Winston-Salem’s resurgence took off, Joines said, when it identified one industry which would drive job growth – biotech.

The Republican | Dave RobackWinston-Salem (N.C.) Mayor Allen Joines was the keynote speaker at the HAPHousing Envisioning a Resurgent Springfield Metro event at the MassMutual Center in Springfield on Wednesday night.

SPRINGFIELD – The mayor of Winston-Salem, N.C., Allen Joines, told city leaders last night that the key to a city’s resurgence is to identify job sectors it wants to attract.

Winston-Salem’s resurgence took off, Joines said, when it identified one industry which would drive job growth.

He said Winston-Salem identified the bio-technology industry and then the regenerative tissue industry.

Agencies in Winston-Salem have collaborated with each other to make growth happen, Joines said.

The number of restaurants in Winston-Salem has increased from 15 to 76 in the past five years. There has also been an increase in galleries and festivals.

The city has been listed as one of the top 25 cities to retire.

“It has a safe environment, sidewalk cafes and a reasonable cost of living,” Joines said.

Joines, who spoke at the MassMutual Center, was the guest of Springfield’s HAPHousing Envisioning a Resurgent Springfield Metro symposium.

Honored following the speech with a community service award was George Arwady, publisher of The Republican, for the role The Republican and MassLive.com played in serving as a daily guide to those finding their way following the June 1 tornado.

“In its coverage, The Republican and Masslive felt the pain we felt,” said Peter Gagliardi, executive director of HAPHousing.

In accepting the award, Arwady said the newspaper is dedicated to telling the story of the city’s recovery, as well.

Also honored were Lizzy Ortiz of the city of Springfield and Alvina Brevard of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development for the role they played in helping 300 tornado victims in need of shelter find new places to live.

Ortiz and Brevard are “unsung heroes,” Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said, for helping people who had “nothing but the clothes on their backs” to relocate in less than a month.

Also honored were Ronald Ancrum of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, who received the collaborator award, and Ron and Brenna Sadowski, who received the Dick Stebbins Community Involvement Award for their work in finding and picking up furniture and household goods for the homeless.

Also recognized was Sarno for his role in leading the city after the tornado.

Sarno said he accepted the award on behalf of the city’s first responders, its police, firefighters and ambulance staff and on behalf of the residents of Springfield.

“Thank you in a big way,” Sarno said. “We will come back bigger, better and stronger.”

Suspected tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.

View full sizeAssociated PressAuburn University student Tabitha Welch helps a friend search her home for valuables after a windstorm blew several trees into her home in Auburn, Ala., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011. A path of storms swept across the state leaving behind fallen trees and some heavy wind damage. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

By BOB JOHNSON
and JEFFREY COLLINS

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A strong storm system that produced several possible tornadoes hit the Southeast on Wednesday, damaging dozens of homes and buildings. At least four people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured.

Suspected tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina, and thousands of people were without power as trees and power lines were downed.

In South Carolina, three people were killed and five injured when an apparent tornado swept through a rural community near Rock Hill, about 20 miles south of Charlotte, N.C. In north Georgia, an unidentified person was killed when a tree fell on a sport utility vehicle

In eastern Alabama, a suspected twister splintered trees and demolished mobile homes at a pair of housing parks near the Auburn University campus. Less than seven months ago, a massive tornado roared past the campus of archrival University of Alabama in the western part of the state.

It was the worst bout of weather for the state since about 250 people were killed during the tornado outbreak in April. Both campuses were spared major damage this time.

As weather service experts fanned out to assess damage, Auburn graduate student Staci DeGeer didn't have any doubts about what sent a pair of trees crashing through her mobile home at Ridgewood Village.

"It's tornado damage. I'm from Kansas; I know tornado damage," said DeGeer, who wasn't home at the time. "It's kind of hit or miss. There will be two or three (trailers) that are bad and then a few that are OK."

A similar scene occurred in southeastern Mississippi, where Jones County emergency director Don McKinnon said some people were briefly trapped in their homes as trees fell on them. Mobile homes were tossed off their foundations. In all, 15 people were hurt in the area.

As the weather moved east, tornado warnings and watches were issued in Georgia and South Carolina.

Forecasters said a cold front stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast was to blame. Temperatures dropped in some areas from the low 70s to the 50s as the front passed, and winds gusted to near 30 mph.

Damage was reported in several parts of Alabama. In Sumter County, in the west-central part of the state, an elderly woman was in her home as a tree crashed into it. She had to be taken to the hospital.

In Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama, the day was a harsh reminder of the threat of violent weather for communities still recovering from the killer tornadoes.

"It makes you sit up on the edge of the chair a little more," said Tom Perryman, who works for the school system in Tuscaloosa County, which was hard hit in April.

Some 130 miles to the east, the ailing oaks at Toomer's Corner on the Auburn campus, were OK. An Alabama fan is suspected of poisoning the famous trees in February.

Nearby, DeGeer's dog Jack rode out the storm in her mobile home without injury, but the trailer itself didn't fare as well.

"It looks like I redecorated with a wilderness theme. There are trees through my house," she said.

In southern Louisiana, a suspected tornado hit a neighborhood in Houma, splintering a home. Crews helped clean up storm debris near a school and the Red Cross sent workers to help with damage assessments.

Johnson reported from Birmingham and Associated Press writer Jay Reeves contributed to this report from there.

The bill would require that anyone convicted of two crimes from a list of the state's most serious offenses – including murder, rape and kidnapping – be considered a habitual offender.

File photo

BOSTON — The Massachusetts House of Representatives has approved a bill denying parole to anyone convicted of a third serious felony.

The bill would require that anyone convicted of two crimes from a list of the state's most serious offenses — including murder, rape and kidnapping — be considered a habitual offender.

An offender convicted of a third crime on the list would have to serve out his full sentence without parole.

