Police initially pulled over

SPRINGFIELD - A Massachusetts State Police stop for motor violations lead to arrests of two men for unlawful possession of two guns.

Alexis Robles, 24, and Diamante Seguin, 23, both of Springfield, were arrested at about 4 p.m. on Dec. 23 on Howe Street, police officials said.

Robles was charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition without a Firearms identification Card; improper storage of a firearm and failure to wear a seat belt. Seguin was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm without a license, carrying a firearm with ammunition, improper storage of a firearm, possession of ammunition without an identification card and failure to wear a seat belt, police said.

Trooper Derek Cormier pulled over Robles, who was driving of a 2015 Honda Accord. on suspicion of motor vehicle violations. "As the result of an investigation and subsequent search of the motor vehicle two firearms and ammunition were located," police said.

Police found a .45-caliber F. LLI Pietta revolver and a Ruger LC .380. There were six rounds of Colt .45 ammunition and seven rounds of ammunition with the Ruger, including one bullet in the chamber, police said.

The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April and other troubling ones this year in Ohio and Arizona gave capital punishment opponents a flicker of hope that areas of the country that most enthusiastically support the death penalty might have a change of heart. They didn't.

McALESTER, Okla. -- Oklahoma's last execution went so badly that the state tried to cancel it before it was over. With the inmate writhing while the lethal drugs seeped into his body, his executioners drew the viewing gallery curtains, concealing what the warden later described as "a bloody mess."

The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April and other troubling ones this year in Ohio and Arizona gave capital punishment opponents a flicker of hope that areas of the country that most enthusiastically support the death penalty might have a change of heart. They didn't.

Although Gov. Mary Fallin suspended further executions so that Lockett's death and Oklahoma's methods could be reviewed, the state held what amounted to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its overhauled death chamber only months later and is scheduled to resume killing inmates in mid-January. And rather than causing states to question whether capital punishment is just or worth the risk of subjecting someone to a potentially agonizing death, the prolonged executions and problems states have had securing lethal injection drugs have led them to explore new, old and more efficient ways of killing, including gassing inmates.

"I think we had a little flash of hope that it would help our cause, but all it did was generate a lot of conversation about it," said Lydia Polley, a longtime member of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "It just led to people thinking of better ways to kill them."

Lockett's execution did little or nothing to dampen support for the death penalty in deeply conservative Oklahoma, which has killed more inmates than any other state except Texas since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. In October, officials gave media tours of the renovated execution unit at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, which got a $104,000 overhaul after Lockett's death and now stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the shabby, 106-year-old facility.

Not content with just the upgrades to the prison and lethal injection equipment, though, Oklahoma's Republican-led House conducted a study on the use of nitrogen gas to execute inmates and is expected to consider legislation early next year that would make Oklahoma the first state to adopt hypoxia by gas -- the forced deprivation of oxygen -- as a legal execution method.

Other conservative states also are exploring alternatives to lethal injection because of the problems securing the drugs. U.S. states have had to buy made-to-order execution drugs from compounding pharmacies in recent years because the pharmaceutical companies they used to buy their drugs from refuse to sell them for use in lethal injections.

Tennessee passed a law this year to reinstate the electric chair if it can't get lethal injection drugs and Utah is considering bringing back the firing squad.

Oklahoma has executed 194 inmates since achieving statehood in 1907, including one by hanging, 82 by electrocution and 111 by lethal injection, according to state prison records. But the use of the death penalty was common in the territory long before that. U.S. District Judge Isaac Parker, who operated out of nearby Fort Smith, earned a reputation as the "Hanging Judge" of the old West and presided over certain crimes committed in Indian territory.

"To me it's a reflection of our frontier culture," said Oklahoma historian Bob Blackburn. "Violence is a part of frontier culture, and vigilante justice has always been a strong element of our history."

Ralph Shortey, a Republican state senator from Oklahoma City who is pushing for Oklahoma to adopt alternative execution methods to lethal injection, estimates that 90 percent of his constituents strongly support the death penalty, despite what happened to Lockett.

"The average Oklahoman is saying he got exactly what he deserves," Shortey said. "A lot of people think they should suffer even more than they do. They think the lethal injection is too easy for them."

Oklahoma prison officials say they've secured the drugs they need to execute the next four inmates -- the first is scheduled for Jan. 15 -- unless a federal appeals court stands in their way. The inmates are trying to stop their executions, arguing that the state would essentially be experimenting on them by injecting them with unproven and untested drugs and violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"Just because you say you've renovated the execution chamber, doesn't mean a judge will be satisfied that you've identified the problems and have a strong guarantee they won't happen again," said Richard Dieter, the director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based advocacy group that opposes capital punishment. "They may be optimistic about being able to go forward, but I think there are still a lot of questions out there."

Most of the work was to mow lawns and remove trash.

CHICOPEE - The city's health department has spent abut $2,735 over the past four months to clean up problem properties throughout the city.

The City Council voted to appropriate the money from the general fund this month, but Councilor John L. Vieau said liens will be placed on the different properties in an effort to recoup the money from property owners.

The work has already been done. The appropriation is to pay Moving/Odd Jobs Unlimited, which was hired to do the cleaning and mowing.

Many of the properties involved are those which banks have foreclosed for lack of mortgage payments. Those are especially difficult to get the owners to clean and over time trash has accumulated on the properties and the grass has grown several feet, Councilor Gary Labrie said.

In total there were a dozen properties where lawns involved. Most of the work was to remove trash and cut lawns.

Problem properties were on Amherst Street, Shaw Park Avenue, Catherine Street, Oliver Street, Orchard Street, Sheridan Street, Frontnac Street, Stebbins Street, McKinstry Avenue, Access Road, Boucher Circle and Mandalay Road.

Tyson, the director of New York's Hayden Planetarium and an astrophysicist and cosmologist, angered many when he wished Issac Newton a happy birthday on Christmas morning.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's has sparked widespread scorn and debate with a string of tweets on Christmas Day.

Tyson, the director of New York's Hayden Planetarium and an astrophysicist and cosmologist, angered many when he wished Issac Newton a happy birthday on Christmas morning.

Time reports that the astrophysicist and "Cosmos" host set off the Twitter storm  with the following posting:

On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642

-- Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014

Tyson's tweet drew praise from some, but others felt it was "disrespectful to those observing Christmas on Dec. 25," the news website reported. And the "anti-Christian furor was stoked by Tyson's follow-up tweet," which read:

Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).

-- Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014

Late Friday, Tyson wrote a Facebook message explaining his tweet, which he said was his most retweeted ever:

"Everybody knows that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th," Tyson wrote. "I think fewer people know that Isaac Newton shares the same birthday. Christmas day in England - 1642. And perhaps even fewer people know that before he turned 30, Newton had discovered the laws of motion, the universal law of gravitation, and invented integral and differential calculus."

Tyson goes on to note: "My sense in this case is that the high rate of re-tweeting, is not to share my enthusiasm of this fact, but is driven by accusations that the tweet is somehow anti-Christian. If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment, my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton's birthday would appear nowhere on the list."

Read the full story at Time.

Here's a CBS story that includes some of the responses Tyson received.

At OregonLive.com, readers weighed in on the controversy.

NOLA.com and OregonLive.com contributed to this report.

