The Student Prince in downtown Springfield along with NV Concepts staged the first-ever All Things Pig Block Party Friday which featured the music of the Pride Falls Band and the Primate Fiasco Band.

SPRINGFIELD - The Student Prince along with NV Concepts staged the first-ever All Things Pig Block Party in downtown Springfield Friday, which featured the music of the Pride Falls Band and the Primate Fiasco Band.

Doors opened at 4 p.m. with plenty of food, drink, pork and games for all ages. The backyard-style outdoor bar-b-que featured pork-based foods and bacon-inspired drinks for the adult community. The two-day event will continue Saturday, September 3 from 1 to 10 p.m.

On Saturday, the gates will open at 1 p.m. and the event will feature local DJ's spinning the hits. Entertainment continues throughout the day and evening with a 3 p.m. performance by magician Nick Blais.

Along with Blais will be Alex Rohan and Joe Staf of Feel Good Drift. The 5 p.m. time slot will feature the band JOON, and finishing the night off with the Aquanett band at 8 p.m. Tickets are available online as is more information, which can be found at www.fortstreetent.com.

Just before the students of East Longmeadow High School began the academic year, the school's athletic director was arrested.

Below are Friday's most-read local news stories on MassLive.com. If you missed any of them, click on the links below to read them now.

1) 2 days after murder case is dropped, Springfield teen picks up 4 new charges; bail set at $10,000 [Jack Flynn] (Photo gallery above)

2) Springfield resident Luis Reyes identified as victim of fatal shooting outside Mardi Gras club [Dan Glaun]

3) East Longmeadow HS athletic director Daniel Maurer arrested on drug possession charge [Michelle Williams]

4) Mother takes to Facebook after teenage daughter falls into coma with blood alcohol level of .28 [Michelle Williams]

5) 21-year-old woman found dead in Puffton Village in Amherst, no foul play suspected [Dan Glaun]

A Stamford man was arrested after police alleged he telephoned a threat to the new Sandy Hook Schoool in Newtown.

NEWTOWN— A Stamford, Conn. man was arrested Friday and charged with making a threat to the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, the New Haven Register reported.

Police charged Pierre Beauvil with making threats against the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Newtown Police Department  

Newtown police arrested 28-year-old Pierre Beauviland charged him with threatening, harassment and breach of peace.

Police said someone called the new Sandy Hook School on August 15 to inquire when school started. When the called was told the school opened August 29, he then threatened the school on opening day.

Fox 61 reported that police were able to trace the phone number to Stamford and after an investigation, Beauvil was arrested. Police in Newtown and surrounding communities are looking to see if Beauvil may have made other school threats.

The new Sandy Hook School is opening its doors as the replacement for the original Sandy Hook School where 20 children and six adults were shot and killed in 2012.

Springfield police are investigating two shooting incidents. No one was apparently injured in either of the shootings.

Dave Canton | dcanton@repub.com 

Police responded to a ShotSpotter activation at 12:11 a.m. Saturday morning. The acoustic gunfire location system indicated that 11 rounds were fired in the vicinity of 41 Clark St., Sgt. Ariel Poledo said.

Officers found shell casings at the scene but no victims.

About three hours later, a ShotSpotter activation indicated seven rounds of gunfire were discharged in the area of 298 Dwight Street Ext. Responding officers found all seven spent shell casings just after 3 a.m.

Police monitored the emergency rooms at local hospitals but no gunshot victims were seen.

The incidents come a day after Luis Reyes, 30, of Harrison Avenue, was found dead in the Mardi Gras strip club's parking lot at approximately 2 a.m. Friday morning. No arrests have been made in that case.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Springfield Police Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355. Those who wish to remain anonymous may text a tip via a cell phone by addressing a text message to "CRIMES," or "274637," and then beginning the body of the message with the word "SOLVE."

The 199th Three County Fair kicked off at 4 p.m. on Friday evening, with mild summer weather ushering in the autumn.

NORTHAMPTON — The 199th Three County Fair kicked off at 4 p.m. on Friday, with mild weather ushering in the autumn.

This agricultural fair has been in operation since 181, bringing togethr Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties.

Events include carnival-style rides, live music, animal viewing, horse shows, demolition derbies at the main grandstand, food, and more. The fair runs from September 2 through the Sept. 5.

General admission tickets are $12 and children under 12 are free with paid adult admission.

Hours of operation are Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Monday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The fair is located on fifty acres of land in Northampton known as the Three County Fairgrounds.

For more information, visit http://www.threecountyfair.com.

Mayor Richard J. Kos said the goal is to ensure there are enough patrols on the street.

