A grand opening is planned for Jan. 16, 17 and 18.

WILBRAHAM — The former Houligan's at 2523 Boston Road has been remodeled and has reopened as The Daily Pint.

Janet Shea, a Wilbraham resident, said her husband used to come to Houligan’s. She added, “I wouldn’t come in when it was Houligan’s, but I had a lunch here a few weeks ago, and it was good.”

She said she invited her friend, Kristen Hicklen, to meet her at ‘The Daily Pint’ after work on Friday.

“The food is good,” Shea said.

Diane Lisowski, manager of The Daily Pint, said the former bar now has more of a pub atmosphere.

“There are 24 beers on tap,” she said. There also is wine and whiskey, and if there is interest, some craft beers will be added, she said.

The Daily Pint is owned by Bill Faneuff and Tim Dineen.

It has been completely remodeled and now includes a full bar and kitchen and some perimeter seating.

“The woodwork is awesome,” Shea said.

The menu includes chips and salsa or chips and homemade guacamole, loaded fries, Caesar salad, flat bread sandwiches including buffalo chicken, meat eaters and steak and cheese, sandwiches including barbecue pork and a build your own burger.

There is even a kid’s menu.

“We are more family oriented,” Lisowski said. “We now appeal to people of all different ages, including couples and women.”

She added, “Children are welcome, so long as they don’t sit at the bar.”

The Daily Pint will hold a grand opening Jan. 16, 17 and 18.

On Friday, Sam Adams representatives will be in with some company giveaways, on Saturday there will be a food tasting from 7 to 9 p.m. and on Sunday there will be raffles during the football game, Lisowski said.

For additional information contact the Admissions Office.

WILBRAHAM - Wilbraham & Monson Academy at 423 Main Street will hold an Open House Sunday at 1 p.m.

Interested students are invited to tour the 300-acre campus, meet students, faculty and administrators and learn about academic and extracurricular programs.

For more information, contact the Admissions Office at 413-596-9107 or at Admission@wma.us or www.WMA.us.

Having the games come to Boston could be a good opportunity for Springfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno says.

The story in the War on Poverty series on the link between teen-pregnancy and poverty generated 315 comments.

HOLYOKE -- Readers had a lot to say about a story in The Republican and MassLive.com's War on Poverty series regarding the link between teen-age pregnancy and poverty.

The story that was posted Wednesday (Jan. 7) generated 315 comments as of early Friday night.

In the story, Patricia Rivas, 16, of Holyoke, and Keishauna White, 18, of Chicopee, discussed the struggle of trying to escape poverty with both saying they understood becoming mothers so young increases their hurdles.

Rivas and White are taking classes to get their high school diplomas at the Care Center, an alternative education program in Holyoke, the city that leads the state in teen-agers giving birth.

In figures the state Department of Public Health released Dec. 12, as of 2013, Holyoke topped the state with 46.4 teen births per 1,000 births. But that's a reduction of nearly 19 percent from Holyoke's 2012 rate of 57.1. In fact, the figures statewide were the lowest since record keeping on teen pregnancy began in 1989.

Holyoke has led the state in teen births since at least 2005, according to the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, a private nonprofit agency.

The drop in births to teen-age mothers in the Paper City in the latest state report mirrored reductions in that category in Springfield and Chicopee, as well as statewide.

In Springfield, ranked fourth statewide, the rate dropped to 42.3, in 2013 and in Chicopee, 13th in the state, the rate slipped to 23.4. Statewide the rate was 12, down from 14.1 the previous year.

The statistics reflect the rate of births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19. Specifically, 26.8 percent of the births were to girls between the ages of 15 and 17, indicating the number of girls who become mothers at a very early age.

A key connection between poverty and teen-agers giving birth is choices, or more precisely the lack of perceived choices, that such young, poor people see available to them, said city and social service agency officials.

Education -- finishing high school and attending college -- are cited as keys to someone emerging from poverty. But the odds are tough for teen-age mothers to finish high school let alone attend college. Only about 50 percent of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by age 22 compared to 90 percent of women who didn't give birth as teens, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Additional connections between teen births and poverty are seen in findings that show the children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, themselves give birth as a teenager and face unemployment as a young adult, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The cost to taxpayers of teen births is huge. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, teen childbearing in Massachusetts cost taxpayers at least $154 million in 2010. The organization is a private, non-profit that seeks to improve the lives and prospects of children and families by preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy, its website said.

The reader identified as Nana wrote:

Nana

NOTHING WILL CHANGE as long as taxpayers keep SHOWERING these people with all kinds of wonderful freebies !!!

Why do good in school to help get a decent job, when they can be stay at home baby factories ...

partying, getting their nail done, wear designer clothes, free child care, free food, a roof over their heads, I-phones, and the list goes on ad nauseam...

THE GRAVY TRAIN NEEDS TO STOP NOW !!!

Government just keeps them dependent on the government...

The reader identified as Thor wrote:

Thor
I've always maintained that girls considering pregnancy should spend time with a child - newborn through toddler. See how easy it is. See how much time you have for your life. Of course, this is assuming that these girls really care...

The reader identified as Pat Henry wrote:

Pat Henry

It's not just poverty that gets you pregnant.It's more:

Lack of religion and character-building,

Lack of self-control and of ability to delay gratification,

Lack of understanding of importance of marriage first, family second,

Lack of education and job skills,

Lack of parental supervision,

Lack of societal disapproval,

Lack of care for, and appreciation of, the effect of their actions have on their parents and siblings.

Mostly, though, the underlying cause is a "feeling of entitlement" to a baby, no matter what the effect will be on the baby, or who will pay for it.It's all about them.Listen to Keishauna White: "I say it's a struggle, but at the same time, it's a joy. My daughter helped me find who I am. She made me experience things I never experienced before....It's a lot of responsibility, but it's a joy for me," White said.

Sure, poverty is a contributor.But it is mostly a result of these unfortunate societal changes that are affecting every class of society, not just the poor.

The reader identified as yanksfan1988 wrote:

yanksfan1988

Sounds to me like 90% of the "War on Poverty" can be fought in our own homes via personal responsibility.

The State Department's warning says attacks against Americans are becoming increasingly prevalent. It also cites an increased risk of reprisals against U.S. and Western targets for the U.S.-led intervention against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- The United States has issued a global travel warning after recent terror attacks in France, Australia and Canada.