Thousands of police officers from across the nation packed a church and spilled onto streets Saturday to honor Officer Rafael Ramos as a devoted family man, aspiring chaplain and hero, though an air of unrest surrounding his ambush shooting was not completely pushed aside.

NEW YORK -- Thousands of police officers from across the nation packed a church and spilled onto streets Saturday to honor Officer Rafael Ramos as a devoted family man, aspiring chaplain and hero, though an air of unrest surrounding his ambush shooting was not completely pushed aside.

While mourners inside the church applauded politely as Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke, hundreds of officers outside turned their backs on him to protest what they see as his support for demonstrators angry over killings by police.

The rush of officers far and wide to New York for Ramos' funeral reminded some of the bond after the Sept. 11 attacks and Superstorm Sandy. Vice President Joe Biden promised that the "incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide."

Still, tensions were evident when officers turned away from giant screens showing de Blasio, who has been harshly criticized by New York Police Department union officials as a contributor to a climate of mistrust that preceded the killings of Ramos and his partner, Wenjian Liu.

Sgt. Myron Joseph of the New Rochelle Police Department said he and fellow officers turned their backs spontaneously to "support our brothers in the NYPD."

In a statement, de Blasio's spokesman said: "The Ramos and Liu families, our police department and our city are dealing with an unconscionable tragedy. Our sole focus is unifying this city and honoring the lives of our two police officers."

The NYPD said through its public relations office that it had no comment.

In his eulogy, de Blasio said hearts citywide were broken after the Dec. 20 shootings.

"All of this city is grieving and grieving for so many reasons," de Blasio said. "But the most personal is that we've lost such a good man, and the family is in such pain."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the sea of blue mourners for their professionalism at recent rallies over police conduct when protesters insulted them, and Biden spoke passionately about the effects of the officers' deaths.

"When an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation," the vice president said.

Police union officials in contentious contract negotiations with the city have faulted de Blasio for showing sympathy to protesters angry over the police deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island.

At a hospital after the officers' slayings, the police union's president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on de Blasio. Lynch said the mayor had "blood on his hands."

After the funeral, Lynch and de Blasio exchanged nods as they exited the church. Lynch refused to answer reporters' questions about officers turning their backs.

Weeks before the shooting, Lynch had suggested officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.

Soon after taking office this year, de Blasio dropped the city's opposition to a judge's finding that the police department discriminated against minorities with its anti-crime stop-and-frisk tactics.

But since last week's shootings, de Blasio has stood firmly by police, calling on demonstrators to temporarily halt protests and praising the department after it arrested several men charged with threatening police.

The killings shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police over the high-profile, in-custody deaths.

When the Ramos family arrived at church Saturday, the elder son -- wearing his father's NYPD jacket -- was hugged by a police officer.

Ramos, a 40-year-old married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.

Police Commissioner William Bratton said Ramos had been made honorary chaplain of the police precinct where he had worked.

Bratton said in his eulogy that Ramos and Liu would be "partners for all time." Speaking to Ramos' children, he said: "We are here because your dad was assassinated. It's a different word than 'murdered.' It makes the crime intentional and symbolic. Your dad was assassinated because he represented something."

Officer Dustin Lindaman of the Waterloo Police Department flew from Iowa to attend the funeral.

"He's one of our brothers, and when this happens, it affects everyone in law enforcement -- it absolutely affects everyone," he said.

A block from the church, retired NYPD Officer John Mangan held a sign that read: "God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio."

"If the mayor really wanted to do the right thing, he would have gotten into an NYPD car and rode around Bed Stuy and see the difficult jobs these cops do every day," Mangan said.

After the officers' deaths, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed himself. Police said he was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.

In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of Brown and Garner, both of whom were black, by white police officers.

Ramos and Liu were the first officers to die in the line of duty in New York since 2011. Funeral plans for Liu haven't been announced.

They have both been posthumously promoted to first-grade detective.

___

Jonathan Lemire and Mike Balsamo of the Associated Press wrote this report.

Northampton and Southampton Fire department ambulances provided mutual aid at the accident.

EASTHAMPTON - Two women were injured in a three-car accident Saturday near the Post Office on Northampton Street.

One of the women was driving a car and the second was a passenger. Both were described as elderly and neither had life-threatening injuries, said Fire Capt. Wayne Hennemann.

The accident happened at about 12:05 p.m. when two drivers collided when they attempted to turn into the post office on 191 Northampton St. at the same time. The third vehicle was hit by one of the original vehicles following the initial crash, Hennemann said.

At least four people were involved in the accident but only the two women were hurt, he said.

Northampton and Southampton Fire department ambulances provided mutual aide to transport the two women to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton because the Easthampton ambulances were out of service on other calls, he said.

Police directed traffic around to accident and prevented back-ups, Hannemann said.

The accident is under investigation by the Easthampton Police Department, he said.

Now, 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his administration’s “War on Poverty,” most of those high-paying manufacturing jobs are gone – and so is one of the region’s most reliable hedges against the misery people experience when they lack the ability to earn a living wage.

SPRINGFIELD – For decades, good-paying, one-wage-earner manufacturing jobs enabled generations of Western Massachusetts workers to support their families with only the benefit of a high school education.

Those easy-to-come-by jobs were the region’s best defense against the scourge of poverty. All it took was the desire to learn on the job and to work hard.

Now, 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his administration’s War on Poverty, most of those high-paying manufacturing jobs are gone – and so is one of the region’s most reliable hedges against the misery people experience when they lack the ability to earn a living wage.

The region's heavy reliance on manufacturing dates back to 1794 when President George Washington and Secretary of Defense Henry Knox made the decision to locate the U.S. Armory in Springfield.

This 1973 photo shows the expansion of the Digital Equipment Corp. plant on Routes 10/202 in Westfield that doubled the size of the previous 520,000-square-foot operation. The plant employed 900 at the time. After Digital left the site became a distribution center for Caldor Corp., then Ames and now C & S Wholesale Grocers. Republican file photo 

Beyond its strategic importance to the young nation, the armory would play a major role in the economic vitality of the region for decades to come.

For the better part of the 20th century, the Springfield Armory was one of the region's largest employers, providing jobs for 15,000 workers during World War II and serving as an incubator for technological advances used by manufacturers throughout the region.

In the post-war years, the armory was like a suit of armor ensuring the city's prosperity for another generation of workers and their families.

But by the time the armory was closed in 1968 – four years after Johnson's declaration of War on Poverty – there were fewer than 100 workers there.

Edward W. Collins Jr., a longtime local representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, has watched the steady decline in manufacturing in a career that spans four decades beginning in the late 1960s.

Efforts to save the Springfield Armory, once the employer of thousands of workers, is reflected in this November 1964 edition of the Springfield Union, now The Republican. The armory closed in 1968.Republican file photo 

Collins said the subsequent loss of big privately owned factories, such as Package Machinery, Chapman Valve, American Bosch and Digital Equipment Corp. hurt the region even more than Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's decision to shut down government operations at the home of the Springfield Rifle on State Street.

Privately owned manufacturers created more wealth than the government-run armory, Collins said. "They took raw materials and made something and created wealth and value," he said. "Not only were there good jobs for workers, there were good value for owners."

Companies like the locally owned Package Machinery supported charitable causes, he said. "They were good corporate citizens."

