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Holyoke to fly Children's Memorial Flag to spotlight abuse

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As Holyoke raises the Children's Memorial Flag, April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

HOLYOKE -- The Children's Memorial Flag will be displayed at City Hall Wednesday at 10 a.m. in a ceremony to raise awareness about the abuse and killing of children.

Mayor Alex B. Morse will be joined at the ceremony by representatives of the Center for Human Development, a regional social services agency that has an office at 494 Appleton St., the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, HeadStart, the Greater Holyoke YMCA and other organizations, a press release from Morse's office said.

"This event is to raise awareness of the hundreds of children lost every year to violence," the press release said.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, according to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"Child abuse and neglect is a national issue that affects us all. The consequences of child abuse and neglect ripple across the lifespan, negatively impacting a child's chances to succeed in school, work and relationships," Rafael Lopez, commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families with the federal agency, said in the agency's child abuse prevention guide (see below).

The Children's Memorial Flag shows a red field with blue, paper-doll-like children holding hands in the center of which is a white chalk outline symbolizing a missing child.

Federal child abuse prevention guide:


Stop & Shop union workers vote to ratify new contract after lengthy dispute with management

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The votes at venues in Chicopee and Pittsfield on Tuesday night put the new three-year deal into effect. The contract includes wage increase retroactive to Feb. 27, when the previous contract expired.

CHICOPEE - Members of the union that represents local Stop & Shop workers voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new contract with the supermarket chain.

The votes at venues in Chicopee and Pittsfield on Tuesday night put the new three-year deal into effect. The contract includes a wage increase retroactive to Feb. 27, when the previous contract expired, and takes into account next year's scheduled minimum wage increase in Massachusetts.

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1459 representative Jeff Jones, who attended the 6 p.m. Chicopee meeting at the Knights of Columbus, estimated the deal was approved by a ratio of 11 to one.

The union represents 35,000 Stop & Shop workers across Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

"I think people were satisfied," said Jones. "People were generally relieved to get this behind us."

The deal allows for predictable schedules for workers and regular meetings between employees and management.

"Those are both positive things that we can build on in the future," said Jones.

The new contract preserves the existing pension plan, as well, for both full- and part-time workers. A small hike in health insurance premiums and co-pays is expected in the third year.

The dispute led to strikes by some unionized workers, but the Springfield-based local did not strike. Jones thanked the rank-and-file members for their efforts to raise awareness of the situation and reach an agreement.

Forty-one days passed between the expiration of the previous contract and the announcement of a new deal.

Porch fire at Springfield apartment building caused by wiring malfunction

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Firefighters responded to 659 State St. at around 8 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD - A wiring malfunction started a fire on the porch of a second-floor apartment on State Street Tuesday night.

Firefighters responded to 659 State St. at around 8 p.m. Dennis Leger, aide to the Springfield fire commissioner, said a wire under the floor of the porch caught fire.

Between 20 and 30 people were evacuated, but they were all able to return to their apartments.

Leger estimated the damage to the property at around $5,000.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton win New York primaries

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Front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton swept to victory with ease in Tuesday's New York primary, with Trump bouncing back from a difficult stretch in the Republican contest and Clinton pushing closer to locking up the Democratic nomination.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton swept to resounding victories in Tuesday's New York primary, with Trump bouncing back from a difficult stretch in his Republican campaign and Clinton pushing tantalizingly close to locking up the Democratic nomination.

"The race for the nomination is in the home stretch, and victory is in sight," Clinton declared to cheering supporters.

Live coverage recap: How Tuesday played out >>

Trump captured more than 50 percent of the vote in New York and was headed toward a big delegate haul in his home state, a commanding showing that keeps him on a path to the GOP nomination if he continues to win. He claimed at least half of the 95 delegates at stake Tuesday, and was likely to add to his tally in individual congressional districts.

A confident Trump insisted it was "impossible" for his rivals to catch him.

"We don't have much of a race anymore," he said during a victory rally in the lobby of the Manhattan tower bearing his name. He peppered his brash remarks with more references to the economy and other policy proposals than normal, reflecting the influence of a new team of advisers seeking to professionalize his campaign.

Clinton's triumph padded her delegate lead over rival Bernie Sanders and strengthened her claim to the Democratic nomination that eluded her eight years ago. In a shift toward the general election, she made a direct appeal to Sanders' loyal supporters, telling them she believes "there is more that unites us than divides us."

With 247 delegates at stake, Clinton picked up at least 104 while Sanders gained at least 85. Many remained to be allocated, pending final vote tallies

Sanders energized young people and liberals in New York, as he has across the country, but it wasn't enough to pull off the upset victory he desperately needed to change the trajectory of the Democratic race. Still, the Vermont senator vowed to keep competing.

"We've got a shot to victory," Sanders said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We have come a very long way in the last 11 months, and we are going to fight this out until the end of the process."

The fight for New York's delegate haul consumed the presidential contenders for two weeks, an eternity in the fast-moving White House race. Candidates blanketed every corner of New York, bidding for votes from Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs to the working class cities and rural enclaves that dot the rest of the state.

The nominating contests will stay centered in the Northeast in the coming days, with Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania all holding contests next week. Sanders spent Tuesday in Pennsylvania, as did Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's closest rival.

Cruz panned Trump's win as little more than "a politician winning his home state," then implored Republicans to unite around his candidacy.

"We must unite the Republican Party because doing so is the first step in uniting all Americans," Cruz said in remarks read off a teleprompter.

Trump needed a strong showing to keep alive his chances of clinching the GOP nomination before the party's July convention -- and to quiet critics who say the long primary season has exposed big deficiencies in his campaign effort.

Having spent months relying on a slim staff, Trump has started hiring more seasoned campaign veterans. He's acknowledged that bringing new people into his orbit may cause some strife, but says the moves were necessary at this stage of the race.

Cruz is trying to stay close enough in the delegate count to push the GOP race to a contested convention. His campaign feels confident that it's mastered the complicated process of lining up individual delegates who could shift their support to the Texas senator after a first round of convention balloting.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the only other Republican left in the race, sought to add to his scant delegate total in New York and keep up his bid to play a long-shot spoiler at the convention. He bested Cruz on Tuesday and is refusing to end his campaign despite winning only his home state.

Trump's political strength, though he boasts of drawing new members to the party, has left some Republicans concerned that his nomination could splinter the GOP. Among Republican voters in New York, nearly 6 in 10 said the nominating contest is dividing the party, according to exit polls.

The surveys were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

Trump leads the GOP race with 756 delegates, ahead of Cruz with 559 and Kasich with 144. Securing the GOP nomination requires 1,237.

