A breakthrough in the 149-day lockout reportedly occurred early Saturday morning during ongoing talks in New York.

AP Photo/ Louis LanzanoSan Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, left, and NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver talk in front of a midtown Manhattan office building where NBA labor negotiations were taking place late Friday night into Saturday. NBA owners and players said they reached a tentative agreement early this morning to end the 149-day lockout, adding that they hope to begin a delayed season on Christmas Day.

BRIAN MAHONEY
NEW YORK — After nearly two years of bickering, NBA players and owners are back on the same side.

"We want to play basketball," Commissioner David Stern said.

Come Christmas Day, they should be.

The sides reached a tentative agreement early Saturday to end the 149-day lockout and hope to begin the delayed season with a marquee tripleheader Dec. 25. Most of a season that seemed in jeopardy of being lost entirely will be salvaged if both sides approve the handshake deal.

Barring a change in scheduling, the 2011-12 season will open with the Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, followed by Miami at Dallas in an NBA finals rematch before MVP Derrick Rose and Chicago visiting Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

Neither side provided many specifics about the deal, and there are still legal hurdles that must be cleared before gymnasiums are open again.

"We thought it was in both of our interest to try to reach a resolution and save the game," union executive director Billy Hunter said.

After a secret meeting earlier this week that got the broken process back on track, the sides met for more than 15 hours Friday, working to save the season. Stern said the agreement was "subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we're optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25."

The league plans a 66-game season and aims to open training camps Dec. 9, with free agency opening at the same time. Stern has said it would take about 30 days from an agreement to playing the first game.

"All I feel right now is 'finally,'" Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade told The Associated Press.

Just 12 days after talks broke down and Stern declared the NBA could be headed to a "nuclear winter," he sat next to Hunter to announce the 10-year deal, with either side able to opt out after the sixth year.

"For myself, it's great to be a part of this particular moment in terms of giving our fans what they wanted and wanted to see," said Derek Fisher, the president of the players' association.

A majority on each side is needed to approve the agreement, first reported by CBSSports.com. The NBA needs votes from 15 of 29 owners. (The league owns the New Orleans Hornets.) Stern said the labor committee plans to discuss the agreement later Saturday and expects them to endorse it and recommend to the full board.

The union needs a simple majority of its 430-plus members. That process is a bit more complicated after the players dissolved the union Nov. 14. Now, they must drop their antitrust lawsuit in Minnesota and reform the union before voting on the deal.

Because the union disbanded, a new collective bargaining agreement can only be completed once the union has reformed. Drug testing and other issues still must be negotiated between the players and the league, which also must dismiss its lawsuit filed in New York.

"We're very pleased we've come this far," Stern said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

The sides will quickly return to work later Saturday, speaking with attorneys and their own committees to keep the process moving.

When the NBA returns, owners hope to find the type of parity that exists in the NFL, where the small-market Green Bay Packers are the current champions. The NBA has been dominated in recent years by the biggest spenders, with Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas winning the last four titles.

"I think it will largely prevent the high-spending teams from competing in the free-agent market the way they've been able to in the past. It's not the system we sought out to get in terms of a harder cap, but the luxury tax is harsher than it was. We hope it's effective," deputy commissioner Adam Silver said.

"We feel ultimately it will give fans in every community hope that their team can compete for championships."

The league hopes fans come right back, despite their anger over a work stoppage that followed such a successful season. But owners wanted more of the league's $4 billion in annual revenues after players were guaranteed 57 percent of basketball-related income in the old deal.

Participating in the talks for the league were Stern, Silver, Spurs owner Peter Holt, the chairman of the labor relations committee, and attorneys Rick Buchanan and Dan Rube. The players were represented by executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher, vice president Maurice Evans, attorney Ron Klempner and economist Kevin Murphy.

Owners locked out the players July 1, and the sides spent most of the summer and fall battling over the division of revenues and other changes owners wanted in a new collective bargaining agreement. They said they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in each year of the former deal, ratified in 2005, and they wanted a system where the big-market teams wouldn't have the ability to outspend their smaller counterparts.

Players fought against those changes, not wanting to see any teams taken out of the market when they became free agents.

"This was not an easy agreement for anyone. The owners came in having suffered substantial losses and feeling the system wasn't working fairly across all teams," Silver said. "I certainly know the players had strong views about expectations in terms of what they should be getting from the system. It required a lot of compromise from both parties' part, and I think that's what we saw today."

Even the final day had turbulent patches. It required multiple calls with the owners' labor relations committee, all the while knowing another breakdown in talks would mean not only the loss of the Christmas schedule but possibly even the entire season.

"We resolved, despite some even bumps this evening, that the greater good required us to knock ourselves out and come to this tentative understanding," Stern said.

He denied the litigation was a factor in accelerating a deal, but things happened relatively quickly after the players filed a suit that could have won them some $6 billion in damages.

"For us the litigation is something that just has to be dealt with," Stern said. "It was not the reason for the settlement. The reason for the settlement was we've got fans, we've got players who would like to play and we've got others who are dependent on us. And it's always been our goal to reach a deal that was fair to both sides and get us playing as soon as possible, but that took a little time."

It finally yielded the second shortened season in NBA history, joining the 1998-99 lockout that reduced the schedule to 50 games. This time the league will miss 16 games off the normal schedule.

Though the deal's expected to be approved, it may not be unanimous as there are factions of hard-liners in both camps who will be unhappy with substantive portions of the deal.

"Let's all pray this turns out well," Pacers forward Danny Granger wrote on Twitter.

But getting what the owners wanted took a toll. Stern, after more than 27 years as the league's commissioner, hoped to close a deal much sooner but was committed for fighting for the owners' wishes even at the risk of damaging his legacy. Hunter dealt with anger from agents and even questions from his own players about his strategy, wondering why it could so long for the players to use the threat of litigation to give them leverage that had otherwise eluded them.

The sides met just twice in the first two months of the lockout before stepping up the pace in September, when it was already too late to open camps on time. The sides tried meeting in small groups, large groups and even mediation, but nothing sparked compromise.

Things changed this week with the entrance of Jim Quinn, a former NBPA counsel who had good relationships on both sides. The meeting Friday was held at the office of his law firm, though he did not take part.