With the loss of manufacturing, people's lives got worse and the standard of living declined. "We lost a lot more than jobs," Collins said.

The late 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s were tough decades for manufacturing in Western Massachusetts, Collins said. The decline coincided with tough times for labor unions, he said.

Gone are United Technologies Diesel Systems, which took over the American Bosch plant on the Springfield-Chicopee line. When United Technologies, then UTC, closed in 1986, the area lost 900 jobs, about 100 of which were switched to a facility which UTC had built in South Carolina.

Gone is Digital Equipment Corp.'s sprawling complex on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College – now experiencing a renewal as STCC's Technology Park. Digital closed in 1993, leaving 1,000 people out of work.

And gone, too is the former Chapman Valve Manufacturing ̫ later Crane Co. ̫ which once employed more than 3,500 employees and was one of the world's largest makers of gate, sluice and slice valves. By the time the plant closed in 1986, only 100 employees remained.

Manufacturers left the region in the 1980s for southern states like the Carolinas where labor was cheaper and right-to-work laws were ignored.

"At the end of World War II, 35 percent of Americans belonged to a union," Collins said. In the 1980s, union membership hovered around 22 percent – and now, only 8 percent belong to a union, he said.

The steady decline in manufacturing accelerated in the 1980s when Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties lost nearly 20,000 jobs. By 1990 just 19 percent of Pioneer Valley residents collected paychecks from manufacturing companies compared to more than 28 percent a decade earlier.

In the 1990s, manufacturing – once so strong in the United States – began to migrate offshore – to Europe and Japan. Then, in 2000, China entered the market for cheap manufactured goods, further crippling the industry in the United States.

American companies turned to advanced manufacturing, which required a higher degree of skills for high-end products, according to Jack Healy, director of the Worcester-based Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership, an organization dedicated to helping small and medium sized manufacturers in the Bay State grow.

The skills that workers had acquired and developed at the armory and later at big private manufacturers continue to fuel innovation in manufacturing – and and a long tradition of expertise in metal working in the region, according to several industry leaders.

With the disappearance of those big employers and the waning of manufacturing in general, economic development leaders have promoted growth in other sectors of the economy over the last two decades – namely higher education, health care, construction, retail and financial services.

But manufacturing has always been part of the mix in Western Massachusetts, and it remains so, according to Timothy Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. There is new opportunity for advancement – and well-paying, living-wage jobs – in the modern incarnations of the old smokestack industry, Brennan says.

“Manufacturing is not dead,” Brennan said.

“We don’t want to be a region that doesn’t make anything,” he said. “Manufacturing is an economic multiplier,” he added, noting that tangible products can be exported and fuel demand for regional services – from the dry cleaners to the grocery store chain.

New clean manufacturing jobs – using precision instruments and computer-assisted equipment – can pay up to $75,000 a year, Brennan said. A high school diploma – especially from the region’s vocational and technical high schools – is still a necessary piece of paper – an education that can be built upon with additional industry-specific training at Springfield Technical and Holyoke Community colleges, he said.

Brennan and others like David Cruise, executive director of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, are hearing from small and medium-sized manufacturers who are desperately seeking new manufacturing workers with skill sets that include critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork.

Encouraging high school age and younger students that manufacturing “is no longer a dirty job,” takes some education – not just for students, but for parents who are pushing their children on a path to a four-year college, Cruise said.

Cruise said his agency’s role is to work with the public school system to mentor and encourage students to consider a career in manufacturing. There is good work going on at the Roger L. Putnam Vocational-Technical Academy where a group of leaders is providing guidance and financial support to the school administration.

The Springfield public school system’s budget doesn’t allow for some of the expenditures needed to train students in the latest technology, Cruise said. “It’s our role to engage the private sector in the work of the school system and invest in it to help sustain it.”

That work also extends to the region’s community colleges, which are working with local employers to develop tailor-made training programs for the manufacturing jobs – like precision manufacturing and metal work – that are now in demand.

Manufacturing employers want results, Cruise said. Without a new generation of well-trained workers, opportunities for small and mid-sized companies to expand and grow could be stymied.

Math skills for students are important in the new high-tech manufacturing businesses, Brennan said. “Employers don't want to become public schools,” he said, adding that employers want a workers with a higher level of mechanical skills – and the foundational skills like “showing up for work on time, the ability to work in teams and to problem-solve.”

Cruise and Brennan are hopeful that new public-private coalitions, working together, can spark a manufacturing revival in Western Massachusetts.

What’s different than 25 years ago, Cruise said, is that there is a shared recognition that partnerships between the public and private sectors are necessary. “They know they need each other,” he said.

The region won’t see the likes of the manufacturers that create thousands of jobs, Brennan said, despite the boost of Changchun, the Chinese railway company planning an assembly plant on Page Boulevard in East Springfield. That company expects to hire 150 production workers, although that could double depending on the number of contracts.

Instead, he said, “The growth will come in companies with fewer than 20 employees."

Together, those small and medium companies can add up to a powerful force – one that can provide a new generation of workers with a worthwhile, rewarding and well-paying job and a hedge against poverty.

Click here for an easy link to all the poverty posts.

Coming Monday: Gov.-elect Charlie Baker talks about poverty including minimum wage and homelessness.

In a year where there were so many elections, and no shortage of interesting subject matter on the national, state and local levels, it was hard to whittle the list down to just 10 stories.

By ROBERT RIZZUTO and SHIRA SCHOENBERG
The Republican Staff

As 2014 winds down, the politics team at The Republican reflected on the most important stories we covered this past year.

In a year when there were so many elections, and no shortage of interesting subject matter on the national, state and local levels, it was hard to whittle a list down to just 10 stories.

Maybe we nailed it. Perhaps we omitted something crucial. Offer your reaction in the comments section below, and don't hesitate to include a link.

Without further ado, these are the stories deemed the top politics stories of 2014 as covered by the staff of The Republican newspaper and MassLive.com.

10. After the state Health Connector website failed spectacularly in 2013, Gov. Deval Patrick replaced the leadership and fired the technology vendor. The eventual result was a working website in time for the 2014 open enrollment period.

9. The fight for higher wages and better working conditions swept the nation and Massachusetts in 2014 with protests, demonstrations and a political movement to push for changes to uplift the lowest-earning workers. Low-wage workers across the commonwealth will get a boost thanks to the state Legislature passing a bill to raise the minimum wage to $11 an hour. Another bonus came when Massachusetts voters approved a ballot initiative guaranteeing paid sick time for employees who previously had no such benefits.

8. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided to overturn a Massachusetts law establishing a buffer zone around abortion clinics to prevent protesters from directly confronting women seeking services. They said the law violated constitutional rights to free speech. The state Legislature responded by passing a new law, which took effect immediately, protecting women’s access to clinics and giving police the right to disperse protesters blocking access to clinics.

7. Though there was little high profile legislation in the Statehouse this session, lawmakers did come up with several significant bills, including one that updated the state’s gun laws and another that addressed the ongoing opioid crisis plaguing much of the Northeast, including Massachusetts. The gun control bill split elected officials based on the conservative or liberal leanings of their districts. The substance abuse bill united legislators from both parties but faced opposition from insurance companies, which were not pleased with a provision forcing them to pay for in-patient drug rehabilitation treatment.

