Kamp for Kids was the inspiration behind Team Hoyt.

WESTFIELD - Team Hoyt Foundation has donated $10,000 to continue programs for youngsters attending Kamp for Kids here.

The Hoyts attended the 40th Welcoming Day ceremony, July 17, at the camp located on Route 20 to personally make the presentation and recognize the efforts of Judy Hoyt who started the camp in 1975.

Dick and Rick Hoyt, the father and son marathon racing team were joined by Robert Hoyt in making the presentation.

The donation will be used to help finance the numerous programs offered at Kamp for Kids which is operated b y the Carson Center that provided community-based mental health and rehabilitation services to more than 7,700 Western Massachusetts residents.

WESTFIELD - Gunsmoke will bring its music featuring country music legends to Stanley Park Aug. 2. The Nashville group, which has recorded with Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, Hank Williams Jr. and other country legends, will perform at 6 p.m. in the Beveridge Pavilion, weather permitting. The concert is free. Chairs will be provided and a food service will be available....

WESTFIELD - Gunsmoke will bring its music featuring country music legends to Stanley Park Aug. 2.

The Nashville group, which has recorded with Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, Hank Williams Jr. and other country legends, will perform at 6 p.m. in the Beveridge Pavilion, weather permitting.

The concert is free. Chairs will be provided and a food service will be available.

The cocert is sponsored by Westfield Bank's Sunday Night Concert Series at Stanley Park.

Additional information is available at www.gunsmokeband.com and www.stanleypark.org.

Five fire departments assisted the Southwick Fire Department.

SOUTHWICK - Firefighters on Sunday evening battled a fire at a home on Sunnyside Road.

The fire was reported at 5:38 p.m., Sunday at Sunnyside Road. The homes are relatively new, Southwick public safety officials said.

The fire is large and firefighters from Agawam; Granville; Suffield, Conn.; Granby Conn. and East Granby, Conn. were all called to help the Southwick Fire Department control the blaze, officials said.

The state Fire Marshal's office has been called to assist with the investigation.

Five fire departments are assisting Southwick.

SOUTHWICK - Firefighters are currently battling a fire on a home on Sunnyside Road.

The fire was reported at 5:38 p.m., Sunday in a home on Sunnyside Road. The homes are relatively new so the exact address of the house was not immediately known, Southwick public safety officials said.

The fire is large and firefighters from Agawam; Granville; Suffield, Conn.; Granby Conn. and East Granby, Conn. were all called to help the Southwick Fire Department control the blaze, officials said.

The state Fire Marshal's office has been called to assist with the investigation.

Fiat Chrysler must offer to buy back from customers more than 500,000 Ram pickup trucks in the biggest such action in U.S. history as part of a costly deal with safety regulators to settle legal problems in about two-dozen recalls.

DETROIT -- Fiat Chrysler must offer to buy back from customers more than 500,000 Ram pickup trucks in the biggest such action in U.S. history as part of a costly deal with safety regulators to settle legal problems in about two-dozen recalls.

The trucks, which are the company's top-selling vehicle, have defective steering parts that can cause drivers to lose control, and some previous repairs have been unsuccessful. So to get them off the roads, Fiat Chrysler agreed to the buyback, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Owners also have the option of getting them repaired, the agency said in documents released Sunday.

Also, owners of more than a million older Jeeps with vulnerable rear-mounted gas tanks will be able to trade in their vehicles for more than market value or be paid to get them repaired, the agency said in a statement. The Jeeps' fuel tanks are behind the rear axle and have little to shield them in a rear crash. They can rupture and spill gasoline, setting the vehicles on fire. At least 75 people have died in crash-related fires, although Fiat Chrysler maintains they are as safe as comparable vehicles from the same era.

Both the Jeep and Ram measures are part of a larger settlement between the government and the automaker that includes a record $105 million penalty, appointment of an independent recall monitor and strict federal oversight. It's another step in NHTSA's effort to right itself, getting more aggressive with automakers after several slow responses to safety troubles.

"Today's action holds Fiat Chrysler accountable for its past failures, pushes them to get unsafe vehicles repaired or off the roads and takes concrete steps to keep Americans safer going forward," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in the statement. The record civil fine, he said, puts automakers on notice that NHTSA will take action when recall laws aren't followed.

NHTSA has been involved in vehicle buybacks in the past, but never one of this size. A buyback usually happens when a problem is so serious that it can't be fixed and the vehicles need to be removed from service. The buyback and the Jeep trade-ins likely will cost Fiat Chrysler hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which is technically based in the Netherlands but includes the Italian and U.S. companies, posted first-quarter net profit of $101 million.