CHICOPEE - City officials swore in six new full-time police officers and eight new part-time Special Police officers this week, continuing the goal of having as many officers as possible patrolling the streets.

The full-time officers will head to the Western Massachusetts Police Academy, in Springfield, on Nov. 7 for six months of full-time training. They will then spend 14 weeks in a mentor program where they will work one-on-one with senior officers who are trained to teach new recruits before they start working the streets alone, said Michael Wilk, public information officer for the Chicopee Police Department.

The new recruits are Nickolas Stone, Anthony Rodrigue, Victoria Lopez, Micky Dumais, Matthew Lemieux, and Melvin Colon, all of Chicopee. They were sworn in by Chicopee City Clerk Keith Rattell on Wednesday.

The full-time officers are replacing those who are retiring or will retire. Mayor Richard J. Kos said he and the City Council have agreed to increase the force to 115 police officers in part to ensure there are plenty of police on the streets.

He said the city always seems to be playing catch-up because by the time a recruit is hired and completes the extensive training to fill the vacancy, another officer retires.

In welcoming the 14 new recruits, Chicopee Police Chief William R. Jebb explained the training is expensive but it has to be because policing is more complicated than it was when he was a rookie officer.

Over the past year Jebb has been trying to revamp the job of Special Police. Under the new program the officers do a combination of volunteer service as well as paid duties for things like traffic control. They also help to man community policing stations, go on walking beats with regular officers, work at polling locations and attend community functions.

The eight new Special Police officers sworn in Wednesday are Igor Arbuzov, Javier Feliciano, Kurt Taylor, Elbis Delrio, Brett Landers, Amanda Baker, David Christensen, and Stephen Williams, all of Chicopee.

The program is also a tool to try out candidates for permanent positions. At least one of the new recruits for the full-time officer jobs served as a Special Police officer first.

It also gives people who may be considering a career in law enforcement a chance to find out more about the job and to see if they want to do it full-time, he said.

MASHANTUCKET, CT - The audience in the Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino was treated to a high energy evening with the original bearded bad men of blues, ZZ Top, on Friday September 2nd when their summer tour rolled into town.

MASHANTUCKET, CT - The audience in the Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino was treated to a high energy evening with the original bearded bad men of blues, ZZ Top, on Friday September 2nd when their summer tour rolled into town.

2016 has been a busy year for ZZ Top, having started touring back on March 18 with their "Hell Raisers" tour, which kicked off in Thackerville, Oklahoma and was set to run through May 6 where it would come to a close in Concord, North Carolina.

A successful few months of touring would be enough of a thrill for any band right? Not for ZZ Top, who continued touring well past the closing date of May 6th. In fact, they haven't stopped touring since March, having played over 65 shows since the start of the Hell Raisers tour.

Surprisingly enough, the jam packed tour doesn't seem to have taken a toll on the band. Coming out on stage with the same energy of a band playing their opening show, they powered through a setlist composed of a mix between greatest hits, b-sides and popular blues covers like "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix and "Two Trains Runnin'" by Muddy Waters.

Originally, the summer tour had included Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band in the lineup, however, all of Allman's dates were cancelled throughout August, September and a majority of October due to serious health issues.

"I want to thank my fans and friends for supporting me while I rest up and focus on getting better and back on the road as soon as I can, I've been working hard with my band, my pride and joy, to play our music for everyone. We'll see y'all in October." Allman says in a press release. He is scheduled to get back on the road to perform with ZZ Top on October 29th at the Laid Back Festival in Atlanta, Georgia.

Filling the gap in the tour lineup was Jonny 'Two Bags' Wickersham, guitarist for Californian punk rock band Social Distortion. Wickersham performed a solo acoustic set from his debut album "Salvation Town."

ZZ Top comes back to Massachusetts on September 10 to perform at Indian Ranch amphitheater in Webster, which is currently a sold out performance.

Check out photos from the show above, and for more information about ZZ Top and Jonny Wickersham, visit their official websites.

Defense lawyer Anna Levine said her client was a victim of aggressive police tactics common in high-crime neighborhoods. "If you're a woman and you're alone, you're a streetwalker; if you're a man, you're a (drug) lookout," she said.

SPRINGFIELD -- It was another day and another drug bust on Washburn Street.

In the latest crackdown on drug sales in Springfield's North End, detectives rounded up four men on heroin and cocaine charges Thursday in a neighborhood where hundreds of suspected buyers and sellers have been arrested in recent years.

After setting up surveillance, Springfield police watched a series of drug transactions before moving in and seizing 48 packets of heroin, 77 packets of cocaine and more than $1,000 in cash, Assistant District Attorney Cary Szafranski said Friday in Springfield District Court.

