Fonda was set to appear on the home-shopping channel to promote her new book on aging, "Prime Time."

Associated PressFILE - In this April 2, 1973 file photo, actress Jane Fonda holds her arm up in the air as she joins a group of anti-war demonstrators on a march toward the Western White House to protest the visit of South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu in San Clemente, Calif. Jane Fonda says she's been banished from QVC amid concerns about her political past. The network says it was a routine programming change. Fonda was set to appear on the home-shopping channel on Saturday, July 16, 2011 to promote her new book on aging, "Prime Time." But the day before, she learned her segment had been canceled. (AP Photo/Harold Filan, File)

By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Jane Fonda says she's been banished from QVC amid concerns about her political past. The network says it was a routine programming change.

Fonda was set to appear on the home-shopping channel on Saturday to promote her new book on aging, "Prime Time." But the day before, she learned her segment had been cancelled.

In a statement posted on her website, Fonda says QVC told her of receiving "a lot of calls" from viewers criticizing her opposition to the Vietnam War and threatening to boycott the show if she was allowed to appear.

Fonda goes on to say she is "deeply disappointed that QVC caved to this kind of insane pressure" and declares, "I love my country."

Paul Capelli, a spokesman for West Chester, Pa.-based QVC, confirmed Fonda's cancelled appearance, but specified no reason.

"It's not unusual to have a schedule change with our shows and guests with little or no notice," he said in an e-mail. Fonda is not currently re-scheduled to appear, he said.

Fonda was dubbed "Hanoi Jane" nearly 40 years ago after visiting the North Vietnamese capital, where she made radio broadcasts critical of U.S. war policy. While there, she was photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun laughing and clapping.

Though she still defends her anti-war activism, Fonda has acknowledged that the photo incident was "a betrayal" of American forces.

"That two-minute lapse of sanity will haunt me until the day I die," she wrote in her 2006 autobiography.

The 73-year-old actress won Oscars for her films "Coming Home" and "Klute." Besides her books, she has also produced and starred in a number of bestselling exercise videos.

"Prime Time" will be released next month.

2 of the city's Liquor License Commissioners believe that The Still is serving people who are intoxicated.

AGAWAM – Liquor License Commissioners have agreed to lift the alcohol license of The Still for three days unless it goes for a year without any major problems.

Commission Chairman Kenneth J. Largay and Commissioner Robert W. Swikalus came to that consensus following a public hearing Wednesday about the 858 Suffield St. bar.

They formed the opinion that the bar has been serving intoxicated patrons, something both the bar’s manager, Rebecca L. Maslar, and its attorney, Richard C. Morrissey, denied.

“I don’t see the control there that they should have. ... I see a problem,” Swikalus said.

“The issue is a serving problem,” Largay said.

The commissioners said several bar patrons have been stopped for operating under the influence of alcohol after leaving it since the beginning of the calendar year.

There were incidents on March 13, March 26, April 23 and May 13, according to Largay.

Maslar said Wednesday the bar does not serve intoxicated people and that its bartenders follow the state’s Training and Intervention Procedures for Servers guidelines.

Morrissey also said the bar follows state guidelines.

The attorney said one patron in question says he did not have a drink at the bar, another wrote a letter to the same effect and another patron says he was at The Still for only 15 minutes May 13.

“How many drinks could they have possibly served him?” Morrissey asked.

The bar also had a 29-year-old Suffield man testify that on March 26 he spent three hours at The Still, but drank only a glass of water after having spent considerable time beforehand at an establishment in West Springfield.

The man, who refused to take a breathalyzer test, said he declined to take a field sobriety test because he has a problem with one of his legs.

The two commissioners also stipulated that the bar must have a uniformed police officer on duty Friday and Saturdays from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Asked if he plans to appeal the board’s decision, Morrissey responded, “I don’t believe it would serve any purpose to appeal.”

3 shooting deaths, which police have characterized as gang-related, were followed by 2 homicides police say have no links to gang activity.

SPRINGFIELD – The shooting deaths of Raul E. Vera, Tyrel Wheeler and James Rosario Jr. were followed in a week by two additional homicides, neither of which police said had any links to gang activity in the city.

Eighty-one-year-old Doris Alzak was found dead during a house fire in her 100 Phillips Ave. home on Tuesday afternoon, and Paul Bagge, who was punched in the head later that same day during a dispute over a dog on East Street, died a day later.

Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni confirmed Alzak’s death as a homicide on Thursday; no details of the crime were released, however.

Bagge died Wednesday at Baystate Medical Center, and his alleged assailant, Guy Wilson, 52, of 168 East St. has been arrested and is expected to be charged with murder.

William Fitchet

“Our investigators are working very hard to bring these cases to a conclusion,” Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet said on Friday. “We are working very closely with the district attorney’s office.” He said his detectives are also collaborating with the State Police anti-gang task force in the investigation of the three shooting deaths.

Fitchet asked those with any information on any of the homicides to call the detective bureau at (413) 787-6355.

Those wishing to report anonymously may use the Text-a-Tip program. To do so, address a text message to “CRIMES,” or “274637,” and begin the body of the message with the word “SOLVE.”

3 families, seared by grief, continue to ponder the sudden and unfathomable loss of loved ones – sons, uncles, brothers – during a recent streak of gun violence in Springfield.

Photos courtesy of the familiesLeft to right, James Rosario, 18, Raul Vera, 38, and Tyrel Wheeler, 16, all of Springfield, were shot to death in Springfield in a 10-day span.

SPRINGFIELD – Three families, seared by grief, continue to ponder the sudden and unfathomable loss of loved ones – sons, uncles, brothers – during a recent streak of gun violence in the city.

Raul E. Vera, 38, was shot and killed on July 3 in the McKnight neighborhood. Tyrel Wheeler, 16, was shot on July 7, found critically injured at a Forest Park neighborhood intersection and died at Baystate Medical Center three days later. James Rosario Jr., 18, was shot and killed on July 9 outside his home, also in the Forest Park neighborhood.

The executive aide to the city’s police commissioner, Sgt. John M. Delaney, has said the only common thread among the three killings is the victims’ associations with gangs. He cites the men’s inclusion on a statewide law-enforcement database of individuals with links to gangs.

For some family members of the deceased, however, their grief is intertwined with anger and frustration over the labeling of their loved ones as members of gangs.

“When a young black boy is victimized, he is considered a gang member instantly,” said Felicia Wheeler, mother of the youngest victim.

“They are not just a rap sheet,” Charity Vera, sister to Raul Vera, said. “They all have friends and family of their own.”

Anger over the gang label is particularly strong within the Rosario family.

“If he was a gang member, I must be a gang leader,” said James Rosario, speaking on Wednesday, shortly after the wrenching task of identifying the body of his beloved son, nicknamed “Junior,” who was shot multiple times.

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayJames Rosario holds photos of his son James Rosario Jr., who was the victim of a fatal shooting last weekend on Edgeland Street.

Rosario, a self-employed contractor, backs up his words with photographs of his seemingly always smiling son. In one, he is holding a freshly caught striped bass, in another he is riding an all-terrain vehicle, in others he is enjoying time with family.

“We did everything together,” the father said.

Rosario even offers some of son’s pay stubs from Broadway Office Interiors, a job that he held for the three months before his death, as proof of the young man’s determination to make a life for himself.

“This young man had a full-time job; that says a lot about his character,” said Julia Ortiz, the elder Rosario’s sister.

“And he didn’t even miss a day,” Rosario added.

Ronald Gordenstein, owner of Broadway Office Interiors, says the younger Rosario proved to be a model employee. Gordenstein described him as “extremely, extremely courteous” and ever-willing to learn during his short time with the company.

“It kills me to think that somebody thinks he was associated with a gang, unless he had an alter-ego,” Gordenstein said. “In my world, from my understanding of what a gang member is, nothing could be farther from the truth.”

Delaney, spokesman for Commissioner William J. Fitchet, says police track individuals’ gang status on a statewide database which factors in such things as criminal histories, known associates, tattoos and the wearing of gang colors. The database, known as MassGangs, is implemented by the Criminal History Systems Board.

Delaney said the contents of the MassGangs database is not public information; he refused to identify the specific factors that linked each of the victims to gangs.

Media statements sent via email by Delaney in each case said investigators had determined the incidents were “gang-related.”

Members of Vera’s family say, however, that applying the “gang” label to crime victims obscures the full measure of the life that was lost. While Vera had a criminal history, he also had four children, a grandchild and a dream of opening his own barbershop.

The Republican | Greg SaulmonFrom left to right, sisters Celines Saez, Virginia Saez and Charity Vera sit with a photo of their brother, Raul E. Vera. Raul was killed in a July 3 shooting on Lincoln Street in Springfield.

“Unfortunately, somebody took away his life and took away that chance,” said Virginia Saez, one of Vera’s sisters.

