Catherine Nelson was arrested two days before being named publisher of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus.

The publisher of two daily newspapers in Vermont is on probation after pleading no contest to charges of drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident, according to the online Vermont Digger.

Catherine Nelson

During her arraignment in Rutland criminal court last week, Catherine Nelson, 64, was handed a three-to-12 month suspended sentence and told to stay away from alcohol, undergo counseling, and complete community service.

Nelson was arrested on Dec. 26, two days before she was named publisher of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. 

Nelson blood-alcohol level was found to be over twice the legal limit to operate a vehicle, according to Rutland police, who said Nelson's car hit a porch and a guardrail before crashing into the Westminster Cracker Company building around 8 p.m. Nelson was taken into police custody and issued a criminal citation and her car was towed away, according to Seven Days Vermont.

Outgoing publisher R. John Mitchell knew about the incident when he announced to newspaper staffers Dec. 28 that he was stepping down and that Nelson would succeed him, but neither informed the newsroom that their new boss had been charged, sources tell Seven Days.

Word got out when Vermont Digger broke the story Dec. 29. The Herald followed with an online brief and published a more complete account in Wednesday's papers.

Mitchell expressed support for Nelson in the pages of the Herald.

"I haven't changed my impression of Catherine one iota," he said. "This will all play out in the end." Nelson has worked for the papers since 2006.

Witnesses said men in uniform carried out the kidnapping in broad daylight Saturday, 100 yards from a police station.

By SUSANNAH GEORGE

BAGHDAD -- The abduction of three Americans from a Baghdad apartment over the weekend is the latest in a series of brazen high-profile kidnappings undermining confidence in the Iraqi government's ability to control state-sanctioned Shiite militias that have grown in strength as Iraqi security forces battle the Islamic State group.

Witnesses said men in uniform carried out the kidnapping in broad daylight Saturday, 100 yards from a police station.

"Gunmen in military uniforms came in five or six SUVs, they entered the building and then left almost immediately," said Mohammad Jabar, 35, who runs a shop down the street from the three-story apartment building where the Americans had been invited by their Iraqi interpreter.

"A few hours later we heard that three foreigners had been kidnapped by these gunmen," Jaber said.

The three were abducted in Dora, a mixed neighborhood that is home to both Shiites and Sunnis. However, they were then taken to Sadr City, a vast and densely populated Shiite district to the east, and there "all communication ceased," an Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

A similar scene unfolded in September, when masked men in military uniforms abducted 18 Turkish workers from a construction site in a Shiite neighborhood. A hostage video later showed the men standing before a banner that read "Death Squads" and "Oh, Hussein," a Shiite religious slogan. The workers were released later that month.

In December, gunmen driving SUVs raided a remote camp for falconry hunting in Iraq's overwhelmingly Shiite south, kidnapping 26 Qataris, who are still being held. Iraq's Interior Ministry said at the time that the abduction was "to achieve political and media goals," without providing further details.

Baghdad authorities said in a statement that the three Americans were kidnapped from a "suspicious apartment" without elaborating, and have provided no other details.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed Sunday that "several" Americans went missing in Iraq, after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. U.S. officials have declined to provide further details, and have neither identified the Americans nor said what they were doing in Iraq.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Besides Shiite militias, the perpetrators of kidnappings in Iraq have included the Islamic State group, as well as criminal gangs demanding ransom payments or disgruntled employees seeking to resolve workplace disputes.

The kidnapping of the Americans comes at a time of deteriorating security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. Last week two Iraqi journalists were killed within sight of a police checkpoint in Diyala province north of Baghdad.

The scale and sophistication of the recent kidnappings of foreigners suggest those responsible are operating with some degree of impunity, said Nathaniel Rabkin, managing editor of Inside Iraqi Politics, a political risk assessment newsletter.

"You kidnap 26 Qataris out in the desert, that's not like four or five yahoos out in the south. ... That's a pretty well-run operation. It must be some relatively established group that did it," he said.

The only groups operating in Iraq with those capabilities, Rabkin said, are the country's powerful Shiite militias.

Shiite militias have played a key role in battling the Islamic State group, filling a vacuum left by the collapse of the Iraqi security forces in the summer of 2014 and proving to be some of the most effective anti-IS forces on the ground in Iraq.

The government-allied militias are now officially sanctioned and known as the Popular Mobilization Committees. But many trace their roots to the armed groups that battled U.S. troops after the 2003 invasion and kidnapped and killed Sunnis at the height of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007. Rights groups have accused them of kidnapping and in some cases killing Sunni civilians since they rearmed in 2014, charges denied by militia leaders.

Although the militias are fighting on the same side as the U.S.-led coalition against IS, many remain staunchly anti-American. When the Pentagon announced an increase in the number of U.S. special forces in Iraq last month, the spokesman for one militia vowed to attack them.

"Any such American force will become a primary target for our group. We fought them before and we are ready to resume fighting," said Jafar Hussaini, spokesman for the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, one of the most powerful Shiite militias.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has struggled to balance the power and popularity of Shiite militia groups with the government's dependence on the U.S.-led coalition's contributions to the fight against IS. Unchecked, continued brazen shows of Shiite militia power in the Iraqi capital could further undermine the already weak leader.

"I think there's a growing sense that al-Abadi's not in charge, that nobody in Iraq is really in charge anymore or in a position to rein in these militias," Rabkin said.

AP writers Muhanad al-Saleh, Murtada Faraj and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.

The owner of Pride says in retrospect, they probably should have notified police of the camera when it was installed.

CHICOPEE - After a day of catching flak all day in the local media about a surveillance camera installed in the ceiling of a men's room of the Pride truck stop on Burnett Road, Pride Stores owner Bob Bolduc said Monday night that the matter has been blown completely out of proportion, like some kind of tempest in a toilet.

Pride security did install a surveillance camera in the men's room, but its intent was to catch a serial graffiti writer, not to spy on men as they sat in the bathroom stalls, he said. The camera, which has since been taken down, was not able to see inside any of the stalls once the doors were closed, and no one's privacy was violated, Bolduc said.

After hours of the company getting blasted in the local media and threatened with legal action by a Greenfield lawyer representing a truck driver who was shocked to see a ceiling camera when he looked up from one of the stalls, Bolduc said the entire situation has been resolved and everyone can go on about their business.

He said he showed footage from the camera to the Greenfield lawyer, Zoe Falken, and she now agrees it did not record anything improper. She has agreed to drop her complaint, he said.

Reached Monday night, Falken confirmed she has reviewed the footage and found nothing that was a violation of state or federal laws. She said there is no ground for her to continue pursuing the matter for her client.

"The case is closed on our end," she said.

She said the footage that she saw showed just a section of wall, floor and the closed doors of the toilet stalls. "There was no way to see anyone inside the stalls," she said.

"It showed no one in a state of undress - it showed no one at all," she said. "Was it bad judgment to have the camera there? Absolutely, but it was explainable."

Word of the camera in the restroom came to light Monday morning when Chicopee police notified the local media of a complaint received about a possible invasion of privacy at the truck stop in Burnett Road. Some detectives were sent to investigate after someone complained after spotting plastic dome of a security camera hanging from the ceiling. The camera lens was at first covered over Monday morning, but it has since been removed.

One of the truckers contacted Falken, and she said Monday night that until the company showed her the footage, she was prepared to seek criminal charges against Pride. "It appeared to be one thing but it turned out to be another," she said.

Bolduc said the intent of the camera was never to peer inside the stalls. It was installed in what he called "the common area" of the facility.

A still shot from the camera provided by Bolduc shows a view of the wall and exit roof, the floor, and the outside of the stall area.

Bolduc was adamant that at no time could the camera peer into any of the stalls once the doors were closed by a patron.

The camera was a unidirectional camera that was fixed to point at the floor. When it was installed, it was put inside the protective bubble, which made it appear it had 360-degree capability.

"It was just (looking at) the floor," he said.

He said the company felt a need to install it because for the past few weeks that restroom has been the target of repeated vandalism.

"We had a serious problem with serious hate crimes," he said.

The hate crimes, he said, were in the form of some very hateful, offensive graffiti that someone was repeatedly writing on the walls all over the bathroom.

"This individual was coming and and writing all over the bathroom about every ethnic group you could think of. President Obama, Muslims, fascists, everybody."

This had been going on daily for about two weeks. Pride staff would paint it over in the morning and more graffiti would be back again by night, he said.

The security department decided on installing a camera with the idea of identifying the person and then turning all the footage over to police to press charges.

He bristled at the description he had seen throughout the day that it was a hidden camera. He was not hidden at all. The camera was in plain sight and anyone could see it. Obviously someone did.

Another mistake was that security never notified the Chicopee police of what they were attempting. Had they done so, a lot of it could have been dealt with without involving lawyers or the press, he said.

