Bail was set at $100,000 on the two drug charges. The drugs were allegedly seized after police executed a search warrant at Dorsey's 27 Franklin St. apartment Tuesday night.

SPRINGFIELD - Murder suspect Van Dorsey Jr. was held without bail Wednesday following testimony that he was high on the hallucinogenic drug PCP when he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death.

Dorsey, 27, of Springfield pleaded not guilty to murder and two drug offenses during his arraignment in Springfield District Court. He is charged with the fatal stabbing of a 25-year-old woman Tuesday night in what police called an act of domestic violence.

At a prosecutor's request, Judge William Boyle ordered the defendant held at the Hampden County House of Correction in Ludlow pending a competency hearing next week.

Handcuffed, shackled and wearing a hospital gown, Dorsey shuffled into court around 12:30 p.m. for his arraignment. Though on the recommendation of defense lawyer Andrew Klyman, Boyle ordered a psychiatric exam and told defense and prosecution lawyers to return at 2 p.m.

At the second hearing, a court psychiatrist testified that Dorsey was a regular user of PCP and was under the influence of the drug Tuesday night. She asked for a competency hearing Monday when the effects of the drug would be out of the defendant's system.

Klyman asked to delay his client's arraignment until Monday, but Boyle rejected the request.

As the defendant stood with his head bowed, his lawyer entered not guilty pleas to charges of murder, possession of a Class B substance and possession of Class D substance with intent to distribute.

Bail was set at $100,000 on the two drug charges. The drugs were allegedly seized after police executed a search warrant at Dorsey's 27 Franklin St. apartment Tuesday night.

Under the judge's ruling, Dorsey's defense lawyer can request bail on the murder charge at a later date.

A dozen court officers were stationed in the courtroom for both hearings. As court officers led Dorsey away during the first session, somebody in the gallery shouted "love you."

The victim, whose name has not been released, was stabbed multiple times at 329 Franklin St. and pronounced dead at the scene - the city's 10th homicide of the year.

Dorsey is due back in court Monday for a competency hearing.

"Outstanding!" That was the word used over and over by 14-year-old Conner Rogers of Monson to describe his experience of a lifetime in the front seat of the two passenger Team Oracle stunt plane. Watch video

"Outstanding!" That was the word used over and over by 14-year-old Conner Rogers of Monson to describe his experience of a lifetime in the front seat of the two-passenger Team Oracle stunt plane on Thursday.

The plane was piloted by stunt pilot Sean D. Tucker, who is founder and chairman of the Young Eagles Association that Conner Rogers wrote an essay on last month. The essay resulted in a ride aboard the stunt plane in anticipation of the Great New England Air Show coming up at Westover Air Reserve Base this weekend. 

The 30-minute flight included two inside loops, one of which Conner piloted, and a two barrel rolls, one also by Conner's hand, then finished with flying upside down. It was all recorded in a video later given to Conner as a memento of the flight, as well as a Young Eagles Certificate and his personal log book of his flight.

Conner's grin should last for weeks.

Here is what Conner wrote:

What this flight will mean to me

By Conner Rogers

This flight would mean a lot to me, because I have always wanted to be a pilot for my whole life and I hoped to be in the air force.

This flight would get me used to all the sharp maneuvers and stunts all the pilots in the air force would have to do. This flight would also mean that I get to ride in my first plane, and it would be a thrill. It would also be a accomplishment in my life, because winning something this big just doesn't happen every day.

It would also mean that I get to go on a big adventure. I would get to go up high in the sky and getting to see all the beautiful scenery that people just cant see just from on the ground.

If I get a chance of a lifetime, I wouldn't just be lucky, I will get to fulfill my lifetime goal, which is to fly in a plane.

HOLYOKE — Eight members of the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor demonstration team met with military veterans at the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke on Thursday afternoon. The F-22 Raptor is the most technologically advanced plane appearing at The Great New England Air Show this weekend at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. Meeting in the "Canteen" meeting room at the...

HOLYOKE — Eight members of the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor demonstration team met with military veterans at the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke on Thursday afternoon.

The F-22 Raptor is the most technologically advanced plane appearing at The Great New England Air Show this weekend at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee.

Meeting in the "Canteen" meeting room at the Soldiers' Home, the Raptor team circulated through a phalanx of wheelchairs, stopping to swap stories with the veterans. Joe Sadak had F-22 superintendent Michael Volosky all to himself as the two warriors stood by a window sharing yarns. Reaching out to touch the arm of Volosky, the elder Sadak wanted to make sure none of his words were missed.

Veteran Evans Farrell was thrilled when he asked if the photograph of the F-22 he was holding was his to keep. "It's yours"! said Senior Airmen Brennan DeFazio. DeFazio then kept Farrell's attention by handing him his phone, which played a video of the F-22 in action.