The consent order that Fiat Chrysler agreed to requires it to notify vehicle owners who are eligible for buybacks and other incentives.

The agency's actions come less than a month after it held a rare public hearing to detail problems with 23 Fiat Chrysler recalls covering more than 11 million cars and trucks. It's another sign that NHTSA is taking a much tougher stance against automakers that don't obey auto safety laws. 70 million and stuff.

The fine beats the old record of $70 million assessed against Honda Motor Co. for lapses in recalls of air bags made by Takata Corp.

In a statement, FCA US LLC said it accepted the consequences of the agreement "with renewed resolve to improve our handling of recalls and re-establish the trust our customers place in us." The company said it wants to rebuild its relationship with NHTSA and identify and follow best industry practices for doing recalls.

Fiat Chrysler has to pay $70 million and must spend at least $20 million to meet performance requirements detailed in the agreement. Another $15 million could come due if the recall monitor finds any further violations.

At the July 2 hearing, NHTSA detailed a litany of shortfalls: failure to notify customers of recalls, delays in making and distributing repair parts and in some cases failing to come up with repairs that fix the problems. Some of the recalls date to 2013.

During the hearing, Fiat Chrysler did not dispute any of NHTSA's allegations. Scott Kunselman, the company's head of vehicle safety, said it is changing the way it manages safety to follow the industry's best practices. The safety system, he said, has been reorganized with added personnel. He now reports directly to CEO Sergio Marchionne. Previously the person in his position was three rungs down the organization chart from the chief executive, he said.

"We have learned from our mistakes and missteps," he said.

Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, passed away at a Duluth, Georgia, hospital following a months-long medically-induced coma on Sunday, ETonline reports.

DULUTH, Ga. -- The brief, chaotic life of Bobbi Kristina Brown was never really her own.

Born and raised in the shadow of fame and litigation, shattered by the loss of her mother, Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina was overwhelmed by the achievements and demons of others before she could begin to figure out who she was.

Her demise was the most awful inheritance of all.

Bobbi Kristina died on Sunday at Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth, Georgia, about six months after she was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in the suburban Atlanta townhome she shared with Nick Gordon, the man she called her husband. She was 22-years-old.

"Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away July, 26 2015, surrounded by her family. She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months," Kristen Foster, a representative for the Houston family said Sunday.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Bobbi Kristina's death Sunday night and will issue a news release on Monday.

Police said she was found Jan. 31. A police report described it as a "drowning."

Bobbi Kristina was the only child between Houston and Brown.

She was hospitalized for months in Atlanta -- eventually being placed in hospice care -- after being found in a manner grimly similar to the way her megastar mother died three years earlier. Gordon said at the time it seemed Bobbi Kristina wasn't breathing and lacked a pulse before help arrived.

Brown -- the sole heir of her mother's estate -- did have dreams.

She identified herself on Twitter as "Daughter of Queen WH," ''Entertainer/Actress" with William Morris & Co., and "LAST of a dying breed." She told Oprah Winfrey shortly after her mother's death in 2012 that she wanted to carry on her mother's legacy by singing, acting and dancing. But her career never took off. Actor and producer Tyler Perry said she had a future as an actress after her debut on his TV show "For Better or Worse" in 2012, but she only appeared in one episode. Aside from two ill-fated reality TV shows and the occasional paparazzi video, her image mostly showed up in the "selfies" she posted online.

She attended award shows and appeared on red carpets with her mother and father. She performed a duet with her mother in 2009, singing "My Love Is Your Love" in New York's Central Park. She became social media sensation, sending more than 11,000 tweets and attracting 164,000 followers.

As the news of her death spread across social media, several celebrities tweeted their condolences.

My heart is truly heavy [?] May u rest in peace with your mommy #BobbiKristina sending prayers 2 the Brown/Houston family[?] [?]

-- Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) July 27, 2015

Rest in heaven #BobbiKristina

-- Taraji P. Henson (@TherealTaraji) July 27, 2015

RIP #BobbiKristina My deepest sympathies 2 your father #BobbyBrown n your GrandMa #CissyHouston We will miss ya 4sho darling ;)

-- Vivica A. Fox (@MsVivicaFox) July 27, 2015

Peace at Last! #BobbiKristina

-- Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) July 27, 2015

Whitney Houston, known as "America's Sweetheart," was an impossible act to follow.

The late singer sold more than 50 million records in the United States alone during her career. Her voice, an ideal blend of power, grace and beauty, made classics out of songs like "Saving All My Love For You," ''I Will Always Love You" and "The Greatest Love of All." She earned six Grammys and starred in the films "The Bodyguard" and "The Preacher's Wife."

