Medical helicopters were called to a rollover accident on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Framingham Sunday afternoon after several people were hurt in the single-vehicle accident.

UPDATE: Massachusetts State Police said the crash occurred in Natick

FRAMINGHAM -- Medical helicopters were called to a rollover accident on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Framingham Sunday afternoon after several people were hurt in the single-vehicle accident.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said the accident occurred on the eastbound side of the highway near exit 13 in Framingham.

Mass Pike #traffic advisory @MassDOT says eastbound lanes temporarily closed due to crash in Framingham near exit 13 - Med Flight on scene -

-- Jacquelyn Goddard (@JacqueGoddard) August 28, 2016

Eastbound traffic was delayed while medical helicopters landed on the highway. Two victims were flown from the crash scene, according to the State Police

All eastbound lane traffic was reopened around 2 p.m. Authorities have not released any more details about the crash as of 2:30 p.m.

All EB lanes on Pike just reopened. Residual traffic backup both directions. Several people transported to hospitals.

-- Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) August 28, 2016

Rescue workers were hiking up the T Bagg trail to reach the hiker.

An update to this story was posted at 4:55 p.m.

HOLYOKE - Rescue workers are currently at the Mount Tom State Reservation trying to assist an injured hiker.

Holyoke Police and Fire officials were called to the park at about 1:30 p.m., Sunday, to help the hiker. Details about how badly the person was injured are not available yet.

Firefighters hiked up the T Bagg trail and have reached the hiker. They are now working to help the injured person out of the woods, officials said.

Rangers in the State Park are also assisting and AMR ambulance has responded.

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

Some people are reporting their commute will become higher with the new tolling system.

This week the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced new rates that will go effect when toll booths are removed on the Massachusetts Turnpike and replaced with an all-electronic tolling system.

The change is scheduled to take place on Oct. 28. People with a transponder will pay less. For those without a transponder, cameras will take photographs of license plates of those without transponders and mail bills to those motorists.

For some the tolls will be less, but others are reporting increases that will total hundreds of dollars when calculated over a year's time.

There are a few so-called "free ride" zones, including on between Exits 4 and 7 in Western Massachusetts.

Here are some of the things people were Tweeting about the new tolls:

A man who authorities said rode his bicycle through the train gates at an intersection in Somerville was struck and killed by a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail train Sunday afternoon.

SOMERVILLE -- A man who authorities said rode his bicycle through the train gates at an intersection in Somerville was struck and killed by a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail train Sunday afternoon.

The MBTA Transit Police said transit officers along with Somerville Fire and EMS were called to the area of Park Street around 1:30 p.m. after the train struck the man. Authorities have not released the name of the victim. He was described as a man in his mid-20s to early 30s.

MBTA Police said the bicyclist when through the fully functioning gates, which were in a down position for an approaching Fitchburg line train. The man rode his bicycle across the train tracks and was struck by the train.

The man was pronounced dead after he was struck.

MBTA Transit Police and the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office are investigating the death.

Photos: Lake Street Dive's Amourasaurus II Run For Love in Northampton's Look Park on Sunday, Aug.

NORTHAMPTON - The band Lake Street Dive's first Amourasaurus II 5K Run For Love to benefit Oxfam America was held Sunday, Aug. 28.

86 runners signed up for the event held in Northampton's beautiful Look Park.
The 5K run through the park was part of the two-day music festival which the band is headlining at the Pines Theater.

Eric Ciocca of Northampton won the race and Emma York of Concord, NH was the first woman finisher.

Check out the photographs from the race or Lake Street Dive's webpage.

The woman was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield after she was rescued.

This updates a story posted at 2:38 p.m.

HOLYOKE - A woman who fell and was impaled by a stick had to be rescued Sunday off a hiking trail at Mount Tom State Reservation.

The hiker suffered a puncture wound to her thigh. After being rescued, she was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield by ambulance for treatment, Fire Capt. Anthony Cerruti said.

Firefighters initially received the call at about 1:15 p.m. It took a crew of three firefighters, one Holyoke Police officer and two Mount Tom Reservation employees about two hours to hike to the woman and carry her out on a basket designed for emergency rescues, Cerruti said.