The younger Rosario, on the night he was shot, had agreed to host an impromptu graduation party for a friend at 85 Edgeland St., the home where he lived with his mother and younger sister.

The 18-year-old’s mother was away, helping a family member, and the elder Rosario says if he had gotten wind of the party he would never have allowed it to happen.

It happened, however, and it was crashed by strangers. A scuffle ensued in the midst of the intrusion, and the younger Rosario was shot as he attempted to usher the suspects off the property.

“He died defending his home,” Ortiz said.

“The people that shot and killed my son, they are animals,” the elder Rosario added.

Rosario, who lives a short distance away, said he got to the scene just as the emergency medical personnel were closing the doors on the ambulance to take his son to Baystate.

“At that point, he had already passed on,” Rosario said. “No one should have to see that.”

Felicia Wheeler, who lost her son the day after Rosario’s death, said she, too, was upset to learn that police had described her son as a gang member.

“When a group of kids hang with everybody from the neighborhood, it’s because they live on that street,” Wheeler said. “You can’t always make that label because of the neighborhood and who they were hanging around with.”

On July 7, Wheeler was found lying in the road at Washington and Meredith streets in the Forest Park neighborhood. His mother’s silver Honda was found crashed into a parked car nearby.

Police believe Wheeler was shot somewhere else and drove the car for an unknown distance before either falling or jumping out. The amount of blood inside the car indicated he had been inside the vehicle for some time.

Although Tyrel Wheeler did not have a driver’s license, his mother says she allowed him to drive the car.

Felicia Wheeler believes her son’s assailants shot him out of jealousy and nothing more. “Here was this 16-year-old driving around in a car,” she said.

Wheeler describes her son as having been a good-hearted person who enjoyed playing football, baseball and basketball. “He had a lot of friends. He had a lot of love,” she said.

Dejuan Brown, of the group Alive with Awareness, Knowledge and Empowerment, which works with young people to avoid violence, said he knew Wheeler for a couple of years after his mother enrolled him in AWAKE programs. “He was a good kid,” Brown said.

Wheeler believes only God can judge her son.

“It takes a village to raise a child,” she said. “Instead of pointing a finger, lend a hand because the community is where we all live.”

The program was made possible with a $200,000 gift from the late Joan Hastings, who wanted to bring several groups together.

Photo by Diane Lederman/The RepublicanDalisa Saldana of Chicopee welds her jewelry box made in the Hampshire College Lemelson Center shop. Saldana, a student at the Care Center in Holyoke, was one of about 10 who went to the campus for a two week program.

AMHERST – When Dalisa Saldana lived in Puerto Rico she used to turn on the power for the equipment in her grandparents’ machine shop and run away.

“I was scared,” the 18-year-old said. Not anymore. Now the Chicopee mother wielded a MIG welder like a magic wand as she melded the edges of her metal jewelry box in the shop at the Lemelson Center at Hampshire College recently.

Saldana was one of about 10 teens from the Care Center in Holyoke who recently spent two weeks at the college learning about farming at the college’s farm center and design, welding and the use of tools at the Lemelson Center.

The program that brought her and her friends from Holyoke to Amherst is new and is evolving but it is the gift of Joan Hastings. Hastings, who was president and founder of the Fiber Art Foundation and Fiber Art Center and helped create the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, died in November.

Hastings was always interested in helping others, said longtime friend Sarah Buttenwieser. When she lived in the Boston area, she worked for the Justice Resource Institute, and co-founded Women’s Enterprises, a nonprofit agency which supported women trying to enter traditional blue-collar trades.

In September, she learned she had cancer. She started thinking about what she could do as part of her legacy.

Hastings told Buttenwieser, “I could get good news and I could have 20 more years,” but she also knew it could go the other way. And, she told Buttenwieser, “I’d rather be up in the middle of the night thinking about” how to help others.

She cared deeply about the Care Center and the Treehouse project, an Easthampton community assisting foster children and the families who care for them, Buttenwieser said. She was also supported the Enchanted Theater so she donated $200,000 to create a way to connect these groups and also spawn something that would last.

The program will keep going somehow, Buttenwieser said. There’s already a plan for a professor to teach a class at the Care Center in the fall. Students from Hampshire have been working at the Care Center so a connection has been established.

Both schools offer an alternative way of teaching, said Jude Kallock, a transition counselor with the Care Center, which provides an alternative education program for pregnant teens and those who are raising children, who have dropped out of high school.

Kallock, who’s a Hampshire alum, said “these guys are having the time of their life.”

At the farm, they learned to milk cows, pick and grind wheat, pluck eggs from chickens, and churn butter. They made pancakes with their ingredients.

Photo by Diane Lederman/The Republican Samantha Ortiz of Chicopee shows the candle holder she made in the Hampshire College Lemelson Center shop. Ortiz, a student at the Care Center in Holyoke, was one of about 10 who went to the campus for a two week program.

With the farm, that was hands-on learning, Kallock said, and they could understand what they were doing even if they didn’t have the English words. What they’ve learned “it would have taken them light years” in another environment.

The welding, too, has been remarkable. “These kids have a lot of fear in their life,” Kallock said. “When you start welding, you learn what you are capable of.”

At the Lemelson Center, they learned about the design process and how to use tools like drill presses and band saws and welding torches to create something that would open and close.

“I never used none of the tools before,” said Joan Zayas, who lives in Holyoke and is the mother of a 2-year-old. “This is like you get to create something. You can do it by yourself. I love it,” she said.

“I’ve learned a lot,” said Samantha Ortiz, of Chicopee. “I never thought I’d experience what I did. Welding has been the best.”

She said she’d like to be a corrections officer but thinks “welding will probably help” in her life. She’d like to do more. The 18-year-old was making a metal candle holder for her mother, with whom she lives. Her mother loves candles and her 15-month-old daughter tries to touch them.

Saldana was working on a jewelry box that opens on two sides. “I came up with the idea,” she said. “I love to do crafts and I’m working with metal. It’s more interesting (than other materials).” She wants to go on to college, but she’d love to get a job welding as well.

During the program, the teens spent afternoons in the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, where they talked about what they did in the mornings working with members of the Enchanted Circle Theater in Holyoke.

Foster children who live in Easthampton as part of the Treehouse community will be involved in other projects next week.

Buttenwieser said on the first day when the farm program began, the sun came out and they thought of Hastings. “She would so thrilled. It gave her pleasure to make those connections (between the different groups.) She was an amazing woman, she cared about doing things for others.”

Casey Anthony was freed from a Florida jail early Sunday, 12 days after she was acquitted of murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

The Associated PressCasey Anthony, right, gets in an SUV with her lawyer Jose Baez, center, as she is escorted by Orange County Sheriff deputies after her release from the Orange County Jail in Orlando, Fla., early Sunday, July 17, 2011. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Anthony, wearing a pink T-shirt with blue jeans, left the jail at 12:14 a.m. with her attorney, Jose Baez. After three years behind bars, Anthony was given $537.68 in cash from her jail account and escorted outside by two sheriff's deputies armed with semi-automatic rifles. Neither Anthony nor Baez said anything to reporters and protesters gathered outside.

"It is my hope that Casey Anthony can receive the counseling and treatment she needs to move forward with the rest of her life," Baez said in a statement released to reporters.

News helicopters briefly tracked the SUV through Orlando's streets, but she quickly slipped from public view.

"This release had an unusual amount of security so, therefore, in that sense, it would not be a normal release," Orange County Jail spokesman Allen Moore said. "We have made every effort to not provide any special treatment for her. She's been treated like every other inmate."

Moore said there were no known threats received at the jail. Officials had a number of contingency plans in place, including plans in case shots were fired as she was being released.

Before her release, law enforcement officials set up plastic barricades around the jail's booking and release center, and about seven or eight deputies wearing bullet-proof vests patrolled the area. At least one officer carried an assault weapon. About five officers patrolled the area on horseback.

As midnight approached, upward of 100 spectators had gathered outside the jail. The crowd included about a half-dozen, sign-carrying protesters who had gathered there, despite a thunderstorm that had dumped heavy rain on Orlando. Onlookers had varied reactions to her release.

"She is safer in jail than she is out here," said Mike Quiroz, who drove from Miami to spend his 22nd birthday outside the jail. "She better watch her butt. She is known all over the world."

Lamar Jordan said he felt a pit in his stomach when he saw Anthony walking out of jail.

"The fact that she is being let out, the fact that it is her child and she didn't say what happened, made me sick," Jordan said.

Not all of those who gathered condemned the 25-year-old.

"I'm for Casey," said Kizzy Smith, of Orlando. "She was proven innocent. At the end of the day, Caylee is at peace. We're the ones who are in an uproar."