6. Democrat Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts' senior U.S. senator, kept a high profile amid calls from progressive groups for her to run for president in 2016. Warren introduced legislation to allow students to refinance student loan debt and campaigned and raised funds for fellow Democrats locked in tough midterm election battles. She ultimately landed a position in the Democratic Party's leadership to help it craft messaging and strategy next year in Washington. While Warren has repeatedly said she is not running for president, her popularity among progressives fed up with traditional politicians created an interesting dynamic that some have compared to the tea party's place relative to the Republican Party.

5. In 2011, the state legislature passed the Expanded Gaming Act, which paved the way for up to three resort casinos and a slots parlor to spur economic development as the commonwealth emerged from the Great Recession. In 2014, the state awarded licenses around the same time as gaming opponents were successful in getting a question allowing voters to repeal the law on the November ballot. The repeal effort ultimately failed. MGM Resorts International won the Western Massachusetts license for its $800 million Springfield casino; Wynn Resorts won the Eastern Massachusetts license for its $1.6 billion Everett Casino, and Penn National Gaming won the sole slots parlor license for its $225 million Plainridge Park Casino at the Plainridge harness race track in Plainville. Pending lawsuits include suits filed by the city of Somerville, the city of Revere and the employees of Suffolk Downs, and Caesar's Entertainment, all against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

4. In 2014, Massachusetts made history once again by electing the country's first openly gay attorney general - Democrat Maura Healey. While her general election bid against first-time GOP candidate John Miller was not much of a fight, her primary battle with fellow Democrat Warren Tolman was one of the most interesting campaigns in 2014. Healey, who previously headed two bureaus in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, was endorsed early on by LGBT rights groups eying the potential to make history in the same state that paved the way for marriage equality nationally. Healey, who lives in Charlestown with her partner, will take over as the commonwealth's top lawyer in 2015.

3. Another trend that developed in 2014 was Western Massachusetts' elected officials exiting from politics. Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe announced he will not seek reelection in 2016 and endorsed the first candidate looking to succeed him, Nick Cocchi. State Sen. Stephen Brewer retired after nearly 20 years in the Statehouse; state Rep. Sean Curran declined to seek reelection and state Sen. Gale Candaras left the Statehouse to run for Register of Probate, but lost to independent Suzanne Seguin. But with the loss of some experience in the Statehouse from Western Massachusetts, state Sen. Stan Rosenberg of Amherst is poised to become the new Senate President. And a new crop of eager first-time politicians are entering public service, including state Sen. Eric Lesser, state Rep. Jose Tosado, state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez and state Rep. John Velis.

2. The Probation Department's patronage hiring scandal rocked the #MaPoli world with a high profile federal court case. Sponsor lists revealed that many elected officials made scores of job recommendations for hires at the Probation Department. Testimony at the trial showed that top probation officials changed interview scores and lied in arbitration to hire less qualified job candidates who were more politically connected. Probation Commissioner John O’Brien and deputies Elizabeth Tavares and William Burke were ultimately convicted of running a rigged hiring scheme at the Probation Department, though they were given light sentences.

1. The 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial race's cliffhanger conclusion sent a Republican back to the corner office on Beacon Hill following eight years of Democratic leadership under Patrick. While the Democratic and Republican primary races had interesting twists and turns, including tea party Republican Mark Fisher's lawsuit against the state Republican Party and Democrat Don Berwick's feverish following, the general election between Republican Charlie Baker and Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley was no doubt the year's top political story. A combination of a lack of enthusiasm among Coakley's base; Baker's positive campaign message; and United Independent Party candidate Evan Falchuk pulling support from independents all helped pave the path to victory for Baker, who is entering office to deal with what is being projected as potentially a $700 million budget shortfall.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Virginia Varg 

Virginia (Lyon) Varg, 88, of Belchertown passed away on Wednesday in Punta Gorda, Florida. She was raised in Lynn. She had lived in Belchertown for the last 26 years and Ludlow for 32 years before that. She was a registered nurse, and retired from the Town of Ludlow, as a visiting nurse in 1986.

Westfield resident Lynn Cavanaugh was seriously injured in the accident.

Dave Canton | dcanton@repub.com 

Update: This story was updated at 4:06 p.m. to reflect that Kevin Regan was a Westfield firefighter and brother to Westfield Fire Chief Mary Regan.

YARMOUTH, Ma — A Westfield firefighter was killed and a Westfield woman was seriously injured Saturday after a drunk driver hit the two pedestrians, Yarmouth Police said.

The Yarmouth Police Facebook page lists Kevin Regan as the victim in the crash.

At approximately 11:43 p.m. Saturday night Yarmouth police and fire departments were dispatched to Route 28 in the area of the Parkers River Bridge in West Yarmouth for a report of a motor vehicle striking two pedestrians with serious injuries.

Regan, 62, was transported to Cape Cod Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was a 43-year-member of the Westfield Fire Department and is the brother of Westfield Fire Chief Mary Regan. His girlfriend Lynda M. Cavanaugh, 62, also of Westfield, suffered serious injuries and was flown to a Boston area hospital. She is expected to survive.

The driver of the 2009 Ford Econovan E150 that hit the couple stopped and remained at the scene until police arrived. He is identified as Paul G. Dennehy, 55, of South Yarmouth.

Paul G. Dennehy, of Yarmouth, Ma. Yarmouth Police Department 

He is being charged with motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of liquor and operating under the influence with serious injury, police said.

Dennehy is scheduled for arraignment in the Barnstable District Court on Monday morning.

The Cape Cod Regional Law Enforcement Crash Reconstruction Unit is conducting a crash reconstruction investigation. Yarmouth Police Department Detective Christopher Kent is conducting a follow-up investigation.

Anyone with information about this crash is asked to contact Detective Kent at (508)775-0445.

This is the second fatal crash in Yarmouth with 24 hours. Both crashes involved alcoholic beverage usage, police said.

The accident occurred around noon on Sunday.

SPRINGFIELD ᰬ Police and firefighters responded to a rollover car accident around noon Sunday on Boston Road.

Firefighters were called for an extrication at the crash site, but found the victim had pulled himself out of the car on his own, said Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant.

There were no injuries, but there was damage to several vehicles at Chris's Auto Sales at 76 Boston Road.

The debris from the accident flew over the fence into the lot. A Volkswagen Beetle sustained damage to the roof as well as another car.

Police are investigating the crash.

The Ferguson Police Department has suspended a spokesman after he referred to the Michael Brown memorial as "a pile of trash."

FERGUSON, Mo. -- The Ferguson Police Department has suspended a spokesman after he referred to the Michael Brown memorial as "a pile of trash."

A statement the city provided to The Associated Press on Sunday didn't identify the officer who made the remark to The Washington Post. The newspaper attributed the comment to Officer Tim Zoll.

The memorial at the site of Brown's death was damaged last week after a car apparently hit it.

Zoll doesn't have a listed number and couldn't be reached by the AP.

The city says the spokesman denied making the comment, but later admitted that he'd misled his bosses.

He has been placed on unpaid leave while "disciplinary proceedings" begin.

City officials said negative remarks about the memorial "do not reflect the feelings of the Ferguson Police Department."