The ironic thing is that for all the trouble caused by the camera, it didn't accomplish its objective.

It was running for two days before its discovery on Monday, and yet the walls are clean as a whistle and the unknown hateful-graffiti guy remains unknown.

"The individual may have seen the cameras and didn't do it," Bolduc said.

A former district attorney says he agreed more than a decade ago that his office would not use a civil deposition given by Bill Cosby in any criminal matters, according to an email obtained by CNN.

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.

1) Chicopee police investigating after camera found in men's room of Pride truck stop on Burnett Road [George Graham]

2) New England Patriots at Denver Broncos: Much has changed since Week 12 matchup [Kevin Duffy]

3) Leaked email may derail criminal case against Bill Cosby [Ray Kelly]

4) 5-car crash on East Columbus Ave. sends at least one injured person to hospital [Dave Canton]

5) Restaurant review: B.T.'s Smokehouse in Sturbridge [Fran Bellamy] Photo gallery above

GE, or General Electric, once had a 254-acre facility in Pittsfield, employing around 13,000 employees. When the company left, the departure devastated the area and left behind a legacy of toxic contamination in the Housatonic River, which flows into Long Island Sound.

Gov. Charlie Baker still remembers the case of Pittsfield and GE from his first tour of duty in state government.

GE, or General Electric, once had a 254-acre facility in Pittsfield, employing around 13,000 employees. It was a company town, and when the company left, the departure devastated the area.

But GE also left behind a legacy of toxic contamination.

From 1932 to 1977, the company used polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chemicals that weren't banned until 1979.

PCBs hit the soil. Waste from the GE facility led to PCBs discovered in residential areas, an elementary school, the Pittsfield landfill and Dorothy Amos Park.

PCBs also entered the Housatonic River, which flows through Berkshire County, into Connecticut and out to Long Island Sound. The river's watershed has a limestone bedrock and an ecosystem that includes rare plants and contains 37 species of fish.

GE eventually agreed to a $250 million settlement governing the proposed cleanup. The settlement was approved by a court in 2000.

In a letter to the federal Environmental Protection Agency 11 years later, a GE official noted that the company and the EPA have removed PCBs from "much of the former GE plant site in Pittsfield, in nearby areas and the two-mile stretch of the Housatonic River" by the GE plant site and the convergence of the east and west branches of the river.

But the two sides appear to disagree over how to approach the cleanup of the "Rest of River," which stretches from the Pittsfield area to Long Island Sound.

"The EPA is, I believe, in pretty heavy discussions with them about settling that case," Baker told MassLive.com on Monday.

"It's been around for a long time," added Baker, who worked for Govs. William Weld and Paul Cellucci in the 1990s. "And it's certainly our hope that an agreement is ultimately reached sometime soon, and that the work associated with the final chapter of cleaning up the Housatonic begins."

As the EPA and GE attempt to work out their differences, the company is on its way back to Massachusetts: Last week the conglomerate said it would be moving its global headquarters to Boston, bringing 200 senior executives and 600 other workers to the city's Seaport District. There are currently 5,000 GE employees in Massachusetts.

The GE official who headed up the search committee that picked Boston is Ann Klee, the conglomerate's vice president of environment, health and safety. The company is currently headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut.

GE's move to Boston: Who stands to win as corporation leaves Connecticut?

In a letter to the EPA in October 2015, Klee said the company "remains committed to a common-sense solution for the Rest of River that is fully protective of human health and the environment," and they are prepared to implement a fix that "would be one of the largest river cleanups in history."

But the company balked at the EPA's proposals, particularly the requirement that GE dispose of over one million cubic yards of sediment and soil out-of-state. "Although out-of-state disposal will be no more protective of human health or the environment than on-site disposal in a secure, state of the art facility, it will cost a quarter of a billion dollars more," Klee wrote.

She added: "GE is even willing to do more than can be legally [required], but there is a limit to how far we can stretch."

A month or so later, Boston and state officials offered an incentive package totaling $145 million for GE to relocate, and the company plans to wrap up the move by 2018. 

"There's no connection, in my view, between those two items," Baker said, when asked whether the Housatonic cleanup was brought up as city and state officials wooed GE.

"With respect to the commitment we made to General Electric, to GE, that was mostly, almost completely, a capital and infrastructure commitment, which I believe in the short term and in the long term is going to be a really good investment for the Commonwealth and for the people of Massachusetts," he said.

For its part, the city of Boston has offered to kick in $25 million in property tax relief over 20 years.

Gov. Charlie Baker talks to reporters during a press conference at the Statehouse in Boston.Steven Senne / Associated Press file 

State Sen. Benjamin Downing, whose district includes Pittsfield, said he's glad GE's relocation and the Housatonic River are separate.

The cleanup of the Housatonic should be based on the need for GE to be held responsible, and it shouldn't be "muddied up" by the politics of relocating its headquarters, Downing said.

"We should be able to have both," Downing said. "A good clean-up that respects the need for GE to be held responsible and the desire of the community surrounding it, and also having the global headquarters here within state. Those two shouldn't be mutually exclusive."

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., agreed. "I think that two things can be true at the same time: One, that it's good that GE has moved to Massachusetts," he said. "And two, it's also important that GE continue to clean up any of the toxic messes that have been left behind from the 20th century General Electric activities in Massachusetts."

When asked for comment, a GE spokesman sent a statement to MassLive.com, the same one that appeared in the International Business Times, which raised questions about whether it was appropriate to provide incentives to the company as GE pushed back on the EPA's cleanup proposal.

The statement said the company remains "committed to a common sense solution" and "looks forward to resolving all outstanding issues through the process provided by the Pittsfield/Housatonic Consent Decree."

The company did not respond to a follow-up request to interview Klee.

Asked on Monday whether the Housatonic will be cleaned up, Baker sounded an optimistic note.

"I have no doubt about that," he said. "I mean, I get the fact that the discussion's been going on for probably 20 years. But it's my hope that the EPA is going to be interested in getting this thing solved and that GE will be as well."

The river is capable of "returning to a healthy natural state" after a remediation process that includes careful planning and monitoring, the supervisor for the New England office of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Thomas Chapman, wrote in a 2011 letter to the EPA.

But, he added, it's "unlikely that the river will ever clean itself of massive PCB contamination that has existed for many decades and will continue to persist in the future."

Pittsfield was a GE company town for decades – until the company picked up and left, reducing its workforce in the Western Massachusetts city in the Berkshires from a high of 13,000 down to 0.

When Ben Downing played Little League in Pittsfield in the late 1980s, he had to learn the shift schedule at the General Electric factory.

"You had to be smart when you left, because you would get stuck in traffic coming out of GE and be late for your game," recalled Downing, now a 34-year-old Democratic state senator from Pittsfield.

It was only one small manifestation of the dominant role GE played in Pittsfield for much of last century.

"The company and the campus dominated the physical landscape of the city, and they dominated the city's economic history, for good and for ill, for the better part of half a century," Downing said.

However, as the company began moving out, gradually laying off workers and shutting down divisions between the 1970s and the early 1990s, GE left behind a bitter taste for many workers. Pittsfield's unemployment rate grew while wages and population shrank. General Electric had emitted toxins into the Housatonic River, the cleanup of which continues to this day.

"When you talk GE in Pittsfield, people remember the loss of jobs and they remember the cleanup more than they remember all that GE did for many years here in giving employment, giving life to the city and being a good citizen," said John Dickson, a historian who chairs the Pittsfield Historical Commission.

General Electric announced last week that it plans to move its international headquarters to Boston, bringing 800 jobs to the city. The company was lured to Massachusetts by lucrative state and city tax incentives. The move is not the company's first foray into the Bay State. GE has over the years had offices and factories around the state. In Western Massachusetts, the company is most known for its time in Pittsfield.

General Electric opened in Pittsfield in 1903, buying an existing electric machinery plant from William Stanley. According to the book "In the Wake of the Giant" by anthropologist Max Kirsch, GE came to dominate employment in Pittsfield in the 1920s and the 1930s, as the textile industry declined. The federal government financed a GE ordinance plant there during World War II. At its peak during the 1940s, the GE plant employed 13,000 people - in a city of just about 50,000.

"It was not a one company town, but it was dominated by that company for many years," Dickson said. "Many people's lives and families were tied up by work there."

But labor unrest in the 1950s and 1960s caused GE to branch out beyond Pittsfield. The manufacturing industry that was so prominent in the region began to fall off in the 1970s, a trend that continued into the 1980s. GE began expanding globally rather than domestically. The Republican reported that there were 91,000 manufacturing jobs in Western Massachusetts in 1980 - compared to only 74,000 six years later.