Among Democrats, Clinton now has 1,862 delegates to Sanders' 1,161. Those totals include both pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses and superdelegates, the party insiders who can back the candidate of their choice regardless of how their state votes. It takes 2,383 to win the Democratic nomination.

Water main break closes short stretch of Main Street in Springfield

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Police vehicles are blocking the road between Lyman and Taylor streets.

SPRINGFIELD - A one-block stretch of Main Street is closed because of a water break.

Police vehicles are blocking the road between Lyman and Taylor streets.

There is no estimate on when repairs will be complete or when the road will be reopened.

This is a developing story. It will be updated as new information is released.

Investigation: South Korea's abuse of 'vagrants' before Seoul Olympics vicious, widespread

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South Korea rounded up thousands of so-called vagrants off the streets ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. An investigation shows that abuse at the largest of the facilities housing them was much more vicious and widespread than previously known.

BUSAN, South Korea -- The 14-year-old boy in the black school jacket stared at his sneakers, his heart pounding, as the policeman accused him of stealing a piece of bread.

Even now, more than 30 years later, Choi Seung-woo weeps when he describes all that happened next. The policeman yanked down the boy's pants and sparked a cigarette lighter near Choi's genitals until he confessed to a crime he didn't commit. Then two men with clubs came and dragged Choi off to the Brothers Home, a mountainside institution where some of the worst human rights atrocities in modern South Korean history took place.

A guard in Choi's dormitory raped him that night in 1982 -- and the next, and the next. So began five hellish years of slave labor and near-daily assaults, years in which Choi saw men and women beaten to death, their bodies carted away like garbage.

Choi was one of thousands -- the homeless, the drunk, but mostly children and the disabled -- rounded up off the streets ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which the ruling dictators saw as international validation of South Korea's arrival as a modern country. An Associated Press investigation shows that the abuse of these so-called vagrants at Brothers, the largest of dozens of such facilities, was much more vicious and widespread than previously known, based on hundreds of exclusive documents and dozens of interviews with officials and former inmates.

Yet nobody has been held accountable to date for the rapes and killings at the Brothers compound because of a cover-up orchestrated at the highest levels of government, the AP found. Two early attempts to investigate were suppressed by senior officials who went on to thrive in high-profile jobs; one remains a senior adviser to the current ruling party. Products made using slave labor at Brothers were sent to Europe, Japan and possibly beyond, and the family that owned the institution continued to run welfare facilities and schools until just two years ago.

Even as South Korea prepares for its second Olympics, in 2018, thousands of traumatized former inmates have still received no compensation, let alone public recognition or an apology. The few who now speak out want a new investigation.

The current government, however, refuses to revisit the case, and is blocking a push by an opposition lawmaker to do so on the grounds that the evidence is too old.

Ahn Jeong-tae, an official from Seoul's Ministry of the Interior, said focusing on just one human rights incident would financially burden the government and set a bad precedent. The Brothers' victims, he said, should have submitted their case to a temporary truth-finding commission established in the mid-2000s to investigate past atrocities.

"We can't make separate laws for every incident and there have been so many incidents since the Korean War," Ahn said.

Former inmates, however, cannot forget. One spent months standing quietly in front of the National Assembly with a signboard demanding justice. Choi has attempted suicide several times and now attends weekly therapy sessions.

"The government has consistently tried to bury what happened. How do you fight that? If we spoke up, who would have heard us?" he asked. "I am wailing, desperate to tell our story. Please listen to us."

"HELL WITHIN A HELL"

Once an orphanage, Brothers Home at its peak had more than 20 factories churning out woodwork, metalwork, clothing, shoes and other goods made by mostly unpaid inmates. The sprawling compound of concrete buildings rose above the southern port city of Busan, its inmates hidden from view by tall walls and kept there by guards who carried bats and patrolled with dogs.

The horrors that happened behind those walls are inextricably linked to South Korea's modern history.

The country at the time was still recovering from the near-total devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War, which followed nearly four decades of brutal Japanese colonization. From the 1960s until the '80s, before democracy, it was ruled by military dictators who focused overwhelmingly on improving the economy.

In 1975, dictator President Park Chung-hee, father of current President Park Geun-hye, issued a directive to police and local officials to "purify" city streets of vagrants. Police officers, assisted by shop owners, rounded up panhandlers, small-time street merchants selling gum and trinkets, the disabled, lost or unattended children, and dissidents, including a college student who'd been holding anti-government leaflets.

They ended up as prisoners at 36 nationwide facilities. By 1986, the number of inmates had jumped over five years from 8,600 to more than 16,000, according to government documents obtained by AP.

Nearly 4,000 were at Brothers. But about 90 percent of them didn't even meet the government's definition of "vagrant" and therefore shouldn't have been confined there, former prosecutor Kim Yong Won told the AP, based on Brothers' records and interviews compiled before government officials ended his investigation.

The inner workings of Brothers are laid bare by former inmate Lee Chae-sik, who had extraordinary access as personal assistant to the man in charge of enforcing the rules. The AP independently verified many of the details provided by Lee, now 46, through government documents.

Lee was sent to Brothers at 13 after trouble at school. His first job was in a medical ward. Twice a day, Lee and four others, none of whom had medical training, would try to care for patients, often dousing their open wounds with disinfectant or removing maggots with tweezers.

"People screamed in pain, but we couldn't do much," Lee said. "It was a hell within a hell. The patients had been left there to die."

Stronger inmates raped and beat the weak and stole their food, he said. Lee attempted suicide after a guard at the medical ward raped him.

A year later, he was made personal assistant to chief enforcer Kim Kwang-seok, who like other guards at Brothers was an inmate raised to power by the owner because of his loyalty. Many former inmates remember Kim as the facility's most feared man. The AP tried repeatedly to track Kim down but could not find him.

Lee said he was present when Kim, a short, stocky man with sunburned skin, led near-daily, often fatal beatings at the compound's "corrections room." Lee accompanied Kim as he compiled a twice-a-day tally of the sick and dead for the owner; four or five daily deaths were often on the list.

A scene recounted by Lee provides a firsthand account of the efficient, almost casually evil way the facility worked. One morning, Kim approached owner Park In-keun on his daily jog to report that yet another inmate had been beaten to death the night before. The boy heard Park order Kim to bury the body in the hills behind the compound's walls.


MONEY FROM SLAVES

The violence at Brothers happened in the shadow of a massive money-making operation partly based on slave labor. The factories were ostensibly meant to train inmates for future jobs. But by the end of 1986, Brothers saw a profit from 11 of them, according to Busan city government documents obtained exclusively by the AP.