The Obama administration is on the verge of proposing long-awaited rules for commercial drone operations in U.S. skies, but key decisions on how much access to grant drones are likely to come from Congress next year.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is on the verge of proposing long-awaited rules for commercial drone operations in U.S. skies, but key decisions on how much access to grant drones are likely to come from Congress next year.

Federal Aviation Administration officials have said they want to release proposed rules before the end of this month, but other government and industry officials say they are likely to be delayed until January. Meanwhile, except for a small number of companies that have received FAA exemptions, a ban on commercial drone flights remains in place. Even after rules are proposed, it is likely to be two or three years before regulations become final.

That's too long to wait, say drone industry officials. Every year the ban remains in place, the United States loses more than $10 billion in potential economic benefits that drones could provide, according to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group.

"We need some sort of process that allows some of the low-risk operations," said Jesse Kallman, the head of regulatory affairs for Airware, a drone technology company backed by Google Ventures. "I think Congress understands that, and hopefully they'll take steps in the coming year to address that."

That appears to be what some key lawmakers have in mind. "We in Congress are very interested in UAS," Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said at a hearing this month, referring to unmanned aerial systems, or drones. "We understand UAS are an exciting technology with the potential to transform parts of our economy. ... It is our responsibility to take a close look."

One of the committee's first priorities next year is writing legislation to reauthorize FAA programs and overhaul aviation policy. The bill is expected to include directions from lawmakers on how to integrate drones into the nation's aviation system. The last reauthorization bill, passed in 2012, directed the agency to integrate drones by Sept. 30, 2015, but it's clear the FAA will miss that deadline.

The FAA is expected to propose restricting drones weighing less than 55 pounds to altitudes below 400 feet, forbid nighttime flights and require drones be kept within sight of their operators. Drone operators may also be required to get pilot's licenses, a possibility already drawing fire from critics who say the skills needed to fly a manned aircraft are different from those needed to operate a drone.

Shuster indicated he's concerned that requiring pilot's licenses might be burdensome and unnecessary. And keeping drones within sight of operators would be too strict and limit their usefulness, he said.

The reason for keeping drones within line of sight is that they don't yet have the ability to detect and avoid other aircraft.

AUVSI, the drone industry trade group, recently hired Mark Aitken, former legislative director to Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., as its government relations manager. LoBiondo is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, which will write the FAA reauthorization bill.

"We're really looking at an incremental approach still," Aitken said. "It's not something that is going to happen overnight."

FAA officials have been working on drone regulations for nearly a decade. The agency twice drafted regulations that were later rejected by the White House or Transportation Department. The FAA has long maintained that unmanned aircraft must meet the same regulations as manned aircraft unless waiving or adjusting those regulations doesn't create a safety risk. However, FAA officials more recently have begun talking about "risk-based" regulations, giving industry officials hope the agency might propose a blanket exemption from regulations for the smallest drones -- usually defined as weighing under 5 pounds -- as long as operators follow a few basic safety rules. Canadian authorities recently approved a blanket exemption for very small drones.

Congress already is getting pushback from private and commercial pilots who worry about possible collisions. The FAA receives reports nearly every day about drones sighted flying near manned aircraft or airports.

"As a (Boeing) 737 captain, I'll be damned if myself and 178 other people are taken down by a 12-pound or a 50-pound or a 150-pound piece of metal coming through my windshield," said Ben Berman at a recent forum hosted by the Air Line Pilots Association. "There are too many near misses occurring every day like this."

Mark Baker, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which represents private pilots, said online videos show that "operators are flying near airports, in the clouds and in congested airspace." He called such actions "reckless" and said they will inevitably lead to a collision.

FAA regulations permit recreational users to fly small drones as long as they stay at least 5 miles away from an airport, limit flights to less than 400 feet in altitude, keep the aircraft in line of sight and fly only during the daytime.

Last week, drone industry trade groups teamed up with the FAA and model aircraft hobbyists to launch a safety campaign aimed at amateur drone operations. The campaign includes a website, www.knowbeforeyoufly.com , where operators can find FAA regulations and advice on how to fly safely. The trade groups said they also plan to distribute safety pamphlets at industry events and are working with manufacturers to see that safety information is enclosed inside the package of new drones.

Retailers say small drones, which are indistinguishable from today's more sophisticated model aircraft, were popular gifts this Christmas.

Farmers already scrambling to find workers in California -- the nation's leading grower of fruits, vegetables and nuts -- fear an even greater labor shortage under President Barack Obama's executive action to block some 5 million people from deportation.

FRESNO, Calif. -- Farmers already scrambling to find workers in California -- the nation's leading grower of fruits, vegetables and nuts -- fear an even greater labor shortage under President Barack Obama's executive action to block some 5 million people from deportation.

Thousands of the state's farmworkers, who make up a significant portion of those who will benefit, may choose to leave the uncertainty of their seasonal jobs for steady, year-around work building homes, cooking in restaurants and cleaning hotel rooms.

"This action isn't going to bring new workers to agriculture," said Jason Resnick, vice president and general counsel of the powerful trade association Western Growers. "It's possible that because of this action, agriculture will lose workers without any mechanism to bring in new workers."

Although details of the president's immigration policy have yet to be worked out, Resnick said the agricultural workforce has been declining for a decade. Today, the association estimates there is a 15 to 20 percent shortage of farmworkers, which is driving the industry to call for substantial immigration reform from Congress, such as a sound guest worker program.

"Hopefully there will be the opportunity for comprehensive immigration reform," said Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. "That's the right thing to do for this country."

California's 330,000 farmworkers account for the largest share of the 2.1 million nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Texas comes in a distant second with less than half of California's farmworkers.

Once Obama's executive action starts going into effect next year, it will protect the parents of legal U.S. residents from deportation and expand a 2012 program that shields from deportation people brought into the U.S. illegally as children.

Manuel Cunha, president of the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League, estimates that 85 percent of California's agricultural workers are using false documents to obtain work.

Cunha, who has advised the Obama administration on immigration policy, figures that 50,000 of the state's farmworkers who may benefit from the president's executive action could leave the fields and packing houses in California's $46.4 billion agricultural industry.

"How do I replace that?" he said. "I think we're going to have a problem."

Many farmworkers are paid above minimum wage, earning more hourly than they will in other industries, but he said that workers that leave will gain year-around jobs and regular paychecks, rather than seasonal employment.

While farmers may face a setback, Obama's order is good for workers, who support families and fear that any day they may be pulled over driving to work and deported, said Armando Elenes, national vice president of the United Farm Workers.

With proper documentation, workers will feel empowered and be more valuable, Elenes said. Confronted with abuse at work -- such as being paid less than minimum wage or denied overtime -- workers will be able to challenge their employer or leave, he said.

In addition, their newfound mobility will create competition for farmworkers and potentially increase wages, Elenes said, adding, "It's going to open up a whole new world for workers. A lot of times, if you're undocumented, you feel like you're stuck."

Ed Kissam, an immigration researcher at the immigrant advocacy group, WKF Giving Fund, said he doubts a significant number of farmworkers will leave the industry. Farmworkers often lack the language, education and technical skills to move up the employment ladder, he said. "Surely some will," Kissam said. "It's not going to be a mass exodus."