Hunter said the terms of the deal would come out shortly, preferring to keep them private until they could be shared with the players. They might not like the deal, but it will be better than what many of them feared. Resigned to possibly missing the season, some had signed deals overseas so they would have some paycheck.

Instead, they're a step closer to returning home.

Scott Harford, 37, of 96 Silver St., Lanesborough, was charged Friday in connection with an earlier break-in at a Main Street Dunkin' Donuts shop.

Republican file photo

HOLYOKE — Police charged a Berkshire County man Friday in connection with an earlier break-in at a city Dunkin' Donuts shop.

A police traffic stop near the Racing Mart, 330 Main St., at 12:49 a.m. Friday resulted in the arrest of Scott Harford, 37, of 96 Silver St., Lanesborough.

Holyoke Police Sgt. Kevin Thomas said an officer came in contact with Harford, a suspect in a prior break-in at a Dunkin' Donuts on Main Street, and charged him with larceny, shoplifting, breaking and entering at night to commit felony and possession of a class A drug.

Also arrested during the street stop was Paul Galok, 27, of 10 Bull Hill Road, Pittsfield, who was charged with possession of both class A and E drugs, according to police records.

It was not immediately clear which man was driving at the time of the traffic stop, but both are expected to be arraigned Monday in Holyoke District Court.

Black Friday's typical jostling and jockeying took a more ominous turn during this year's bargain-hunting ritual with a shooting, a pepper spraying and other episodes of violence that left several people injured.

AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, Jane TyskaPolice in San Leandro, Calif., gather evidence at the scene of a shooting Friday at a WalMart store, where a man was shot during an attempted robbery while Black Friday sales were going on at the retail store.

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — Black Friday's typical jostling and jockeying took a more ominous turn during this year's bargain-hunting ritual with a shooting, a pepper spraying and other episodes of violence that left several people injured.

In the most serious case, a robber shot a shopper who refused to give up his purchases outside a San Leandro, Calif., Walmart store, leaving the victim hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

Police in San Leandro, about 15 miles east of San Francisco, said the victim and his family were walking to their car around 1:45 a.m. Friday when they were confronted by a group of men who demanded their shopping items. When the family refused, a fight broke out, and one of the robbers pulled a gun and shot the man, said Sgt. Mike Sobek.

"The suspects saw these guys, got out of their car and tried to rob them but were unsuccessful," Sobek said.

At another Walmart in a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, a woman trying to get the upper hand to buy cheap electronics unleashed pepper spray on a crowd of shoppers, causing minor injuries to 20 people, police said.

The attack took place about 10:20 p.m. Thursday shortly after doors opened for the sale at the Walmart in Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley.

The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox video game players, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people "in order to get an advantage," police Sgt. Jose Valle said.

Ten people were slightly injured by the pepper spray and 10 others suffered minor bumps and bruises in the chaos, Valle said. They were treated at the scene.

The woman got away in the confusion, but could face felony battery charges if found, Valle said.

Meanwhile, police in suburban Phoenix came under fire when a video was posted online showing a 54-year-old grandfather on the floor of a Walmart store with a bloody face, after police said he was subdued Thursday night trying to shoplift during a chaotic rush for discounted video games.

The video, posted below, shows Jerald Allen Newman unconscious and bloodied as outraged customers yell expletives and say "that's police brutality" and "he wasn't doing anything."

In a police report that redacted the names of officers and witnesses, Newman's wife and other witnesses said he was just trying to help his grandson after the boy was trampled by shoppers, and only put a video game in his waistband to free his hands to help the boy.

Larry Hall, assistant chief of Buckeye police, said Newman was resisting arrest and it appeared the officer acted within reason.

Hall said the officer decided to do a leg sweep and take him to the ground but the man unfortunately hit his head.

"The store was incredibly crowded, and I was concerned about other customers' safety," the officer wrote in his police report.

Hall said Newman, who had a bloody nose and received four stitches on his forehead, was booked on suspicion of shoplifting and resisting arrest.

In Sacramento, Calif., a man was stabbed outside a mall Friday in an apparent gang-related incident as shoppers were hitting the stores.

The victim was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The stabbing stemmed from a fight between two groups around 3 a.m. in front of a Macy's department store at the Arden Fair Mall.

No arrests have been made. Police were hoping surveillance video will help identify the suspects.

A normally feisty Canadian MP nods off during a parliamentary debate, an argument over a song played at a record release party leads to Hartford's 24th murder, and more morning news.

AP file photoGerman police officers secured railway lines near Leitstade in preparation of the shipment of nuclear waste through the area this weekend. A large police security operation was launched in advance of the shipment, the first of which made its way into Germany from France on Friday. It is due to arrive at a storage site in northern Germany by tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 27.

• Carbon dioxide climate sensitivity 'overestimated' [bbc.com]


• Hailing a cab for a stranger in NYC is illegal, according to little-known law [nytimes.com]


• Britain steps up its war against legal highs [time.com]


• Mitt Romney's hair: 'reassuring' or 'too slick?' [nytimes.com]


• The 8 germiest places in the mall [cnn.com]


• Drug-smuggling diary: 9 tons of pot seized at US-Mexico border [latimes.com]


• Pakistan: NATO helicopters killed dozens of soldiers [nytimes.com]


• Hartford's 24th murder of 2011 sparked by argument over music [courant.com]



VIDEO: Rob Anders, a Canadian member of parliament famous for making controversial comments throughout his 14-year career – including calling Nelson Mandela a "terrorist" – is caught nodding off during a discussion of water quality issues on Canada's Indian reservations.

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


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The Republican tied for an award with the Sunday Telegram of Worcester.

SPRINGFIELD – The Sunday Republican was recently named the recipient of a Newspaper of the Year Award by the New England Newspaper & Press Association.

The Sunday Republican tied with the Sunday Telegram, of Worcester, for first place in the category for Sunday newspapers with circulation over 70,000.

Wayne E. Phaneuf

The awards were presented at the 2011 New England Newspaper & Press Association fall conference held last month in Natick.