The prosecutor said one defendant, James Gaudet, 32, was a buyer. Another, James Santos, 26, was a lookout. Jomar Munoz, 25, held the drugs and Joselito Davila, 30, held the money and supervised the sales, Szafranski said.

While all four suspects have past drug convictions, Davila has the most extensive criminal history, with a 12-page arrest record and two open drug distribution cases, Szafranski said.

The prosecutor asked Judge William Boyle to set bail at $25,000 for Davila; for the others, she requested bails ranging from $1,000 and $5,000.

Defense lawyer Jeremy Bramson opposed holding Davila on high cash bail, and denied his client was running a street-level drug operation. The $1,000-plus cash in his pocket came from a recently cashed federal disability check, not from drug sales, the lawyer said.

"He cashed the (disability) check and went there to purchase drugs," he said.

Davila's disability dates back to childhood, when he suffered severe burns from a fire, according to Bramson, who said his client still suffers from post-traumatic stress and related mental health disorders.

"I'm not here to say that he did nothing wrong," said Bramson, before adding that no drugs were found on his client.

A lawyer for Santos said he was a newcomer to the Washburn Street neighborhood and had no connection to the drug operation.

"He wasn't doing anything. He was just standing there," said attorney Anna Levine, arguing that her client was a victim of aggressive police tactics common in high-crime neighborhoods.

"If you're a woman and you're alone, you're a streetwalker," the lawyer said. "If you're a man, you're a (drug) lookout."

She also denied that Santos shouted "agua, agua" -- street slang for an impending drug raid -- as detectives moved in to make arrests.

"He doesn't know what that means. He doesn't even speak Spanish," Levine said.

Boyle set bail at $25,000 for Davila and $10,000 for the other defendants. He also ordered all four held without bail after finding probable cause they violated bail or probation terms from earlier cases.

The defendants are due back in court for a pretrial hearing on Sept. 30.

Mitch's Marina on the Connecticut River in the shadow of Mount Holyoke is for sale for $4.9 million — and its famous Mitch's Island is included.

HADLEY -- Mitch's Marina on the Connecticut River and in the shadow of Mount Holyoke is for sale for $4.9 million -- and its famous Mitch's Island is included.

"It is my hope that we will be able to keep it what it is," said the realtor who is listing the property, Joni Fleming, of ERA M Connie Laplante Real Estate. "I'm certainly selling a lifestyle. (The potential buyer) is going to be someone who is looking to live on the river and run the marina."

The current owners are Mervil R. Broussard, Melvin P. Broussard and Michael J. Broussard, according to town records.

Fleming said the Broussards are brothers who inherited the business from their mother, Melba Broussard, who died in 2013. Melba Broussard inherited Mitch's Marina from founder Mitch Drozdal. Melba Broussard's obituary describes her as Drozdal's longtime companion and says she'd helped run the business as well.

Drozdal founded the marina in 1962.

The Broussard brothers are retiring from the business, Fleming said.

"They just decided that it is time to move on," she said.

The 6.7-acre property is at 2 Mitch's Way in the Hockanum Village section of town, Fleming said. It's across the road from Skinner State Park and features 1,000 feet of river frontage, 19 camping spots, 65 to 70 dock slips, parking for 100 boat trailers and 50 additional guest parking spots. There is a snack bar, gas pump and bathrooms as well as a small home on the property.

With those 19 camping spots, Mitch's Marina is the only marina on this stretch of the Connecticut with waterfront camping, she said.

"It's been a part of recreation and the boating community in Hadley for a long time," she said.

And business is good -- Fleming said all the campsites and dock spaces are rented year after year. 

Labor Day weekend celebrations along Massachusetts' southern shore, Cape Cod and the Islands could be interrupted by strong winds, heavy rains and dangerous rip currents as Post-Tropical Cyclone Hermine makes its way up the coast.

Labor Day weekend celebrations along Massachusetts' southern shore, Cape Cod and the Islands could be interrupted by strong winds, heavy rains and dangerous rip currents as Post-Tropical Cyclone Hermine makes its way up the coast.

The National Weather Service had issued a tropical storm watch for several counties along the state's southern coast, as well as all of Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, as of Saturday morning.

Hazardous weather connected to the storm is not expected to impact Western Massachusetts at this time, weather officials said.

According to the NWS, Hermine is expected to bring wind, rough surf, life-threatening rip currents and beach erosion to the south coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island between late-Sunday and Monday morning.

The storm, however, is expected to stall south of New England, creating the potential for squalls with tropical storm force gusts to occur in the region through mid-week, weather officials said.

