Two city police officers were assaulted after chasing a man they caught urinating in the city's Entertainment District early Sunday, according to Springfield Police Capt. Cheryl Clapprood.

SPRINGFIELD -- Two city police officers were assaulted after chasing a Springfield man they caught urinating in the city's Entertainment District early Sunday, according to Springfield Police Capt. Cheryl Clapprood.

The officers were allegedly assaulted by 30-year-old Leon Thorne III, who will be arraigned Monday in Springfield District Court on two counts of assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and other charges.

Clapprood said the officers, who were not identified, were patrolling the Worthington Street entertainment corridor when they noticed Thorne relieving himself around 2:45 a.m. on an outside wall of Brick City Pizzeria, 220 Worthington St.

"He was urinating and he wouldn't stop," Clapprood said.

Thorne, who lives at 89 Bowles St. in the McKnight section of the city, led the officers on a brief foot chase that ended near the Center Stage strip club on Dwight Street.

Thorne continued to be uncooperative, kicking the officers as they attempted to take him into custody, Clapprood said. The officers eventually had to administer a blast of pepper spray to subdue Thorne, she said.

THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate location where two Springfield police officers allegedly observed a city man urinating on the facade of a Worthington Street pizzeria early Sunday:

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A portion of Main Street will be closed between 6:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.

HAMPDEN – Main Street between Somers Road and the White Birch Apartments will undergo reconstruction during the week of Aug. 1, Hampden Highway Superintendent Dana Pixley said.

The project is scheduled to begin Monday, weather permitting, and the work should take about a week, Pixley said.

During the project, a portion of Main Street -- from Somers Road to around No. 359 White Birch Apartments -- will be closed to through traffic from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to allow grading, paving and other work to be performed.

Emergency vehicles, delivery trucks, mail carriers and Main Street residents will still have access to the street, while others seeking to reach the center of Hampden must take Somers Road to Wilbraham Road, which becomes Main Street in Wilbraham.

From there, motorists can take Burleigh Road to North Road, which intersects with Main Street in Hampden by the town library.

Town officials also are trying to get the owners of the former Three Rivers Grammar School to clean up that property.

The Republican | Lori StabileThis is the property at 3030 Main St. in Bondsville that will be the subject of a hearing Tuesday at the Palmer Board of Health meeting.

PALMER - The Board of Health will hold a hearing on Tuesday regarding a problem property at 3030 Main St. in the Bondsville section.

Health Inspector Lorri McCool inspected Joseph Martowski's property in May, and found it to be in violation, as there is more than the 50 cubic yards of junk and debris allowed under town ordinances.

A visit to the property on Monday showed a stove, dryer, bed frame, grills and other assorted items piled near the sidewalk.

Martowski, who could not be reached for comment, was notified of the violation in a June 21 letter and told he had 30 days to clean it up. Martowski requested the hearing before the board about the property, according to McCool.

The nuisance ordinance states that no owner, tenant or other entity shall keep in the public view any substantial amount of junk or debris for more than a reasonable amount of time.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Town Building.

Board of Health Chairman Paul E. Benard said he hears frequent complaints about the Main Street property.

This isn't the first time the board has had issues with Martowski. In 2005, the board discussed the excessive debris problem at 3030 Main St. and 3065 High St., also in Bondsville, and three years before that, the junk became a court matter. McCool said it cost the town $4,000 to clean up Martowski's property, an amount that inadvertently was never attached to his property with a lien.

In other business, town officials are continuing to attempt to get the owners of the former Three Rivers Grammar School on Bridge Street to clean it up. This has been an ongoing issue, dating back to November when health, building, police and fire officials toured the property.

In a March letter to owners Kenneth and Karen Krohn, McCool and Building Inspector Richard W. Rollet declared the building at 2010 Bridge St. unfit for human habitation, and cited concerns about debris and leaves outside, broken and missing windows, holes in the floors and stairs, asbestos in the basement and numerous books and computer equipment piled inside the building.

The Krohns were told that a special permit would be needed from the Planning Board to use the building as a warehouse. They were told that the camper parked outside the building can be used for a maximum of 20 days. Police also found that four vehicles on the property were unregistered, violating town ordinances.

The last letter from the Krohns was received by town officials on May 9, and requests an additional 60 days to make improvements, which was granted. They wrote that Kenneth, 73, broke his ankle in January, and that the injury has impeded their efforts to improve the building and get it into compliance.

"We've given them more than enough time with little or no response," McCool said. "We'll be going forward with some legal filing in court."

Contacted by phone, the Krohns said they have made improvements, and replaced windows and floors. They still want to transform the old school into a private library showcasing Kenneth's expansive book collection. They say they bought the building in rough shape in 2008, and said progress has been slow because they are trying to do all the work themselves.

"We hate to be under the glare of public scrutiny ... We want to do the best we can by it," Kenneth Krohn said.

Karen Krohn said the issues with unregistered vehicles have been resolved. They bought the 101-year-old building, last used 20 years ago, for $130,000.

Longmeadow High School will be completed by the spring of 2013.

LONGMEADOW - Following a tour of the site last week, town officials said that work on the Longmeadow High School project is "on time and on budget."

Drains and pipes have been installed and other site work has been completed in preparation for construction of a new school, according to School Building Committee co-chairman Christine L. Swanson.

The committee will tour the facility, along with Select Board and School Committee members, on a monthly basis.

"There will be so much going on in the next few months, and we want to make sure we have regular updates as the project moves forward," she said.

In June 2010, voters approved a Proposition 21/2 debt exclusion override that will require the town to pay $44 million of the construction project costs. The state School Building Authority will provide $34 million to complete the project.

The construction will continue throughout the school year, with students remaining in the current high school.

The new school is being built on the grounds of the existing one, but further back than the current building. One wing of the building, which houses the swimming pool and other rooms, will be renovated and remain as part of the building. The new construction will include an auditorium, cafeteria, gymnasium, media center, music rooms, science labs and classrooms. The project has an estimated construction cost of approximately $63 million.

"It will be business as usual for students," she said. "The construction will not affect them much at this point."

The authority is reimbursing the district for the building in a "pay-as-you-go" system, Swanson said.

"We submit invoices to them every month and after they review and approve them they reimburse us for the project," she said.

On Aug. 8, the steel for the building will be delivered along with two large cranes.
"Once the steel starts to go up, residents will really start to see the difference, and the school will take shape," she said.

The school will be completed by the spring of 2013.

FEMA has given Monson a grant for $69,075 for the water main project.

MONSON– The Federal Emergency Management Agency has given Monson a grant for $69,075 for the Mechanic Street Bridge water main project.

The money comes from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program associated with the Federal Disaster Declaration for the December 2008 ice storm.

“The town of Monson was hit hard by the ice storm in 2008 and they are facing adversity again in the wake of the June 1st tornadoes,” said Sen. Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre) in a prepared statement.

The application, submitted by the Monson sewer and water department, involves relocating the Mechanic Street Bridge water main by moving it up and along the existing bridge structure over the stream. The main, which was originally constructed in 1897, is located in the embankment of the stream and along the streambed of the Mill Stream Brook.