Since her acquittal on murder charges on July 5, Anthony was finishing her four-year sentence for telling investigators several lies, including an early claim that Caylee was kidnapped by a nonexistent nanny. With credit for the nearly three years she's spent in jail since August 2008 and good behavior, she had only days remaining when she was sentenced July 7.

The case drew national attention ever since Caylee was reported missing. Cable network HLN aired the entire trial, with pundit Nancy Grace dissecting the case nightly. Vitriol poured into social networking sites after the acquittal, with observers posting angry messages on Twitter and Facebook's "I Hate Casey Anthony" page.

Outraged lawmakers responded by proposing so-called Caylee's laws that would allow authorities to prosecute parents who don't quickly report missing children. And many still speculate about what really happened to Caylee: Was she suffocated with duct tape by her mother, as prosecutors argued? Or did she drown in an accident that snowballed out of control, as defense attorneys contended?

Now that she is free, it's not clear where Anthony will stay or what she will do next. Her relationship with her parents, George and Cindy, has been strained since defense attorneys accused George Anthony of molesting Casey when she was young. They also said George Anthony made Caylee's death look like a homicide after the girl accidentally drowned in the family pool.

Caylee's remains were found in December 2008 in woods near the home Casey Anthony shared with her parents. George Anthony has adamantly denied covering up his granddaughter's death or molesting Casey Anthony when she was a child. Baez argued during trial that the alleged abuse resulted in psychological issues that caused her to lie and act without apparent remorse after Caylee's death. But defense attorneys never called witnesses to support their claims.

Prosecutors alleged that Anthony suffocated her daughter with duct tape because motherhood interfered with her desire for a carefree life of partying with friends and spending time with her boyfriend. However, some jurors have told various media outlets that the state didn't prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt as required for a conviction — though some have said they believe she bears some responsibility in the case.

Defense attorneys and sheriff's officials declined to say where Anthony was headed. What Anthony will do to make a living also remains unknown. Anthony, a high school dropout, hasn't had a job since 2006.

One of her attorneys, Cheney Mason, said Friday that Anthony was scared to leave jail, given the numerous threats on her life and the scorn of a large segment of the public that believes she had something to do with the June 2008 death.

Her attorneys have said she has received numerous threats, including an email with a manipulated photo showing their client with a bullet hole in her forehead.

Security experts have said Anthony will need to hole up inside a safe house protected by bodyguards, perhaps for weeks, given the threats.

Greene also said Friday that Anthony was emotionally unstable and needed "a little breathing room" after her draining two-month trial.

The lies that were the basis of her conviction on the misdemeanor charges began in mid-July 2008, about a month after Caylee was last seen alive. Around the time the girl disappeared, Casey Anthony had begun staying with friends and not with her parents. When Anthony's mother Cindy began asking about Caylee, Anthony told her she was staying with a nanny named Zanny.

In mid-July, George and Cindy Anthony were notified that their car had been impounded after it was abandoned in a check-cashing store's parking lot. When the picked up the car, George Anthony — a former police officer — and the impound lot manager both said it smelled like a dead body had been inside.

Cindy Anthony then tracked down her daughter at a friend's apartment and when she couldn't produce Caylee, called the sheriff's office on July 15, 2008. The court found she lied to investigators about working at the Universal Studios theme park, about leaving her daughter with a nanny, about telling two friends that Caylee had been kidnapped and about receiving a phone call from her.

Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller, so-called voluntaryists who do not believe in government, but rather a voluntary society based on natural law, are accused of illegally recording their interactions with officials at the Franklin County Jail & House of Correction in July 2010.

www.copblock.orgAdam Mueller, left, and Pete Eyre give two "thumbs down" to the Greenfield Police Department for allegedly trampling on their rights when they were arrested last July for using a recording device at the Franklin County Jail & House of Correction. The pair, who go on trial Monday in Greenfield District Court, had traveled to the jail to bail out friends charged with firearm and drug offenses.

GREENFIELD – The trial of two men who belong to organizations with strong anti-government and anti-law enforcement views is poised to begin Monday in Greenfield District Court, where Adam Mueller and Pete Eyre are facing charges of illegally recording images and conversations with authorities at the Franklin County Jail & House of Correction last July.

Eyre and Mueller, the latter of whom also goes by the alias Ademo Freeman, are self-described “voluntaryists,” or people who believe that government should be abolished and replaced by a completely voluntary society based on the principles of natural law. They also believe that all forms of human association should be voluntary.

The pair ran into trouble when they showed up at the Greenfield jail last summer to bail out friends who were being held on drug and weapons charges. Eyre and Mueller claim they initially were told it would be OK to digitally record the bail process, but later were told they could not film on the premises.

Eyre and Mueller -- founding members of Cop Block, an organization dedicated to videotaping wrongdoing or heavy-handedness by law enforcement officers, including acts of police brutality or civil rights violations -- were asked to leave the jail after questioning whether the facility had a policy that expressly forbids recording audio or image at the facility. Most commonwealth jails have signs indicating forbidden activities, including the use of recording devices of any kind.

But with no signs barring them from filming, and jail officials’ apparent inability to produce documentation showing a no-filming policy, the duo continued to record their encounter with authorities, which eventually ended with them being arrested outside the jail.

Greenfield Police Sgt. Todd Dodge was the officer who responded to a call from jail officials. Dodge explained to Eyre and Mueller that they could bail out their friends, but the sergeant made it clear that they could not record or chronicle that process.

When Eyre and Mueller, who have since posted a 28-minute video of their arrest on www.copblock.org, allegedly continued to defy police orders, both men were taken into custody and charged.

Eyre and Mueller and their supporters launched a multimedia campaign in advance of Monday’s trial, highlighting what they believe was their mistreatment at the hands of the Greenfield Police Department last July. One of their complaints was that they were forced to sleep in “freezing cold cells” without blankets or pillows.

Over all, however, the men claim their civil rights were violated and that police had no right to arrest them on public property. Among their supporters is Greenfield’s own Penn Jillette, a well-known libertarian, comedian and illusionist, who has publicly supported Eyre and Mueller. Jillette, in a video clip about the case, says he’s a proud Greenfield native and thinks the police there do a good job. But, he adds, in the case of Eyre and Mueller, the police have “done something really, really wrong in arresting these guys.”

Cop Block’s website claims the organization is not so much an organization as a “decentralized project,” whose “pro-police accountability mission” includes holding law enforcement officials to the same standards as civilians. “You don’t have any extra rights because you have a badge,” is a catchphrases featured on the site, which includes a fair amount of material bashing and mocking law enforcement officials, in some instances likening them to Nazis and usurpers of civil liberties.

The logo of copblock.org, a website dedicated to increasing police accountability by videotaping cops and posting their images online.

The website also includes links to libertarian and anti-government sites including LibertyStickers.com, which hawks bumper stickers decrying Congress, public education, government unions and global warming, among other hot-button topics commonly lambasted by some conservatives and right-leaning organizations.

Some of the featured stickers suggest that living in the U.S. is tantamount to living in a police state (“Live simply so the cops can’t find you”), while others bluntly accuse police of criminality (“It’s perfectly okay to murder people, as long as you get a job as a cop first”). Also included are messages bemoaning federal banking authorities that set monetary policies and interest rates (“Central banking is evil”) and messages that public education is bad for children (“Get your kids out of government school before it’s too late for their muddled little heads”).

CopBlock.org promotes “flooding” police departments with phone calls to tell law enforcement officials “what you think about their actions” and urges supporters to take photos of police and upload them to a Facebook page, “even if they aren’t doing anything illegal or wrong (though it certainly doesn’t hurt if they are)." Images currently displayed on that page include a sheriff’s vehicle parked in front of a Subway sandwich shop and a Chicago Police Department truck parked in a no-parking zone.

CopBlock.org urges supporters who witness police officers breaking the law to “politely ask the officer(s) their name and badge number and document it along with the time, date and location.” The site also encourages videographers to “shoot a Cop Block video” if they witness or experience police wrongdoing.

One article posted on the website – which Eyre and Mueller characterized as a humor article -- openly attempts to emasculate Dodd, the Greenfield police sergeant who confronted the pair outside the county jail last July. The post, written by a Thomas Spooner, elicited strong criticism from at least one woman supporter of Eyre and Mueller’s, who faulted the author for striking a sexist, misogynistic tone.

Mueller defended Spooner’s diatribe against Dodge, however, calling it “comic relief” and comparing it to the sort of satire featured in The Onion or on “Saturday Night Live.” Eyre said he laughed so hard that he had tears in his eyes. “Good job ‘Thomas Spooner,’” Eyre writes in a post following the article.

The Spooner post, written in the form of a newspaper article, imagines that Dodge is placed on paid administrative leave for exhibiting signs of “menopause.” His treatment includes counseling, hormone replacement therapy and subscriptions to magazines such as “Hormonal Hatred Monthly” and “Bitch Trapped in a Man’s Body Quarterly.”