Typically people react with "shock and awe" when they see the capabilities of the F-22 Raptor jet, said Maj. John Cummings, part of the demonstration team from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, who will be flying the jet this weekend.

Chicopee police lieutenant accused of pulling service weapon on fellow officer after he disputed claims that he could speak to the dead files counter complaint, calls claims a fabrication.

HOLYOKE -- Chicopee Police Capt. Mark Gilbert is accused of filing a false police report. In that report, he claims a fellow officer who believed he could communicate with the dead pointed a service weapon at him.

But the officer accused of pointing the weapon says it never happened. 

In the summer of 2013, then-Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette ordered an investigation into the rumors that a lieutenant pointed a gun at another officer. Bissonnette reportedly asked Gilbert to file the report, although the incident had allegedly occurred several years earlier. 

The report documents an incident that Gilbert says happened following the death of fellow officer Lt. John Pronovost's wife in 2007, after a long battle with an undisclosed illness. The report says Pronovost returned to work in June of that year, after taking a two-week leave of absence, but was still grieving, according to fellow members of the department. While he expected his fellow officer to grieve, Gilbert said Pronovost expressed it in an irregular way.

"He began to participate in practices surrounding the communication with the spirits," Gilbert wrote in a police report.

Both were lieutenants at the time working the midnight shift and Gilbert claims Pronovost would set up "ghost detectors" in the prison cells and would position different colored crystals in the dispatch area of the police station.

Additionally, Gilbert wrote in his report that Pronovost would bring in malformed spoons and claim to have bent them with his mind "as evidence of the existence of the spirit world."

After six months, Gilbert said that he'd "had enough" with his fellow officer's behavior. During a meeting with Pronovost and then-Capt. William Jebb, Gilbert allegedly told Pronovost that he was acting "unprofessional" and that he believed in "a bunch of nonsense."

"Lt. Pronovost then became very upset with me, saying that if I wanted to see unprofessional behavior he would provide it," Gilbert wrote. "He then removed his departmentally-issued service pistol from his holster and pointed it at me."

The officer claims Pronovost followed him with the weapon and pointed at him as he ran around the police station. Gilbert says he escaped when he exited the front door of the Church Street station.

Gilbert filed the report on July 19, 2013, a day after the mayor requested it. He couldn't remember the exact day of the alleged incident. 

The now-captain said he didn't file a report in 2007 because his shift supervisor William Jebb witnessed it and would have been the one to take action. 

In a 2013 written communication with a judge, Chief of Police Thomas G. Charette said he suspected Jebb had "failed to document several incidents involving officers he is close with."

But Pronovost claims the incident Gilbert reported never happened.

Calling it an "intentional fabrication," Pronovost filed a claim in 2014 alleging that Gilbert filed his report to "cast a negative light" on now-Deputy Capt. Jebb, according to court documents.

"What Mark Gilbert claims, never happened," he said.

Jebb backed Pronovost up, saying under oath during a court session to determine probable cause, that the incident Gilbert described never happened.

Following three probable cause hearings held from December of 2014 until mid-March of this year, Assistant Clerk Magistrate of the Holyoke District Court Azizah P. Yasin determined that there is probable cause to Pronovost's claim.

A criminal complaint was filed against Gilbert on May 8. He appeared for an arraignment hearing in Holyoke District Court on May 12. He will be back in court on July 29 for a pre-trial hearing. 

In 2013, a former state police lieutenant hired to examine the city's Police Department described it as a hotbed of "divided loyalties," mistrust and animosity. 

A judge in Framingham District Court ordered 24-year-old Mikhail Young of Sudbury to remain in custody on a charge of being a fugitive from justice.

FRAMINGHAM -- A Massachusetts man accused of fatally stabbing his adoptive parents during a family vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands is fighting extradition to the three-island Caribbean territory.

Mikhail B. Young 

The Boston Globe reported that Young's lawyer, Stanley Norkunas, says his client plans to fight extradition. Norkunas also says authorities haven't produced any evidence linking Young to the killing of his parents.

The bodies of 73-year-old Kenneth Young and 66-year-old Jane Young, 66, were found May 3 at a rental condominium on the island of St. Thomas. Territory authorities issued an arrest warrant for Mikhail Young, who was arrested in Sudbury on May 5.

The City Council is authorized to cut, but not add to, the mayor's proposed budget of $125.9 million.

HOLYOKE -- The $125.9 million budget Mayor Alex B. Morse presented Thursday (May 14) to run the city in the next fiscal year avoids employee layoffs and unlike previous years skips urging the City Council to increase the sewer fee.

In place of a sewer fee increase, and in order to address the $1.3 million sewer fund deficit, Morse is recommending the City Council establish a stormwater management fee on home owners of about $50 a year and business property owners of $100 to $1,000 a year, he said.