The proposed project will insulate the water main and attach it via a galvanized structural steel beam to the Mechanic Street Bridge. This will not only lessen the possibility of main failure, it will also provide additional structural integrity to the bridge that serves approximately 50 residents.

In total, the state been awarded more than $8.3 million in federal assistance through the program.

“This funding is essential as the community works diligently to rebuild,” Brewer said.

In a partisan vote, the Senate rejected an effort to advance a Democratic approach to resolving the debt issue.

View full sizeSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returns to his office following a vote as the debt crisis continues on Capitol Hill in Washington Sunday, July 31, 2011.(AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate plunged on Sunday into what many lawmakers and the White House — and millions of Americans coast to coast — hoped would be an all-but-decisive last-minute effort to raise the nation's debt ceiling and defuse a crisis that still could lead to an unprecedented government default.

As senators began debate in a rare Sunday session — just hours after Saturday night's concluded — Democratic leader Harry Reid said he was "cautiously optimistic" agreement could be reached.

But first, in a partisan vote, the Senate rejected an effort to advance a Democratic approach to resolving the debt issue. The vote was 50-49, or 10 short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on legislation proposed by Reid that would have carried out $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years while raising the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion. The outcome of that vote did not directly affect the behind-the-scenes negotiations on a compromise.

Immediately afterward, Reid told fellow senators that while they were "not there yet," a vote on a possible compromise could still happen Sunday. "We are hopeful and confident it can be done."

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a key player in the negotiations, said as he headed back to his office that the sides were "really, really close."

Tuesday is the deadline for averting default, the day the Treasury says it will reach the limits of its borrowing authority to pay all the nation's bills.

McConnell, R-Ky., said earlier on the Sunday talk shows that negotiators were looking at a deal that would cut spending by some $3 trillion over the next decade while raising the debt ceiling through 2012 in a two-stage process.

A Democratic official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, said Vice President Joe Biden had been on the phone with McConnell multiple times over the preceding 24 hours. Biden has remained a key negotiator for the White House following the more public role he had earlier in leading several weeks of debt talks with lawmakers.

Appearing on CNN and CBS, McConnell said he hoped to soon be able to present to his fellow Republicans an agreement "that they'll consider supporting." That agreement would include raising the debt ceiling, cutting spending by some $1 trillion initially and creating a joint committee of members of Congress that would look at a larger plate of cuts including tax and entitlement changes.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Democratic leadership, told CNN that while "there is no final agreement," there was a sense of relief that the two sides were finally working on a compromise plan.

Schumer later told CBS that one of the last sticking points is the creation of a "trigger" mechanism that would hit priorities of both parties if the committee does not come up with a plan for further deficit reduction.

Among the trigger ideas being discussed are automatically reducing spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare along with closing tax loopholes or reducing defense and non-defense programs by an equal amount.

"It should be equally tough on Democrats and Republicans," Schumer said.

McConnell said the bipartisan committee, which would be asked to come up with a plan by Thanksgiving, would have a "broad mandate" to look at all aspects of government finance, including tax reform.

McConnell said he had talked to both President Barack Obama and Biden on Saturday. "I particularly appreciate that we are back talking to the only person in American who can sign something into law, and that's the president of the United States," he said.

McConnell said the deal being worked on, while raising the debt ceiling in two stages, would satisfy Obama's demand that there not be another divisive debate before next year's election. The scenario being discussed would raise the debt ceiling unless there is a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress to reject it.

McConnell said that there would be no tax increases in the deal, and White House National Economic Council Chairman Gene Sperling, on CNN and Fox, said there would be no revenue increases over the next year and a half.

But while keeping higher taxes out of the deal was the top priority of many Republicans, it's still going to be a task for McConnell to sell any agreement to his caucus.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on ABC that this would be the first time that he could remember that the nation is paying for future debt increases dollar-for-dollar and that "from the Republican Party's point of view, I think we can declare victory in a limited fashion." But he said that even with the agreement the national debt will continue to rise and "I don't know where I'm going to land" on a vote.

"From a big picture," Graham said, "I'm not ready to vote for this."

On the House side, where GOP conservatives have pushed their party toward greater cuts and linking future debt ceiling raises to passage of a balanced budget amendment, a leadership aide said that while the negotiators appeared to be heading in the right direction, no agreement will be final until members have a chance to weigh in.

Sperling said Obama has presented three principles that the final package must meet: a significant down payment on deficit reduction, major entitlement and tax reform at a later date, and an end to the uncertainty created by the threat of the nation's defaulting on the debt. He said the nation doesn't want to "go through this mess again around the holidays."

Under the proposed agreement, Congress would also have to vote on a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget, a top-flight GOP goal. Unlike a bill approved Friday by the Republican-run House, none of the debt limit increase would be tied to congressional approval of that amendment.

Details of a possible accord began emerging Saturday night after Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor that the two sides were trying to nail down loose ends and complete an agreement.

"I'm glad to see this move toward cooperation and compromise, and hope it bears fruit," he said.

A Democratic official said that while bargainers were not on the cusp of a deal, one could gel quickly. A Republican said there was consensus on general concepts but cautioned there were no guarantees of a final handshake. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details of confidential talks.

Any pact would have to quickly pass both chambers of Congress after a rancorous period that has seen the two parties repeatedly belittle each other's efforts to end the standoff.

Even so, the deal under discussion offers wins for both sides. Republicans and their tea party supporters would get spending cuts at least as large as the amount the debt ceiling would grow and avoid any tax increases. For Obama and Democrats, there would be no renewed battle over extending the borrowing limit until after next year's elections.

Under the possible compromise, the debt limit would rise by an initial $1 trillion.

A second, $1.4 trillion increase would be tied to a specially created congressional committee that would have to suggest deficit cuts of a slightly larger amount. If that panel did not act — or if Congress rejected their recommendations — automatic spending cuts would be triggered that could affect Medicare and defense spending, two of the most politically sacrosanct programs.

The government has exhausted its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit and has paid its bills since May with money freed up by accounting maneuvers.

McConnell and Schumer appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and CBS' "Face the Nation" while Graham spoke on ABC's "This Week." Sperling appeared on "State of the Union" and "Fox News Sunday."

___

Associated Press writer David Espo contributed to this report.

Estimates of the death toll, which were impossible to verify, ranged from around 75 people to nearly 140.

View full sizeLebanese activists carry candles during a candlelit vigil in support of the Syrian people in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, July 31, 2011, as they stand in front of the statue of late anti-Syrian journalist and activist Samir Kassir who was killed by a bomb placed under his car in June 2, 2005. Syrian security forces backed by tanks and snipers killed more than 70 people in a ferocious assault Sunday as the regime raced to crush dissent ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that could become a turning point in the nearly five-month-old uprising. (AP Photo/Ahmad Omar)

By ZEINA KARAM

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces backed by tanks and snipers launched a ferocious assault Sunday on defiant cities and towns, killing at least 70 people and possibly many more as the regime raced to crush dissent ahead of Ramadan. Corpses littered the streets after a surge in violence that drew widespread international condemnation.