Bobby Brown, who had a bad-boy image, also became a huge star, selling platinum records with New Edition and going solo before drugs and legal woes derailed his career.

Bobbi Kristina appeared alongside both parents in 2005 on the Bravo reality show "Being Bobby Brown," which captured her parents fighting, swearing and appearing in court. The Hollywood Reporter said it revealed that Brown was "even more vulgar than the tabloids suggest," and managed "to rob Houston of any last shreds of dignity."

Years earlier, as Houston was preparing to give birth to Bobbi Kristina, she expressly left Bobby Brown out of her will, putting everything in a trust "for the benefit of her children and more remote descendants," according to the Houstons' 2012 petition.

After their divorce in 2007, Houston kept custody of Bobbi Kristina and raised her alongside Gordon, an orphan three years older than her daughter. Houston brought Gordon into her family, and while she never formally adopted him or included him in the will, both teenagers called her "mom."

The threesome's tight bond was shattered when Houston's assistant found the singer's lifeless body face-down in a foot of water in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton just before the Grammy Awards in 2012. Authorities found prescription drugs in the suite, and evidence of heart disease and cocaine in her body, but determined her death was an accidental drowning.

Bobbi Kristina, then 18, was at the hotel and became so hysterical she had to be hospitalized. "She wasn't only a mother, she was a best friend," she told Winfrey.

She and Gordon then went public with their romance, posting defiant messages online after the tabloids accused them of incest.

The Houstons tolerated their relationship, appearing with them on television that year in Lifetime's reality show "The Houstons: On Our Own."

But in one telling episode, the late singer's relatives lectured the pair about drinking after they show up in an obviously altered state, and accused Gordon of failing to take care of the grieving girl.

Relations between Gordon and some other relatives continued to sour over the past year after Bobbi Kristina was hospitalized. A protective order barred him from being within 200 feet of Pat Houston, Bobbi Kristina's aunt. A feud erupted over whether Gordon could visit Bobbi Kristina while she stayed in the hospital.

On June 24, Bobbi Kristina's court-appointed representative sued Gordon, accusing him of misrepresenting his relationship with Bobbi Kristina. The complaint accused him of being violent toward her and taking more than $11,000 from her account while she was in a medically induced coma after the Jan. 31 tragedy.

The lawsuit also accused Gordon of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unjust enrichment and conversion.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he and his office are interested in reviewing the investigative file to determine whether any charges will be filed.

Also on June 24, Pat Houston said Bobbi Kristina had been placed in hospice care.

Bobbi Kristina was fabulously wealthy for a teenager, but her money was in a spendthrift trust, designed to keep creditors and predators from taking advantage of people who can't manage their money. Bobbi Kristina's grandmother, Cissy Houston, and aunt, Pat Houston, eventually took over control of the trust and then took Bobbi Kristina to court to protect the estate.

The Houstons called Bobbi Kristina "a highly visible target for those who would exercise undue influence over her inheritance and/or seek to benefit from (her) resources and celebrity," and urged a judge to delay how quickly she could control the money.

Bobbi Kristina agreed to the delay, and the judge granted their request to seal the case.

The size of Houston's estate is a privately held secret.

In May, a judge appointed Bobby Brown and Pat Houston as co-guardians of Bobbi Kristina, giving them joint responsibility in decisions related to her care and medical needs. Lawyer Bedelia Hargrove was appointed conservator to oversee Bobbi Kristina's assets, including her rights and legal claims.

Houston signed a $100 million record deal in 2001, but failed to deliver, and lost two homes to foreclosure toward the end of her life. But her untimely death revived a hunger for her music, and her name and likeness generated revenue that became part of Bobbi Kristina's inheritance.

By January 2014, the young couple who grew up as brother and sister were sharing a townhome in Roswell, Georgia, and calling themselves husband and wife.

They posted images of their hands wearing wedding rings, with the caption "#HappilyMarried. So #InLove. If you didn't get it the first time that is." They got identical "WH" tattoos with flying doves on their wrists, and Gordon added a large portrait of Houston's face on his arm.

Their marriage announcement troubled Pat Houston, who obtained a restraining order against Gordon two months later.

"Damn, lol, it's incredible how the world will judge you 4ANY&EVERYthing," Bobbi Kristina tweeted at the time.

By last September, Pat Houston said she was "very proud of Krissy."

"Young people today are up against so much with social media and everything else that presents itself to them," Pat Houston told The Associated Press. "We try to be there for her, just to try to guide and direct her."

