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Springfield firefighters battle blaze at Pine Point residence

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A home on Davenport Street sustained around $37,000 in damages from a fire reported just before 2 a.m. Monday, according to Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger. No one was injured in the blaze.

SPRINGFIELD -- City firefighters extinguished a house fire reported around 1:51 a.m. Monday at 34 Davenport St. in the Pine Point neighborhood.

There were no reported injuries in the fire, but the property sustained about $37,000 worth of damage, according to Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis G. Leger.

"It's destroyed," Leger said of the two-story house with detached garage located off of Harvey Avenue.

Leger said the blaze appears to have started in back of the home, damaging the garage and a deck with outdoor furniture before extending to the house and burning its rear siding.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

"It's under investigation," Leger said.

Four people escaped unharmed from the home, which is owned by Otilio Bermudez, Leger said.


THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate location of a Monday morning house fire at 34 Davenport St. in the Pine Point Section of Springfield:


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Homeless man charged in Holyoke knife assault

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Holyoke police said William A. Brown, a 34-year-old homeless man, was charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and other alleged crimes stemming from a Sunday domestic disturbance at a Dwight Street residence.

HOLYOKE -- City police charged a homeless man in connection with an alleged knife assault reported around 6 p.m. Sunday at 692 Dwight St., Apt. 2B.

Details of the alleged crime were not immediately available. But 34-year-old William A. Brown, who's listed as "homeless" in Holyoke police records, was charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and single counts of domestic assault and battery and threatening to commit a crime.

Brown also was charged with single counts of witness intimidation and violating a restraining order, police said.

The Dwight Street apartment building where the alleged assault occurred is located about mid-block between Elm and Walnut streets.

Brown is expected to be arraigned on Monday in Holyoke District Court.

Additional information will be posted on MassLive.com when details become available.


THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate Dwight Street location of an alleged domestic assault on Sunday in Holyoke:


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Holyoke Treasurer Jon Lumbra commended by inspector general for improving management

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The state said the treasurer's office now handles receipts, deposits, payments and investments properly.

JDLumbra2009.jpgJon D. Lumbra

HOLYOKE – After years of finding mostly shortcomings in the operations of the city treasurer, the state inspector general praised the work of current Treasurer Jon D. Lumbra in the latest review.

The treasurer’s receipt, deposit, payment and investment of city revenue has improved, said an eight-page letter to Mayor Elaine A. Pluta on Aug. 4 from Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan.

“The (inspector general) commends Treasurer Lumbra’s efforts and hopes that he can complete the task of addressing all former and current issues facing the treasurer’s office,” Sullivan’s letter said.

Lumbra began a four-year term in January 2010 after defeating former treasurer David B. Donoghue, who had held the office for 21 years, in the 2009 election.

The treasurer’s duties include handling tax title records, holding and investing city funds and managing employee payrolls in the city budget of more than $120 million.

Reports from the state Department of Revenue and the inspector general’s office recommended improvements over the years, but Donoghue “did little to remedy his office’s deficiencies,” Sullivan’s letter said.

Donoghue has said he had made or was making the state’s recommended improvements.

City Auditor Brian G. Smith said that Lumbra has been working hard to ensure the operation of the treasurer’s office complies with state laws and that his management has been prudent.

Continued work is needed to ensure documentation is provided in a complete and timely way for audits, said Smith, who said he was confident that would happen.

“I believe that, as citizens, we can regain confidence in the security of the city’s cash assets that fall under the city treasurer’s authority,” Smith said.

Lumbra said the recognition was gratifying.

“It’s good to see that all the efforts and hard work of the treasurer’s office of the past 18 months has been recognized,” Lumbra said.

According to Sullivan’s letter, the treasurer’s office now:

• Has reconciled bank deposits of city funds with revenue and expenditures.

• Has deposits on a schedule.

• Stopped incorrect stabilization fund transfers.

• Safeguarded the treasurer’s check stamp to avoid unauthorized endorsements.

• Has filed previously unfiled federal and state returns for meals tax revenue.

• Has corrected chronic absenteeism and lack of rules enforcement in the office.

• Is working to invest city funds in proper areas.

• Stopped the office’s practice of suspending or abating interest charges on taxpayers without documentation.

• Is ensuring on-schedule loan payments.

• Is making timely and routine deposits of revenue collections.

• Is avoiding bounced-check fees that had cost the city $20,000 to $40,000 in penalties a year.

• Has kept insurance policy payments up to date.

Northampton police looking for vandal who busted gas station window

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The early Saturday morning incident at the King Street Stop & Shop gas station was one of several recent vandalism complaints fielded by Northampton police, according to Sgt. Alan Borowski.

NORTHAMPTON -- City police are looking for a male suspect caught on videotape smashing the window of the attendant booth at the Stop & Shop gas station, 228 King St., early Saturday morning.

"It's still under investigation," Northampton Police Sgt. Alan Borowski said Monday.

"We do have a suspect. We don't know who he is, but we have surveillance (footage) of him," he said.

The incident occurred around 7 a.m. Saturday, but officers were unable to immediately locate the suspect.

The man threw a fire extinguisher at the attendant booth window, shattering the glass and causing less than $250 worth of damage, Borowski said.