The bill, approved on a 142-12 vote, is a stripped down version of a far more reaching bill approved by the Senate.

The Senate bill includes other measures like updating the state wiretapping laws to include text messages and creating the crimes of assault with a firearm, murder for hire and strangulation.

Both bills head to a conference committee to work out a compromise.

Lysak said he has at least eight votes from the 13-member council to become vice president in January.

John Lysak

SPRINGFIELD – Ward 8 City Councilor John A. Lysak announced this week that he has enough pledges of support from his colleagues to serve as council vice president in 2012.

Lysak said he has at least eight votes from the 13-member council to become vice president in January. The council will conduct an informal caucus vote for its president and vice-president in December followed by formal votes in January.

Lysak said he has votes from Councilors James J. Ferrera III, Kateri B. Walsh, Zaida Luna, Timothy J. Rooke, Thomas M. Ashe, Melvin A. Edwards, his own vote, and Councilor-elect Bud L. Williams.

Ferrera recently announced he has the votes to become president of the council in 2012.

Votes in the Senate and House came after supporters of the bill agreed to drop public accommodations language that critics said would lead to a breakdown in privacy in restrooms, locker rooms and other single-gender facilities.

File photo | The Republican

By BOB SALSBERG

BOSTON — Transgender people would be protected from discrimination in Massachusetts under a bill that was sent Wednesday to Gov. Deval Patrick, who has promised to sign it into law.

The measure was approved by the Senate on a voice vote without debate one day after the House passed it 95-58. The legislation won final routine passage later in the day.

Sen. Benjamin Downing, D-Pittsfield, said the state's estimated 33,000 transgender residents want to be able to live their lives without fear of discrimination.

"Those same individuals are assaulted simply because of who they are," said Downing. "They are harassed on the job much more often, if not denied employment outright simply because of who they are."

The absence of debate over the bill in the Senate was in contrast to the House, where Democratic leaders moved Tuesday to limit debate to one hour, cutting off many of the 50 or so amendments that had been filed by opponents.

The votes came after supporters of the bill agreed to drop public accommodations language that critics said would lead to a breakdown in privacy in rest rooms, locker rooms and other single-gender facilities.

Critics of the bill claimed a partial win.

"It's a victory for the safety, privacy and modesty of women and children who expect to be safe and secure in public bathrooms in the commonwealth," said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Even with that change, however, some House Republicans argued that the bill could potentially hurt small businesses and lead to a flurry of lawsuits. They argued that businesses would be unable to take any action if an employee suddenly began identifying as a member of the opposite sex, causing customers to become uncomfortable.

"It opens the door for social change that would take away the rights of hardworking men and women and parents," said Rep. Marc Lombardo, a freshmen legislator from Billerica.

Transgender advocates pushed back, saying the bill honors Massachusetts' long tradition of protecting civil rights by adding "gender identity or expression" to the state laws against discrimination in employment, housing, insurance and credit. They said 15 other states have such protections.

"Right now it's legal for a business to fire a transgender person for no other reason than their gender identity," said Rep. Carl Sciortino, a Democrat from Medford who backs the bill. "A fully functioning, hardworking individual can be told, 'No, you're not welcome to work here, you're not welcome to live here,' for no other reason than gender identity."

Wednesday was the final day the Legislature planned to meet in formal session before taking a recess through the end of the year.

Senate President Therese Murray expressed optimism that another bill requiring scrap metal dealers to register at the local level and take more steps to ensure they are not acquiring stolen goods could be finalized over the next seven weeks.

The Massachusetts Senate Sergeant at Arms leaves the Senate Chamber to escort the governor back prior to the swearing in of new members at the Statehouse in Boston, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011.

BOSTON - After two long days of formal sessions, the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday enacted a bill allowing evergreen clauses to be included in collective bargaining contracts, finalizing a bill that had been bandied back and forth between the branches in the finals hours of formal session for the year.

A reaction to a Supreme Judicial Court ruling on the legality of such clauses, the bill reaffirmed a long-standing practice of including language in collective bargaining contracts allowing public employees to continue working under the terms of expired contract while new deals are being negotiated.

The Senate on Thursday morning had not yet received a bill approved by the House Wednesday night banning parole for three-time violent felons, preventing the branch from naming members to a conference committee that will work over the next seven weeks with the House on a comprehensive crime bill.

Sens. Cynthia Creem, Steven Baddour and Bruce Tarr are the expected conferees.

Senate President Therese Murray, who attended the Senate’s five-minute informal session Thursday, also expressed optimism that another bill – one requiring scrap metal dealers to register at the local level and take more steps to ensure they are not acquiring stolen goods – could be finalized over the next seven weeks when lawmakers only meet informally and any member can block a bill.

“We amended what the House sent over because they didn’t go as far as we would like on tagging. I’m hoping that will happen because it’s a big business. I think it can get done in informal,” Murray said.

The House and Senate have approved competing versions of the bill, differing in the duration allowed for police to tag and hold goods sold to scrap metal dealers and suspected of being stolen. The House bill allows for a maximum 48-hour police tag, while the Senate allowed for up to 10 days.

House Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Chairman Rep. Theodore Speliotis said he thought the 48-hour window negotiated between law enforcement and scrap metal dealers was a “good compromise,” but also said he believed common ground could be reached with the Senate during the recess.

“I think we can get it done informally. We didn’t have a roll call on it, and I will say I’m not surprised, or maybe a little surprised, it got such a positive reaction form the members when we put it out. There’s a greater will to accomplish something than to hold it up,” Speliotis said.

The Agawam Senior Center is selling French meat pies as well as some dessert pies to raise money to buy a new bus.

Photo by Dave Roback / The RepublicanCarol L. Bernazki, who runs the kitchen at the Agawam Senior Center, shows off some of the French meat pies being sold to raise money for a new bus for the center.