Edward Taylor, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, said a shortage of farmworkers could be exacerbated by a dwindling flow of workers from Mexico, the largest supplier of labor to the United States. Taylor said the lower birthrates, more industrial jobs and better schools in rural Mexico are cutting into the supply of farmworkers.

"U.S. and Mexican farmers have to compete for that diminishing supply of farm labor," he said. "Once this change hits, there's no going back."

Central Valley farmer Harold McClarty of HMC Farms, who hires a thousand workers at harvest time, said there is no replacing the human hand for picking the 50 varieties of peaches he grows. His workers pick a single tree five or more times, making sure the fruit they take is ripe.

"We haven't found any machines that can do anything like that," he said. "You can't just pick the whole tree."

AMHERST - Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014 was the last day of Amtrak Vermonter service to Amherst. Passengers and train enthusiasts packed the tiny Amtrak train depot on Railroad St. to ride and photograph the last southbound train leaving the college town.. Beginning Monday, Dec. 29, 2014 a new high-speed train service is slated to begin stopping at the Amtrak depot...

AMHERST - Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014 was the last day of Amtrak Vermonter service to Amherst.

Passengers and train enthusiasts packed the tiny Amtrak train depot on Railroad St. to ride and photograph the last southbound train leaving the college town..

Beginning Monday, Dec. 29, 2014 a new high-speed train service is slated to begin stopping at the Amtrak depot in Northampton.

The war came to a formal end Sunday with a ceremony in Kabul.

HONOLULU -- President Barack Obama says the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.

Obama is welcoming the end of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan. The war came to a formal end Sunday with a ceremony in Kabul.

Obama says in a statement that the effort has devastated al-Qaida's core leadership, brought justice to Osama bin Laden and disrupted terrorist plots. He says U.S. troops and diplomats have helped Afghans reclaim their communities and move toward democracy.

Obama is also honoring the more than 2,200 Americans who have died in Afghanistan since the war started 13 years ago. Obama says those years have tested the U.S. and its military.

"Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending" pic.twitter.com/0nNdyMZzDJ

-- The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 28, 2014

From a peak 140,000 troops in 2010, the U.S. and NATO plan to leave just 13,500 behind.

An astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia turned worse Sunday when an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people disappeared over stormy Indonesian waters, with no word on its fate despite several hours of searching by air and sea.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- An astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia turned worse Sunday when an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people disappeared over stormy Indonesian waters, with no word on its fate despite several hours of searching by air and sea.

AirAsia Flight 8501 vanished in airspace thick with dense storm clouds on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Searchers had to fight against heavy rain.

The Malaysia-based carrier's loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine.

At the Surabaya airport, shocked family members pored over the plane's manifest, crying and embracing. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list.

The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia's Lombok island, and had been happy to get the work.

"He just told me, 'Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,'" Adityas recalled, holding her grandson tight while weeping uncontrollably. "He apologized because he could not join us for the new year celebration."

Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays.

The Airbus A320 took off Sunday morning from Indonesia's second-largest city and was about halfway to Singapore when it vanished from radar. The jet had been airborne for about 42 minutes.

Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation, said there was no distress signal from the twin-engine, single-aisle plane.

The last communication between the cockpit and air traffic control was at 6:13 a.m. (23:13 GMT Saturday), when one of the pilots "asked to avoid clouds by turning left and going higher to 34,000 feet (10,360 meters)," Murjatmodjo said. It was last seen on radar at 6:16 a.m. and was gone a minute later, he told reporters.

Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia launched a search-and-rescue operation near Belitung island in the Java Sea, the area where the jetliner lost contact with the ground.

The air search was suspended Sunday evening and was to resume Monday morning, said Achmad Toha of Indonesia's search-and-rescue agency. Some ships continued searching overnight, he said.

AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes flew to Surabaya and told a news conference that the focus should be on the search and the families rather than the cause of the incident.

"We have no idea at the moment what went wrong," said Fernandes, a Malaysian businessman who founded the low-cost carrier in 2001. "Let's not speculate at the moment."

Malaysia-based AirAsia has a good safety record and had never lost a plane before.

"This is my worst nightmare," Fernandes tweeted.

But Malaysia itself has already endured a catastrophic year, with 239 people still missing from Flight 370 and all 298 people aboard Flight 17 killed when it was shot down over rebel-held territory in Ukraine.

AirAsia said Flight 8501 was on its submitted flight plan but had requested a change due to weather.

Sunardi, a forecaster at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, said dense storm clouds were detected up to 13,400 meters (44,000 feet) in the area at the time.

"There could have been turbulence, lightning and vertical as well as horizontal strong winds within such clouds," said Sunardi, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

The plane had an Indonesian captain and a French co-pilot, five cabin crew members and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement. Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians.

AirAsia said the captain has a total of 6,100 flying hours, but Fernandes later said the number is more than 20,000. The first officer has 2,275 flying hours.

At Surabaya airport, dozens of relatives sat in a room waiting for news, many of them talking on mobile phones and crying. Some looked dazed.

Dimas, who goes by one name, said his wife, 30-year-old Ratri Sri Andriani, had been on the flight to lead a group of 25 Indonesian tourists on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia. He was holding out hope that the plane had made an emergency landing.

"We can just pray and hope that all those aboard are safe," said Dimas, who was surrounded by Ratri's parents and friends at the airport crisis center. "We are worried, of course, but we have to surrender to her fate."

Indonesia's search-and-rescue head, Bambang Soelistyo, said his agency would search Monday with 12 ships and three helicopters, along with five military aircraft and a number of warships.

Malaysia and Singapore each planned to deploy one C-130 plane and three ships. Australia will also help, he added.

The missing aircraft was delivered to AirAsia in October 2008, and the plane had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours during some 13,600 flights, Airbus said in a statement.

The aircraft had last undergone scheduled maintenance on Nov. 16, according to AirAsia.

The airline, which has dominated cheap travel in Southeast Asia for years, flies short routes of just a few hours, connecting the region's large cities. Recently, it has tried to expand into long-distance flying through its sister airline AirAsia X.

Fernandes, who is the face of AirAsia and an active Twitter user, stirred controversy earlier this year after incorrectly tweeting that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had landed safely.

William Waldock, an expert on air crash search and rescue with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, cautioned against drawing comparisons to the disappearance of Flight 370.

The circumstances bode well for finding Flight 8501 since the intended flight time was less than two hours, and there is a known position where the plane disappeared, he said.

The Airbus A320 is a workhorse of modern aviation. Similar to the Boeing 737, it is used to connect cities anywhere from one to five hours apart. There are currently 3,606 A320s in operation worldwide, according to Airbus.

The A320 family of jets, which includes the A319 and A321, has a good safety record, with just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to a safety study published by Boeing in August.

Flight 8501 disappeared while at its cruising altitude, which is usually the safest part of a trip. Just 10 percent of fatal crashes from 2004 to 2013 occurred while a plane was in that stage of flight, according to the August Boeing safety report.

In 2007, an Indonesia-owned Adam Air plane carrying 102 people vanished during a domestic flight. Its flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders were retrieved months later, but much of the fuselage remains on the ocean floor.

In 1995, an Indonesian plane operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines disappeared over open water while flying between islands in the archipelago nation. The 14 crew and passengers were never found.