"It is a tough trail. There are a lot of loose rocks and she was close to the top," he said.

The woman was on the T Bagg trail. Firefighters initially started hiking up the trail from the bottom, but then were told in error she was being lead down the trail so they turned around. They then had to turn around again when rescue workers realized the woman could not walk, he said.

At the same time ambulance workers were able to drive up an abandoned road to get closer to the victim. After being treated and placed in the basket, she was carried up the trail to the waiting ambulance, he said.

The female passenger was able to escape the car although she suffered a broken leg.

WEATHERSFIELD, VT - A 79-year-old man died and his passenger broke her leg in a fiery crash on Interstate-91 Sunday morning.

Alexander Romanow, of Brick, New Jersey, was killed in the crash that happened at about 9:33 a.m. His passenger, Jane Romanow, was able to escape the vehicle despite suffering a broken leg, said.

Romanow was driving north in a 2006 Chevrolet Tahoe when his vehicle veered into the median, struck several trees and caught fire, police said.

"(Romanow) was trapped in the driver's seat and could not get out," police said.

Several other motorists stopped and tried to help Romanow, but the fire was too large and they could not rescue him. He was reported dead at the scene, police said.

Jane Romanow, also of Brick, New Jersey, was taken to Valley Regional Hospital in New Hampshire by ambulance and then transported to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Brattleboro, Vermont, police said.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation by Vermont State Police, but initial evidence shows the operator fell asleep while driving. Both people were wearing seatbelts, police said.

The passing lane of the highway was closed for six hours during the rescue and investigation, police said.

Agencies responding to the scene included Weathersfield Police, West Weathersfield Fire Department, Ascutney Fire Department, Thetford Fire Department and the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

GoTopless Day is celebrated annually on the Sunday closest to Women's Equality Day, marking the day American women earned the right to vote.

HAMPTON, N.H. -- Women around the country are taking off their tops on GoTopless Day, a day that promotes gender equality and women's rights to bare their breasts in public.

GoTopless Day is celebrated annually on the Sunday closest to Women's Equality Day, marking the day American women earned the right to vote.

A group of about 50 women and men were walking topless in the oceanside Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice, behind a giant, inflatable pink breast that had the phrase "equal topless rights" written on it. One marcher carried a sign that said: "My Body Is Not A Crime."

People across the country are recognizing #GoToplessDay to call for equal rights for women. https://t.co/powHbpsjXY pic.twitter.com/GQnz9zfwG0

-- abc13 Houston (@abc13houston) August 28, 2016

The events in New York City and Los Angeles were two of several planned for cities across the globe. Gatherings were planned in New Hampshire, Denver and more.

#GoToplessDay: Hundreds protest for women's equality in #Denver: https://t.co/AUA0WQdBCW via @oscarcontrarius pic.twitter.com/yxzMM1GP2d

-- Denver7 News (@DenverChannel) August 28, 2016

"This push for women to go topless in the 21st century is as strong as women wanting to vote in the 20th century," she said. "It may be sensual, but it's not illegal to be sensual."

The legality of women going topless varies by state.

Kia Sinclair is an event organizer for GoTopless Day at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire.

"It's in hopes to show people that it can be normal, that it's really not a big deal and it's not about getting attention or protesting," she said.

Sinclair was also part of a group of women who last year helped beat back an effort to criminalize toplessness in the state.

Dozens marched for gender equality in NYC for #GoToplessDay https://t.co/TbMHzSLcSp

-- WJZ | CBS Baltimore (@cbsbaltimore) August 28, 2016

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Defiant, and determined to be a conduit for U.S. change, Colin Kaepernick plans to sit through the national anthem for as long as he feels is appropriate and until he sees significant progress in America — specifically when it comes to race relations. He knows he could be cut by San Francisco for this...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Defiant, and determined to be a conduit for U.S. change, Colin Kaepernick plans to sit through the national anthem for as long as he feels is appropriate and until he sees significant progress in America -- specifically when it comes to race relations.

He knows he could be cut by San Francisco for this stand. Criticized, ostracized, and he'll go it all alone if need be.