AGAWAM – Carol L. Bernazki’s French meat pies are so good, one customer bought two during the recent Harvest Festival held in the city.

He ate the first one in his car and then had to come back to order a second one, according to Bernazki.

“The first pie never made it home,” Bernazki said during a recent interview at the Senior Center, where she runs the kitchen.

Now Bernazki has turned her pie-making skills toward Thanksgiving to help the Friends of the Agawam Senior Center raise $60,000 to buy a new bus. This is the sixth Thanksgiving Bernazki and her assistant, Maria A. Goncalves, have stayed after work to bake French meat pies as well as apple, chocolate cream and pumpkin pies to benefit the Friends group.

Bernazki uses a recipe handed down in her family from her grandmother, Rose Bedard, who grew up in a large French Canadian community in Fall River. Bedard’s people were from Quebec.

Bernazki’s grandmother taught her how to make the pies, which her mother, Simonne Bedard Fitzsenry, also bakes.

“I’ve been making meat pies, I don’t know, 30 years,” Bernazki said. “My mother used to make them and now I make them.”

The main ingredients for the meat pies are ground pork, hamburg and spices. And the special ingredient?

“Lots of love,” Bernazki said.

“I have people stop me on the street — ‘when are you going to do the pies again’?” J. Emile Cote, the president of the Friends of the Agawam Senior Center, said.

“She’s a fantastic cook,” Cote said of Bernazki.

As of Monday, the Friends had taken orders for more than 100 Thanksgiving French meat pies.

Bernazki and Goncalves regularly make 100 at a time when the Senior Center serves them for lunch.

Bernazki said she likes to make the pies for the Friends to sell because of the good the group does at the Senior Center.

“Any time I need anything in the kitchen they are the first one who offer to get it for me. One hand washes the other,” Bernazki said.

Friday is the deadline for ordering pies from the Senior Center at (413) 821-0604 or 821-0605. Meat pies are priced at $12 and the others are $10.

The number of people 90 years of age and older is expected to more than quadruple in the next 40 years, the Census Bureau reported.

BOSTON - The nation's 90-and-older population tripled over the past three decades and is projected to more than quadruple over the next four decades, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.

The bureau said the 90-and-older segment of the population hit 1.9 million in 2010 and that people 90 and older comprise 4.7 percent of the nation's residents in the 65 and older bracket, compared to just 2.8 percent in 1980. The share is likely to reach 10 percent by 2050, according to the Census Bureau.

As for characteristics of the 90-and-older population, they are more likely to be women (by a 3 to 1 ratio) and to have higher widowhood, poverty and disability rates than people just under the age cutoff. Also, the majority of people 90 and older reported that they live along or in a nursing home.

At 61.3 percent, bureau officials described an "unexpectedly high" the proportion of the 90-and-older population, individuals who were born in 1918 or earlier, as having completed high school.

Zoning changes require a two-thirds vote to pass

Amherst's Town Hall

AMHERST – The proposal to create village centers in both north and south Amherst had the backing of many town officials but in the end, Town Meeting rejected it.

While a majority favored the proposal, it failed to garner the two-thirds margin it needed to pass, receiving 119 votes in favor but 79 opposed it. It needed 132 to pass.

“I was disappointed with the outcome but encouraged by the expressions of support of the town moving toward a form based code,” said Town Manager John P. Musante. It’s a matter of taking in the feedback and seeing if we can improve the concept,” he said.

The concerns expressed at the meeting, he said, were the concerns that people have expressed during the various hearings including the fear that it would lead to the building of more student housing.

“It was a robust informative discussion.” And he said, “it’s not unusual” for zoning changes not to be approved the first time through because it requires the two-thirds vote. Zoning changes “are meant to be hard to do.”

The Select Board and Finance Committee supported the rezoning.

The zoning proposals are in keeping with the goals of the town's master plan, said Planning Board Director Jonathan Tucker.
"You want a diversity of housing," Tucker has said.


Part of the zoning change is the adoption of what is called form-based zoning that would regulate the overall design of new development in relation to how it fits with the environment.


But residents were concerned that the changes would lead to greater density and had submitted a petition opposing it.

Planning Board chairman Stephen Schreiber agreed with Musante that the vote was encouraging. “I personally would like to see a modified version move (ahead) as quickly as possible.”

He said he thought the meeting’s discussion was “incredibly informative; it really gave us a sense of the community values what the strengths of the proposal were and what the weaknesses were.”

While the board heard many of the arguments before, coming from 200 at Town Meeting, “it put it in a different context.”

He sees ways in which the Planning Board “can move forward and what the critical goals are for form-based zoning.”

He said the board would likely look at the particular areas that drew the most concern in re-crafting the zoning proposal.

Bassist's gift rocks Highland Ambulance, Internet titans fight "Stop Online Piracy Act", and more

S.P. Sullivan, MassLive.com

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Sixty-year-old Thomas Waruzila, 36-year-old Anthony Gleason and 42-year-old Dean Gleason were indicted by a state grand jury.

BOSTON – Three state Department of Transportation employees have been accused of illegally awarding snow and ice removal contracts to a family friend.

Sixty-year-old Thomas Waruzila, 36-year-old Anthony Gleason and 42-year-old Dean Gleason were indicted Wednesday by a state grand jury and face arraignment at a later date.

Attorney General Martha M. Coakley said the defendants schemed to award contracts to the friend while hiding a financial interest that Waruzila and Anthony Gleason had in the snow removal equipment.

Coakley said Waruzila was the former director of MassDOT’s Worcester office, and the Gleason brothers worked in the office.

The friend, Quang T. Do, also face charges.

In a statement, MassDOT called the alleged conduct of the employees “unacceptable” and said they were currently on unpaid leave.

It wasn’t immediately known if the men had hired attorneys.

Central business zoning would provide greater flexibility than neighborhood business zoning.