Both Eyre and Mueller, in various online statements, say they identify with the so-called Free State movement in New Hampshire, believe in minimal or entirely voluntary government, and reject all gun laws. Founded in 2001, the Free State project is a largely libertarian-based movement to get 20,000 people to relocate to libertarian-leaning New Hampshire, whose “live free or die” motto, low crime rate and minimal reliance on federal funding appeals to anti-government or so-called natural law types.

Free Staters are seeking people willing to sign a pledge to move to New Hampshire within five years of lining up 20,000 “liberty-loving people” seeking to relocate to the Granite State. The movement selected New Hampshire because the state receives a minimal amount of federal assistance, has an unpaid citizen Legislature (lawmakers receive a token $100 stipend for serving the public), and has among the lowest state and local tax burdens in the nation. Also appealing, according to Free Staters, is New Hampshire’s “culture of individual responsibility,” as evidenced by the absence of seatbelt and motorcycle helmet laws.

Mueller said he created Cop Block because of his “personal experience with law enforcement.” The site states that Mueller is “a victim of the war on drugs, twice,” and his goal is to help provide support and information to other people abused by police officers.

Mueller states that institutionalized law enforcement is the problem – or “allowing the government to have a monopoly on protection,” as he puts it -- not necessarily individual cops. "Competition is the answer,” he writes.

Eyre, who has the A-symbol tattoo for “anarchy” tattooed on his left bicep, says his mission is “to advance the voluntary society one mind at a time.” Eyre claims he went to school for “law enforcement” and once interned at a police department, but soon afterward came to “embrace the ideas of complete liberty.”

Despite their current legal woes, Eyre, Mueller and MARV -- the black-and-gold mobile home they have dubbed the “Mobile Authority Resistance Vehicle” -- will spend a portion of this summer on a nationwide tour aimed advancing the voluntary-society concept. Eyre and Mueller founded Liberty on Tour last year. And MARV -- “a rolling billboard for liberty” – will play an "instrumental role" in their mission to spread “a principled message” advancing the concept of a voluntary society.

It remains unclear if Eyre and Mueller have a lawyer for their criminal case, which is scheduled for trial in Greenfield District Court on Monday morning, or if they plan to represent themselves.

A past court appearance by the pair drew a large group of supporters, some of whom reacted loudly and caused a disturbance at the conclusion of the legal proceeding. Extra law enforcement officials are expected to be on hand on Monday.

VIDEO of Eyre and Mueller's arrest in Greenfield in July 2010:

A 2nd White Hut, 30 Boltwood and The Lumber Yard are among the new eateries coming to Amherst.

The Republican | Diane LedermanThe former gallery space on Main Street is being transformed into the new Lumber Yard restaurant, targeted for an October opening.

AMHERST – “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well,” the British writer Virginia Woolf once said.

Amherst restaurant operators are hoping to help people think. The restaurant scene here is evolving this summer, with new restaurants and restaurant expansions, changes that some say will alter the downtown dining landscape.

Robert J. Reeves, general manager of The Lord Jeffery Inn, said the inn’s new restaurant will be part of that scene.

Called 30 Boltwood, the restaurant and inn, currently being renovated, should open in the late fall. He said he sees 30 Boltwood fitting in with “what is really an elevated dining scene for Amherst.” He said 30 Boltwood will be “farm to fork cuisine” focusing on what’s grown locally, and will also include patio dining.

“What you're seeing is getting away from the overall abundance of pub type dining,” he said. The restaurant will be more than a dining room for guests but much more part of the restaurant scene for people coming to town to eat, he said.

He talked about the recent opening of Lit – a nightclub restaurant that opened in what was at one time the Atlantis restaurant and later the Green Market Farm Store on Boltwood Walk – as another example of the evolution.

“Lit is terrific,” said Tony A. Maroulis, executive director of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a sophisticated bistro with Mediterranean infusion.”

He too thinks the restaurant profile is changing, and is hoping that the town will become more of a destination for dining than it now is. Judie’s Restaurant is one such long-standing draw.

The Lumber Yard could become another. The restaurant will open this fall at 383 Main St., the site of the former Wunderarts gallery, a space owned by Maroulis and his wife Nora.

Rolf and Cindy Nelson, who own the Sconset Cafe in Nantucket, plan to serve “an inviting array of contemporary American food, from entrees to lighter nibbles including salads, local cheeses, and charcuterie,” according to its website. Charcuterie is devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham and sausage.

The restaurant will include a wine bar. Renovations are ongoing, and a new patio has been laid for outdoor dining.

The French bistro Chez Albert is moving from 27 South Pleasant St. to a slightly larger space about 2/10 of a mile away on North Pleasant Street, next to Henion Bakery, and will expand its menu offering. The new space will allow owner Paul Hathaway to have a bar and a patio and more dining room seating. He’ll offer a new patio and bar menu as well.

“We’re excited,” he said. “We’ll be able to offer our same unique experience in a little bigger location.” The current Chez Albert is closing July 28, and he hopes to reopen in mid-August.

But that’s not say to pub or casual has gone the way of the eight-track. “I think we still have the inexpensive college eats comfort food type of thing,” Maroulis said.

The West Springfield-based White Hut will augment that category of food. The eatery has served burgers smothered in fried onions since 1939 and will be opening in space that once belonged to Newbury Comics.

Diane Lederman | The RepublicanJohn Korpita, principal owner of the Amherst Brewing Company, stands in front of plans for the brewery's new home on University Drive in Amherst. The brewery is expected to open here in August.

The Main Street side of that music store is now the site of the LimeRed Tea Room. White Hut will take up the rear and overlook Boltwood Walk, kiddy-corner to the new Johnny’s Tavern. White Hut plans to stay open until 2 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, said Senior Planner Jeffrey R. Bagg. It will not serve alcohol.

With La Piazza Ristorante closing, Andrew Yee, whose family owns the Huke Lau in Chicopee and Johnny’s Bar and Grill in South Hadley, plans to open Johnny’s Tavern in that space. According to his application before the Design Review Board, the restaurant will be a gastropub catering to an older crowd.

Bagg expects the special permits for both Johnny’s and the White Hut to be filed with the Town Clerk by the end of the month, at which point renovations can begin. There is a 20-day appeal process from the date of filing.

The Amherst Brewing Company, meanwhile, will be closing its North Pleasant Street restaurant and pub at the end of July and moving to its new 20,000 square-foot space on University Drive. The brewery will likely reopen in August.

Jason Dicaprio, owner of the Moan and Dove in South Amherst, is planning to open a new brewery there called the High Horse Brewery and Bistro. According to its management plan, it will serve gastropub fare as well as vegetarian and kid offerings.

The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing Thursday on that request. Bagg does not anticipate any issues as the business is essentially the same as what’s currently there.

Maroulis said he's hoping to lure more retail to town. “Destination dining is a great opportunity for us to capitalize (on that).”

A Connecticut is shot and wounded in the line of duty, a Northampton boy is injured after falling from a 35-foot rock ledge in Shelburne Falls, and more of this morning's news.

AP Photo/The Metro West Daily NewsMembers of The Muses, a Wayland HIgh School a cappella group, react with emotion as some of slain classmate Lauren Astley's favorite music is played at the beginning of a memorial service in her honor at First Parish church on Saturday in Wayland. Astley, 18, a 2011 graduate of Wayland High School, was killed on July 3, and her former boyfriend is charged with her murder.

• Massachusetts bullying reports contrast sharply [Boston.com]


• Northampton boy falls from cliff in Shelburne Falls [WWLP.com]


• Western Mass towns hit by tornadoes watch for brush fires [Boston.com]


• A Plainville, Conn., police officer is shot in the line of duty [Courant.com]


• Video: Orlando Sun photographer describes Casey Anthony's release from custody [OrlandoSentinel.com]


• Tables turned on Murdoch as scandal rocks his media empire [ABCNews.Go.com]


• China says Obama meeting with Dalai Lama imperils U.S., China relations [Reuters.com]


• Opinion: Sarah Palin movie off to rocky debut [TheAtlantic.com]




Associated Press video of LA freeway closing:

• Twitter posts tagged #westernma in Western Mass. [MassLive.com]


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Multiple police units responded to a 3:47 a.m. report of gunfire in the city's Old Hill neighborhood on Sunday. A taxi driver reported being robbed at gunpoint by two armed men, at least one of whom fired multiple rounds in the vicinity of the crime scene.

SPRINGFIELD -- Police responded to the scene of an armed robbery and shooting incident involving a taxi driver shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday in the vicinity of 41 Chapel St.

Authorities said the driver was robbed at gunpoint by two armed men on Chapel Street, a short east-west block between Eastern Avenue and Logan Street in the city's Old Hill neighborhood.