After that, the suspect kicked over trash cans and knocked several gas pump nozzles from their holders before fleeing, Borowski said.

Nothing was stolen during the rampage, which occurred when the gas station was closed, police said.

In an unrelated incident early Saturday, a 19-year-old woman from suburban Boston was caught spray-painting the facade of a Main Street bank by a city police officer heading home from work for the night.

The teenager's canvas, so to speak, was the TD Banknorth building at 175 Main St., according to police.

Authorities did not identify the woman, who is from Newton. But she was wearing a dust mask and holding a can of spray paint as she stood in front of a brightly colored image of spray-painted shark on the bank wall, police said.

A subsequent search of her backpack turned up several spray-paint cans, police said, adding that the woman faces vandalism charges.

Police received another graffiti report on Friday after someone vandalized a garage door to Somatic Systems Institute at 32 Masonic St.

Also on Saturday morning, police received a report of a brick that was thrown through the front door of a Perkins Avenue residence.

"We've been dealing with some vandalism issues," Borowski said.

'Trash talk' will be focus of Northampton committee dedicated to reducing waste through its reuse

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The Northampton Board of Public Works is looking for a few good men and women to join an ad hoc committee dedicated to exploring sustainable waste reuse options for the city, whose landfill is slated to close next year.

hampfill.JPGThe Northampton Regional Landfill on Glendale Road, pictured here in August 2009, is slated to close around mid-2012. The city is now considering various waste-management solutions, including the possibility of establishing a waste reuse center, and a panel is being formed to investigate and develop clean-energy options.

NORTHAMPTON -- The Northampton Board of Public Works is seeking applicants for an ad hoc task force -- dubbed the "ReUse Committee" -- whose mission is to evaluate opportunities for the establishment of a permanent facility aimed at reusing waste, not merely disposing garbage in a landfill -- an option that's expected to expire next year.

On April 1, the city's Solid Waste Reduction and Management Task Force presented recommendations to the Board of Public Works (BPW) in anticipation of the mid-2012 closure of the Northampton Regional Landfill, located at 170 Glendale Road off Route 66.

Promoting waste reuse topped the list of possible ways of dealing with the city's trash, and the task force specifically urged the BPW to "explore a sustainable plan to establish and operate a reuse center and/or resource recovery park ... and appoint a task force to create volunteer-run reuse programs until a more permanent center/park can be identified and established."

To that end, the BPW now is seeking applicants for the new ReUse Committee. The deadline for applying is Sept. 15 and application forms are available by clicking on the Solid Waste Action Committee Application option on the Northampton Department of Public Works' website. Applications also may be picked up at the DPW building, 125 Locust St.

bouquillon.JPGKaren Bouquillon

Karen Bouquillon, the city's solid waste management supervisor, can be reached for more information at (413) 587-1059 or kbouquillon@nohodpw.org.

There's been a lot of trash talk in Northampton ever since city voters opposed the idea of expanding the landfill in an adjacent area. As a result, the City Council voted to close the regional landfill when it reaches capacity in 2012, and Mayor Mary Clare Higgins appointed the nine-member Solid Waste Reduction and Management Task Force to explore the city's future waste options.

Several other ideas -- including keeping transfer stations open for residents who want to dump their own trash and contracting private curbside pickup services with local garbage haulers -- have been discussed. But the task force is urging city officials to investigate waste reuse options, which could include establishing a center where residents would be able to reuse items that otherwise might be thrown out.

West Springfield mulling grandfathering development of small lots

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Planning Board member Katie Harrington says allowing development of some small parcels in the city by special permit by the Planning Board will avoid "opening the floodgates."

WEST SPRINGFIELD – City officials are mulling whether to grandfather some lots that are too small to be developed under current zoning regulations. A proposal to that effect will be the subject of an Aug. 15 public hearing by the Town Council.

The Planning Board last week held its own public hearing on its department’s proposal, but no one from the public came forward to speak about the matter. The board has recommended allowing development of lots as small as 7,500 square feet, provided they have 75 feet of frontage and are owned in conjunction with a neighboring lot that has been developed.

The board had originally considered setting a minimum of 10,000 square feet for a lot’s size and 100 feet of frontage as the standard, according to Planning Administrator Richard A. Werbiskis.

The Planning Board-backed proposal would allow development by special permit, according to Werbiskis.

He said the change is needed because zoning regulations have changed over the years, raising the minimum lot size.

If approved, the zoning regulation change would affect properties purchased before 1963. The change could affect as many as about 25 parcels around the city, Werbiskis said. The proposal calling for 100 feet of frontage would affect 10 to 15 parcels, according to the planner.

The Planning Board’s original proposal was written to affect only properties in zones Residence A, Residence A-1, Residence A-2 and Residence B. However, board members later elected to have the proposed change affect all city zoning districts.

Planning Board member Katie Harrington said one reason officials like the proposal is that there is a shortage of parcels able to be developed.

“It is not fair that regulations prohibit (some) development, but we did not want to open the floodgates,” she said of the proposal her board has recommended.

Harrington said the fact that development will require a special permit from the Planning Board puts controls on the situation.



60 killed as wave of violence rolls across Iraq

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The scope of the violence emphasized that insurgents are still able to carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

081511iraq.jpgIraqis inspect the site of a bombing in Kirkuk, Iraq, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011. Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities Monday morning, killing scores of people _ most of them in the southern city of Kut _ in a wave of violence that shattered what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan.