Judging from her postings online, Bobbi Kristina was focused on the approaching anniversary of her mother's death. In one of her last tweets, she said:

Littlelady&yourgrowing young man @nickdgordon miss you mommy ..:') SOmuch.. loving you more every sec. #Anniversary! pic.twitter.com/3NBj8gwAi0

-- Bobbi Kristina H.G. (@REALbkBrown) January 26, 2015

A video posted on Twitter shows a Cleveland police officer let loose pepper-spray into a crowd of people at the Movement for Black Lives conference.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A video posted on Twitter shows a Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority police officer let loose pepper-spray into a crowd of people at the Movement for Black Lives conference in downtown Cleveland.

The incident was recorded late Sunday afternoon on Euclid Avenue near East 24^th Street.

RTA officials have not released details, including whether anyone was arrested.

City of Cleveland Community Relations Director Blaine Griffin, who responded to the scene, said the incident began when officers stopped a 14-year-old boy thought to be intoxicated. What happened next is still unclear, he said.

Cleveland police spokeswoman Det. Jennifer Ciaccia would only say that officers from the division assisted RTA police officers who responded to the scene.

Conference attendees who remained at the scene after the incident met media with condemnation and would not offer details.

A phone call placed to RTA Police Chief John Joyce was not returned.

The Movement for Black Lives national conference, which was held this weekend at Cleveland State University, meant to draw attention to police brutality and race relations.

#happeningNow #M4BL protesters pepper sprayed in #Cleveland @mvmt4bl pic.twitter.com/9JyFCp2vMq

-- Kenny (@KentaviousPrime) July 26, 2015

Sgt. Thomas Sullivan grew up in Springfield and graduated from Cathedral High School.

SPRINGFIELD - Some came two hours early, others waited in line for more than three hours in line to pay their respects to the family of Marine Gunnery Sgt Thomas J. Sullivan Sunday afternoon.

The wake for the 40-year-old Springfield native, who died when a lone gunman opened fire on recruiting stations in Chattanooga, Tennessee killing five servicemen, was open to the public and drew hundreds of people.

"I know his brother and dad. I was on my way home and I had to come," said Jane Barker, of Springfield.

She said it was difficult to put into words what she wanted to say to Sullivan's family.
"I wanted to thank them for everything they did," she said.

Sullivan, a Cathedral High School graduate, leaves his parents Gerry and Betty Sullivan, his siblings, Joe Sullivan and Dianne Sullivan Caron, nieces and nephews, and many other family members.

The wake, held at Sampson's Chapel of The Acres, started at 1 p.m. but people started arriving as early as 11 a.m., said Kyle Kokosa, a long-term staff member for the funeral home.

"The line was 3, 3 1/2 hours at the height. It was out the door," he said.

It was scheduled to end at 5 p.m. but was extended to about 6 p.m. because there were so many people still lined up waiting to pay their respects, Kokosa said.

Despite the fact so many people attended, everything went smoothly, he said.

More than 20 people, most from the Patriot Guard Riders held large American flags in front of the funeral home. Neighbors on Tinkham Road and Wilbraham Road also placed flags on their lawns to honor Sullivan, who had served multiple tours in Iraq and received two Purple Hearts.

State and local police directed traffic. Even the American Red Cross assisted by handing out water to people waiting in long lines or who parked a half-mile from the funeral home.

Val Abelin, of Longmeadow, joined with five other friends, to hold flags in front of the funeral home even though she does not even know the Sullivan family.

"He is a hero. He was killed by an extremist in our country," she said.

Sullivan served multiple tours in Iraq during his career with the U.S. Marine Corps and earned two Purple Heart medals.

Abelin said she also stood out on the Bark Haul Bridge in Longmeadow to pay her respects on Friday when thousands of Springfield residents lined Sumner Avenue to pay their respects as a motorcade bearing the remains of Sullivan brought him home.

"It was eerie," she said. "Everyone was sad and then everyone was just plain mad."

Along with so many family and friends, local politicians also paid their respects. Gov. Charlie Baker also attended the wake.

The funeral, scheduled for Monday morning, will be limited to family and friends but members of the Marine Corps are also invited to attend. It will be followed by a private burial at the Massachusetts Veterans Cemetery in Agawam.

Marines are welcome to attend all facets of the funeral, including the Mass and burial, according to Springfield attorney Dan Kelly, a spokesman for the Sullivan family.

The Savoy Fire Department directed the rescue.

SAVOY - A man fell more than 30 feet while hiking in Tannery Falls Sunday.