The driver apparently was uninjured, but police reports indicated multiple gunshots were fired in the incident, which remains under investigation. It was unclear if the shots were directed at the driver, whose cab was not hit by gunfire, according to a Springfield police officer who responded to the 3:47 a.m. call.

Police questioned several people in connection with the incident, although it was not immediately known if any arrests were made.

Police did not identify the taxi driver, who told officers that the robbers made off with his cellphone and cash.

Authorities described one suspect as an Hispanic or light-skinned black male wearing a white shirt and a baseball cap with the letter "A" imprinted on the front, and the other as a black male dressed in black or dark clothing, including a dark scarf that covered his face.

"There were shots fired. It's not known if they were shooting at the victim (but) there definitely were some shots fired," an officer said.

It was not immediately known if the suspects were passengers in the cab, or if the robbery occurred before or after the driver dropped off a fare in the neighborhood.

More information will be posted on MassLive.com as it becomes available.

THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate site of an armed robbery and shooting incident reported early Sunday morning in Springfield:

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Police conducted a random road block on Memorial Avenue in Chicopee.

Republican file photo

CHICOPEE- State police conducted a sobriety check road block on Memorial Drive in Chicopee Saturday night and made seven arrests, police said.

The road block was in place from 8 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. on Sunday. Police stopped cars randomly to inspect for alcohol abuse.

Seven drivers were arrested for operating under the influence. All were released and will have to appear in court at a later date, police said.

Owen Freeman-Daniels and Arnold Levinson are vying for the seat left vacant by Angela Plassmann, who resigned amid controversy about an illegal structure on her lot.

The Three County Fairgrounds in Ward 3 is replacing these horse barns as part of a major renovation.

NORTHAMPTON – The two candidates to fill the vacant Ward 3 seat on the City Council will square off in public for the first time Tuesday at Bridge Street Elementary school.

Owen Freeman-Daniels and Dr. Arnold G. Levinson are vying for the seat left vacant by Angela D. Plassmann, who resigned amid controversy about an illegal structure on her lot in April. The special election, which will be held at cost of $5,000-$10,000, will be on Aug. 2.

A financial advisor and insurance broker, Freeman-Daniels, 31, is running on a platform that addresses such issues as economic growth, sustainable land use and consensus building. As a long-time member of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association, Freeman-Daniels was actively involved in the aftermath of the Dec. 27, 2009, fires that terrorized the ward. Two men, a father and son on Fair Street, perished in one of those blazes. Anthony P. Baye, a Ward 3 resident, is awaiting trial on charges that he set the fires.

Freeman-Daniels said he observed considerable friction between Plassmann and the neighborhood association and wants to build consensus in the ward.

“I think Ward 3 can lead the city,” he said.

Levinson, 70, is a retired orthodontist. Like Freeman-Daniels, he is running for elective office for the first time. On his list of concerns are safety issues, particularly with regard to speeding, upgrading the road conditions in the ward and development at the Three County Fairground, which is planning a major renovation.

Levinson also observed a disconnect between City Hall and Ward 3 but believes Plassmann was a positive factor in that dynamic.

“She set a high standard,” he said.

Levinson presents himself as a “truly independent” candidate who will represent all citizens in Ward 3.

“This is a rare opportunity to take on a city post where you can help your community to function,” he said.

Plassmann, who was a first-term councilor, stunned the community when she tendered her resignation amid charges that an unnamed city official was harassing her for political reasons. Although she declined to be more specific, it came to light that the Planning Department and Building Commissioner were looking into complaints that she had an illegal mobile home on her property.

Plassmann apparently removed the home, which disappeared from beside her house overnight, but refused to take calls from the media. She also threatened legal action against the city, although no suit has been filed to date.

The candidates’ forum is at 7 p.m. and will be moderated by Frances Volkmann, a former city councilor from Ward 5. Volkmann was asked to step in as a neutral party.

“I don’t have a dog in this fight,” she said.

The year-old site features from 3,500 to 4,000 shoes for sale at any given time and garners 800-or-so unique visitors each day.

Mark M. Murray/ The Republican07/06/11Springfield - Republican Photo by Mark M.Murray- Ellen Simers owner of If the Shoe Doesnt't Fit , shown here with some of her own shoes.She opened a web auction site for show lovers.

SPRINGFIELD – If you don’t know Manolo Blahnik from Buster Brown, Ellen F. Simes’ website might not be for you.

Likewise, if you think owning a pair of mules would require a pasture, If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit is not the best fit for you.

But if, like Simes, your soul yearns for soles, her Springfield-based website where footwear fans can buy, sell and swap is the coolest thing since Michael Kors, Blahnik, Salvatore Ferragamo or many other high-end shoe designers whose creations come her way.

The year-old site features from 3,500 to 4,000 shoes for sale at any given time and garners 800-or-so unique visitors each day. Most sellers pay a $1 flat fee for each listing whether the auction the shoes, sell for a flat price or chose to swap those pumps for that must-have pair of ballet flats. Some sellers chose to pay Simes a percentage of the auction price.

Simes’ job, besides owning the site, is to talk it up on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, blog about it and make sure fashion and shoe bloggers are talking it up as well.

“I am a shoe addict,” she admits. “Shoes,” she said, “just make the whole outfit. I could wear what I’m wearing today with a pair of flip-flops and be casual. But with a pair of high-heels I’m dressed up. I would walk differently I would carry myself differently and I would act differently.”

Unfortunately for Simes, she wears a 6 1/2 double-wide.

“It can be a challenging size for a woman to fit,” she said.

So she ended up on a years-long quest to find attractive shoes that would fit her.

“Women have shoes that are their two-hour shoes. That’s what they wear out to dinner just to sit there and look fabulous. But, they can’t wear them for very long. Then, women have shoes they might be able to wear for a whole night out. Then, they have shoes that they wear every day.”

All of that searching resulted in Simes amassing a collection of 300 pairs of shoes ranging from Ferragamo high heels with red lacquered soles to a pair of rubber boots with multicolored polka dots.

The collection nearly fills a room in her Forest Park home. Every day, shoes are arrayed on the floor in pairs. She keeps the special shoes in clear plastic food tubs stacked chest high.

She tried selling shoes at flea markets and on eBay. A pair of women’s shoes is sold on eBay every eight seconds.

“But eBay is so complicated. I have an advanced degree, and I couldn’t figure it out,” Simes, a pharmacist, said.

Republican staff photo by Mark M. MurrayA screen shot of Ellen F. Simes' website, Iftheshoedoesntfit.com

Brooks' spokesman said Sunday's appointment with police was prearranged but said she was not aware she was going to be arrested

View full sizeFormer Chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks leaves a hotel in central London, in this Sunday, July 10, 2011 file photo. Sky television sources reported on Sunday, July 17, 2011 that Brooks had been arrested by police investigating a phone hacking and corruption scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch's British media company. Scotland Yard confirmed that a 43-year-old woman had been arrested. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, file)

LONDON (AP) — London police arrested Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's former British CEO, in the phone hacking and police bribery scandal Sunday, bringing the U.K. investigation into Murdoch's inner circle for the first time.

Brooks, 43, was arrested at a London police station at noon Sunday. The former editor of Murdoch's News of the World tabloid is being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications — phone hacking — and on suspicion of corruption, which relates to bribing police for information.

A statement released on Brooks' behalf said she "voluntarily attended a London police station to assist with their ongoing investigation."

Sunday's arrest comes just days before Brooks, Murdoch and his son James are due to be grilled by a U.K. parliamentary committee investigating the hacking. The arrest throws Brooks' appearance before Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee into question; she would not have to answer questions that could prejudice a criminal investigation.

Brooks' spokesman, David Wilson, said Sunday's appointment with police was prearranged on Friday but said she was not aware she was going to be arrested.

"Obviously this complicates matter greatly," Wilson said. "Her legal team will have to have discussions with the committee to see whether it would still be appropriate for her to attend."

Brooks, one of Murdoch's most loyal lieutenants, stepped down Friday as head of his British newspaper arm, News International. She was editor of the now-defunct News of the World between 2000 and 2003 when some of the phone hacking took place, but has always said she did not know that hacking was going on. That claim has been greeted with skepticism by many who worked there.

At an appearance before lawmakers in 2003, Brooks admitted that News International had paid police for information — an admission of possible illegal activity that went largely unchallenged at the time.

Police have already arrested nine other people connected to Murdoch's British media empire over allegations that the News of the World hacked into the phone voice mails of hundreds of celebrities, politicians, rival journalists and even murder victims. No one has yet been charged.

The arrest also piles more pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron, a friend and neighbor of Brooks, who has met with her many times and invited her to stay at his official country retreat.

Cameron is already under fire for hiring Andy Coulson, who resigned as News of the World editor after two employees were jailed for corruption in 2007, as his communications chief. Coulson resigned from Downing Street in January after police reopened their hacking investigation. He was arrested last week and questioned before being released on bail.

