their successful effort to defeat the ballot question proposing to repeal the state's 2011 casino law, defended their spending.

BOSTON — Groups seeking to promote or defeat this year's four ballot questions spent over $28 million, far more than any previous election, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.

The state's campaign and political finance office says the previous record of $16.1 million was set in 1992, when four questions were on the ballot, including ones dealing with recyclable packaging and taxing hazardous waste.

This year's total spending will likely grow: Reports submitted Wednesday only cover the period from Oct. 16 to Nov. 1. Ballot question committees will file updated reports Nov. 20.

Pam Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, a government watchdog group, says the record-setting spending is unsurprising since the ballot questions "affected the bottom line of powerful business interests." But she argued campaign spending reforms are needed.

"There should be restrictions of some kind so that you don't have deep-pocketed corporations with clear self-interest able to essentially drown out other speakers because they have so much money," Wilmot said. "You throw enough money at anything, you can defeat it. And that's one of the things we saw here."

Casino companies, which poured roughly $14 million into their successful effort to defeat the ballot question proposing to repeal the state's 2011 casino law, defended their spending Friday. They pointed to their promises to invest more than $2.6 billion and create 10,000 new casino-related jobs and 6,500 temporary construction jobs in Massachusetts.

"Three of the most successful and respected gaming companies internationally are poised to invest over $2.6 billion in Massachusetts," said Justine Griffin, spokeswoman for the pro-casino Coalition to Protect Massachusetts Jobs, which was financed by Wynn, MGM and Penn National Gaming, the state's three licensed gambling operators. "The spending on the ballot question was viewed by the companies as part of their commitment to Massachusetts, and they are pleased that the large majority of Massachusetts voters supported bringing gaming and its associated benefits here."

Meanwhile, anti-casino activists under the Repeal the Casino Deal campaign committee were vastly out-fundraised, spending $658,526 as of Nov. 1.

The casino fight was by far the most expensive of the four ballot questions placed before voters this year.

Even before the final tallies are in, the casino question spending reached $14.5 million, surpassing the $13 million record set in 2006 for a failed ballot initiative to allow wine sales in groceries.

More than half the money spent by casinos came in the final days before the election, allowing the Coalition to Protect Massachusetts Jobs to air thousands of television advertisements in the run up to the vote. Anti-casino activists spent $76,115 in the final days and never aired television ads.

The result? Massachusetts voters resoundingly rejected the proposal to repeal the state's 2011 casino law by a 20 percentage point margin.

Spending on the ballot question for bottle deposit expansion was the second priciest, coming in at about $10.3 million.

That question, which failed, would have extended the state's 5-cent bottle deposit on beer and soft drink containers to bottled water, sports drinks and other bottled beverages.

Opponents, including local supermarket chains and the Washington, D.C-based American Beverage Association, spent about $8.8 million. Supporters, including the Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club, spent about $1.5 million as of Nov. 1.

The ballot question that successfully repealed a state law indexing the gas tax to inflation generated about $2.7 million in spending. And the question to allow most workers in the state to earn paid sick time, which also passed, generated just over $800,000 in spending.

The Western Massachusetts Doctor Who Club has garnered most of its membership on-line since its inception in 2012, he said.

NORTHAMPTON – They are accountants, marketing executives, artists, retired government workers, book store employees, operations managers, parents, singles, couples and at least one 5-year-old who favors wearing tiaras around the house.

They are the new face of Doctor Who fandom - particularly in Western Massachusetts, where the club has nearly 200 members who attend watch parties, potlucks, picnics and conventions focused on the BBC's perennial favorite. The 1960s sci-fi series experienced a massive revival in popularity after the 2005 reboot, with a new legion of fans and merchandising largely focused on the TARDIS.

What's that, you ask? Doctor Who fans would regard such a question with amused sympathy. Not pity or scorn, because they're largely too nice a group. The TARDIS is a classic blue British police call station that is central to each episode because it transports the doctor to each place in time, where he is required to save humanity from various evil alien threats. He is accompanied by companions to aid him and add to the plot and character development. True fans have favorites among the 12 doctors, companions and villains.

