The deceased is believed to be 52-year-old Cynthia Ayer, according to Mary Carey, communications director for Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan.

Cynthia Ayer 

Cynthia Ayer's body was found after an extensive search, Terry Dun, a Shelburne firefighter and member of the Northwest Massachusetts Incident Management Team, told CBS 3 Springfield, media partner of MassLive / The Republican.

Mary Carey, communications director for Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan, confirmed that the deceased is believed to be Ayer, who was reported missing Wednesday. Carey said members of the Bernardston Fire Department found her at about 1 p.m. Thursday in the river, roughly half a mile west of Wendell Depot Bridge.

The body was removed from the river and transferred to the Medical Examiner's office, which will determine the cause of death.

"No foul play is suspected, and the death is not considered criminal in nature," Carey said.

Ayer had been the subject of a missing-person search by the Orange Police Department; the Orange Fire Department; the Massachusetts State Police Dive Team; troopers from the Athol barracks; State Police detectives attached to Sullivan's office; the Northfield Dive Team; and numerous members of local fire departments and civilians.

The checkpoint will be conducted somewhere in Worcester County on Dec. 20 and 21, according to Col. Timothy P. Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police.

A weekend sobriety checkpoint will be held at an undisclosed Worcester County location on Saturday, Dec. 20, into Sunday, Dec. 21, according to Col. Timothy P. Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police.

The purpose of the grant-funded roadblock is to increase public safety by removing intoxicated motorists from commonwealth highways and byways. Alben said the checkpoint will be operated during varied hours and the selection of vehicles won't be arbitrary.

In 2012, Massachusetts recorded 349 traffic deaths, 123 of which were alcohol-impaired fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

It is estimated the the vaccine significantly reduces an individual's chances of ending up in a doctor's office with the flu.

SPRINGFIELD - While Dr. Ira Helfand, of The Family Care Medical Center, 1515 Allen St., said his staff "hasn't seen a lot yet" of this year's flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventation's weekly report indicates influenza is widespread, in at least two dozen states, including Massachusetts, where healthcare visits for flu-like symptoms are elevated, that is, above area baseline levels, as in much of the rest of the country.

Dr. Ira HelfandREPUBLICAN FILE 

"We had a couple of cases confirmed this week, and a couple people with suggested cases, whose flu tests were negative," Helfand said.

Helfand said anyone experiencing symptoms, such as fever, cough and muscles aches, should seek medical attention, and get tested. He said the flu can develop into more serious illness, in some people, and there is anti-viral medication that can be given.

"We test in the office, and get the test back in 15 minutes," Helfand said. "There is an anti-viral medication that is appropriate to take, if you have the flu and have been sick for a couple of days."

In the United States, the CDC has said that "all recently circulating influenza viruses have been susceptible to the neuraminidase inhibitor antiviral medications, oseltamivir and zanamivir." So far, influenza A (H3N2) viruses have been identified as the most common.

There were some shortages of the vaccine, earlier in the season, but Helfand said his office "has a lot" and it is "not too late to get it." He said concerns, that the vaccine does not immunize against all strains of the virus, should not prevent one from getting it.

"There are many strains of the flu virus going around, and the vaccine does not cover all of them, but it is valuable in cutting down the risk, even if not bullet proof," Helfand said.

It is estimated the the vaccine significantly reduces an individual's chances of ending up in a doctor's office with the flu.

He added the flu is "very contagious" and good reason for anyone, with the respiratory virus, to "not be out in public."

"People with the virus should be careful not to cough on anyone, and should wash their hands often," said Helfand, noting infected individuals can spread the virus through touching their mouth or nose, and then touching another person or surface. The virus can live on an environmental surface for several hours.

Hospitalizations for the flu have been mainly among those 65 and over, and there have been 11 influenza-associated pediatric deaths this season, but none in the New England region.

In general, it is recommended that everyone, 6 months and older, get vaccinated against the flu. There are vaccines against three types of influenza A viruses, as well as an influenza B virus. According to the World Health Organization, annual flu epidemics are estimated to result in about 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths.

Flu season in the United States is generally between October and May.

Michael Crooker sought damages to compensate him for his conviction and imprisonment on a firearms offense which was later thrown out by a federal Appeals Court.

SPRINGFIELD - Elaine D. Kaplan, United States Court of Federal Claims judge, has awarded Michael Crooker $172,466 in his civil suit against the U.S. government seeking damages.

Crooker sought damages to compensate him for his conviction and imprisonment on a firearms offense which was later thrown out by a federal Appeals Court.