Brooks' arrest is another blow for Murdoch, who is struggling to tame a scandal that has already destroyed one of his British newspapers, cost the jobs of two of his senior executives and sunk his dream of taking full control of a lucrative satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.

View full sizeChairman of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch, left, and former Chief executive of News International Rebekah Brooks as they leave his residence in central London, Sunday, July 10, 2011. News of the World is accused of hacking into the mobile phones of various crime victims, celebrities and politicians. (AP Photo/Ian Nicholson)

On Sunday, Murdoch took out a second newspaper ad promising that News Corp. will make amends for the phone hacking scandal. The ad in several U.K. Sunday newspapers, titled "Putting right what's gone wrong," said News Corp. would assist the British police investigations into phone hacking and police bribery. It vowed there would "be no place to hide" for wrongdoers.

"It may take some time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our readers, colleagues and partners," the ad said.

That follows a full-page Murdoch ad in Saturday's U.K. papers declaring, "We are sorry."

Last week Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World after it was accused of eavesdropping on cell phones for years. Sunday was the first day in Britain that the popular, gossipy, muckraking weekly was not on the newsstands.

Murdoch also abandoned his BSkyB takeover bid, and two of his senior executives resigned — Brooks and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton.

But Murdoch's critics say that is not enough. Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said Sunday that Murdoch has "too much power" in Britain and his share of British media ownership should be reduced. With the News of the World gone, Murdoch now owns three national British newspapers — The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times — and a 39-percent share of BSkyB.

"I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 percent of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News," Miliband told The Observer newspaper.

"I think it's unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organization. If you want to minimize the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous," he said.

Deputy prime Minister Nick Clegg agreed there should be greater plurality in the British media.

"A healthy press is a diverse one, where you've got lots of different organizations competing, and that's exactly what we need," Clegg told the BBC.

Clegg's Liberal Democrat party has asked Britain's broadcast regulator to consider whether News Corp. is a "fit and proper" owner of BSkyB — if not, Murdoch's current stake in BSkyB could be in danger.

Cameron's Conservative-led government and the London police also are facing increasing questions about their close relationship with Murdoch's media empire.

Cameron has held 26 meetings with Murdoch executives since he was elected in May 2010 and invited several to his country retreat. Senior police officers also had close ties to Murdoch executives, even hiring as a consultant a former News of the World editor who has since been arrested for alleged hacking.

Home Secretary Theresa May plans to make a statement Monday in the House of Commons outlining her "concerns" about close police ties with News International.

Police are under pressure to explain why their original hacking investigation several years ago failed to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone other than News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Detectives reopened the investigation earlier this year and now say they have the names of 3,700 potential victims.

Records show that senior officers — including Paul Stephenson, the current chief of London's Metropolitan Police — have had numerous meals and meetings with News International executives in the past few years. The force also hired Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor arrested last week in the phone hacking, as a part-time PR consultant for a year until September 2010.

Stephenson also stayed for free earlier this year at a health resort that employed Wallis to do its public relations. The police force said the stay had been arranged through the facility's managing director, a family friend, as Stephenson recovered from surgery. It said the police chief had not known that Wallis worked there.

Murdoch is eager to stop the crisis from further spreading to the United States, where many of his most lucrative assets — including the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — are based.

The FBI has already opened an inquiry into whether 9/11 victims or their families were also hacking targets of News Corp. journalists.

Dozens of mobile homes are being installed in tornado-ravaged communities throughout Western Massachusetts. Watch video

The Republican | Mark M. Murray07.08.2011 | SPRINGFIELD - Two temporary house trailers on Searle Place are being used by the Jenkins family, as their home at right, was damaged in the June 1 tornado.

SPRINGFIELD – Audrey Jenkins prefers to keeps the curtains on the northeastern side of her new home on Searle Place drawn tight against a haunting and painful view.

“It hurts to look out that way,” said Jenkins of their tornado-ravaged home which is slated to be torn down. “Nobody can go in there now. It is condemned.”

Jenkins lives with her husband, Walter Jenkins, his brother, Leon Jenkins, and their 5-year-old nephew,William, in one of two mobile homes that have been installed on the family property in wake of the June 1 tornado.

“It’s good because you are on your own property,” Jenkins said of their temporary, three-bedroom home.

She and other family members were home when the June 1 tornado ripped off their roof.

“It sounded like a roaring bear, an angry bear,” Jenkins recalled. “I am so thankful that God saved our lives.”

Pearlie Jenkins, the 76-year-old matriarch of the family, lives in a two-bedroom mobile home next door with a third son, Arthur.

The Republican | Mark M. Murray07.08.2011 | SPRINGFIELD - Pearlie Jenkins sits in the living room of her temporary trailer on Searle Place.

“I don’t mind it,” Pearlie Jenkins said one morning last week as she sat in her living room, watching an update on the Caylee Anthony case on CNN.

“I like it. It’s nice here,” said Arthur Jenkins. “I wish I had one of them.”

Dozens of similar mobile homes are being installed in tornado-ravaged communities throughout Western Massachusetts. Funded by private insurance, these structures are not the so-called FEMA trailers, provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which gained notoriety down south in wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Peter Judge, a spokesman for the state Emergency Management Agency, says the FEMA trailers are not winterized and therefore not ideal for use up here. “It’s highly unlikely,” Judge said of the possibility of such trailers being brought here to house tornado victims.

These mobile homes for this region’s tornado victims are more typically used by residents who are rebuilding fire-damaged properties. Once the necessary plumbing, electrical and temporary housing permits are obtained from the municipality in which they are located, they are tied in to the existing utilities.

They appear to be comfortable enough.

The Jenkins' mobile homes have wood paneling, front and rear doors, fully outfitted kitchens, washer and dryer and bathrooms that includes tub and shower.

“It’s small, but it’s home now,” Jenkins said, adding that it will likely remain home for another six to eight months while their old home is torn down and their new one is rebuilt.

“They are very well-built homes,” said Frank Ward, general manager of American Mobile Homes, of Weymouth, which has supplied the Jenkins’ two mobile homes

American, one of at least three major vendors of the mobile homes to this region, has already placed some 20 units in the region, including Monson, Brimfield and several in Sturbridge, Ward said.

Demand for the mobile homes is on the rise as residents rebuild their lives and homes.

“We have a list of people that are waiting,” said Mary Lomascolo, a book-keeper for Temporary Housing, which is associated with Prospect Builders, in East Longmeadow.

So far, Temporary Housing has placed about a dozen of the mobile homes in the tornado areas, with about a half-dozen more pending. Those on the list are typically waiting four to six weeks before they can get a trailer.

Lomascolo said it wasn’t long after the tornadoes ripped through that calls began coming in from those seeking the mobile homes. “We knew it was going to be hectic,” she said.

A third major supplier, Pope Housing, based in Kingston, N.H., has placed five of its mobile homes in Western Massachusetts with another “four or five” pending,” said Jerry Poisson, operations manager.

“I feel very good when I leave a customer’s housing and feel I have put a little stability back in their lives,” Poisson said.

Like the Jenkins family, Anne Whalen, of Judith Street in Springfield’s East Forest Park neighborhood, said she is thankful for the stability that her recently-delivered mobile home will provide.

“It’s a sense of normalcy,” said Whalen, whose home was essentially cut in half by a fallen oak tree and will have to be torn down.

Even so, reminders of the tornado remain everywhere, and it’s clear that they will linger here for a long time.

“It was just overwhelming,” said Whalen, who, immediately after the tornado, lived in a Enfield hotel near her workplace at Mass Mutual. “It’s still overwhelming now just to think of what happened.”

Whalen’s two-bedroom mobile home is set up much like the Jenkinses’ and came with two air conditioners, a loveseat and chair and a queen-sized bed. It also has wood paneling and its parquet wooden floor appears to be a close match to the flooring in her ruined home.

“Isn’t that ironic?” she said.

The Pioneer Valley has 10,443 jobs in the "green economy," including forest rangers, growers of organic produce and installers of weather stripping.

Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanDavid Tuohey, left, of Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company, and CEO Ronald C. DeCurzio stand in front of the company's solar panel located on their property in Ludlow.

The Sandri Companies have their roots in fossil fuels with a fleet of fuel-oil trucks, a lubricant distributorship and gas stations from New Hampshire to upstate New York.

But since branching out to wood pellets and the heating appliances that burn pellets in 2009, Greenfield-based Sandri has added a renewable energy division, offering solar hot water and solar panels that generate electricity, energy assessments and wood pellets. The division has four dedicated employees and allows the company to make better use of existing office staff and customer service reps, says Laurence H. Goodyear, vice president of renewable energy for the Sandri Companies.

“I believe we’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” Goodyear said last week in a telephone interview from a clean energy conference in San Francisco. “It seems like there is a lot going on in renewable energy now, but it is only the beginning.”