The alert comes hours after French police killed three hostage-takers in a pair of incidents. Two of the men are believed responsible for Wednesday's attack on a satirical magazine in Paris. Twelve people were killed in that assault, France's deadliest terror incident in decades.

The State Department's warning says attacks against Americans are becoming increasingly prevalent. It also cites an increased risk of reprisals against U.S. and Western targets for the U.S.-led intervention against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

The warning also cited last month's hostage standoff at a Sydney cafe and the October killing of a soldier near Canada's parliament.

Another pileup occurred later in the day in another section of Michigan.

A spectacular car crash that involved as many as 150 vehicles and included a truck haulting fireworks resulted in the shutdown of Interstate 94 in southwestern Michigan Friday.

Various media reports said as few as 70 and as many as 170 vehicles were involved in the crash that happened when visibility was poor due to blowing snow. But as of late afternoon, the number of vehicles appeared to be settling in somewhere between 123 and 150.

Michigan State Police Sgt. Jim Campbell told MassLive's sister website, MLive.com that at least one person was killed in the fiery crash near Galesburg. The highway was shut down in both directions somwhere around 9:30 Friday morning, and is expected to stay closed until midnight, officials said.

At least one person was reported killed, and at least 23 were injured, according to MLive's Rex Hall Jr.

Investigators said several vehicles and semi-trucks caught fire in the center of the pileup. The vehicles that caught fire included a semi-truck that was carrying an unknown amount of fireworks and another semi-truck that contained approximately 44,000 pounds of hazardous material, according to Michigan State Police.

Around noon, police ordered residents within a three-mile radius of the crash scene to evacuate from their homes because of hazardous materials. Police said HAZMAT crews were able to quickly contain the hazardous materials and the evacuation order was later lifted.

Police said four semi-trucks and two cars caught fire after the crash. One semi-truck, carrying 40 pounds of fireworks, was involved in the pileup, and the truck's trailer exploded at the scene.

One man who had an unobstructed view of the crash told MLive's Rob Wetterhollt, Jr. said he saw the whole thing happen.

Randall Kern said he was driving east on I-94 when he noticed the semi-truck in front of him slam on its brakes.

The 56-year-old, who was coming back to Michigan after purchasing a red pickup truck in Houston, Texas, took evasive action after seeing the semi-truck in front of him, carrying a load of fireworks, suddenly slow down.

"Two hundred fifty miles still to go," Kern told Wetterholt. "I was following the guy with the fireworks and I almost hit him when he jammed his brakes up. I put on mine and my truck stopped. It skidded a little bit but it was under control and I stopped right on the shoulder next to him."

Looking behind him and seeing trucks approaching quickly, Kern got out of his pickup truck and ran through freshly fallen snow up an embankment away from the roadway.

"I jumped out and I ran away from it because I saw all the trucks coming and they couldn't stop," Kern said. "I jumped out and ran up through the trees to get away."

With an unobstructed view of the roadway, Kern watched as cars, trucks and semis piled on to one another for nearly five minutes, he said.

"I watched it all happen," Kern said. "A couple of trucks came skidding in there and hit. It was almost over with until that last truck that the guy was killed in, just came flying in there. It didn't even look like his tires were skidding.

"When he hit, because of the pileup, it was like a V-shape," Kern said, making a V by connecting the tips of his left and right index fingers. "He went in between."

Approximately 30 minutes after the initial accident on I-94 was when the fireworks in the truck Kern swerved to avoid started going off, he said.

Kern, along with other displaced motorists, were shepherded off of I-94 to the Galesburg-Augusta Primary School on Battle Creek Street where the American Red Cross had set up a disaster center, Kern said.

"My truck, I could have just changed the flat tire on the front and drive it away," Kern said. "They won't let nobody go because there was hazardous waste or chemical or something spilled and they can't get nobody there to hook a tow-truck to it and pull it out."

Jay Ellis, also directed to the disaster center, was driving to Battle Creek from Kalamazoo for work and was in front of the semi hauling the fireworks, he said.

Ellis applied the brakes on his Jeep Liberty to avoid hitting cars in front of him when a vehicle that wasn't able to stop in time struck him, he said.

"There was like two or three ahead of me," Ellis said. "There was a lot going on behind me. The next thing I knew, there was a chain-reaction happening on the other side."

Sandwiched between vehicles involved in the front portion of the crash, Ellis couldn't do anything other than stay in his vehicle and wait for help to arrive, he said.

"I couldn't pull off anywhere," Ellis said. "I put the car in park and gathered my thoughts. I had to call my work because I was on my way to work and let them know what was going on. I just kind of stayed in my Jeep until they made me leave."

When fireworks in the semi behind Ellis started going off, Ellis immediately wondered what was happening.

"I do know when they started going off I was like 'What was that?' Somebody around me said that one of the trucks had fireworks on it and they were starting to go off," Ellis said. "At that point they told everybody it wasn't safe and we needed to get out of here.

"I'm concerned about my car, it's still drivable," Ellis said. "My front bumper was smashed and my back bumper was smashed but for the most part the car was fine."

But this wasn't the only multi-car pileup reported in Michigan.

U.S. 23 in the Ann Arbor area was shut down in the southbound lane due to at a massive pile up that involved at least seven jackknifed semis and up to 40 cars, MLive also reported.

That crash happened around 1 this afternoon, and that highway has since reopened.

Meanwhile, back in the Galesburg area, the American Red Cross opened a respite center for residents who were evacuated from their homes following the pileup.

Mary Ellen Lowney said that residents of Paris "talked through their tears," after the attack on the weekly newspaper.

Related: 6 dead in terror clashes in Paris; several hostages freed

SPRINGFIELD — Mary Ellen Lowney, of Chicopee, an educator at American International College and former Springfield news reporter, was on vacation in Paris this week when terrorists launched a massacre at a local newspaper, leaving the city in shock and sadness.

"It was an awful time to be in Paris," Lowney said Friday, by email. "The Parisians we talked with were so upset they could hardly speak. They talked through their tears. It was overwhelming."

She was vacationing with friends and was on a bus in Paris when the massacre occurred, and "saw all the police cars and heard the sirens and were wondering what was happening," Lowney said.

Terrorists attacked the newsroom staff at a weekly satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, killing a dozen people. Two brothers who were suspects in the terror attack were killed Friday in a battle with French police, and another suspected terrorist also killed, police said.