Michael Crooker

According to Kaplan's ruling, Crooker sought the maximum amount of compensation for his 2,273 days in prison on the case, which amounts to $311,370.

In the ruling Kaplan said the government opposed any award of damages to Crooker "on several interrelated bases all arising out of the fact that after his unjust conviction was reversed, he (1) pleaded guilty to committing other offenses, including one he committed prior to his arrest on the firearms charge and (2) received a credit against the sentence imposed for those other offenses based on the time he served in connection with the firearms offense."

In June 2010 a panel of federal Appeals Court judges threw out a 2006 criminal conviction for the former Agawam man, negating a 22-year prison sentence imposed in U.S. District Court.

A jury found Crooker, who was 56 in June 2006, guilty of illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. However, the "firearm" in question was a silencer for an air rifle which Crooker was attempting to send through the mail to a collector in the Midwest.

The rub for the government at trial was proving Crooker, a self-styled firearms scholar, could have fashioned the silencer for a real gun because air rifles are legal for felons or anyone else to possess. The defense argued that many household items - such as a potato, a soda bottle or even a pillow - could theoretically act as a makeshift silencer and that Crooker never intended to use the silencer on a real gun.

He was sentenced to 22 years.

The panel ruled the government's case and judge's instructions were flawed; but, the decision essentially hinged on one of the simplest words in the English language: for.

The Court of Appeals said the government did not prove Crooker intended the silencer to be used for a real gun.

Crooker in June 2011 was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with credit for time served, on charges of possessing a biological toxin and threatening a federal prosecutor.

U.S. District Court, Judge Douglas P. Woodlock said that Crooker would receive credit for time served in prison since June 2004.

Crooker pleaded guilty to one charge of mailing a letter containing a threat to injure an officer or employee of the United States and one charge of possession of the biological toxin ricin without the required registration. Woodlock accepted the sentence recommended as part of a plea agreement.

William D. Weinreb, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the sentence was a fair and just resolution to the case, given Crooker's willingness to plead guilty.

Woodlock also noted that Crooker served about six years in jail on the charge that ended up being a wrongful conviction. Crooker was charged in 2004 with illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, but the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010 threw out the 2006 conviction on the charge.

Crooker was arrested on June 23, 2004 on the firearms charge. When agents searched his Agawam apartment that day, they discovered what appeared to be a weapons lab along with castor seeds, the source of ricin.

According to the Kaplan's ruling - which was prompted by motions for summary judgement short of trial by both Crooker and the government - federal officials argued Crooker was not due any compensation because he got credit for the time spent in prison on the weapons case sentence on his sentence on the toxin and threat case.

Kaplan ruled Crooker was entitled to damages covering the time he spent in prison from this June 23, 2004, arrest on the firearms charge up through his Dec 4, 2007 indictment on the toxin and threat case.

The judge wrote that "the Court finds unpersuasive the government's contention that the sentence credit fully compensated Mr. Crooker for his unjust conviction and imprisonment and that any additional award of damages would constitute a windfall for him. For one thing, the government's argument does not account for injuries inflicted by an unjust conviction that are based on something other than the loss of liberty that results from incarceration. These injuries might include the emotional distress (and economic injury) a plaintiff may suffer as a result of having to defend himself against unjust charges and having his reputation unfairly besmirched as a result of being found guilty of a crime he did not commit."

"Further, and in any event, the Court is not persuaded that a loss of liberty that results from a conviction for an offense an individual did not commit and a loss of liberty based on a guilty plea or a legitimate conviction are interchangeable. In the former instance, the injury and distress inflicted by a loss of liberty is significantly aggravated by the knowledge that the time being served in prison is unlawful and unjustified," Kaplan wrote.

Judge Elaine Kaplan decision on Michael Crooker

he state commission that oversees public employee health insurance coverage will likely need at least $120 million in additional funding this fiscal year, a request that would contribute to ongoing state budget problems.

By ANDY METZGER

BOSTON — The state commission that oversees public employee health insurance coverage will likely need at least $120 million in additional funding this fiscal year, a request that would contribute to ongoing state budget problems.

"It's probably going to be north of $120 million," Group Insurance Commission (GIC) Executive Director Dolores Mitchell told the News Service after a meeting on Friday morning.

While GIC underfunding was not flagged by state budget writers when they agreed on a $36.5 billion budget in July, Mitchell on Friday said, "Everybody knows that we had an appropriation amount that was lower than what we predicted we'd be spending."