Massachusetts newspapers won nine of 16 Newspaper of the Year awards. Other winners in other categories including weekday, weekly and alternative weekly, based on circulation, included: the Sentinel & Enterprise, of Fitchburg; the Telegram & Gazette, of Worcester; the MetroWest Daily News, of Framingham; the Inquirer and Mirror of Nantucket; The Boston Phoenix; and the Cape Cod Times, of Hyannis, which won in two categories.

“It’s a great honor for The Republican to win the Newspaper of the Year award especially because it reflects on the efforts of the entire staff,” said Wayne E. Phaneuf, executive editor of The Republican and Sunday Republican.

“We have been covering this community since 1824 and have tried to live up to the principles of the paper’s founder, Samuel Bowles, who promised in the first edition to ‘spare no pains to combine instruction and entertainment,’” Phaneuf added.

Springfield celebrated its 375th birthday this year, and The Republican has been around for half that time, Phaneuf noted.

“The reporters, editors, photographers and other staff members have a rich tradition to uphold, and achieving this award helps recognize their hard work and contributions to covering a region that has been through a memorable year of challenges from both Mother Nature and the economy,” Phaneuf said.

Also selected as Newspapers of the Year were Foster’s Sunday Citizen, of Dover, N.H., the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, which also won twice, The Day, of New London, Conn., The Narragansett (R.I.) Times, the Ellsworth (Maine) American and Vermont Woman of South Hero.

This year, the association used a new judging method to determine the Newspaper of the Year winners. Juries made up of regular readers of New England newspapers selected winners based on focus group discussions and decisions. Previously, the association had used input from focus groups to aid a panel of journalist judges to select the winners.

In the contest, each entrant is required to submit copies of two editions, one published on a date selected by the association and the other from a date selected by the publication. The mandatory date was March 20, the day of the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade with an edition that included coverage of the weekend’s events leading up to the parade. The Sunday Republican also submitted its Feb. 13 edition, which included the award-winning Outlook 2011 special section on business and economic development in the Pioneer Valley.

The Republican is the print affiliate of MassLive.com.

The pedestrians were hit just before midnight on state Route 128 in Lynnfield.

Republican file photo

LYNNFIELD – State police say a man and a woman walking on a northeastern Massachusetts highway have been hit by a vehicle, and one of them has died.

Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio says the pedestrians were hit just before midnight Friday on state Route 128 in Lynnfield.

An 18-year-old man Billerica man was pronounced deceased at the scene and a 17-year-old Billerica woman sustained life-threatening injuries and was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, about 15 miles south of the accident.

Procopio said that a preliminary investigation by trooper Michael Sargent indicated that a 2000 Saturn SL-2 sedan with four occupants was stopped in the median on in the southbound lanes of Route 128, just south of Route 1.

Procopio wouldn't immediately say why the two were believed to be walking on the highway but did say that they had exited the Saturn for some reason.

The incident is just the latest in what has become a series of highway-related fatalities involving people getting out of vehicles on the state's roads.

On Friday morning, a Somerville man was killed in a Boston Big Dig tunnel after getting out of his car following what appears to be a minor accident.

State police are urging motorists in disabled cars to get their vehicles out of the road immediately following an accident. Motorists are also advised to stay in their cars until police arrive at the scene of a reported crash.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Dennis Haley

Dennis E. Haley, 61, of Monson, died Thursday at his home. Born in Monson, he was a lifelong resident. A graduate of Monson High School, he attended the University of Massachusetts, and served in the U.S. Army during Vietnam. Haley worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 35 years before retiring in 2009. Among the many things Dennis enjoyed in his leisure was golf, honing his skill to become Club Champion at both Scottish Meadows and Quaboag Country Club. He was an avid Red Sox and Patriots fan.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• Belaska, Genevieve
  




• 
  Brooks Jr., Edward A.
  



• 
  Ditto, Yvette (Champagne)




• 
  Douglas, Robert A.
  



• 
  Elzy, Willie
  




• Hafey, Robert F.
  




• 
  Haley, Dennis E.
  



• 
  Keough, F. Griffin




• 
  Krech, Kenneth F. "Kenny"
  



• 
  Lamb, Kenneth J. "Jamie"
  




• McLaughlin, James W.
  




• 
  Picard, Francis
  



• 
  Pisano, Letizia "Tish" (Asta-Ferrero)




• 
  Poe, Albert A.
  



• 
  Proniewicz, Lorena K. (LaFond)
  




• Rives, Margaret L. "Peg" (Menkhus)
  




• 
  Samuelson, Carl
  



• 
  Struziak, Katherine




• 
  Sullivan, William J. "Bill"
  



• 
  Szadek, Nellie A. (Olszewski)
  




• Taylor, Callie Rose Posley
  




• 
  Turgeon, James
  



• 
  Webber, Rebecca M.




• 
  Zacharie, Roland J.
  

The non-profit organization bought 69 acres of upland forest and wetlands last month from the estate of Frank Snape Jr. for $90,000.

CHESTERFIELD – Moose, bears and bobcats striving to stay away from roads lines can rest easier thanks to a recent land purchase in Chesterfield by The Nature Conservancy.

The non-profit organization bought 69 acres of upland forest and wetlands last month from the estate of Frank Snape, Jr. for $90,000, securing a key piece of a 17,000-acre area that is among the last minimally fragmented forests in the area.

“Places like that just don’t exist here,” said Markelle Smith, a land protection specialist with the Nature Conservancy.

The organization describes the larger area as one of the best examples of intact forest remaining in southern New England. The land is home to bobcats, bears and other large mammals. Moose tracks have been spotted there as well, Smith said.

“It’s essentially an intact forest that’s minimally fragmented by roads,” she said. “There are very few places in southern New England where the opportunity to protect land in that kind of block exists.”

The area includes the headwaters of Roberts Meadow Brooks, which flows into Northampton, as well as Dead Branch Brook, a tributary of the Westfield River. Other protected parcels surround it, including Dead Branch State Forest, the 215-acre Brewer Brook Wildlife Management Area and a 200-acre tract preserved by Kestrel Land Trust by way of a conservation restriction.

Smith said the Snape purchase will be a major contribution to the landscape of Chesterfield and surrounding towns.