Mary Ellen LowneyFile photo / The Republican 

Lowney recounted her travel group's experience on the day of the attack.

"We were switching buses and apparently got caught up in the emergency call, buses went flying by us," Lowney said. "We wondered why no buses would stop, and what all the sirens were about. Later, when we found out what happened, we were shocked."

Lowney said that as a long- time journalist with The Republican, "I was especially upset to see terrorists attacking free speech in such a terrifying and murderous way."

Since the attack, her group has been frequently watching the news, Lowney said.

"I am so glad they got them!" Lowney wrote. "It's hard to imagine it's over though. There are so many more just like them."

Lowney is chairwoman of the Communications Department at AIC and manager of communications at the Springfield Housing Authority. She left Paris on Thursday, as scheduled, traveling to Reykjavik, Iceland, the next leg of her trip, where she remained on Friday.

She was contacted by MassLive and The Republican on Friday and asked about what she saw, heard and experienced, and for her thoughts.

A slide in oil prices deepened, stoking concerns about global economic growth.

By ALEX VEIGA

NEW YORK - A turbulent week of trading ended Friday with U.S. stocks finishing lower for the third time in five days.

The decline followed two days of big gains and nudged major indexes lower for the year.

A slide in oil prices deepened, stoking concerns about global economic growth. Energy stocks tumbled, extending their losses for the year.

Investors also were discouraged by weak U.S. wage growth in December, despite another strong increase in hiring.

"We finally got the jobs growing," said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer of Wells Fargo Private Bank. "Now people are looking through that at the actual wage growth numbers and they want to see improvement on wages, which obviously would spur demand and consumer confidence."

The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 17.33 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,044.81. The index is now down 0.7 percent for the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 170.50 points, or about 1 percent, to 17,737.37. The Dow has fallen 0.5 percent this year.

The Nasdaq composite lost 32.12 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,704.07. It's down 0.7 percent this year.

After a long period of relative calm, stock markets have become more volatile as investors grapple with slowing global growth and slumping oil prices. A gauge of investor anxiety, the Chicago Board Options Exchange's volatility index, or VIX, rose 3 percent to 17.5 on Friday, up from 12 a month ago.

"It's going to be a volatile year, but I think if you remain a long-term investor ... and you push out this volatility and you focus on the trends, I think (the stock market) is going to have a pretty good year," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners.

A combination of positive U.S. economic news, hopes for stimulus from Europe's central bank and renewed confidence that the Federal Reserve will keep supporting the economy helped push stocks higher in the middle of the week after a tough start to the year.

But by Friday, the jobs data and a renewed decline in oil prices put traders in a selling mood once again.

U.S. crude fell 43 cents, or 0.9 percent, to close at $48.36 a barrel in New York on further evidence that OPEC will not cut production in an effort to support prices. In London, Brent crude fell 85 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $50.11 a barrel, setting a new five and a half-year low.

The price of oil has fallen by more than half since June as traders anticipate a glut of supply caused by increased production. The slide also has stoked concern about the already troubled state of economies overseas.

"Is it a canary in the coal mine for bigger global economic concerns?" Davidson said. "Is oil telling us something about the future of the global economy?"

The latest U.S. jobs data also gave some investors reason for concern.

The government reported that employers added 252,000 jobs in December, slightly more than economists expected. The government also noted that more jobs were added in October and November than it had previously estimated.

Still, wage growth remained weak, as average hourly pay slipped 5 cents in December. And the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent from 5.8 percent in part because many of the jobless gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

Among individual stocks, Avon Products declined the most among companies in the S&P 500. The stock shed 66 cents, or 7.5 percent, to $8.17. It's down 13 percent this year.

All 10 sectors in the S&P 500 fell. Financial stocks were the biggest losers on the day. The sector is down 2.4 percent this year.

In government bond trading, prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury fell to 1.95 percent from 2.02 percent on Thursday.

The euro edged up to $1.1841 from $1.1792 the previous day. The dollar fell to 118.51 yen from 119.80 yen.

In metals trading, gold edged up $7.60 to $1,216.10 an ounce, silver rose three cents to $16.42 an ounce and copper fell two cents to $2.75 an ounce.

In other futures trading on the NYMEX:

1. Wholesale gasoline fell 1.8 cents to close at $1.323 a gallon.
2. Heating oil fell 0.8 cent to close at $1.703 a gallon.
3. Natural gas rose 1.9 cents to close at $2.946 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Among other stocks making big moves Friday:

• Star Bulk Carriers sank 23.1 percent after the global shipping company priced a public offering of stock below the previous day's closing price. The stock slid $1.51 to $5.02.


• Ruby Tuesday's latest quarterly revenue fell short of expectations as sales at restaurants open at least a year declined. Shares in the chain-restaurant operator shed 83 cents, or 11.7 percent, to $6.27.


• Agenus jumped 28.7 percent on news that the biotechnology company signed a licensing, development and commercialization deal with Incyte for immuno-therapeutics. Agenus rose $1.18 to $5.29. Incyte fell $1.18, or 1.6 percent, to $72.03.

AP markets writer Steve Rothwell contributed to this report.

ome of Missouri's top leaders tried unsuccessfully to pressure Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson to resign after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, interviews with several elected officials and newly released records show.

ST. LOUIS -- Some of Missouri's top leaders tried unsuccessfully to pressure Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson to resign after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, interviews with several elected officials and newly released records show.

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III told The Associated Press on Friday that top state officials had several meetings where they applied pressure on the city to force Jackson to resign. Missouri House Speaker John Diehl and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill confirmed they both attended a fall meeting to discuss whether Jackson should be forced out.

Also, records provided to AP under an open records request include a Nov. 10 email from St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar to an assistant that describes an apparent meeting of state and local officials. It references the potential timing of Jackson's "separation" and identifies a potential successor.

Brown, 18 and unarmed, was shot by officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, and the shooting of a black suspect by a white officer led to significant unrest in St. Louis County.

Jackson's leadership drew wide criticism from the outset, both for the aggressive police response to protesters and for his agency's erratic and infrequent releases of key information. He refused to publicly identify Wilson as the shooter for nearly a week after Brown's death, then simultaneously released the name with store security video that police said showed Brown stealing a box of cigars and shoving a clerk a short time before his death.

The unrest in St. Louis County escalated after the Nov. 24 announcement that a grand jury declined to indict Wilson, who later resigned.