The documents show that Brothers should have paid the current equivalent of $1.7 million to more than 1,000 inmates for their dawn-to-dusk work over an unspecified period. However, facility records and interviews with inmates at the time suggest that, instead, most of the nearly 4,000 people at Brothers were subject to forced labor without pay, according to prosecutor Kim.

Another probe at the time, quickly scrapped by the government, showed that "nearly none" of about 100 inmates interviewed received payment. None of 20 former inmates interviewed by the AP received money while at Brothers either, though three got small payments later.

Adults worked on construction jobs, both at Brothers and off-site. Children sometimes hauled dirt and built walls, but mostly they assembled ballpoint pens and fishing hooks.

Some products were tied to other countries. For example, dress shirts made at Brothers' sewing factory were sent to Europe, and inmates were trained by employees at Daewoo, a major clothing exporter during the 1980s to the United States and other markets, according to the owner's autobiography. Park, the owner, said officials from Daewoo had toured the facility before offering a partnership. Daewoo International spokesman Kim Jin-ho said it was impossible to confirm such details because of a lack of records from the time.

Inmates during the 1970s recounted spending long hours tying fishing lines to hooks for packages with Japanese writing on them, for export to Japan.

Kim Hee-gon, an inmate at Brothers for eight years, said he and his colleagues were beaten severely in the early 1970s after thousands of such packages shipped to Japan were returned because they were faulty or missing hooks. Park Gyeong-bo, who was confined at Brothers from 1975 to 1980, remembered sneaker bottoms produced with the logo of Kukje Sangsa, a now-defunct company that manufactured shoes for the United States and Europe in the 1970s and 80s.

The operation thrived because everybody benefited, except the inmates.

Local officials needed somewhere to put the vagrants they were charged with corralling, so each year they renewed a contract with Brothers that required an inspection of how the inmates were treated and of how the facility was financially managed. Brothers got government subsidies based on its number of inmates, so it pushed police to round up more vagrants, the early probe found. And police officers were often promoted depending on how many vagrants they picked up.

Two Busan city officials would say only that the facts are difficult to confirm now because the facility closed three decades ago. Heo Gwi-yong, a spokesman for the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, said he couldn't confirm any details for the same reason.

The owner of Brothers, Park, received two state medals for social welfare achievements and sat on a government advisory panel. His version of his story even inspired a 1985 television drama about a man's heroic devotion to caring for what were called "bottom-life people."

Park eventually served a short prison stint for embezzlement and other relatively minor charges, but not for the abuse at Brothers. When the facility was at last raided in 1987, investigators found a vault in Park's office filled with the current equivalent of about $5 million in U.S. and Japanese currencies and certificates of deposit.

In his autobiography, in court hearings and in talks with close associates, Park has denied wrongdoing and maintained that he simply followed government orders. Repeated attempts to contact him through family, friends and activists were unsuccessful.

The AP, however, tracked down the former second-highest management official at Brothers, Lim Young-soon, who bristled in a telephone interview at descriptions of corruption, violence and slavery at the facility. Lim, a Protestant pastor now in Australia who is the brother of Park's wife, said Park was a "devoted" social worker who made Busan better by cleaning its streets of troublemakers. He said Brothers' closure "damaged national interests."

Lim acknowledged beating deaths at Brothers, but said they were caused by clashes between inmates. He attributed the facility's high death toll to the many inmates he said arrived there in poor physical and mental health.

"These were people who would have died in the streets anyway," Lim said.

"I DIDN'T LIVE AS A HUMAN"

While Park raked in the money, the death toll mounted and the inmates struggled to survive.

On his second day at Brothers, still dazed from his brutal rape the night before, Choi waited with otherchildren to be stripped and washed. He said he watched a guard drag a woman by her hair and then beat her with a club until blood flowed from her head.

"I just stood there, trembling like a leaf," Choi, 46, said. "I couldn't even scream when the platoon leader later raped me again."

Another time, Choi recalled, he saw seven guards knock down a screaming man, cover him with a blue blanket and stomp and beat him. Blood seeped through the blanket. When it fell away, the dead man's eyes had rolled back into his head.

Death tallies compiled by the facility claimed 513 people died between 1975 and 1986; the real toll was almost certainly higher. Prosecutor Kim interviewed multiple inmates who said facility officials refused to send people to hospitals until they were nearly dead for fear of escape.

"The facility was Park's kingdom, and violence was how he ruled," Kim said of the owner. "When you are confined to a place where people are getting beaten to death every day, you aren't likely to complain too much about forced labor, abuse or getting raped."

Most of the new arrivals at Brothers were in relatively good health, government documents show. Yet at least 15 inmates were dead within just a month of arrival in 1985, and 22 in 1986.

Of the more than 180 documented deaths at Brothers in 1985 and 1986, 55 of the death certificates were issued by a single doctor, Chung Myung-kuk, according to internal facility documents, interviews and records compiled by Kim. Chung, now dead, mostly listed the cause of death as "heart failure" and "general weakness."

Life at Brothers began before dawn, as inmates washed and got ready for mandatory 5:30 a.m. prayers, transmitted by loudspeaker from the facility's Presbyterian church. After a morning run, they ate breakfast and then headed to factories or construction sites.

When city officials, foreign missionaries or aid workers visited, a select group of healthy inmates worked for hours to prepare a sanitized version of Brothers for the guests. Guards locked everyone else in their dormitories. Choi said inmates watched hopelessly as these clueless do-gooders trooped through.

"We were trapped in a prison. But who could help us? No one," Choi said.

Once the doors were locked at 6 p.m., Choi said, the guards unleashed "uncontrolled violence" upon the 60 to 100 kids in his dormitory, including frequent rapes.

A principal at a Busan school who once taught at Brothers acknowledged that inmates were held against their will, and even called the facility a massive concentration camp. However, the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was worried about his reputation, staunchly defended its practices. He said severe violence and military-style discipline were the only ways to run a place filled with thousands of unruly people who didn't want to be there.

Park Sun-yi, who had been snatched by police at age 9 from a Busan train station in 1980, was one of the few to escape.

She had watched as the guards reserved their most ruthless beatings, the kind where inmates sometimes didn't recover, for those who tried to run. But after five years, she said, she became "consumed with the thought that my life might be like this forever and that I might die here."

She and five other girls used a broken saw from the ironwork factory to file away bars on a second-floor window at night, little by little, reattaching them with gum each morning. At last, they squeezed themselves out, scaled a wall embedded with broken glass and fled into the hills.

When she finally walked through the door of her family home in Munsan, she said, her father fainted.

"JUST WAITING TO DIE"

The unraveling of Brothers began by accident.