Wayne Feiden

NORTHAMPTON - Planning Director Wayne Feiden said he doesn’t remember a time when so many church and school buildings have been for sale and that has sparked planners to consider various zoning changes in response.

The department held a community discussion at City Hall and at the JFK Middle School Wednesday to present possible changes and to gather comments before planners begin the formal planning process.

The idea is to look at zoning and see where it didn’t make sense, he said.

Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech has been seeking to develop land and sell off buildings on Round Hill Road and Smith College too as been looking at selling buildings.

St. John Cantius Parish on Hawley Street is also for sale as is St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Leeds.

The section of Hawley Street near St. John is currently zoned neighborhood business and office and industrial and urban residential c – church zoning - and the idea would be to rezone it to central business. “It allows a much greater use of the property,” Feiden said, but at the same time central business architecture allows for design standards to be set.

All the proposals would bear that dual zoning.

Neighborhood business is more of a catchall area for general small mom and pop type stores but a central business area would be less restrictive, he said.

On Conz Street, the proposal is to change the urban residential c and neighborhood business to central business there as well.

“Conz Street is a weird mix, almost every piece of property is a different zoning district.” Changing the zoning there would allow more businesses, he said, and be a way of expanding the downtown.

He said now some second floor businesses downtown have left the city and moved to Hadley. Changing the zoning would allow those businesses to stay.

But Karl Heston who lives on Conz Street said such a zoning change would drastically change the street. “I like having the mix,” he said. He also likes to walk downtown and feels that would be impeded with a zoning change. He also said it is one of the oldest streets in the city and wants to see the homes preserved as well.

Planners are also considering changing the zoning on a portion of West Farms Road from neighborhood business to general business there as well.

Feiden said that again would provide “a little more flexibility for infill development.” It would also allow for more commercial uses.

Another change planners are working on is a language change that would allow historic educational and education and buildings to be reused. The idea is to encourage the preservation of historic buildings.

Feiden said now the buildings could be sold and a developer could come in and raze them.

The day after the meetings, Feiden said planners still want to hear from Leeds residents about possible changes there and then they will talk about what to bring forward. “Some changes will get introduced, some might get modified. Conz Street is an area we’ll look at most carefully.”

Families will be able borrow equipment before investing in any kind of device or software to see if it would work.

Photo by Diane Lederman / The RepublicanDale Gardner-Fox of Belchertown helped create the Collaborative Center for Assistive Technology and Training with Patty Walsh-Cassidy. Here she shows a clock to help children with disabilities learn to tell time.

NORTHAMPTON – Nearly two decades ago when Patty Walsh-Cassidy helped create an assistive technology center at a cooperative here, she dreamed of building a library of equipment to lend out.

This way, families could try out what they needed at home, before investing in any kind of device or software to see if it would work.

Walsh-Cassidy died two years ago at Thanksgiving when she was 48 of breast cancer.
Now after adjusting to her passing, colleagues at the Collaborative for Education Services (formerly the Hampshire Educational Collaborative) are making that dream real.

They recently announced the start of the project at a ceremony to honor Walsh-Cassidy with the goal of building and opening the library on St. Patrick’s Day in 2012. Walsh-Cassidy was Irish and loved the celebration, said Sherry Smith, special education program director at the collaborative.

“We thought it would be a perfect time to launch.”

In the meantime they will be raising money and collecting equipment from anyone wishing to give.

Dale Gardner-Fox of Belchertown helped create the Collaborative Center for Assistive Technology and Training with Walsh-Cassidy. “This was her dream,” she said of the library. “Unfortunately it took her dying to give us the impetus.”

Assistive technology devices help people with learning or physical disabilities learn and communicate. Devices include switches that someone with a disability can manipulate with a turn of their head, special keyboards or software that can help someone communicate who might not be able to speak.

Walsh-Cassidy had a zest for living and a love for her work, Gardner-Fox said. Her motto was “be a bubble-blower, not a bubble-popper.”

For Linda Surprenant of Belchertown, Walsh-Cassidy was more than a teacher for her daughter Lauren. “She was part of our family. Patty had such passion. She believed every kid should have a voice.”

And she found whatever tool to give them that voice be it verbal or otherwise. She was always looking at innovation for her daughter who’s now 22. Walsh-Cassidy began working with Lauren, who has metabolic disease, when she was 3 years old.

Walsh-Cassidy “was a mentor for Lauren’s whole (educational) team. She taught them so much.” And when she was sick at the end, she made sure to train a colleague to take over Lauren’s education.

At the recent project launch, Surprenant said, “it’s hard but it’s exciting. This was her passion, this is what she wanted.”

Fighting back tears Walsh-Cassidy’s sister Sheila Walsh of Chicopee agreed. “She’d be so happy.”

Walsh-Cassidy continued working into October before she died. Walsh believes that “work held her together.”

Her sister also loved teaching. She taught graduate courses at Simmons and Lesley College in Boston as well as Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT and Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee.

The collaborative is collecting donations of both money and products. Those interested in learning more can visit the web site.

Ross Gittell of the New England Economic Partnership says the region is not expected to return to pre-recession employment levels until the second quarter of 2015.

Associated PressJob seekers crowd around tables to get information and drop off resumes during a job fair in Boston Monday, Oct. 17, 2011.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New England will continue to experience a slow economic recovery until well into 2013 due in part to weaknesses in the national and global economies, an economic forecaster said Thursday.

The forecast came a day before the New England Economic Partnership was scheduled to hold its fall conference in Manchester.

"Of significant concern looking forward is how the New England 'states will be affected by the European debt crisis. The European market has been an important trade partner and investor in New England, and a weak European economy will have economic implications for the region," Ross Gittell, the partnership's New England forecast manager, said in a statement. Gittell said the region is not expected to return to pre-recession employment levels until the second quarter of 2015.