Mitchell said annual state budget funding has not caught up with the influx of new members. The GIC is still adding members from the MBTA, and a 2011 state law eased the ability of municipalities to join the state health plan. Mitchell also said a federal fund the GIC used to pay claims has dried up.

"In most cases it is not over-spending. We have one outlier plan that we're having conversations with that appears to be not controlling their spending as rigorously as we would like," said Mitchell, who declined to name the plan.

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation this week predicted $100 million in needed GIC spending as part of its estimated $1 billion budget deficit. Administration and Finance Secretary Glen Shor has disputed portions of the MTF analysis and maintains the budget shortfall is about $330 million.

The GIC received $1.9 billion in the current fiscal 2015 state budget and covers more than 420,000 people, according to its website. In fiscal 2014, the Legislature provided the GIC an additional $16 million in March and another $50 million in May.

Also in March, the GIC voted for an overall 1 percent premium increase in its plans for fiscal 2015, describing it as the lowest increase in more than ten years.

The witness, a UMass student who signed the four men into the dorm where the rapes allegedly occurred, is planning on being in Africa during the trial date.

NORTHAMPTON — A witness in a case involving four Pittsfield men who allegedly raped a University of Massachusetts student will be allowed to testify out-of-court via videotape instead of appearing in person during the trial, which is scheduled for March 16.

The witness, who is planning to be in Africa at the time of the trial, is a female UMass student who signed the defendants into the Pierpont dormitory on Oct. 12, 2012, the date the rapes allegedly occurred, said Northwestern ADA Jennifer Suhl in Hampshire Superior Court on Friday.

The motion to take a videotaped deposition was granted by Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Rup, despite opposition from one of four defense lawyers in the case. Attorney David Pixley, who represents defendant Emmanuel Toffee Bile, unsuccessfully argued against the motion, saying he wanted to have a live witness within the context of a trial.

A date for the deposition has not been set. A final pre-trial hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 12.

Bile, Adam T. Liccardi, Caleb Womack and Justin A. King are charged with raping the woman in her dormitory in October 2012. Prosecutors say the four men, who were not UMass students, traveled to the school against the victim's wishes, drank with her in her room and took turns raping her as she phased in and out of consciousness. The defendants maintain the sex was consensual.

Womack was the only defendant present in the courtroom Friday, accompanied by his lawyer, Jonah Goldsmith. Liccardi is represented by Alfred Chamberland, and King by Terence Dunphy.

In October, Judge Bertha Josephson allowed a motion by Suhl to join the four cases instead of trying them separately.

"As we continue this momentum, I am confident we can easily meet the $10 million endowment challenge, she said. "I feel confident that God's loving hand will guide us in our work toward providing our children the opporunity for a faith-filled, top-notch education in a new state of the art facility in the near future."

SPRINGFIELD — Calling it an early Christmas present, Cathedral High School on Friday announced that its campaign for tuition assistance exceeded 2,000 pledges, triggering another $500,000 challenge gift from Cathedral alumna Michele Gaudette D'Amour and her husband Donald D'Amour, bringing the campaign total to $3.3 million toward the $10 million goal.

"Clearly all constituents in the Greater Springfield community have demonstrated how important Cathedral High School is to the community at large," Michele D'Amour, a 1969 graduate of the school, said in a press release.

"As we continue this momentum, I am confident we can easily meet the $10 million endowment challenge," she said. "I feel confident that God's loving hand will guide us in our work toward providing our children the opportunity for a faith-filled, top-notch education in a new state-of-the-art facility in the near future."

The uncertainty about the rebuilding of the tornado-ravaged school on Surrey Road – expressed in a letter from Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, who was installed in his post in August – has triggered concerns among Cathedral students, parents, faculty, elected officials, neighbors and the grassroots group Committee for Cathedral Action. The committee has launched a campaign, complete with bumper stickers and rallies, to encourage the diocese to rebuild the school in the East Forest Park neighborhood.

The endowment campaign is distinctive in nature, Cathedral said, noting that it is only asking for a pledge or written commitment to the fund "with no payment required until construction for school begins."

Cathedral students were relocated to the former Memorial School in Wilbraham after the June 1, 2011, tornado severely damaged the school.

The fund was also boosted by a $500,000 gift from MassMutual, payable over five years and a $500,000 gift from 1978 Cathedral graduate and BusinessWest owner John Gormally and his wife, Kathleen Gormally, half of which is earmarked for tuition assistance and the other half designated for faculty support.