By the 1980s and early 1990s, GE was shedding workers rapidly in Pittsfield. It closed its transformer division in 1986, eliminating 2,000 jobs, according to a 1988 story in The Republican. GE cut back its ordinance division in 1989, eliminating another 900 positions. In 1990, shrinking federal government defense spending and GE's closure of its electric power equipment manufacturing division due to shrinking markets cost the company another 1,000 jobs. By 1992, between layoffs and the sale of its aerospace division, GE Plastics was the only GE business left in Pittsfield, with 530 employees, the Berkshire Eagle reported.

While GE was active, longtime residents say Pittsfield felt like a company town. The city would shut down for two weeks in the summer when GE workers went on vacation. GE would sponsor a float in the annual Halloween parade. A generation of workers called the company not GE, but "The GE," Downing recalled. Downing said when he was campaigning for his father, who ran for district attorney in 1991, he would stand outside the GE gates at shift changes passing out literature.

GE's economic dominance translated into political clout. "The political life in Pittsfield and its surrounding area would be driven very strongly by what was good for GE," said retired Congressman John Olver, who represented Massachusetts' 1^st District from 1991 to 2013.

GE also had an economic ripple effect. Olver said some entrepreneurs left GE to start their own plastics companies, which helped make Pittsfield a plastics center. "There was a whole stable of those, 15 or 20 different companies that grew," Olver said. "Some of them grew to have several hundred employees, some never grew that large at all. But there was a network of those."

During its heyday, workers say GE was a good place to work. "They started a health (benefits) program before anyone else, their pensions were great ... Socially, they were ahead of their time," said Nick Boraski, who worked for GE for 40 years.

Tom Blalock came to GE in 1966, straight out of college. He came to do research in high voltage equipment and stayed until he was laid off in 1987 from GE's transformer testing station.

"(Then-GE CEO) Jack Welch did wonderful things financially with General Electric Company, and we all benefited from it," Blalock said.

But, Blalock said, the layoffs were difficult. "A lot of people that I know were at odds," he said. "They had families, they had kids in college, they had to scramble to figure out what to do."

Blalock bears no animosity toward the company, but he knows not everyone agrees with him. "There's GE guys and non-GE guys. I'm a GE guy," Blalock said. "There's a faction of the populace here that just loathes GE to this day both for leaving and also for leaving PCBs that have to be cleaned up," he said referring to toxic chemicals.

When the plant shut down, many people moved away. GE found new jobs for some workers in other cities. Downing said the leadership of the city and of GE was intertwined and had to be separated. Headlines screamed about layoffs and environmental cleanup. Unemployment rates rose. Dickson said stores shut downtown because of the loss of business from the GE closures. Following a general trend at the time, people moved to the suburbs.

The city still has not entirely recovered economically.

Downing said the 52-acre site that was owned by GE still physically dominates part of the city, though some buildings have found new uses. Some space was taken over by SABIC Innovative Plastics, which bought GE's plastics division. But now SABIC is in the process of shutting down.

"A 52-acre site in the middle of the city is a reminder of the fact that there were ... about 12,000 blue collar jobs in the city at one point or another," Downing said.

Today, the census tracts with the highest poverty rates in Pittsfield are those in the part of the city near the old GE plant, Downing said.

Downing said his generation grew up being told that "the best of this community is behind it."

"To this day in the Berkshires, we are fighting against that perception," Downing said. "And trying to change how people think about their community, that's no small thing."

Convicted killer Francis Soffen, who admitted to murdering two accomplices in 1972, died in prison on Nov. 30.

SPRINGFIELD - Mike Perrot remembers pedaling his bike all the way home from Ludlow to Indian Orchard, the dirt kicking up under his feet, after learning a secret that sent him reeling.

His 8-year-old friend, Anthony Soffen, still recalls the stricken feeling a child feels when he spills a secret he didn't know he had to keep, as he watched his friend's retreating back.

During chance meetings at local bars as they grew older, they were cordial, but had little to say.

Perrot's father, Stephen Perrot, had been murdered by Soffen's father, Francis F. Soffen, behind a now-abandoned Howard Johnson's in 1972. He was shot six times in the face and the head.

The headlines were sensational stories of outlaws. Stephen Perrot had been a member of the "notorious Soffen crew." News accounts from that era indicate their primary source of revenue was armed bank heists.

The elder Soffen pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in connection with Perrot's execution-style slaying, and a similar fatal shooting of Gary J. Dube. He was shot twice in the head two months before Perrot. Dube's body was wrapped in a tarp and dumped in the Connecticut River. By all accounts, both Dube and Perrot were accomplices of Soffen.

Perrot's and Soffen's sons were left to carve out lives marked by being the children of victim and villain. Both boys clung to memories of their fathers that had nothing to do with either, as children do.

Oddly, the Soffen and Perrot families remained friendly in the year or so after Soffen was sentenced to life in prison. The second-degree murder pleas came with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

"I remember saying something to Tony when we were on that bike ride, like 'When I get big, I'm going to take care of the man who killed my father myself,' and Tony was like, 'Mike, it was my dad,'" Mike Perrot recalled during a recent interview, days after Francis Soffen died in prison on Nov 30.

The disclosure decades earlier sent Perrot racing home on his bike to confront his mother with the information. Anthony Soffen had a similar recollection.

"I remember telling him, and then my brother saying, 'Tony, you weren't supposed to tell,' But how did I know? I was just a kid,'" he said, during a separate interview after he learned of his father's death.

Forty years later, Soffen learned of his father's recent passing in prison from the unlikeliest source: not from the Department of Corrections, but Mike Perrot. Fran Soffen was never granted parole. Mike Perrot reached out to Tony Soffen via Facebook to offer condolences. Perrot says he meant it. There was no ill will toward his old friend, just a sense of sadness. Perrot eventually placed a phone call.

"I didn't do it for any reason that wasn't sincere. I just wanted to offer my sympathies. I know how it is to lose your father," Perrot said. "It was totally a sympathetic call. I'm bigger than most people regarding doing the right thing."

Although they had bumped into each other over the years and exchanged pleasantries, the two hadn't had a meaningful friendship since Perrot sped away on his bike more than 40 years ago. Tony Soffen knew what a random phone message from Perrot meant.

"I told my wife: the only reason Mike Perrot would call me is if my father died," Soffen, 49, said.

It had been some time since Soffen had seen his father. Carrying the torch was draining, and at times, distracting, while the younger Soffen worked to build a life. Growing up in the shadow of his father made him a scrappy kid, but eventually a fierce family man to his wife and two stepsons, plus a devout Baptist.

Perrot, 51, an electrician and divorced father of two, received a letter in the mail from the state Department of Correction Victim Service Unit.

"We fully recognize and respect the often devastating impact that crime has on innocent victims, witnesses, and their families," the boilerplate missive read. "Due to your certification that was filed with the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services and lodged with the Massachusetts Department of Correction, I am writing to notify you that inmate Francis Soffen W34022 died on November 30, 2015."

Perrot cannot single out a feeling after having read the letter.

"I had been getting ready for his next parole hearing in July. But now it's over, I guess," he said uncertainly.

Closure is an elusive thing.

Perrot has sentimental triggers around his father's death. Bright red cardinals have followed him throughout his childhood and adulthood. He is among those who believe cardinals are symbols of a loved one who has died. The birds have alighted on the windowsills and back decks of nearly every home he has owned, plus his daughter's swing set.

During his trek from home to work along Route I-91, Perrot also has driven hundreds of times by the empty parking lot where his father's body was found. He says a prayer each time he passes it. He occasionally stops at the abandoned spot, to think and make promises.

"I've talked to my father there. I've told him that I will never, ever stop fighting to make sure Soffen never gets out of prison," he said.

For his part, Tony Soffen says he's had a sharp retort for the many people who have slapped him on the back over the years, calling his father a "great guy."

"I always tell them: 'A great guy is someone who goes to work every day, and supports his family, and manages the ups and downs of raising children,'" he says, noting that he remained loyal to his father.

Of the parole board hearings, Mike Perrot has attended many. The state Parole Board denied Fran Soffen's release 15 times since 1987. Perrot has made several impassioned pleas for Fran Soffen to remain behind bars. He often rode in a car with Bonnie Dube Clark, Gary Dube's sister.

After the parole board made its decision following the 2011 hearing, Dube Clark told a reporter that she hoped Soffen would die in prison before the next one. She got her wish.

Tony Soffen also has attended his share of hearings, with his own pleas to free his father. The younger Soffen said, however, he remained mindful of the family on the other side of the room.

"Quite frankly, I have nothing but respect for Mike and his family, and for what they've gone through," said Tony Soffen, a supervisor at a trucking company. "But as for my father, I went to all those hearings, and told the board members ... I haven't had him in all these years. My dad did serve 40 years. I just had the feeling that once my family started talking, the board just didn't look as interested."