The Pioneer Valley has 10,443 jobs in the “green economy,” including forest rangers, growers of organic produce and installers of weather stripping, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public-policy research organization.

Those jobs account for 3.5 percent of the total number of jobs in the local economy, giving this region the sixth-highest “green density” among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the nation, according to the report, “Sizing the Green Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment.”

What statisticians call the Springfield Metropolitan Area, a region encompassing all of Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire counties, was the only New England region in the top 10 nationwide.

Albany, Schenectady and Troy, N.Y., had the highest percentage of green jobs in the country at 6.3 percent, or 28,087 total jobs. Some of those jobs are in state government, noted Jonathan T. Rothwell, a senior research analyst at Brookings. General Electric Co. also centers its clean energy efforts in Schenectady and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy is a center for clean energy research, he said.

Hartford has 13,712 green jobs, or 2.2 percent of its total. Worcester had 6,537 or 2 percent of that region’s total number of jobs, according to the report.

In the Pioneer Valley, the region’s green economy grew by 3,208 jobs from 2003 to 2010, a 5.4 percent rate of growth that beat the national average among the 100 largest metropolitan areas.

“Green energy really is providing the new jobs to lead us out of the recession,” said David F. Tuohey, director of communications for the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. The Ludlow-based utility is cited by name in the Brookings report.

The cooperative sponsors energy auditing and weather proofing efforts, and more than 600 kilowatts of solar projects through its member utilities. MMWEC is also part of the $64.7 million Berkshire Wind Power project atop Brodie Mountain in the town of Hancock in Berkshire County. The project makes enough power for 6,000 homes.

Besides the construction jobs, MMWEC has saved jobs in its organization by adding green-energy responsibilities to existing job descriptions, Tuohey said.

Emerging green jobs in the Pioneer Valley also pay better wages than similar jobs in non-green industries, according to Rothwell.

Western Massachusetts Electric Co. has also started work on a solar power project in the Indian Orchard neighborhood of Springfield. Holyoke, Westfield, Amherst and other communities also have solar projects in the works.

Teresa B. Jones, an assistant professor at Greenfield Community College and coordinator of its green careers program, stands next to a solar panel model at the college

The median wage is $42,657 for green jobs in the Pioneer Valley, compared with a median annual salary of $39,064 for all jobs in the region.

“And, many of these jobs don’t require advanced education,” Rothwell said. “What we have found is that there is a lot of on-the-job training in these industries.”

Teresa B. Jones, an assistant professor at Greenfield Community College and coordinator of its green careers program, said she’s seen 33 students graduate with certificates in green energy in four years and another six students earn two-year college degrees in the subject.

She’s seen jobs become available, but is cautious, adding, “It hasn’t been what we thought it was back when everything was rah-rah green jobs.”

The recession hit the construction trades and the housing market very hard. Credit became tight, making it less likely that companies will invest in green technology.

She’s seen graduates start their own businesses, though. And others start networking by taking their skills to area nonprofits, Jones added.

“It’s small businesses with two, three (or) four employees. These people are going out there and creating themselves,” Jones said. “I know I didn’t have to hoof it that hard when I completed my training.”

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayRonald C.DeCurzio, left CEO of MMWEC, Massachusetts Municpal Wholesale Electric Company , and David Tuohey, right, stand infront of the companies solar panel locted on their property in Ludlow.

Defendants Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller are on trial for allegedly continuing to film Franklin County Jail fficials after they were asked to stop.

This is an updated version of a story posted at 10:44 this morning.

Photo by Conor Berry / The RepublicanA large group of supporters were on hand Monday at the Franklin County Courthouse, where Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller are on trial in Greenfield District Court for an alleged illegal filming incident last July at the Franklin County Jail. Eyre and Mueller, founders of the police watchdog organization Cop Block, were arrested by Greenfield police after allegedly failing to comply with requests by authorities to stop filming at the jail.

GREENFIELD - The trial of two New Hampshire men accused of illegal filming last July at the Franklin County Jail began Monday in Greenfield District Court, where closing arguments are tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller, founders of the "pro-police accountability" organization Cop Block -- which advocates filming or photographing police and posting their images online -- are charged with resisting arrest and with refusing to stop digitally recording a July 1, 2010, confrontation with jail officials and Greenfield police.

The defendants, who had gone to the jail to bail out two friends being held on drug and weapons charges, claim there were no posted signs prohibiting them from filming at the facility. They also claim officials failed to produce any documentation of policies precluding the use of recording devices at the jail, which is why they continued filming their encounter with law enforcement officials.

Eyre and Mueller passively resisted being arrested by letting their bodies go limp and falling to the ground, according to testimony, which concluded late Monday afternoon.

"I did not want to participate with my own caging," said Eyre, adding that law enforcement officials were groundless when they arrested him and Mueller.

The defendants are so-called voluntaryists who adhere to the principles of a stateless society based on natural law, not a formal system of rules and regulations with law enforcers such as police and other agents of the government.

Despite Eyre and Mueller's anti-government views, two government-appointed attorneys were seated at the defense table throughout Monday's proceeding. Both Mueller and Eyre were seen regularly conferring with the lawyers.

About 60 supporters of the duo packed the courtroom, clapping loudly each time Eyre and Mueller made what supporters believed were valid or persuasive arguments in their defense.

Some of the supporters wore hats, while one held a small sign stating, "No victim, no crime." Many members of the entourage wore T-shirts promoting Cop Block or Liberty on Tour, Eyre and Mueller's mission to blend on-the-road activism with new media to promote the voluntary-society concept.

The majority of supporters declined to stand whenever a court officer issued the standard "all rise" command each time Greenfield District Court Judge William F. Mazanec III entered or exited the courtroom.

Monday's session also was generally noisy, with audience members breaking into spirited conversation each time the judge, attorneys and defendants held sidebar conversations at the judge's bench.

Most Massachusetts judges require silence when court is in session, and outbursts of any kind -- including applause or laughter -- are not tolerated. But applause and laughter were in abundance at Monday's proceeding, as audience members routinely reacted to testimony they found humorous or objectionable.

Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Banks hammered home the point that Eyre and Mueller were repeatedly told they could not film at the jail and failed to heed officers' orders to stop.

"They refused; they were defiant," Banks said.

The prosecutor maintained that Mueller swung an arm as he was being taken into custody, triggering a resisting-arrest charge. That remark elicited loud laughter and comments from the audience.

Eyre and Mueller said a jail official initially told them they could film the process of posting bail for the release of their jailed friends. The men left to retrieve bail money, they said, but were told upon returning that they could not film that process after all.

Photo by Conor Berry / The RepublicanPete Eyre and Adam Mueller's Mobile Authority Resistance Vehicle, or MARV, was parked outside the Franklin County Courthouse on Monday. The men are on trial in Greenfield District Court for an incident stemming from an encounter with law enforcement officials at the Franklin County Jail last July. The pair, founding members of the police watchdog organization Cop Block, were arrested after allegedly refusing to stop filming at the county jail.

The defendants both testified that there was nothing surreptitious about their attempts to chronicle the procedure, which was recorded and later posted online. Prosecutors claim law enforcement officials were unaware they were being filmed, a violation of so-called wiretapping laws.

Greenfield Police Sgt. Todd Dodge, who was among the officers who took the defendants into custody last July, testified that he had responded to a call from jail officials seeking police intervention to help remove Eyre and Mueller from jail property.

Capt. Brian Schindler, of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, said he was unsure if Eyre and Mueller were members of the media, who must get permission from the sheriff in order to use recording devices at the jail.

"I wasn't sure of (their) intentions," Schindler testified.

In an effort to control the large crowd, courthouse guards sealed off a hallway abutting the courtroom where the trial is being held.

Eyre and Mueller launched a media blitz in advance of Monday's trial. Their Cop Block website includes detailed accounts of the Greenfield case, which they had hoped would be dismissed.

They have refused to accept any plea agreements in the case. On Monday, Mueller wore a T-shirt whose front stated "No Victim, No Crime" and whose back listed the address of a website, www.nevertakeaplea.org.

It remains unclear if the Northwestern District Attorney's office had offered any plea deals prior to the case going to trial, but several charges initially lodged against the defendants were later dropped.

Meanwhile, Eyre and Mueller's black-and-gold mobile home -- dubbed MARV, which stands for Mobile Authority Resistance Vehicle -- was parked outside the courthouse on Monday.

Despite their legal woes, the men are taking their Liberty On Tour mission to the streets this summer, espousing their voluntary-society views and promoting the practice of publicly challenging law enforcement officials by filming and photographing them.

The telephone system currently being used by the city is so old that people have to trawl the Internet for replacement parts.

AGAWAM – The City Council has authorized spending $350,000 to buy a new telephone service for municipal offices as well as the School Department that is projected to save the city about $600 a month.