The quarterback realizes he might be treated poorly in some road cities, and he's ready for that, too, saying he's not overly concerned about his safety, but "if something happens that's only proving my point."

"I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed," Kaepernick said Sunday at his locker. "To me this is something that has to change. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand."

Two days after he refused to stand for the "The Star Spangled Banner" before the 49ers' preseason loss to the Packers, Kaepernick insists whatever the consequences, he will know "I did what's right." He said he hasn't heard from the NFL or anyone else about his actions -- and it won't matter if he does.

"No one's tried to quiet me and, to be honest, it's not something I'm going to be quiet about," he said. "I'm going to speak the truth when I'm asked about it. This isn't for look. This isn't for publicity or anything like that. This is for people that don't have the voice. And this is for people that are being oppressed and need to have equal opportunities to be successful. To provide for families and not live in poor circumstances."

Letting his hair go au natural and sprinting between drills as usual, Kaepernick took the field Sunday with the 49ers as his stance drew chatter across NFL camps.

He explained his viewpoints to teammates in the morning, some agreeing with his message but not necessarily his method. Some said they know he has offended his countrymen, others didn't even know what he had done.

"Every guy on this team is entitled to their opinion. We're all grown men," linebacker NaVorro Bowman said.

"I agree with what he did, but not in the way he did it," wideout Torrey Smith said. "That's not for me. He has that right. Soldiers have died for his right to do exactly what he did. ... I know he's taken a lot of heat for it. He understands that when you do something like that it does offend a lot of people."

Both Bowman and Smith are African American.

Kaepernick criticized presidential candidates Donald Trump ("openly racist") and Hillary Clinton;" called out police brutality against minorities; and pushed for accountability of public officials.

"You can become a cop in six months and don't have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist," Kaepernick said. "That's insane. Someone that's holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us."

In college at Nevada, Kaepernick said, police were called one day "because we were the only black people in that neighborhood." Officers entered without knocking and drew guns on him and his teammates and roommates as they were moving their belongings, he said.

He said his stand is not against men and women in the military fighting and losing their lives for Americans' rights and freedoms.

Kaepernick, whose hair had been in cornrows during training camp, sat on the bench during Friday's national anthem at Levi's Stadium. Giants wideout Victor Cruz and Bills coach Rex Ryan said standing for the anthem shows respect.

"There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality," said Kaepernick, whose adoptive parents are Caucasian. "There's people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That's not right. That's not right by anyone's standards."

On Sunday, he stopped briefly on a side field to talk with Dr. Harry Edwards and they shared a quick embrace before the quarterback grabbed his helmet and took the field. Edwards is a sociologist and African-American activist who helped plan the "Olympic Project for Human Rights" before the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where U.S. sprinters and medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowed their heads through the anthem on the medal podium in their black power protest.

After swirling trade talks all offseason following Kaepernick's three surgeries and sub-par 2015 season, he has done everything so far but play good football -- and he doesn't plan for this to be a distraction.

Coach Chip Kelly did not speak to the media Sunday. He said Saturday he still hasn't decided on his starting quarterback in a competition between Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert, who took over the job from Kaepernick last November and has vowed to be the No. 1 again.

Kaepernick hasn't stood for the anthem in any of the team's three preseason games "and I don't see it as going about it the wrong way."

"That's his right as a citizen," Kelly said. "We recognize his right as an individual to choose to participate or not participate in the national anthem."

Now, Kaepernick is prepared for whatever comes next.

"I think there's a lot of consequences that come along with this. There's a lot of people that don't want to have this conversation," he said. "They're scared they might lose their job. Or they might not get the endorsements. They might not to be treated the same way. Those are things I'm prepared to handle. ...

"At this point, I've been blessed to be able to get this far and have the privilege of being able to be in the NFL, making the kind of money I make and enjoy luxuries like that. I can't look in the mirror and see people dying on the street that should have the same opportunities that I've had."

Police said Rebecca Griffin, of Fitchburg, visited her ex-husband from time to time to help him with errands. The couple divorced around 1990.