While pheasant hunting, Kim, then a newly appointed prosecutor in the city of Ulsan, heard from his guide about men with wooden bats and large dogs guarding bedraggled prisoners on a nearby mountain. When they drove there, the men said they were building a ranch for the owner of the Brothers Home in nearby Busan. Kim knew immediately, he said, that he'd stumbled onto "a very serious crime."

On a frigid January evening in 1987, Kim led 10 policemen in a surprise raid past the facility's high walls, imposing steel gates and gape-mouthed guards. Inside, he found battered and malnourished inmates locked in overcrowded dormitories. The inmates gave the unexpected visitors crisp, military-style salutes.

"I remember thinking, 'This isn't a welfare facility; it's a concentration camp,'" Kim, now 61 and a managing partner at a Seoul law firm, said. People lay coughing and moaning in a squalid sick ward, "just waiting to die."

After the owner was arrested, he demanded a meeting with Kim's boss, the chief Busan prosecutor, who then supervised Ulsan. A day later, Busan Mayor Kim Joo-ho, who died in 2014, called Kim to plead for Park's release. Kim said he politely declined and hung up.

At every turn, Kim said, high-ranking officials blocked his investigation, in part out of fear of an embarrassing international incident on the eve of the Olympics. President Chun Doo-hwan, who took power in a coup after Park Chung-hee was assassinated, didn't need another scandal as he tried to fend off huge pro-democracy protests.

Internal prosecution records reveal several instances where Kim noted intense pressure from Chun's office to curb his probe and push for lighter punishment for the owner. Kim had to reassure presidential officials directly and regularly that his investigation wouldn't expand.

Park Hee-tae, then Busan's head prosecutor and later the nation's justice minister, relentlessly pushed to reduce the scope of the investigation, Kim said, including forcing him to stop his efforts to interview every inmate at Brothers. Park, a senior adviser to the current ruling party, has repeatedly denied AP interview requests. His personal secretary said Park can't remember details about the investigation.

Despite interference, Kim eventually collected bank records and financial transactions indicating that, in 1985 and 1986 alone, the owner of Brothers embezzled what would be the current equivalent of more than $3 million. That came from about $10 million of government subsidies meant to feed and clothe the inmates and maintain the facilities. However, Kim said, the chief Busan prosecutor forced Kim to list the embezzlement as nearly half the amount he had actually found so that a life sentence couldn't be pursued under the law at the time.

Kim said his bosses also prevented him from charging the owner, Park, or anyone else for the suspected widespread abuse at the Brothers compound, and limited the prosecutor to pursuing much narrower abuse linked to the construction site Kim found while hunting.

Kim demanded a 15-year prison term for Park. After a lengthy battle, the Supreme Court in 1989 gave Park 21/2 years in prison for embezzlement and violations of construction, grassland management and foreign currency laws. He was acquitted of charges linked to off-site abuse. Only two guards received prison terms, one for 11/2 years and another for eight months.

After prison, Park continued to earn money from welfare facilities and land sales. The Brothers site was purchased in 2001 by a construction company for what would now be about $27 million, according to a copy of the land sale shown to the AP. One of Park's daughters operated a school for troubled kids that closed in 2013. His family in 2014 sold a home for the severely disabled.

UNFORGETTABLE PAIN

The legacy of Brothers lingers.

It finally closed its gates in 1988. In the 1990s, construction laborers dug up about 100 human bones on the patch of mountain just outside where it stood, according to one of the workers who found the bones, Lee Jin-seob. Blankets covering the bones and the lack of burial mounds made Lee think they'd been buried informally and quickly. It's unclear what happened to the remains.

On a recent trip to the site, which is now covered with tall apartment buildings, ex-inmates Choi and Lee Chae-sik stood on a concrete-covered former water reservoir that they think is the only remaining physical trace of Brothers. Both recalled the sight of guards carrying corpses into the woods.

"There could be hundreds of bodies still out there," Lee said, pointing toward the steep slopes.

Inmates released from the facility ended up homeless and in shelters and mental institutions; many struggle with alcoholism, depression, rage, shame and poverty. Choi, whose back is covered by a large tattoo from his time in a gang after he left Brothers, was imprisoned for assaulting a policeman.

The few former inmates who have begun speaking out want justice: an apology and an admission that officials encouraged police to kidnap and lock away people who shouldn't have been confined.

"How can we ever forget the pain from the beatings, the dead bodies, the backbreaking labor, the fear ... all the bad memories," Lee, who now manages a lakeside motel, said. "It will haunt us until we die."

Bar fight erupts after Adams woman reportedly refuses to be quiet during moment of silence for deceased patron

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A Berkshire County woman faces a charge for allegedly throwing a glass during a bar fight that broke out after she reportedly refused to be quiet during a moment of silence for a bar patron who recently died.

NORTHAMPTON -- A Berkshire County woman has been charged with assault and battery after allegedly throwing a glass during a bar fight Friday. The fight broke out when witnesses say she refused to be quiet during a moment of silence for a bar patron who recently died.

Christa L. Torres, 40, of Adams, pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court Monday to a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

She is accused of throwing the glass at one of the patrons who was attempting to move her out of the Veterans of Foreign Wars bar in Florence during the altercation Friday.

The man was treated on scene for a laceration to his chin that was bleeding onto his shirt collar, but declined to go to the hospital, according to police.

Northampton police wrote in court documents that officers responded to a report of an unruly patron at the VFW at 18 Meadow St. just after 10 p.m. They found a large crowd of patrons, some yelling at one another, in the parking lot.

Torres and her boyfriend told police that she had been called names and attacked in the bar, including having her hair pulled, police wrote in court documents.

Police spoke to the bartender and several patrons who said that the woman refused to quiet down when the DJ asked for a moment of silence to remember a regular patron who had passed away. She began arguing loudly with patrons and was asked by the bartender to leave the bar, police wrote.

The man who was allegedly hit with the glass was among the patrons trying to "move" Torres and her boyfriend out of the bar since the bartender had asked her to leave, patrons told police.

The bartender told police that Torres picked up two pool cues while leaving the bar but he was able to get them out of her hands.

Torres was released on personal recognizance and ordered to stay away from the VFW in Florence. She is due back in court June 3. 

 

Springfield Restaurant Week returns with $20.16 specials

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Twenty-one restaurants will participate in the 2016 edition, up from 17 last year.

SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield Restaurant Week is back for a second year from Thursday through May 1 courtesy of program sponsors the Springfield Business Improvement District and the City Council Young Professionals Subcommittee.