In addition, fiscal challenges at the state and federal level, low consumer and investor confidence will affect the region, added Gittell, a University of New Hampshire economist.

Gittell said regional employment is expected to remain at its current level and not grow at an annual rate above 1 percent until the middle of 2013. He said most economists believe a 1 percent growth in employment is needed just to keep unemployment at existing levels. He said the region's rate is about half that, which means the economy is stagnant. The regional jobless rate is expected to rise slightly from 7.8 percent in the last quarter of 2011 to 8.2 percent in early 2013, then gradually decline to 6.7 percent by the end of the forecast period.

Gittell said there will be significant variations in economic performance among the states, with Vermont and New Hampshire expected to have the strongest job growth over the forecast period that runs to 2015. He said Vermont is the only state expected to have employment growth at a rate exceeding the national average.

Maine and Connecticut are expected to have the lowest job growth, and Rhode Island, which has a 10.5 percent jobless rate, is expected to continue to have the highest unemployment in New England.

Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Analytics, said the national outlook may be improving with growth appearing to have stabilized and the risk of recession receding. But Zandi said the rate of growth is not enough to reduce the high 9 percent national unemployment rate.

"Though the odds of another U.S. downturn are lower, they remain uncomfortably high. They won't recede substantially until it is clearer whether European policymakers are able to contain their debt crisis," he said.

He also said recession remains a significant threat unless — at the very least — Congress comes up with a deal to make $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years that do no harm.

Maine economic forecaster Charles Colgan said his state is expected to continue to experience job losses through next year.

"Although the losses will be small, the trends take the Maine economy closer to the levels at the bottom of the recession rather than to recovery," he said. Growth is expected to resume at a faster pace in 2014 and 2015, he said. He said he did not foresee recovery to pre-recession levels within the forecast period.

The organization's report said the national malaise should stall Connecticut's job and income growth. Gittlell said Connecticut's economy is affected by its proximity to the New York financial markets and Wall Street.

Rhode Island's outlook for 2012 is expected to be difficult as the state struggles to create jobs, resolve state pension and budget problems and streamline its regulatory system, according to the report.

Edward Mazze, a professor of business administration at the University of Rhode Island, and Edinaldo Tebaldi, assistant professor of economics at Bryant University, said the state also could lose gambling revenue to Massachusetts, which is expected to legalize casinos.

Rhode Island's unemployment is expected to remain above 10 percent until the end of 2012 and not drop to 8 percent until 2015.

Massachusetts economic forecast manager Alan Clayton-Matthews said his state's economic growth also is expected to be weak through mid-2013.

"Massachusetts will avoid a recession, but output will grow slowly enough so that some job losses are expected for the remainder of this year and the first quarter of next year," he said.

He predicts unemployment will rise by one-half a percentage point and economic recovery won't begin until the second half of 2013. The state's jobless rate for October was 7.3 percent.

U.S. births dropped for the third straight year — especially for young mothers — and experts think money worries are the reason.

Associated PressIn this Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2009 file photo, Nurse Jozie Kovar, checks the heartbeat of one of eight babies at Jamestown, N.D. Hospital.

ATLANTA (AP) — The economy may well be the best form of birth control.

U.S. births dropped for the third straight year — especially for young mothers — and experts think money worries are the reason.

A federal report released Thursday showed declines in the birth rate for all races and most age groups. Teens and women in their early 20s had the most dramatic dip, to the lowest rates since record-keeping began in the 1940s. Also, the rate of cesarean sections stopped going up for the first time since 1996.

Experts suspected the economy drove down birth rates in 2008 and 2009 as women put off having children. With the 2010 figures, suspicion has turned into certainty.

"I don't think there's any doubt now that it was the recession. It could not be anything else," said Carl Haub, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization. He was not involved in the new report.

U.S. births hit an all-time high in 2007, at more than 4.3 million. Over the next two years, the number dropped to about 4.2 million and then about 4.1 million.

Last year, it was down to just over 4 million, according to the new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For teens, birth rates dropped 9 percent from 2009. For women in their early 20s, they fell 6 percent. For unmarried mothers, the drop was 4 percent.

Experts believe the downward trend is tied to the economy, which officially was in a recession from December 2007 until June 2009 and remains weak. The theory is that women with money worries — especially younger women — feel they can't afford to start a family or add to it.

That's true of Mary Garrick, 27, an advertising executive in Columbus, Ohio. She and her husband, David, married in 2008 and hoped to start having children quickly, in part because men in his family have died in their 40s. But David, 33, was laid off that year from his nursing job and again last year.

He's working again, but worries about the economy linger. "It kind of made us cautious about life decisions, like having a family. It's definitely something that affected us," she said.

Kristi Elsberry, a married 27-year-old mother of two, had her tubes tied in 2009 after she had trouble finding a job and she and her husband grew worried about the financial burden of any additional children. "Kids are so expensive, especially in this day and age. And neither of us think anything's going to get better," said Elsberry, of Leland, N.C.

Many of the report's findings are part of a trend and not surprising. There was a continued decline in the percentage of premature births at less than 37 weeks. And — as in years past — birth rates fell in younger women but rose a little in women 40 and older, who face a closing biological window for having children and may be more worried about that than the economy.

But a few of the findings did startle experts.

One involved a statistic called the total fertility rate. In essence, it tells how many children a woman can be expected to have if current birth rates continue. That figure was 1.9 children last year. In most years, it's more like 2.1.

More striking was the change in the fertility rate for Hispanic women. The rate plummeted to 2.4 from nearly 3 children just a few years ago.

"Whoa!" said Haub, in reaction to the statistic.

The economy is no doubt affecting Hispanic mothers, too, but some young women who immigrated to the United States for jobs or other opportunities may have left, Haub said.

Another shocker: the C-section rate. It rose steadily from nearly 21 percent in 1996 to 32.9 percent in 2009, but dropped slightly to 32.8 last year.

