The circumstances of her death remain one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries.

Associated PressIn a Nov. 25, 1959 file photo, Natalie Wood and her husband Robert Wagner are made up for their roles in "All The Fine Young Cannibals," in Los Angeles. Dennis Davern, captain of the yacht Splendour, which Wood was aboard at the time of her death, said on national TV Friday, Nov. 18, 2011 that he lied to investigators about Natalie Wood's mysterious death 30 years ago and blames the actress' husband at the time, Robert Wagner, for her drowning in the ocean off Southern California.

LOS ANGELES -- A yacht captain said on national TV Friday that he lied to investigators about Natalie Wood's mysterious death 30 years ago and blames the actress' husband at the time, Robert Wagner, for her drowning in the ocean off Southern California.

The circumstances of her death remain one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries and continue to create renewed intrigue, with homicide detectives on Thursday unexpectedly re-opening the case that had long been classified as a tragic accident.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's detective will speak to reporters Friday about the decision to take another look at the Oscar-nominated actress' nighttime demise in the chilly waters off Southern California on Nov. 29, 1981. Wood drowned after spending several hours drinking on Catalina Island in a yacht with Wagner, fellow actor Christopher Walken and the ship's captain, Dennis Davern.

Davern, skipper of the Splendour, told NBC's "Today" show on Friday that he made mistakes by not telling the truth about events leading to the Thanksgiving weekend death and had urged Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide investigators to reopen the case. It is the latest attempt by Davern to change the official account of what happened in the hours before Wood's death.

"Was the fight between Natalie Wood and her husband Robert Wagner what ultimately led to her death?" show host David Gregory asked.

"Yes," Davern replied.

"How so?"

"Like I said, that's going to be up to the investigators to decide," the captain said after a long pause.

Davern said he believes Wagner had intentionally kept the investigation into Wood's death low profile and didn't do everything he could have done. When Gregory pressed Davern for supporting details, the captain said that was the duty of investigators.

Davern has said for years that the official account of Wood's disappearance was not what really happened, including in a 1992 appearance on a Geraldo Rivera special and in a 2000 Vanity Fair piece. He also worked with author and friend Marti Rulli on "Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour," a book released last year.

Associated PressThe 55-foot yacht "Splendour," belonging to actor Robert Wagner and his wife, actress Natalie Wood, sits in the waters off Catalina Island in Santa Catalina, Calif., near the site where Harbor Patrol personnel and lifeguards discovered the body of Wood, an apparent drowning victim, Nov. 29, 1981.

Wagner spokesman Alan Nierob said Friday a statement he released Thursday spoke for itself.

"Although no one in the Wagner family has heard from the LA County Sheriff's department about this matter, they fully support the efforts of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and trust they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30 year anniversary of her tragic death," Nierob wrote in the statement.

Davern denied he was motivated to speak out for profit.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Thursday the renewed inquiry was prompted by unspecified new information about Woods' case. The Los Angeles Times reported that Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca said detectives want to talk to Davern and that he had "made comments worthy of exploring." The paper said the agency had also received information from an unidentified third party.

In the Vanity Fair story, Davern is quoted as saying that Wood and Wagner fought in their cabin before the actress disappeared. Coroner's officials ruled her death an accidental drowning, perhaps caused by her slipping off the boat while trying to tie down a dinghy.

She was found wearing a flannel nightgown, socks and a red down jacket and Davern identified her body for authorities, according to an autopsy report. Her body had superficial bruises, according to the report, but those were considered consistent with drowning.

Her death sparked tabloid speculation that foul play was involved, but Wagner and Wood's sister have dismissed any suggestion the actress' death was anything more than an accident. Coroner's officials at the time agreed, writing that Wood was "possibly attempting to board the dinghy and had fallen into the water, striking her face."

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the agency hadn't been asked to do any additional investigation into Wood's case.

Sheriff's officials are also hoping for tips from the public that may shed new light on how Wood, who was afraid of being in the water, ended up drowning.

Wood, a three-time Oscar nominee famous for roles in "West Side Story," ''Rebel Without a Cause" and other Hollywood hits, was 43 when she died. She and Wagner were twice married, first in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972.

Lana Wood wrote in a biography on her sister, "What happened is that Natalie drank too much that night."

Wagner, star of the television series "Hart to Hart," wrote in a 2008 autobiography that he blamed himself for his wife's death.

He recounted the night of Wood's disappearance, during which the couple and Walken drank at a restaurant and on the boat. Wood went to the master cabin during an argument between her husband and Walken. The last time Wagner saw his wife, she was fixing her hair at a bathroom vanity and she shut the door.

Wagner wrote that despite various theories about what led Wood to the water, which she feared, it was impossible to know what exactly happened.

"Nobody knows," he wrote. "There are only two possibilities; either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

Later in the book, Wagner wrote, "Did I blame myself? If I had been there, I could have done something. But I wasn't there. I didn't see her."

He wrote that he never saw his wife after she died and has never returned to Catalina Island.

Phone and email messages to Walken's publicist were not returned Thursday. Walken and Wood were co-stars in "Brainstorm," which was the actress' final big screen role.

Accusations are flying that convicted child rapist Gerald Battistoni of Ware may be tied to the unsolved murders of Molly Bish and Holly Piirainen.

Family members have waited years for answers in the unsolved murders of Molly Bish, left, and Holly Piirainen. (Family file photos)

Could a convicted child rapist be involved in the unsolved murders of Molly Anne Bish and Holly Piirainen?

That is one possibility being looked at by investigators eager to close the cold cases, according to a report by The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester.

Gerald Battistoni, 49, of Ware was convicted in August of raping a young girl nearly 20 years ago after a private investigator uncovered the information during a custody dispute.

In 1993, 10-year-old Holly Piirainen disappeared after taking a walk to see collie puppies near her grandmother’s Sturbridge summer home. Two and a half months later, her remains were found in woods in Brimfield.

On June 27, 2000, Molly Anne Bish, 16, disappeared from her lifeguard post at Comins Pond in Warren. Three years later, her remains were found, in a wooded section of Palmer known as Whiskey Hill.

According to Battistoni's second wife, as quoted by the Telegram & Gazette, her convicted ex may have been involved in the brutal slayings.

The second wife told the newspaper that on the day Bish disappeared, Battistoni said he was working on their car, a white Chevy, and had taken it for a drive in the Warren area.

A sketch artist's rendering of the smoking man in the white car seen by Molly Bish's mother when she dropped the teen off at Comins Pond in Warren the day she disappeared. (Police sketch/File photo)

Bish's mother reportedly said that she saw a man sitting in a white car smoking a cigarette when she dropped her daughter off at Comins Pond that day.

A sketch artist's rendering of the smoking man in the white car shared similarities with Battistoni, according to Bish's mother, who wonders if the convicted child rapist had anything to do with her daughter's murder.

The connection to the disappearance and murder of Holly Piirainen lies with the child he was convicted of raping, according to the Worcester newspaper.

The second wife told reporters that Battistoni had a connection to the area where Piirainen 's body was found.

The private investigator, a former Vermont State Trooper, has reportedly been in contact with the Worcester and Hampden County district attorney offices, who are still pursuing justice in the cases.