The fee is not necessarily a new charge on property owners because the practice for years has been to use the general fund, which consists of revenue from taxpayers, to retire the sewer fund deficit annually. The stormwater fee essentially would change how that cost, which is already being paid by home and business property owners, gets addressed, Morse told The Republican and MassLive.com.

A stormwater fee to address management of the runoff of rain is a more fair way to deal with the sewer fund deficit than a sewer rate increase, he said. That's because while some homeowners are on private systems and not the city sewer system, all property owners contribute to the runoff that filters into the sewer system, he said.

But however the revenue source is explained, the City Council's desire to create a "new fee" or "tax" is likely to prompt debate as budget hearings are held over the next month.

In any event, Morse said his proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 was built with the aim of fiscal stability.

"My proposed budget is lean: Many departments will see no increases over (Fiscal Year 15) and many will see decreases," Morse said in a letter to the City Council.

"It calls for no layoffs or furloughs, and I do not expect to propose any additional cuts in personnel before the budget is balanced and the tax rate is set later this year," he said.

The $125,860,553 spending plan is for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The proposal is less than 1 percent higher than the budget he submitted a year ago for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, and about 1 percent more than the $124.4 million the City Council approved after making cuts.

Besides the deficit in the sewer fund, the proposed budget includes a $1.5 million general fund deficit. Morse is proposing that deficit be covered by selling properties the city has seized for nonpayment of taxes and increasing parking fees, he said.

The largest account in the proposed budget is for the School Department, at an estimated $64.1 million. That amount is likely to change based on how the Legislature decides the state funding allocations and the extraordinary situation this year in which the state has seized control of the public schools here because of years of chronically poor student academic results.

In other accounts, Morse has proposed $11.7 million for the Police Department, which is less than the nearly $12 million with which the department began the fiscal year July 1.

Morse has proposed $7.5 million for the Fire Department, which is less than the $8.4 million with which the department began the fiscal year.

Even with the new rates, Eversource electricity will still be more expensive in this summer than it was last summer.

This story follows: Eversource proposes cutting Western Mass. electricity rates for summer.

_________________________________

BOSTON - The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has approved lower summer electric rates proposed this week by Eversource, the former Western Massachusetts Electric Co.

On July 1, Eversource will cut electricity supply rates by more than 31 percent from 14.228 cents  per kilowatt-hour to 9.767 cents.

For a customer who uses 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, that translates into a price cut of about $22 a month on the total electric bill from $121.10 to $98.79, or about 18 percent. The 31-percent cut relates to only one portion of of the bill, the portion paid for the actual electricity. It doesn't impact the delivery charge, the money Eversource charges for the wires and substations that get electricity to a customer.

That's why the percentages don't match and the cut in the overall bill amounts to 18 percent.

Even with the new rates, Eversource electricity will still be more expensive this summer than it was in last summer.

Eversource is charging just less than a penny more per kilowatt-hour hour this summer than it charged in the same time period last year when it charged 8.884 cents. Back then, the bill for the 500-kilowatt-hour-a-month customer was $90.40, according to previous announcements.

Investor-owned utilities apply for new rates every six months.

Natural gas, its availability and its price, has driven up electricity costs in the past few years as other means of generating power using other fuels, like the Vermont Yankee Nuclear power station and the Mount Tom Power Station have closed.

Power prices go down in the summer when demand for natural gas for home heating falls.

National Grid, the region's other inverter-owned utility, recently cut its rates as well. The typical National Grid basic service went from from $122.50 a month to $90.81.

A lawyer for the boy, now 58, said in the suit that leaders of the priest's religious order had sought permission from the Vatican to bar the priest from any public ministry, but that they were told to provide more treatment for the accused cleric.

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A Roman Catholic priest who was repeatedly sent for counseling decades ago over claims he raped boys and stole parish money was kept in ministry then sent to New Mexico where he molested a boy, according to a lawsuit.

Brad Hall, a lawyer for the boy, now 58, said in the lawsuit that leaders of the priest's Massachusetts-based religious order had sought permission from a Vatican office to bar the priest from any public ministry, including celebrating Mass, but Vatican officials instructed the order to instead provide more treatment for the accused cleric.

The Rev. George Weisenborn was sent in 1966 to a Servants of the Paraclete facility in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, and later hired as a full-time priest by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which assigned him to a parish where he abused the plaintiff multiple times, according to the lawsuit.

Weisenborn died in 1991.

The suit, filed April 29 in Albuquerque District Court, names the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, St. Francis Xavier in Albuquerque and the now closed Servants of the Paraclete as defendants. It seeks the disclosure of more documents related to Weisenborn and other cases.

Weisenborn was sent to the Servants of Paraclete facility, known as Via Coeli, in 1964 after being detained three times in Washington, D.C., for having sex with boys, according to court documents obtained from the Congregation of the Sacred Heart.