Cesarean deliveries are sometimes medically necessary. But health officials have worried that many C-sections are done out of convenience or unwarranted caution, and in the 1980s set a goal of keeping the national rate at 15 percent.

It's too soon to say the trend has reversed, said Joyce Martin, a CDC epidemiologist who co-authored the new report.

But the increase had slowed a bit in recent years, and assuming the decline was in elective C-sections, that's good news, some experts said.

"It is quite gratifying," said Carol Hogue, an Emory University professor of maternal and child health and epidemiology.

"There are strong winds pushing against C-sections," she said, including new policies and education initiatives that discourage elective C-sections in mothers who have not reached full-term.

Hogue agreed that the economy seems to be the main reason for the birth declines. But she noted that it's possible that having fewer children is now more accepted and expected.

"Having one child may be becoming more 'normal,'" she said.

Prosecutors say Ortega-Hernandez called Obama "the devil" and said he needed to be killed.

Associated PressLaw enforcement officers photograph a window at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, as seen from the South Lawn. A bullet hit an exterior window of the White House and was stopped by ballistic glass, the Secret Service said. An additional round of ammunition was found on the White House exterior. The bullets were found Tuesday morning.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — An Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama or his staff, and prosecutors say he called Obama "the devil" and said he needed to be killed.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, of Idaho Falls, made his first court appearance before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh on Thursday, one day after he was arrested at a western Pennsylvania hotel.

According to a court document released after the hearing, authorities recovered nine spent shell casings from Ortega's car, which was abandoned near the White House. A person who knows him subsequently told investigators that he had become increasingly agitated with the federal government and was convinced it was conspiring against him, the document said. Others told investigators that Ortega had said Obama was "the anti-Christ" and the "devil." Ortega also reportedly said he "needed to kill" the president.

If convicted, Ortega faces up to life in prison.

Ortega's public defender, Christopher Brown, declined comment after the hearing.

Associated PressThis image provided by the U.S. Park Police shows an undated image of Oscar Ortega.

He will be taken back from a federal court in Pittsburgh to face the charges in Washington, D.C. and will remain in federal custody at least until a magistrate in Washington can determine if he should remain jailed until his trial on the charge.

Ortega sat quietly as the hearing began, his hands free but his feet shackled. The 21-year-old said only, "Yes, ma'am" when he was asked if he understood that he would be going back to Washington to face the charge.

Authorities said a man clad in black who was obsessed with Obama pulled his car within view of the White House on Friday night and fired shots from an assault rifle, cracking a window of the first family's living quarters while the president was away.

Soon after, U.S. Park Police found an abandoned vehicle, with an assault rifle inside it, near a bridge leading out of the nation's capital to Virginia. The car led investigators to Ortega.

The FBI took custody of Ortega's car Thursday afternoon to continue the process of reviewing evidence, said Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office.

Ortega was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a hotel near Indiana, Pa., about 55 miles east of Pittsburgh, after a desk clerk recognized his picture. He had been reported missing Oct. 31 by his family.

Pittsfield Sen. Benjamin Downing said that there is broad interest among senators to tackle energy costs.

By KYLE CHENEY

BOSTON - Senate President Therese Murray tipped her hand a bit Wednesday night when she revealed that the Senate intends to tackle rising energy costs when lawmakers return in January from a seven-week recess, and she named a colleague, Sen. Benjamin Downing, D-Pittsfield, as her point-man on the issue.

Benjamin Downing

While health care cost control talks continue, Downing said that there is broad interest among senators to tackle energy costs, competition for the transmission and delivery of electricity, much of it generated after widespread power outages enveloped broad swaths of the state.

“We’re in this sort of one-sided relationship with the utility companies,” he said. “We have competition on the generation side of things. Where we don’t have competition is in transmission and distribution. What that actually looks like, none of us know at this point.”

Finding a solution, he said, may require lawmakers to think “much further outside the box.”

Downing, co-chair of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, said he intends to work within the committee and co-chair Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem, to review testimony received earlier this month at an eight-hour oversight hearing on the state’s efforts to boost energy efficiency and develop renewable energy sources.

At that hearing, stakeholders in the energy industry contended that efforts to require a move toward sustainable sources of electricity would drive up already-high costs for consumers and businesses. But advocates for the environment countered that efforts to increase green energy have supported jobs and would eventually lead to billions of dollars in savings for ratepayers.

The state’s energy framework is guided in part by the Green Communities Act, which became a signature achievement during former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi's tenure and set ambitious goals, including the installation of 250 megawatts of solar energy by 2017, 2,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020, and significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Downing also said lawmakers would glean information from hearings planned by the Department of Public Utilities on utility companies’ responses to Tropical Storm Irene in August and an October snowstorm.

“Does the regulatory regime that we have set up right now meet the needs of ratepayers in the best way possible?” he wondered. “There are a lot of issues that fall under that. It’s a broad conversation that we’re having. But I know from talking to my colleagues, there’s a lot of frustration with the current state of things, especially with the response to the last storm … We have a lot more homework to do on the committee level.”

Downing’s comments followed the Senate president’s suggestion that energy costs will be at the top of the agenda when lawmakers return to action.

“We’re going to be addressing the high cost of energy,” she told the News Service after Wednesday’s session, which brought formal sessions to a close for the year. She said she would work with Downing on issues related to “competition in the electric industry.”

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 135 points to close at about 11,771.

Associated Press photoC ustomers enter a Sears store, in Springfield, Ill., Tuesday. Sears Holdings Corp.âs third-quarter loss widened, dragged down by weakness in Canada, declining consumer electronics sales and softer clothing sales at its Kmart stores.

NEW YORK – A spike in borrowing costs for the Spanish government renewed worries about Europe’s debt crisis and pushed stocks lower for the second day in a row.