Perry, in New York City to accept an award from the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, said inadequate funding and “bureaucratic bungling” by Washington had made the southern border more dangerous.

Associated Press photoRepublican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to a gathering of law enforcement officials, Friday in New York. Perry was given the State Service Award at the 21st annual Federal Law Enforcement Foundation luncheon.

NEW YORK – Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Friday criticized President Barack H. Obama for policies Perry said have endangered agents patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border, the latest attempt by the Texas governor to shift the focus from his GOP rivals and his struggling campaign to the Democratic incumbent.

Perry, in New York City to accept an award from the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, said inadequate funding and “bureaucratic bungling” by Washington had made the southern border more dangerous.

He singled out Operation Fast and Furious, an arms trafficking probe run by the Justice Department that allowed AK-47s and other weapons to leak into the black market.

“Our own federal government provided more than 2,000 firearms to some of the most dangerous criminals in North America,” Perry said, adding that Attorney General Eric Holder should show the same courage and sense of responsibility as agents in the field.

Holder has acknowledged mistakes in the operation, which focused on gun shops in Phoenix and tried to track gun-smuggling beyond straw purchasers to previously unreachable gun-running kingpins. Officials say agents lost track of nearly half of the 2,000 guns. Some of the firearms were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico.

The operation came to light after two assault rifles purchased by a buyer under scrutiny in the operation turned up at the scene of an Arizona shootout that killed a Customs and Border Protection agent.

Many Republicans have sharply criticized Operation Fast and Furious and some have called on Holder to resign.

The Associated Press has reported that an investigation into the operation has turned up Justice Department documents indicating that the so-called “gun walking” tactic also was used during the Republican administration of George W. Bush.

Perry’s advisers hope his stepped-up criticism of Obama and Washington could help reinvigorate Perry’s lagging effort less than seven weeks before Iowa’s caucuses on Jan. 3.

Polls show Perry badly trailing several of his rivals in Iowa, including former Massachusetts Gov. W. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Georgia businessman Herman Cain.

Perry’s latest campaign ad took out of context a comment Obama made and gave viewers the impression that the president had said all Americans are lazy. Obama was talking about the U.S. record of attracting foreign investment.

In an interview with Fox News, Perry wrongly claimed that Obama came from a privileged background and didn’t understand ordinary people’s problems.

“He never had to really work for anything. He never had to go through what Americans are going through,” Perry said. “We need a president who has been through their ups and downs in life and understands what it’s like to have to deal with the issues of our economy that we have today in America.”

Obama was raised by a single mother who, at times, used food stamps, and his grandparents in a modest apartment in Honolulu.

Democrats are responding to Perry’s new strategy by tweaking him for his well-publicized flubs.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi answered Perry’s invitation to meet and debate his proposal for a part-time Congress by ridiculing a debate performance in which Perry forgot the name of the third federal agency he would dismantle.

“He did ask if I could debate here in Washington on Monday,” Pelosi said. “Monday I’m going to be in Portland in the morning, I’m going to be visiting some of our labs in California in the afternoon, and I can’t remember what the third thing was.”

Families with children 10 and younger can sign up to receive two free gifts for each child.

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EASTHAMPTON – The Easthampton Toy Program needs donations to make sure needy families will have something to open on Christmas morning.

Families with children 10 and younger can sign up to receive two free gifts for each child. All the grown-ups have to do is show a need for help, provide proof of residency and wrap the toys.

The 17th annual program needs donations of wrapping paper, tape and money for $15,000 worth of toys.

Karen Cadieux, Mayor Michael A. Tautznik’s administrative assistant, and city personnel director Raisa Riggott help organize the program, run in memory of former Town Administrator John R. Chmura, who died in 1995 at age 43.

Last year, 307 children from 179 families benefited, said Cadieux.

The Helping Hand Society provides books, which are selected by local teachers, and $25 gift certificates to Big E’s Supermarket to each family. The Tuesday Morning Knitting Club donates hats, mittens and blankets.

“A lot of blood, sweat and tears go into this,” said Cadieux.

Families wishing to participate must call Cadieux at (413) 529-1470 or email Mayor@easthampton.org by Thursday, Dec. 1, to make an appointment for pick-up. Appointments will be held Dec. 12-15. No exceptions will be made.

“It is my favorite thing for them to call early. There’s no such thing as too early,” said Cadieux.

Donations can be left with Cadieux in the mayor’s office at 50 Payson Ave. Checks can be made payable to the Easthampton Toy Program.

Cadieux asks donors not to contribute ribbons or bows. Parents wrap the toys themselves and the program supplies batteries for toys that need them.

Murray acknowledged that Michael McLaughlin, who headed the agency for more than a decade and resigned after Gov. Deval Patrick expressed outrage over the salary, was a political supporter.

File photo / Associated PressLt. Gov. Timothy Murray is seen at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame during a visit to Springfield in June.

BOSTON – Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray said Friday there that was nothing unusual about the dozens of phone conversations he reportedly had with former Chelsea Housing Authority executive director Michael McLaughlin, who resigned this month after the disclosure that he was earning a $360,000 a year salary.

“I was misled, as were lots of other people, organizations and agencies,” Murray said during an impromptu meeting with reporters at the Statehouse. “As soon as we got the full story of it, this administration took quick action.”

At Murray’s side was Gov. Deval L. Patrick, who denounced the “insinuation” that his lieutenant governor may have done something wrong.

The Boston Globe, which said it examined McLaughlin’s cellphone records, reported Friday that McLaughlin and Murray called each other more than 80 times over the last seven months and spoke within hours after the newspaper began questioning the housing director about the hefty salary.

Murray acknowledged that McLaughlin, who headed the agency for more than a decade and resigned Nov. 2 after Patrick expressed outrage over the salary, was a political supporter. But he insisted that he was unaware of the compensation and that the calls were part of his normal working relationship with local officials in the state.

“I make dozens of phone calls on a day-to-day basis with lots of officials across the state, including Mr. McLaughlin, he said.

“It’s outrageous, he’s wrong, he misled me, he misled other people and I’m disappointed, I’m frustrated and I’m angry,” Murray added.

Patrick defended Murray.

“What I don’t like and what I don’t appreciate is insinuation when there is nothing,” Patrick said.

There was “nothing that would indicate there was anything inappropriate about those phone calls. I do not believe in guilt by association,” the governor added.

Patrick called Murray a “fabulous” lieutenant governor and said he was proud to serve with him.

The Globe has reported that the Chelsea Housing Authority sharply underreported in state filings McLaughlin’s $360,000 salary, which apparently made him one of the highest paid public housing officials in the country.

McLaughlin told the newspaper following his resignation that he “more than earned” the salary he was paid.

McLaughlin could not be reached for comment Friday and his attorney, Thomas Hoopes, declined to comment on the case.

Shortly after resigning from the authority, McLaughlin had checks written to him for more than $200,000 that he said were for unused sick time, vacation and personal days. State officials urged the five-member board that oversees the authority to immediately stop payment on the checks pending an investigation.

Patrick temporarily froze state funding to the agency and announced earlier this week that he planned to ask the state’s highest court to appoint an independent receiver to run the authority.

Asked by reporters if he was troubled by the volume of calls between Murray and McLaughlin, Patrick responded: “You know how much phone tag we play around here?