The Western Massachusetts Technical Rescue Team was called to rescue the man. The team is made up of a variety of police and firefighters trained to rescue people in the woods and other difficult places.

Tannery Falls is located in the Savoy Mountain State Forrest. The rescue was directed by the Savoy Fire Department, police said.

This is a breaking news story. Masslive will update as more information becomes available.

Fire heavily damaged a Sunnyside Road home in Southwick.

SOUTHWICK— The State Fire Marshal's Office has been called in to investigate an afternoon fire that heavily damaged a two-story home at 15 Sunnyside Road in Southwick. Fire Chief Richard Anderson said the occupants of the home were at work at the time the fire was reported.

Anderson said first responders arrived at the scene at approximately 5:35 p.m. and reported that the garage area was fully involved in fire. Mutual assistance from Suffield, Lost Acres in Granby and the East Granby fire departments was called for initially. Units from Agawam and Russell arrived later as did a unit from Granville to cover the fire station.

Firefighters made their way through the front door of the house to fight the fire from the inside of the living area into the garage, saving the main structure of the building. However, flames had spread into the attic area of the home and firefighters had to create access to fight that portion of the blaze. Several holes were cut in the exterior of the roof and more through the interior ceilings to gain access, Anderson said.

Anderson estimated damages to the home at about $200,000.

Fire crews remained at the scene well into the night, and police closed the street for more than five hours as fire crews worked.

The exact cause of the blaze remains undetermined.

The military and a private organization have brought home the remains of 36 Marines killed in one of World War II's bloodiest battles.

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (AP) -- The military and a private organization have brought home the remains of 36 Marines killed in one of World War II's bloodiest battles.

A group called History Flight recovered the remains from the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa, the U.S. Marine Corps said. A ceremony was held Sunday in Pearl Harbor to mark their return.

History Flight has started identifying the remains, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will complete the effort, the Marines said. The Marines plan to return the remains to their families after they've been identified.

More than 990 U.S. Marines and 30 sailors died during the three-day Battle of Tarawa in 1943. Japanese machine gun fire killed scores of Marines when their boats got stuck on the reef at low tide during the U.S. amphibious assault. Americans who made it to the beach faced brutal hand-to-hand combat.

Only 17 of the 3,500 Japanese troops survived. Of 1,200 Korean slave laborers on the island, just 129 lived.

The U.S. quickly buried the thousands of dead on the tiny atoll. But the graves were soon disturbed as the Navy urgently built a landing strip to prepare for an attack on the next Pacific island on their path to Tokyo.

About 520 U.S. servicemen are still unaccounted for from the battle.

Preliminary work conducted by History Flight indicates the remains of 1st Lt. Alexander J. Bonnyman, Jr., a Marine who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, are among the 36 brought to Hawaii.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commandant of the Marines Corps, said in a statement he's pleased to learn of the discovery of the remains at Tarawa, the site of one of the service's most significant battles.

"It was also the first contested landing against a heavily fortified enemy, and a turning point in the development in our amphibious capability. The lessons learned at Tarawa paved the way for our success in the Pacific campaign and eventual end to the war," Dunford said.

History Flight brought attention to the Tarawa missing when its research indicated it had found the graves of 139 U.S. servicemen. The Marathon, Florida-based organization used ground-penetrating radar, reviewed thousands of military documents and interviewed veterans to narrow down possible grave sites.

A man was shot and killed in Hartford, marking the city's 19th homicide so far this year.

Dwight B. Shepard | dshepard@repub.com 

Everett Scott, 47, of Hartford was found behind the wheel of his car parked on Kenyon Court. He had been shot in the chest.

Scott was transported to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in critical condition, but died shortly after arrival.

Hartford Police would only say the incident is "narcotics related," the Hartford Courant reported.

The incident remains under investigation.

Two New York men are in a Vermont jail after they were clocked at more than 100 miles and hour on I-91, then were found with a significant quantity of drugs.

Conor Berry | cberry@repub.com 

Vermont State Police said a trooper tried to stop a New York registered car, driven by Erik Polite, 35, of Flushing, N.Y., on I-91 in Rockingham after the trooper clocked him driving at 98 miles per hour in the northbound lanes of the interstate. Apparently not one to leave well enough alone, Polite sped up to 106 miles per hour before pulling over for the trooper at about 1:15 a.m.

After he was stopped, Polite walked back to the police cruiser to talk to the trooper. While the two spoke, Polite's passenger, 34-year-old Leeshawn Baker, also from Flushing, jumped into the driver's seat of Polite's car, and put it in gear. The gear was he chose was reverse, and the car shot back toward the trooper's cruiser where the he and Polite were now sitting. The trooper was able to throw his car into reverse and move out of way of the careening car, which continued across two lanes of the highway and crashed in the median.