In the 10 months since the campaign was launched, $3.6 million has been pledged or donated, the school said. Of that amount $2.6 million has been designated for the Cathedral Endowment Fund for Tuition Assistance, according to a release from Cathedral. In addition to $679,980 in pre-existing funds, the total is $3.3 million.

The $10 million goal was set in an attempt to ensure that students would be able to continue attending the school.

Cathedral High School President Ann M. Southworth expressed gratitude for the response to the campaign, to date.

"We are extremely grateful to all who have supported Cathedral's need for tuition assistance in the past as well as those who will donate in the future," Southworth said.

"Already this campaign has led to almost doubling the amount of tuition assistance that we are able to provide," she said.

"We went from $262,595 last year to $418,420 this year," she said, adding that the increase the allow the school to offer tuition assistance to 107 students this year compared to 65 students last year.

The Cathedral Endowment Fund for Tuition Assistance is co-chaired by Gene Cassidy, CEO of the Eastern States Exposition; D'Amour, educational partnership administrator at Biy Y Foods; and Joseph Pantuousco, financial adviser for Ameriprise LLC.

The Cathedral Endowment Fund for Tuition Assistance was established as a long-term endowment, seeking a stable investment return to provide annual tuition assistance, according to the release.

Cathedral High School tuition campaign

BOSTON — Las Vegas oddsmakers have made Boston and Los Angeles the early favorites to win the favor of United States Olympic Committee officials in the battle to be the official US bid to host 2024 Summer Olympics. Bovada has declared Los Angeles the all out favorite with 1:1 odds while giving Boston 2:1 odds. San Francisco and Washington,...

BOSTON -- Las Vegas oddsmakers have made Boston and Los Angeles the early favorites to win the favor of United States Olympic Committee officials in the battle to be the official US bid to host 2024 Summer Olympics.

Bovada has declared Los Angeles the all out favorite with 1:1 odds while giving Boston 2:1 odds.

San Francisco and Washington, D.C. finish out the pack with odds of 4:1 and 7:1, respectively.

The four cities made the hard to sell to USOC officials on Tuesday in the San Francisco Bay area.

USOC officials are expected to make a decision sometime in early-to-mid January on which city will be the official US bid. The International Olympic Committee will not pick a host city until late 2017.

Boston officials have proposed a $4.5 billion walkable Olympics that they sell will change how the games are hosted for ever. Opponents of the bid argue that the games will be fun but a financial boondoggle on par with Big Dig project.

Carando Classic Italian Meats and Big Y Foods joined forces to fête and feed more than 300 military personnel at a holiday feast at the 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Massachusetts Air National Guard Base.

WESTFIELD — Carando Classic Italian Meats and Big Y Foods, both Springfield-based companies, joined forces to fete and feed more than 300 military personnel at a holiday feast on Friday at the 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Massachusetts Air National Guard Base.

The midday meal included Carando spiral ham as well as side dishes and dessert. Thirty-four complete family meal packages were also made for delivery to families with members of the 104th currently deployed.

The elegant and lively affair, with plenty of Christmas decorations, camouflage and invited media, featured visits from Westfield Mayor Daniel Knapik and his wife Tricia, as well as Col. James Keefe, 104th Fighter Wing commander.

A dismissal notice in Hornsby's case file said the charge was being dropped "in the interest of justice," but did not elaborate. Hampden County District Attorney James Orenstein could not be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.

SPRINGFIELD - Prosecutors have dropped a charge of threatening to commit a crime against anti-violence activist Mario Hornsby Sr.

A warrant for the 44-year-old Springfield resident's arrest for failing to appear at his arraignment last week has also been cancelled, court records show.

At the request of the Hampden District Attorney's office, Judge William Boyle dismissed the case Thursday during a hearing in Springfield District Court.

A dismissal notice in Hornsby's case file said the charge was being dropped "in the interest of justice," but did not elaborate. Hampden County District Attorney James Orenstein could not be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.

Hornsby rose to prominence following the shooting death of his son, Mario O. Hornsby Jr. in May 2008. A captain of the Central High School basketball team, the younger Hornsby was killed after gang members fired randomly into a group of young people gathered on a porch on Maynard Street.

In the aftermath of his son's death, Mario Hornsby Sr. spoke at anti-violence rallies and founded the Mario Hornsby Resource Center to provide scholarships and safe youth activities in Springfield.

In October, a criminal charge was filed against Hornsby following a Sept. 9 encounter with several students walking in front of his car at a State Street gas station.

To get the students to walk faster, Hornsby began yelling obscenities and threatened to shoot one of them, according to a complaint filed by the student's father.