Cassidy Bowman, 42, an operations manager with an environmentally-friendly utility firm, transformed the shed in his backyard in Florence to a TARDIS, complete with the sign affixed to the portal in each episode: "Free for use of the public. Advice and assistance obtainable immediately. Officer and cars respond to all calls."

Bowman, wife, Tamara, a professional photographer, and daughter, Scarlet, 5, were on Saturday dressed as various characters and symbols from the show in advance of the Series 8 finale set for 9 p.m. on BBC America.

Bowman was dressed in a pinstriped suit as the Tenth Doctor, a dashing, rakish fan favorite played by British actor David Tennant. Tamara was a fetching TARDIS. Scarlet was dressed as a Dalek, an extraterrestrial mutant that resembles a pepper shaker, also a foe of the Doctor and intent on malevolent global domination. Scarlet, however, personalized her costume with a sparkly tiara. Doctor Who fans are also a flexible lot.

"She could say 'exterminate' by the time she was 2," her father joked, a reference to the Dalek catchphrase.

Fans have many theories about how the show has become a global sensation.

"It's a kids' show for adults and it's an adult show for kids," Cassidy Bowman explained. "It doesn't talk down to its audience in terms of science or language. As a kid I always appreciated that. It assumes its audience is intelligent."

At Bowman's home, seven members of the Western Massachusetts Doctor Who Club were gathered, most in costume, and remarked how they met only through their shared love of the show.

"It's a big part of my life," said Jonathon Podolosky, of Northampton, who founded the club. It has garnered most of its membership on-line since its inception in 2012, he said.

Podolsky, a marketing executive, planned to host a watch party for the finale on for about a dozen people at his home. During the off-season, members still hold screenings, attend conventions and serve on discussion panels, he said. He was not dressed in costume but was armed with a sonic screwdriver, a staple of the show.

When pressed about the global appeal of the show, fans blurt out phrases like "timeless appeal" and "soulful story-telling."

Joe Lastowski, a 36-year-old accountant, and his wife, Niki, 30, who works at a book store, were dressed as Rory and Amy, one of the series' more popular companions.

Joe Lastowski said he believes part of the show's appeal in the United States is related to a fascination of Great Britain. His wife said she became a fan by marriage, but Joe Lastowski said he was hooked nine years ago.

"I always knew Doctor Who was 'a thing,' and I always liked sci-fi, but I didn't really get into it until 2005," he said.

Doctor Who fandom is rife with inside jokes and jargon. This is evident when the group began talking Saturday about the plot shift in the series that allowed the doctor to "regenerate" but not really die.

"That was retconned," said Ellie Hillis, 25, of Northampton, an executive assistant at a nonprofit agency who is also a blogger for actsofgeek.com

When faced with a reporter's confused expression, she explained: "Retroactive continuity. That's geek speak" for altering a storyline to change a previous event.

This season's Twelfth Doctor, Scottish actor Peter Capaldi, will continue into the next season, which fans, of course, will anticipate with bated breath.

Wendy Farley, a 57-year-old retired government worker is a member of the local club who came late to the party. It didn't exactly have her at "hello."

It had me at "Blink," she said.

Tenth episode. Third Series. Look it up.

Loretta Lynch was a federal prosecutor in New York when she encountered an astonishing case of police brutality: the broomstick sodomy of a Haitian immigrant in a precinct bathroom.

WASHINGTON -- Loretta Lynch was a federal prosecutor in New York when she encountered an astonishing case of police brutality: the broomstick sodomy of a Haitian immigrant in a precinct bathroom.

The 1997 assault on Abner Louima set off street protests, frayed race relations and led to one of the most important federal civil rights cases of the past two decades -- with Lynch a key part of the team that prosecuted officers accused in the beating or of covering it up.

President Barack Obama's nomination of Lynch to be attorney general comes as the department she would take over continues to investigate the police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri and seems partly intended to convey the message that police misconduct and civil rights will remain a principal focus even after the departure of Eric Holder.