Murray said Friday he and McLaughlin spoke about housing issues from time to time but offered no other specifics about their conversations.

He also acknowledged Friday that he referred an application from McLaughlin’s son, Matthew, for a position on a state board that hears appeals of motor vehicle license suspensions, but said never recommended to anyone that the younger McLaughlin be hired.

Fontaine Brothers of Springfield is the apparent low bidder to build a new $107.1 million high school.

Republican flie photo

WEST SPRINGFIELD -The Planning and Construction Committee is poised to award a contract to build the proposed new $107.1 million high school when it meets Monday.

"I'm thrilled. It is rewarding to get to a point where we can award the bid," Mayor Edward J. Gibson said Friday.

The committee will hear a presentation from the city's manager of the project, SBS. Its representatives will outline the bids received from Fontaine Brothers of Springfield, J&J Contracting of Lowell and O&G Industries of Taunton. At that time, the amounts they bid will be made public.

However, the mayor said that Fontaine Brothers is the apparent low bidder and that he does not know of any reasons that would preclude the city from awarding it the work. By state law, the contract must go to the lowest qualified bidder unless there is good reason to do otherwise.

Fontaine Brothers built the city's middle school in the late 1990s.

An official groundbreaking for the project has been set for Dec. 15. Construction is expected to take two years.

The project includes a new pool, a new track and field, a new maintenance building and tennis courts. The new building will be built to the rear and north of the current high school.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority is expected to reimburse the city for about $66.5 million for the project.

Bids for the project were opened Nov. 10. The Planning and Construction Committee will start its meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the mayor’s meeting room in the municipal building. It is not expected to get to the awarding of a bid for the high school until past 7 p.m.

The building that currently houses the high school was constructed in 1955 and added to in 1965. Officials say it is deteriorating and needs new windows, which have been estimated at about $5 million.

They have argued that with the high cost of retrofitting the Piper Road building to current energy practices would cost so much constructing a new building makes sense.

Plans call for a 257,525-square-foot school that will serve 1,270 students.

The family of Woburn Police Officer John “Jack” Maguire was presented with a Medal of Honor during a Statehouse ceremony at which more than two dozen Massachusetts law enforcement officers were recognized for bravery.

Associated Press photoDesiree Maguire is applauded as she holds up the Trooper George L. Hoanna, Jr., 28th Annual Memorial Meal of Honor Award she accepted posthumously for her husband, Woburn police office John B. Maguire, at the Statehouse in Boston Friday afternoon.

BOSTON — A police officer slain while responding to a botched jewelry robbery was posthumously awarded the state’s highest honor for bravery Friday.

The family of Woburn officer John “Jack” Maguire was presented with a Medal of Honor during a Statehouse ceremony at which more than two dozen other law enforcement officers from around the state also were honored. The annual awards are named in memory of George Hanna, a Massachusetts State Police trooper who was gunned down during a traffic stop in Auburn in 1983.

Police said Maguire, a 34-year veteran of the force who was just months away from retirement, was mortally wounded Dec. 26 in an exchange of gunfire with Domenic Cinelli, a career criminal, who was attempting to flee after the botched heist at a department store. Cinelli was also killed.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick presented the Medal of Honor award to Maguire’s widow, Desiree, who stood with the officer’s three children in the House of Representatives chamber. A prolonged standing ovation followed from the uniformed law enforcement officers and others who had gathered for the ceremony.

Also receiving Medal of Honor awards were four officers from the Somerville police department, three from the Worcester police department and an agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also received Medal of Honor Awards.

Medals of Valor were presented to officers from Everett, Fall River, Lowell and the state police, and meritorious recognition awards were given to officers from Boston and Chelsea.

“In recognition of the courageous and selfless actions these heroes displayed, Massachusetts owes them a debt of gratitude,” Patrick said.

Maguire’s killing led to an overhaul of the state parole board. Patrick fired five members of the board who voted in 2008 to grant parole to Cinelli despite his history of violent crime.

Cinelli had been sentenced to life in prison in Suffolk County and later received two concurrent life sentences for crimes committed in Middlesex County.

The officer’s slaying also prompted renewed calls for tougher laws against habitual offenders.

Earlier this week, the House passed a measure that would prohibit anyone who has been convicted of a third serious felony from being considered for parole. The state Senate included a similar provision as part of a broader anti-crime package. A final bill is possible sometime after the first of the year.

Batchu's victims included a 15-year-old South Hadley girl and 2 more unknown girls FBI agents found were featured in sexually explicit home videos when they seized his computer in 2009.

File photo | The RepublicanThe federal courthouse in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD – A federal judge on Friday sentenced Mani Batchu, a 32-year-old adolescent psychiatrist from Chicago, to three decades in prison for luring teen girls into sexual relationships over the Internet.

Batchu's victims included a 15-year-old from South Hadley – who appeared along with her family in U.S. District Court for the sentencing – and two more unknown girls FBI agents found were featured in sexually explicit home videos when they seized his computer in 2009.

The South Hadley teen sobbed in court as her father and mother spoke, telling a story of the unraveling of their family after she met Batchu. The doctor preyed on her with a barrage of text messages, endless phone calls, flowers, gifts and songs he penned for her, according to investigators and the girl’s statement in court.

U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor, who typically trends toward the lighter end of a hefty sentencing guideline range, bypassed the bottom end of the spectrum and gave Batchu the maximum 30 years behind bars. Batchu capped a lengthy sentencing hearing by, in a puzzling move, taking the witness stand and launching into a monologue that included suggesting a moment of silence for all the victims involved.

“No,” Ponsor said curtly.

Batchu pleaded guilty earlier this year to multiple charges related to transporting a minor and traveling across state lines for illicit sex. He apologized to the South Hadley victim, “Minor A,” her family, his parents and his colleagues at the University of Chicago School of Medicine. Of Indian descent, Batchu and his defense lawyer intimated that it was culturally appropriate to court a significantly younger girl as a wife, and he was casting about on the web for lifetime companionship.

Ponsor rejected the cultural defense and seemed otherwise unpersuaded.

“I have a very, very strong sense that you are a supreme phony and what we just heard was a pretentious, frothy, narcissistic performance,” the judge said. “I have not seen a more determined course of criminal conduct in 28 years on the bench.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow told Ponsor that Batchu went to great lengths to have sex with the girl, including catching a flight from Chicago in one instance and making the 16-hour drive straight though in another. He even continued stalking the girl after her parents called police, had been arrested in Chicago and had been charged criminally in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

He initally told Minor A his name was “Mark Taylor,” significantly low-balled his age and sent a fake photo, Breslow said in court, and then roped the girl in with charm, wit and promises of a secure future.

“The defendant used all of his skills … his charm and intelligence, and his ability to relate to people in general and children in particular,” Breslow said. “This was a truly perverted courtship.”

Batchu even traveled to Massachusetts to give the girl a “secret cell phone” when her mother took hers away, and secretly flew to Florida for a clandestine meeting while the family was on vacation to escape the trauma of the investigation.

The girl’s father told Ponsor that the experience has all but emotionally debilitated his daughter, unable to complete her senior year of high school and barely able to leave her bed most days. Tragically, the experience drove one of three sons to suicide, the man said.