After a passer-by threatened to call police, Hornsby drove off, but continued to follow the students to school; in the parking lot, he got into a second confrontation with the same student, according to the complaint.

Following a show-cause hearing, a clerk-magistrate issued a criminal complaint and summoned Hornsby him to court for arraignment on Dec. 12.

When the defendant did not appear for his 9 a.m. arraignment, Boyle signed an arrest warrant later in the day.

Julio Rodriguez, the 55-year-old owner of Bethania's Fish & Meat Market in the city's North End, was charged with multiple felonies in connection with an alleged food-stamps-for-cash scheme.

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield shopkeeper accused of perpetrating an illegal cash-for-food-stamps scheme was released on personal recognizance after denying multiple charges at his arraignment Friday in Springfield District Court.

Judge William Boyle ordered 55-year-old Julio C. Rodriguez, proprietor of Bethania's Fish & Meat Market in the city's North End, to surrender his passport and to return for a Feb. 18 pretrial conference.

Rodriguez is charged with larceny in excess of $250, unlawful operation of a gaming device, and "food stamp trafficking" for allegedly allowing customers to swap SNAP benefits for cash. Federally authorized SNAP benefits, formerly known as "food stamps," are accessed through an EBT card and may only be used to buy food and non-alcoholic beverages.

On Thursday, authorities raided Rodriguez's business at 2595 Main St., a well-known neighborhood market at the corner of Main and Bancroft streets, and seized evidence related to the fraud investigation, according to Attorney General Martha Coakley. Investigators also found 10 illegal gaming machines on the premises, she said.

"We allege that this defendant regularly allowed customers using SNAP benefits to unlawfully exchange their food stamps for cash," Coakley said.

Bethania's Market had been conducting EBT transactions of roughly $30,000 a month, according to investigators. Nearly two-thirds of those monthly transactions were for purchases of more than $75, which is indicative of fraudulent activity, authorities said.

As part of the alleged scheme, customers would present their EBT cards to Rodriguez, who would enter fraudulent information on a dedicated EBT terminal indicating that they purchased groceries. Rodriguez would then allegedly give cash to the customers for half the amount that he charged to their EBT card accounts.

If customers wanted $50 cash, Rodriguez would allegedly provide them with that amount and fraudulently enter a $100 grocery sale. The store account would subsequently be credited with $100 from customers' EBT / SNAP accounts, providing the store with a $50 profit on the transaction, investigators said.

The SNAP program does not allow cash to be exchanged in lieu of benefits.

The criminal investigation was handled by Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to Coakley's office.

Springfield police officers, troopers attached to the Hampden District Attorney's office, and members of the attorney general's Gaming Enforcement and Digital Evidence divisions assisted with the execution of Thursday's search warrant.

The investigation is ongoing.

Police said two vehicles were towed, but there were no injuries.

LUDLOW - Police responded to an accident Friday night just before 6 p.m. at the entrance to the Massachusetts Turnpike on Center Street.

Police said two vehicles were towed, but there were no injuries.

The accident caused traffic to be backed up in both directions on Center Street, police said.

The accident cleared around 7 p.m., police said.

Oil and gas companies led the stock market up Friday, helping the Standard & Poor's 500 index notch its second-best week this year.

By MATTHEW CRAFT
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK — Oil and gas companies led the stock market up Friday, helping the Standard & Poor's 500 index notch its second-best week this year.

With little news to give them direction, traders continued to push indexes higher. That extended a rally from Wednesday when the Federal Reserve said it was in no hurry to hike interest rates.

"What a very crazy week," said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ.

Benchmark U.S. crude bounced up from recent lows, climbing $2.36 to settle at $56.52 a barrel in New York, as traders bet that a 6-month plunge in prices had gone too far. Chevron, Denbury Resources and other energy companies led nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 to gains.

Nike's stock dropped $2.24, or 2 percent, to $94.84. The maker of athletic apparel posted results that beat Wall Street's forecasts late Thursday, but a drop in orders from Japan and developing markets in Asia overshadowed an otherwise strong quarter.

The S&P 500 gained 9.42 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,070.65, bringing its weekly gain to 3.4 percent.

The Nasdaq composite picked up 16.98 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,765.38, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 26.65 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,804.80.

At the start of the week, slumping oil prices and the state of the world economy were investors' main worries. A plunge in the Russian currency, the ruble, added to a sense of unease.