Knowles on Friday refused to name any of the officials who urged Jackson's removal.

"I was at a lot of meetings where that was brought up," Knowles said. "There were different people advocating for the chief to be fired or quit or whatever. I want to make it clear: We never considered that."

A message left with Jackson was not returned.

McCaskill confirmed in a written statement that she attended such a meeting -- one of many involving community leaders, elected officials and members of law enforcement, the statement said.

"And a variety of issues were discussed to help ease tension in the St. Louis region, and address systemic issues highlighted in Ferguson-issues including personnel changes at the Ferguson police department," the statement said.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and his chief of staff, Jeff Rainford, attended several such meetings, Rainford said.

Diehl said he participated in two meetings -- one in Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster's office in St. Louis -- in which officials discussed efforts to try to get both Jackson and Wilson to resign. Diehl said the meetings occurred around the time of the Nov. 4 elections and he disagreed with the attempts to seek their resignations, because the grand jury process was ongoing.

"A substantial part of the conversation centered around trying to get Darren Wilson to resign prior to the decision of the grand jury and to get Chief Jackson to resign, and I didn't have any interest in participating in that," Diehl, a Republican from the St. Louis suburb of Town and Country, said.

Diehl said Jackson's resignation would have left "a leadership vacuum" on the police force and "I didn't think it was proper for someone in my position to get involved."

The email from Belmar has the subject line, "Ferguson Chief Jackson Meeting," and the text is written in note form. At one point it indicates that a St. Louis County police lieutenant colonel named Doyle "will become the ranking officer of the FPD." Doyle's first name isn't given, but Troy Doyle is a lieutenant colonel for the county.

The email lists several names of apparent attendees: McCaskill, Koster, Slay, Rainford, Diehl, Doyle, then-St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay.

Spokespeople for Clay and Koster declined comment, and messages seeking comment from Dooley and St. Louis County police were not returned.

The email also made reference to a request to Gov. Jay Nixon to place the National Guard in front of Ferguson police headquarters on the date of the grand jury announcement. "Apparently the guard will not move to the FPD per the governor," the email said.

Knowles and others were critical of the decision not to have the Guard in place at the time of the announcement, after a dozen area businesses were destroyed in fires during protests.

None of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening, said Dennis G. Leger, executive aide to Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph A. Conant.

SPRINGFIELD — Five people were hospitalized after a two-car collision at the corner of Lincoln and Magazine streets Friday evening, said Dennis G. Leger, executive aide to Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph A. Conant.

A woman had to be extricated from one vehicle, but none of the crash victims' injuries were believed to be life-threatening.

"They used the hydraulic Jaws of Life to get her out," Leger said, referring to Springfield firefighters responding to the 6:32 p.m. incident.

Police officers directed motorists past the site of the crash, which involved a Pontiac Grand Am and a Ford Explorer.

Both vehicles appeared to sustain significant damage; a bumper and other car parts strewn across the roadway.

MAP showing approximate location of crash scene:

Mike Omeri, the government spokesman on the insurgency, said fighting continued Friday for Baga, a town on the border with Chad where insurgents seized a key military base on Jan. 3 and attacked again on Wednesday.

YOLA, Nigeria  -- Hundreds of bodies -- too many to count -- remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International suggested Friday is the "deadliest massacre" in the history of Boko Haram.

Mike Omeri, the government spokesman on the insurgency, said fighting continued Friday for Baga, a town on the border with Chad where insurgents seized a key military base on Jan. 3 and attacked again on Wednesday.

"Security forces have responded rapidly, and have deployed significant military assets and conducted airstrikes against militant targets," Omeri said in a statement.

District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents drove into Baga, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents.

"The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous," Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for poorly armed civilians in a defense group that fights Boko Haram, told The Associated Press.

He said the civilian fighters gave up on trying to count all the bodies. "No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now," Gava said.

An Amnesty International statement said there are reports the town was razed and as many as 2,000 people killed.

If true, "this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught," said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International.

In Washington, U.S. State Department Spokesman Jen Psaki condemned the attacks.

"We urge Nigeria and its neighbors to take all possible steps to address the urgent threat of Boko Haram. Even in the face of these horrifying attacks, terrorist organizations like Boko Haram must not distract Nigeria from carrying out credible and peaceful elections that reflect the will of the Nigerian people," Psaki said in a statement.

The previous bloodiest day in the uprising involved soldiers gunning down unarmed detainees freed in a March 14, 2014, attack on Giwa military barracks in Maiduguri city. Amnesty said then that satellite imagery indicated more than 600 people were killed that day.

The 5-year insurgency killed more than 10,000 people last year alone, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations. More than a million people are displaced inside Nigeria and hundreds of thousands have fled across its borders into Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Emergency workers said this week they are having a hard time coping with scores of children separated from their parents in the chaos of Boko Haram's increasingly frequent and deadly attacks.

Just seven children have been reunited with parents in Yola, capital of Adamawa state, where about 140 others have no idea if their families are alive or dead, said Sa'ad Bello, the coordinator of five refugee camps in Yola.

He said he was optimistic that more reunions will come as residents return to towns that the military has retaken from extremists in recent weeks.

Suleiman Dauda, 12, said he ran into the bushes with neighbors when extremists attacked his village, Askira Uba, near Yola last year.

"I saw them kill my father, they slaughtered him like a ram. And up until now I don't know where my mother is," he told The Associated Press at Daware refugee camp in Yola.

The Justice Department is weighing bringing criminal charges against former CIA Director David Petraeus over the handling of classified information, a U.S. official said Friday night.

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is weighing bringing criminal charges against former CIA Director David Petraeus over the handling of classified information, a U.S. official said Friday night. Investigators have presented senior-level Justice Department officials such as Attorney General Eric Holder with information on the case to help inform a decision on charging the former four-star general, the official said.

The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Robert Barnett, a lawyer for Petraeus, declined to comment Friday night, as did Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the Justice Department.

Federal investigators have been looking into whether Petraeus improperly shared classified materials with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, with whom he admitted having an affair when he resigned from his position in November 2012. Agents found a substantial number of classified documents on Broadwell's computer and at her home, a law enforcement official has previously said. 

View full sizeIn this Jan. 15, 2012 photo, Paula Broadwell, author of the David Petraeus biography "All In," poses for photos in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/The Charlotte Observer, T. Ortega Gaines) 

Both have publicly apologized for the relationship. They have said their romantic relationship began only after he retired from the military and started at the CIA.