“This horrendous episode has had a devastating effect on my family,” he said. “(My daughter) is depressed, guilt-ridden and unable to function.”

Minor A submitted a written statement her mother read to the court.

“He was always just a text message or a phone call away … He got me to do things a 15-year-old should never know about,” her statement read.

Batchu was expressionless when Ponsor delivered the withering assessment of Batchu’s remarks to the court after handing down the sentence. However, he chatted pleasantly with his friends and family members in the courtroom before the proceeding began, reporting that he has been very busy in prison.

“I’m reading a lot of books. I don’t even think I read this many books in medical school,” he said with a smile.

Spirit of Springfield praised its hired work crew for a fast recovery from the Oct. 29 snowstorm.

File photo by Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanDamage to one of the Bright Nights displays near the duck pond at Forest Park is seen after the October snowstorm.

SPRINGFIELD – Despite damage from the major snowstorm of Oct. 29, the annual Bright Nights holiday lighting display at Forest Park will shine on time, according to Spirit of Springfield President Judith A. Matt.

The three-mile display opens for its 17th season on Wednesday, at 5 p.m., and continues through Jan. 2. Initially the display is open to the public Wednesdays through Sundays, until Dec. 4, and then every night starting Dec. 7, through Jan. 2.

Last year, there were 39,106 cars and 309 buses that traveled through Bright Nights.

“Our biggest concern, frankly, was whether or not we were going to be able to open on time,” Matt said. “We are so pleased to be able to open on time this year, and bring a little pleasure to our region because it has been such a difficult time.”

She praised the seven-member work crew, who are Park Division employees hired annually by Spirit of Springfield to install, maintain and take down the lighting display. Spirit of Springfield, a private, nonprofit organization which sponsors the event with the city’s Department of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management, pays the city for all labor.

“They have just done a remarkable job,” Matt said. “I couldn’t believe how much they were able to accomplish over a short period of time.”

The storm caused an estimated $25,000 damage to the Bright Nights equipment, but the organization made as many repairs as possible and no displays were destroyed, Matt said.

“It’s like night and day from what it was the week following the storm,” Matt said. “It would have been damaging to the organization and our activities if Bright Nights had to be postponed.”

The price is $18 per car Monday through Thursday, and $21 on weekends and holidays, a $3 increase over the price of the past few years. However, tickets can be obtained at Big Y supermarkets for $12 weekdays and $15 weekends, with a Big Y card.

The lights stay on until 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays including Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Years and New Years Eve.

The opening night charge is $6, reflecting the cost when Bright Nights launched the display in 1995.

There are no new displays this year, but more than 100,000 lights were changed this year to new LED lighting.

The various displays include Santa’s Magical Forest Park, Jurassic World, Victorian Village, North Pole Village, Toy Land, Happy Holidays Springfield, and the Giant Poinsettia Candles.

There is Seuss Land, replica of Everett Barney’s mansion and Springfield’s Municipal Group; Blizzard Tunnel; Winter Woods, and assorted features such as a frog that leaps, trees that dance, elves that sing, and a volcano that erupts, Matt said.

A growing number of Republicans in Congress have said they would support a tax overhaul package that increases revenues if it is paired with significant spending cuts, but Romney’s position has been less clear.

Associated Press photoRepublican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. W. Mitt Romney, speaks at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, in Manchester, N.H. Romney is campaigning in preparation of the nation's earliest presidential primary, which will be in New Hampshire, and less than two months away.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Republican presidential hopeful W. Mitt Romney on Friday compared the deficit-cutting supercommittee efforts to making a deal with the devil but stopped short of saying whether he supports a plan offered by some GOP lawmakers that includes increased tax revenue.

The former Massachusetts governor, who leads many polls in race for the GOP nomination, has avoided direct comment over the past few days on the proposal offered by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would raise revenue by limiting the tax breaks enjoyed by people who itemize their deductions, in exchange for lower overall tax rates for families at every income level.

A growing number of Republicans in Congress have said they would support a tax overhaul package that increases revenues if it is paired with significant spending cuts, but Romney’s position has been less clear.

A campaign spokeswoman has said only that Romney “does not believe that more revenues and tax increases are the answer to our fiscal woes.” And Romney told his New Hampshire audience that he disagrees with Democrats who want “a proposal to raise taxes a lot.”

But he didn’t go beyond that while speaking to members of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and he took no questions from reporters, who were asked to leave the law firm that hosted the gathering before he left the building.

The congressional supercommittee has until Wednesday to produce a plan to cut deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Failure would trigger automatic, across-the-board cuts to the Pentagon and a wide variety of domestic programs beginning in 2013, an outcome Romney called “entirely unacceptable.”

If the committee fails, “we have been fed a Faustian bargain,” Romney told his audience. “We’ll see hundreds of billions of dollars cut from our military at a time when the world is not a safe place.”

Asked by an audience member what he would like to see the committee purpose, Romney said it should eliminate unnecessary programs such as the Obama administration’s health care overhaul and return other programs, including Medicaid, back to the states. He also called in general terms for “making government itself slimmer” by reducing the number of federal employees and bringing their compensation in line with that of private sector workers.

He's been long dismissed by the GOP establishment, but the libertarian-leaning candidate is now turning heads beyond his hard-core followers – and rising in some polls.

Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate Ron Paul speaks at the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate at the Benjamin Johnson Arena in Spartanburg, S.C., this week. Paul is emerging as a significant factor in the Republican presidential race, especially in Iowa. Long dismissed by the GOP establishment, the libertarian-leaning candidate is turning heads beyond his hard-core followers just weeks before the state holds the leadoff presidential caucuses. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

By THOMAS BEAUMONT

VINTON, Iowa — Texas Rep. Ron Paul is emerging as a significant factor in the Republican presidential race, especially in Iowa.

He's been long dismissed by the GOP establishment, but the libertarian-leaning candidate is now turning heads beyond his hard-core followers — and rising in some polls — just weeks before the state holds the leadoff presidential caucuses and four years since his failed 2008 bid.

Paul's sharp criticism of government spending and U.S. monetary policy hasn't changed since then.

And while his isolationist brand of foreign policy may be a non-starter for some establishment Republicans, its appeal among independents is helping Paul gain ground in a crowded Republican field. His boost is an indication of just how volatile the Republican presidential race is in this state and across the country.

"The good news is the country has changed in the last four years in a way I never would have believed," Paul told about 80 Republicans and independents at the Pizza Ranch restaurant in this town on Friday. "In the last four years, something dramatic has happened."

What has helped Paul rise here has been more methodic than dramatic.

His campaign here is a stark comparison to the shoestring, rag-tag operation of four years ago that attracted a narrow band of supporters.

This time, he has built an Iowa organization with the look of a more mainstream campaign. He has raised more money and started organizing his campaign earlier than before. Paul was the first candidate to begin airing television ads this fall, and has maintained the most consistent advertising schedule in Iowa.

"We have a more structured, methodical, traditional campaign with Ron Paul here in Iowa more often," said Drew Ivers, an Iowa Republican Party central committee member and Paul's Iowa campaign chairman.