While he hadn't visited his father very often over the past couple of years, they spoke by phone and Tony Soffen sent his father money for his prison commissary account.

"I regret not visiting more recently, but I can't turn back the clock. I still remained loyal to him. I didn't abandon him," he said.

At the end, Fran Soffen was sick with diabetes, hepatitis and other illnesses. He was confined to a wheelchair in the final years of his life.

"He was clearly no longer a threat to anyone. I would have taken care of him at the end," Tony Soffen said, adding that the only memories he has of his father as a free man are trips to the barbershop when he was very small.

Before the most recent parole hearing in 2011, Fran Soffen wrote in a prison blog that he was dying.

"Hurts to admit it, but the truth is often painful," he wrote.

Tony Soffen points out that his father survived the prison race riots of the 1970s, and had been commended for saving the life of a corrections officer. Fran Soffen developed Hepatitis C after he had been stabbed and thrown over a balcony during the same clashes, according to his son.

Mike Perrot said he often walked away from the parole board hearings with more questions than answers.

"Fran Soffen told so many stories. I just wanted the truth," Perrot said. "And I told the parole board members, that I would go visit him in prison if he would just tell me the whole story. If he had, I may have reconsidered my opposition. But he never responded, and the next thing I heard ... I got the call that he was dead."

For many years, Fran Soffen told board members he shot Dube and Perrot in self-defense, which flew in the face of the evidence. He later conceded that his own paranoia may have contributed to a heightened sense of threat on his part. Prosecutors maintained Soffen executed the men in cold blood to keep them from testifying against him about the bank robberies.

Governor's Councilor and former Parole Board member Michael J. Albano said he recalls feeling dissatisfied with Fran Soffen's perspective on the murders during the hearings.

"He had a very, very hard time taking responsibility and showing remorse, for whatever reason," Albano said.

He added that Soffen's chances at release also were stymied when the late Hampden District Attorney, Matthew "Matty" Ryan, reneged on his agreement not to oppose Soffen's release once he came up for parole.

"I can still remembers Matty's face. It was beet red and he was screaming and yelling," Albano said. "I think Franny filed something against Matty's office two weeks before the hearing. And, Soffen could never say he was sorry."

Even after Ryan left office and later died, Soffen's chances didn't get any better.

Tony Soffen said that although he did not attend the last parole hearing for his father in 2011, he intended to go to the one in July. Instead, he traveled to a medical examiner's office in early December to identify his father's body and spare him from being buried at the Massachusetts Prison Cemetery.

Fran Soffen was cremated; Tony Soffen brought his ashes to sit beside Fran Soffen's mother's and father's plots at Oak Grove Cemetery in Springfield.

"I figured it would be a chance for my dad to be an innocent little boy again next to his mother, before he turned into ... whatever he was; whatever that lifestyle was," Tony Soffen said. "I believe my father found God and I hope God forgives him."

Soffen credits his mother with raising him and his siblings alone. He notes that neither he nor his siblings followed "a bad path" despite the legacy of their father. Perrot has similar thoughts of escaping the same fate.

"It hasn't been all bad. Even with all the negative history, I moved, I got married; I had children. I've had good jobs. I didn't end up in jail. I continued my life," Perrot said.

Both said they might meet over a beer one day, and will likely talk about anything but their common ground.

The political figures and setting were familiar, but Gov. Rick Snyder delivered a state of the state address completely out of step with his previous addresses Tuesday night, focusing not on accomplishments but rather failure over the Flint water crisis. Watch video

LANSING, Mich. -- The political figures and setting were familiar, but Gov. Rick Snyder delivered a state of the state address completely out of step with his previous addresses Tuesday night, focusing not on accomplishments but rather failure over the Flint water crisis.

The impetus of the crisis was in April of 2014, when the city of Flint switched water sources. The new water source led to corroding pipes and a corresponding increase in the blood lead levels of the city's children.

Snyder pointed to the problem as a failure at all levels of government, and apologized to Flint residents.

"I'm sorry most of all that I let you down. You deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know the buck stops here with me," Snyder said.

Gov. Snyder pledges to not stop working for Flint people

He laid out plans to address the infrastructure problem broadly, including implementing lead testing in Michigan schools and requiring the Michigan Department of Transportation to confer with locals and consider replacing aging pipes. He will establish the Commission for Building 21st Century Infrastructure on this subject, and expects a report from them by Sept. 2016.

He praised the legislature for coming up with a long-term road funding solution but said the infrastructure underground was a growing problem.

"But more than roads, we have a hidden problem... underground, some pipes are over 100 years old. Some are made of wood. Others are made of lead," Snyder said.

Some of the things he called for are included in a request for $22 million in additional state funding this fiscal year that the State Budget Office submitted to the House and Senate appropriations chairmen.

He spent the bulk of the speech on Flint water but also addressed plans for the Detroit Public Schools, which could essentially run out of money in April without a legislative fix. Legislation was introduced in Lansing last week, and he called for "prompt legislative action" on the issue.

He also announced plans to create a Commission for 21st Century Education to investigate what obstacles are holding the state back and determine how to build the state's educational future. The commission will deliver results by the end of November, 2016.

The Governor built off a plan he unveiled in 2015 that would essentially split the district in two, with one half focusing on educating children and the other half existing solely to pay down the district's debt by continuing to collect property taxes.

He also touched on autonomous vehicles, the state's economy and the intersection of those two areas.

"If we did what we did in the past we could lose the auto industry out of our state," Snyder said.

He said that the auto industry was evolving into the mobility industry, and Michigan had to work to support that. What we think of as cars may soon be essentially a computer on wheels, Snyder said.

"It will be about how people travel, not just about the vehicle they travel in," he said.

Snyder acknowledged that the speech was "different" than his previous addresses, where he's typically focused on the past year's successes. The speech struck a somber tone, and at its conclusion he promised to devote the next three years of his administration to making things right in Flint.

In return, he asked for one thing: prayers for the people of Flint.

Del Castillo is said to have arranged a meeting between the drug boss and actor Sean Penn for a Rolling Stone article.

MEXICO CITY -- There are indications that drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman had business dealings with actress Kate del Castillo, who arranged a meeting between the drug boss and actor Sean Penn, Mexico's attorney general said in an interview published Tuesday.

Arely Gomez told the newspaper El Universal that officials are investigating possible money laundering involving the actress' tequila business. But she said they don't have "legal certainty" a crime was committed.

Del Castillo arranged Penn's Oct. 2 interview with Guzman, which was published by Rolling Stone magazine on Jan. 9, a day after the fugitive Guzman was recaptured.

Gomez said officials want to question del Castillo, possibly at a Mexican consulate in the United States, where she lives.

"We have an investigation in the tequila case," Gomez said, adding that information leads officials to believe the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel gave funds to that business.

Gomez said Penn wasn't under investigation for any crime.

Del Castillo hasn't replied to requests for comment. On Twitter, she said last week that many people are making up "items they think will make good stories."

Authorities say the meeting between Penn, del Castillo and Guzman helped them locate the drug lord, though he managed to escape capture at that time. Three months later, Mexican marines raided a safe house in the city of Los Mochis and Guzman was arrested after fleeing through a storm sewer.

Guzman is being held in the same maximum security prison he escaped from through a mile-long (1.5-kilometer) tunnel in July.

Gomez said authorities are also investigating del Castillo's spending for the trip to meet Guzman.

"We have to make sure who provided the airplane, who paid for it, all of the logistics of the trip," Gomez said.

Guzman is facing extradition to the U.S. Gomez said Mexico had decided to extradite Guzman, though other officials have said the process could take months.

Traffic is being diverted at Falmouth Road and Laurel Street.

Peter Goonan | pgoonan@repub.com 

LONGMEADOW - A water main break on Williams Street has closed a section of the roadway to traffic in both directions, according to police.

Traffic is being diverted at Falmouth Road and Laurel Street.

The Department of Public Works is on scene and working on the problem.

The break was reported sometime around 7 p.m. Police also warned the spilled water has made the area slippery.

Joplin died of injuries suffered in an accident involving a Carson campaign van in Atlantic, Iowa early Tursday.

Ben Carson and volunteer Braden Joplin. Joplin died in a car accident Jan 19 in Iowa.,CArson campaign. 

Rest In Peace Braden Joplin. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. pic.twitter.com/p87TCnD44p

-- Dr. Ben Carson (@RealBenCarson) January 20, 2016

Officials with the Ben Carson presidential campaign announced that a 25-year-old campaign volunteer died of injuries suffered in an auto accident in Iowa.

The campaign volunteer was identified as Braden Joplin.

Carson, in a post on Twitter, said "Rest In Peace Braden Joplin. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."