The scandal marked an abrupt fall for Petraeus, a man who led U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and was thought to be a potential candidate for president. Since leaving the agency, he still makes relatively regular speaking appearances to discuss military combat and national security, including at a Sept. 11 commemoration event in Denver.

It was not immediately clear when any decision would be made on whether to charge Petraeus.

The New York Times reported Friday evening that prosecutors had recommended to Holder that Petraeus be charged and that the attorney general, who plans to leave his position as soon as his successor is confirmed, had been expected to make a decision by the end of last year.

Holder and FBI Director James Comey are frequently quizzed during Capitol Hill appearances about the status of the Petraeus investigation, with some members of Congress critical over the amount of time the investigation has taken.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told The Associated Press on Friday night that he was frustrated by the pace of the investigation and wanted a decision made soon.

"We need clarity one direction or another -- either charge and prosecute him or declare his innocence and let him get on with his life," Chaffetz said. "What's intolerable is to have an American hero in limbo for literally years."

During a meeting with reporters at FBI headquarters last month, Comey was asked if he could say why the investigation had taken so long. Comey said he could, but would not.

Before the earth shook and turned their lives upside down, Rosena Dordor was like millions of poor Haitians, living with her family in a cramped home with no running water or sanitation, struggling to get by and fearing the next rent increase would force them out.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Before the earth shook and turned their lives upside down, Rosena Dordor was like millions of poor Haitians, living with her family in a cramped home with no running water or sanitation, struggling to get by and fearing the next rent increase would force them out.

Today, nearly five years after the devastating 7.0 earthquake, Dordor has a new place to live with her husband and five children: a one-room shack with a plastic tarp for a roof and walls made of scrap metal and salvaged wood. It's perched on a cactus- and scrub-covered hillside, a long walk from the nearest source of water, and meals are cooked over fire pits.

Life is still a struggle in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, but Dordor's new settlement does offer a measure of freedom because there is no landlord for her family or for the tens of thousands of other homesteaders who rushed to stake a claim in arid hills after the government expropriated a barren zone of 18,500 acres (7,500 hectares) just north of Port-au-Prince following the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. 

View full sizeRosena Dordor, 40, stands in front of her one-room shack in the arid hills north of the Capital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Jan. 9, 2014.  (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) 

"We love this place because we have made it our home with our own hands and hearts," Dordor said on a recent morning while shucking castor beans for a hair product she sells to neighbors. The area was initially only meant to house those stuck in tent shelters considered most at risk for floods or landslides, but it is growing so fast that U.S. State Department officials say the settlement could soon be considered Haiti's second largest city.

The country's complicated housing problems are perhaps the biggest drag on an uneven recovery that has nonetheless improved the lives of many poor Haitians, who say they prefer their living situations now compared to before the quake.

The disaster prompted a huge influx of international assistance, with governments and aid groups arriving to offer both immediate help and long-term development. One of the worst natural disasters of modern times, the quake killed an estimated 300,000 people, damaged or destroyed more than 300,000 buildings in densely packed Port-au-Prince and largely obliterated the government, toppling nearly all ministry buildings. Prisons and police stations crumbled into ruins.

Officials repeatedly said they would be "building back better," and in many ways they have made progress toward that goal.

The two-lane highway running nearly 100 miles from Port-au-Prince to Gonaives is a smooth river of asphalt, not the bone-jarring, off-road experience it was before the quake. There's a new international airport in Cap-Haitien, and hundreds of new schools. Several new hotels have opened, including known brands such as Best Western for the first time in decades. Direct foreign investment in Haiti reached $250 million last year, up from $4 million in 2001, according to the government.

Today, work crews in downtown Port-au-Prince are raising frames for new government offices. The rubble of the national palace has been removed. The wrecked historic Iron Market was rebuilt by Haiti's biggest employer, mobile phone company Digicel. The grim camps and shantytowns that once sheltered some 1.5 million people now hold about 80,000, and the government says they will all be moved out by mid-2015. The police force is being professionalized while growing from about 8,000 officers to roughly 12,000.

Yet the recovery has been uneven at best, plagued by poor planning and accusations of graft. And a worsening political standoff is one sign that progress since the disaster is tenuous.

President Michel Martelly, a former pop star who took office in May 2011, has been embroiled in a stalemate with lawmakers over parliamentary elections, delayed for over three years. Many fear a failure to resolve the gridlock could plunge the country back into familiar chaos.

Critics, meanwhile, say the construction of new slums is not an answer to Haiti's many problems.

"If the international community wants to pat itself on the back for building new Haitian shantytowns, with the collusion of the Martelly government, fine. I don't see evidence of sustainable change for the better," Amy Wilentz, author of "Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti," and other works about the Caribbean nation, said via email.

Many poor Haitians say their lives have been complicated by a rising cost of living and lack of jobs, and they put the blame squarely on the government for failing to create opportunities.

"I love my country but it's still struggling thanks to our politicians," said Genyca Wilhelm, a former math teacher who hopes to find work by training to be a car mechanic. "Our international friends have been helping us, yes, but Haiti will always be Haiti. That is good news and bad news."

More than $12.4 billion in humanitarian and development aid and debt relief was pledged by more than 50 countries and international agencies, with at least 80 percent of that disbursed, according to the United Nations.

The U.S., the largest individual donor, provided $1.3 billion in humanitarian aid and committed an additional $2.7 billion for longer-term reconstruction and development, nearly two-thirds of which has been disbursed. American aid has been channeled toward rebuilding the infrastructure and economy, improving health care and law enforcement. It included developing an industrial park in northern Haiti as part of a strategy to encourage development outside Port-au-Prince.

Economic growth is what Haiti needs most, said Thomas C. Adams, the State Department's special coordinator for Haiti.

The economy has had modest growth since 2011 and if the country can keep that pace for 25 years or so, it could become a middle-income country like neighboring Dominican Republic, Adams said.

"Whether they can continue depends on whether they can maintain stability and attract foreign investment, because foreign aid by itself is not enough to fix everything in Haiti," he said.

Some Haitians dared to dream that the aid flowing in after the disaster would make their lives dramatically better. Etienne Edeva, who lives a short drive from Dordor's homestead in a planned area known as Camp Corail, now says it was unrealistic to expect so much change for troubled Haiti.