Paul is better-known this time, and has spent almost twice as much time in Iowa at this point in the 2012 campaign than in his bid for the 2008 caucuses. Paul finished in fifth place, closely behind Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson in Iowa in 2008.

The intense focus on Iowa this time may be working, with surveys showing Paul is reaching deeper into the caucus electorate.

A recent Bloomberg News poll showed him in close second place in Iowa, behind Herman Cain and narrowly ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Two weeks earlier, The Des Moines Register's poll showed Paul in solid third place, behind Cain and Romney.

But it's unclear whether Paul can cobble together a broad enough electorate to win the caucuses with a plurality of the vote. At the very least, he will impact the results of the Jan. 3 contest. But to what degree is anyone's guess.

The one thing that hasn't changed from four years ago is Paul's style.

He remains the mild-mannered, professorial former obstetrician, delivering long explanations of the history of U.S. monetary and trade policy.

In Vinton, he stoked the audience when he called for cutting $1 trillion from the federal deficit his first year in office, primarily by vastly reducing U.S. foreign aid.

But he also called for shrinking the military budget by reducing the U.S. military presence around the world, arguing that Congress and military contractors are too closely tied together.

"Yes, we have to have national security, but we don't get it by bankrupting our country and being in everyone's face constantly," Paul said.

The sentiment rings true with Charles Betz, a 47-year-old network engineer from nearby Tama, Iowa. He has typically been an independent voter, but is registered as a Republican so he can caucus for Paul on Jan. 3.

It's Paul's foreign and national security policy that has drawn fire from establishment Republicans. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is competing with Paul in Iowa for the outsider vote, has been vocally critical of Paul's stance.

So has Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican who has been courted by most of the GOP candidates.

"I gave Paul credit for having the most ambitious plan to reduce the debt, which he does," Branstad told The Associated Press. "But I don't agree with him on foreign policy, at all. I'm real concerned with his views on that."

Paul's rivals have particularly criticized his view that Iran does not pose a serious threat to the U.S., a point Paul made again Friday.

"Think about how the war drums were beating to get into Iraq. None of it was true, and I don't believe the stories now about why we should be shaking in our boots over Iran," he said. "They are absolutely incapable of attacking us."

Paul was traveling from small-town Vinton to equally small Anamosa Friday, before capping the day with a major rally in metropolitan Cedar Rapids, where he was to be endorsed by the founder of the Cedar Rapids tea party.

His focus isn't limited to Iowa.

Paul will be in New Hampshire early next week, where he finished fifth four years ago.

This time, Paul's fiscally-conservative profile combined with his anti-interventionist foreign policy could help him do better.

As in Iowa, he established a paid Iowa staff in New Hampshire earlier, and larger than his 2008 campaign. He was the first candidate to run ads in the state this time.

Holbrook was in Holyoke, where he will perform his one-man show about Mark Twain on Saturday night.

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayActor Hal Holbrook, scheduled to perform as "Mark Twain" on Saturday, discusses acting and tells stories to Holyoke High School students Friday.

HOLYOKE – He was the secret source on Watergate in “All the President’s Men” and he will be Mark Twain on stage here Saturday night.

But Friday, actor Hal Holbrook was storyteller and advice-giver to Holyoke High School students.

“You’ve got to step forward – it’s hard – and don’t give up. That’s the only thing I can tell you. Never give up,” said Holbrook, 86.

Holbrook was in the city because he is performing the one-man show he has been honing since 1954 on Mark Twain on Saturday night at 8 at Holyoke High School auditorium, 500 Beech St.

Holbrook is doing the show and met with students by arrangement with the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts. The local group owns and is renovating the Victory Theatre on Suffolk Street, and proceeds from Holbrook’s show will benefit the $28 million renovation.

But, Holbrook told a dozen students at the high school, his ties to Holyoke go back decades.

He performed for four years in the 1950s as a member of the Valley Players at the former Mountain Park Casino. It’s where he first did “Mark Twain.”

Performing at Mountain Park also was where he earned membership in Equity, the professional actors’ union, which opened doors for him to perform on Broadway, he said.

Holbrook folded his overcoat on a railing in the Edward Shevlin Studio at the high school and spoke to the students for nearly twice as long as a session that was supposed to last an hour.

He weaved history lessons about the importance of Twain, Ed Sullivan and early television, stage acting vs. the movies and TV, and how dedication to his craft damaged his family life.

Early on, he said, the combination of needing to make a living and Mark Twain’s insight into America drew him to build a stage show on the author of works such as “Huckleberry Finn.”

Twain spoke the truth, said Holbrook, who said he learned he himself had an ability to say what needed to be said, “come hell or high water.”

In “Huckleberry Finn,” Twain exposed the uniquely American “silent lie” about the broad and deep acceptance of slavery, Holbrook said.

He quoted Twain: “Among other common lies, we have the silent lie—the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. Many obstinate truth mongers indulge in this dissipation, imagining that if they speak no lie, they lie not at all ... There is no art to a silent lie. It is timid and shabby.”

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayHal Holbrook speaks to students at Holyoke High School and answer their questions about acting.

Holbrook won a Tony Award in 1966 for Mark Twain, won two Emmy Awards for TV work and has acted in movies with luminaries such as Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford.

But acting was also his way of putting bread on the table, he said.

“You have to work hard, which is what you have to do. You have to do it for yourself. No one can do it for you,” Holbrook said.

Holbrook, who grew up in Weymouth, said he realized acting was his path as he attended military school, where, he said, “I was not a good soldier.”

A friend said he could get the academic credit he needed by taking drama at the military school.

“And there was no homework,” Holbrook said.

Acting let him discover why characters behave as they do, and also, that he had quirks, he said.

“Plus, it also connects to something in your personality that isn’t quite right, or well-adjusted,” he said.

Ciara Prieto, 14, a drama student, said Holbrook inspired her.

“I thought it was pretty cool to meet him because he’s won a Tony, he’s won Emmys. I like the way he explained his view on acting,” Prieto said.

Kyle Schreiber, 16, said he knew little about Holbrook before, but is now a fan.

“It was really amazing to meet him,” Schreiber said.

Besides the “All the President’s Men” in 1976, Holbrook’s movies include “Midway,” “Magnum Force” (with Eastwood) “Fletch Lives” (with Chevy Chase), “Wall Street” (with Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas) and “The Firm” (with Cruise).

Holbrook was the shadowy “Deep Throat” who fed information to Robert Redford’s Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to topple the corrupt Nixon White House in “All the President’s Men.” It was a role he told Redford, his friend, he didn’t want, he said.

“Nobody’s going to see me, it’s a nothing role,” Holbrook said he told Redford.

Redford came to his home and persuaded him by saying Deep Throat was the character audiences would remember.

“He was right. I did the role and people remembered the role more than any other in the picture,” Holbrook said.

Last year, Holbrook played the father of Katy Sagal’s character on “Sons of Anarchy,” a TV drama about the leathered-and-tattooed members of an outlaw motorcycle club with Shakespearean undertones.

“I enjoyed it. I love the way they look. They wore those leather vests and the tattoos. It was like Shakespeare. But they were all great guys. They were all so nice. They were very respectful to me,” Holbrook said.

He was candid about how travel demands of being an actor made him a poor father to two of his five children.