The turnaround came Wednesday, when Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, said she saw no reason to hike interest rates in early 2015 and that the central bank would be "patient" in deciding when to raise rates from near zero. Her comments eased concerns that the Fed would start raising rates when growth in other major economies has looked weak. Traders celebrated, driving the S&P 500 up 4.5 percent over two days.

"It's just crazy volatility," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist and economist at Wells Capital Management. Paulsen pointed to the magnitude of the market's turn. Before the Fed's statement came out on Wednesday, the S&P 500 was on course for a second week of losses. Two days later, it closed out one of its best weeks this year.

Stock markets in Asia climbed in the wake of the big gains in Europe and the U.S. on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4 percent, while South Korea's Kospi added 1.7 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.3 percent.

"The major equity markets are finishing the trading year on a positive note thanks to Janet Yellen's Christmas message," said Neil MacKinnon, global macros strategist at VTB Capital. He said that with no major economic reports coming out, the markets will soon "switch into holiday mode," as traders head off for vacations.

Back in the U.S., strong quarterly results from Red Hat, an open-source software company, drove its stock up 11 percent, the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Red Hat reported better earnings and sales than analysts had expected late Thursday. Its stock soared $6.54 to $68.04.

CarMax jumped 11 percent after the used-car dealership posted a 22 percent surge in its quarterly profits thanks to higher sales. The company's results beat analysts' estimates, sending its stock up $6.79 to $67.32.

U.S. government bond prices rose, nudging yields down. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slipped to 2.16 percent.

In the commodity markets, gold edged up $1.20 to $1,196 an ounce, while silver added 10 cents to $16.03 an ounce. Copper rose 3 cents to $2.88 a pound.

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $2.11 to close at $61.38 in London.

In other futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:

— Wholesale gasoline rose 3.3 cents to close at $1.560 a gallon.

— Heating oil rose 2.3 cents to close at $1.962 a gallon.

— Natural gas fell 17.8 cents to close at $3.464 per 1,000 cubic feet. Forecasts for a mild winter, have pushed natural gas to its lowest price since November 2013.

The lawsuit filed to the U.S. Supreme Court cheered some police in Colorado who have been frustrated at the public's wide acceptance of that state's recreational marijuana market, despite some examples of people overdosing on high-concentration edibles.

DENVER (AP) -- Despite growing public support for legalizing marijuana, a lawsuit filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma shows that at least two segments of American society are prepared to fight the idea before the nation's highest court -- social conservatives and law enforcement.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn Colorado's experiment in legalized recreational pot, alleging that the two conservative states are being overrun with Colorado marijuana that is making it harder for them to enforce their own drug laws.

Nebraska Attorney General Jim Bruning framed it as a public-safety issue, though the complaint provides little data to support its claim that Colorado pot is pouring into neighboring states.

The case emerges at a time when polls show growing public support for legal weed. Even Congress this week started to ease restrictions on the drug, barring the federal government from interfering with the 23 states that allow it for medical uses.

National law-enforcement groups have staunchly opposed the legalization of marijuana. The lawsuit filed to the U.S. Supreme Court cheered some police in Colorado who have been frustrated at the public's wide acceptance of that state's recreational marijuana market, despite some examples of people overdosing on high-concentration edibles.

"When you work in the public-safety industry, you're impacted by this all the time," said Jim Gerhardt, vice president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association. "We're seeing it. The firefighters are seeing it. The hospitals are seeing it. But the general public can be apathetic."

Mason Tvert, the pro-marijuana activist who helped push legalization in Colorado, said he was not surprised by the resistance from Oklahoma and Nebraska, two socially conservative states that were reluctant to repeal Prohibition.

"When you think about who are the two types of people who'd never want to try marijuana, it's people who are looking at it morally, through religion ... and that law-enforcement attitude that this is the law and we want to keep it," Tvert said.

The legalization movement, he added, has seen some of its stiffest resistance in conservative, religious states in the Deep South and in Nebraska, where activists were unable to get enough signatures to put a medical-marijuana measure on the 2012 ballot.

Law-enforcement agencies have long said anecdotally that they are making more marijuana arrests and seizing more of the drug since Colorado voters legalized the drug. But there's no way to know exactly how much legal pot is leaving the state.

In a recent report, the agency known as the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area wrote that the amount of Colorado pot seized on highways increased from an annual average of 2,763 pounds between 2005 and 2008 to an average of 3,690 pounds from 2009 to 2013. The weed was headed for at least 40 different states.

Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, said his organization has seen at least a dozen cases of highly potent marijuana from Colorado entering his state. Before Colorado legalized the drug at the end of 2012, Oklahoma had never recorded a single case of high-grade pot trafficking from its neighbor.