The Servants of the Paraclete opened Via Coeli in 1947 to treat priests with alcohol and emotional problems. But almost immediately, the center began receiving priests who had sexually abused children.

The Congregation of the Sacred Heart wrote Vatican officials after Weisenborn spent a year at the New Mexico treatment facility and said after "great sums of money spent" for his treatment and "great hardships," the order was "entirely incapable of receiving Rev. Father Weisenborn among themselves ever again..."

Weisenborn requested that he be transferred to the New Mexico treatment center to help other priests with their problems, according a letter written by Weisenborn in 1966 and submitted in the lawsuit as evidence.

The Vatican office then told the Congregation of the Sacred Heart to send Weisenborn to New Mexico, court documents show.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe later hired Weisenborn and assigned him to parishes in Albuquerque and other parts of the state.

According to the lawsuit, Weisenborn, as a priest at St. Francis Xavier in Albuquerque beginning in 1968, abused a boy more than 50 times.

Weisenborn also was named in another lawsuit by a man who said the priest sexually molested him when he was a seventh-grade altar boy at St. Francis Xavier beginning in 1966 or 1967. That lawsuit was settled in 2012 for an undisclosed amount.

Santa Fe Archdiocese spokeswoman Celine Baca Radigan did not immediately comment on the new lawsuit.

An email to the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary was not immediately returned. The Vatican has refused in the past to comment on sex abuse lawsuits in the U.S.

John Kearns, a spokesman for the Fall River Diocese in Massachusetts, said records show Weisenborn was not assigned to any parish within the diocese and the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary would have overseen his assignments.

It's not immediately clear where Weisenborn was assigned before coming to New Mexico.

The Santa Fe Archdiocese and the Servants were the target of dozens of lawsuits in the 1980s and 1990s alleging that priests were molesting children. Many cases alleged that pedophile priests came to New Mexico for treatment by the Servants of the Paraclete and were then sent to churches around the state.

The treatment center closed in 1995.

Brad Lee Davis, 34, of McLoud, pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree manslaughter in the 2013 death of Denver St. Clair, 58.

An Oklahoma man who strangled his stepfather by pulling the man's underwear over his head says he only meant to embarrass him with an "atomic wedgie."

Brad Lee Davis, 34, of McLoud, pleaded guilty Monday in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to first-degree manslaughter in the 2013 death of Denver St. Clair, 58. He originally has been charged with murder.

Davis told the judge at a sentencing hearing Wednesday the whole thing is "like a bad dream," according to The Oklahoman.

An autopsy determined that St. Clair died after his airway was cut off from the elastic of his torn underwear that was pulled over his head from behind in a procedure nicknamed an "atomic wedgie," according to the Tulsa World.

Davis recalled the incident during the hearing to help a judge decided punishment during a July 16 sentencing. Davis faces up to 35 years in prison.

Davis punched his stepfather unconscious before stretching the man's underwear over his head during a fight, he told Pottawatomie County District Judge John G. Canavan Jr. Davis claimed St. Clair attacked him first.

"I never had any intention of killing that man," he said. "There's no way I ever thought that could have happened. ... I was panicked, mad, scared. Things got out of hand."

Police said the Davis and St. Clair had been drinking together at a trailer a few days before Christmas, KFOR-TV reported.

They began to argue after St. Clair made negative comments about Davis' mother while she was recovering from hip surgery at a hospital, police said, the Oklahoman reported.

His stepfather was a bully, Davis said, and he pulled up his underwear in hopes of embarrassing him. In fact, he said, he took a photograph of his stepfather showing his underwear over his head.

This is a Jan. 9, 2015, report from WOAI-TV in San Antonio, Texas, on Davis' arrest:

The price of U.S. oil fell on continuing concerns about high global supplies.

By ALEX VEIGA

NEW YORK - U.S. stocks rebounded Thursday, snapping a three-day losing streak for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Encouraging data on the U.S. job market and inflation helped lift the market, pushing the S&P 500 to a record high. The Dow came within 36 points of its own record. The indexes are up for the month and year.

Technology and consumer staples stocks were among the biggest gainers. The price of U.S. oil fell on continuing concerns about high global supplies.

The Dow rose 191.75 points, or 1.1 percent, to 18,252.24. The S&P 500 index gained 22.62 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,121.10. That's three points higher than its previous closing high of 2,117.69 on April 24.

The Nasdaq composite added 69.10 points, or 1.4 percent, to 5,050.80.

The 10 sectors in the S&P 500 closed higher, with technology stocks leading the pack. The sector is up 4.8 percent this year.

"We've been at roughly this level of the S&P for almost three months," said David Lefkowitz, senior equity strategist at UBS Wealth Management Americas. "We're up 1 percent today and that's a decent move."

After a mostly downbeat week in the markets, trading got off to a strong start early Thursday as investors weighed the two Labor Department reports.