He said it was from his late wife, actress Dixie Carter (“Designing Women”), that he learned about love, kindness and forgiveness.

“She always, always encouraged me, told me I was wonderful, even when I knew I wasn’t.

“Good luck to you,” he concluded to the students, “good luck to you, good luck to you. Don’t give up.”

"Do I agree that they now have a country where you've got Taliban and al-Qaida that's going to be part of the government?" Cain asked reporters in Orlando.

Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks during a rally with supporters in Nashua, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

By PHILIP ELLIOTT

WASHINGTON — Herman Cain suggested Friday that the Taliban were playing a role in Libya's new government, adding another foreign policy misstep to his stumbling presidential campaign.

The week opened with Cain struggling to answer whether he supported President Barack Obama's foreign policy in Libya. He ended his week trying to blame reporters for the moment, which was captured on video and quickly spread around the Internet.

Cain's critics seized on Monday's incoherent answer as the latest evidence that the former pizza executive is unprepared to be the GOP's nominee. Then Cain gave his critics another foreign policy error on video Friday.

"Do I agree with siding with the opposition? Do I agree with saying that (Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi should go? Do I agree that they now have a country where you've got Taliban and al-Qaida that's going to be part of the government?" Cain asked reporters in Orlando. "Do I agree with not knowing the government was going to — which part was he asking me about? I was trying to get him to be specific and he wouldn't be specific."

The United States invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the al-Qaida-harboring Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan and are now scattered in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There is no evidence the Taliban are rising to power in Libya, a continent away.

Islamic extremists in Libya, however, could play a role in the new government. U.S. officials are concerned that the former insurgents who have renounced extremism may have ties to al-Qaida leadership.

The error comes as Cain is trying to reassure his supporters that he has the foreign policy background the presidency requires.

"My overriding philosophy relative to national security and foreign policy is an extension of the Reagan philosophy. Peace through strength," Cain said in Iowa this week. "We need to clarify our relationship with friends and enemies around the world and make sure we stand with our friends."

It was a clearer explanation than he offered a day earlier in Milwaukee.

Cain hesitated when asked Monday whether he agreed with Obama's decision to back Libyan rebels in overthrowing Gadhafi. The longtime Libyan dictator was killed last month.

"I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason," Cain said in the videotaped interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"Uh, nope that's, that's a different one," said Cain, who fidgeted in his chair and crossed his legs. "See, I got to go back, see, got all this stuff twirling around in my head. Specifically what are you asking me, did I agree or not disagree with Obama?"

The video ricocheted around the Internet.

Two days later, he skipped a similar meeting with reporters at the New Hampshire Union Leader, the largest paper in the state that holds the first primary contest.

Cain's campaign has been going through a rocky stretch that began with questions about his loyalty to opposing abortion rights — a problem for influential evangelicals in Iowa. But that issue was quickly eclipsed by the sexual harassment allegations involving former subordinates when he headed the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

Four women say Cain harassed them. He denies the allegations.

The man only had a German identification card, so he was arrested and taken to police headquarters, police said.

Associated Press

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A German manager with Mercedes-Benz is free after being arrested for not having a driver's license with him under Alabama's new law targeting illegal immigrants, authorities said Friday, in an otherwise routine case that drew the attention of Gov. Robert Bentley.

Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson told The Associated Press an officer stopped a rental vehicle for not having a tag Wednesday night and asked the driver for his license. The man only had a German identification card, so he was arrested and taken to police headquarters, Anderson said.

The 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, but he was released after an associate retrieved his passport, visa and German driver's license from the hotel where he was staying, Anderson said.

The length of his detainment and the status of his court case weren't immediately known.

Mercedes-Benz, which is a division of Daimler AG, builds sport-utility vehicles at a large plant in Vance, about 20 miles east of Tuscaloosa. The automaker's decision to open a factory in Alabama in 1993 was considered a major coup for the state's economic development efforts and launched a trend of other foreign automakers and suppliers who opened major factories in the state, including Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.

Bentley, a Republican who signed the illegal immigration law earlier this year, called the state's homeland security director, Spencer Collier, after hearing of the arrest to get details about had happened, Collier said in an interview.

"Initially I didn't have them, so I called Chief Anderson to find out what happened," Collier said. "It sounds like the officer followed the statute correctly."

Collier said he didn't know how Bentley found out about the arrest, and Bentley press secretary Jennifer Ardis referred all questions to Collier.

Collier said he has made at least a dozen similar calls to law enforcement agencies that made arrests under the law to see how it is being handled, and he said his call to Anderson wasn't prompted by the fact a Mercedes executive was arrested.

"It's just to make sure they're using best practices and following the law," he said.

The law — parts of which were put on hold amid legal challenges — requires that police check citizenship status during traffic stops and take anyone who doesn't have proper identification to a magistrate. Anderson said that's what was done, but someone in the same situation wouldn't have been arrested before the law took effect.

"If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn't be arrested like this," he said. Previously, drivers who lacked licenses received a ticket and a court summons, the police chief said.

Mercedes-Benz spokeswoman Felyicia Jerald said the man is from Germany and was visiting Alabama on business. The company's first U.S. assembly plant is located just east of Tuscaloosa.

"This was an unfortunate situation, but the incident was resolved when our colleague ... was able to provide his driver's license and other documents to Tuscaloosa police," Jerald said.

The law is considered by both opponents and supporters as the toughest in the U.S. against illegal immigrants. It's being challenged in federal court by the Justice Department, about 30 civil rights organizations and some prominent church leaders. Judges have blocked some provisions, but sections still stand that allow police to check a person's immigration status during traffic stops and make it a felony for illegal immigrants to conduct basic state business, like getting a driver's license.

"Where the divide is right now is over taxes, and whether the wealthiest Americans should share in the sacrifices," said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the Democratic co-chair of the panel.

Associated PressSen. John Kerry, D-Mass., member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, often called the Supercommittee, speaks to reporters following a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By ANDREW TAYLOR
and DAVID ESPO

WASHINGTON — Deadline nearing, the deficit-reduction talks in Congress sank toward gridlock Friday after supercommittee Democrats rejected a late Republican offer that included next-to-nothing in new tax revenue. Each side maneuvered to blame the other for a looming stalemate.

The panel faces a deadline of next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and lawmakers on both sides stressed they were ready to meet through the weekend in a last-ditch search for compromise.

But there was little indication after a day of closed-door meetings that a breakthrough was likely, both Democrats and Republicans emphasizing long-held political positions.

"Where the divide is right now is over taxes, and whether the wealthiest Americans should share in the sacrifices," said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the Democratic co-chair of the panel.

But Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said Republicans had offered "a balanced, bipartisan plan - the fact that it was rejected makes it clear that Washington Democrats won't cut a dime in government spending without job-killing tax hikes."

While prospects for a deal faded, House Democrats checked a Republican attempt to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The vote was 261-165, or 23 shy of the two-thirds majority required. GOP lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor, while Democrats generally opposed it, sealing its doom.

The vote on a noisy House floor contrasted to the secretive proceedings inside the supercommittee, a panel that projected optimism when it began its quest for a deficit deal late last summer but has yet to come to any significant compromise.