Joplin died of injuries suffered in a car accident near Atlantic, Iowa, in the southwest corner of the state. According to a statement issued earlier in the day on Tuesday, the campaign van went out of control on an icy road, flipped onto its side and was struck by another vehicle.

Three other campaign workers were in the vehicle but suffered minor injuries.

Joplin's injuries were serious enough that he was transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, 60 miles away.

In announcing news of the accident, Carson said he he was suspending his entire Iowa campaign in order to go to the hospital to be with Joplin's family.

Tuesday night, Carson posted a statement on his campaign web site that read:

One of the precious few joys of campaigning is the privilege of meeting bright young men and women who are so enthusiastic about their country that they will freely give of their time and energy to work on its behalf. America lost one of those bright young men today. I had the privilege of knowing Braden Joplin personally, and am filled with a deep and profound sadness at his passing. While we mourn this profound loss, I am thankful that our other campaign colleagues, Drew McCall, Aaron Ohnemus and Ryan Patrick Shellooe, have all been treated and released from the hospital.

A presidential candidate asks a lot of his or her volunteers, working long hours in the cold, under-appreciated. They are the unsung heroes of the political process. The outpouring of support for Braden and his family from fellow candidates, as well as their staffs and volunteers, demonstrates that life will always transcend politics, and I thank them for their kind words. Please continue to keep Braden's family and friends in your prayers as they struggle through this difficult time.

Even after more than 30 years experience counseling parents and family members in the most difficult of times, it never gets easier. But I find solace in the knowledge of God's redeeming grace, and I pray that Braden's family finds comfort in the mercy of the Lord. Across America today, I ask everyone to take a moment to reflect on the preciousness of life and remember and honor the memory of Braden Joplin.

Officials Tuesday suspended the massive search for 12 Marines who were aboard two helicopters that crashed off Hawaii last week.

HONOLULU -- Officials Tuesday suspended the massive search for 12 Marines who were aboard two helicopters that crashed off Hawaii last week.

The around-the-clock effort failed to locate any sign of the 12 service members despite five days of searching by several agencies.

Officials said at a late afternoon news conference that the Marine Corps was transitioning to "recovery and salvage efforts" and a memorial was planned for Friday at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

The search began late Thursday when a civilian on a beach reported seeing the helicopters flying and then a fireball.

The Marines were alerted when the CH-53E helicopters carrying six crew members each failed to return to their base at Kaneohe Bay following a nighttime training mission. Hours later, a Coast Guard helicopter and C-130 airplane spotted debris 2 1/2 miles off of Oahu.

The crash was near the north shore, but the search area spanned from the western coast of Oahu to the northeast corner of the island.

The transport helicopters were part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Known as Super Stallions, they are the U.S. military's largest helicopter, capable of carrying a light armored vehicle, 16 tons of cargo or a team of combat-equipped Marines, according to a Marine Corps website.

The Coast Guard initially reported that the choppers had collided, but the Marines said later it wasn't yet known if there was a collision. The cause remains under investigation.

All four life rafts from the helicopters were later found empty. There was no indication anyone had been on any of the rafts, based on their condition and the lack of any personal effects, the Coast Guard said.

High surf complicated the mission for rescuers during the initial days of the search. A green laser near Haleiwa Beach Park struck a Coast Guard plane Saturday night, forcing crew members to alter search patterns.

Authorities searched for survivors around the clock. The Coast Guard assumes the best-case scenario when considering how long someone in the right equipment and right conditions could survive, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers has said.

"We err on the side of caution because the last thing that anybody wants is to suspend the search when there's still a possibility of finding somebody," she said Monday.

Aircrews wear personal flotation devices with their flight suits and get additional training on top of survival swimming training, the Marines said.

Some of the life rafts were inflated, but it was unclear how they got that way, Mooers said. There are various ways that could happen, including a cord being pulled by debris, said Irish, the Marine captain.

People have been found days or even weeks after getting lost at sea, Mooers said.

They would have to survive the crash and then possible dehydration, exposure and fatigue, said Mario Vittone, a retired Coast Guardsman who is an expert on sea survival. Survival seems unlikely, Vittone said, but he noted that he doesn't know all the circumstances.

The missing crew members are:

-- Maj. Shawn M. Campbell, 41, College Station, Texas.
-- Capt. Brian T. Kennedy, 31, Philadelphia.
-- Capt. Kevin T. Roche, 30, St. Louis.
-- Capt. Steven R. Torbert, 29, Florence, Alabama.
-- Sgt. Dillon J. Semolina, 24, Chaska, Minnesota.
-- Sgt. Adam C. Schoeller, 25, Gardners, Pennsylvania.
-- Sgt. Jeffrey A. Sempler, 22, Woodruff, South Carolina.
-- Sgt. William J. Turner, 25, Florala, Alabama.
-- Cpl. Matthew R. Drown, 23, Spring, Texas.
-- Cpl. Thomas J. Jardas, 22, Fort Myers, Florida.
-- Cpl. Christopher J. Orlando, 23, Hingham, Massachusetts.
-- Lance Cpl. Ty L. Hart, 21, Aumsville, Oregon.

City officials had thought the permit expired Feb. 16, but lawyers for Stop & Shop said previous litigation extends the date.

EASTHAMPTON -- An application for a two-year extension of a special permit for a supermarket plaza was withdrawn by the Planning Board Tuesday night at the request of Dennis L. Courtney, owner of the proposed site at 93-99 Northampton St.

The board unanimously agreed to withdraw consideration after lawyers for Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. and Courtney Easthampton LLC said that the permit actually expires on Nov. 8, 2019, instead of Feb. 1 of this year.

City planner Jessica Allan said city attorney John Fitz-Gibbon had reviewed various materials and now agrees with the new date. Lawyer Martin J. Dunn, representing Courtney, told the Planning Board that he, too, agrees with the new deadline for Stop & Shop to pull building permits and break ground.

Courtney had recently applied for a two-year extension of the permit, which would allow a nearly 50,000 square-foot retail plaza at his Rt. 10 site, which currently hosts the Tasty Top ice cream stand and Easthampton Golf.

City officials had previously believed that the permit, granted to Stop & Shop on Feb. 1, 2010, would expire on Feb. 1, about two weeks from now. A two-year extension, if granted, would have extended the deadline to Feb. 2018.

However, Tuesday night, Jane L. Mantolesky of the Fitzgerald law firm said the permit expires in 2019 because of previous litigation that made the permit useless to Stop & Shop for more than three years. During the litigation, Stop & Shop's use of the special permit was stayed, she said.

Special permits are generally good for two years. But under a Massachusetts law known as the Permit Extension Act, development plans permitted between Aug. 15, 2008 and Aug. 15, 2012 were given an automatic four-year extension by the Massachusetts Legislature.

The project was approved by the Planning Board on Feb. 1, 2010 and the subject of litigation from Feb. 17, 2010 to June 19, 2013, when the Superior Court affirmed the special permit. An appeal was filed July 16, 2013 and dismissed Dec. 19 of that year when Kenneth Cernak, owner of a Buick dealership across the street, dropped his legal battle.

A memo from the East Longmeadow law firm argues that the two-year special permit term would therefore begin on Dec. 20, 2013, and continue 688 days -- two years minus the 16 days of use from Feb. 1, 2010 and the 26 days from June 20 to July 15, "thus bringing us to Nov. 8, 2015."

The Permit Extension Act then tacks on another four years, says the memo, regardless of the fact that the litigation put the permit's effective start date outside of the "tolling period" described in the Act.

"Considering the aforementioned, my client's Special Permit has not yet expired and therefore there is no need to renew the same at this time," said the memo, signed by lawyer Frank P. Fitzgerald.

It's not clear if Stop & Shop is still interested in building on the site, or whether the company is merely preserving its option. Mantolesky told the Planning Board she would not comment on the matter.

Courtney, in speaking with reporters, also declined comment on the Stop & Shop matter.

City officials had thought the permit expired Feb. 1, but lawyers for Stop & Shop said previous litigation significantly extends the deadline to break ground.

EASTHAMPTON -- An application for a two-year extension of a special permit for a supermarket plaza was withdrawn by the Planning Board Tuesday night at the request of Dennis L. Courtney, owner of the proposed site at 93-99 Northampton St.

The board unanimously agreed to withdraw consideration after lawyers for Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. and Courtney Easthampton LLC said that the permit actually expires on Nov. 8, 2019, instead of Feb. 1 of this year.

City planner Jessica Allan said city attorney John Fitz-Gibbon had reviewed various materials and now agrees with the new date. Lawyer Martin J. Dunn, representing Courtney, told the Planning Board that he, too, agrees with the new deadline for Stop & Shop to pull building permits and break ground.