Hermine could bring high winds to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket by Sunday afternoon, spreading along the south coast from Westerly, Rhode Island to Chatham, Massachusetts by evening.

Weather officials warn that gusts between 40 and 50 mph could down large branches and trees, creating power outages.

Rough surf and dangerous rip currents along the shore, meanwhile, are expected to develop Sunday and continue into next week, particularly along Rhode Island and Massachusetts' south coast beaches, according to NWS.

Coastal communities in Massachusetts may see storm surges of 1 to 2 feet during the Sunday night and Monday high tides.

Hermine is also expected to bring heavy downpours Sunday evening into early next week across Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts, weather officials said. Rain totals from the storm should be less than 2 inches.

Residents who are especially vulnerable to wind or water hazards from tropical storms are encouraged to consider a voluntary evacuation.

A 59-year-old woman died Saturday after crashing her vehicle into a tree on Main Street in Concord, police have reported.

CONCORD, MASS. ‒ A 59-year-old woman died Saturday after crashing her vehicle into a tree on Main Street in Concord, police have reported.

Emergency crews responded to reports of a single-vehicle crash into a tree near 1800 Main St. around 7:30 a.m., according to Concord Police.

The driver, whom police have yet to identify, suffered serious injuries in the crash. She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The crash, which is under investigation by Concord Police and Massachusetts State Police, appears to have occurred after the woman's eastbound 1999 Toyota Camry exited the roadway and hit the tree, police said.

Speed or alcohol do not appear to have been factors in the crash.

Kendra Donovan apparently got up, possibly disoriented in the dark and fell, police said.

ROCKWOOD, Maine -- A 54-year-old woman has died after falling 10 feet from the sleeping loft of her sister's home in Rockwood, Maine, in what authorities are calling a "tragic accident."

The Somerset County Sheriff's Office  

Kendra Donovan, from the Buzzards Bay area of Massachusetts, died early Friday when she fell from the loft, the Somerset County Sheriff's Office said.

Donovan apparently got up, possibly disoriented in the dark and fell, Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy James Ross told the Morning Sentinel. The loft was only partially enclosed by railings.

The death is not considered suspicious, authorities said, and neither drugs nor alcohol was involved.

Officers who investigated "found it to have been a tragic accident" Ross said.

The call reporting the accident occurred about 5:14 a.m., authorities said. No other details were released.

A Dorchester Goodwill employee was arraigned on Friday on charges that he assaulted a man in a wheelchair who was trying to enter a store.

BOSTON — A Goodwill employee from Dorchester was arraigned in Roxbury Municipal Court on Friday on charges that he assaulted a man in a wheelchair, according to The Boston Globe.

On Aug. 23, Marques Bell, 23, allegedly punched and threatened to kill a 72-year-old man in a wheelchair who had attempted to enter the Goodwill store at which Bell worked.

The man was attempting to enter the store at 7:20 p.m., after the store had closed for the day. Bell allegedly took the man's cane and swung it at him, before threatening the man and storming out of the store.

Prosecutors for the case say that security footage of the incident was captured by cameras in the store. The footage was later used by Boston police to help identify Bell as the assailant.

Bell was taken into custody on Thursday. He has been charged with assault and battery on an elderly or disabled person.

Two people have been shot in a possible home invasion that occurred in Springfield on Saturday night.

SPRINGFIELD — Two people were shot during an incident in Springfield's Liberty Heights neighborhood on Saturday night.

Lt. Scott Richard of the Springfield Police Department confirmed that a shooting had occurred in the vicinity of Melha Ave at approximately 9:00 p.m., and that there were at least two victims.

Richard said the victims were brought to Baystate Medical Center by a private vehicle and are being treated there. It is unclear how bad their wounds are.

Initial police reports called the incident a "possible home invasion" but Richard couldn't confirm the nature of the incident.

At the scene, at least ten police cruisers could be seen lining the street, and officers were gathering evidence, collecting shell casings, and investigating a residence at 133 Melha Ave.

A woman who arrived at the scene of the incident was visibly distraught and was actively worried for one of her family members.

Richard said that he couldn't comment on whether police had any suspects in the incident.

This is a developing story. It will be updated when more information becomes available.

This is a "storm to take seriously" with "life-threatening water levels along the coast," warned Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The once-and-future Hurricane Hermine regained strength Saturday as it moved slowly up the Eastern Seaboard and made a mess of the holiday weekend.

Hermine already caused two deaths, damaged properties and left hundreds of thousands without electricity from Florida to Virginia. It spawned a tornado in North Carolina and closed beaches as far north as New York.