Republicans disclosed during the day they had outlined an offer on Thursday for about $543 billion in spending cuts — leaving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security untouched — and $3 billion in higher tax revenue.

Most if not all of the recommended savings were items that Democrats have agreed to in earlier talks, but only, party officials said, on condition they part of a larger deal in which Republicans agreed to additional tax increases.

Democrats have long demanded that Republicans agree to significant amounts of higher taxes on the wealthy as part of any deal, and they quickly rejected the offer, according to officials in both parties.

It was unclear where the talks would turn next, but the GOP proposal suggested the discussions had effectively moved into a range of savings far below the $1.2 trillion the committee has been seeking.

It also appeared Republicans were jettisoning a plan for $300 billion in higher tax revenue, an offer that had exposed internal GOP divisions when it was presented two weeks ago. It also has failed to generate momentum for a compromise among Democrats.

If the panel fails to reach agreement, $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts are to take effect beginning in 2013, a prospect that lawmakers in both parties say they want to avoid.

That is particularly true among defense hawks, who argue that the Pentagon cannot sustain the estimated $500 billion in cuts that would be required on top of the $450 billion already in the works.

In a letter to Murray and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the GOP chairman of the supercommittee, the head of the House Armed Services Committee warned of "immediate, dire and in some cases irrevocable" damage to the nation's military. "Our ability to respond to national security crises or humanitarian disasters would be disrupted," added Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, R-Calif.

Republicans familiar with the GOP plan said it included $543 billion in spending cuts, fees and other non-tax revenue, as well as the $3 billion corporate jet provision. There also would be $98 billion in reduced interest costs.

Officials familiar with the offer said it would save the government $121 billion by requiring federal civilian workers to contribute more to their pension plans, shave $23 billion from farm and nutrition programs and generate $15 billion from new auctions of broadcast spectrum to wireless companies.

It also would claim about $100 billion in savings from Pentagon civilian personnel costs and another $35 billion by increasing the fee that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders to guarantee repayment of new loans. The fee increase would add $15 a month to the monthly cost of an average new mortgage.

The per-ticket security fee to pay for Transportation Security Administration operations at the nation's airports would increase, and $18 billion would come from savings within Postal Service accounts.

Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

The Food and Drug Administration said Avastin appeared to be a false hope for breast cancer: Studies haven't found that it helps those patients live longer or brings enough other benefit to outweigh its dangerous side effects.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD | AP Medical Writer

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The government delivered a blow to some desperate patients Friday as it ruled the blockbuster drug Avastin should no longer be used to treat advanced breast cancer.

Avastin is hailed for treating colon cancer and certain other malignancies. But the Food and Drug Administration said it appeared to be a false hope for breast cancer: Studies haven't found that it helps those patients live longer or brings enough other benefit to outweigh its dangerous side effects.

"I did not come to this decision lightly," said the FDA's commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg. But she said, "Sometimes despite the hopes of investigators, patients, industry and even the FDA itself, the results of rigorous testing can be disappointing."

Avastin remains on the market to treat certain colon, lung, kidney and brain cancers. Doctors are free to prescribe any marketed drug as they see fit. So even though the FDA formally revoked Avastin's approval as a breast cancer treatment, women could still receive it — but their insurers may not pay for it. Some insurers already have quit in anticipation of FDA's long-expected ruling.

However, "Medicare will continue to cover Avastin," said Brian Cook, spokesman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agency "will monitor the issue and evaluate coverage options as a result of action by the FDA but has no immediate plans to change coverage policies."

Including infusion fees, a year's treatment with Avastin can reach $100,000.

The ruling disappointed patients who believe Avastin is helping to curb their incurable cancer.

"It's saved my life," said a tearful Sue Boyce, 54, of Chicago. She's taken Avastin in addition to chemotherapy since joining a research study in 2003. Her breast cancer eventually spread to her lungs, liver and brain, but Boyce says she is stable and faring well.

"So I'm hoping the insurance company will grandfather me in to continue taking it," she said.

The Avastin saga began in 2008, when an initial study suggested the drug could delay tumor growth for a few months in women whose breast cancer had spread to other parts of the body. Over the objection of its own advisers and to the surprise of cancer groups, FDA gave Avastin conditional approval — it could be sold for such women while manufacturer Genentech tried to prove it really worked.

The problem: Ultimately, the tumor effect was even smaller than first thought. Across repeated studies, Avastin patients didn't live longer or have a higher quality of life. Yet the drug causes some life-threatening risks, including severe high blood pressure, massive bleeding, heart attack or heart failure and tears in the stomach and intestines, the FDA concluded. In two public hearings — one last year and one this summer — FDA advisers urged the agency to revoke that approval.

"The science is clear: Breast cancer patients are more likely to be harmed than helped by Avastin," said Diana Zuckerman of the National Research Center for Women and Families in Washington.

Genentech had argued the drug should remain available while it conducted more research to see if certain subsets of breast cancer patients might benefit, and some patients and their doctors had argued passionately for the drug.

"There certainly are patients who benefit tremendously," said Boyce's oncologist, Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "We'll just be battling with the insurance companies."

"For those not fortunate enough to be on Medicare or an insurance plan that covers it, it's a death sentence," Christi Turnage of Madison, Miss., said of the FDA's decision. Her breast cancer had moved into her lungs before she began Avastin three years ago and the spreading stopped, but Turnage said her insurer is ending coverage and she will seek financial help from Genentech's access program.

Hamburg said that she considered those arguments but that scientifically there are no clues yet to identify who those rare Avastin responders would be — putting a lot of people at risk in order for a few to get some as-yet-unknowable benefit. She urged Genentech to do that research, saying the FDA "absolutely" would reconsider if the company could find the right evidence.

Genentech, part of Swiss drugmaker Roche Group, pledged to begin that research.

"We are disappointed with the outcome," said company chief medical officer Dr. Hal Barron. "We remain committed to the many women with this incurable disease and will continue to provide help through our patient support programs to those who may be facing obstacles to receiving their treatment in the United States."

The breast cancer organization Susan G. Komen for the Cure said that it respected the FDA's decision and that it was time for researchers to concentrate on finding so-called biomarkers that would tell which drug is right for which patient.

"Each type of cancer is very different from another in important ways, and in the end it's no surprise that Avastin's effectiveness may not be equivalent against all types of cancer," said Dr. Neal Meropol of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, who has long used Avastin for colon cancer.

Associated Press writer Marley Seaman in New York contributed to this report.

The unidentified man was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield fore treatment. His condition was not immediately known.

WEST SPRINGFIELD — A pedestrian was struck by a car on Route 20 around 9:30 p.m. Friday, police said.

West Springfield Police Capt. Thomas Wilkinson told 22News that the man, whom police declined to identify, was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield for treatment.

The victim's condition was unavailable.

There was no immediate information regarding whether the driver of the car might be charged.

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

While Ameristar Casinos of Las Vegas comes forward with its proposal, the last of the old Westinghouse plant, including its historic radio towers from which WBZ started broadcasting in 1921, is falling victim to the wrecking ball.

SPRINGFIELD – Lee T. Edgerton remembers the Christmas parties at the old Westinghouse site in East Springfield, which was the birthplace of WBZ radio and commercial radio broadcasting in the United States .