"We're living in darkness here, but miserable or not we're getting by and making the best of it," said Edeva, who runs a bakery out of her home.

On the sunbaked hillsides north of the capital, Haitians are taking care of things on their own even as the government asks for U.S. help in planning the growing towns. Though poor, Haitian families here remain hopeful and, happy with the bit of progress they've made, they have no desire to return to the Port-au-Prince slums where landlords kept jacking up rents.

Modest businesses have opened in the settlements: barber shops, food stalls, lottery shops, hardware stores selling rebar and wood. Small scrapwood churches and enterprising Voodoo priests bring in the faithful. The wealthiest homesteaders have graduated from homes of tarp and timber to cinderblock.

Outside her hillside shack, Dordor says she has no plans to live anywhere else

"It's either God or death that will move me from here," she said. "In the name of God, we will build a concrete house here someday."

With her children gathered around her, a gust of wind shook the tarp ceiling of their crudely made but cherished home.

Tony C. Babcock, 26, was convicted of armed assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after a jury trial in Berkshire Superior Court.

PITTSFIELD — A Pittsfield man facing prison time for stabbing a man and telling him he hoped he would "bleed out" from his wounds is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

Tony C. Babcock, 26, was convicted Friday of armed assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after a four-day jury trial in Berkshire Superior Court.

The charges stem from an October 2013 case in which Babcock chased down another man and stabbed him multiple times, according to prosecutors from the office of Berkshire District Attorney David F. Capeless.

Jurors deliberated for about 2 hours Friday before returning a guilty verdict on both counts. Judge John A. Agostini ordered Babcock to be held without bail at the Berkshire County Jail & House of Correction until his sentencing on Jan. 14.

The victim, Casey Trumbull, 29, said he tried to run away from Babcock in the city's Morningside neighborhood, but Babcok managed to stab him several times in the chest, back, shoulders and legs.

As Trumbull lay wounded on the ground near Second and Fenn streets, Babcock allegedly stated "I hope you bleed out," according to testimony in the case. Trumbull underwent emergency surgery and survived.

The investigation was conducted by members of the Pittsfield Police Detective Bureau, under the command of Detective Capt. Patrick F. Barry.

MAP showing approximate location of Pittsfield stabbing:

Die-hard House conservatives bungled a coup against House Speaker John Boehner but now look like winners, pushing Republicans farther right.

WASHINGTON -- Die-hard House conservatives bungled a coup against House Speaker John Boehner but now look like winners, pushing Republicans farther right.

Rather than punish and isolate those who opposed him as leader, Boehner surprised many on Friday by embracing an immigration plan that's tougher than lawmakers had expected. It would block President Barack Obama's recent limits on deportations and undo protections for immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

The House is heading toward a vote Wednesday.

As the rebellious hard-liners celebrated, mainstream Republicans said Boehner's decision probably portends firmly conservative approaches to other issues. That would complicate life for some of the more moderate Senate Republicans and ensure fierce battles with the Democratic president.

Florida Rep. Richard Nugent, one of the 25 House Republicans who voted to oust Boehner, praised the Boehner-backed immigration plan.

The dissidents have complained that Boehner, R-Ohio, is too willing to compromise with Obama and Democrats. But rather than seeing the rebels frozen out during private GOP discussions on immigration strategy, Nugent said, "this time it's a very collaborative approach."

For now, though, Nugent is still off the House Rules Committee, where membership is at the speaker's discretion.

Equally enthusiastic was Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican sometimes portrayed by Democrats as the most unreasonable of conservative purists.

"One of the things that has really been lacking for the last eight years is having more input like we've finally gotten in this bill," Gohmert said.

Some Boehner allies had urged him to punish and isolate Gohmert and the other rebels.

But that approach might permanently antagonize tea party-leaning Republicans and "force Boehner into making more concessions" to Democrats to pass bills, "which is the last thing in the world we want," said GOP Rep. Kenny Marchant of Texas, shortly after Tuesday's leadership vote.

By Friday, Marchant was reassured. "The focus now is to solicit input and try to bring them into the fold," he said.

Boehner's agreement to nudge his caucus rightward, especially on immigration, could cause headaches for Republican presidential candidates needing Hispanic votes. It also will complicate life for Senate Republicans, who now hold the majority but generally cannot pass bills without at least six Democratic votes, thanks to filibuster powers.

"It probably makes it more difficult in the Senate, but we shouldn't worry about what the Senate is going to do," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, often seen as a voice for Republican House leaders.

The approach, Cole said, "takes a lot of political pressure off House Republicans." One reason that 25 Republicans voted against Boehner, he said Friday, "was because they didn't believe we were going to do exactly what we're doing today" on immigration.

The Senate is virtually certain to weaken such bills. House Republicans acknowledge they will face tough choices when it's time to work out the differences.

"The litmus test is going to be what happens with this bill when it hits the Senate and comes back to us," said GOP Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, a staunch conservative who voted for Boehner as speaker.

In recent years, when the Republicans' House majority was smaller, Boehner sometimes had to negotiate with Democrats for enough votes to pass measures that dozens of conservative Republicans refused to back. Doing so is politically risky for a speaker, and increasingly difficult now that centrist members of both parties have largely been driven from Congress.

At issue is a $39.7 billion spending bill to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded beyond February.

The House version would block Obama's November order granting temporary relief from deportation to about 4 million immigrants who are in the country illegally. Most have been here at least five years and have children who are citizens or legal permanent residents.

In a surprise to many, the House GOP proposal also would reverse a 2012 program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that removed deportation threats to certain immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.

Obama's allies say he would veto such measures, should they survive Senate Democrats' filibusters. Vetoes are difficult to override, requiring two-thirds votes in the House and Senate.

Congressional Republicans say it's important to put their principles into legislation, even with the veto threat. It can be good politics, too.

In his conservative district between Dallas and Fort Worth, Marchant said, "a veto-override vote is OK with me."

Former Probation Commissioner John O'Brien and his former deputy on Friday were temporarily spared from incarceration, pending appeal, three days before they were due to report to prison.

By Andy Metzger, STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON — Former Probation Commissioner John O'Brien and his former deputy on Friday were temporarily spared from incarceration, pending appeal, three days before they were due to report to prison.