See all the 2016 Springfield Restaurant Week menus

Diners can visit participating restaurants across the city and choose from a menu of specials priced at $20.16 -- for the year, get it? A full list appears at springfielddowntown.com/dinespringfield/ and includes favorites like The Student Prince Cafe and The Fort Dining Room, Adolofo's, Red Rose Pizzeria and Chef Wayne's Big Mamou and Typical Sicilian.

Also participating are: Shakago; Hot Table; Luxe Burger Bar; Plan B Burger; Pizzeria Uno; Samuel's; Petra Lounge; 350 Grill and Steakhouse; Currents and Champions at the Marriott; PICKS/MVP at the Sheraton; Nadim's Mediterranean Grill; Panjabi Tadka; Theodores' Booze, Blues and BBQ; Borinquen Corner and Cafe Restaurant; Europa; Mike's East Side Pub; Solmar Restaurant; and Blackjack Steakhouse. 

25 things you should be eating in Springfield

There are 21 participating restaurants this year, up from 17 last year, said Chris Russell, executive director of the Springfield Business Improvement District.

Seven of the restaurants that participated in 2016 did not participate in the inaugural Restaurant Week in 2015. The numbers don't add up because some 2015 restaurants no longer participate.

Russell said:

"We are very excited for this year's Restaurant Week. We have a diverse group of restaurants this year. I encourage people to go to that one place that they never got around to trying just yet."

The Business Improvement District will promote Restaurant Week using money from sponsors, not from fees paid by the downtown landowners.

The 10 best restaurants in Springfield for 2016

The idea is to get folks interested in trying new restaurants. Many cities around the country do restaurant weeks, including Worcester, and for the first time Amherst, which conducted its restaurant week last month.

Springfield had used other types of restaurant promotions in the past, but 2015 was Springfield's first Restaurant Week.


Kinder Morgan pulls the plug on Northeast Energy Direct-Tennessee Gas pipeline

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The pipeline would have carried natural gas from Pennsylvania to markets in New England. Watch video

Citing inadequate capacity commitments from prospective customers, the Board of Directors of the Texas-based Kinder Morgan has voted to suspend further work and expenditures on its proposed 120-mile pipeline known as Northeast Energy Direct, the company announced late Wednesday afternoon.

"Unfortunately, despite working for more than two years and expending substantial shareholder resources, TGP did not receive the additional commitments it expected," wrote Kinder Morgan spokesman Stephen Crawford. "As a result, there are currently neither sufficient volumes, nor a reasonable expectation of securing them, to proceed with the project as it is currently configured."

"Given these market conditions, continuing to develop the project is not an acceptable use of shareholder funds," Crawford wrote in his statement.

Last July, Kinder Morgan's board authorized Tennessee to proceed with the project's "market path" segment from Wright, New York, to Dracut, Massachusetts, a $3.3 billion investment, but stopped short of authorizing money for the "supply path" segment from Pennsylvania to Wright.

Gallery preview 

The board's initial approval was based on existing commitments by local gas distribution companies, as well as expected commitments from additional gas and electric utilities and other market participants in New England, Crawford wrote.

Kinder Morgan attributed the insufficient contracted capacity to factors including regulatory procedures in New England states that do not allow binding commitments for pipeline capacity from electric utilities. The company also cited low natural gas prices, current market conditions and "counter-party financial instability" which have "called into question Tennessee's ability to secure incremental supply for the project."

Tennessee has operated in New England more than 60 years and "remains committed to meeting the critical need for constructing additional natural gas infrastructure in the region," Crawford wrote. Tennessee "will continue to work with customers to explore alternative solutions to address their needs, particularly local distribution companies that are unable to fully serve consumers and businesses in their areas because of the lack of access to abundant, low-cost domestic natural gas."

The interstate pipeline has been the source of bitter opposition in western Massachusetts and parts of the Merrimack Valley and North Shore. Kinder Morgan filed its application for the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November.

Massachusetts Senate President Stanley Rosenberg called Kinder Morgan's decision to suspend the Northeast Energy Direct project a "game changer." 

"This allows us to have a broader discussion about how to meet Massachusetts' energy needs," wrote Rosenberg in a statement. "Our discussions moving forward must include a comprehensive approach to reducing energy costs for all while meeting our increasing renewable energy needs and continuing to protect our priceless public spaces."

Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com

Man suspected of opiate use crashes car into utility pole in Arlington

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A man suspected of using heavy amounts of opiates crashed his vehicle into a utility pole in Arlington, Massachusetts.

ARLINGTON — A 45-year-old man is charged with Operating Under the Influence and Operating to Endanger, after he reportedly crashed his truck into a utility pole while high on opiates, on Tuesday, April 19.

Police were sent to the scene of the crime at approximately 8:20 a.m. on Tuesday morning, after an officer reported seeing the man's vehicle smash into a pole near 170 Pleasant St.

Officers believed that the driver showed signs of opiate use, and had possibly taken so much that he was overdosing. He was subsequently taken by Arlington Rescue to the Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge where he could be further evaluated.

Traffic was inhibited for nearly eight hours as a result of the crash – with all access to Pleasant Street, from Massachusetts Avenue to the Concord Turnpike, closed off.

Holyoke Parks and Rec offers summer basketball for youngsters entering grades 3 to 9

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The cost of the Holyoke Parks and Recreation Department's summer basketball program for youngsters is $140 for a child who attends one week or $250 for a child who attends both weeks.

HOLYOKE -- Registration is now open for the city Parks and Recreation Department's summer basketball program for youngsters entering grades three to nine to be held in two, one-week sessions at Holyoke High School.

The first week will be June 27 to July 1 and the second week will be July 11 to 15, Recreation Supervisor Peter Leclerc said in a press release.

The program at the high school at 500 Beech St. offers "a low instructor-to-camper ratio, early drop off and an opportunity to have fun while improving skills," he said.

Youngsters can be dropped off at 8:30 a.m. The program will run in each of the two weeks Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and on Friday 9 a.m. to noon, he said.

The cost to attend one week is $140 a child or $250 for a child who attends both weeks, he said.

"Space is limited, please sign up early," Leclerc said.

Registration will continue until the capacity of 65 youngsters for each week is reached, he said.

For more information and to register online, visit the Parks & Recreation Department webpage at holyoke.org or email Leclerc at leclercp@holyoke.org

Register online, download the necessary forms at the website and return them along with payment to Holyoke Parks & Recreation, 536 Dwight St. Holyoke, MA 01040, he said.

For information call (413) 322-5620.

Posthumous Purple Heart awarded to Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, Springfield native killed in Chattanooga terrorist attacks

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Sullivan's family traveled to Chattanooga to receive the medal, one of the U.S. military's highest honors.

SPRINGFIELD — Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan, a Springfield native who was among five U.S. military personnel killed in last summer's terrorist attacks in Tennessee, has been awarded the Purple Heart posthumously.