At this point, police felt the need to test for consumption of intoxicants, and after Breathalizer tests Polite registered a blood alcohol level of .199 percent and Baker a .252-percent. Both men were arrested for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

As they were being booked, officers found approximately 10 grams of powdered cocaine on Polite's person, and 79 oxycodone pills and 50 Percocet pills hidden in the car.

Polite was ordered held on $10,000 bail after he was charged with DUI, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, excessive speed, possession of cocaine, possession of a narcotic , stimulant and/or depressant.

Baker was ordered held on $2,500 bail after he was charged with DUI, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, possession of a narcotic, stimulant and/or depressive.

Both men are being held in the Southern State Correctional Facility pending arraignment in Windham County Court Monday.

A federal, state and local law enforcement task force arrested five people in two states and seized a large quantity of drugs.

Dave Canton | dcanton@repub.com 

The North Adams Police Department announced the raids Friday, saying more than 7,500 bags of heroin, 36 grams of cocaine and a quantity of marijuana was seized along with more than $5,000 in cash after e lengthy investigation.

Three North Adams residents were arrested as was a 67-year-old Stephentown woman. In Holyoke, Hector R. Almodovar of 75 Lyman St. was taken into custody along with much of the drugs seized.

Brooklynne R. Schneider 

North Adams police say Brooklynne R. Schneider, 21, was charged with two counts of possession to distribute a Class A substance and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Tre A. Amos 

Johnathon J. Loring 

In Stephentown, N.Y. police arrested Rosemarie H. Thorton, 67, and charged her with possession to distribute a Class A substance and conspiracy to violate the Controlled Substance Acts.

Rosemarie H. Thorton 

The Berkshire Eagle reported that Schneider was arrested along with a group of companions in February of 2014 on similar charges. According to the newspaper, Schneider was charged after a cavity search turned up 62 bags of heroin and two bags of cocaine stashed in her vagina.

She as charged with possession of a Class A substance with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

The multi-agency task force included officers from the north Adams Police Department, the Holyoke Police Narcotics/Vice Unit, Chicopee Police Narcotics Unit, the Massachusetts State Police Gang Unit, the FBI Western Mass Gang Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Berkshire County Narcotics Task Force, as well as the Rensselaer County (N.Y.) Sheriff's Office.

Four of the defendants will be arraigned in the Northern Berkshire County District Court in North Adams Monday. Almodovar was arraigned in Holyoke District Court on Friday and will face more drug charges for trafficking in heroin in Chicopee.

The same man was arrested in February on drug charges.

SPRINGFIELD - A 63-year-old man police referred to as a "notorious drug dealer" was arrested Saturday, charged with distribution and trafficking of multiple drugs.

Jose Barbot, of Springfield, was charged this weekend with two counts of distribution of a Class B substance, Oxycodone, and trafficking in of a Class A substance, which is a narcotic, Sgt. John Delaney, department spokesman, said.

John BarbotSpringfield Police Department 

While under surveillance by the Police Department's Narcotics team, Barbot was seen allegedly selling drugs to two people. The team, under the direction of Lt. Alberto Ayala, then arrested Barbot and his customers, Sgt. John Delaney, department spokesman, said.

Det. Edward Kalish then followed up by seeking a search warrant for Barbot's property. During the search, officers seized $15,354 in cash, 580 pills and about 60 grams of crushed pills, Delaney said.

Barbot is being held without bail until his arraignment on Monday in Springfield District Court.

Barbot is currently out on $10,000 bail after being arrested on drug charges in February. At that time police stopped him after a brief chase through Chicopee and seized nearly 400 Oxycodone pills and about $4,000 in cash.

In May, that case had been moved to Hampden County Superior Court. At that time he denied charges of trafficking Oxycodone, 100 to 200 grams; possession of a class C substance with intent to distribute; violation of a drug free school zone and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.

The judge allowed him to remain free on the $10,000 bail he posted in Springfield District Court.

The arrest comes at a time when Springfield officials have been complaining that low bails and short sentences are returning offenders to the streets to commit more crime.

There will be free popcorn and the Chicopee Public Library Bookmobile will visit.

CHICOPEE - The city will hold the next outdoor free movie night on Wednesday.

"The SpongeBob Movie (Sponge out of Water)" is scheduled for July 29 inside the Szot Park Stadium. The event will be sponsored by the Rotary Club.