O'Brien and Elizabeth Tavares were convicted by a federal jury in July of running a clandestine patronage hiring ring within the department under the guise of a merit-based personnel policy. William Burke III, another former deputy, was convicted of conspiring in the scheme but was not sentenced to any prison time.

O'Brien and Tavares had been scheduled to report for prison on Monday, but a three-judge Appeals Court panel decided on Friday to allow them to remain free while their appeals are pending. O`Brien`s defense attorneys were alerted Friday evening.

"Based on material presented by the parties, the court is persuaded of a sufficient probability that the appeals present a 'substantial question,'" read the order by Chief Justice Sandra Lynch and Justices William Kayatta, Jr. and David Barron.

The decision means O'Brien and Tavares do not need to serve their sentences unless their appeals are decided against them.

"We are very pleased that the Court of Appeals has granted Mr. O'Brien's request for bail pending appeal. We will pursue the appeal vigorously and maintain that Mr. O'Brien committed no crime," said O'Brien's attorney William Fick in a statement. "Whatever one may think about the so-called 'culture of patronage' in state government, Mr. O'Brien worked honorably and tirelessly for decades to serve and protect the citizens of the Commonwealth."

A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz declined to comment.

Federal prosecutors convinced a jury that O'Brien organized a scheme to grant phony interviews to job-seekers while making hiring and promotion decisions based on whether an applicant was politically connected. O'Brien was also convicted of providing to House lawmakers illegal gratuities in the form of probation jobs.

Defense attorneys argued that state judges were well aware of the patronage practice, and said O'Brien weighed the opinions of respected state lawmakers in making hiring decisions and appointed qualified people to probation posts.

Judge William Young issued sentences below federal guidelines in November, explaining that patronage had previously been widely practiced within the state's Judiciary. O'Brien received a sentence of one and a half year and Tavares received a sentence of three months.

The walk-out during Friday's show came a day after a man at Cosby's performance in London, Ontario, called the comedian "a rapist."

HAMILTON, Ontario – Hecklers stood up and chanted repeatedly "we believe the women" at Bill Cosby's third and final performance of a Canadian tour Friday night.

As Cosby launched into his comedy act, roughly 30 women rose from their seats, removed their coats to display white T-shirts emblazoned with the words "We Believe the Women" across the front and backs to launch their protest, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Some of the women blew whistles, while others shouted down Cosby by chanting "we believe the women, we believe the women." As security waded into the audience to corral the protesters, Cosby was on his feet calling out, "Stop, stop, let them, let them, stop... let them have their say."

The hecklers then marched out of the theater as the 77-year-old comedian asked his audience not to react.

Cosby is facing growing sexual assault allegations from more than 15 women, with some claims dating back decades. He has denied the allegations through his lawyer and has never been charged.

The walk-out during Friday's show came a day after a man at Cosby's performance in London, Ontario, called the comedian "a rapist."

It also took place just minutes after Cosby acknowledged the controversy that has followed him throughout his three-city Canadian tour, according to the Associated Press.

"Whatever happens here tonight if there's some sort of outburst, we just have to remain calm and things will be taken care of. It oughtn't last that long," he said. "I want to thank all of you here tonight because you stayed with what you believed in."

The three shows in Canada were Cosby's first since November when he had a string of U.S. performances canceled over the accusations.

After the allegations, TV Land pulled "The Cosby Show" reruns, Netflix postponed his new comedy special and NBC dropped a sitcom it was developing with the Shelburne resident.

Cosby's lawyer, Martin Singer, has branded previous accusations as ridiculous and long discredited, adding that the five-time Emmy-winner has been the victim of a "media-driven feeding frenzy."

A group of Olympic boosters and electeds promised transparency in the Olympic planning process at a Friday press conference.

By Andy Metzger
State House News Service

BOSTON -- Pledging an open discussion and a public review of the bid that made Boston the country's choice to vie for the 2024 Summer Games, backers of the Boston Olympics bid said universities in the area are eager to get in on the publicity that would surround the international event.

Promising "no white elephants," Boston 2024 Chairman John Fish, a construction magnate, said 70 to 75 percent of the facilities would be located on university campuses, and said three or four educational institutions have asked whether they would be able to construct a facility for use in the games.

"Think about the broadcasting sort of exposure they would get," said Fish, who said an Olympics facility would be a recruiting tool. Fish proposed construction of a temporary stadium at Widett Circle between Interstate 93 and a Red Line rail yard, and said Gillette Stadium could be used for soccer but would be too far from the Olympic Village to serve as the primary stadium.

The bid, which helped lift Boston over San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, was not released to the public on Friday as Olympics boosters continued to promise a transparent process. The bid has been described as a lengthy document arranged in binders.

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said there would be a public review of Boston's bid, and said public funds could be expended for infrastructure and land while ruling out any taxpayer spending on facilities specifically for the games.

Activists have mobilized against the Olympics proposal, saying it will warp the region's priorities and put taxpayers on the hook for what they described as a three-week party for the world elite. Chief among the complaints by critics is the secrecy that has shrouded Boston's proposal, which on Thursday won the endorsement of the U.S. Olympics Committee.

"We made a request to the cities to go light on public discussion because of the fact that it is just a draft," said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun, who said other cities have recently spent $10 million on bids intended for public consumption, describing an "arms race" for the most appealing public bid books.

Drubbing Boston 2024 for a lack of transparency the group No Boston Olympics on Friday announced plans for an organizing meeting next Wednesday to plan opposition to the bid.

"Today is the first day of our campaign to highlight our Commonwealth's priorities - housing, education, health care, transportation - and how an Olympic Games could threaten them," No Boston Olympics said in an email.

"Are we just going to ram it down people's throats? Absolutely not. We're going to go out and talk to people in Boston," said Walsh, who said there would not be a referendum.

Boston 2024, a non-profit comprising leaders of industry, government and education, plans a citizens advisory group meeting on Jan. 21 where, according to a Boston 2024 official, the bid document will be available for review.

Walsh said Boston 2024 officials will meet with officials in 110 countries and said people will visit Boston "to explore what we have."

"Boston has a vision for a new kind of Olympics, a vision that challenges the norm, encourages creative solutions, that embodies the community spirit that makes the games what they are," Walsh said.

The city plans to host nine community meetings to solicit input on the bid that will be submitted to the International Olympic Committee, which is due Sept. 15. The final bid will be due Jan. 8, 2016.