ASHBY - Police have identified the victims in Friday's murder-suicide as a formerly married couple who divorced more than 25 years ago.

John Griffin, 55, killed Rebecca Griffin, 51, at his home on Watatic Mountain Road at around 1:40 p.m. on Friday. Their bodies were found on the front lawn.

Police said Rebecca Griffin, of Fitchburg, visited her ex-husband from time to time to help him with errands. The couple divorced around 1990.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that both died from multiple knife wounds.

"This is a senseless and tragic crime," said Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan. "Rebecca Griffin would come to her ex-husband's home to assist him ... and sadly, she lost her life in the interest of helping him."

Police Chief Fred Alden described Ashby as "a small, quiet town where incidents like these are not common."

Massachusetts State Police assigned to Ryan's office and the Ashby Police Department are investigating.

The suspect is described as a thin white male, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a tattoo on his neck. The public is asked to stay from him and call police if he's spotted.

FITCHBURG - Police are looking for the man who robbed the CVS Pharmacy at Parkhill Plaza on Sunday afternoon.

The suspect is described as a thin white male, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a tattoo on his neck. The public is advised to stay away from him and call police if he's spotted.

Details of the 12:30 p.m. robbery were not immediately available, but police said the suspect was armed.

Police released a surveillance camera photo of the suspect and a vehicle that may be involved. The car is likely missing its front driver's side hub cap.

Anyone with information that could help police is asked to call 978-345-4355.

The 2nd annual Westfield Food Fest featured three exciting days of free entertainment and featured Food Trucks and local restaurants from the area.

WESTFIELD - The 2nd annual Westfield Food Fest featured three exciting days of free entertainment and featured Food Trucks and local restaurants from the area.

Some of the participating food trucks included Ed & Angies, Sun Kim Bop Korean, Silver Spoon Gourmet, Bistro Bus, Moolicious Ice Cream and Farm, Angelo's Fried Dough, Buster's, Moe's Donuts and Ed's Fries, other participants included Pasquale's, Janik's Pierogis, The Pahk, and Ebenezer's.

Several non-profit organizations were set up to introduce their services and answer questions. The Westfield Rotary Club capped off the three-day Westfield Food Fest with live musical performances from the Black Coffee Quartet, Harry Rock, Standing Bear, Neal Liptak, Mike Freedman and Tyler Strotzel, Alex Touhey, and Adam Buynicki.

Major sponsors included, Platinum category, Westfield Bank; Gold category, Forish Construction, and Elm Electrical Inc.; Silver category, Westfield Gas & Electric, Sarat Ford / Lincoln, Commercial Distributing, Jerome's Party Plus, Mestek Inc., John S. Lane & Sons, and Kirby Productions. Support was provided by The City of Westfield, Westfield Police Department, Westfield Department of Public Works, and WSKB-FM radio.

The event was staged on Elm Street between Franklin Street and Main Street. For more information on the Westfield Rotary, log into their website at www.westfieldrotary.org.

A Fieldston Street resident and his four dogs were driven from their home by fire early Monday morning. The homeowner was taken to the Baystate Medical center as a precaution.

SPRINGFIELD— A Fieldston street man and his four small dogs were driven from their home by fire early Monday morning.

Dennis Leger, executive aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, said the fire appeared to have started in the front room of the single-story, ranch-styled home at 49 Fieldston St. He said most of the home was filled with specialized machinery.

Firefighters were called to the home at 3:42 a.m. and were able to knock the flames down quickly. Firefighters rescued four tiny Pug dogs from the home.

Leger said the Springfield Arson and Bomb Squad investigator is looking into the exact cause of the blaze. The value of the specialized equipment in the house that has been damaged by the blaze will drive much of the damage costs for the fire, he said.

The homeowner was taken to the Baystate Medical Center as a precaution due to preexisting medical conditions.

Dennis Leger, Springfield Fire department 

Berkshire's moratorium on new and expanded service will be put under the microscope.

GREENFIELD -- State Senate President Stan Rosenberg is among those who plan to testify at a Western Massachusetts hearing Tuesday regarding Berkshire Gas Co. and its ongoing service moratorium.