Estimates of the death toll, which were impossible to verify, ranged from around 75 people to nearly 140 on a day when the attacks began before dawn and witnesses said they were too frightened to collect corpses from the streets.

The worst carnage was in Hama, the scene of a 1982 massacre by President Bashar Assad's late father and predecessor and a city with a history of defiance against 40 years of Assad family rule. Hospitals there were overwhelmed with bloodied casualties, suggesting the death toll could rise sharply, witnesses said.

President Barack Obama called the reports "horrifying" and said Assad is "completely incapable and unwilling" to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people.

Ramadan, which begins Monday, will present a critical test for the government, which has unleashed deadly firepower since March but still has not been able to put down the revolt. Daily demonstrations are expected to surge during the holy month, when crowds gather in mosques each evening after the dawn-to-dusk fast.

Though the violence has so far failed to blunt the protests, the Syrian government appears to be hoping it can frighten people from taking to the streets during Ramadan. The protesters are promising to persevere.

Having sealed off the main roads into Hama almost a month ago, army troops in tanks pushed into the city from four sides before daybreak. Residents shouted "God is great!" and threw firebombs, stones and sticks at the tanks, residents said.

By mid-morning, the city looked like a war zone, residents said. The crackle of gunfire and thud of tank shells echoed across the city, and clouds of black smoke drifted over rooftops.

"It looks like Beirut," said Hama resident Saleh Abu Yaman, likening his hometown to the Lebanese capital that still bears the scars of nearly two decades of civil war.

Syria has banned most foreign media and restricted coverage, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground. But interviews with witnesses, protesters and activists painted a grim picture Sunday of indiscriminate shelling and sniper fire as residents fought back by erecting barricades and throwing firebombs at their assailants.

It appeared the regime was making an example of Hama, a religiously conservative city about 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of the capital, Damascus. The city has largely fallen out of government control since June as residents turned on the regime and blockaded the streets against encroaching tanks.

The United States and France enraged the government earlier this month when their ambassadors traveled to Hama in a trip designed to show solidarity with demonstrators.

But Sunday's deadly siege only ignited more calls for defiance among protesters.

The Local Coordination Committees, which helps organize anti-government protests, urged people to take to the streets and start a general strike to protest the killings.

"If you don't unchain yourselves now and save your country now, you will be ruled like slaves for years and decades to come," the group said.

An escalation in violence during Ramadan, a time of heightened religious fervor for devout Muslims, would bring a new dimension to the unrest in Syria, which has reached a stalemate in recent weeks. Assad's elite forces have waged nearly nonstop crackdowns around the country, but new protest hotbeds have emerged — taxing the already exhausted and overextended military.

There have been credible reports of army defections, although it is difficult to gauge how widespread they are. Assad, and his father who ruled before him, stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect, melding the fate of the army and the regime.

The army has a clear interest in protecting the regime because they fear revenge attacks and persecution should the country's Sunni majority gain the upper hand.

The searing August heat will only compound the already combustible scenario.

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the attacks were "all the more shocking" on the eve of Ramadan and appeared to be part of a coordinated effort to deter Syrians from protesting during the holy month.

"President Bashar (Assad) is mistaken if he believes that oppression and military force will end the crisis in his country. He should stop this assault on his own people now," Hague said.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini appealed to the Syrian government "to immediately cease the violence against civilians," calling it "a horrible act of violent repression against protesters who have been demonstrating for days in a peaceful manner."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an end to the violence and reminded Syrian authorities that "they are accountable under international human rights law for all acts of violence perpetrated by them against the civilian population."

But months of withering criticism and sanctions by the international community has not softened the regime's crackdown. Assad has brushed off the criticism as foreign interference.

More than 1,600 civilians have been killed in the crackdown on the largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime since the uprising began. Most were killed in shootings by security forces at anti-government rallies.

The government has sought to discredit those behind the protests by saying they are terrorists and foreign-backed extremists, not true reform-seekers. State-run news agency SANA blamed the unrest Sunday on gunmen and extremists, and said two policemen, an officer and two soldiers were killed.

Sunday's death toll was expected to rise as hospitals received the dead. The Local Coordination Committees identified 49 civilians who were killed in Hama and said they had compiled the victims' names. The figure was confirmed by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which cited hospital officials in Hama.

But Damascus-based Abdul-Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian Human Rights League, and Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso said more than 100 people were killed in Hama alone. They cited a network of witnesses and activists on the ground, including medical workers.

Other deaths were reported in the Hama countryside; al-Joura in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour; and al-Hirak village in the southern province of Daraa.

Since the uprising began, Hama has been one of the hottest centers of the demonstrations, with hundreds of thousands protesting every week. In early June, security forces shot dead 65 people there before pulling out. Until Sunday, the troops have stayed on the outskirts, ringing the city and conducting overnight raids.

In 1982, Assad's father, Hafez Assad, ordered the military to quell a rebellion by Syrian members of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement. The city was sealed off and bombs dropped from above smashed swaths of the city and killed between 10,000 and 25,000 people, rights groups say.

The real number may never be known. Then, as now, reporters were not allowed to reach the area.

___

Associated Press writers Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

Mubarak and seven others face possible death sentences if found guilty on charges they ordered the use of lethal force against protesters during Egypt's 18-day uprising.

View full sizeAP file photoOusted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Hosni Mubarak will receive a speedy trial with all hearings broadcast live on state television, the judge who will try the ousted leader pledged Sunday.

The trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday in the country's national police academy in a Cairo suburb.

Mubarak, his security chief Habib el-Adly and six top police officers face possible death sentences if found guilty on charges they ordered the use of lethal force against protesters during Egypt's 18-day uprising. Some 850 were killed.

A public trial for Mubarak and his top aides is a main demand of protesters who toppled his regime. Weekly demonstrations continue in Cairo, reflecting demands for a quick public trial for the deposed strongman.

View full sizeJudge Ahmed Rifaat, who will try Egypt's ousted leader Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Judge Ahmed Rifaat told a news conference that he would allow 600 people to attend the trial, including defense lawyers, relatives, victims' families and journalists.

"It is the right of the Egyptian people to be assured that what takes place in the courtroom conforms to the law," said Rifaat.

Mubarak's sons Gamal and Alaa will also be tried along with their father and a close associate on charges of corruption. The associate, businessman Hussein Salem, is a fugitive and will be tried in absentia.

The tough-talking judge read a prepared statement and left the news conference in a courthouse in downtown Cairo without answering any questions. The statement frequently cited verses from the Quran, the Muslim holy book, and made repeated pledges to ensure that the entire process would be transparent, orderly and in conformity with the law.

Rifaat did not say whether Mubarak would physically be present in Wednesday's hearing, but he vowed to place the trial on a fast track, with daily hearings.