KUT, Iraq — Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities Monday, killing 60 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this year, one that highlighted al-Qaida's resolve and ability to wreak havoc.

The bloodbath comes less than two weeks after Iraqi officials said they would be open to a small number of U.S. forces staying in the country past a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline.

The blasts were coordinated to go off Monday morning and included parked car bombs, roadside bombs, a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station and even bombs attached to lightpoles.

The scope of the violence — seven explosions went off in different towns in Diyala province alone — emphasized that insurgents are still able to carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

Iraqis were furious at security officials and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"Where is the government with all these explosions across the country? Where is al-Maliki? Why doesn't he come to see?" said Ali Jumaa Ziad, a shopowner in Kut, where the worst of the violence occurred. Ziad was brushing pieces of human flesh from the floor and off equipment in his shop.

Al-Maliki's spokesman and the military spokesman did not answer telephone calls.

Twin explosions rocked the market in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, where Ziad works.

Police spokesman Lt. Col. Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan said the first bomb went off in a freezer used to keep drinks cold. As rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded; 35 people were killed and 64 injured.

Police sealed off the area where human flesh was scattered on the ground and bloodstained walls were punctured by shrapnel.

Earlier this month, Iraqi political leaders announced they would begin negotiations with the U.S. to determine whether to keep a small number of American forces in the country past Dec. 31.

All U.S. troops must leave by the end of this year, but both Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect the country.

Theodore Karasik, a Middle East security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analyst, said al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to disrupt the internal Iraqi political process and send a message to the Americans.

"It seems that al-Qaida in Iraq is playing a propaganda game at the same time it's trying to show that it can still carry out deadly violence," Karasik said. "If the U.S. extends its military presence, al-Qaida in Iraq can use it as a tool by saying, 'Look, the Americans have reversed their decision to leave and are staying on as occupiers.' They could use this as a justification for more attacks."

In Diyala province, seven bombs went off in the capital of Baquba and towns nearby, said Faris al-Azawi, the province's health spokesman. Five soldiers were killed in Baquba while five people were killed in other attacks around the province.

Just outside the holy city of Najaf, a suicide car bomber plowed his vehicle into a checkpoint outside a police building, said Luay al-Yassiri, head of the Najaf province security committee.

Police opened fire when the driver refused to stop, and then the vehicle exploded. Al-Yassiri said four people were killed and 32 injured. Firefighters sprayed water on burning cars while a body covered with a red sheet was loaded into a police vehicle.

Outside the nearby city of Karbala, a parked car bomb near a police station killed three policemen and injured 14 others, according to two police officers.

In the northern city of Tikrit, two men wearing explosives belts drove into a heavily guarded government compound wearing military uniforms, which helped them avoid notice, said Mohammed al-Asi, the provincial spokesman.

The men parked their vehicle and walked to a building where the anti-terrorism police work. When the men approached the building, the guards ordered them to stop and opened fire. One bomber was killed but the other got inside, blew himself up and killed three people, al-Asi said.

It was another embarrassing security breach for security officials at the compound. Earlier this year, insurgents penetrated the compound's security and attacked a mosque where prominent officials were praying.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded next to a police patrol, injuring four police officers. About 30 minutes later, a motorcycle with a bomb planted inside it exploded, killing one person. Late Sunday, four bombs also blew up near a Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk. No one was injured in the attack which damaged the church walls.

In Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying officials from the Ministry of Higher Education, police and health officials said. Eight people were wounded, the officials said. The minister was not in the convoy.

According to police and hospital officials around the country, other attacks included:

— A parked car bomb targeting a police patrol in Iskandiriyah killed two people.

— One person was killed when bombs strapped to lightpoles in the northern city of Mosul exploded.

— A parked car bomb exploded near an Iraqi military patrol in Taji north of Baghdad, killing one person.

— Sixteen people were injured in the city of Balad when a roadside bomb went off near a fuel truck.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Violence has dropped considerably in Iraq since the heyday of the war. But the persistence of violence in Iraq, albeit at a lower level, underscores the Iraq's precarious situation.

Old text, new wrinkles: Did Butch Cassidy survive?

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A rare books collector says he has obtained a manuscript with new evidence that may give credence to the theory that the notorious Old West outlaw did not die in a 1908 shootout in Bolivia.

butch cassidyThis image provided by the Nevada Historical Society shows the famous group portrait taken in Fort Worth, Texas shortly after Butch Cassidy and his gang robbed the Einnemucca, Nev., bank in 1900. They sent the photo to the bank with a thank you note. Shown are Bill Carver, top left, the Sundance Kid, bottom left, and Butch Cassidy, bottom right. The other two members of the gang are not identified. A collector of rare books and documents has obtained a manuscript with new evidence that Butch Cassidy wasn’t killed in a 1908 shootout in Bolivia but returned to the U.S. and lived on in Washington State for almost three decades.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Did Butch Cassidy, the notorious Old West outlaw who most historians believe perished in a 1908 shootout in Bolivia, actually survive that battle and live to old age, peacefully and anonymously, in Washington state? And did he pen an autobiography detailing his exploits while cleverly casting the book as biography under another name?