“We’re thankful, and we’re extremely happy to be able to add to the protected lands in the area,” she said.

Three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo caught flights out of Egypt early Saturday, according to an airport official and an attorney for one of the trio.

In this Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 file image from Egyptian state television, three American students are displayed to the camera by Egyptian authorities following their arrest during protests in Cairo, where an Egyptian official said they were throwing firebombs at security forces. A spokeswoman for the American University in Cairo identified the students as Luke Gates, a 21-year-old Indiana University student from Bloomington, Ind.; Derrik Sweeney, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, Mo.; and Gregory Porter, a 19 year-old Drexel University student from Glenside, Pa. An official says an Egyptian court has ordered release of 3 US students arrested during Cairo unrest.(AP Photo/ Egyptian TV, File)

By MAGGIE MICHAEL

CAIRO — Three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo caught flights out of Egypt early Saturday, according to an airport official and an attorney for one of the trio.

The three were arrested on the roof of a university building near Tahrir Square last Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters. On Thursday, a court ordered them released. All three were studying at the American University in Cairo.

Luke Gates, 21, and Derrik Sweeney, 19, left the Egyptian capital Saturday on separate flights to Frankfurt, Germany, an airport official in Cairo said. Gregory Porter, 19, also left the country, his attorney said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Attorney Theodore Simon, who represents Porter, a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said police escorted the three students to the Cairo airport Friday. Simon later said his client was on a flight.

"I am pleased and thankful to report that Gregory Porter is in the air. He has departed Egyptian airspace and is on his way home," Simon said, though he declined to say when Porter was expected back in the U.S.

Simon said he and Porter's mother both spoke by phone with the student, who is from the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside.

"He clearly conveyed to me ... that he was OK," Simon told The Associated Press.

Gates is a student at Indiana University. It wasn't clear when he was expected back in the U.S.

Joy Sweeney told the AP her son, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, Mo., would fly from Frankfurt to Washington, then on to St. Louis. She said family will meet him when he arrives late Saturday.

"I am ecstatic," Sweeney said Friday. "I can't wait for him to get home tomorrow night. I can't believe he's actually going to get on a plane. It is so wonderful."

Sweeney said she had talked with her son Friday afternoon and "he seemed jubilant."

"He thought he was going to be able to go back to his dorm room and get his stuff," she said. "We said, 'No, no, don't get your stuff, we just want you here.'"

The university will ship his belongings home, she said.

Sweeney had earlier said she did not prepare a Thanksgiving celebration this week because the idea seemed "absolutely irrelevant" while her son still was being held.

"I'm getting ready to head out and buy turkey and stuffing and all the good fixings so that we can make a good Thanksgiving dinner," she said Friday.

Associated Press writers Sandy Kozel in Washington; Kathy Matheson and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; and Dana Fields in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

According to various published reports, several Constitution State residents were either suspects or victims in crimes related to shopping activities on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Patrick Brew, 32, of New Britain, Conn. was stun-gunned by police after allegedly cutting about 20 people in line at Wal-Mart and refusing to comply with the orders of police officers. (Southington, Connecticut Police Department booking photo)

MILFORD, Conn. - Sporadic Black Friday violence was reported across the nation this weekend, and similar reports are coming out of Connecticut.

According to various published reports, several Constitution State residents were either suspects or victims in crimes related to shopping activities on the busiest shopping day of the year.

In Milford, Conn., a coastal city in New Haven County, a woman was carjacked at gunpoint outside a Lowe's Home Improvement store while sitting in the parking lot with the engine running.

CT Post reported that a man wearing a ski mask and a sweatshirt with a hood jumped into the woman's 2007 Saturn Ion and ordered her out at gunpoint.

The woman, a 35-year-old Monroe, Conn. resident who was reportedly waiting for her husband to get out of the store, wasn't injured in the incident, but understandably shaken up.

"I had left the car running with the doors unlocked. Within thirty seconds this man got into the car and pointed a gun at me and said get out of the car," the victim told CT Post. "It was so quick that in a split second I had thought it was my husband returning, but then he said `get out of the car' again. I got out of the car as quickly as I could and he drove away, not speeding away."

The car was later recovered in West Haven, but the suspect was never captured.

Also on Black Friday in Milford, local police used stun guns on a man inside a Wal-Mart store following a violent dispute over a video game.

The Hartford Courant reports that 26-year-old Hamden, Conn. resident Brian Shellnutt was waiting in line at the crowded department store to purchase a video game when an 11-year-old boy was knocked to the ground. As the boy's father came to his aid, Shellnut allegedly confronted him before another shopper came to the concerned parent's aid.

CT Post reported that Shellnut attacked the other shopper and when officers already patrolling outside the store attempted to break up the altercation, Shellnut tried to punch the victim again, leading police to use their stun guns to subdue him.

Police in that city are also looking into reports that a woman shopping at the Old Navy store was thrown to the ground as her assailant tried to steal her purse.

In another incident at a Wal-Mart store in Southington, 32-year-old New Britain, Conn. resident Patrick Brew, pictured above, was stun-gunned by police after allegedly cutting about 20 people in line and getting into a fight with officers.

In the amateur video posted above, Brew and the police officers can be seen struggling while customers pass by with big-screen TVs and full shopping carts.

According to the Meriden Record Journal, Brew was charged with breach of peace and interfering with an officer.

The incident is just the latest in what has become a series of highway-related fatalities involving people getting out of vehicles following otherwise minor accidents.

Republican file photo

LANCASTER, Mass. - A West Boylston, Mass. man was killed early Saturday morning after he stepped out of his car following a minor accident on Route 190 in Lancaster.

According to the Massachusetts State Police, 38-year-old Scott Symonds was driving his 2005 Toyota Camry on Interstate 190 north of exit 7 just after 1 a.m. when his vehicle struck the guardrail.

While the car was disabled in the median, Symonds got out of the car and was ran over by a 2006 Ford pickup truck driven by Westminster resident Eric Sifert, police said.

Troopers responded to the incident and Symonds was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The crash remains under investigation to determine if any charges are warranted," said David Procopio, spokesperson for the state police. "The investigation is being conducted by Troop C of the Massachusetts State Police, along with the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the State Police Crime Scene Services Section."

Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Lancaster police and fire departments.

The incident is just the latest in what has become a series of highway-related fatalities involving people getting out of vehicles on the state's roads.

In Lynnfield, about 15 miles north of Boston, two people were struck just before midnight Friday after getting out of a Saturn on Route 128.

One of the people, an 18-year-old Billerica man, was killed. A 17-year-old Billerica woman sustained life-threatening injuries and was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital.

On Friday morning, a Somerville man was killed in a Boston Big Dig tunnel after getting out of his car following what appears to be a minor accident.

State police are urging motorists in disabled cars to get their vehicles out of the road immediately following an accident. Motorists are also advised to stay in their cars until police arrive at the scene of a reported crash.

Other bills would ban children under 5 from riding on a motorcycle traveling more than 30 miles an hour, ban the sale of exhaust pipes designed to make motorcycles louder and prohibit cars from passing through groups of two or more motorcycles.

BOSTON — Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing changes to the state's motorcycle laws, including bills designed to ease the requirement that riders wear helmets.

Current law requires all riders and passengers to wear protective head gear, except those participating in parades.

One proposed change would lift the helmet requirement for riders and passengers over the age of 21. Another would exempt riders whose motorcycles are registered in a state without a helmet law.

Other bills would ban children under 5 from riding on a motorcycle traveling more than 30 miles an hour, ban the sale of exhaust pipes designed to make motorcycles louder and prohibit cars from passing through groups of two or more motorcycles.

The bills are the subject of a Wednesday public hearing by the Transportation Committee at the Statehouse.

At Amherst College, a healthy endowment makes closing the doors a remote possibility at best.

At Amherst College in western Massachusetts, a healthy endowment makes closing the doors a remote possibility at best. But its president, Carolyn "Biddy" Martin, experienced the same concerns about the humanities in her previous job as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was tapped this year to serve on a commission for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to review the issue. (Republican file photo by David Molnar)

By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Like many humanities advocates, Abbey Drane was disheartened but not surprised when Florida's governor recently said its tax dollars should bolster science and high-tech studies, not "educate more people who can't get jobs in anthropology."

Drane, a 21-year-old anthropology major at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has spent years defending her choice to pursue that liberal arts field.

And now, as states tighten their allocations to public universities, many administrators say they're feeling pressure to defend the worth of humanities, too, and shield the genre from budget cuts. One university president has gone as far as donating $100,000 of her own money to offer humanities scholarships at her school.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's comments last month cut to the heart of the quandary: whether emphasizing science, math and medical fields gives students the best career prospects and a high-tech payback to society, and whether humanities fields are viewed as more of an indulgence than a necessity amid tight budget times.

"You can definitely feel the emphasis on campus, even just based on where the newest buildings go, that there is a drive toward the sciences, engineering and (the) business school," said Drane, a senior from Plymouth, Mass. "I'm constantly asked what job opportunities I'll have in anthropology or what I'm going to do with my degree, and I tell people that it's giving me a skill set and critical thinking you can apply to anything."

Humanities studies peaked in U.S. colleges in the 1960s and started dwindling in the 1970s as more students pursued business and technology and related fields. Today, more than 20 percent of each year's bachelor's degrees are granted in business; in humanities, it's about 8 percent.

Liberal arts colleges, too, have declined. A study published in 2009 by Inside Higher Ed said that of 212 liberal arts colleges identified in 1990, only 137 were still operating by 2009.

At Amherst College in western Massachusetts, a healthy endowment makes closing the doors a remote possibility at best. But its president, Carolyn "Biddy" Martin, experienced the same concerns about the humanities in her previous job as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was tapped this year to serve on a commission for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to review the issue.

Martin said many universities struggle with declining enrollment in those fields, making the classes an easy budget target if their worth is not defended.

"There are more and more people in higher education — and I hope political leaders — who are understanding that an over-leaning emphasis on the sciences to the expense of the humanities is not a good thing for the country," she said.

Therein lays the debate for many, though, including Gov. Scott in Florida, who is unapologetic about his push to direct tax dollars toward rapidly growing science, technology, engineering and math fields, known collectively as STEM.

And since state governments control nearly two-thirds of all higher education funding, according to the National Governors Association, their embrace or disregard for humanities can affect the study paths of hundreds of thousands of students.

The governors' organization published recommendations for states this year on how to align their higher education priorities with their labor markets and economic development, citing Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington for "bold, comprehensive strategies" in those efforts.

It did not advise state governments to move money from humanities, but said it's "often challenging" to get the universities to participate in economic development, partly because of "their emphasis on broad liberal arts education."

Advocates say STEM fields also provide tangible returns for states, universities and businesses through patent royalties, new products and the prestige of achieving scientific breakthroughs — paybacks far less evident among, say, new intellectual insights by scholars of Geoffrey Chaucer's literature, devotees of Frederic Chopin's nocturnes or adherents to Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist views.

"People feel like there are no real careers open for people studying in the liberal arts and I don't think that's true at all," said John Beck, 20, a senior from Newton, Mass., who's majoring in philosophy at the University of Connecticut.

His father and two grandparents are doctors, and his mother and brother are both pharmaceutical scientists. He is double majoring in economics and plans to attend law school, a decision that eased his parents' concerns about his philosophy studies because they see a legal career as a tangible way to support himself.

He sees it as a good use of his philosophy degree, too, though he says he would have been perfectly content to pursue teaching, public service or other fields to which many other philosophy majors gravitate.

To Susan Herbst, students shouldn't have to choose between picking a field they love and one that offers them the best shot at a job. She believes humanities does both, and feels so strongly about it that she and her husband donated $100,000 this year to provide scholarships limited to students in those fields.

"The humanities are where people learn about ethics and values and critical thinking," said Herbst, the president of the University of Connecticut. "The truth is that for all of these students going into the STEM fields or other social sciences or business, if they didn't have the humanities, they don't know why they're doing what they do. The humanities really teach us how we're supposed to live and why what we do matters."

Holyoke Career Closet's goal is to provide Holyoke Community College students with two complete career-appropriate outfits, she said.