"This is not a beach weekend for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic to the northeast," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Hermine rose up over the Gulf of Mexico and hit Florida on Friday as a Category 1 hurricane before weakening to a tropical storm across Georgia.

By 2 a.m. Sunday, Hermine's top sustained winds remained at 65 mph (100 kph) as it moved east-northeast at 13 mph (20 kph). The storm, expected to turn northward on Sunday, was centered about 240 miles southeast of Ocean City, Maryland.

Forecasters expected Hermine to regain hurricane force on Sunday as it travels up the coast before weakening again to a tropical storm by Tuesday.

Why Hermine could be such a 'freak show' of a storm for N.J.

Governors all along the coast announced emergency preparations. Tropical storm warnings were in effect as far north as Connecticut.

And since sea levels have risen up to a foot due to global warming, the storm surges pushed by Hermine could be even more damaging, climate scientists say.

Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State University noted that this century's one-foot sea-level rise in New York City meant 25 more square miles flooded during Superstorm Sandy, causing billions more in damage.

"We are already experiencing more and more flooding due to climate change in every storm," said Michael Oppenheimer, a geosciences professor at Princeton University. "And it's only the beginning."

NY puts National Guard, emergency responders on alert for Tropical Storm Hermine

The winds and rain were so strong Saturday in North Carolina that all bridges to the Outer Banks were closed for several hours following a deadly accident over the intracoastal waterway.

Tyrrell County Sheriff Darryl Liverman told the Virginian-Pilot that high winds tipped over an 18-wheeler, killing its driver and shutting down the U.S. 64 bridge.

And on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks, a small tornado spawned by Hermine knocked over two trailers and injured four people, authorities said.

Hermine's timing couldn't be worse for coastal communities hoping for revenue from Labor Day events.

"This weekend would normally be a parking lot," said Jim Derrick. His family businesses include a mini golf course, sea shell store, indoor bounce house and ice cream shop in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the beach was closed to foot traffic and swimming was prohibited Saturday.

He called the weekend "definitely disappointing," although his bounce house was packed.

Elsewhere along Hermine's path, people were having decidedly less fun.

In Savannah, Georgia, Bacon Fest was canceled Friday and Saturday's Craft Brew Fest was moved indoors.

In Virginia Beach, the storm forced Bruce Springsteen to move a Saturday night concert to Monday. Swimmers were ordered out of the surf in New York and New Jersey. And Amtrak cancelled or altered some service as the storm approached.

Joyce Harper and her husband, of Berkeley Township, N.J., canceled Monday's family barbecue and took their three young daughters to the Seaside Heights boardwalk to "burn off some energy" ahead of the storm.

"If it's as bad as they expect, then we're all going to be indoors for a couple days. I love my kids, but two days is a long time to be together in close spaces," she said.

 

A single-car crash on Hall Street destroyed a car, and one person was transported to a local hospital with undetermined injuries.

SPRINGFIELD— Firefighters knocked down flames from a burning car after the driver lost control and rolled it over on narrow Hall Street Sunday morning.

Flames burned out the engine compartment of the four-door Subaru before firefighters arrived on the scene. The driver apparently lost control as he turned into Hall Street at about 1:35 a.m. and rolled the car onto its side. Springfield Police Capt. Brian Keenan said the car struck two other vehicles parked on the side of the street before it came to rest.

The driver was transported to the Baystate Medical Center for treatment of undisclosed injuries.

Keenan said the operator will be cited for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Mitch's Marina dates back to 1962.

SPRINGFIELD -- The entity that runs Springfield Symphony Hall and CityStage has seen its revenue from ticket sales fall from $1.2 million to just over $750,000 from 2010 to 2015.

The question of how the Springfield Performing Arts Development Corp. and arts groups generally can increase ticket sales and revenue was one of the five business stories you might have missed this week.

Meanwhile, a longtime campground and marina on the Connecticut River is for sale. And Big Y has unveiled improvements at its Cooley Street location in Springfield.

1) Operator of CityStage, Springfield Symphony Hall sees financial challenges as it renews venue contracts

Annual gross revenue numbers don't paint a pretty picture. The 2015 total of $1.2 million was down 39.7 percent from $2.05 million in 2008. The corporation was the only bidder recently when both the contracts to manage Symphony Hall and CityStage came up for renewal.

2) Mitch's Marina on Connecticut River in Hadley for sale

The 6.7 acre property is at 2 Mitch's Way in the Hockanum Village section of town. It's across the road from Skinner State Park and features 1,000 feet of river frontage, 19 camping spots, 65 to 70 dock slips, parking for 100 boat trailers and 50 additional guest parking spots. There is a snack bar, gas pump and bathrooms as well as a small home on the property.