A rare books collector says he has obtained a manuscript with new evidence that may give credence to that theory. The 200-page manuscript, "Bandit Invincible: The Story of Butch Cassidy," which dates to 1934, is twice as long as a previously known but unpublished novella of the same title by William T. Phillips, a machinist who died in Spokane in 1937.

Utah book collector Brent Ashworth and Montana author Larry Pointer say the text contains the best evidence yet — with details only Cassidy could have known — that "Bandit Invincible" was not biography but autobiography, and that Phillips himself was the legendary outlaw.

Others aren't convinced.

"Total horse pucky," said Cassidy historian Dan Buck. "It doesn't bear a great deal of relationship to Butch Cassidy's real life, or Butch Cassidy's life as we know it."

Historians more or less agree that Cassidy was born Robert LeRoy Parker in 1866 in Beaver, Utah, the oldest of 13 children in a Mormon family. He robbed his first bank in 1889 in Telluride, Colo., and fell in with cattle rustlers who hid out at The Hole in the Wall, a refuge in northern Wyoming's Johnson County. He left the area before cattle barons hunted down cattle-rustling homesteaders in the 1892 Johnson County War.

Cassidy then served a year and a half in Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie for possessing three stolen horses. But for the better part of the next 20 years, his Wild Bunch gang held up banks and trains across the West and in South America.

"Bandit Invincible's" author claims to have known Cassidy since boyhood and never met "a more courageous and kinder hearted man."

He acknowledges changing people and place names. But some descriptions fit details of Cassidy's life too neatly to have come from anyone else, said Ashworth, owner of B. Ashworth's Rare Books and Collectibles in Provo.

They include a judge's meeting with Cassidy in prison in February 1895. The judge offered to "let bygones be bygones" and to seek a Cassidy pardon from the governor. Cassidy refused to shake the judge's hand.

"I must tell you now that I will even my account with you, if it is the last act I ever do," Cassidy is quoted as saying by Philips.

Wyoming's state archives contain an 1895 letter by the judge who sentenced Cassidy. The letter relates how Cassidy seemed to harbor "ill-will" and didn't accept the "friendly advances" of another judge, Jay Torrey, who'd visited Cassidy in prison.

Cassidy had sued Torrey's ranch two years earlier for taking eight of his cattle, Pointer said.

"What's really remarkable to me is that, who else cares?" Pointer said. "Who else would have remembered it in that kind of detail...about an offer of a handshake and refusing it in a prison in Wyoming in 1895?"

Gov. William Richards pardoned Cassidy in 1896.

"Bandit Invincible" also describes how Ed Seeley, a rustler and prospector, told Cassidy's gang how to find a remote hideout in northern Wyoming's Bighorn Canyon. Pointer, who authored "In Search of Butch Cassidy," said he believes the Wild Bunch hid there more than at Hole in the Wall, which had become known to authorities.

"It had been used by (Seeley) one summer when he had been badly wanted by the sheriff's forces along in ninety-one. Unless one had a guide who knew the entire country, it was impossible to find the place," the manuscript says of the canyon hideout .

Records show that a rustler named Edward H. Seeley was imprisoned at Wyoming Territorial Prison while Cassidy was there, Pointer said.

"That's just really exciting to me because this is really ephemeral stuff," he said. "No one who had not been there or done that would know that."

Nobody except for some cowboy who rode the range in the late 1800s, knew Cassidy's friends and maybe even knew the outlaw himself, Buck suggested.

"There's a sort of commonsense reason why Phillips would have got some stuff right," Buck said. "They knew each other."

In 1991, Buck and his wife, Anne Meadows, helped dig up a grave in San Vicente, Bolivia, said to contain the remains of Butch and his sidekick, Harry Longabaugh — the Sundance Kid. DNA testing revealed the bones weren't the outlaws, but Buck, a writer who lives in Washington, D.C., said his research proved the two indeed died in a shootout with Bolivian cavalry in 1908.

Stories abound of Sundance living long after his time in South America. But they're outnumbered by purported Cassidy sightings. A brother and sister of Cassidy's insisted he visited them at a family ranch near Circleville, Utah, in 1925.

"The majority of those who were there believed that, believed it was him that came back," said Bill Betenson, who recalled that his great-grandmother, Lula Parker Betenson, used to talk about the visit by a man she identified as her brother, Cassidy.

The manuscript has an ending fit for Hollywood. Cornered by the Bolivian cavalry while holding up a pack train, Butch and Sundance make a stand. Sundance is killed. Butch escapes to Europe, has plastic surgery in Paris, and schemes to return to the U.S. and reunite with an old girlfriend from Wyoming.

Most of the manuscript's accounts bear little resemblance to known Wild Bunch exploits. Pointer insists that Cassidy, as Phillips, was writing fiction. Phillips did offer the story to Sunset magazine without drawing interest.

The earliest documentation of Phillips is his marriage to Gertrude Livesay in Adrian, Mich., in 1908, three months after Cassidy's last known letter from Bolivia, according to Pointer. Buck insists they married several months before a documented Bolivian shootout that probably was the one in which Butch and Sundance were killed.

In 1911, the couple moved to Spokane, where their closest friends said years later that Phillips let them in on a secret: He was the famous outlaw.