The $600 a month in savings comes to about 25 percent of the current cost of the city’s telephone system, Mike Ebner told the council during its meeting Tuesday. He is the city’s independent consultant from Concept Telecom of East Longmeadow.

The council ended up voting 9-0 to move ahead with a new system, with City Council President Donald M. Rheault recusing himself as he has worked with most of the telephone services in the area.

Ebner did a power point presentation before the council that highlighted some of the problems with the current telephone system, which was installed in 1992. He said the system is at capacity and needs work. It is so antiquated that repair people sometimes have to trawl the Internet to locate replacement parts. The city is poised to buy a new telephone system from the Connecticut company Total Communications.

When the telephone system is down, the city loses the capacity to use the 911 emergency system, he told the council. There have also been reports of constant busy signals on School Department telephones, according to Ebner.

Among the boons of the new telephone system will be being able to provide voice mail to School Department employees whether or not they have their own telephones, Ebner said.

It will also let the city add fax lines at no additional cost and protect the city from an extended system outage.

Ebner said it will take anywhere from four to eight weeks for equipment to arrive with it taking another three to four months to install the new system.

Among the other benefits of new system as outlined in Ebner’s power point presentation are the following:

• All telephone numbers will remain the same.

• Caller ID will be a standard feature.

• All employees will have their own 7-digit direct inward dial number to they can be reached without having to have a receptionist or auto attendant.

• Departments will have a box of telephones on standby in cases they need to evacuate and set up operations at another area.

• A voice mail system will allow a department head to record one message and broadcast it to an entire department.

7 people have taken out nomination papers for mayor, including incumbent Domenic Sarno, City Council President Jose Tosado and School Committee member Antonette Pepe.

Springfield City Hall, with Campanile.

SPRINGFIELD – Residents have until Friday to take out nomination papers if interested in being on the ballot for City Council or mayor in the fall election.

The papers must be obtained from the Election Office by 5 p.m. Friday, and must be returned by July 26, at 5 p.m., to be certified for the ballot.

As of July 15, 39 residents had taken out the papers including a mix of current office holders and new candidates, Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola said.

Candidates for mayor need to gather at least 500 signatures of registered voters, and candidates for council need at least 200 signatures to be certified for the ballot.

There is no School Committee race on the ballot, as members are currently midway through a four-year term.

Oyola said she strongly recommends that candidates bring the signatures in early, even just a sheet at a time. There have been cases in the past where interested candidates thought they had enough signatures, only to fall short by a handful of signatures in the final hours, she said.

Of the current 13 members of the City Council, 12 have taken out nomination papers seeking re-election. Council President Jose F. Tosado is a candidate for mayor, which will leave his at-large council seat up for grabs.

Seven people have taken out nomination papers for mayor including Tosado, incumbent Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, and School Committee member Antonette E. Pepe.

Others taking out papers for mayor, without prior election experience, are Alexander W. Fisher-Levesque, Jeffery P. Donnelly, Michael Jones and Albert M. Dziewt. Donnelly also took out papers for City Council.

There are five at-large council seats and eight ward seats.

The Ward 8 Council seat could be a rematch between incumbent John A. Lysak and Orlando Ramos, both of whom have taken out papers. Ramos, who lost by 81 votes to Lysak in the last election in 2009, has announced his candidacy.

At-large Councilors James J. Ferrera III, Kateri B. Walsh, Thomas M. Ashe, and Timothy J. Rooke have all taken out nomination papers.

Ward 6 City Councilor Amaad I. Rivera said Friday he will return papers to run for an at-large council seat.

Others who took out papers for the at-large seats include former Councilor Bud L. Williams, an announced candidate, and Justin J. Hurst, also an announced candidate.

David Ciampi and Bruce S. Adams are certified to appear on the ballot for the at-large seats, while Vera O’Connor, Joseph R. Fountain, Charles H. Rucks, Edward A. Kelly, Miguel A. Soto and John Stevens also took out papers.

Others taking out papers, with the incumbent listed first, include:

• Ward 1: Zaida Luna, Jillian Mercadante and James M. Anziano
• Ward 2: Michael A. Fenton
• Ward 3: Melvin Edwards, William A. Lessard
• Ward 4: E. Henry Twiggs, Charles A. Stokes
• Ward 5: Clodovaldo Concepcion
• Ward 6: Amaad Rivera (not running), Kenneth E. Shea, Jacob Seldin, Matthew Levy, Santino A. Bruno and Steven Dzubak
• Ward 7: Timothy A. Allen
• Ward 8: Lysak and Ramos

Gold rose above $1,600 an ounce as investors sought safe places to park money.

Associated PressTrader Robert McQuade works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

By MATTHEW CRAFT
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK — Not even a string of better earnings reports could stave off worries about debt on Monday.

Europe's banking troubles and an impasse over lifting the U.S. government's borrowing limit helped drag down stock markets in the U.S. and Europe. Gold rose above $1,600 an ounce as investors sought safe places to park money.

The S&P 500 index dropped 10.70 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 1,305.44.

The Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq composite index gave up their gains for the month. The Dow fell 94.57 points, 0.8 percent, to 12,385.16. The Nasdaq fell 24.69 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,765.11.

The results of stress tests on European banks released last week came under deeper scrutiny. Eight banks failed the test aimed at measuring how well they would hold up under additional financial strain.

But the tests didn't take into account how banks would fare if Greece or Italy defaults, says Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG. Greece and Italy are among the countries most at risk of defaulting on their debts.

Italy not only has Europe's third largest economy but also the world's third-largest bond market at 1.8 trillion euro ($2.5 trillion). "So far European officials have failed to stabilize a country as small as Greece," Greenhaus said. "So we have little reason to have faith they'll fix a country as big as Italy."

In the U.S., the debt limit debate remains at a standstill in Washington. The Treasury Department says the limit must be raised by Aug. 2 or the government risks defaulting on its debt.

But a deal needs to be reached soon, possibly as early as Friday, to have legislation ready for President Barack Obama to sign by the deadline. Rating agencies warned last week that the impasse puts the country's triple-A credit rating grade at risk.

House Republicans are preparing to vote Tuesday on their plan that would lift the debt ceiling but also slash spending. The proposal includes a balanced-budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. President Barack Obama pledged to veto the bill.

The latest delay in reaching a deal is beginning to weigh on markets.

U.S. banks stocks, which would get hit hard in the event of a default, fell sharply. Bank of America slid 2.8 percent, to $9.72, the biggest drop for the 30 stocks in the Dow average. The bank recently announced an $8.5 billion settlement with a group of mortgage bond investors and reports earnings Tuesday. It's the only major bank trading in the single digits.

Gold rose for the tenth day in a row, jumping 0.8 percent to $1,602.40 an ounce. That's another record in dollar terms, but it's still below the high reached in the early 1980s once inflation is taken into account.

Gold has been rising steadily since the start of the month as the countries considered at risk of default expanded beyond Greece to include Italy and the U.S. Traders have been buying gold as an alternative to holding dollars and euros as the debt problems in the U.S. and Europe undermine confidence in both currencies.

Adding to the worries for investors: lowered expectations for the U.S. economy. Economists at Goldman Sachs lowered their estimates for U.S. economic growth in the second and third quarters of the year late Friday. The economists cited weak sales growth and a drop in consumer confidence in cutting their forecast for second-quarter growth to 1.5 percent from 2 percent. Goldman lowered its third quarter estimate to 2.5 percent from 3.25 percent.

Monday's stock-market sell-off pulled down companies in every industry, especially banks. Even companies reporting strong profits slid lower.

Halliburton Co. ended the day nearly unchanged after posting record revenue in the second quarter. The oil-field service company trounced Wall Street's earnings estimates as higher oil prices led to more drilling, increasing demand for Halliburton's services.

News Corp. fell 4.3 percent as the troubles deepened for Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate. Rebekah Brooks, the former head of the company's British newspaper business, was arrested over the weekend in connection with a widening phone-hacking scandal. News Corp. has abandoned its bid to assume full control of the highly lucrative satellite TV company British Sky Broadcasting. News Corp.'s shares are down 15 percent this month.

Hasbro Inc. fell 4.8 percent. Stronger sales of Transformers action figures and other products lifted the toy maker's earnings but not enough to beat Wall Street's estimates.

Profits at newspaper publisher Gannett Co. Inc. fell 22 percent but it still beat analysts' estimates by a penny. Gannett said it would start buying back stock and double its quarterly dividend to 8 cents. Gannett's stock dropped 3.5 percent.

It's the start of a crowded week of earnings reports. More than 100 of the companies that make up the S&P 500 index are set to release second-quarter results. The list includes the major banks, Apple Inc., Johnson & Johnson and General Electric Co.

Five stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was slightly below average at 3.7 billion shares.