HOLYOKE – Outfitting college students with suits and accessories to make good impressions on job and internship interviews is the mission of a new group.

“I think it’s going to be a success once we get the word out,” said Karen M. Blanchard, executive director of Providence Ministries for the Needy Inc.

Holyoke Career Closet is for men and women, in contrast to Dress for Success of Western Massachusetts, which provides disadvantaged women with professional attire for job interviews.

The effort is a partnership between Providence Ministries, Holyoke Community College and AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers, Blanchard said last week.

The goal is to provide each student with two complete career-appropriate outfits, she said.

A student must attend Holyoke Community College and have a legitimate interview scheduled in order for Holyoke Career Closet to provide a suit, shoes and other accessories, she said.

The clothing and accessories come from Providence Ministries, she said.

A fund-raiser for the group is scheduled for Dec. 11 in the form of a bus trip to the outlet stores in Lee. For $25, participants get round-trip bus ride and a “goodie” bag filled wth sale information, coupons and items from outlet stores.

The bus leaves Holyoke Community College at 9:30 a.m. and leaves Lee for the return trip at 3 p.m.

For information about Holyoke Career Closet visit holyokecareercloset.wordpress.com or call (413) 536-9109.

An illegal alien from Guatemala was charged with manslaughter this week after beating death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. - An illegal alien from Guatemala was charged with manslaughter this week after beating death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Willimantic, Connecticut.

Fredy Alexander Chingo Riz, 23, was known to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, according to a report by NBC Connecticut,
as an investigation into abuse of the girl was ongoing.

On Wednesday, the Windham County State's Attorney Office contacted the Connecticut State Police to request an investigation into the suspicious death of 3-year-old Athena Angeles who was taken to Windham Memorial Hospital in cardiac arrest.

Detectives with the state and Willimantic police departments probed the girl's death and
on Thanksgiving, an autopsy was conducted on Angeles by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The medical examiner concluded that the Angeles died of blunt abdominal and chest trauma and the death was ruled a homicide.

Chingo Riz, who was living at the victim's Willimantic home with her mother and 2-year-old sister, was arrested by troopers and charged with manslaughter, first and second-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor.

He was held in lieu of $1 million bond.

Webster Bank is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the man who robbed its Enfield branch on Black Friday.

Anyone who can identify this man is asked to call the Enfield Police Department at (860) 763-8911. (Bank surveillance photo courtesy of Enfield Police Department)

ENFIELD, Conn. - Police are asking the public for assistance identifying a man who robbed the Webster Bank in Enfield, Connecticut on Black Friday.

Around 1:15 p.m. Friday, police responded to a hold-up alarm at the bank at 561 Hazard Ave after a man handed a teller a note demanding money.

Police haven't released many details about the incident but did say that the suspect was last seen on foot heading west on Hazard Avenue.

Webster Bank is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect, who is described as a light-complected man wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, a knit cap, dark pants and gloves.

Anyone with information about the robbery or who can identify the man in the photo is asked to call the Enfield Police Department at (860) 763-8911.

Grant Smith, 47, allegedly viewed child pornography during a Delta Airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Boston, where he was taken into custody by Massachusetts State Police.

BOSTON — An airline passenger who allegedly viewed child pornography during a flight to Logan International Airport was taken into custody by Massachusetts State Police after landing in Boston Saturday afternoon.

Grant Smith, 47, of Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was seated in the first-class section of a Delta Airlines flight from Utah to Boston when a fellow passenger noticed Smith was viewing illicit images on a laptop computer, police said.

The passenger alerted the flight crew, who then contacted state police. Troopers investigated the allegations and charged Smith with possession of child pornography, according to state police spokesman David Procopio. The investigation is ongoing and additional charges may be filed against Smith, Procopio said.

Smith was still in state police custody as of Saturday evening. His bail was set at $15,000 and he is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in East Boston District Court.

Delta officials contacted authorities just before 3 p.m. Saturday to report a male passenger "viewing pornographic images of children on his laptop computer during the flight," Procopio said in a statement.

A little more than an hour later, Smith was on the ground being interviewed by troopers, who placed him under arrest for alleged possession of child pornography.

Authorities declined to release further information about the case, including a photo of Smith. State police do not release booking photos, Procopio said.

Officials said Smith was aboard a Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Boston. Officials at Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.

It was not immediately clear if Smith has a lawyer.

Troopers will be on the lookout for intoxicated drivers this holiday season.

Republican file photo

HOLYOKE — You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not pout, I'm telling you why – the Massachusetts State Police could be coming to your town this holiday season.

Troopers will be on the prowl for those who partake too generously then get in their cars and drive, so you better be good for goodness sake.

Besides beefed-up patrols of the region's highways, state police also will be conducting more ongoing sobriety checkpoints to help curb drunken driving as the Christmas season revs into full gear.

To that end, a Thanksgiving weekend sobriety checkpoint conducted on Route 5 in Holyoke from late Friday into early Saturday netted several suspected drunken drivers, according to a state police trooper from regional headquarters in Northampton.

"I can confirm five arrests," a spokesman at Troop B Headquarters said early Sunday.

With the arrival of the holidays, troopers will be looking to remove intoxicated drivers from area roadways, and more checkpoints are likely to be announced in the coming weeks. Media advisories are issued as checkpoints are planned, but the whereabouts of checkpoints are kept under wraps until the roadblocks are established.

The checkpoints are funded by a grant from the Highway Safety Division of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

The five drunken-driving arrests in Holyoke mirror state data from a Springfield checkpoint established on the night of Sept. 30 into early Oct. 1. During that State Street checkpoint, troopers also arrested five allegedly impaired motorists. In addition, they made three other arrests, issued several criminal summonses and handed out more than four-dozen citations.

Early donations include one made by the family of the late "Capt. Dave Piquette

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SPRINGFIELD – The first donations to the 89th annual Toy for Joy campaign include one from the family of the late “Capt. Dave” Piquette.

David B. Piquette, of East Springfield, died in November 2005 after a three-year battle with lung cancer. His parents, Dennis J. and Doris Piquette, of Chicopee, keep his memory alive each year as they are among the generous readers of The Republican, El Pueblo Latino and Masslive.com who contribute to the holiday toy campaign annually as a way to memorialize their loved ones.