Courtney had recently applied for a two-year extension of the permit, which would allow a nearly 50,000 square-foot retail plaza at his Rt. 10 site, which currently hosts the Tasty Top ice cream stand and Easthampton Golf.

City officials had previously believed that the permit, granted to Stop & Shop on Feb. 1, 2010, would expire on Feb. 1, about two weeks from now. Courtney's proposed two-year extension, if granted, would have extended the deadline to Feb. 2018.

However, Tuesday night, Jane L. Mantolesky of the Fitzgerald law firm said the permit expires in 2019 because of previous litigation that made the permit useless to Stop & Shop for more than three years. During the litigation, Stop & Shop's use of the special permit was stayed, she said.

Special permits are generally good for two years. But under a Massachusetts law known as the Permit Extension Act, development plans permitted between Aug. 15, 2008 and Aug. 15, 2012 were given an automatic four-year extension by the Massachusetts Legislature.

The project was approved by the Planning Board on Feb. 1, 2010 and the subject of litigation from Feb. 17, 2010 to June 19, 2013, when the Superior Court affirmed the special permit. An appeal was filed July 16, 2013 and dismissed Dec. 19 of that year when Kenneth Cernak, owner of a Buick dealership across the street, dropped his legal battle.

A memo from the East Longmeadow law firm argues that the two-year special permit term would therefore begin on Dec. 20, 2013, and continue 688 days -- two years minus the 16 days of use from Feb. 1, 2010 and the 26 days from June 20 to July 15, "thus bringing us to Nov. 8, 2015."

The Permit Extension Act then tacks on another four years, says the memo, regardless of the fact that the litigation put the permit's effective start date outside of the "tolling period" described in the Act.

"Considering the aforementioned, my client's Special Permit has not yet expired and therefore there is no need to renew the same at this time," said the memo, signed by lawyer Frank P. Fitzgerald.

It's not clear if Stop & Shop is still interested in building on the site, or whether the company is merely preserving its option. Mantolesky told the Planning Board she would not comment on the matter.

Courtney, in speaking with reporters, also declined comment.  It's not clear whether he consulted with Stop & Shop before filing for the extension.

Pakistani police say a professor and a student have been killed in an attack by gunmen at a university in the country's northwest.

CHARSADDA, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani officials say the death toll in a brazen attack on a university that is underway in the country's northwest has risen to 19, with several people wounded.

Deputy Commissioner Tahir Zafar says the attack began shortly after the university opened in Charsadda town, some 35 kilometers (21 miles) outside the city of Peshawar.

Police and army are exchanging gunfire with the attackers on the campus where several explosions were heard from the area of the Bacha Khan University.

Pakistani army says the attackers have been contained in two university blocks and that four of them have been killed.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December 2014 killed over 150 people, mostly children.

Police are asking the public to help locate an 18-year-old from Chicopee who has reportedly been missing since early Monday morning.

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 photo gallery was Dan Glaun's images of the Springfield City Council's tour of the MGM Springfield casino site, above.

1) Notorious WMass killer Francis Soffen dies in prison; his and victim's sons recall emotional journeys since 1972 murders [Stephanie Barry]

2) Deflategate The Sequel? NFL reportedly considering dropping new PSI data before Super Bowl [Kevin Duffy]

3) Police seek public's help in finding missing Chicopee teen Brianna Cuoco [Rebecca Everett]

4) Wave of threats forcing evacuations at schools across Massachusetts [Dan Glaun]

5) Restroom surveillance camera in Chicopee creates tempest in a toilet for Pride stores [Patrick Johnson]

In addition to his Red Sox tenure, Beane was an unofficial ambassador for baseball through special appearances that he made in Western Massachusetts.

Editor's note: First in a series of articles about 2016 inductees to the Western Mass. Baseball Hall of Fame.

When Carl Beane was a senior at Agawam High School (class of 1971), he already knew what he wanted to do in life.

He had a gift - a naturally resonant voice - and he saw that as his ticket to a career in broadcasting. He also loved sports, everything from the Agawam High football team to the big teams in Boston - the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins.

All of that came true for him as he built an impressive career as a radio reporter, covering the Boston teams, with special emphasis on his favorites, the Red Sox. In 2003, his career took a dramatic turn when he was hired to serve as public-address announcer at Fenway Park.

Beane excelled in that role for nine years, and became a favorite of Red Sox fans. He often would make public appearances in which he would let fans model his World Series rings from the 2004 and 2007 seasons.

It ended all too soon for him. In May of 2012, at the age of 59, he suffered a fatal heart attack while driving.

Western Mass. will not forget his booming "Voice of Fenway." He will be enshrined Jan. 28 by the WMass Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its Class of 2016. Tickets for the enshrinement dinner, in the La Quinta ballroom in downtown Springfield, can be obtained by visiting the Valley Blue Sox web site,

While still a 17-year-old high school student, Beane used his voice - and a winning personality - to talk his way into a part-time job as a sports reporter for radio station WMAS in Springfield. One day, he read that Red Sox broadcaster Curt Gowdy would be visiting the Basketball Hall of Fame in his role as chairman of its Board of Trustees. On his own initiative, he obtained an interview with Gowdy, who was nationally-known for his work in pro football and on a television show, "The American Sportsman."

Gowdy was so impressed by the way Beane handled the interview, he encouraged him to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.

After high school, Beane graduated from the Career Academy School of Broadcasting in 1972 and soon had his first job broadcasting sports.

In addition to sportscasting for WARE in Ware and WESO in Southbridge, he became a pressbox regular at home games of Boston's various pro teams. Along with doing sports reports for his hometown radio stations, he began picking up assignments from stations that wanted reports on the visiting teams. Later in his career, he provided updates and sound for news outlets, including the Associated Press, ESPN and Sirius Satellite Radio, maintaining those roles along with his public-address job.

He also taught sports broadcasting and play-by-play classes at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting.

When the Red Sox announced that they would be auditioning for a new public-address voice for the 2003 season, Beane almost didn't apply, because he wondered if he could do justice to the role that had been filled so well by an idol of his, Sherm Feller.

Everyone who knew Carl knew better, and told him so. Given that kind of encouragement, he tried out for the job - and won it handily.

For his nine-plus seasons, his voice served as a comforting background for Fenway's fandom. He did the job so well because he not only knew broadcasting, he knew everything about baseball and the team.

Along the way, he made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., as lead-off voice in its "The Baseball Experience'' exhibit.

Beane, who was diabetic, also served as a spokesman for the American Diabetes Association and a narrator for Talking Books at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston.

Throughout his vibrant life, Carl maintained a keen sense of humor. Once, when asked why he never sought work in television, he said:

"I have the perfect face for radio."

Garry Brown can be reached at geebrown1918@gmail.com

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health's last audit of the Worcester jail identified 262 repeat violations. Some reflect daily maintenance challenges. Others reflect systemic problems, many stemming from the continued use of outdated buildings, due to a lack of funding to replace them. Watch video

WEST BOYLSTON -- As correctional officers lead two reporters through a housing unit at the Worcester County House of Corrections, an inmate in his cell starts yelling. He thinks the reporters are state inspectors, and he wants his window opened.

During the winter, cell windows are screwed shut. The officers say a problem with the locking mechanism means without screws, the windows will open, and the jail will get too cold at night.

The housing unit is in one of several modular buildings opened in 1990 to house Worcester's then-overcrowded prison population. The buildings had a 10-year lifespan. They have been used for 25 years. The housing unit is one of the better constructed units - buildings that house classrooms and administration are in worse shape.

"They're in disrepair. There's nothing we can do to clean them up anymore," said jail superintendent David Tuttle.

The Department of Public Health's last audit of the Worcester jail facility, conducted in October, took 34 pages and identified 262 repeat violations. Some of these reflect daily maintenance challenges - dusty vents, peeling paint, inmates hanging towels over light fixtures. Others reflect systemic problems, many stemming from the continued use of outdated buildings.

State public health officials conduct semiannual audits of the county jails, which can turn up hundreds of health and safety violations. The Worcester County House of Corrections and Jail provides one example of the facility challenges facing Massachusetts' jails.

"We have problems," said Senate Majority Leader Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, who has been trying to get more money for the Worcester jail. "The conditions at the Worcester County jail need to be dramatically improved."

The Worcester jail, which houses minimum and maximum security prisoners, was built in 1973, with an addition built in 1983 and the modular complex added in 1990. It houses around 1,100 men, including pre-trial and post-sentencing detainees, on a daily basis.

In the main jail complex, most public health violations reflect the age of the building and daily maintenance challenges.

The Department of Public Health notes that cells in some units are too small; they were built when standards were different. Violations include mold, soap scum and dirt in the showers, paint peeling in cells, damaged wall tiles, covered lighting and blocked vents.