The government said fewer people applied for unemployment aid last week, pushing the four-week average down to its lowest level since April 2000. Unemployment benefit applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the very low level is evidence that Americans are enjoying more job security.

It is also a sign employers are confident enough in the economy to hold on to their employees, despite signs of sluggish growth.

A separate index that tracks the prices of goods and services before they reach consumers declined 0.4 percent last month. That could signal that the Federal Reserve will hold off on raising its key interest rate until this fall, said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

"Inflation is not a big issue," he said. "The market consensus has to be that it will be September or later that the Fed will move."

Investors are trying to gauge when the Federal Reserve will move to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in more than six years. The central bank has said it wants to see annual inflation heading toward 2 percent, a sign of a healthier economy.

Beyond economic data, traders had their eye on the latest batch of corporate earnings and deal news.

Ctrip.com International surged 8.8 percent after the Chinese travel services company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results and a strong outlook. The stock gained $5.78 to $71.14.

Traders also bid up shares in Perry Ellis International. The clothing maker's first-quarter earnings trumped Wall Street forecasts and the company also raised its earnings forecast for the year. Perry Ellis climbed $2.06, or 8.6 percent, to $26.09.

Some companies' latest financial results failed to live up to expectations.

Kohl's plunged 13.3 percent after the retailer reported that its first-quarter revenue and a key sales measure fell short of Wall Street's forecasts, even as the company posted a better-than-expected profit for the quarter. The stock lost $9.89 to $64.62.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 62 cents to close at $59.88 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil used by many U.S. refineries, fell 22 cents to close at $66.59 in London.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.24 percent from 2.29 percent late Wednesday.

Wholesale gasoline rose 1.7 cents to close at $2.058 a gallon, while heating oil rose 0.1 cent to close at $2.006 a gallon. Natural gas rose 7.3 cents to close at $3.008 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Precious and industrial metals futures closed mixed. Gold edged up $7 to $1,225.20 an ounce, silver rose 24 cents to $17.47 an ounce and copper edged down less than a penny to $2.92 a pound.

No-one was injured.

SPRINGFIELD - A fire on Worthington Street in Springfield Thursday night damaged two cars parked in the parking lot at 215 Worthington Street next to Theodore's Restaurant.

Dennis Leger, assistant to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, said a 2014 Infinity G25x caught fire at 7:22 p.m. after the driver walked into the restaurant.

The parking lot attendant called 911. A second car also caught fire, Leger said.

"The fire is not suspicious," Leger said.

He added, "It was caused by mechanical, electrical failure."

No-one was injured, and the Fire Department extinguished the fire, Leger said.

Several of his likely rivals for the Republican presidential nomination leapt at the chance to definitively answer a question that Bush did not.

By JULIE PACE
and STEVE PEOPLES

WASHINGTON -- Struggling with the shadows of Iraq, Jeb Bush said Tuesday he would have made a different decision than his brother to invade Iraq in 2003 had he known what he does now about flaws in the nation's intelligence.

But he didn't say what that decision would have been.

Bush's comments came as he tried to clarify his stance on the unpopular war started in 2003 by President George W. Bush. Yet his murky remarks underscore the challenge he faces in managing his family's foreign policy legacy while setting out his own approach to world affairs.

Several of his likely rivals for the Republican presidential nomination leapt at the chance to definitively answer a question that Bush did not.

In a radio interview Tuesday, Bush said it was clear there were mistakes in reports claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Had he known about the faulty intelligence, Bush said, he would have made a different decision about sending tens of thousands of U.S. troops into Iraq.

"I don't know what that decision would have been," Bush said on Sean Hannity's radio show. "That's a hypothetical."

The radio interview came a day after Fox News broadcast an interview with Bush in which he sidestepped the question about whether he would have sent U.S. troops to Iraq, knowing what is now known about the intelligence that led his brother to invade.

Hannity made a point to ask Bush if he wanted to clarify his answer from the previous interview, and Bush replied that he had "interpreted the question wrong." A follow-up query from the conservative host, repeating the original question, led to Bush's "I don't know" answer.

Bush is on the cusp of formally launching his campaign, and some of his rivals for the nomination seized on the opportunity to draw a distinction with him on Iraq -- a war once strongly supported by the GOP. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told The Associated Press it's "a real problem if he can't articulate what he would have done differently."

Paul, who stands out in the GOP field by supporting a smaller U.S. military footprint around the world, has said it was a mistake to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, pointing to the chaos in Iraq that followed the U.S. invasion.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said going into Iraq was ultimately the wrong decision.

"If we knew then what we know now, and I were the president of the United States, I wouldn't have gone to war," Christie said in an interview with CNN. In a pointed jab at Bush's evasion, he added that he wanted to "directly answer" the reporter's question "'cause that's what I do."

Said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, "Knowing what we know now, of course we wouldn't go into Iraq."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee declined to address the question directly, but in a statement praised soldiers who "poured their sweat and blood across Iraq."