The Piquettes’ $25 donation is among a total of $2,120 in donations received during the campaign’s first week. Topping that list is a $2,000 donation from Wel-Design Alarm Systems, of Wilbraham.

The Toy for Joy goal is to raise $150,000 over the next four weeks; the initial donations leave $147,880 to be raised by noon on Christmas Eve.

The holiday campaign is jointly sponsored by the Salvation Army and The Republican. Hasbro, Inc. is joining Toy for Joy as a partner, providing some of the toys which will be distributed. Hasbro has a long history of helping families in Western Massachusetts during the holidays and this year is no different.

Registration for the program, which served 20,000 children in Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties last year, begins in earnest this week.

The Salvation Army’s Greater Springfield Citadel on Pearl Street will accept registratiion Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Salvation Army units in Westfield, Holyoke, Greenfield and Northampton are also participating with the registration of families and distribution of gifts. Registration times and dates vary by unit.

By teaming with the Toy for Joy campaign, Hasbro, The Republican and the Salvation Army bring over 100 combined years of experience managing programs that help families in need give their children a toy or game to unwrap on their holiday. Hasbro employees will also be among the volunteers who aid the Salvation Army with registration of families and with distribution of the toys and gifts.

For more information, call 733-1518. To make a contribution to the Toy for Joy fund, write: Toy for Joy, P.O. Box 3007, Springfield 01102. Contributions may also be dropped off with the coupon to the The Republican, 1860 Main St., Springfield, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Here’s a list of the latest contributors:

Happy holidays from Wel-Design Alarm Systems, $2,000

In loving memory of our son, David “Capt. Dave” Piquette, $25

In memory of Mitchell Stanek, who loved all children, $5

In memory of my brother from Pam, $10

In memory of my wife, Charlotte King, from Tony, $20

In memory of Penny and Sally. Love and miss you, $15

In loving memory of my beloved Nonna Norina from your grandson Frankie, $20

From the Dudek and Smith families with love, $25

RECEIVED, $2,120
TOTAL TO DATE, $2,120
STILL NEEDED, $147,880

After the death of baby Ethan Luce at a West Springfield hotel and the severe abuse of 2 other children at a Westfield hotel, the numbers of homeless families living in motels dropped, but that number has grown again.

WEST SPRINGFIELD – The citrus-colored façade with the enclosed swimming pool is misleading.

The five-story Quality Inn on Riverdale Street, flanked by billboards and endless traffic, has ceased to be a stopover for tourists and business travelers passing through Western Massachusetts.

The lobby is swarmed at certain hours with mothers and their children, one of several de facto homeless shelters in desperate times for families – and the state.

The Quality Inn stands as a static, sad existence for dozens of mothers who say they’ve been promised more permanent housing by public officials, but now fear they may be stranded as funding for a component of the state’s HomeBASE program ran out.

"I know it’s better than being on the streets. I know that," says 23-year-old Samantha Claudio. "But, it’s still unsafe for children. There are gang fights. People are selling drugs. I feel uncomfortable here and I don’t want to raise my children in these hallways. So I spend my days when I’m not going to school filling out applications (for employment and assistance). I didn’t think it would be this long."

After the death of a baby, Ethan Luce, at the West Springfield Clarion Hotel and the severe abuse of two other children staying at a Westfield hotel in 2010, the numbers of homeless families living in motels dropped to around 830 after a onetime peak of 1,079. But, despite calls for legislative change, that number has grown again, with Chicopee and Holyoke topping the list of area communities facing high volumes of homeless families living at hotels.

Legislators are still wrangling with the administration and advocates to find out where to tap money for homeless housing and how best it can be spent, since the need is even more overwhelming than anyone knew.

Samantha Claudio

Claudio’s children are 8 months and 22 months old, and they landed at the Quality Inn when she broke up with the children’s father and became homeless in April.

Claudio helped pack a conference room at the hotel with more than a dozen other women when they heard a reporter was coming. They felt telling their stories may offer a rip cord out of a confined but controlled existence – one the streets clearly won’t provide.

The boom in homeless hotel living is a conundrum for well-meaning social welfare officials – and hoteliers, too. There is a seemingly bottomless deficit, an affordable housing crunch, a doubling of homeless families and a surplus of hotel rooms.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick announced the launch of the state-run HomeBASE program on Aug. 1. The program was intended to be a $40 million savior for homeless families to get into permanent housing through the year. But, the need was so great the financial reservoir for the rental-assistance program for new families ran dry by October.

The HomeBASE program was introduced as a sort of red carpet path out of homelessness. It offered $4,000 in "household assistance" annually to eligible families with existing, if unstable, living arrangements (often with family members), and rental assistance at a maximum of $700 per month and capped at $8,000 annually over three years. Tenants are required to pay a certain percentage of their rents.

State officials say they had to pull the rug out from under the rental-assistance component "at the front door," or upon intake, because there were too many families in dire straits.

Providers and hopeful recipients recently were told via a letter from the state Department of Housing and Community Development that by Oct. 28, they would not be eligible for rental assistance if their applications were not squared away.

HomeBASE will no longer offer rental assistance to new families entering the emergency assistance program. But, rental assistance is still available to families transitioning from earlier programs and those already in emergency assistance shelter, officials said. It means the wait for families languishing in hotels will likely get longer.

"There are always lessons learned when you’re doing new programs of this magnitude," said Robert I. Pulster, associate director of housing stabilization for the state Department of Housing & Community Development. "I think there’s a huge need for people to get rental assistance, and we need to somehow calibrate what makes fiscal sense and what makes social policy sense."

State Sen. James T. Welch, D-West Springfield, who has championed an exodus of homeless families from hotels to better housing, says the Legislature approved an additional $19 million to buoy the program until Dec. 10. Legislators, advocates and members of Patrick’s administration are still negotiating the best course of action after that.

Welch and his predecessor, former state Sen. Stephen Buoniconti, D-West Springfield, were among those who in 2010 said they wanted legislation that would end the hotel program within a year and require the state to look to place families in efficiency apartments; Welch was serving as a state representative at the time. An initial version of the legislative reform also included a provision to give the state Department of Housing and Community Development greater powers to regulate the program such as requiring homeless applicants to prove residency in Massachusetts.