In western Nebraska's Scotts Bluff County, Sheriff Mark Overman said Colorado marijuana is extra strong, making it more valuable in his region and giving sellers a greater financial incentive to do business there.

"I think this is overdue, and I think other states should jump on board," Overman said of the lawsuit. "I'm very frustrated. I take an oath of office, as does every other police officer in this country. I don't just get to pick and choose which laws I enforce."

Although organizations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Sheriff's Association have warned against legalizing marijuana, the legalization movement also has high-profile law-enforcement supporters. Washington state's legalization was supported by the sheriff of Kings County, which includes Seattle, as well as two former U.S. attorneys there, and the former head of its FBI office.

Inga Fryklund, a former Cook County, Illinois, prosecutor who is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a pro-legalization group, said that many rank-and-file police officers and prosecutors secretly support marijuana reform.

"A lot of their time is taken up with stupid drug arrests," she said.

But she acknowledged deep-seated resistance in law enforcement because people there see marijuana as destabilizing.

"You have to step back a bit and say 'This is very much like Prohibition of alcohol. All the violence and corruption is there because the stuff's illegal,'" Fryklund said. She also noted that police agencies are increasingly funded by seizing assets of people accused of drug crimes.

Darrel Stephens, who heads the Major City Police Chiefs Association, said that law enforcement believes legitimate concerns about marijuana legalization have been drowned out by deep-pocketed donors who have funded pro-marijuana ballot measures. At this point, he believes complete legalization is inevitable.

"There's never any support to gear up a counter-campaign," said Stephens, a former police chief of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina. "It's extremely frustrating to watch."

The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company is offering free identity protection services to customers who might be at risk.

By SARAH SKIDMORE SELL
AP Business Writer

Staples Inc. says nearly 1.2 million customer payment cards may have been exposed during a security breach earlier this year.

The office supply retailer announced in October that it was looking into a potential credit card breach, adding to a long list of retailers recently hit by cyberattacks.

Staples said Friday that an investigation shows that the criminals used malware that may have allowed access to information for transactions at 115 of its U.S. stores, which total more than 1,400. That includes cardholder names, payment card numbers, expiration dates and card verification codes.

The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company is offering free identity protection services — including credit monitoring, identity theft insurance a free credit report — to customers who might be at risk.

The security breach affected different stores at different times between July and September.

Staples said that it has also received reports of fraudulent card use tied to four of its New York stores between April and September. While it found no evidence of malware at those stores, it is also offering the protection services to customers there as well.

A number of retailers have suffered security breaches in recent memory.

During last year's holiday shopping season, Target Corp. disclosed that it was hit with an attack that exposed details of as many as 40 million credit and debit card accounts. Home Depot announced in September that a data breach affected 56 million debit and credit cards, and later said hackers also stole 53 million email addresses. And the cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment that came into the spotlight this week has put a number of companies on high alert to attend to the security of their own networks.

For more information about the incident, including dates of potential access and how to sign up for free credit monitoring, visit the company website at http://staples.newshq.businesswire.com/statement.

The woman was struck by a driver on South Main Street between Strong and Oak streets, according to CBS 3 Springfield, media partner of MassLive / The Republican.

PALMER — The latest car-vs-pedestrian incident in the 413 happened on South Main Street, where an elderly woman was struck by a car on South Main Street about 5:15 p.m. Friday.

The victim was taken by ambulance to Wing Memorial Hospital, but an update on her condition wasn't immediately available.

The incident happened between Oak and Strong streets near Apple Self Storage, according to CBS 3 Springfield, media partner of MassLive / The Republican.

Palmer Police Sgt. Christopher Burns told 22News that the woman appears to have been critically injured. The incident remains under investigation.

Western Massachusetts has been grappling with a rash of pedestrian accidents in recent days.

A driver was charged with OUI after hitting a pedestrian in Chicopee Thursday evening, and a crossing guard died after being struck by a motorist in West Springfield Monday morning. The driver was charged with motor vehicle homicide.

A pedestrian was struck by car on South Main Street in Palmer on the evening of Friday, Dec. 19, 2014.CBS 3 SPRINGFIELD 

Some businesses on High Street had to close temporarily because a 134-year-old former hotel partially collapsed on Dec. 11.

HOLYOKE -- Business is back to normal at the CleanSlate Addiction Treatment Center at 384 High St. as clients with appointments here no longer are being rerouted to West Springfield, an official said.