"Unfortunately, they were let down by poor intelligence, a botched military strategy and an Iraqi people more interested in pointing fingers and placing blame than taking control of their future," Huckabee said.

Not all Republican White House hopefuls have disowned the decision to invade Iraq. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio defended the war earlier this year, saying "the world is a better place because Saddam Hussein doesn't run Iraq."

A September 2014 AP-GfK poll found that 71 percent of Americans said they think history will judge the war as a failure. Among Republicans, that assessment was even more prevalent, with 76 percent saying the war would be seen a failure.

Most of the GOP White House hopefuls argue that President Barack Obama overcorrected after ending the long and expensive war by withdrawing American forces, yet they are mindful that many Americans remain skeptical of large-scale U.S. combat efforts abroad. With the U.S. back in Iraq in a more limited way to help fight Islamic State militants, Obama's successor is all but sure to confront lingering fallout from the original invasion and its aftermath.

Tackling America's difficult history in Iraq is most challenging for Bush, given his family ties to the war. He has sought to distance himself from his brother's foreign policy in recent months, even as he relies on many of the same advisers and cites his brother someone he relies on for advice.

Democrats had their reckoning with the Iraq war during the 2008 presidential election. Obama's early opposition to the war helped him distinguish himself from Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary.

Clinton, who voted to authorize the war as a senator, has since said that based on the revised intelligence, she would not have voted for the war.

AP news survey specialist Emily Swanson in Washington and writer Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

High school athletic fees were last increased in 2009.

WESTFIELD - Staff reductions, an increase in high school athletic fees and creation of a $20 school bus fee are some things school officials may be forced to consider to offset a potential $3 million gap in proposed school funding for Fiscal 2016.

Superintendent of Schools Suzanne Scallion said she is opposed staff cuts and fee increases for Westfield Public Schools. But, she warned staff and the School Committee Thursday night that "we will need cuts at all levels including staff if finances do not improve."

Officials may also consider an increase in student parking fees at Westfield High School. That fee is currently $20.

Scallion said school financial officers are currently engaged in "sweeping" the existing $56.6 million school budget in hopes of finding substantial funding that can be used to 'pre-pay' some expenses such as out of district tuition for Fiscal 2016 that begins July 1.

The proposed school budget for 2016 is $60.6 million, an increase of nearly $4 million. That amount is needed to maintain current staff levels and programs along with services for students, officials said.

Mayor Daniel M. Knapik had told school officials he would allow $58.7 million for the new year forcing the School Department to find at least $1.9 million in reductions.

The mayor told the School Committee earlier this week that the $58.7 million figure may be too high because of municipal health insurance needs and a $1.4 million shortfall, or about $600,000 more than last year, in snow and ice removal costs for this past winter.

"The $58.7 is a moving target right now and may need to be lowered by $500,000 to $1 million," Knapik told School Committee members at their regular meeting Monday night.

School Committee Finance Chairman Kevin J. Sullivan said Thursday night "more accurate numbers" may be available next week and the committee will meet to try and finalize the FY 2016 school budget at that time.

Scallion said a $20 bus fee for all students, per semester, will generate an estimated $160,000. She said that fee will also aid school officials in scheduling school transportation and hopefully reduce criticism of empty buses.

Athletic fees at the high school level are currently $85 per sport. That fee was last increased in 2009 from $75 per fee.

As for possible staff reductions, the School Department currently employs about 580 teachers. In total, the department employees about 1,000 people.

The bodies of Michelle McCullum, 25, and her children, Caleb, 5, and Cylie, 3, were found by a waste disposal worker at about 8:15 a.m. Thursday.

A New Orleans woman and her two young children were found shot dead Thursday, several hours after police agencies began a search following a report of a suicidal mother, authorities said.

The bodies of Michelle McCullum, 25, and her children, Caleb, 5, and Cylie, 3, were found by a waste disposal worker at about 8:15 a.m. inside an SUV in a remote area on the city's east side, police told NOLA.com.

The woman shot the two children with a .40-caliber gun before turning it on herself, police said.

She had told her sister she felt suicidal, and the sister reported that to police shortly after midnight, authorities said.

"NOPD received a call from a woman who stated that her sister called her and said she was going to kill herself and her children," said New Orleans Police Department spokesman Tyler Gamble, who didn't identify the sister. "The caller did not know where her sister was going."

The mother and children were last seen about 10 p.m. Wednesday leaving their home, the New Orleans Advocate reported.

Authorities immediately began searching for the woman and children, NOLA.com reported. However, Louisiana State Police didn't send out the first public notice of the missing mother and children until 7:26 a.m.

Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Jeffrey Rouse had not revealed the estimated time of the family's death.

Gamble said the nearly seven hours after the call until the first public notice of the missing mother and children might not be improper, NOLA.com reported.