Gov. Charlie Baker, who met privately with Walsh Friday morning before the press conference with USOC officials, said he was encouraged by the mayor's first steps to initiate a series of public meetings.

"I'm where I think many people are which is there's a lot to learn about this," Baker told reporters after leading his first Cabinet meeting.

Baker said he would consider naming a point person within his administration "who has the experience and the expertise to actually be the right kind of person to worry about [the Olympics] and to engage that conversation, and endorsed the idea of holding regional public forums in addition to the ones planned in Boston.

Asked whether the official bid documents and list of private donors behind the early effort should be released, Baker said he's not concerned at this point that neither he nor the public have yet seen the specifics presented to the USOC.

"What people need to understand is what the city of Boston achieved with this decision is the right to compete globally as the representative entity of the United States, but the actual full-blown proposal, the one that's really going to be the representation of what the city and state and the USOC believes is the plan is going to be submitted to the International Olympic Committee in September, and that's really what the public transparent process associated with the final bid is going to look like and I think that's really where the focus should be," Baker said.

The governor credited Lowell Sen. Eileen Donoghue for helping to advance the Olympics proposal back in 2013. He said the initiative could lead to a planning exercise that could tackle the region's needs over the next 20 years.

In a statement, Baker emphasized controlling costs and pushing for a "privately funded Olympics." Walsh said he "insisted" that 2024 obtain an insurance policy to make sure taxpayers aren't saddled with the risk of cost-overruns.

"I also promise that I'll never leave Boston with a large price tag of an unpaid debt when it comes to the Olympics," Walsh said.

On Friday Walsh discussed holding beach volleyball on Boston Common next to the finish line of the Olympic marathon. He said Franklin Park would receive a world-class golf course under the plan and other facilities could be located in Cambridge, Somerville and Lowell.

At the press conference, Boston's prowess in professional sports was not mentioned. One of Boston's most iconic sporting events was shoved into the world's spotlight when bombers struck the Boston Marathon in 2013. The federal trial of suspected bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is getting underway this week at the Moakley Courthouse.

USOC Chairman Larry Probst said Boston could be competing against Rome, Paris, Berlin, Doha in Qatar, Istanbul and South Africa.

During the press conference, televised news reports from Paris broadcast a standoff with suspected terrorists said to have been involved in a rampage against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Probst said the selection of Boston over bids from the three other cities was "agonizing," and said Boston's "cost-effective" and "athlete-centric" bid is in keeping with the Olympic Agenda 2020 adopted in Monaco in December. Probst said committee members engaged in a "vigorous debate" on the proposals Thursday in Denver.

"This journey has just begun. The hard work starts now," said Probst, forecasting a potential nine-year partnership with the region.

Officials said the Olympics planning process will be a useful exercise for the region and Walsh said infrastructure upgrades are already needed, highlighting the Northern Avenue Bridge over the Fort Point Channel and plans for Dorchester Avenue.

Fish said that after a temporary stadium is built and then deconstructed at Widett Circle, nearly 80 acres of land will be primed for redevelopment.

Walsh said he received 100 texts Thursday night, noting people are both excited and skeptical about the potential for a Boston Olympics.

Matt Murphy and Michael Norton contributed reporting

A wreath encircling the No. 1 was poised at the front of the church, a nod to his badge number and longtime leadership in the Westfield Firefighters Local 1111.

WESTFIELD - Mourners and clergy at a funeral Mass for firefighter Kevin Regan recalled the 43-year-old veteran as compassionate, dedicated to public service and a tireless labor advocate for his colleagues.

"His family shared with me ... that Kevin was an unforgettable type of person," the Rev. Daniel Pacholek told a packed church on Saturday.

Regan was killed by an alleged drunken driver while on foot with his fiancee, Lynda Cavanaugh, on Cape Cod on Dec. 27. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament was filled with mourners including a sea of firefighters in dress uniform from across the state. His colleagues assembled en masse outside the church ahead of the funeral procession, and filed in as a solemn unit before the casket arrived.

Cavanaugh also was seriously injured in the accident, which occurred as the couple crossed Route 28 in West Yarmouth. She arrived at the Mass in a wheelchair.

Paul Dennehy, 55, a commercial real estate agent from South Yarmouth, denied charges of motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of alcohol, and operating under the influence of alcohol and causing serious bodily injury at an arraignment in Barnstable District Court.

Regan joined the fire department as a 19-year-old, and was passionate about his work, according to family and friends. His family legacy his steeped in the fire department. Regan was the longest serving member, earning badge No. 1, and was the brother of Westfield Fire Chief Mary Regan. Their late father also was a firefighter.

"He would be so proud of how his son was honored here today," Pacholek said, referring to the crowded Mass, which drew elected officials including U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, Mayor of Westfield Daniel Knapik, state Sen. Donald Humason and state Rep. John Velis.

Velis called for a moment of silence in the House of Representatives chambers last week in honor of Regan, highlighting Regan's lifetime of public service.

In addition to longtime love Cavanaugh, Regan was survived by five brothers and three sisters, in addition to a collection of nieces and nephews for whom he had great affection, Pacholek said.

Regan was the de facto historian for the fire department, with an affinity for its vintage fire truck, parked outside the church during the Mass.

Pacholek also told mourners Regan had great compassion for the victims of fires he encountered throughout his career.

A wreath encircling the No. 1 was poised at the front of the church, a nod to his badge number and longtime leadership in the Westfield Firefighters Local 1111.

A burial at St. Mary's Cemetery in Westfield followed the funeral Mass.

Regan was 62.

Dennehy is due back in court on Feb. 9.

Officials with the Massachusetts Fire Marshall's office are still working to determine what sparked a blaze at the Quality Inn on the Mohawk Trail in Greenfield early Saturday morning.

GREENFIELD — Officials with the Massachusetts Fire Marshall's office are still working to determine what sparked a blaze at the Quality Inn on the Mohawk Trail in Greenfield early Saturday morning.

According to CBS 3 Springfield, media partner to The Republican/ MassLive, the building's automated fire alarm system alerted authorities around 4 a.m. Saturday.

Firefighters arrived to find a fire burning in a room on the first floor of the hotel, which participates in the state program providing emergency shelter for homeless families.

They extinguished the blaze without issues, but since the fire caused the rest of the building to fill up with smoke, officials called for a full evacuation while they aired out the facility. No one was injured and the cause is yet to be determined.