Some appointments had to be transferred from here to West Springfield last week because some businesses on High Street were closed for safety reasons after a partial collapse of a building at 400 High St. Dec. 11. But the office resumed normal business Wednesday, said Jesse Mayhew, CleanSlate Addiction spokesman.

No one was injured in the partial collapse at the 134-year-old Essex House, but the debris ripped a hole in the roof of an adjacent business and ruined that building's second floor, officials said.

The top three stories of the eight-story Essex House will be removed in about three weeks as a first step in demolishing the entire structure, officials said.

Mayor David J. Narkewicz is asking the state Legislature, by way of state Rep. Peter Kocot, to allow Northampton five new liquor licenses, which would put the city over its quota.

NORTHAMPTON — Restaurants that lost out in a lottery for an alcohol license that the License Commission stripped from Eric Suher can lift a cup of kindness this holiday season. The mayor wants to accommodate them all.

Mayor David J. Narkewicz is asking the state Legislature, by way of state Rep. Peter Kocot, to allow Northampton five new liquor licenses, which would put the city over its quota. The licenses, which would allow the restaurants to serve beer, wine and alcoholic drinks, would go to Hinge, Ibiza Tapas, Local Burger, Sierra Grill and Sylvester's. Those restaurants were the losers in a lottery won by Bistro Les Gras for the liquor license stripped from Suher by the License Commission this summer.

The commission relieved Suher of his license for The Green Room on Center Street after he failed to open it despite repeated urging from the commissioners. They deemed it a "pocket license" because it went unused for a long time. Suher subsequently transferred the liquor license from another pending project, the renovation of a former Baptist church on Main and West streets, when he finally opened for business at The Green Room.

The applicants for Suher's license had their names put in a drum and the winner was drawn at random by the commission, leaving the five restaurants still in the drum unhappy.

Narkewiecz announced his intentions to the City Council on Thursday, saying that Holyoke has been granted 13 additional liquor licenses, which it wants to use to lure restaurants to that city.

He also noted that Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed legislation to eliminate the quota system for liquor licenses. Although it was approved by the Senate, it was not in the economic development bill signed into law.

A woman struck by a car in Palmer Friday afternoon has died of her injuries.

Conor Berry | cberry@repub.com 

In a written statement, Palmer Police Detective Sgt. Christopher Burns said the 85-year-old woman was struck just after 5 p.m. as she crossed South Main Street in Palmer. She suffered serious trauma as a result of the accident and was taken by ambulance to Baystate Wing Hospital. She was later air lifted by Lifeflight to the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where she subsequently died of her injuries.

South Main Street was closed for nearly four hours, Burns said, while Palmer police and the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section of the Massachusetts State Police investigated the incident.

Burns said that neither speed nor alcohol appear to be factors in the accident.

The Palmer incident was one of five such accidents Friday alone. A bicyclist was struck in Chicopee, while pedestrians were struck by motor vehicles in West Springfield, Great Barrington and Chicopee.

A Pittsfield grand jury indicted a Pittsfield teen in the shooting death of a Goshen man in November.

Dave Canton | dcanton@repub.com 

Peter J. Campbell is accused of shooting 29-year-old Anthony Gamache in the leg in an attempt to rob the man the evening of November 18. Gamache was taken to a hospital for treatment then sent home, but the next day was rushed to a hospital where he died.

The Berkshire Eagle reported that Campbell was indicted on one count of second degree murder, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of an illegal firearm, and two counts of armed assault to rob. Besides shooting Gamache, Campbell is accused of threatening one of Gamache's companions with a knife.

Pittsfield Police said Campbell admitted that while Gamache drove to Pittsfield to buy a quarter pound of marijuana from Campbell, he actually intended to rob Gamache of his cash. As the two sat in Gamache's pickup truck, Campbell put the gun to Gamache's leg as he demanded the money. However, he told police the gun went off accidentally.

Two people with Gamache at the time drove him to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, where he was given initial treatment, then transferred to the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Doctors there treated Gamache and sent him home. His femur had been chipped and the bullet from the .380 cal. handgun remained in his leg.

The next day, family members told police Gamache began to suffer increasing pain and fever. He was taken from his Goshen home to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton. However, he apparently went into cardiac arrest en route and was pronounced dead on arrival.

An autopsy indicated Gamache died as the result of a blood clot that traveled from his leg wound, caused by the shooting, to his heart.

Campbell is currently being held in the Berkshire County Jail without the right to bail pending arraignment in Berkshire Superior Court.