Sullivan's brother, Joseph Sullivan of Hampden, said his family is "delighted and honored" that the fallen Marine has been awarded one of the military's highest honors. The Purple Heart is given to those wounded or killed while serving with the U.S. military.

Joseph Sullivan joined his parents, Jerry and Betty Sullivan, also of Hampden, and his sister, Dianne Sullivan-Caron, of Wilbraham, at a medal ceremony Wednesday at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee. "Tommy," as family and friends called him, was among four Marines who died in a July 16, 2015, terrorist attack at a U.S. Navy Reserve center in Chattanooga. A Navy sailor died of his shooting injuries two days later.

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire at two Chattanooga military installations that day. He first committed a drive-by shooting at a recruiting center, then traveled to the Navy Reserve center, where Sullivan and the other military personnel were shot. Abdulazeez died in a gunfight with police at the center.

The attack initially was not categorized as an act of terrorism. In December 2015, however, FBI director James B. Comey announced that the shootings were "motivated by foreign terrorist organization propaganda," making the Marines and sailor eligible for the Purple Heart.

The posthumous medal was Tommy Sullivan's third Purple Heart. He received two other medals for being wounded in action during tours of Iraq

The other Marines who received posthumous Purple Heart medals on Wednesday were Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, Sgt. Carson Holmquist and Lance Cpl. Squire "Skip" Wells. The medals were presented to surviving family members by Lt. Gen. Rex McMillian, head of Marine Corps Forces Reserve, the Military Times reports.

"Our brothers were taken from us; your sons, your husbands, your fathers, your brothers were taken from us," McMillian said. "But what cannot, and will not ever be taken from us, is the incredible impressions they made on each and every one of us," the Times reports.

Earlier this year, Purple Hearts were presented to the family of Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith, the sailor killed in the attack, and to Marine Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley, who was wounded in the drive-by shooting at the recruiting center. Dennis Pedigo Jr., a sergeant with the Chattanooga Police Department, also was shot in injured in that attack.

Tommy Sullivan, 40, was raised in Springfield's East Forest Park neighborhood. When his body was returned to Western Massachusetts for burial, thousands of people lined the streets of Springfield to watch the motorcade that escorted the hearse carrying his casket.


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Springfield house fire displaces 2

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A house fire in Springfield's Old Hill neighborhood has displaced two people.

SPRINGFIELD — A house fire at 89 Alden St. in Springfield's Old Hill neighborhood has left two people without a place to live.

Three of Springfield's fire engines responded to reports of the fire early Wednesday afternoon.

The blaze appears to have erupted after a scooter's lithium batteries overheated and caught the structure's living room on fire, said Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis Leger. One of the residents claims to have seen the scooter burst into flames, said Leger.

The fire caused an estimated $50,000 in damages, in addition to displacing both residents of the house.

 

Holyoke Kool Smiles dental offers free service day for uninsured children

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The Holyoke office of Kool Smiles at 217 South St. will offer free dental care to uninsured Holyoke children May 15 on a first-come, first-served basis with treatment to be determined by the dentist,

HOLYOKE -- The Kool Smiles office at 217 South St. will offer free dental care to uninsured Holyoke children up to age 18 on May 15 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

"We want to put a smile back on the faces of these children by getting them the dental care they need, but which their families cannot afford, during our day of free dental care," Dr. Polly Boehnlein, managing dental director at Kool Smiles, said in a press release Tuesday.

Treatment that will be available during the "Sharing Smiles Day" will include exams, limited emergency care, extractions, fillings and baby tooth root canals and crowns, the press release said.

Treatments will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis, and treatment will be determined by the dentist, the press release said.

In an effort to serve Holyoke children who are in the greatest need, eligibility will be limited to those without dental insurance. The Kool Smiles website -- mykoolsmiles.com/sharingsmiles-- provides more information on the Sharing Smiles free care day, including where children can find a nearby participating office, the press release said.

"While dentists and their teams at Kool Smiles are proud to provide quality, affordable dental care to families with various forms of insurance, including Medicaid, we also recognize there are many children in our community who have no dental insurance, and whose families cannot afford regular trips to the dentist due to lack of dental coverage," Boehnlein said in the press release.

Dental decay can lead to pain, difficulty eating and chewing and serious infections that if left untreated can be life-threatening, the press release said.

"Children who do not have regular access to a dentist often have advanced dental decay and their treatment needs are significant," Boehnlein said.

For information call (413) 532.3931.

Massachusetts Weather: Frost in the forecast for Thursday morning

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Freezing temperatures are back in the forecast tonight.

SPRINGFIELD -- Freezing temperatures are back in the forecast tonight. 

The National Weather Service reports areas of frost are possible in parts of Massachusetts early Thursday morning.

Frost is expected in the Pioneer Valley between 3 and 7 a.m. on Thursday. Temperatures are expected to drop overnight to just below freezing in the low-30s in Springfield.

It will be around 10 degrees higher in Eastern and Central Massachusetts overnight with frost not expected. 

Temperatures will jump more than 40 degrees by Thursday afternoon. The high will be in the mid-70s Thursday afternoon from Springfield to Boston and sunny.


US stocks end modestly higher as oil price recovers

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When oil prices rise they tend to favor battered energy stocks and financial companies such as banks, which have been in the doldrums due to investor concerns that loans to struggling oil companies could go bad.

ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

Financial and energy companies led a modest increase in U.S. stocks Wednesday, giving the stock market its third gain in a row.

The market got a boost from a pickup in the price of oil, which climbed about 4 percent after an early slide. When oil prices rise they tend to favor battered energy stocks and financial companies such as banks, which have been in the doldrums due to investor concerns that loans to struggling oil companies could go bad.

After several weeks of moving in different directions, the stock market appears to be getting more closely tied to the fluctuations in oil prices.

"Oil is what's been driving the market lately," said Chris Gaffney, president of EverBank World Markets.

Utilities and consumer staples stocks were among the biggest decliners.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 42.67 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,096.27. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 1.60 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,102.40. The Nasdaq composite index gained 7.80 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,948.13.

The Dow is now up almost 4 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 is up about 3 percent. The Nasdaq narrowed its loss to 1.2 percent.

Trading got off to a flat start, with the major stock indexes moving sideways. They perked up by midmorning, as oil prices turned higher, but the rally lost some steam by the end of the day.

U.S. crude rose $1.55, or 3.8 percent, to close at $42.63 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed $1.77, or 4 percent, at $45.80 a barrel in London. Heating oil jumped 5.5 percent after adding 7 cents to close at $1.33 a gallon.