3) Big Y completes $4.1M renovation of Cooley Street supermarket

Big Y's grand reopening included a cake cutting, free samples of sushi, hot soups, super chicken tenders, World Classics turkey, Berkshire Breads, new cheeses, chicken salad and more.

The Big Y at 300 Cooley Street in Springfield held a grand reopening on Friday after a $4.1 million renovation. (Dave Roback / The Republican)Dave Roback / The Republican 

and 

Big Y hires 1,084 -- including all managers and pharmacists -- as it takes over Hannaford stores

4) What's a 'dynamic merge system'? MassDOT public meeting on I-91 Springfield project will explain

Dynamic merge is a system that employs a series of sensors that detect traffic flow on the highway, ramps and exits and then feeds that information to a series of changeable digital message boards that tell drivers what to do. Examples of messages might be: "Make your lane change here" or "Stay in lane." MassDOT wants to use it in Interstate 91.

5) Smith & Wesson announces quarterly sales, profit figures

Quarterly net income was $35.1 million, or 62 cents per share, compared with $17.7 million, or 32 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.

the pontiff held up Mother Teresa as the model for a Catholic Church that goes to the peripheries to find poor

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, honoring the tiny nun for having taken in society's most unwanted and for having shamed world leaders for the "crimes of poverty they themselves created."

Francis held up Mother Teresa as the model for a Catholic Church that goes to the peripheries to find poor, wounded souls during a canonization Mass that drew an estimated 120,000 people -- rich and poor, powerful and homeless -- to a sun-filled St. Peter's Square.

"Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer," Francis said in his homily.

The canonization was the highlight of Francis' Holy Year of Mercy and may come to define his entire papacy, which has been dedicated to ministering to society's most marginal, from refugees to prostitutes, the sick, poor and elderly.

Vintage photos: Mother Teresa in Massachusetts

Applause erupted in St. Peter's Square even before Francis finished pronouncing the rite of canonization, evidence of the admiration Mother Teresa enjoyed from Christians and non-Christians alike during her life and after her 1997 death.

At the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity group that she founded in Kolkata, hundreds of people watching the Mass on TV clapped with joy when Francis declared her a saint. They gathered around Mother's tomb which was decorated with flowers, a single candle and a photo of the tiny wrinkled saint.

"I am so proud to be from Kolkata," said Sanjay Sarkar, a high school student on hand for the celebration. "Mother Teresa belonged to Kolkata, and she has been declared a saint."

For Francis, Mother Teresa put into action his ideal of the church as a merciful "field hospital" for the poorest of the poor, those suffering both material and spiritual poverty.

In his homily, Francis praised her as the merciful saint who defended the lives of the unborn, sick and abandoned, recalling her strong anti-abortion stance which often put her at odds with progressives around the world.

"She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity," he said. "She made her voice heard before the powers of the world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crimes of poverty they themselves created."

As if to emphasize the point, which Francis himself has made repeatedly, he repeated: "The crimes of poverty they themselves created."

Hundreds of Missionaries of Charity sisters in their trademark blue-trimmed saris had front-row seats at the Mass, alongside 1,500 homeless people and 13 heads of state or government, including Queen Sofia of Spain.

"Her heart, she gave it to the world," said Charlotte Samba, a 52-year-old mother of three who travelled with a church group from Gabon for the Mass. "Mercy, forgiveness, good works: It is the heart of a mother for the poor."

While big, the crowd wasn't even half of the 300,000 who turned out for Mother Teresa's 2003 beatification, thanks in part to security fears in the wake of Islamic extremist attacks in Europe. Those fears prompted a huge, 3,000-strong law enforcement presence to secure the area around the Vatican and close the airspace above.

While Francis is clearly keen to hold Mother Teresa up as a model for her joyful dedication to society's outcasts, he is also recognizing holiness in a nun who lived most of her adult life in spiritual agony sensing that God had abandoned her.

According to correspondence that came to light after she died in 1997, Mother Teresa experienced what the church calls a "dark night of the soul" -- a period of spiritual doubt, despair and loneliness that many of the great mystics experienced. In Mother Teresa's case, it lasted for nearly 50 years -- an almost unheard of trial.

For the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the Canadian priest who spearheaded Mother Teresa's saint-making campaign, the revelations were further confirmation of Mother Teresa's heroic saintliness. He said that by canonizing her, Francis is recognizing that Mother Teresa not only shared the material poverty of the poor but the spiritual poverty of those who feel "unloved, unwanted, uncared for."

"What she described as the greatest poverty in the world today (of feeling unloved) she herself was living in relationship with Jesus," he said in an interview on the eve of the canonization.