When passing through bad weather, Airbus jets are able to automatically adjust to wind shears or other weather disruptions. However, weather has played a role in past air disasters that occurred at cruise altitude, including the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash over the Atlantic Ocean.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

An AirAsia jet with 162 people on board disappeared Sunday while flying from western Indonesia to Singapore on a scheduled two-hour flight. Here's a look at the key developments:

• Air Asia Flight 8501 took off from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, at 5:31 a.m. Sunday (2231 GMT Saturday), bound for Singapore.
• The last communication between the pilot and air traffic control was made at 6:13 a.m. (2313 GMT Saturday), when the pilot asked to turn left and climb to 10,360 meters (34,000 feet) to "avoid clouds," according to Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation. Murjatmodjo said there was no distress signal from the cockpit.
• AirAsia said the Airbus A320-200 was on the submitted flight plan route. Murjatmodjo said it is believed to have gone missing somewhere over the Java Sea between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung island and Pontianak, on Indonesia's part of Borneo island.
• Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said dense storm clouds were detected up to 13,400 meters (44,000 feet) in the same area at the time the plane was reported to have lost contact.
• Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are involved in the search and rescue operation. Three Indonesian aircraft were dispatched to the area, while Singapore's air force and navy search with two C-130 planes. Indonesia said 200 rescuers were deployed to the east side of Belitung island. The air search was suspended at nightfall and set to resume at 6 a.m. Monday (2300 GMT Sunday).
• Dozens of relatives of people aboard the plane gathered in a room at Surabaya airport to await word about their loved ones. Among the passengers were three South Koreans and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. The rest were Indonesians.
• Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes, AirAsia's chief and the face of the company, tweeted, "This is my worst nightmare." He flew to Surabaya and said at a news conference that the focus should be on the search and the families. "We have no idea at the moment what went wrong. Let's not speculate at the moment," he said.
• In a separate incident later Sunday, an AirAsia flight carrying more than 150 passengers experienced a technical problem about 10 minutes after taking off from Penang, Malaysia, and had to return to the airport, AirAsia said. The flight took off again for the short flight to Langkawi island and safely reached its destination.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

NEW YORK -- Rescue crews are searching Indonesian waters for AirAsia Indonesia Flight 8501, which disappeared Sunday with 162 passengers and crew onboard. The plane was flying from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, and was about halfway to its destination, Singapore, when it vanished from radar.

Q: WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED?

A: It is way too early to know for sure, but here are some options. The plane was in the safest part of flight: Just 10 percent of fatal crashes from 2004 through 2013 occurred while a plane was at cruise elevation, according to a safety study published by Boeing in August.

Passing through bad weather such as severe thunderstorms could have been a factor. Airbus jets have sophisticated computers that automatically adjust to wind shears or other weather disruptions. But weather -- combined with pilot errors -- has played a role in past air disasters that occurred at cruise elevation, including the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash over the Atlantic Ocean.

Another possibility is some type of catastrophic metal fatigue caused by the cycle of pressurization and depressurization associated with each takeoff and landing cycle. This A320 had had 13,600 takeoffs and landings. Many occurred in humid climate, which speeds corrosion. Still, metal fatigue is unlikely because this plane is only 6 years old.

Finally, there's the possibility of terrorism or a mass murder by the pilot. There's no evidence of either action, but neither can yet be ruled out.

Q: WHAT DID THE PILOTS SAY TO AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS?

A: The last communication between the pilot and air traffic control was at 6:13 a.m. Sunday (6:13 p.m. EST Saturday) when the pilot "asked to avoid clouds by turning left and going higher to 34,000 feet (10,360 meters)." The last radar contact occurred three minutes later. There was no distress call. But pilots are trained to focus first on the emergency at hand and then communicate only when free.

Q: ISN'T THIS THE THIRD MALAYSIAN JET TO CRASH THIS YEAR?

A: Sort of. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared with 239 people aboard soon after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8. Its whereabouts and what happened remain one of the biggest mysteries in commercial aviation. Another Malaysia Airlines flight, also a Boeing 777, was shot down over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17. All 298 people aboard were killed. AirAsia is also based in Malaysia. But Flight 8501 was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a subsidiary that's 49 percent owned by the Malaysian parent company. So technically, it's an Indonesian airline. But the AirAsia brand is closely tied to the people of Malaysia.

Q: IS THERE A CONNECTION AMONG ALL THESE CRASHES?

A: No. It's just a very unfortunate year for Southeast Asia. But that doesn't stop conspiracy theories from sprouting. Ideas about what happened to Flight 370 -- both logical and bizarre -- keep appearing. The unsolved nature of that disappearance could generate more attention for Flight 8501 and create a new batch of hypotheses.

Q: HOW FAR COULD THE JET HAVE FLOWN?

A: Looking at the flight's paperwork, the plane had more than 18,000 pounds of jet fuel at takeoff, enough to fly about 31/2 hours, according to Phil Derner Jr., the founder of aviation enthusiast website NYCAviation.com and a flight dispatcher for a U.S. airline. He notes that that's less fuel than most flights tend to carry from New York to Florida.

Q: WHAT'S NEXT?

A: Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are conducting a search-and-rescue operation near Belitung island in the Java Sea, the plane's last known whereabouts. Assuming that the jet didn't veer far off course, the searchers should find wreckage, which can provide clues about what happened. Investigators will also try to recover the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, which often have the most detailed information about the plane's final moments. Those so-called black boxes have homing beacons that help searchers find them.

Q: IS THE AIRBUS A320 A SAFE JET?

A: The plane is a workhorse of modern aviation. Similar to the Boeing 737, the single-aisle, twin-engine jet is used to connect cities that are between one and five hours apart. Worldwide, 3,606 A320s are in operation, according to Airbus, which also makes nearly identical versions of the plane: The smaller A318 and A319 and the stretched A321. An additional 2,486 of those jets are flying. The A320 family has a good safety record, with just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to the Boeing safety study.

Q: WHAT ABOUT AIRASIA?

A: Low-cost AirAsia has a strong presence in most of Southeast Asia, and it recently expanded into India. Though most of its flights are just a few hours long, it has tried to expand into long-distance flying through its sister airline AirAsia X. None of its subsidiaries has lost a plane before, and it has a generally good safety record. But it does fly in a part of the world where air travel has expanded faster than the number of qualified pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers.

Q: WHAT ABOUT FLYING IN INDONESIA?

A: The country has had a bumpy safety record. In 2007, the crash rate and safety standards were so bad that the European Union barred all of Indonesia's airlines from flying into any of its member countries. Than ban was lifted in 2009. But Indonesia's main airline -- fast-growing Lion Air -- is still banned by the EU.

Q: WHAT'S IT LIKE TO FLY THROUGH A THUNDERSTORM AT 34,000 FEET?

A: Planes flying through thunderstorms experience severe turbulence, with the aircraft moving up, down, sideways and rolling. Anything not secured can float around in the cabin, bouncing off things and people. Overhead bins can open up, spilling contents. Airsickness is common.

Q: WHAT DO PILOTS DO TO AVOID THUNDERSTORMS?

A: If at all possible, airline pilots fly around thunderstorms, even if it means going far out of their way. Airliners like the A320 typically are equipped with radar that provides highly accurate weather information. Pilots can see a thunderstorm forming from over 100 miles away, giving them time to plot a way around the storm cluster or to look for gaps to fly through. It's usually not a problem for commercial planes to go 100 or more miles out of the way.