That helped lift shares in several energy companies. Chesapeake Energy gained 30 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $6.42, while Williams Cos. rose 82 cents, or 4.6 percent, at $18.83.

The market got some encouraging data on housing, with the National Association of Realtors reporting that sales of previously occupied U.S. homes bounced back in March after a February slump as the spring home-selling season kicked off.

Investors also had their eye on the latest batch of company earnings.

Corporate profits for companies in the S&P 500 are expected to be down 8.1 percent, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Even excluding energy companies, which have been hammered by falling oil prices, earnings growth for the S&P 500 companies is projected to be down 3.3 percent.

Even so, while only about 15 percent of companies having reported results at this point, many have turned in better-than-expected results.

"So far, we're actually seeing companies surprising to the upside," said Jason Pride, director of investment strategy at Glenmede.

Discover Financial Services led all the gainers in the S&P 500 after the credit card issuer and lender reported better-than-anticipated quarterly profit and sales as loan volume improved. The stock climbed $4.29, or 8.2 percent, to $56.84.

VMWare also delivered strong results, which vaulted the cloud-computing company $7.07, or nearly 14 percent, to $58.53.

Some companies failed to turn in encouraging results.

Coca-Cola slid 4.8 percent after the world's biggest beverage maker reported a lower profit for the first quarter. The company was squeezed by a strong dollar and charges related to the transformation of its North American operations. Coca-Cola was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500. It lost $2.23 to $44.37.

Beyond earnings, investors welcomed news that printer maker Lexmark International agreed to be bought by a group that includes Apex Technology and PAG Asia Capital for about $2.51 billion. The stock climbed $3.24, or 9.3 percent, to $37.90.

Stock markets in Europe also closed higher.

Germany's DAX rose 0.7 percent, while the CAC-40 of France gained 0.6 percent. The FTSE 100 of leading British shares added 0.1 percent. Earlier in Asia, most markets closed lower. South Korea's Kospi fell 0.3 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.9 percent. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.2 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.5 percent.

In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose about 3 cents, or 1.8 percent, to close at $1.51 a gallon. Natural gas fell 2 cents to close at $2.069 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Precious and industrial metals futures inched higher. Gold rose 10 cents to $1,254.40 an ounce, silver gained 16 cents, or 1 percent, to $17.14 an ounce and copper rose 1.5 cents to $2.24 a pound.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.85 from 1.78 late Tuesday. In currency markets, the euro fell to $1.1302 from $1.1377, while the dollar rose to 109.80 yen from 109.13.

Markey, McGovern applaud Kinder Morgan's decision not to build pipeline

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Kinder Morgan on Wednesday said it will not build its proposed 420-mile Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to New England.

Two members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation on Wednesday responded to breaking news that Kinder Morgan had unexpectedly abandoned plans to build a 420-mile natural gas pipeline, a proposal that faced intense opposition in the western part of the state.

"Today is a big victory for Western Massachusetts and our state's future as a leader in clean and renewable energy," said Congressman Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, a longtime foe of the project. "With the defeat of this pipeline, it is clear that the voices of Western Massachusetts families have been heard. I am so proud of the incredible activism led by my constituents."

"The safety and health of our communities must be our first priority," McGovern continued. "With so many concerns raised about how the pipeline could impact local drinking water, our farmers and the crops they grow, and ongoing conservation efforts, I believe it is the right decision to halt development of the pipeline. People must always come before profits, and today the people won."

McGovern said Massachusetts has a "proud tradition as a leader in clean energy, and we must continue to build on that by investing in solar, wind and other renewable energies. Making these investments will help to reduce energy costs, combat climate change, and support the good-paying jobs that will power the 21st century economy and build strong, sustainable communities that will thrive for decades to come."

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey said his opposition to the pipeline is based upon concerns that it could have led to the export of American natural gas to foreign countries. Markey also cited the impact on local communities and the pipeline's potential to worsen climate change.

"Using New England as a throughway to export U.S. gas to overseas markets might be good for the bottom lines of pipeline companies, but it could raise prices and be a disaster for consumers and businesses in our region," Markey said.

Markey added that Massachusetts companies should repair and replace aging and leaking natural gas distribution pipeline infrastructure. "Repairing these aging, leaking natural gas pipelines is a win for safety, a win for job creation, a win for consumers who have to pay for this lost gas, and a win for the climate."

The Democratic senator said he will "continue to vigorously oppose any pipeline proposals that would serve to export natural gas out of our region to overseas nations at the expense of Massachusetts consumers."

Kinder Morgan announced on Wednesday that the $5 billion to $8 billion project, called Northeast Energy Direct, would be shelved. The company cited inadequate commitments for capacity on the line, which would have carried 1.2 billion cubic feet daily of Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania through New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Despite two years of effort, long-term contracts for service on Northeast Energy Direct had remained stalled at about half the pipeline's capacity, with commitments from a half-dozen local gas distribution companies. In Massachusetts, the gas distribution companies seeking pipeline capacity were Berkshire Gas, Columbia Gas and National Grid.

Kinder Morgan also cited regulatory structures that impede pipeline companies from lining up customers in the power sector. The state's Department of Public Utilities in October approved a mechanism whereby electrical utilities could buy natural gas pipeline capacity, sell that capacity to power generators, and pass the cost along to electrical ratepayers. The ruling was appealed and is scheduled to be heard before the state's highest court May 5.

Ecuador earthquake: Death toll at 553 and rising as aftershock rattles coast

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A magnitude-6.1 aftershock Wednesday set babies crying and sent nervous residents pouring into the streets, fearful of yet more damage following the deadly earthquake over the weekend.

MANTA, Ecuador -- A magnitude-6.1 aftershock Wednesday set babies crying and sent nervous residents pouring into the streets, fearful of yet more damage following the deadly earthquake over the weekend.

The pre-dawn jolt was the strongest aftershock yet since Saturday's magnitude-7.8 quake that killed more than 500 people. Some people in Portoviejo abandoned their homes, even those with no apparent damage, and headed to a former airport where temporary shelters have been set up.

The government said the number of known dead stood at 553, but officials expected more bodies to be found. About 7,000 were injured. At least 11 foreigners were among the dead, including two Canadians and three Cuban doctors who had been on a medical mission to Ecuador.

The final toll could surpass casualties from earthquakes in Chile and Peru in the past decade.

Among the survivors, the situation was growing increasingly tense. While humanitarian aid has been pouring in from around the world, distribution is slow. In Manta on Wednesday, people waited for hours under the tropical sun for water and food supplies. Soldiers kept control with fenced barricades.

"They looted the store. I'm taking out what little remains," Jose Encalada said as he cleaned up his paint store in Pedernales, one of the hardest-hit towns.