View full sizeEgyptians protesters flee during clashes with anti-riot policemen in Suez, Egypt, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011. Egyptian activists protested for a third day as social networking sites called for a mass rally in the capital Cairo after Friday prayers, keeping up the momentum of the country's largest anti-government protests in years. (AP Photo)

After his Feb. 11 overthrow, Mubarak left Cairo for the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. He was later admitted to a local hospital for treatment for heart problems. He has remained at the hospital in police custody.

Frequent reports that Mubarak's health has been faltering have raised speculation that the trial would be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, that it could be delayed or that Mubarak might not appear in court.

Most recently, doctors treating Mubarak have said he is weak and has lost weight because he was refusing to eat or eating little. They have also said he suffers from depression.

Activists believe Mubarak's health is being used as a ruse to postpone the proceedings and they accuse the ruling military council, whose head was Mubarak's longtime defense minister, of dragging its feet on the prosecution of the ex-president and other key members of his regime.

The July 22 attacks were so carefully planned and executed that it would be difficult to argue they were the work of a delusional madman, said Dr. Tarjei Rygnestad.

View full sizeAssociated PressNorway's twin terror attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik, left, sits in an armored police vehicle after leaving the courthouse following a hearing in Oslo Monday July 25, 2011 where he pleaded not guilty to one of the deadliest modern mass killings in peacetime.

By IAN MacDOUGALL

OSLO, Norway (AP) - It's unlikely that the right-wing extremist who admitted killing dozens in Norway last week will be declared legally insane because he appears to have been in control of his actions, the head of the panel that will review his psychiatric evaluation told The Associated Press.

The decision on Anders Behring Breivik's mental state will determine whether he can be held criminally liable and punished with a prison sentence or sent to a psychiatric ward for treatment.

The July 22 attacks were so carefully planned and executed that it would be difficult to argue they were the work of a delusional madman, said Dr. Tarjei Rygnestad, who heads the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine.

In Norway, an insanity defense requires that a defendant be in a state of psychosis while committing the crime with which he or she is charged. That means the defendant has lost contact with reality to the point that he's no longer in control of his own actions.

"It's not very likely he was psychotic," Rygnestad told the AP.

The forensic board must review and approve the examination by two court-appointed psychiatrists before the report goes to the judge hearing the case. The judge will then decide whether Breivik can be held criminally liable.

Rygnestad told the AP a psychotic person can only perform simple tasks. Even driving from downtown Oslo to the lake northwest of the capital, where Breivik opened fire at a political youth camp, would be too complicated.

"If you have voices in your head telling you to do this and that, it will disturb everything, and driving a car is very complex," Rygnestad said.

"How he prepared" for the rampage — meticulously acquiring the materials and skills he needed to carry out his attack while maintaining silence to avoid detection — argues against psychosis, Rygnestad added.

By his own account, the 32-year-old Norwegian spent years plotting the attack. On July 22, he set off a car bomb that killed eight people in downtown Oslo's government district, then drove north to a youth camp on Utoya, a small lake island set amid a quiet countryside of pines and spruces.

View full sizeSmoke pours from a building in the center of Oslo, Friday, July 22, 2011, following an explosion that tore open several buildings including the prime minister's office, shattering windows and covering the street with documents. (AP Photo)

There, he spent 90 minutes executing 69 people, mostly teenage members of the youth wing of Norway's governing Labor Party.

In a 1,500-page manifesto released just before the attacks, Breivik describes his two-pronged attack as the opening salvos of a new crusade that, by 2083, will purge Europe of Muslims and the "cultural Marxists" he complains are letting them have the run of the continent.

Breivik, who is being held pending trial, has admitted to the facts of the case, but denies criminal guilt because he believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe, his defense attorney Geir Lippestad said, hinting at a possible insanity defense.

"This whole case has indicated that he's insane," Lippestad told reporters last week.

Lippestad did not return calls over the weekend seeking reaction to Rygnestad's comments.

On Sunday, a Twitter account under Breivik's name appeared to be hacked into.

"This twitter account has been seized by (hashtag) NORIA" and "this twitter account will be deleted soon," two of the postings said.

"We want Anders to be forgotten. Labels like "monster", or "maniac" won't do either. Media should call him pathetic; a nothing. (hashtag) Forgethim."

Previously, the account had only one tweet, on July 17, loosely citing English philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

If tried and convicted of terrorism, Breivik will face up to 21 years in prison or an alternative custody arrangement that could keep him behind bars indefinitely.

If he is declared insane, a judge could order him institutionalized in a psychiatric ward only so long as he is deemed mentally ill, though Norway does have provisions for keeping dangerous, but no longer insane, people in custody even after they're discharged from the hospital.

Judging by his manifesto, it's not likely that Breivik would want to pursue an insanity defense if it were up to him. He anticipates that, after his attack, he will be labeled "psycho," ''maniac" and "insane."

"I have an extremely strong psyche (stronger than anyone I have ever known)," he wrote.

Two Norwegian psychiatrists selected by the court this week are set to complete their evaluation of Breivik by Nov. 1.

To prove insanity, most American courts require that the defendant be possessed by an "irresistible impulse" to commit the alleged crime — a mental illness that prevented the defendant from controlling his or her actions.

Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people when he set off a car bomb, similar in many ways to Breivik's, that tore through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

"Timothy thought he was starting a revolution, too," said Dr. Seymour L. Halleck, a forensic psychiatrist who examined McVeigh to determine whether he was competent to stand trial.

To carry out such an attack, "you need a certain kind of competency and determination — and some need to make a mark on the world," Halleck said. "There was nothing we found psychotic about Timothy McVeigh."

___

Karl Ritter contributed to this report.

Here is a list of major municipal meetings for the coming week: Amherst Tues.- Design Review Board, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall. Jones Library Board of Trustees, 7 p.m., Jones Library. Wed.- Planning Board and Zoning Subcommittee, 5 p.m., Town Hall. Planning Board, 7 p.m., Town Hall. Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee and Planning Board, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall....

File photo | The RepublicanWestfield City Hall.

Here is a list of major municipal meetings for the coming week:

Amherst

Tues.- Design Review Board, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Jones Library Board of Trustees, 7 p.m., Jones Library.

Wed.- Planning Board and Zoning Subcommittee, 5 p.m., Town Hall.

Planning Board, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee and Planning Board, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Thu.- Council on Aging, 9 a.m., Senior Center.

Amherst Redevelopment Authority, 5 p.m., Town Hall.

Chicopee

Tues.- Finance Committee, 6:30 p.m., City Hall.

City Council, 7:15 p.m., City Hall.

Thu.- Planning Board, 7 p.m., City Hall.

Easthampton

Mon.- Community Garden Committee, 6 p.m., 50 Payson Ave.

Wed.- Assessors, 5:30 p.m., 50 Payson Ave.

City Council, 6 p.m., White Brook Middle School.

Appointment Committee, 5:30 p.m., White Brook Middle School.

License Board, 5:30 p.m., 50 Payson Ave.

Granby

Mon.- Selectboard, 7 p.m., Aldrich Hall.

Tues.- Board of Health, 5:30, Town Hall Annex.

Library Trustees, 6 p.m., Library.