Francis has in many ways modeled his papacy on Mother Teresa's simple lifestyle and selfless service to the poor: He eschewed the Apostolic Palace for a hotel room, he has made welcoming migrants and the poor a hallmark and has fiercely denounced today's "throwaway" culture that discards the unborn, the sick and the elderly with ease.

In keeping with her spirit, he was treating 1,500 homeless people bussed into Rome for the Mass to a pizza lunch in the Vatican auditorium afterward.

Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on Aug. 26, 1910, Mother Teresa came to India in 1929 as a sister of the Loreto order. In 1946, she received what she described as a "call within a call" to found a new order dedicated to caring for the most unloved and unwanted, the "poorest of the poor."

In 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity, which went onto become a global order of nuns priests, brothers and lay co-workers.

She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

She died in 1997 and was put on a fast-track for sainthood soon thereafter.

With the election just over two months away, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton continued to push their policy platforms and campaign messages this week, despite facing new criticism.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton continued to push their policy platforms and campaign messages this week, despite facing respective criticism over immigration proposals and personal email servers.

Trump, who set his campaign's focus on immigration, traveled to Mexico ahead of a high-profile policy speech to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The visit, as well as the businessman's decision to double-down on hardline immigration policies, however, drew pushback from Democrats and some former Mexican officials.

Clinton, who tried to steer focus toward her health care-related policies, meanwhile, continued to face criticism over her use of a private email server as secretary of state, as the FBI released documents relating to its investigation into the matter.

Here's what happened in presidential politics this week:

Trump questioned Clinton's judgement after top aide, Huma Abedin's, announced separation from husband Anthony Weiner.

Clinton strategist @benensonj on Trump weighing in on Huma Abedin's separation: "He thinks everything is about him." https://t.co/z4tVzPENZJ

— New Day (@NewDay) August 30, 2016

Jumping on the news that Abedin would separate from Weiner after a New York Post story suggested he exchanged sexually explicit messages with another woman, the GOP presidential nominee accused Clinton of having poor judgement.

"I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him," he said of Abedin in a Monday statement issued by his campaign. "I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information. Who knows what he learned and who he told?

"It's just another example of Hillary Clinton's bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this."

Clinton campaign strategist Joel Benenson called Trump's remarks "another one of the outlandish things this man tosses about."

"This is what he does," he said. "He thinks everything is about him, his political opportunism. It shows why the man is temperamentally unfit to be president of the United States."

Anne Holton, wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine campaigned in Boston.

Holton, the former Virginia secretary of education, traveled to Massachusetts Wednesday for a Women for Hillary roundtable at Suffolk University Law School and phone bank at a Boston field office.

Talking to roundtable attendees, Holton took the feminist perspective on her husband playing a supporting role in Clinton's White House run.

"Isn't it about time we have strong men be willing to step up to the plate and be supportive of strong women? We've done it for them all these years," she said.

Holton further stressed Clinton's commitment to issues like equal pay and the availability of paid family and medical leave and sick leave.

Trump faced criticism over his Mexico visit, meeting with president.

The billionaire businessman, who has made hardline immigration policies a keystone of his 2016 White House bid, drew pushback from Mexican officials Wednesday after meeting with Pena Nieto.

Former Mexican President Vincente Fox told CNN that he doesn't understand why Pena Nieto extended an invitation to the billionaire businessman, saying he thinks it's "nothing more than a political stunt."

"He is not welcome to Mexico by 130 million people," he said of the GOP presidential nominee in a Wednesday morning interview. "We don't like him, we don't want him, we reject his visit...Trump is using Mexico, using President Pena to boost his sinking poll numbers."

Former Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala de Calderon also stressed that the GOP nominee is "not welcome" in the country.

"Mexicans have dignity and repudiate his hate speech," she wrote on Twitter early Wednesday -- a message which her husband, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon retweeted.

Trump delivered a high-profile speech detailing his campaign's immigration policy.

"This election is our last chance to secure the border," @realDonaldTrump says: https://t.co/54eBZ2BtE7 pic.twitter.com/Q86V1b70r1

— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 1, 2016

Highlighting his plans to address immigration Wednesday, the Republican presidential nominee stressed that he would not provide amnesty to millions of people living in the country illegally, if elected.

The businessman, who detailed his policy platform during a prime time speech, further pledged to build a wall along the United States' southern border with Mexico, increase the number of border patrol agents and create a special task force to prioritize the deportation of criminals.

Clinton's campaign slammed Trump's speech as "his darkest" yet, contending that the billionaire businessman is promoting divisiveness and hate through his hardline policy proposals.