Reflecting some of the desperation, residents in Manta could be seen scavenging through the rubble, no longer looking for loved ones but trying to salvage metallic objects and other items of value.

Grief mounted as families buried loved ones, but people held out hope of finding some of 163 people the government said were still missing. Since Saturday, 54 people have been rescued from rubble alive.

Rescuers who have arrived from Mexico, Colombia, Spain and other nations said they would keep searching for survivors, but cautioned that time was running out and the likelihood of finding more people alive grew smaller with the passage of every hour.

As authorities begin to shift their attention to restoring electricity and clearing debris, the earth continued to move. Local seismologists have recorded more than 550 aftershocks, some felt 105 miles (170 kilometers) away in the capital of Quito.

Saturday's earthquake destroyed or damaged about 1,500 buildings and left some 23,500 people homeless, the government said. It was the worst temblor in Ecuador since one in 1949 killed more than 5,000 people.

A helicopter flyover of the damage zone Wednesday showed the scale of the devastation, with entire city blocks in ruins as if they had been bombed.

Some 13 nations and 32,000 volunteers are involved in the relief effort. Cuba sent more health workers. Venezuela has flown in food and the U.S. government said it would send a team of disaster experts as well $100,000 in assistance.

President Rafael Correa has spent the past days overseeing relief efforts and delivering supplies. On Wednesday, he said he would soon announce economic measures to help rebuild. The quake caused $3 billion in damage, about 3 percent of gross domestic product, he said.

"This isn't a problem of just three days, three weeks or three months," Correa said. "It's a problem that will take years."

After a deadly earthquake in Chile in 2010, that South American country was able to get back on its feet quickly thanks to a commodities boom that was energizing its economy. But Ecuador must rebuild amid a deep recession that has forced austerity on the OPEC nation's finances. Even before the quake, the International Monetary Fund was forecasting the oil-dependent economy would shrink 4.5 percent this year.

IRS confirms investigation involving Pecoy Homes of West Springfield

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"For now, we can't comment on the investigation, only to say our agents were at the site on official business," Amy L. Hosney, a public information officer and special agent with the IRS Criminal Investigation unit in Boston, said in an email to The Republican.

Updates story published at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 20.



WEST SPRINGFIELD — The Internal Revenue Service has confirmed an investigation involving Pecoy Homes, a West Springfield business and one of the region's best-known upscale building firms, but a spokeswoman for the federal agency declined to say more.

"For now, we can't comment on the investigation, only to say our agents were at the site on official business," Amy L. Hosney, a special agent and public information officer with the IRS Criminal Investigation unit in Boston, said in an email to The Republican.

Attorney Stephen Spelman, who did not immediately return a phone message from The Republican, issued the following statement to 22News:

"The company fully cooperated with the agency's search for documents. We have no details regarding the reason for the government's investigation, and we are not currently aware of any misconduct or wrongdoing on the part of any company employees."

Kent Pecoy, the owner and president of the company, did not return a phone message left at his West Springfield office Wednesday. Pecoy started the family business almost 30 years ago. The company is known for its elegant, high-end homes and has been featured on TV programs such as "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."


Mass. Sen. President Rosenberg to Berkshire Gas: Pipeline is dead; lift the moratorium

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Berkshire's parent company said Wednesday the moratorium would stay in place until a 'permanent solution' can be found.

Massachusetts Senate President Stanley Rosenberg on Wednesday called upon Berkshire Gas to lift its moratorium on new and expanded natural gas service in the region -- but a spokesman for Berkshire's parent company, the publicly-traded Avangrid, told The Republican that the moratorium on new hookups would stay in place without a "permanent solution" for additional natural gas capacity in western Massachusetts.

Rosenberg's strongly-worded message to Berkshire Gas came only hours after a blockbuster announcement by the Texas-based Kinder Morgan that it would abandon plans to build its controversial 420-mile Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline through Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

Berkshire Gas had hoped to purchase capacity on the line. Berkshire's parent company, Avangrid, had also signed on as an investor in the $5-8 billion Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Berkshire more than a year ago imposed a moratorium on new service in its Eastern Division, comprising Greenfield, Deerfield, Montague, Whately, Sunderland, Hatfield, Hadley, and Amherst. Berkshire said in newspaper advertisements and on customer bills that the moratorium would stay in place until the pipeline was built.

"For many months now, I've been pressing Berkshire Gas to articulate what their 'Plan B' would be to lift the moratorium and serve the customers of Western Mass at their earliest possible convenience if the pipeline were not built," Rosenberg said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the only solution they recognized was the proposed NED pipeline. I now urgently call on Berkshire Gas to implement industry-standard practices to lift the moratorium which constrains economic development in the region. Those alternatives include increasing use and storage of liquid natural gas, compressed natural gas, or propane, as well as reducing existing leaks, in order to lift the moratorium immediately."

Last August Rosenberg called the moratorium "deeply troubling."

Avangrid spokesman Michael West said in a telephone interview that the moratorium will stay in place, and that there is no "Plan B."

"The moratorium will continue for the Eastern Division," said West. "The capacity constraints still exist. Northeast Energy Direct was the permanent solution that would have relieved those capacity constraints."

West said Berkshire was "disappointed to hear that Kinder Morgan did not see a path forward" and that Berkshire "shares Senator Rosenberg's concerns about getting gas to customers."

"Hopefully we can come to some common ground and find a permanent solution that will allow us to serve our customers and lift the moratorium," said West.

When asked about testimony from an expert witness for the town of Montague who told state utility regulators that Berkshire Gas could relieve its capacity constraints in large part by increasing its storage of liquefied natural gas at a facility in Whately, West dismissed the idea.

"That's not a permanent solution," he said.

State Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, a longtime pipeline foe, also on Wednesday called for Berkshire to immediately lift its moratorium.

"It's time for Berkshire Gas to do the right thing and end its moratorium," said Kulik, reached by telephone. "Berkshire has spent tens of thousands on advertisements saying they won't provide new hookups unless the pipeline is built. But their parent company has an ownership stake in the pipeline."

Kulik said it's time for Berkshire "to increase its storage of liquefied natural gas, fix the leaks in its distribution lines, and improve its delivery systems."

Rosenberg added that Kinder Morgan's decision to suspend the Northeast Energy Direct project is a "game changer."

"This allows us to have a broader discussion about how to meet Massachusetts' energy needs," said Rosenberg. "Our discussions moving forward must focus on a comprehensive approach to reducing energy costs for all, while meeting our increasing renewable energy needs and continuing to protect our priceless public spaces."

Mary Serreze can be reached at mserreze@gmail.com

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