Greenfield

Mon.- Town Council Committee, Chair, 6 p.m., Police Station Meeting Room.

Tues.- Board of License Commissioners, 6 p.m., 14 Court Square.

School Building Committee, 6 p.m., Police Department.

Wed.- Historical Commission, 5 p.m., 114 Main St.

Youth Commission, 6:30 p.m., 20 Sanderson St.

Hadley

Mon.- Hadley Housing Authority, 1 p.m., Golden Court.

Tues.- Goodwin Memorial Library Board of Trustees, 6:45 p.m., library.

Board of Assessors, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Board of Health, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Planning Board, 7 p.m., Senior Center.

Wed.- Select Board, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Monson

Mon. - Board of Health, 6 p.m., Hillside School.

Monson Tornado Victims Relief Fund Committee, 6 p.m., Keep Homestead Museum.

Tues.- Board of Selectmen, 7 p.m., Hillside School.

Historical Commission, 3 p.m., Hillside School.

Community Preservation Committee, 7 p.m., Hillside School.

Wed.- School Committee, 7 p.m., Quarry Hill Community School.

Thu.- Cemetery Commissioners, 6 p.m., 32 Wilbraham Road.

Northampton

Mon.- Committee on Cultural and Recreational Services, 4 p.m., Council Chambers.

School Committee/Administrative Team Special Meeting, 5:30 p.m., Eric Carle Museum in Amherst.

Wed.- License Commission, 4 p.m., Council Chambers.

Thu.- Committee on Economic Development, Housing and Land Use, 5 p.m., Council Chambers.

Palmer

Mon.- Town Manager Search Committee, 6 p.m., Town Building.

Tues.- Board of Health, 6 p.m., Town Building.

Wed.- School Committee, 6 p.m., Palmer High School library.

Thu.- Town Manager Search Committee, 6 p.m., Town Building.

South Hadley

Mon.- Board of Assessors, 9 a.m., Town Hall.

Library Building Committee, 6:15 p.m., 27 Bardwell St.

Tues.- School Committee, 6:30 p.m., High School Library.

Library Trustees, 7 p.m., Public Library.

Sustainable Design Assessment Team Steering Committee, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Selectboard, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Wed.- Sustainability and Energy Commission, 5 p.m., SHELD Conference Room, 85 Main St.

School Building Committee, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Conservation Commission, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Thu.- Sustainability and Energy Commission, 5 p.m., SHELD Conference Room, 85 Main St.

School Building Committee, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall Conservation Commission, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Southwick

Mon.- Board of Selectmen, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Springfield

Tues.- City Council General Government Committee, 5:30 p.m., Room 200, City Hall.

Wed.- City Council Audit Committee, 11 a.m., Room 200, City Hall.

Library Commission, 5:30 p.m., Central Library Community Room, 220 State St.

Warren

Tues.- Board of Selectmen, 7 p.m., Shepard Municipal Building.

Westfield

Tues.- Planning Board, 7 p.m., City Hall.

This is the 28th year of the national event.

Republican file photoJean L. Fitzgerald, left, organizer of the National Night Out Against Crime event in Chicopee Monday, walks with Chicopee Police Lt. John F. Pronovost during last year's event in Sarah Jane Sherman Park.

Police and residents across Western Massachusetts will try to fight crime this week with barbecues, police demonstrations and other events.

This is the 28th year cities and towns across the country will hold special events Tuesday for the National Night out Against Crime. Locally, communities including East Longmeadow, Palmer and Springfield will join in on the Aug. 2 celebration.

In Springfield there will be celebrations at the Marshall Roy Field off St. James Boulevard, Hubbard Park off Parker Street, Worthington Commons at Federal Street, Allen Park Apartments at 251 Allen Park Road and Seniority House, 307 Chestnut St. Start times range from 4 to 6 p.m.

The purpose is to strengthen the relationship between police and residents, tell criminals residents are fighting back, generate local support and participation in anti-crime efforts and raise drug prevention awareness, said Sgt. John M. Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet.

Chicopee is celebrating a day early with a flashlight parade, cookout, police and fire department demonstrations and a wing-eating contest, said Jean L. Fitzgerald, organizer of the Willimansett Neighborhood Committee and a founder of the city’s Night Out event.

The event, which will start at 5 p.m. Monday in Sarah Jane Sherman Park off Chicopee Street, will be the 18th in Willimansett. The celebration was moved today after City Council requested the change because their meetings are usually held on Tuesdays and they wanted to participate in the event, Fitzgerald said.

Last year more than 3,000 people attended in Chicopee and this year organizers are hoping to attract 4,000, Fitzgerald said.

Some of the highlights include a wing eating contest that will pit three members of the Chicopee High School football team against three football players from Comprehensive High, skateboard and bicycle demonstrations, local teen bands and a variety of police demonstrations, she said.

“It started with the Willimansett Neighborhood Committee. We wanted to say with the crime and the gangs and the drugs you don’t have to move out of here. We can stay and do something,” Fitzgerald said.

Chicopee, Holyoke and Springfield police and community leaders will also hold a breakfast Monday in Chicopee to share ideas on preventing crime, she said.

In Palmer an event with food, music, pony rides, fire trucks and police cars will begin at 6 p.m. at the Blue Star Equicluture, 3090 Palmer St. A drum circle and bonfire will begin at 8 p.m.

East Longmeadow’s event will begin at 5 p.m. at the high school. The state police will land a helicopter and bring a dog team. There will be food and demonstrations from the police and fire departments.

Staff writer Lori Stabile contributed to this report.

The deal would cut more than $2 trillion from federal spending over a decade.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks with reporters as he walks across the Capitol on his way to the office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as national debt crisis negotiations continue on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sunday, July 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON — Ending a perilous stalemate, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders announced a historic agreement Sunday night on emergency legislation to avert the nation's first-ever financial default.

The dramatic resolution lifted a cloud that had threatened the still-fragile economic recovery at home — and it instantly powered a rise in financial markets overseas.

The agreement would slice at least $2.2 trillion from federal spending over a decade, a steep price for many Democrats, too little for many Republicans. The Treasury's authority to borrow would be extended beyond the 2012 elections, a key objective for Obama, though the president had to give up his insistence on raising taxes on wealthy Americans to reduce deficits.

The deal, with scant time remaining before Tuesday's debt-limit deadline for paying government bills, "will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America," the president said in an announcement at the White House.

Default "would have had a devastating effect on our economy," he said.

House Speaker John Boehner telephoned Obama at mid-evening to say the agreement had been struck, then immediately began pitching the deal to his fractious rank and file.

"It isn't the greatest deal in the world, but it shows how much we've changed the terms of the debate in this town," he said on a conference call, according to GOP officials. He added the agreement was "all spending cuts. The White House bid to raise taxes has been shut down."

The House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, was noncommittal. "I look forward to reviewing the legislation with my caucus to see what level of support we can provide," she said in a written statement.

Many economists have expressed concerns that the spending cuts could threaten an already feeble economic recovery. The first half of 2011 marked the worst six-month economic performance since the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009.