Of course back then, in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a sprawling manufacturing complex where Edgerton’s father worked in the engineering laboratory and the modeling shop. His father helped build prototypes for vending machines.

“He had a great job there for years until they started closing down,” said Edgerton, a retired teacher who now lives in Virginia. “He worked there and so did four of my uncles.”

But now, with the last of the old Westinghouse plant, including its historic radio towers, falling victim to the wrecking ball, Edgerton supports the idea of turning the site into a casino.

“It’s better to make it a casino then into another shopping center that will starve,” he said, referencing a redevelopment plan for the property that had been earlier floated by previous owners.

Mark Hickley lives around the corner on Stevens Street. He recognizes that the casino proposed by Las Vegas-based Ameristar Casinos will bring more traffic.

“But ultimately it will be a good thing for the area,” he said. “It will bring business.”

But he fears for the impact on local stores and restaurants. They might wilt in the shadow of a large comprehensive resort.

“How do mom and pop stores compete with that?” he said.

Ameristar Casinos Inc. announced last week that it plans to buy the 41-acre Westinghouse site on Page Boulevard for $16 million from a unit of O’Connell Development Group, the Holyoke-based construction company. That announcement became public just as a bill legalizing casinos in Massachusetts reached Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s desk after years of political wrangling.

Patrick has not yet signed it into law. But he has expressed his willingness to do so.

The bill provides for one casino in Western Massachusetts with the rights going to the winning bidder. Other companies have proposals for Palmer and for Holyoke.

View full sizeThe Republican | Michael S. GordonThe former WBZ radio transmitters in the former Westinghouse complex along Page Boulevard in Springfield, three months before they were taken down.

Westinghouse Electric Corp. opened the plant in 1915, and at its peak during World War II, the plant employed about 7,000 people. The company closed the plant in December 1970, and it has since been leased to a variety of businesses for storage and other uses.

O’Connell Development bought the site $4.2 million in November 2010 from a company called Springfield Industrial Center. This summer, O’Connell started demolishing the aging factory buildings on the site, work that should be completed by February of 2012, according to O’Connell.

The WBZ towers came down a few weeks ago, but not before amateur radio enthusiasts, known as hams, used them to make one last broadcast to fellow hobbyists up and down the East Coast, said Kurt Jackson, an engineer and consultant in the broadcast industry.

After the broadcast, ham enthusiasts stuck around while the 90-year-old towers came down.

Jackson’s father and grandfather both worked at Westinghouse in its glory days.

WBZ was the first commercially licensed radio station in 1921 following other Westinghouse-run experiments in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

“It was regular radio, like what you hear today,” Jackson said. “One of their first broadcasts was a remote from the Big E. Just like stations do today.”

Eventually, Westinghouse started simulcasting WBZ in Boston with station WBZA here. The company gave up broadcasting in Springfield in 1965 because of federal limits on how many stations it could own.

Jackson said he saved the top eight feet of one tower. It’ll go in front of the WBZ studios in Boston.

“ It was a pretty somber event,” Jackson said. “I don’t think anyone cheered when it came down.”

A driver who paused for a bear caused a car crash in Amherst.

Republican file photoBlack bears, such as the one pictured here wandering through the heart of downtown Northampton a couple of years ago, are loading up on food before the winter. A large black bear that caught the attention of a motorist in Amherst earlier this week was blamed for causing a car accident near the UMass campus.

AMHERST — These days, when you hear the term "distracted driving," it can conjure images of typically younger drivers, heads cast downward, hands furiously punching keys on palm-sized gadgets. Their eyes pop up and down like yo-yos as they quickly check traffic before returning to the matter at hand.

But not all distracted driving incidents necessarily involve teens or twentysomethings, nor do they necessarily involve sending text messages while driving – a crime in Massachusetts since last year. In fact, the distractor factor that sparked a car crash earlier this week in Amherst was a large black bear wandering the southern perimeter of the UMass campus, according to police.

Town resident Edward Lee Cage Jr. was driving on North Pleasant Street near Butterfield Terrace just after 2 a.m. Wednesday when he slowed down for the big bruin, causing a vehicle to rear-end his car. The 45-year-old Longmeadow Drive resident complained of back pain and was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.

Alexander H. Wider, the 21-year-old driver of the car that rear-ended Cage, did not require hospitalization. No citations were issued in the incident, according to a report in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

The bear — not a mobile wireless device – was blamed for distracting the driver, said police, who coincidentally were conducting a distracted-driving crackdown when the incident occurred but apparently never factored bears into the equation.

Amherst Animal Welfare Officer Carol Hepburn said a bear wandering through a heavily populated college town is a reminder that people should remove bird feeders and secure their household trash.

"This time of year, you've got to remember bears are getting ready to hibernate," she told the Gazette.

Last month, state wildlife authorities had to tranquilize and relocate a 300-pound male bear wandering near the Emily Dickinson Museum, located several blocks south of Wednesday's bear sighting. Officials said they were unsure if it was the same animal.

Hepburn, quoted in The Republican last month, said she gets roughly two bear complaints a week. She said it's not unusual to find bears in downtown areas, especially if tempting treats are left behind after outdoor parties.

Over the next month or so, bears will load up on as much food as they can get their paws on before returning to their dens to hibernate for winter, Hepburn said.

Meanwhile, the Amherst Police Department conducted an "educational and enforcement initiative" from Nov. 14 to 18 aimed at bolstering the so-called Safe Driving Law, which was signed into law by Gov. Deval L. Patrick on Sept. 30, 2010.

Among other provisions, the law bans sending, typing or reading electronic messages to or from handheld devices while operating a motor vehicle. The law specifically bans the use of all handheld electronic devices by junior operators while behind the wheel.

Nearly 5,500 people died and an estimated 448,000 were injured in crashes involving distracted driving in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Click HERE to watch a report on Amherst's crackdown on distracted drivers by abc40, media partner of The Republican and MassLive.

A woman who was allegedly stabbed by her boyfriend showed up at Mercy Medical Center for treatment. Police said the boyfriend followed her to the North End hospital, where he was arrested.

SPRINGFIELD — A city man was in custody early Saturday for allegedly stabbing his girlfriend and ramming a police cruiser with his car.

Raheem Jamal Taylor, 25, is facing nearly a dozen charges, including attempted murder, in connection with a predawn domestic incident that culminated in his arrest outside Mercy Medical Center shortly before 6 a.m.

After stabbing his girlfriend multiple times, Taylor showed up at the North End hospital where his girlfriend was being treated, Springfield Police Capt. Cheryl Clapprood said.

"There was blood all over her car," Clapprood said of the woman's vehicle, adding that she drove herself to the hospital and Taylor followed.

Initial police reports indicated Taylor attempted to flee the hospital after police boxed in his car with their cruisers.

"He rammed my cruiser," an officer said around 5:53 a.m., adding that Taylor was "trying to take off."

Taylor, whose street address wasn't immediately available, is expected to be arraigned Monday in Springfield District Court on attempted murder and multiple assault charges.

The incident began as a domestic dispute at a Locust Street address.

The girlfriend, whom police declined to identify, was stabbed four or five times, Clapprood said. The woman's injuries weren't believed to be life-threatening, but an update on her condition was unavailable.