In the 1930s, Phillips sold his interest in the foundering Phillips Manufacturing Company. He visited central Wyoming, where more than a few people in the Lander area, including one of Cassidy's old girlfriends, said it was Cassidy who spent the summer of 1934 camping out in the Wind River Range, telling tales about the Wild Bunch and digging holes in search of buried loot.

"All of these people were bamboozled by this faker from Spokane ...?" Pointer said. "These weren't hayseed, duped ignorant people. These were pillars of our community. And if they said something, you had to better take it seriously."

Phillips' adopted son, William R. Phillips, believed his stepfather was Butch Cassidy, said Pointer, who interviewed him in the 1970s. William R. Phillips has since died.

In 1938, after her husband died of cancer, Gertrude Phillips told a Cassidy researcher that she and her husband had known Cassidy but that Phillips was not him. She did so only because she "didn't want the notoriety," Pointer said William R. Phillips told him.

DNA testing is unlikely to determine that Phillips, who was cremated, was Cassidy.

The many reports of later Wyoming sightings have convinced Carol Thiesse, director of the Fremont County Pioneer Museum in Lander.

"If Phillips wasn't, he certainly knew a heck of a lot about Butch," she said.


Developing: Springfield superintendent Alan Ingram announces resignation

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The city's Finance Control Board and School Committee appointed Ingram to the post in 2008.

SPRINGFIELD - The 2011-2012 academic year will be Alan J. Ingram's last as the head of Springfield's public school system.

Ingram, chosen as the city's superintendent of school's in 2008, announced in a press release Monday that he is resigning from his post effective June 30, 2012. The date of his resignation coincides with the end of his current contract.

"Let me make it clear, I will be fully engaged as the leader of the Springfield schools through the conclusion of this coming school year," Ingram wrote in his announcement.

Ingram recently came under fire for a $30,000 signing bonus included as part of his original contract. The bonus, outlined in a 2008 "side letter" from former Finance Control Board Executive Director Stephen P. Lisauskas, was intended to help the new superintendent secure a mortgage to buy a home in the city. Instead, Ingram rented an apartment in the city's South End neighborhood and said he spent the bonus on other living expenses.

“I reside in Springfield, and, although I have not purchased a home yet, I do have residential living expenses and have elected to use this particular resource for that purpose which is not inconsistent with the language of the agreement nor the intent of the payment,” Ingram said in response to criticism of the bonus leveled by School Committee member and mayoral candidate Antonette E. Pepe.

In an opinion issued earlier this month, the Springfield Law Department said that Ingram should not be required to repay the city.

Resignation Letter of Superintendent Alan Ingram



This is a developing story. Details will be added as our reporting continues today.

Downed wires on Belchertown Road cause of outage that has affected more than 200 National Grid customers in Ware

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National Grid expects power to be restored by 9:30 a.m.

national grid logo.gif

WARE - Downed wires on Belchertown Road has left more than 200 National Grid customers without power Monday morning.

The outage, according to the National Grid website, was reported about 7:40 a.m. The utility expects power to be restored by 9:30 a.m.

Additional information was not immediately available.

Springfield police investigating Hungry Hill shooting incident

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A house at 99 Littleton St. was raked by gunfire just after 3 a.m. Sunday, according to Springfield police, who have no suspects in the incident.

SPRINGFIELD -- City police are investigating a weekend shooting incident in Hungry Hill, where a residence at 99 Littleton St. was raked by gunfire.

Officers recovered half a dozen .45-caliber shell casings after the shooting, which was reported at 3:13 a.m. Sunday.

Slugs were recovered from the siding of the house and from inside the home, including two that were removed from a sofa, Springfield Police Lt. Robert Moynihan said Monday.

He said there were no reported injuries in the incident, which remains under investigation.

The shooting was most likely either a gang- or drug-related incident, Moynihan.

Officers responding to the call were unable to locate any suspects. Police did not release any details about the occupants of the Littleton Street residence.


THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate location of a Sunday morning shooting in Springfield's Hungry Hill section, where a house was hit by gunfire but no one was injured:


View Larger Map

94-year-old woman wakes up to blimp that landed in yard

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The 128-foot-long blimp broke free of its moorings at a Columbus, Ohio airport during strong winds early Sunday.

backyard blimpLillian Bernhagen talks about being shocked that a blimp broke free of its moorings at an airport and landed in her backyard on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2011, in Worthington, Ohio.

WORTHINGTON, Ohio — A 94-year-old Ohio woman who woke up to discover that a breakaway blimp from a nearby airport had landed in her backyard said she heard a bang during stormy weather but didn't realize what happened until police knocked on her door about seven hours later.

The 128-foot-long blimp broke free of its moorings at a Columbus airport during strong winds early Sunday, then drifted to the sky, headed eastward and landed in Lillian Bernhagen's backyard in Worthington, less than two miles from Ohio State University's Don Scott airfield. No one was aboard and no injuries were reported.

The remnants of a battered blimp were draped over Bernhagen's picnic table and birdfeeders, covering half her backyard.

"I looked out the window and I said, 'Wow!'" she said.

Storms had limited the options authorities had to find the blimp until it was spotted in Bernhagen's yard. The Federal Aviation Administration tried to locate it via radar, while its owners tried to see it from the ground, said state police spokesman Lt. Rudy Zupanc.