The movie will begin after dark at around 9 p.m. but the gates will open at 6:30 p.m. so people can gather early. Music will be played and there will be other activities in the stadium. People can enter the stadium by the maintenance building driveway off Bemis Avenue or at the baseball diamond gate off Sgt. Tracy Drive.

There will be free popcorn, the Chicopee Public Library Bookmobile will visit and the Chicopee Police Department will be recruiting Junior Officers, and more.

This is the sixth year the city has offered free movie nights.

The next movie scheduled is "The Avengers," which will run on Aug. 20.

The Obama administration has decided that the National Security Agency will soon stop examining — and will ultimately destroy — millions of American calling records it collected under a controversial program leaked by former agency contractor Edward Snowden.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration has decided that the National Security Agency will soon stop examining -- and will ultimately destroy -- millions of American calling records it collected under a controversial program leaked by former agency contractor Edward Snowden.

When Congress passed a law in June ending the NSA's bulk collection of American calling records after a six-month transition, officials said they weren't sure whether they would continue to make use of the records that had already been collected, which generally go back five years. Typically, intelligence agencies are extremely reluctant to part with data they consider lawfully obtained. The program began shortly after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, but most of the records are purged every five years.

The NSA's collection of American phone metadata has been deeply controversial ever since Snowden disclosed it to journalists in 2013. President Barack Obama sought, and Congress passed, a law ending the collection and instead allowing the NSA to request the records from phone companies as needed in terrorism investigations.

That still left the question of what to do about the records already in the database. On Monday, the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement those records would no longer be examined in terrorism investigations after Nov. 29, and would be destroyed as soon as possible.

The records can't be purged at the moment because the NSA is being sued over them, the statement said.

The NSA queried the database around 300 times a year against phone numbers suspected of being linked to terrorism. But the program was not considered instrumental in detecting terror plots.

It later emerged that some officials inside the NSA wanted to unilaterally stop collecting the records, both because they were concerned about the civil liberties information and because they didn't believe the program was effective. Many mobile phone records, for example, were not collected.

Still, in the event of an attack, the records currently being stored would allow the NSA and the FBI to quickly map connections going back several years. Without the database, that task will be somewhat harder because the records will have to be obtained. And the top terrorism fear among American officials at the moment is an attack by a disgruntled American who has been radicalized by an Islamic State operative abroad.

"There's a potential reduction in capability that they are accepting under pressure," said Steven Aftergood, who writes about intelligence and secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "Whatever intelligence and analytical value might reside in this data will be eliminated. It's a political choice that they are making, and it shows that at the end of the day they are a law-abiding organization. They are not putting their intelligence interests above external control."

The stage had been set for Monday's action on May 21, when the BSA's president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, told the Scouts' national meeting that the long-standing ban on participation by openly gay adults was no longer sustainable.

By DAVID CRARY

NEW YORK -- The Boy Scouts of America on Monday ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.

The new policy, aimed at easing a controversy that has embroiled the Boy Scouts for years, takes effect immediately. It was approved by the BSA's National Executive Board on a 45-12 vote during a closed-to-the-media teleconference.

"For far too long this issue has divided and distracted us," said the BSA's president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "Now it's time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of Scouting to be a force for good."

The stage had been set for Monday's action on May 21, when Gates told the Scouts' national meeting that the long-standing ban on participation by openly gay adults was no longer sustainable. He said the ban was likely to be the target of lawsuits that the Scouts likely would lose.

Two weeks ago, the new policy was approved unanimously by the BSA's 17-member National Executive Committee. It would allow local Scout units to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation -- a stance that several Scout councils have already adopted in defiance of the official national policy.

In 2013, after heated internal debate, the BSA decided to allow openly gay youth as scouts, but not gay adults as leaders. Several denominations that collectively sponsor close to half of all Scout units -- including the Roman Catholic church, the Mormon church and the Southern Baptist Convention -- have been apprehensive about ending the ban on gay adults.

The BSA's top leaders have pledged to defend the right of any church-sponsored units to continue excluding gays as adult volunteers. But that assurance has not satisfied some conservative church leaders,'

"It's hard for me to believe, in the long term, that the Boy Scouts will allow religious groups to have the freedom to choose their own leaders," said the Rev. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

"In recent years I have seen a definite cooling on the part of Baptist churches toward the Scouts," Moore said. "This will probably bring that cooling to a freeze."

Under the BSA's new policy:

1. Prospective employees of the national organization could no longer be denied a staff position on the basis of sexual orientation.
2. Gay leaders who were previously removed from Scouting because of the ban would have the opportunity to reapply for volunteer positions.
3. If otherwise qualified, a gay adult would be eligible to serve as a Scoutmaster or unit leader.