If confirmed by the Senate, Lynch would be the first black woman in the job and would follow the first black attorney general.

Lynch has overseen corruption, terrorism and gang cases in her years as a federal prosecutor. But it's her involvement some 15 years ago in the Louima prosecution that gave her high-profile experience in step with a core priority of the department.

"It is certainly significant that she has a personal history of involvement in prosecuting police misconduct," said Samuel Bagenstos, the former No. 2 official in the department's civil rights division. "Obviously that will be helpful, and probably suggests that police misconduct cases will continue to be a priority of the Lynch Justice Department just as they were with the Holder Justice Department.

Lawyers say Obama likely selected Lynch, 55, the current U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, on the strength of a varied career and stature within the department.

"She has spent years in the trenches as a prosecutor, aggressively fighting terrorism, financial fraud, cybercrime, all while vigorously defending civil rights," Obama said in introducing Lynch at the White House ceremony Saturday. He said her prosecution of the officers in the Louima case was "one of her proudest achievements."

But there's also no doubt that selecting someone with civil rights experience could reaffirm the government's commitment to that cause. That figures to be an especially important signal to send as community members in Ferguson brace for the real prospect that state and federal investigations into the shooting death of Michael Brown will close without criminal charges, outcomes that could disillusion civil rights activists and community members.

Holder has said he expects his federal investigation to conclude before he resigns, but Lynch still would inherit a civil rights probe into the practices of the entire Ferguson Police Department.

That investigation is one of roughly 20 that the Justice Department has initiated into troubled police departments in the past five years, more than twice the number undertaken in the five years before that. Those cases are part of a broader civil rights push -- challenging strict state voter identification laws and promoting changes in how federal prosecutors negotiate sentences, among other efforts -- likely to help shape Holder's legacy.

Holder's supporters will expect Lynch to continue that work, though her experience in two different stints as U.S. attorney goes well beyond that.

Her office, which encompasses Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and Staten Island, won convictions in a thwarted plot to bomb the city's subway system, successfully prosecuted a New York state assemblyman caught accepting bribes in a sting operation and, more recently, filed tax evasion charges against Republican Rep. Michael Grimm. She's also worked closely with Justice Department leadership by heading a U.S. attorneys committee that advises Holder on policy.

But it was the case of Louima, tortured with a broken broomstick on a bathroom floor, that elevated her profile as a trial attorney. In a Senate questionnaire for the job of U.S. attorney, she placed the case second -- behind only a sexual harassment matter involving a city councilman -- in a list of the most significant cases she personally handled.

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, a trial team member, recalled how Lynch generously gave him -- a more junior prosecutor -- the responsibility of delivering opening statements in the case while she worked to craft the strategy and narrative that would be presented to the jury.

During the first trial in 1999, which ended with mixed verdicts, Lynch and the prosecution team hammered the officers for hiding behind a "blue wall of silence."

"Don't let these defendants push us back to the day when police officers could beat people with impunity, and arrest people for no reason and lie about it to cover it up," she told jurors.

Alan Vinegrad, who succeeded Lynch as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District and worked alongside her on the Louima case, recalled her as diligent and thorough prosecutor who made a compelling final argument to the jury.

"She had to get up and respond to all the arguments of five different lawyers made over a day about why all their clients were not guilty of anything," Vinegrad said. "She had to pretty quickly decide, 'OK, what are the important arguments. How do I respond to them persuasively?'"

Lynch was U.S. attorney from 1999 to 2001, as the Louima case slogged through the courts on appeals and new trials. She left for private practice before being nominated in 2010, this time by Obama, to run the office again.

Lynch, who grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, "rode on her father's shoulders to his church, where students would meet to organize anti-segregation boycotts," Obama said. "She was inspired by stories about her grandfather, a sharecropper in the 1930s, who helped folks in his community who got in trouble with the law and had no recourse under the Jim Crow system."

The president said Lynch "has spent her life fighting for fair and equal justice that is the foundation of our democracy."