As crews dismantled and inspected the blimp Sunday morning, Bernhagen snapped photos to share with relatives and talked about the surprise that forced her to miss her church service.

"It really is quite an occasion to have a blimp land in your yard," she said.

Bernhagen said it appeared the blimp, which was removed by mid-afternoon, had toppled a small tree and slightly bent a corner awning along her roof but didn't do any major damage to her home.

"I didn't expect to see one on the ground," she said. "I've only ever seen one in the air."

The blimp advertises Hangar 1 Vodka and is on a tour of about 20 cities under the direction of an Orlando, Fla.-based airship advertiser called The Lightship Group, said Toby Page, the group's marketing director. The blimp won't make its next planned stop in Detroit on Thursday.

"TLG will investigate what happened, but at this time there's nothing to indicate that it was anything more than a freak thunderstorm," Page said Sunday afternoon, noting he had no concerns about how the blimp was tethered at the airport.

Asked whether she might try the vodka, Bernhagen joked that she might need a drink after such a ruckus.

Business Monday from the Republican, August 15, 2011: Bay State's economy is running just fine

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Start the week informed with Business Monday from The Republican.

lego.JPGLEGO has transformed 100,000 square feet of industrial space into Class A office facilities at their North American headquarters at Enfield Business Park. Read the full story »

Start the week informed with Business Monday from The Republican:

Editorial: As national economy limps along, the Bay State's economy is running just fine
If only the rest of the national economy were more like Massachusetts’. It feels a little strange to write such a thing about a high-cost, high-regulation state, but the numbers don’t lie. Read more »

Advice to investors: Don't Panic!
The recent wild swings in stock prices have left many average investors flustered. But a broad cross-section of money managers offered them the same simple advice: Just calm down. Read more »

Western Massachusetts colleges turn to Facebook, Twitter, other social media to stay in touch with alumni, donors
Fundraising at colleges since the economic crash of 2008 has been a challenge for development offices nationwide. Read more »

Peter Pan Bus Lines to debut premium express service for Springfield to Hartford run
A private waiting room with dedicated customer service representatives, reserve seats and boarding slowly, in groups of 10, to avoid that mad dash isn’t just for high rollers at the airport anymore. Read more »


More Business Monday:

Voices of the Valley: Diana and Jeff Krauth, Elements Hot Tub Spa, Amherst

Class in Student Leadership in Asset Management program get hard life lesson in unpredictable stock market

Governor Malloy ratifies creation of Connecticut Airport Authority

LEGO showcases upgrades to North American headquarters in Enfield

Meet the Super Committee: profiles of the Joint Federal Deficit Committee

Appeals court slams Securities and Exchange Commission for 'arbitrarily and capriciously' enacting Wall Street regulations

Midwest heat wave impacting crops, likely to result in higher food, biofuel costs

Shaky Boston housing market shows signs of increasing instability

Executives with Health Management Advisors indicted on federal charges for fraud, cover-up

Webster Bank pledges $40,000 to Baystate Medical Center's capital campaign

Commentary: Focus on growing economy should be Washington's priority right now, not cutting debt


Notebooks:

Business Etc.: Nuvo goes online, New Environmental HQ wins green award, WMECO offering community grants, and more

Pioneer Valley Business Calendar for Aug. 15- Sept. 14

West Springfield officials working to plant trees to replace those lost because of June 1 tornado

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West Springfield has sought guidance from Springfield as to which species of trees are suitable for planting in an urban setting.

WEST SPRINGFIELD - The wheels are in motion to replace the more than 300 trees that were lost in the Merrick section when a tornado devastated that neighborhood June 1.

There were more than 300 trees destroyed by the tornado on both public and private property, according to Director of Public Works Jack L. Dowd. He has estimated it could cost as much $30,000 to $50,000 to plant trees to replace the ones that were downed.

Mayor Edward J. Gibson recently said that the city has received $15,000 from Peoples Bank to help the cause. In addition, there is a chance to use $20,000 in the town’s Community Development Block Grant fund for the project, according to Community Development Director Joseph Laplante.

“This is what we will be using it (the grant) for. It was a great grant, gift from Peoples Bank,” the mayor said.

The grant demonstrates the bank’s commitment to all things green and sustainable, Gibson added.

Dowd said the city is working with former District 1 Town Councilor Diane Crowell in her capacity as a leader of the Precinct 1 and 2 Committee to replace trees lost due to the tornado. Crowell said residents are eager to work with the city on the project as so many trees have been lost in their neighborhood.

“We will participate as best we can,” Dowd said of the city’s role in the project.

The public works chief said he has only three people on his forestry crew and that the city also needs to replace 300 other trees around the city as part of its usual work.

Dowd said one of the biggest challenges will be determining what species of trees should be planted. In the past, the city has planted silver maple trees only to learn later that they grew so fast they disturbed sidewalks.

Rather than “reinvent the wheel,” Dowd said he has gotten a report from Springfield outlining the types of trees that were planted during a recent urban redevelopment project along the Main Street corridor in the South End.

Dowd said another challenge will be getting people to water and tend them, adding that his department does not have the manpower to look after the trees. He is hopeful that abutters will be amenable to “adopting” trees.