Other lawmakers expected to speak include Reps. Steve Kulik (D-Worthington) and Paul Mark (D-Peru). A host of local officials, environmental advocates, and business leaders also plan to testify.

Representatives from the state's Department of Public Utilities will travel from Boston to hear testimony at the Greenfield Middle School starting at 7 p.m.

Rosenberg, Kulik and Mark together represent the eight communities in Berkshire's Eastern Division. Berkshire in 2015 placed a moratorium on new natural gas service in Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield and Sunderland, following a 2014 moratorium in Deerfield, Greenfield, Montague and Whately.

Berkshire at the time said the moratorium on new and expanded service would stay until Kinder Morgan's Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline was built. However, Kinder Morgan formally withdrew plans for the 420-mile line in May.

Berkshire had sought a 20-year contract for capacity on the proposed line, a move opposed by Attorney General Maura Healey, who said the company had overstated its projected demand and failed to consider alternatives to new interstate pipeline infrastructure.

"The hearing will help ensure that all viable solutions are being examined to lift the moratorium to better serve area consumers," said Rosenberg's office.

Technically, the hearing will will review Berkshire's long-range forecast and supply plan, a five-year projection that natural gas distribution companies must submit to state regulators every two years.

The 245-page plan outlines eight possible options for supplying Berkshire's Pioneer Valley customers through 2020, one of which is a "no build" scenario that assumes continuance of the moratorium.

Other options include expanding pipeline service to the region, expanding a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility in Whately, building a new LNG facility elsewhere, installing more "propane air facilities," displacing some service to another shipper, and enhanced load management and energy efficiency. The options all assume some sort of expansion of Berkshire's distribution infrastructure.

Berkshire Gas is expected to submit testimony, as are various residents, local officials and business leaders. Berkshire is now part of the publicly-traded Avangrid.

The Western Massachusetts delegation had pushed for the Greenfield hearing, saying the Berkshire Gas moratorium has affected economic development and is a matter of great interest in the region.

The public is invited to attend the hearing.

If you go:

What: DPU Public Hearing on Berkshire Gas Supply Plan
When: Tuesday, Aug. 30, 7 p.m.
Where: Greenfield Middle School, 195 Federal Street

The latest example came in Baltimore, where a critical report on that department's policies found that officers end up in unnecessarily violent confrontations with mentally disabled people who in many instances haven't even committed crimes.

WASHINGTON -- Justice Department lawyers investigating police agencies for claims of racial discrimination and excessive force are increasingly turning up a different problem: officers' interactions with the mentally ill.

The latest example came in Baltimore, where a critical report on that department's policies found that officers end up in unnecessarily violent confrontations with mentally disabled people who in many instances haven't even committed crimes. The report cited instances of officers using a stun gun to subdue an agitated man who refused to leave a vacant building and of spraying mace to force a troubled person -- said by his father to be unarmed and off his medications -- out of an apartment.

Though past federal investigations have addressed the problem, the Baltimore report went a step further: It was the first time the Justice Department has explicitly found that a police department's policies violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The finding is intended to chart a path to what federal officials hope will be far-reaching improvements, including better training for dispatchers and officers, diversion of more people to treatment rather than jail and stronger relationships with mental health specialists.

"Through the course of our work in the last several years on this bucket of issues, we've seen how important it is to get at the mental health issues as early in the system as possible," Vanita Gupta, head of the department's Civil Rights Division, said in an interview.

Civil rights officials say the Baltimore report builds on work they've done in investigating the treatment of the mentally ill in various settings. In Mississippi, the Hinds County Jail in June recently agreed to better screening for mental illness and to provide individualized treatment for those with serious disabilities, and the Justice Department sued the state as a whole this month, saying it was illegally making mentally ill people go into state-run psychiatric hospitals

But it's the work with police departments that often attracts the most attention. Even as police forces improve training and develop intervention teams to respond to individuals in the throes of a crisis, concerns remain that officers aren't adequately equipped for the situations and are being forced to fill the void of a resource-starved mental health infrastructure. More than 14 percent of male jail inmates and 31 percent of female inmates are affected by serious mental illness, according to a July speech by Justice Department official Eve Hill, who said society has for too long relied on arrests and jail rather than treatment for the mentally ill.