A report found that taxpayer dollars helped subsidize Clinton Foundation staff pay.

A Politico investigation based on General Services Administration records reportedly found that taxpayer dollars under the Former President's Act were used to purchase equipment and servers at the Clinton Foundation, as well as to supplement several aides' pay and benefits.

Although the investigation does not reveal any illegal activities, the news outlet said, it offers additional insight into the ties between the non-profit foundation, the U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton's leadership and aides' business dealings -- relationships which have plagued the former secretary of state's Democratic White House run in recent weeks.

According to Politico, records reveal how Bill Clinton's representatives directed spending allocated by the GSA under the act -- which authorizes the agency to fund pensions, correspondence, support staff and travel of former presidents -- to supplement staff income and provide them with federal government benefits.

The GSA, however, offered that former presidents have "broad discretion" over how they spend the more than $96,000 provided each year for staffing.

Polls found most voters support third party candidates' inclusion in presidential debates.

More than three quarters of likely voters surveyed said they believe third party candidates should be included in the presidential debates this fall, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll released Thursday.

Support for allowing third party candidates to compete in the debates was echoed in a Morning Consult survey also released Thursday, which found that more than half of registered voters believe Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson should partake in the event and 47 percent believe the Green Party's Jill Stein should.

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, offered that the 76 percent of likely voters who support third party candidates participating in presidential debates, suggests Americans are open to entertaining other options.

"The U.S. electorate is welcoming - with open arms - serious third-party candidates into the national conversation," he said in a statement.

Clinton released a plan to address price hikes for EpiPens, other medications.

The former secretary of state announced a plan Friday to protect Americans against what she called "unjustified price hikes" of the life-saving allergic reaction treatment and other long-available prescription drugs.

Clinton, who recently called on drug manufacturer Mylan to lower the price of EpiPens, proposed a set of actions that would allow the government to take action when such price hikes put public health at risk, according to her campaign.

Stressing that there have been too many examples of drug companies excessively raising prices for long-standing, life-saving medications with little-to-no new innovation, Clinton argued that "it's time to move beyond talking about these price hikes and start acting to address them."

The FBI released documents related to Clinton's email investigation.

Among the documents the federal agency made public online include a summary of Clinton's July 2 interview with FBI officials over allegations that she stored or sent classified information on a personal email server as secretary of state, the agency reported.

The FBI, which also announced the release of a factual summary of its investigation into the matter, attributed its decision to make the information public to having received several requests for the documents.

According to the documents, the FBI investigation and forensic analysis did not find evidence confirming Clinton's email accounts or mobile devices were compromised by cyber means.

Its inability to obtain all mobile devices and various computer components associated with the account, however, prevented it from conclusively determining whether classified information transmitted and stored was compromised, the FBI noted.

Trump's campaign contended that the documents show Clinton "cannot be trusted with the presidency."

"The notes from her FBI interview reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty," campaign spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement. "Clinton's secret email server was an end run around government transparency laws that wound up jeopardizing our national security and sensitive diplomatic efforts."

The 2016 Stone Soul Parade and Festival was in full swing Saturday at Blunt Park in Springfield where hundreds of visitors enjoyed food, games, and carnival-style amusement rides.

SPRINGFIELD - The 2016 Stone Soul Parade and Festival was in full swing Saturday at Blunt Park in Springfield where hundreds of visitors enjoyed food, games, and carnival-style amusement rides.

Saturday's event featured the Stone Soul Parade, which kicked off at Mason Square and ended at Blunt Park. After the parade, the visitors were treated to karate demonstrations, a community fashion show, Tracy Thomas with the Community Dance Schools, Clarence Blakely, a Tribute to Prince featuring Luther Johnson, and the Just Us Band.

Sunday gates open at 10 a.m. with Praise in the Park with Pastor Zackery Reynolds, of the Greater Harvest Kingdom Church and the annual Stone Soul Picnic. The afternoon features a fish fry, and the Community Service Awards.

Sponsors include: The Springfield Department of Public Health and Human Services, Baystate Health, Valley Real Estate, MassMutual Insurance Co., Caring Health Center, MCC Springfield Cultural Council, Mason Square Library, Springfield Family Resource Center, Performance Food Group, Hampden County Sheriff Department, UMass Springfield, The Children's Study Home, Baystate Medical Center, United Bank, WEIB 106.3 FM, Springfield Park and Recreation, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, HAPHousing, and the Springfield Partners for Community Action, Inc.

The 2016 Stone Soul African American Hall of Fame Awards were passed out Thursday evening in front of several hundred visitors, distinguished guests and family members of the four award honorees. Check out photos from that ceremony at the link below.