Dowd said FEMA, which is working to assist with people and property affected by the tornado, does not issue grants to replant trees.

Laplante said $20,000 from the town’s allotment from its Community Development Block Grant to buy trees might be enough to buy 50 to 100 trees about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter.

'Hamp mayoral candidate Bardsley launches air campaign

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Northampton mayoral hopeful Michael Bardsley took his campaign to the skies on Saturday, using a plane to tow a banner promoting his candidacy against City Council President David Narkewicz.

michael_bardsley_northampton.jpgMichael Bardsley


NORTHAMPTON -- Mayoral candidate Michael Bardsley, a former City Council president who narrowly lost a 2009 bid to unseat incumbent Mayor Mary Clare Higgins, took his campaign to the friendly skies over Paradise City on Saturday.

From late morning until early afternoon, the Bardsley campaign used a retro "taildragger" plane to tow a banner through the sky declaring, "A Mayor Should Be Elected, Not Selected."

The message was a jab at rival David Narkewicz, the current City Council president whose mayoral campaign is reportedly supported by Higgins. The lame-duck Higgins announced in March that she wouldn't seek a seventh term as mayor.

"This is the only airtime I can afford," Bardsley joked in a release.

David Narkewicz 2005.jpgDavid Narkewicz


"People practically break their necks to see what these things say," said Jerry Grant, owner of Northeast Aerial Advertising, which supplied the plane for the flyover.

"You can't not look at it," Grant said.

Aerial advertising has significantly declined due to tougher FAA restrictions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but the Bardsley campaign claims the tactic is another "unconventional move" in its effort to defeat Narkewicz in the November election.

There was no immediate word from the Bardsley camp on whether the candidate might try aerial advertising again.

As of now, Bardsley and Narkewicz are the only candidates to replace Higgins in the November election.

Narkewicz, the council president, will assume the mayoral duties when Higgins leaves office in September to head a human services agency in Greenfield. Bardsley also sat in for Higgins on a number of occasions during his tenure as council president.


53-year-old Raymond Barber, run over by tow truck in Westfield nearly 4 weeks ago, remains in critical condition at Baystate

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The accident occurred July 21 on East Silver Street.

westfield police.jpg

WESTFIELD – A 53-year-old city man, seriously injured when he was run over by a tow truck on East Silver Street nearly a month ago, remained in critical condition Monday at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, a spokeswoman said.

Police have identified the man as Raymond Barber of 20 Murphy Circle.

Police said the accident occurred on July 21 at about 5:30 p.m. as Barber, walking along the tree belt, fell into the road midway under the flatbed truck and was run over by the dual rear wheels.

Information on the status of the Police Department's investigation was not immediately available.

Springfield seeking court approval to demolish condemned Locust Street buildings

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The dilapidated buildings at 244-252 Locust St. and 258-266 Locust St. were condemned last year after inspectors found code violations ranging from trash and feces to faulty electrical wiring and a broken fire-alarm system.

locust apartments.JPGThe city is seeking court approval to demolish two condemned apartment buildings at 258-266 Locust St. and 244-252 Locust St.

SPRINGFIELD - The city is seeking state Housing Court permission to demolish two condemned apartment buildings on Locust Street, saying the sites have worsened in the past year, with inspectors finding conditions ranging from evidence of trespassing and drug use to “overwhelming” odors.

A Housing Court hearing is scheduled Wednesday to consider the city’s request to demolish the large, four-story apartment buildings at 244-252 Locust St. and 258-266 Locust St.

The city condemned the buildings a year ago, displacing around 26 families. City National Bank, the California-based mortgage holder, agreed last August to pay for food vouchers and temporary lodging for the families, many of which stayed in area motels.

A lawyer for the bank could not be reached for comment Friday. The owner is listed as Riverview Apartments LLC, whose manager and resident agent is listed as Yevgeniy D. Rozenbeg of Swampscott, according to court records.

The buildings were cited last August for various code violations, including a non-functioning central fire alarm system, exposed electrical wiring and trash and feces. Tenants additionally complained about drug dealing, gang activity and squatters at the apartments, which are located in a high-crime area.

The buildings were boarded and secured after they were condemned.

However, David Cotter, the city’s deputy director of Code Enforcement Housing Division, said a July 20 inspection showed that conditions had worsened.

“In several of the units throughout the dwellings there was both human and animal waste present, with overwhelming odors,” Cotter stated in a written report.

Apartment units were not secure, and interior doors were broke into, with debris that included empty beer and wine containers and used drug paraphernalia, Cotter said.

“There was both odor and visible evidence of mold, especially in the fourth-floor units,” Cotter said.

Robert E. Smith, of ATC Associates Inc., an environmental consultant based in West Springfield, stated in a July report that there are environmental concerns at 248-252 Locust St. There was a past oil spill, waste drums in the basement and a soil stockpile at the site, and no documentation of disposal, he said.

“It is my professional opinion that demolition of this building would be the most cost effective way to remediate the contamination and would allow the most expeditious means to address this serious health hazard,” Smith said in his report.

Warren Buffett calls for more taxes on 'mega-rich'

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"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress," Buffett wrote.

warren buffettIn this March 24, 2011 file photo, billionaire investor Warren Buffett gestures at a news conference in New Delhi.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is calling on the so-called "mega-rich" to pay more in taxes.