No votes were scheduled in either house of Congress before Monday, to give rank and file lawmakers time to review the package. Senate approval seems virtually certain; the House could prove more difficult.

Without legislation in place by Tuesday, the Treasury would not be able to pay all its bills, raising the threat of a default that administration officials say could inflict catastrophic damage on the economy.

If approved, though, a compromise would presumably preserve America's sterling credit rating, reassure investors in financial markets across the globe and possibly reverse the losses that spread across Wall Street in recent days as the threat of a default grew.

Even word of an impending deal earlier in the day by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky sent U.S. stock futures upward. And before Obama had finished speaking, Japan's benchmark Nikkei index, opening Monday morning — at 8 p.m. Sunday on America's East Coast — was up 1.7 percent in early trading.

Not that the deal would end the political maneuvering. While eliminating the threat of default, it creates a remarkably short timetable for Congress to debate a huge and politically bruising deficit-reduction plan. The plan would require a committee of lawmakers to come up with $1.5 trillion more in deficit cuts from benefit programs or tax reform before Thanksgiving. Congress must vote on them by Christmas — or trigger across-the-board cuts that would hit the Pentagon and domestic programs.

Pending final passage, the agreement marked a dramatic reach across party lines that played out over six months and several rounds of negotiating, interspersed by periods of intense partisanship.

"Sometimes it seems our two sides disagree on almost everything," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in floor remarks.

"But in the end, reasonable people were able to agree on this: The United States could not take the chance of defaulting on our debt, risking a United States financial collapse and a world-wide depression."

Vice President Joe Biden, who played an important part in this weekend's negotiations, agreed. He tweeted, "Compromise makes a comeback."

Not everyone felt that way.

"Someone has to say no. I will," said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Across the weeks, Boehner emerged as Obama's principal Republican antagonist in a contentious new era of divided government, yet struggled to corral his own rank and file at times.

At the end, though, McConnell and Biden, who looked on as Obama announced the deal, provided a negotiating channel to get the deal completed, overcoming a last-minute standoff over the impact of spending cuts on the Pentagon budget.

The plan calls for spending cuts and increased borrowing authority for the Treasury in two stages.

In the first, passage of the legislation would trigger more than $900 billion in spending cuts over a decade as well as a $900 billion increase in the government's borrowing authority.

The spending cuts would come from hundreds of federal programs across the face of government — accounts that Obama said would be left with the lowest levels of spending as a percentage of the overall economy in more than a half-century.

The increased borrowing authority includes $400 billion that would take effect immediately, and $500 billion that would be permitted after Congress had a chance to block it.

In the second stage, a newly created joint committee of Congress would be charged with recommending $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions by the end of November that would be put to a vote in Congress by year's end. The cuts could come from benefit programs such as Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid as well as from an overhaul of the tax code.

The committee proposals could trigger a debt limit increase of as much as $1.5 trillion, if approved by Congress. But if they do not materialize, automatic spending cuts would be applied across government to trim spending by $1.2 trillion.

Social Security, Medicaid and veterans' benefits would be exempt from the automatic cuts, but payments to doctors, nursing homes and other Medicare providers could be trimmed, as could subsidies to insurance companies that offer an alternative to government-run Medicare.

The deal marked a classic compromise, a triumph of divided government that would let both Obama and Republicans claim they had achieved their objectives.

As the president demanded, the deal would allow the debt limit to rise by enough to tide the Treasury over until after the 2012 elections.

But Obama's request to extend the current payroll tax holiday beyond the end of 2011 would not be included, nor his call for extended unemployment benefits for victims of the recession.

Republicans would win spending cuts of slightly more than the increase in the debt limit, as they have demanded. Additionally, tax increases would be off limits unless recommended by the bipartisan committee, which is expected to include six Republicans and six Democrats. The conservative campaign to force Congress to approve a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution would be jettisoned.

Congressional Democrats have long insisted that Medicare and Social Security benefits not be cut, a victory for them in the proposal under discussion. Yet they would have to absorb even deeper cuts in hundreds of federal programs than were included in legislation they had advanced in the final days before an agreement was reached.

Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Jim Abrams, Laurie Kellman and Andrew Taylor contributed to this story.

The road is being closed for paving.

HAMPDEN – Part of Main Street will be closed from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday through Saturday because of road paving.

The street will be closed from the intersection of Somers Road to the White Birch Apartments at 359 Main St. The only motorists allowed through will be residents, police officials said.

Commuters are being advised to use North Road as an alternative route for the week.

More than 1 in 3 adults now owns a smartphone, according to a new study by The Pew Research Center.

Associated PressOne of the pages of "Today's Deals" appears on the screen of an iPhone, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The smartphone has replaced the desktop and laptop computer as the main avenue to the Internet for many Americans, and more than one in three adults now owns a smartphone, according to a new study.

Indeed, one in four smartphone users does most of his or her online browsing from the phone, according to a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, part of the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

“For a number of Americans, smartphones now serve as the primary on-ramp to the world of digital information,” said Aaron W. Smith, the author of the report.

The Pew study, which was based on interviews with about 2,300 people, found smartphone ownership varied considerably by race and age. In fact, ownership among minorities is significantly higher than the national average. While 30 percent of whites owned smartphones, 44 percent of black and Latino adults owned them, the study found.

As expected, smartphone ownership was highest among the young. For the group age 25 to 34, 58 percent owned smartphones.

“Smartphone ownership begins to tail off at around 45 years of age, before dropping dramatically at around age 65. Just one in 10 seniors owns a smartphone, and 44 percent do not have a cell phone of any kind,” the report said.

Smartphone usage is clearly on the rise. The Pew study found that 35 percent of U.S. adults now own a smartphone.

According to ComScore, a company that tracks digital trends, 76.8 million Americans owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 11 percent from the preceding three-month period.

Acknowledging the explosive growth in wireless network capacity, Verizon Wireless joined some other wireless providers last week, including AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA, in ending unlimited data plans for new smartphone customers. Customers currently on a data plan will not be affected.

Verizon’s new basic plan will allow customers to use up to 2 gigabytes of data a month before being charged more than the $30 price for the plan. However, according to the company’s own research, 95 percent of smartphone users do not exceed the 2-gigabyte limit in a month.

Michael Murphy, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless New England, said the company is introducing the state-of-the art wireless network, 4G (or fourth generation), in Greater Springfield.

It will allow customers “with 4G ... smartphones, laptop modems and hotspots the ability to take advantage of speeds up to 10 times faster than our 3G network,” he said.

Derek Cook, the Springfield patrolman who pleaded guilty to two such crimes, will, after a 3-month suspension, continue to work as a gun-carrying police officer.

The Republican | Michael S. GordonSpringfield Police Patrolman Derek V. Cook pleaded guilty in Hampden District Court to assaulting two police supervisors in a station house fight.

SPRINGFIELD - Under Massachusetts gun laws, considered by some to be among the most strict in the nation, a person convicted of assault and battery on a police officer could not obtain a license to carry a firearm.