"Each call has to be evaluated on an individual basis," he said. "Detectives often take initial investigative steps before immediately taking steps to make it a statewide alert."

McCullum's family declined to talk to The Associated Press.

Police were notified about the SUV in a 911 call from David DeGruy, a diesel mechanic at Richard's Disposal Inc. He said he called after someone noticed a person slumped behind the wheel covered in blood, AP reported.

After police arrived and opened the doors, he said, could see what appeared to be children's bodies on the floor in the back.

Rick Mathieu, 59, a neighbor, told AP that McCullum was a hard-working, devoted mother who recently had been having some marital problems. She was laid off about a year ago from a NASA facility in eastern New Orleans, where her husband also worked, Mathieu said.

Monique Van Zandt was stabbed multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene.

SPRINGFIELD - Police have identified the 25-year-old woman who was stabbed death by her boyfriend Tuesday night.

Monique Van Zandt was stabbed multiple times at 329 Franklin St. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Western Mass News, media partners to the Republican and Masslive.

Police almost immediately arrested Van Dorsey Jr., 27, of 27 Franklin St. following the homicide that the said was an act of domestic violence.

Officials however did not release immediately release Van Zandt's name.

Dorsey was arraigned on Wednesday and held without bail after pleading not guilty to murder, possession of a Class B substance and possession of a Class D substance with intent to distribute.

He is being held at the the Hampden County House of Correction in Ludlow pending a competency hearing next week.

In a second hearing on the same day of his arraignment, a court psychiatrist testified Dorsey was high on PCP on the night of the killing and was a regular user of the drug.

Later it was also revealed he has a history of domestic violence and was recently the subject of a request for a restraining order by another woman.

An Upstate New York woman admitted tampering with her fiance's kayak and later confessed "it felt good knowing he would die" while out together paddling on the Hudson River, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

These were the most read stories on MassLive.com yesterday. If you missed any of them, click on the links below to read them now. The most viewed item overall, however, was the photo gallery, above, about the opening of the new Suit Up Springfield store on Worthington Street.

1) Family of teen killed in Worcester shooting begs for peace [Lindsay Corcoran]

2) Two men accused of shooting 15-year-old 6 times in Worcester motel held on bail [Michael D. Kane]

3) NY woman who tampered with fiance's kayak 'felt good' watching him die, prosecutor says [Associated Press]

4) Wells Report response: New England Patriots release detailed rebuttal to investigation's findings [Kevin Duffy]

5) Great New England Air Show 2015 FAQ: Traffic, where to park, security, banned items [Jeanette DeForge]

A higher bail would keep Starks, who is the father of two children and pursuing a GED, from his family and educational responsibilities, Rasmussen said.

SPRINGFIELD - A city man was ordered held on $25,000 bail Thursday, one day after his arrest for carrying a handgun allegedly stolen during a housebreak in North Carolina.

Camry Shaquil Starks 

Assistant District Attorney Jill O'Connor said Starks was a passenger in a 2002 Lexus stopped for a lights violation Wednesday night by police working an anti-gang detail along the Pine Street corridor.

Starks, who attempted to run from police, was arrested and charged with possession of a loaded .380 caliber, semi-automatic handgun with a round in the chamber, O'Connor said.

The gun was reported stolen during a housebreak in Shelby, North Carolina, according to O'Connor, who asked for $25,000 bail.

Defense lawyer John A. Rasmussen opposed the request, explaining his client's family could probably afford $1,000 cash bail.

A higher bail would keep Starks, who is the father of two children and pursing a GED, from his family and educational responsibilities, Rasmussen said.

Judge William Boyle set bail at $25,000 and scheduled a pretrial hearing for June 19.

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been sentenced to death by a jury of his peers for his actions the week of April 15, 2013.

BOSTON -- The soft spoken arguments from the Boston Marathon bomber's defense team to show him mercy were not enough for the jury that condemned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, to death on Friday for a week of mayhem that resulted in four deaths, more than 200 injuries and the lockdown of one America's major metropolitan areas.

With his attorneys at his side, Tsarnaev, who showed no reaction, learned his fate while the long, complex form filled out by the 12 person jury was read aloud in court for more than 20 minutes.

Friday's decision was the conclusion of a legal process that began in the winter cold of January with jury selection and ended in the springtime warmth of May with a death sentence. 

A unanimous verdict from the jury, picked during the course of a two-month long voir dire, was required in order to sentence him to death.

Tsarnaev's death sentence makes him the second resident of Massachusetts to be sentenced to death since the federal government expanded its use in 1988.

A formal sentencing hearing where the victim impact statements will take place at a later date at Moakley Courthouse. Tsarnaev will remain in a Massachusetts prison until his formal sentencing hearing.