"We’re talking about children and families," Welch said. "You don’t want to have people out on the streets, but I think we’re trending in the right direction. The numbers are going down slightly, and it’s my understanding there won’t be any new (long-term) placements in hotels."

William J. Miller, executive director of the Friends of the Homeless shelters for adults in Springfield, believes the so-called "housing first" strategy is a good one, but insufficient to mitigate the homelessness problem.

"We’re finding that the purely housing first strategy isn’t enough because it means a housing voucher for everyone and there are just too many people to give that to. So you need to tease out who are most needy and help them with housing, then help the majority get self-sustaining through employment training."

Nearly all funding for homeless services in employment and training has "virtually gone away" because housing has become the focus, Miller added.

While the HomeBASE program certainly couldn’t be called a failure – it provided assistance to 3,000 families and reduced the number living in hotels by 28 percent – it appears to have fallen far short of its goals.

In Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee, Greenfield and West Springfield, there were 442 families, including 661 children, living in hotels as of Nov. 15, according to state statistics. Statewide, there were 1,299 families and 2,080 children living in hotels.

Chicopee and Holyoke logged the highest numbers of families with 170 and 139 children, and 239 and 183 families, respectively. West Springfield isn’t far behind, with 81 families and 132 children living the Quality Inn, according to the state’s figures.

West Springfield Mayor Edward J. Gibson believes the numbers of homeless living in hotels in various cities is cyclical; he makes his observation based on the 11 years he’s served as mayor.

"Something terrible will happen, then we find 100 people are living in hotels and we get on the state and it’ll dip to 20 or so," Gibson said. "Then, it rears its ugly head again."

Indeed, state figures indicate warehousing homeless families in hotels has been an undulating trend over the past decade.

From 2000 to 2002, there were no families living in hotels, according to the state. However, that number leapt to 521 families in 2003, dipped slightly to 405 in 2004 and plummeted to two in 2005. The following two years, the number remained at zero, then crept up to 66 in 2008, and skyrocketed to 634 and 923 in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The projected number for this year was 855.

The actual numbers proved to be significantly higher, even with HomeBASE in play.

When the program was announced to much fanfare this summer, Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, chairman of the Interagency Council of Homelessness and Housing, said the new approach would sharply reduce costs and largely purge the numbers of families living in hotels and shelters.

"We’re absolutely convinced that this is the way to go, and this is a much more dignified way to help families who find themselves in this situation," Murray said at the time.

Claudio said that, as a girl raised in Holyoke without much money, a hotel existence even seemed glamorous to her initially. But, after having to keep her babies indoors all day and providing them solely with processed, or microwaved, food, she’s rethinking that perspective.

"I don’t want to seem ungrateful. I want to support myself and I’m trying. But this is horrible," said Claudio, who is attending a trade school during the day.

The hotel managers are nice enough to her, Claudio said, although they’ve had to institute something of a militant atmosphere to keep order among a clutch of crammed, unhappy people.

Ron Teji, manager of the Quality Inn, said he empathizes with some of his residents whom he feels may have been fed false promises by the state. But others, he says, do not help themselves.

The Quality Inn has been forced to hire a security guard full-time after a number of violent incidents at the hotel and enforces a litany of rules to maintain order there, according to Teji.

Though they crave security, tenants say they feel they are living in a near-police state at the hotel, which state officials confirm is routine among long-term hotel residents housed by the taxpayers. The rules include that they may not have visitors or be in the hallways, visit other residents’ rooms or cook with unauthorized appliances. They also are subject to weekly room inspections, and a social worker has an office on-site.

"We tell them to clean their rooms. Some will, some won’t," Teji said. "We don’t mind because it’s a business. It’s more work, but it’s a business."

The nightly room rates are slightly below market, but the homeless families provide hotels a steady clientele. State records show the nightly expenditure to house 81 families at the Quality in is $5,670; the average nightly rate is around $70. The state pays a total of $33,314 a night to 10 shelter hotels around Western Massachusetts.

Teji seems kind enough toward the women and offered them a conference room twice when reporters come to visit. He did not, however concede the no visitors in rooms rule when a photographer went to the hotel, but still offers the common room.

Some of the families say the "continental breakfast" went from fruit, eggs, sausage and toast to muffins, orange juice and coffee since they have descended. The pool has been closed for as long as anyone can remember, and the ice machines typically don’t work. The families, many of whom say their tenures at the hotel seem endless, think all of this amounts to scorn.

Eneida Medina with her 2-month-old son, Willianies Rodriguez

Eneida Medina, 27, has for eight months lived in a cramped second-floor room with her husband and two children, a disabled 1-year-old daughter and a 2-month-old son.

The babies sleep in two playpens wedged at the side of the bed. The infant lies listlessly on his parents’ bed for many hours throughout the day because there is essentially nowhere for his mother to take him except for occasional walks in a stroller around the parking lot alongside Route 5 and the exit ramp from Interstate 91.

Lisa Carter, 23, has lived at the Quality Inn since April. The state moved her after her baby died of sudden infant death syndrome that month while she was living at the Econolodge in Chicopee. She wants out for the sake of her 3-year-old son and to banish the constant reminders of her daughter’s death.

"I don’t blame her death on the hotel, but it’s not good for us to be here," said Carter. "I’ve been through a lot. My son’s been through a lot."

Carter said she is number 80 on a state waiting list for subsidized housing, and was told by welfare officials that it could take years for her to obtain an apartment.

Jamme Ortona, 22, and Michael Miranda, 23, have lived at the hotel since February after being evicted from their apartment. They were promised an apartment earlier this month and gleefully packed their things, planning a birthday party for their son and Christmas dinner at their new home – an apartment on Kensington Street in Springfield.

However, on moving day, they were told the landlord had raised the rent and they were forced to stay in the hotel, Ortona said.

"I cried so hard," Ortona said. "This hotel is driving us all insane. We’re arguing all the time. This doesn’t feel like home to us."

Pulster said it is yet unclear how many families will secure permanent housing under the HomeBASE program, versus how many will be left out.