Unless, the individual is a police officer.

Derek V. Cook, the city patrolman who pleaded guilty to two such crimes on July 21, will, after a three-month suspension, continue to work as a gun-carrying police officer.

State law provides for municipal police chiefs and commissioners to allow their officers to carry weapons - or be “licensed through the badge” - even if they have criminal records. Cook, it turns out, will be the only Springfield police officer who, if he were a civilian, would be prevented from obtaining a pistol permit or purchasing a gun as a result of criminal convictions.

“That’s very ironic,” says James Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League, a gun rights organization based in Northboro. “They disqualify citizens but let a law enforcement officer with that conviction carry a gun.”

Wallace said the Bay State’s gun laws are very strict, and changes made in 1998 caused a severe drop in the number of people who are allowed to own or carry guns. He said he was surprised to hear a police officer with a conviction for assault and battery on a police officer is being allowed to remain a member of the force.

It is in the hands of Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, under state law, to allow members of his department to carry firearms by virtue that they are police officers, said Sgt. John M. Delaney, the commissioner's executive aide.

A civilian who had a conviction for assault and battery on a police officer, however, would not be able to legally carry a firearm, according to David Procopio, director of media communications for the Massachusetts State Police.

Cook began serving a three months’ suspension without pay from the Police Department on July 25 in the wake of his guilty pleas to charges for attacking two superior officers during a station-house fight in 2008. One of the officers was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion, while the other, who tried to intercede to break up the altercation, sustained a broken tailbone.

In a plea-bargained agreement that spared Cook prosecution on a felony charge of wiretapping, Cook pleaded guilty in District Court to the two assault and battery charges and paid $675 in fines. The wiretapping charge was continued without a finding for six months, meaning it will be dismissed if Cook faces no further encounters in court.

No departmental disciplinary hearing was conducted for Cook because he agreed to serve the three-month suspension, according to Delaney and the patrolman’s lawyer.

Procopio confirmed that some police departments do not require officers to have a firearms license as is required of civilians. Those departments consider officers to be licensed “through the badge,” he said, which means that they carry a gun because they are police officers.

Had Cook been a civilian, his conviction for the assault and battery on a police officer charges would have precluded him from holding a firearms license.

Such a conviction, Procopio said, would fall under two different statutory disqualifications in the state’s firearms licensing laws.

“One is a violent crime,” Procopio said. “The other is (that it is) a misdemeanor punishable by more than two years imprisonment. So a person with that conviction would not be able to get a license to carry (a firearm).”

Massachusetts law, under the chapters on administration of the government, states that a chief and other police officers of all cities and towns “may carry within the commonwealth such weapons as the chief of police or the board or officer having control of the police in a city or town shall determine.”

In early 2010, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the nation’s largest anti-gun violence organization, rated Massachusetts as having the third most effective gun laws, behind only California and New Jersey. On a scale of 1 to 100, Massachusetts merited a 54, according to the ranking.

Wallace said his organization has heard that the city of Springfield - where licenses are approved through Fitchet’s office - makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to get a license to carry a firearm.

Wallace said he thinks if an officer with such a conviction on his record, carrying a gun “through the badge,” were to be involved in an incident in which a suspect were shot, for instance, it could expose the city to possible legal action.

Charles Groce

On Cook’s behalf, his lawyer, Charles W. Groce, said the facts and circumstances the case make it appropriate for him to continue as a police officer and be allowed to carry a gun.

“We’ve had officers who were far more egregious in how they act with the community, and there hasn’t been a public outcry,” Groce said. “This was in all aspects, an in-house set of circumstances.”

Delaney said, however, that no other member of the Springfield department is in the same position as Cook with criminal convictions that would preclude a civilian from being licensed to carry a firearm.

Patrolman Danielo Feliciano, who was acquitted earlier this year of assaulting his niece’s boyfriend with the support of other officers in a 2009 incident, was fired from the force, along with another officer, Pedro R. Mendez, who was alleged to have falsified a report of the incident. Patrolman Jeffrey Asher, who is charged with assault and battery of a drug suspect during an arrest, was fired; the criminal case against him is still pending.

Groce said the Feb. 2, 2008, station-house fight was an isolated incident and has nothing to do with Cook’s performance as a police officer. He said the city will continue to have the benefit of Cook’s “fantastic 19 years” of police work. “Why people would be upset is beyond me,” the lawyer said.

At the court hearing, the prosecutor in the case, assistant district attorney Donna S. Donato, told the court, “We expect our officers to act better. We expect them to respect and honor the law. Especially in their own house. Especially with their coworkers.

Cook apologized to the two senior officers, Lt. Robert Moynihan and Sgt. Dennis O’Connor, who tried to break up the fight when Cook attacked him and who has since retired, stating, “I want to say sorry to them both as a police officer and as a man.” O’Connor, in his victim-impact statement to the court, said Cook’s being allowed to continue as a police officer is “a travesty and tarnishes the reputation and honor of the good men and women of the Springfield Police Department.”

A 19-year-old city man accused of beating his pregnant girlfriend with a belt over the weekend is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Northampton District Court.

The Republican / File photoNorthampton police arrested 19-year-old Richard Damboise for allegedly beating his pregnant girlfriend with a belt Saturday night.

NORTHAMPTON -- A 19-year-old city man accused of beating his pregnant girlfriend with a belt will be arraigned Monday in Northampton District Court.

Richard Damboise was arrested Saturday at his home at 13 Hubbard Ave. after choking his 20-year-old girlfriend, punching her and whipping her in the legs with a belt, Northampton Police Sgt. Alan Borowski said Monday.

The woman is five months pregnant with Damboise's child, according to Borowski.

Officers responded to a domestic assault report at the Hubbard Avenue residence around 8 p.m. Saturday.

The woman had red welts on her left leg, among other apparent injuries, and was punched several times in the head and face with a closed fist, police said.

"It was a verbal altercation that grew physical," Borowski said.

As a result, Damboise was charged with one count of aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a belt) and two counts of aggravated assault and battery, Borowski said.

Following his arrest, Damboise was remanded to the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction in lieu of $500 cash bail.

THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate location of a Hubbard Avenue, Northampton, home where city police say a 19-year-old man assaulted his pregnant girlfriend Saturday night:

View Larger Map

The tan van, which is used by the Helping Hands Cupboard Food Pantry, was taken some time between Thursday and Saturday night, according to Belchertwon police.

Helping Hands Cupboard Food PantryOfficials with the Helping Hands Cupboard Food Pantry in Belchertown have posted this image of a van on the pantry's Facebook page. This is not a picture of the actual stolen van, but the missing vehicle looks very similar to this one, pantry officials said.

BELCHERTOWN -- Authorities are investigating the recent theft of a van used to by a volunteer organization that distributes food to the needy.

A 1995 Ford Windstar van was reported stolen Sunday from the Belchertown United Church of Christ, 18 Park St., according to Belchertown police.

The tan van, which was parked in front of the church on the town common, was taken some time between Thursday and Saturday night, police said.