Buffett said Monday in a New York Times opinion piece that he would immediately raise rates on households with taxable income of more than $1 million, and he would add an additional increase for those making $10 million or more.

He also recommends that the 12 members of Congress charged with devising a deficit-cutting plan leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged.

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress," Buffett wrote. "It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

Buffett noted that the mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most investment income but practically nothing in payroll taxes. The middle class, meanwhile, typically falls into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets and is hit with heavy payroll taxes. He said Washington legislators "feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species."

Buffett said he knows many of the mega-rich well, and most wouldn't mind paying more in taxes, especially when so many fellow citizens are suffering. He also said he has yet to see anyone shy away from investments because of tax rates on potential gains, even when rates were much higher in the mid-1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

"People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off," he said.

Swedish woman, who allegedly left baby in stroller outside Amherst restaurant for 10 minutes, reported to state Department of Children and Families

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The woman told police that her action would not be considered unusual in her country.

AMHERST – A Swedish woman who allegedly left her young son alone in a stroller outside a downtown restaurant while she went inside to order food on Friday afternoon has been reported to the state Department of Children and Families, police said.

An investigating officer reported that the 1-year-old, left outside the Bueno Y Sano restaurant on Boltwood Walk for approximately ten minutes, was fine.

The woman, who said she periodically checked on the boy, told Amherst police that her action would not be considered unusual in her country.

Superintendent of Schools Alan Ingram's notice of resignation draws mixed reaction

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Superintendent of Schools Alan J. Ingram gave no reason for his decision to resign effective June 30, 2012.

121409_alan_ingram.jpgAlan J. Ingram

SPRINGFIELD – Superintendent of Schools Alan J. Ingram’s announcement on Monday that he is resigning effective June 30, 2012, drew a mixed reaction from city officials, but did not surprise some of his critics.

His list of accomplishments, however, which he provided in a two-page press release, drew immediate rebuttal.

School Committee member Antonette E. Pepe, a candidate for mayor, said Ingram selects statistics that indicate progress while omitting negative statistics in his self-evaluation.

“He plays these numbers games,” Pepe said.

Both Pepe and City Council President Jose F. Tosado, also a candidate for mayor, said they were not surprised by Ingram’s announcement, and believe his performance was unsatisfactory.

Ingram recently came under fire for a $30,000 signing bonus included as part of his original 2008 contract.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno praised Ingram, but said much more work needs to be done.

“Dr. Ingram’s public service career has been commendable and I wish him good health and well wishes with all his future endeavors,” Sarno said in a prepared release. “Dr. Ingram has made numerous changes to the school district, which I am hopeful will make positive changes for years to come; however, there is still much work to be done.”

Sarno said he will meet with the School Committee to discuss creation of a search committee and process for selecting a new superintendent.

The date of Ingram's resignation coincides with the end of his current four-year contract. His statement gave no indication why he is choosing to resign.

Azell M. Cavaan, Ingram's communications director, said he would not be making additional comment.

“Let me make it clear, I will be fully engaged as the leader of the Springfield schools through the conclusion of this coming school year,” Ingram wrote in his announcement.

Ingram, in his statement of resignation, said he is pleased by accomplishments including: increased school attendance; decreased truancy; a decrease in the percentage of student suspensions; an increase in Advance Placement exams; and gains in Student Academic Proficiency such as Reading/English Language Arts (Grades 3-8 and 10) and Science and Technology (Grades 3, 5, and 8)

Pepe said Ingram deliberately selects certain grade levels and certain statistics and not others in listing his accomplishments. In addition, some of the accomplishments cited by Ingram were begun before he began as superintendent, Pepe said.

The timing of Ingram’s announcement occurred as he realized that he would not have sufficient votes from the School Committee to have his contract renewed, Pepe said.

Ingram said he wanted to give the School Committee ample notice so it could conduct a comprehensive search for his replacement.

Tosado said he would give Ingram a “D” if grading his performance.

“He never lived up to the promises he made relative to creating a substantial change in the city,” Tosado said. “He leaves a worse record than when he came in.”

The school system has 10 underperforming (Level 4) schools, and its initial turnaround plan for the High School of Commerce was rejected, Tosado said.

Ingram’s prepared statement makes no mention of the 2008 “side letter” from former Finance Control Board Executive Director Stephen P. Lisauskas, was intended to help the new superintendent secure a mortgage to buy a home in the city.

Instead, Ingram rented an apartment in the city’s South End neighborhood and said he spent the bonus on other living expenses.

“I reside in Springfield, and, although I have not purchased a home yet, I do have residential living expenses and have elected to use this particular resource for that purpose which is not inconsistent with the language of the agreement nor the intent of the payment,” Ingram said in response to criticism of the bonus leveled by Pepe.

In an opinion issued earlier this month, the Springfield Law Department said that Ingram should not be required to repay the city.

School Committee member Norman Roldan said he is “sort of am a little surprised” by Ingram’s announcement, and that he did not inform the School Committee first.

It was, however, “common that he overlooked us on the School Committee,” Roldan said.

“Assessing everything, I am not going to say anything negative,” Roldan said. “I don’t see any improvement. The numbers don’t lie.”

Resignation Letter of Superintendent Alan Ingram

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