On April 8, 2015 the same jury found Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 charges stemming from the Boston Marathon bombing, the Watertown shootout, and the murder of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. In addition to the shooting of Collier, he was found guilty of the Boston Marathon bombings took the lives of Krystle Campbell, 29, Martin Richard, 8, and Lingzi Lu, 23. Of the 30 charges Tsarnaev was convicted of 17 came with a possible death sentence. 

Tsarnaev was born into a somewhat nomadic life in the chaotic Central Asian region of the former Soviet Union before his family moved to the United States in 2002 where they eventually settled in Cambridge. During their time in the United States his mother, Zubediat, became increasingly devout while his father began to experience several debilitating mental health problems. While this was happening his older brother, Tamerlan, began to embrace radical Islam and gravitate to jihadist ideas when possible avenues of success in his life disappeared. 

During closing arguments Tsarnaev's attorneys argued that his brother's domineering influence over him led him to participate in the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon and the subsequent events that followed. 

"We told you that Dzhokhar followed his brother down Boylston (Street) because that is the tragic truth but if not for Tamerlan this wouldn't have happened. Dzhokhar would have never done this but for Tamerlan. The tragedy would have never happened but for Tamerlan. Dzhokhar became convinced of the fallacy of the cause, of his brother's passion," said defense attorney Judy Clarke on Wednesday. 

Clarke asked jurors to show mercy and spare him the death penalty because it would show the resolve and strength of Boston.

The government encouraged jurors to ignore this line of thinking due to the brutality of the crimes Tsarnaev committed. 

"He struck at what citizens hold dear. He went after the core values of society: children, family, neighborhoods, public safety. After all of the carnage and fear and terror that he has created the right decision is clear. It is your job to determine a just sentence: the only sentence that will do justice in this case will be a sentence of death," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Mellin on Wednesday. 

Mellin and his counterpart Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Weinreb argued that Tsarnaev marched to the beat of his own drum and was not under the thumb of his brother. They acted, he said, as a team. 

"Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not the defendant's master, they were partners in crime and brothers in arms. Each had a role to play and each played," Mellin said. 

Prior to his turn as a radical jihadist Tsarnaev was the co-captain of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin wrestling team and a student at UMASS Dartmouth. The question of exactly how, why, and when he changed into a terrorist capable of blowing up an 8-year-old remains unknown.

Aaron Mercier, 22, was arraigned in Northampton District Court Friday on charges of malicious damage to a motor vehicle.

NORTHAMPTON -- A Haydenville man has been accused of shattering the front windshield of an SUV while his father was still driving it, according to documents.

Aaron Mercier, 22, was arraigned in Northampton District Court Friday on charges of malicious damage to a motor vehicle.

On May 13 at around 8 p.m., Northampton police responded to a parking lot on Main Street in Florence, close to where Mercier's father said his son kicked through the window. The father said Mercier began yelling during the car ride, and said he was upset about being hungry, reports said.

Mercier's father said his son was was "extremely agitated" and eventually kicked the front window of his Toyota Highlander, breaking the glass.

Police said Mercier was aggressive toward dispatchers and threatened to harm any police officers that intervened. When officers arrived on scene, they ordered Mercier to exit the car and sit on the curb, where Mercier was handcuffed.

Mercier was verbally abusive and refused to listen to specific orders, police said. He also allegedly refused to be taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital for a mental health evaluation. An officer contacted Clinical & Support Options in Springfield to see if they would send a clinician to speak with Mercier, at which time Mercier became upset and said he would "spit in the face of anyone" who came to speak with him, reports said.

Mercier was placed under arrest and taken to the Northampton Police Department. While conducting an inventory search of Mercier's property, officers found a small marijuana cigarette, which was tagged for destruction, police said.

Mercier was released on $1,000 bail.

Massachusetts politicians react to the Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said he hopes the end of the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death on Friday, will bring closure for all those affected by the attack.

"At this point in time, I hope this represents some kind of closure for all of those who were affected by this tragedy," Baker told reporters after the sentencing. "I have always been and continue to be amazingly impressed by the ability of the people of this community to pull together around issues like this and to look forward.  And that is certainly what I hope everybody does from this point forward."

Baker thanked the jury and the judicial system. "I especially want to thank all the families that were affected by this terrible act of terrorism for their fortitude and their persistence in seeing their way all the way through this," Baker said. 

Baker, a Republican, is a death penalty supporter.

Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat who opposes the death penalty, similarly thanked the jurors and said her thoughts are with the survivors and victims of the bombing.

"What is clear is that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tried to strike fear in the heart of a city, and failed miserably," Healey said in a statement. "While this trial may be completed, we will never forget those that we lost and the strength and resilience that our community showed in the face of such evil."

Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, said, "The verdict on the penalty will not erase the terror and pain inflicted on our community at the 2013 Boston Marathon.  Although I have never been a supporter of the death penalty, I hope this will give us some sense of closure and justice delivered."