The church-owned van is used by the Helping Hands Cupboard Food Pantry to "purchase large quantities of food from the Food Bank of Western Mass," according to the pantry's Facebook page.

Pantry volunteers are asking the community to keep its "eyes on the look out" for the missing van, whose Massachusetts license plate number is L66741. The van has Belchertown United Church of Christ stickers on it and a blue ribbon tied to the back window.

Anyone who sees the vehicle is asked to contact Belchertown police at (413) 323-6685 or the church at (413) 323-7442.

The pantry's Facebook page implores people to "say a prayer for the thief/thieves that they will come forward or at least return the van." The van may be old, but it's "an important part of our mission to help feed the hungry in our community."

The gun was found around 3:10 a.m. Monday near the intersection of East Columbus Avenue and Gridiron Street, according to police reports, which didn't indicate the weapon's caliber or if it was used in a crime.

SPRINGFIELD -- Police reported finding a firearm near the intersection of East Columbus Avenue and Gridiron street around 3:10 a.m. Monday.

But police officials did not indicate what type of gun was recovered, or if the weapon had been used in the commission of a crime.

Springfield Police Lt. Maurice T. Kearney said he had no further information about the firearm.

People around the country had a range of reactions to the agreement hammered out Sunday by the president and top lawmakers, but mild disappointment with an occasional touch of sympathy were about as positive as they got.

AP Photo/Carolyn KasterPresident Barack Obama speaks Sunday from the White House briefing room about a deal to raise the debt limit.

ANDREW DALTON, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Americans seem relieved that the wrangling over the debt limit is over. But for the deal itself — not so much.

People around the country had a range of reactions to the agreement hammered out Sunday by the president and top lawmakers, but mild disappointment with an occasional touch of sympathy were about as positive as they got.

"It should have happened a real long time ago," said Phil Waters of Anchorage, Alaska, reflecting a common response.

"It never should have gotten this far out of hand," Waters, a 60-year-old semiretired helicopter mechanic, said from inside a downtown Anchorage bar.

The self-described "almost Libertarian conservative" said he would have liked to see a lot more cuts than the spending reductions President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner agreed to.

But Kiran Mahto of Portland, Ore., who volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008, would have preferred no deal at all to the concessions he feels the president made to congressional Republicans.

Mahto, a 35-year-old managing editor who works in health care information technology, said the agreement is the latest in a long string of times Obama has disappointed him, and vowed it would be the last.

"I'm actively opposed to this president now. That also goes for his party since they've been silent through the whole ordeal," said Mahto, who thinks the debt deal will lead to an Obama defeat in 2012.

But there was also sympathy for the political leaders who worked out the pact.

Donald Price, a grocery store worker from Oxon Hill, Md., said he prays for the two sides in Congress to work together.

"I think they're just doing the best they can do," Price said. "We don't know what they face every day."

The agreement would cut at least $2.4 trillion from federal spending over a decade, but allowed the country to avoid a first-ever debt default and extended the Treasury's authority to borrow beyond the 2012 elections.

Even the outline of the agreement, much less the details, left those without strong feelings confused and frustrated.

Brett Piper, 34, and Matthew Crosby, 30, radiology residents visiting Silver Spring, Md., from Indianapolis for a conference felt that they have probably been paying more attention to the debate than most, but were still unsure how much they could really understand.

"It's hard to know what to trust," said Piper, a Republican. "It's a political game, and in this game, everyone looks bad."

Crosby agreed.

"It just makes me mad," he said. "I'm innately interested, but I just get frustrated."

Relief that the deal was struck came through but so did some skepticism.

Philip Novak, 37, who tends bar and runs a food truck, said he could not understand why congressional leaders did not take action sooner.

"It just seems like it's something we should have known about and done something about it without waiting to the last minute," said Novak, who leans Republican.

"'Oh, the deal is going to be great, just trust us,'" Novak said, mimicking congressional leaders.

Others felt that they perceived a deeper reality behind the agreement.

"As long as these people let the oil companies and big business do what they do, nothing will change," said taxi driver Harvey Philpot, 52, of North Philadelphia, Pa. "It's all about big business."

And Attorney John Trotman, 42, of Philadelphia, said "I feel like the debt ceiling became an issue because the Republicans turned it into one. It was an issue of creation. It was talking points for them. We're headed toward an election and the Republicans want to get Obama."

In Philadelphia, Patrick Lucey, 25, of West Grove, Pa., had to explain the debt ceiling crisis to his friend, Enzo Amara, 25, of Montpellier, France, who just sighed.

Lucey said he thinks the large federal deficit will definitely be a burden to young people like himself who will have to pay for government programs far into the future. But he was philosophical. "It's something expected," he said of the government deficit. "It's not a surprise."

"I'll be paying bills, student loans, a mortgage for the next 30 years," he said. "I'm not going to let this bring me down. It's one more thing I'll owe. When you're born, you start owing."

Many, including foreign nationals visiting the United States, were happy that worries about a debt default and international financial havoc could be put to rest.

"For us in Europe it's a good thing," said Andrew Harris, one of several British tourists who discussed the developments in Times Square. "We were waiting for them to come to an agreement. It was really a scary thing to hear. What happens in the U.S. always has an impact in Europe."

Ernie Robert, 52, of Deerfield, N.H., was at a Dallas ice rink watching a youth hockey practice when he learned that a debt deal had been reached.

Robert, who considers himself an independent voter, said he would have been far more disappointed had leaders "kicked the can down the road for six months," but nevertheless said "I'm not impressed" with the long process that led to the deal.

"I don't think it has to be that way," Robert said.

But Nancy Curry, 76, a patron at Manuel's Tavern in Atlanta, believed that stretched-out standoffs are simply the norm in the nation's current political circumstances.

"I think anything nowadays is going to be just like this was," she said.

____

Associated Press writers Rachel D'Oro in Anchorage, Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Janet McMillan in Philadelphia, Karen Zraick in New York, Terry Wallace in Dallas and Ray Henry in Atlanta contributed to this story.

A man was found unconscious inside a van after the vehicle crashed into a utility pole around 4:30 a.m. Monday near the intersection of Lincoln and Magazine streets.

08.01.2011 | SPRINGFIELD - Firefighters used a winch to pull a Ford Explorer off an electrical transformer before they could use the Jaws of Life to extricate the driver, who suffered life threatening injuries. Springfield Fire Department photo by Dennis Leger

SPRINGFIELD -- A man who crashed his vehicle near James and State streets early Monday was taken to Baystate Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

The crash occurred about 4:15 a.m. and firefighters used the Jaws of Life to extricate the victim, Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger said.

“He’s in pretty rough shape,“ Springfield Police Lt. Maurice T. Kearney said of the crash victim.

Preliminary police reports indicated the vehicle, a Ford Explorer, came to rest up against a transformer box, trapping the driver inside as wires sparked outside.

The man appeared to be passed out, according to an officer who responded to the crash scene. Authorities have yet to release the man’s identity.

The incident forced the temporary closure of roads around the crash site, which was just east of Springfield Technical Community College.