Q: HOW HIGH CAN AN A320 SAFELY FLY? AND WHAT IF IT EXCEEDS THAT LIMIT?

A: The A320 is certified to fly up to 39,000 feet, its maximum altitude before its rate of climb begins to erode. The plane has an absolute flight limit of 42,000 feet. But it can begin to experience problems as low as 37,000 feet, depending on temperature and weight, including fuel, cargo and passengers. The plane's computers should reveal the maximum altitude at which the plane can fly at its current weight and temperature. Planes that exceed their maximum altitude may lose lift, causing an aerodynamic stall. Or they can experience a pressurization blowout, damaging the plane.

Q: HOW DOES A PLANE JUST FALL OFF RADAR?

A: It's still unclear what traffic controllers saw on their screens when the plane disappeared from radar. Authorities haven't said whether they lost only the secondary radar target, which is created by the plane's transponder, or whether the primary radar target, created by energy reflected from the plane, was lost as well. If a plane came apart in the air or suffered a loss of electrical power, the secondary target would be lost, but the primary target is often still visible on radar. But if the plane were descending at rate of over 6,000 feet a minute -- typical of a plane about to crash -- the primary target might be lost as well.

Q: HOW VITAL IS AIR TRAVEL TO THE REGION?

A: For many people, it's the only option. Indonesia is a sprawling archipelago of 250 million people. To get from one island to another, the easiest way is to fly. As the region's economy has grown, so have the number of people flying. The International Air Transport Association recently named Indonesia as one of the world's five fastest-growing air travel markets, predicting an additional 183 million passengers would take to the sky within two decades.

Routes to, from and within the Asia-Pacific region are predicted by the industry trade group to see an extra 1.8 billion annual passengers by 2034, for an overall market size of 2.9 billion. Within two decades, the region is expected to account for 42 percent of global passenger traffic.

The increase in regional airline traffic reflects rapid economic growth. The International Monetary Fund expects the Southeast Asian economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to grow faster this year and next than anywhere except China, India and sub-Saharan Africa.

Several days later a retired Connecticut police officer was being investigated for his comments on Facebook.

CHICOPEE - Local police made news this week when officers decided to seek a criminal complaint in district court against a resident who wrote the term "put wings on pigs" on his Facebook page.

The phrase was used by Ismaaiyl Brinsley just before he shot New York City Police officers Wenjian Liy and Rafael Ramos two days earlier.

Police officials said they felt what Charles DiRosa, 27, a Chicopee resident, wrote was a threat. A judge will now determine if the complaint is valid and, if it is, DiRosa will be summonsed on charges.

Several days later retired Connecticut police officer Raymond "Doug" Humphrey" was being investigated for the statements he posted on his own Facebook page urging ""law enforcement friends" to kill DiRosa.

The story was the top read one this week on Masslive and people debated if it was a threat or a Freedom of Speech issue. Here are some of the things people Tweeted.

The miniature pony had been struck and killed on Tuesday.

EDEN, Vt. - A 42-year-old man was cited for possession of a narcotic and killing a miniature pony while riding his snowmobile.

Randy Mason, of Eden Vt., was cited Sunday for the incident that happened on Tuesday on Shover Road in Eden, Vermont, which is in the northern part of the state.

The miniature pony had been struck by a snowmobile at about 4:45 p.m., Tuesday. The operator removed the deceased animal from the roadway and left the scene without reporting the incident, Vermont State Police officials said.

An investigation lead police to believe the snowmobile operator was Mason. When officers went to Mason's job to talk to him Sunday, they found him to be possession of a narcotic, police said. The specific drug was not released.

"During questioning, Mason admitted to having been involved in the crash," police said.

He was cited and scheduled to appear in Lamoille District Court on Feb. 18.

West Africa's fight to contain Ebola has hampered the campaign against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that is claiming many thousands more lives than the dreaded virus.

GUECKEDOU, Guinea (AP) -- West Africa's fight to contain Ebola has hampered the campaign against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that is claiming many thousands more lives than the dreaded virus.

In Gueckedou, near the village where Ebola first started killing people in Guinea's tropical southern forests a year ago, doctors say they have had to stop pricking fingers to do blood tests for malaria.

Guinea's drop in reported malaria cases this year by as much as 40 percent is not good news, said Dr. Bernard Nahlen, deputy director of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative. He said the decrease is likely because people are too scared to go to health facilities and are not getting treated for malaria.

"It would be a major failure on the part of everybody involved to have a lot of people die from malaria in the midst of the Ebola epidemic," he said in a telephone interview. "I would be surprised if there were not an increase in unnecessary malaria deaths in the midst of all this, and a lot of those will be young children."

Figures are always estimates in Guinea, where half the 12 million people have no access to health centers and die uncounted. Some 15,000 Guineans died from malaria last year, 14,000 of them children under five, according to Nets for Life Africa, a New York-based charity dedicated to providing insecticide-treated mosquito nets to put over beds. In comparison, about 1,600 people in Guinea have died from Ebola, according to statistics from the World Health Organization.

Malaria is the leading cause of death in children under five in Guinea and, after AIDS, the leading cause of adult deaths, according to Nets for Life.

Ebola and malaria have many of the same symptoms, including fever, dizziness, head and muscle aches. Malaria is caused by bites from infected mosquitoes while Ebola can be contracted only from the body fluids of an infected victim -- hence doctors' fears of drawing blood to do malaria tests.

People suffering malaria fear being quarantined in Ebola treatment centers and health centers not equipped to treat Ebola are turning away patients with Ebola-like symptoms, doctors said.

WHO figures from Gueckedou show that of people coming in with fever in October, 24 percent who tested positive for Ebola also tested positive for malaria, and 33 percent of those who did not have Ebola tested positive for malaria -- an indication of the great burden of malaria in Guinea.

Malaria killed one of 38 Cuban doctors sent to Guinea to help fight the Ebola outbreak. One private hospital had a kidney dialysis machine that could have saved his failing organ but the clinic was shut after several people died there of Ebola.

The U.S. President's Malaria Initiative ground to a halt in Guinea months ago and the WHO in November advised health workers against testing for malaria unless they have protective gear.

The malaria initiative is doing a national survey of health facilities and elsewhere to try to find out "what's actually happening here ... where people with malaria are going," said Nahlen, of the U.S. campaign. There was some positive news in Guinea -- it had just completed a national mosquito net campaign against malaria when Ebola struck, he said.

Neighboring Liberia, on the other hand, suspended the planned distribution of 2 million nets, said Nahlen.

In Sierra Leone, the third country hard-hit by Ebola, Doctors Without Borders took unprecedented, pre-emptive action this month, distributing 1.5 million antimalarial drugs that can be used to both prevent and treat, aiming to protect people during the disease's peak season.

"Most people turn up at Ebola treatment centers thinking that they have Ebola, when actually they have malaria," said Patrick Robataille, Doctors Without Borders field coordinator in Freetown. "It's a huge load on the system, as well as being a huge stress on patients and their families."

He said a second distribution is planned in Freetown and western areas most affected by Ebola. Robataille said the huge delivery of antimalarial drugs was "in proportion to the scale of the Ebola epidemic -- it's massive."