Gates, who became the BSA's president in May 2014, said at the time that he personally would have favored ending the ban on gay adults, but he opposed any further debate after the Scouts' policymaking body upheld the ban. In May, however, he said that recent events "have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not foresee and which we cannot ignore."

He cited an announcement by the BSA's New York City chapter in early April that it had hired Pascal Tessier, the nation's first openly gay Eagle Scout, as a summer camp leader. Gates also cited broader gay-rights developments and warned that rigidly maintaining the ban "will be the end of us as a national movement."

The BSA faced potential lawsuits in New York and other states if it continued to enforce its ban, which had been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. Since then, the exclusionary policy has prompted numerous major corporations to suspend charitable donations to the Scouts, and has strained relations with some municipalities that cover gays in their non-discrimination codes.

Stuart Upton, a lawyer for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal, questioned whether the BSA's new policy to let church-sponsored units continue to exclude gay adults would be sustainable.

"There will be a period of time where they'll have some legal protection," Upton said. "But that doesn't mean the lawsuits won't keep coming. ... They will become increasingly marginalized from the direction society is going."

Like several other major youth organizations, the Boy Scouts have experienced a membership decline in recent decades. Current membership, according to the BSA, is about 2.4 million boys and about 1 million adults.

After the 2013 decision to admit gay youth, some conservatives split from the BSA to form a new group, Trail Life USA, which has created its own ranks, badges and uniforms. The group claims a membership of more than 25,000 youths and adults.

UIL Holdings owns three New England gas companies that seek pipeline capacity.

The parent company of Berkshire Gas has announced an $80 million investment in Northeast Energy Direct, the interstate pipeline proposed by Kinder Morgan's Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.

UIL Holdings Corporation announced on Friday that it will acquire a 2.5 percent interest in Northeast Expansion LLC.

"We are pleased to have this opportunity to participate in this critical investment in New England's energy infrastructure," said James P. Torgerson, UIL's president and chief executive officer in a statement. "The NED project will bring abundant, low-cost and critically-needed natural gas supplies to the heart of New England, helping alleviate infrastructure bottlenecks that have resulted in higher energy costs to residents of the New England region."

The New Haven-based UIL Holdings is a "diversified energy delivery company serving a total of approximately 727,000 electric and natural gas utility customers in 67 communities across two states, with combined total assets of over $5 billion," according to the organization's website.

UIL Holdings is the parent company of Berkshire Gas Company, Southern Connecticut Gas Company and Connecticut Natural Gas Corporation. The three local distribution companies have signed binding agreements to purchase capacity on the proposed pipeline. The so-called "precedent agreements" must be approved by state energy regulators.

A June public hearing in Greenfield on the proposed Berkshire Gas precedent agreement with Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., hosted by the Department of Public Utilities, lasted nearly four hours and drew a crowd of over 700 people.

The Pittsfield-based Berkshire Gas Co. provides natural gas service to more than 37,000 customers in western Massachusetts. The company in March imposed a moratorium on new gas hookups, and has stated the moratorium will stay in place unless or until new natural gas pipeline capacity is built to serve the region.

The Northeast Energy Direct pipeline would carry up to 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day from the Marcellus shale fields of Pennsylvania to markets in the Northeast.  It would cross Berkshire, Hampshire, and Franklin counties before heading east through southern New Hampshire and dipping back into Massachusetts in Dracut, which hosts a regional gas transmission hub.

The project has faced stiff opposition from environmentalists, while it enjoys support from Associated Industries of Massachusetts and other business groups.

NED is one of several competing pipeline projects that would transport more natural gas to the New England region. Any interstate pipeline proposal must be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. plans to file its final application with FERC this fall and hopes the NED project will be operational in late 2018, said Kinder Morgan spokesman Richard Wheatley.

Connecticut regulators in June scuttled a bid by the Spanish energy giant Iberdrola to acquire UIL Holdings for $3 billion.

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Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com.

Kacey Caprari was taken into custody at the Office of Child Support in Bennington.

BENNINGTON, Vt. -- Police in Bennington have charged a 35-year-old state child support specialist with selling heroin.

Kacey Caprari of North Adams, Massachusetts, was taken into custody Monday at the Office of Child Support, within the state office complex in Bennington.

Police say the investigation by authorities in Vermont, New York and Massachusetts suggests that she met potential heroin buyers through her position.

Caprari was being held on $5,000 bail. She is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. It could not immediately be learned if she has a lawyer.