"From the standpoint of police, they are somewhat frustrated because many of the people who are walking the streets and who are in need of help are not getting it," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. "They have been out on the streets, they can't afford medication, and so the police wind up being the only one they come in contact with."

The Justice Department has incorporated treatment of the mentally ill into several of its wide-ranging civil rights investigations of troubled police departments.

"I think some police departments have really made it a priority and are doing quite a bit. I don't know that that's consistent across all the departments," said Amy Watson, a mental health policy professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

A 2011 Justice Department report on Seattle criticized officers for too quickly resorting to force when encountering people with mental illness or under the influence of drugs. In Cleveland, officers were found to use stun guns against people with limited cognitive abilities, and in one case used one on a suicidal deaf man who may not have understood their commands, according to a 2014 report. Albuquerque, New Mexico officers responding to a domestic violence complaint used the same tactic on a man who had doused himself with gasoline, the Justice Department said.

Those cities have since reached court-enforceable consent decrees aimed at overhauling practices.

The Portland police department, which also came under investigation, agreed to new training and accountability measures under a settlement. A federal monitor in February found the Seattle police department was sending trained crisis intervention officers to "crisis events in the great majority of instances" and had given some level of training to all officers in the last two years. A report this month from the Seattle police found that only 1.6 percent of crisis cases reported during the past year involved any reportable use of force.

Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, discusses the department's findings on the investigation into the Baltimore City Police Department as Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, left, and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, right, listens on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016 at City Hall in Baltimore.Brian Witte / AP 

But, Gupta said, improvements can occur only if there's a system with resources in place to help the police.

"It's not about casting blame on specific actors. It's about making sure that there is adequate support for community-based mental health services in compliance with federal law," she said.

Ray Kelly, co-director of the No Boundaries Coalition, a Baltimore advocacy group, said he didn't believe Baltimore police have succeeded in separating law-abiding citizens from criminal suspects, "so they definitely don't take the time to separate the mentally ill from the criminal element or the average Joe buying drugs on one of our corners."

He said he hoped the report would foster better collaboration between police and mental health experts, so that if there's a possibility that officers are dealing with someone who's disabled, they "would call a professional that's prepared to work with this instead of using aggressive manhandling tactics like they've used in the past."

Amherst Police responded to fights, noise, drunk people and investigated a break-in.

AMHERST -- On the weekend before most University of Massachusetts and other college students arrive back in town, Amherst police responded to nearly 200 calls including fights, disturbances, drunk people, noise, a break-in and larceny.

Early Sunday morning, police arrested Jennifer R. Puleio, 20, of Brooklyn, New York, on charges of disorderly conduct and assault after she allegedly tried to kick a police officer.

Police responded to a report of a male and female yelling at each other on Gray Street at 1:25 a.m. Police were trying to talk to each separately, and the woman was being uncooperative, according to a police report.

She allegedly tried to push free and attempted to kick the officer, according to the report.

Puleio was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown.

Tyngsborough 20-year-old arrested on drug, alcohol charges

Police arrested a 20-year-old Tyngsborough man on drug and alcohol charges Saturday night after they said they saw suspicious activity behind Ren's Mobil station.

An officer on patrol noticed the man near a fence behind the closed North Pleasant Street station after 11 p.m. and noticed a baggie with white powder near his backpack, according to a police report.

K-9 Dash was brought in and confirmed the narcotic's presence, according to the report.

Anthony Picca was charged with being a minor in possession of alcohol and possession of a class B substance, cocaine.

He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Eastern Hampshire District Court.

Theft of Oxycodone pills under investigation

Amherst police are investigating the theft of more than two dozen Oxycodone pills from a resident who reported the missing drugs Saturday afternoon after returning from being away for a day.

Nothing else was reportedly taken, according to the police report.

Sunderland man faces OUI, speeding charges

A 24-year-old Sunderland man is facing a multiple charges after he was stopped for speeding Saturday morning on Route 116 near Meadow Street, police said.