A stalemate in Congress over cutting the budget deficit also pulled the market down Thursday. Technology stocks sank after NetApp and Applied Materials predicted weaker earnings.

In Spain, an auction of 10-year government bonds left the country paying interest rates of nearly 7 percent. That’s the highest rate since 1997 and a level that economists see as unsustainable. Greece and Ireland received rescue loans from the European Union after their bond yields jumped above the same level.

Concerns about Europe’s debt crisis overshadowed better economic reports in the U.S. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level in 7 months, a sign layoffs are easing.

“The economic data in the U.S. has been improving,” said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Conn. “If it weren’t for Europe, I think equity markets would be doing much better right now.”

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 134.86 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 11,770.73. The index wavered most of the morning, then turned sharply lower shortly after noon. It fell as many as 229 points at 2:30 p.m.

Spain has much more debt than either Greece or Ireland, which would make it difficult for other countries to rescue. Like Italy, whose main borrowing rate also spiked above 7 percent in the last week, the country is burdened with high debts and slow growth.

The Spanish bond auction came a day after Fitch Ratings warned that major U.S. banks could be “greatly affected” if Europe’s debt crisis continues to spread beyond the financially troubled Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

Another looming concern for investors is that a Congressional supercommittee will flounder in its attempt to find $1.2 trillion in budget cuts before a Nov. 23 deadline. Republicans and Democrats traded barbs over whether the other side was negotiating in good faith.

“The worry is they’re literally going to get nothing done,” said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors. “From my perspective as a financial markets professional, I’m absolutely convinced that I could fix this in 10 minutes, but I get the impression we’re watching a slow-motion train wreck.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 20.75, or 1.7 percent, to 1,216.16. The index fell below its average over the past 100 days. That’s a bearish signal because many traders wait until indexes fall below such technical levels before deciding to unload their positions.

Technology stocks fell more than the rest of the market. The Nasdaq slid 51.62, or 2 percent, to 2,587.99. All three major indexes are now down more than 3 percent for the week.

NetApp Inc. plunged 12.3 percent, the most in the S&P 500 index, after the data storage company forecast earnings below Wall Street’s estimates. Applied Materials Inc. also said its earnings for the current quarter would be weaker than analysts’ forecasts. The stock fell 7.5 percent.

In corporate news:

• Consumer review site Angie’s List soared 25 percent on the company’s first day of trading. Angie’s List Inc., which runs reviews of veterinarians, plumbers and other local services, priced its initial public offering of 8.8 million shares at $13 late Wednesday.

• The mutual fund company Legg Mason Inc. said the well-known money manager Bill Miller will step down from its flagship mutual fund next year. Legg Mason’s stock dropped 2.8 percent.

• Sears Holdings Corp. fell 4.6 percent after its third-quarter results missed Wall Street’s expectations. The retailer’s sales were dragged down by declining consumer electronics sales and softer sales at its Kmart stores.

• J.M. Smucker Co. lost 1.8 percent after reporting that rising costs for ingredients were cutting into profits.

Amy Guyette said her son’s involvement is “nerve-racking (but) I’m extremely proud that he has decided to take action.”

View full size11-10-11 - Northampton - Republican staff photo by Don Treeger- Bryan Guyette of Northampton has been a regular at the Occupy Wall Street rally in New York City.

NORTHAMPTON – A city man working on the sanitation team at the Occupy Wall Street protests was featured on the MTV show “True Life” on Nov. 5.

In the episode “I’m Occupying Wall Street,” 23-year-old Bryan Guyette is seen rallying his fellow protesters to clean up Zuccotti Park in the financial district, where thousands of people have staged demonstrations demanding economic equality since September 17.

Guyette, who has been at the park almost non-stop since day one, worked to end a tense stand-off between protesters and the New York City police department, which planned to forcibly evict the massive crowd Oct. 13 so filthy conditions in the privately-owned park could be cleaned.

After the group cleaned up its mess at Guyette’s and his teammates’ urging, the park owners allowed the occupiers to stay.

His family owns the Easthampton restaurant Tavern on the Hill. He dropped out of Greenfield Community College, where he was an art history major. Amy Guyette, his mother, said he has only been home twice, for a total of about five days, since the occupation began.

“I’m just a middle-class white kid from Northampton, Massachusetts,” Bryan Guyette says in the TV show. “I’ve seen a lot of communities in my area become pretty economically depressed. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and that doesn’t seem fair to me.”

In an interview with The Republican, he said he was “not 100 percent” satisfied with the episode because it focused too much on events and not enough on the issues that brought him to New York.

“Large corporations, particularly financial institutions, have too much say and control over our government,” he said. “There’s a loss of social mobility in America these days. People tend to stay in the same socioeconomic bracket they’re born into.”

He said he wanted to see a “shift of the focus of government subsidization.” Bank bailouts could be abandoned in favor of funding renewable energy, for example, and secondary education should be free or further subsidized, he said.

Some occupiers are drawing up plans to propose legislation and put their demands into practice, he said.

Amy Guyette said her son’s involvement is “nerve-racking (but) I’m extremely proud that he has decided to take action.”

Claims that occupiers are lazy and looking for handouts are “uneducated,” she said. “They are talking points that are spewed every day from the right-wing media and people just swallow them up and spew them back.”

Poverty is not just about work ethic, said Bryan Guyette, but can be forced upon people, such as when banks sell them mortgages that are destined to fail.

The Guyettes compare the strategy used in Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring, the widespread protests in the Middle East that toppled several regimes in late 2010 and early 2011. They particularly compare it to unrest in Egypt and Tunisia.

Protests in Tunisia led President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country in January after 24 years of politically repressive rule. Violent police crackdowns led to 219 deaths, according to the United Nations.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was the next to fall after thousands protested his 30-year rule starting January 25. He resigned after 18 days and is facing charges he ordered the killing of 900 protesters.