The sheriff's office recently replaced almost all the showers, exchanging tile for a solid surface that is easier to clean. Tuttle said things like chipped paint, dirt and vent violations are fixed daily. The jail spends $35,000 a year on paint and $120,000 annually on cleaning supplies.

"We paint almost every day in here. It's a constant battle," Tuttle said.

Walking around the maximum-security housing unit he runs, Captain Brian Giles pulls towels off vents and lights. One cell's vent is stuffed with wadded toilet paper; others are blocked by clothing. Some cells have toothpaste on the light fixture. That is how inmates dim the lights or make their cells hotter or cooler. After they wash their clothes, inmates hang them in front of the vent to dry.

"We ask them to take it down, they take it down. You walk away, they put them right back up," Tuttle said.

In some of the concrete cells, floor paint is chipping. "We paint it, it peels," Giles said. "A guy stands there 24 hours a day."

Diane Cook, policy and program coordinator at the jail, said she checks every audit violation. "We address every single one in some way, shape, manner or form," Cook said.

For example, when a recent audit noted a lot of dusty vents, the sheriff's office bought a vent vacuum. "Now if someone identifies a dusty vent, then they call up the dusty vent guy, and he comes out and vacuums it for us," Cook said.

But one area where correctional officials can do little is in the modular units.

The contrast is obvious when it comes to education. Inmates attending classes in the main jail complex - for example, GED courses or classes on substance abuse - sit in classrooms that look like a school building. There are inspirational posters on the wall, individual desks, laptops and smart boards. Teachers have an office with cubicles, where they can leave books.

For the 625 inmates housed in modular units, three classrooms share one large space subdivided with partitions. Floor tiles are missing, revealing plywood floors. In some places, a metal grate covers the floor. The walls are rotting from the inside, and the ceiling is rusted. It was not designed for technology. The building was condemned, then part of it was "un-condemned" because there was nowhere to move the classrooms.

Other modular buildings are in equally poor shape. In an administration building, the floors bounce if someone jumps. Floor tiles are cracked, and ceilings are warped. A nurse's office door does not shut, because the building is sinking. A men's staff bathroom floor has a large spot of crumbling grout where tiles are missing. Concrete walkways outside the buildings are heaving, so gates barely open.

Metal fencing on recreational pens is rusting, and inmates have broken off pieces to make shanks. While the fencing is in the process of being replaced, dangerous spots are marked with orange paint, and correctional officers inspect them after every use.

"There's some areas where we stopped doing major maintenance or repairs, because it's a waste of money," Tuttle said. "We've made the conscious decision: Why keep investing taxpayers' money into a floor that can't be fixed when the building will be torn down in a couple of years?"

The state's Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance plans to build a new $20 million, 33,000-square-foot building and vehicle sally port with intake and medical facilities. It will include intake and medical housing, with cells that can be used as a regional lock-up on evenings and weekends, or for municipal police arrestees overnight. Construction is expected to begin in 2017 and be completed in early 2018.

Once that is built, jail officials want to renovate an existing warehouse to build classrooms. That project is still in the study phase. Those projects will let officials tear down the worst modular buildings. The sheriff's office also hopes to create a master facilities plan.

But Tuttle is frustrated that over the years the Worcester jail has not gotten as much funding as other sheriffs' departments, which has resulted in the decrepit buildings. "When we talk about funding for sheriffs' departments, there's no formula," Tuttle said. "There doesn't seem to be some sort of rationale why departments receive what they receive."

In the current fiscal year, the Legislature gave Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis a $46 million budget. Among other counties with similar numbers of inmates, only Bristol County's budget is similar. The Essex County sheriff gets $54 million; Middlesex County gets $68 million and Hampden County gets $80 million.

"They have new buildings and different things that they work with," Tuttle said. "We're trying to provide the same services for the people of Worcester County that other counties are. It frustrates us."

State Sen. Michael Moore, D-Millbury, chaired a commission that analyzed county sheriff operations. Asked what formula the Legislature uses to decide funding levels, Moore said, "There is no formula."

According to the commission's 2013 report, jail funding was historically an amalgam of state money, county money and a portion of revenue from deeds excise taxes. During the recession, the sheriffs faced major budget deficits. The Legislature frequently gives the sheriffs more money mid-year.

Since 2012, the sheriffs' funding has come solely from the state budget. But there remain disparities. The report notes that job titles and pay vary widely between counties.

Some of the funding disparity is a result of which sheriffs have the most political power. "You have to go down to Boston and fight, be a strong advocate for the budget," said Guy Glodis, a former Worcester county sheriff and state senator.

Moore said the last state budget directed state public safety officials and the sheriffs to develop a funding formula, which will be discussed as lawmakers write next year's budget.

"One thing I personally think has been very unfair is the fact that you'll have some facilities that will get accolades for programs they have to fight recidivism, yet look at the funding they get compared to other facilities, and there's no equity," Moore said.

Chandler said Worcester's funding has fallen behind year after year. And with constant state budget tightening, it is difficult for lawmakers to give more money to the jails. State leaders are currently involved in a criminal justice system review, which could save money in the long term by reducing recidivism.

"Tell the people who are education supporters you're going put more money into jails. Tell the people who have children who have developmental delays you're going put more money in jails," Chandler said. "There's only so much money in the pie."

Corrections officials at county jails in Western Massachusetts say they address many of the violations with daily maintenance, but they face budget constraints when it comes to fixing larger problems.

WEST BOYLSTON -- The calendar was scrawled in pen on the wall of the segregation cell in the Worcester County House of Corrections. "Enero," the inmate wrote, Spanish for January. Days were circled and crossed off.

The paint at eye level next to the door was chipped, where an inmate had sat watching the hallway with little to do but chip paint. Writing paper and toothpaste were stuck to the overhead light, a common method used by inmates to dim the light.

On a Department of Public Health audit, these would have been listed as health and safety violations: "Wall paint peeling," "debris on lights."

The dirt and peeling paint may seem minor, but other violations caught by the Department of Public Health at Massachusetts' county prisons are more serious: they include rust, mold and no hot water. "Dead mouse observed in the left exterior corner of refrigerator" in a warehouse, noted an audit conducted in November at the Berkshire County Jail.

The most recent Department of Public Health audits of county jails in Worcester, Hampden, Franklin, Hampshire and Berkshire counties found hundreds of health and safety violations. The number of repeat violations ranged from a low of 90 in Hampshire County, a jail with 234 inmates the day of the inspection, to a high of 262 repeat violations in Worcester County, which serves around 1,100 inmates daily.

Officials from the sheriffs' offices say they address many of the violations with daily maintenance, but they also face budget constraints when it comes to fixing larger problems. Prisoners' advocates say the jails, and the state, are not doing enough.

"I do think they make prisoners feel like animals," said Cassandra Bensahih, executive director of EPOCA, an acronym for ex-prisoners and prisoners organizing for community advancement. "This is no way to live. This is no way to treat a person."

State public health inspectors audit the county jails twice a year. Each time, the jails have 10 days to submit a plan for correcting any problems, and the plans must be approved by the state. The audits provide a snapshot into the challenges faced by the county facilities, which must house, feed and provide services to hundreds of inmates around the clock.

"These are buildings that are in constant use, so it takes an awful lot of upkeep and an awful lot of work from the staff to maintain them," said Patrick Cahillane, deputy superintendent at the Hampshire County jail.

Jail officials say they take the audits seriously and make any necessary changes.

"I'm 100 percent confident that the offender population and the staff population is working and living in a very safe, humane institution, and we are upholding all of the codes that need to be upheld," said Nick Cocchi, assistant superintendent at the Hampden County Sheriff's Department and a candidate for Hampden County sheriff.

The reports monitor the county jails' compliance with health and safety codes, measuring cleanliness and maintenance. Since each prison has hundreds of cells, plus staff spaces, medical facilities, warehouses, kitchens and bathrooms, this amounts to hundreds of opportunities for violations.

Many violations relate to routine maintenance - things like dusty vents, cracked wall tiles, soap scum or dirt on shower walls, dirty floors and damaged paint.

David Tuttle, superintendent at the Worcester County jail, called it a "constant battle" to keep up with those items, which are reported on a daily basis and fixed. "Our maintenance staff's constantly working," Tuttle said. "We're constantly painting, constantly cleaning."

Tuttle said notations like "light fixture blocked" or "wall vent blocked" often mean an inmate hung clothing in front of a light or vent to adjust the light or temperature in a cell.

"Daily, the staff walk around and say take that down, take that down," Tuttle said.

Several reports noted mold - for example, in the Hampshire County jail showers or the Hampden County bathroom ceiling tiles. They note things like improper water temperature, lack of hand soap at sinks and improper storage of cleaning and kitchen materials.