Police charged Jake A. Nolan with operating under the influence of alcohol and speeding after being stopped just after 2 a.m.

He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Eastern Hampshire District Court. 

Other weekend calls

• Police were investigating the reported larceny of five air conditioners allegedly purchased with a fraudulent credit card at the Big Y.  
• Someone reportedly pushed in a screen in a bedroom window at Pufton Village and stole a laptop and wallet while the resident was home. The resident heard the thief leaving and called police.
• Several reports came in about intoxicated people, including one about intoxicated females at house party on Sunset Avenue, a gathering near Share coffee on Boltwood Walk and another about a female lying on the ground near Triangle Street and Kellogg Avenue.

Hours after LePage blamed blacks and Hispanics from Lowell and Lawrence for part of Maine's drug problem, two officials from those cities demanded apologies.

Hours after Maine Gov. Paul LePage blamed blacks and Hispanics from Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, for part of Maine's drug problem, two officials from those cities demanded apologies.

"To me this epitomizes his ignorance, and he owes the people of the cites of Lowell and Lawrence an apology," former Lowell mayor and current City Councilor Rodney Elliott said in a statement.

LePage, a Republican who has made other racially charged comments in the past, told the State House News Service at a Boston conference on Monday: "Meth lab arrests are white. They're Mainers. The heroin-fentanyl arrests are not white people. They're Hispanic and they're black and they're from Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, Waterbury, Connecticut the Bronx and Brooklyn."

Other New England governors -- including Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, also a Republican -- rejected his comments.

Monday evening, Elliott, a Democrat, and Lawrence City Council Vice President Marc Laplante, a Republican, sent out statements condemning LePage's comments.

"Perhaps Governor LePage should take responsibility for his own drug problems and address them rather than kicking the can down the road," Elliott said. "Apparently he hasn't realized this is an epidemic that has been soaring for decades, affecting every state, neighborhood, family no matter what race, creed or color."

Laplante called LePage's comments "reckless and irresponsible," saying the opioid crisis affects every neighborhood. Laplante said in Lawrence, 75 percent of opioid-related arrests are of people from out of town -- mostly from outside Massachusetts.

"To pin the problem on cities like Lawrence and Lowell tells me he is playing to the cheap seats for cheap political points," Laplante said. "LePage should listen to the experts and note that to successfully address the problem, it must deal with supply, demand, and education across all borders."

The first day of the new school year has been pushed back to Wednesday, but only for Mapleshade students.

EAST LONGMEADOW - Students at Mapleshade Elementary School have one more day of summer.

The first day of the new school year has been pushed back to Wednesday because of unspecified "electrical issues" in the building, according to the school's website.

Mapleshade is the only affected school in town. All others are scheduled to open on time Tuesday.

The state has reportedly signed a 10-year lease and will pay between $424,000 and $494,000 in annual rent.

SPRINGFIELD - The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has reportedly chosen a site for a new branch of the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

22News reports the full-service branch will be in the Springfield Plaza at 1250 St. James Ave., next to Bounce! Trampoline Sports. It's expected to open in February.

22News reports the state has signed a 10-year lease and will pay between $424,000 and $494,000 in annual rent.

This is a developing story. Stay with The Republican/MassLive for more information as it becomes available.

The Holyoke Police Narcotics Unit and the Hampden County Narcotics Task Force executed a search warrant at 151 West St. on Monday afternoon.

HOLYOKE - Police seized more than $4,100 worth of heroin from an apartment on West Street and made three arrests during a raid on Monday.

The Holyoke Police Narcotics Unit and the Hampden County Narcotics Task Force executed a search warrant at 151 West St., #103, at around 2:15 p.m. They seized 20.5 grams of heroin, 12 bags of crack cocaine, 10 Suboxone pills, a handgun, 30 rounds of ammunition and a set of brass knuckles, along with an unspecified amount of cash.

Awilda Rivera, 52, and her husband, Reinaldo Rivera, 53, are charged with numerous drug offenses, including trafficking in heroin, and several gun crimes.

Luis Burgos, 38, of Holyoke, was charged with possession of heroin.

All three suspects are due to be arraigned in Holyoke District Court on Tuesday.