“We’re not risking nearly as much as those people were,” said Bryan Guyette. “Since we live in America and our style of resistance is much more non-violent than the rest of the world, I think the best thing we can do is just maintain our presence there.”

DeLeo said with casino gambling done, it is time to think about other ways to boost economic development .

Associated Press photoMassachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo faces reporters in a hallway at the Statehouse, in Boston, Tuesday. Behind him is Chicopee state Rep. Joseph Wagner.

By COLLEEN QUINN

WALTHAM - A day after major lawmaking ended for the year with casino gambling, municipal health care and pension reforms ticked off his to-do list, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo told business leaders he is in the midst of crafting economic development legislation for next year.

Speaking at the annual Retailers Association of Massachusetts meeting, DeLeo said with casino gambling done, it was time to think about other ways to boost economic development – the state’s jobless rate held at 7.3 percent in October. He did not offer any specifics, but said it was a top priority when the Legislature returns in January. He said he was talking to business leaders and retailers to get their input.

DeLeo estimated casinos would generate 15,000 or 16,000 jobs, and said cities and towns will see a boost to local aid, but said it will not be the only answer to economic recovery.

“This bill is not a panacea. It is not going to solve all the problems of the commonwealth. Now that we have passed expanded gaming, we can move on,” DeLeo told the retailers at Bentley University. “I never meant it to be a panacea. It is one important piece of legislation that could grow our economy.”

DeLeo also cited health care payment reform as the next big piece of legislation lawmakers will need to tackle. Gov. Deval L. Patrick has been pushing lawmakers to move on healthcare payment reform for months. DeLeo said he planned to start meetings next week with Health Care Financing Committee Chair Rep. Steven Walsh, D-Lynn, who he asked to collect information to study “what the exact fix might be.”

“Although I haven’t definitively set forth an agenda for next year – which I will when we go back in January – obviously the health care payment reform, you saw me address that today,” DeLeo told two reporters after his address to the retailers. “That is probably going to be the most difficult, complex issue that we have.”

DeLeo remained non-committal on one of the big concerns from retailers - providing a mechanism to capture the estimated $335 million in uncollected sales taxes from internet retailers. Bills to address the problem are being reviewed by the Legislature’s Committee on Revenue, as well as in Congress.

The Speaker described the online tax dilemma as a “hurdle” he is trying to overcome. Opponents of DeLeo’s successful 2009 push to raise the sales tax have raised it as a competitiveness issue.

The plan - known as the streamlined sales tax - would begin to enable Massachusetts to collect sales taxes from online purchases. Backers of the bill say states are collectively losing billions of dollars from one of their chief sources of revenue because online retailers aren't required to collect sales taxes from consumers. Retailers have held for a decade that tax-free online sales disadvantage brick-and-mortar stores. The issue has only gotten worse, they say, with the proliferation of smart phones.

After his formal remarks, DeLeo said that when he spoke to Retailers’ Association president Jon Hurst at the Wednesday meeting, he said, “I am not making any commitment on this one.”

“On the other hand, I am hearing from a lot of the retailers, they really feel that they are at a disadvantage,” he told reporters. “I am really concerned about our folks in our local communities. I want to see them thrive, and not get eaten up by a not fair playing field. But right now, I am in no way endorsing that.”

During his speech, DeLeo said he never shops online, and joked “I don’t know how,” and also added that “I don’t believe in it.” He prefers to give his business to local merchants.

He told the story of when he broke his ankle last winter after slipping on ice, he was talking to someone about needing to give up his black dress shoes and buy a pair of boots. The friend said he could buy them online, and also said to him, “you don’t have to pay taxes, you don’t have to pay shipping.”

“I said no. I just don’t do business that way,” DeLeo told the group. “That is one of the issues I am working on with Jon (Hurst) and some of you folks. We will see what we can get.”

The House ended its session Wednesday evening by passing bills targeting human trafficking, protecting rights for transgender citizens, and eliminating parole for three-time violent offenders. DeLeo called the habitual offender bill a “great piece of legislation.”

The bill, known as “Melissa’s Law” after the 27-year old teacher who was raped and stabbed to death in 1999, was passed in the House late Wednesday night and now likely heads to conference committee to iron out differences with the more comprehensive Senate crime bill passed earlier this month.

Critics of the bill say it will worsen prison overcrowding and unsafe conditions for both prisoners and corrections officers. DeLeo acknowledged it as a concern.

“I spoke to the chair yesterday, and I said we have to take a look at that, and a matter of fact before it goes into conference, we have to decide what is this is going to be about. And we have to talk to the players over at the Department of Corrections,” he said.

Also topping the priority list for next year is managing the state budget, which DeLeo foresees will continue to be challenging. He said he wants to make sure to continue to put money aside in the state’s rainy day fund, which reached a $1.4 billion balance after the governor signed a supplemental budget in October allocating an additional $350 million to the reserve fund.

“Although we are showing signs of improving and being in a lot better place than we were a year or two ago, I think there is still reason for pause. I think we still have to slow down a bit, make sure we put money into the rainy day fund, because I don’t think the happy days are back here again,” he said.

DeLeo pointed to the state’s 7.3 percent unemployment rate – compared to the 9 percent national rate, an increase in state tax receipts, and the recent upgrade from Standard & Poors to a AA + bonding rating, as signs Massachusetts is faring better than most states coming out of the recession.

“This newest credit rating represents the highest credit rating in the history of Massachusetts, even in these difficult times,” he said. “I think it happened because of a lot of people who came together and worked together.”

Another would-be reform plan could center on the state’s special education collaboratives, which have come under fire in recent months after salary abuses were exposed.

“I am very concerned about seeing our taxpayers’ money going to some of these outlandish salaries, but most importantly the students who need to be cared for, who really need the services, aren’t getting the services because money is being diverted elsewhere,” DeLeo said. “I think we have to take a close look at that.”