Mary Baker, standards and training manager for the Hampden County Sheriff's Office, said some violations reflect normal usage. "There's probably 40 or 50 notations of soap scum," Baker said. "They're men, they're taking showers, they're not cleaning the shower stall when they get done."

When a problem is identified, Baker said maintenance workers are sent to fix it. The department's responses to a July audit noted that within 10 days, a work crew had addressed mold, a broken hand dryer, rust and dirt. By August, the department, according to its response, ordered a new sink, sanded and painted rusted vents, repaired walls, unblocked ventilation grilles, replaced ceiling tiles, removed a bird's nest and treated showers for drain flies. The jail is currently replacing its heating and ventilation system.

"We do take the reports very seriously, and we do work towards corrective action," Baker said.

Sometimes, the violations reflect larger facility problems, which would require a major allocation of state money to fix. A report on a bathroom in a modular building at the Hampshire County jail noted rotted wall studs behind a toilet, a hole in the floor covered with plywood and mold on the ceiling. Nearly all the sinks were dirty, and most showers had cracked boards.

Cahillane said Hampshire County officials are working with the state to plan a major renovation of the modular building. Cahillane said the building is 28 years old and was supposed to be temporary.

"Obviously, modular buildings do not hold up the same way as regular bricks and mortar buildings hold up," Cahillane said.

Similarly, in Worcester County, where modular units are 25 years past their projected lifespan, buildings have rotted wood, missing floor tiles, rust and other problems. The state plans to replace some of the buildings. Tuttle said until they do, there is little point in putting money into new floor tiles that will immediately crack in uneven floors.

"A lot of it is just the age of the facility," Tuttle said. "We need to start doing some major projects around here, either build some new buildings or do some major renovations of existing buildings."

Advocates for prisoners say they are not surprised at the high numbers of violations. Leslie Walker, executive director of Prisoners' Legal Services, said her organization often gets calls from prisoners complaining about cleanliness and conditions at jails, from excessive heat in the summer to outbreaks of disease.

Walker said Prisoners' Legal Services reports violations to the Department of Public Health and the jails. Sometimes, she said, issues are resolved; other times, they are not. "It's pretty catch as catch can," Walker said. "We talk to the superintendent, they assure us it's on the to do list. Sometimes it gets done, sometimes it doesn't."

As with any public project, the Legislature must appropriate money for capital spending - which can be difficult in tight budget years. Walker said she has heard jail officials say they need more money to make major repairs. But, she argues, some of the funding is political.

"There may not be enough money to fix everything that needs to be fixed, but there is enough money to satisfy the guards' unions," Walker said.

Walker thinks there should be better enforcement of the health codes. "I don't think there's any strong enforcement mechanism if a facility says 'We don't have enough money, we're doing our best,'" Walker said.

Bensahih believes some of the problems are societal. Bensahih, a former prisoner, said she hears complaints of jails that are too hot or too cold, dirty, overcrowded and lacking sunlight. Bensahih said too many people in the state view jails as punishment, not as places to rehabilitate people. "They don't care to repair the jails. I don't think they look at jails as being a place to be comfortable at," Bensahih said.

Bensahih said if jails do not improve their physical conditions, convicts will not improve their lives. "They end up putting caged animals back into our communities, and communities are no safer," Bensahih said.

Meanwhile, corrections officials say they are doing the best with what they have. "We're a 24/7 facility," Cocchi said. "The place is over 23 years old, and at times you're going to get areas that need attention."

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse said he learned of the Fire Department budget problem Thursday.

HOLYOKE -- The City Council Tuesday voted to order a hiring freeze that will have limited reach given the mayor's jurisdiction over hiring, but other, potentially large cost issues featuring a Fire Department miscue could pound the city.

Because of a miscalculation in the number of firefighter salaries and the expiration of a grant sooner than expected, officials learned Thursday the Fire Department had a budget shortfall of about $319,000. But that was covered by transferring money from accounts that could spare funds such as long-term debt, Mayor Alex B. Morse said by email late Tuesday.

Morse was reached for comment after council Finance Committee Chairman Todd A. McGee said during the meeting at City Hall that he spoke Friday with Fire Chief John A. Pond who told him the Fire Department had a shortfall of $300,000 to $400,000.

"What?" council President Kevin A. Jourdain and several other councilors said.

Pond couldn't be reached for comment.

Morse said the budget hole was plugged "doing a constant budgetary analysis," a routine step in a fluid budget. But councilors have criticized such steps as reflective of poor planning at budget-preparation time in the spring when officials are supposed to have a handle on revenues and spending.

Also, the Police Department has already outspent the $430,000 it had budgeted in this fiscal year for overtime. Police were at $500,000 spent on overtime as of Thursday and have requested $225,000 more.

And, as Ward 5 Councilor Linda L. Vacon noted during the meeting, "And it hasn't even snowed yet."

That was a reference to the strain such storms exert on city expenses for snow removal and public works overtime requiring additional cash transfers, as happened repeatedly last year.

Further, Jourdain said his understanding was that the School Department will need another $400,000 for transportation costs.

All of which comes with the city free cash account -- the source from which such transfers usually are made -- sitting at an unusually low total of only about $500,000.

McGee said such demands for the dwindling amount of cash could prompt a repeat of last month when the City Council and Morse cobbled together budget cuts and a tapping of the stabilization, or rainy-day, fund to plug a $2.9 million budget deficit.

Besides the option of mid-fiscal year budget cuts and a further raid on what is supposed to be the emergency stabilization fund, it's possible the City Council could deny any requests for extra cash for overtime and order departments to figure out how to operate with budgeted amounts until the fiscal year ends June 30.

The council approved the call for a hiring freeze by voice vote with some, such as Councilor at Large Rebecca Lisi and Ward 4 Councilor Jossie M. Valentin, voting no.

The hiring freeze is intended to leave municipal vacancies unfilled until officials resolve how to address financial problems. The freeze wouldn't affect the need to fill public safety jobs or those of department heads, councilors said.

A step toward dealing with the financial problems will come with a team Morse is forming that will include Jourdain and four other councilors to work on a budget reform plan. A letter from Morse about that was on Tuesday's City Council agenda.

A City Council call for a hiring freeze lacks the power of what is commonly understood with such a move as being a ban on filling positions. That's because the mayor has authority to hire and if money for a job exists in the budget, the City Council has little power to stop the mayor from filling the job.

What the City Council can do with its hiring freeze is reject requests for transfers to pay salaries for other positions the mayor seeks to fill that are unfunded in the budget.

"Really, what this represented was trying to address the current budget problems that we have," McGee said.

Morse said he learned of the Fire Department budget problem Thursday. The shortfall consisted of about $169,000 to pay firefighter salaries and $150,000 for firefighter overtime, he said.

"I was informed late last week that there had been a miscalculation in the total amount that was needed to fully fund the budget line for firefighters for 'FY16.' This was largely due to a federal SAFER grant running out sooner than expected. This was not anticipated when the budget was prepared last spring," Morse said.

The $8.12 million budget approved to run the Fire Department in the current fiscal year was supposed to fund 72 firefighters, but contains money for only 65, officials said.

"While certainly frustrating, my finance team was able to find excess funds in other areas of the budget, that would otherwise go unexpended, to cover the added cost," Morse said.

"It's important to realize that budgets are fluid. When the amount is approved in June, it doesn't mean it will be expended. That is the main reason we end up (with) free cash in the fall. The Council is well aware of this process, and approves many transfers like this throughout the year," he said.

"The bulk of the transfer will come from long term debt. The treasurer (Sandra A. Smith) had over-estimated the amount we needed for the year. This was done out of an a abundance (of) caution, and only after six months of the fiscal year she can confirm we will not need it," he said.

Morse said that if the Fire Department shortfall hadn't arisen, those unexpended funds would have been used to cover other expenses during the fiscal year or left unspent and certified as free cash for use in the next fiscal year.

"Again, councilors can be upset, but that is disingenuous, as unexpended budgetary funds make up the bulk of free cash each year. I couldn't be happier with the (acting City Auditor Bellamy H. Schmidt) and my staff for doing a constant budgetary analysis to ensure we make it through the last couple fiscal years, even during these lean fiscal times," Morse said.

Regarding the additional money needed for school transportation, Morse, who as mayor is School Committee chairman, said such issues were not fully known when the budget for the current fiscal year was prepared in the spring.

"It is mostly due to an increase in expenses and additional routes the School Department has requested," Morse said.

The mayor said he has made clear to Stephen K. Zrike Jr., the state-appointed receiver who controls the city public schools, that the limited funds of the city's free cash account is off limits for the extra school transportation costs.

"We are working with the School Department to cover the costs, as well as reviewing the terms of the (transportation) contract. Any comment otherwise is simply fear-mongering," Morse said.