Davies was killed and his partner injured when a portion of the burning building collapsed while they were searching for a missing resident.

Associated Press photoWorcester Fire Chief Gerard Dio, left, appears emotional while facing reporters during a news conference outside a fire station, in Worcester, Thursday. Dio said firefighter Jon Davies was killed and another firefighter injured while they were searching for a possible missing resident when part of a burning structure collapsed on them early Thursday. (Photo by Steven Senne)

WORCESTER – City officials said Friday that the Worcester apartment building in which a veteran firefighter lost his life Thursday had been the subject of three housing complaints and several code violations in the last year.

Jon Davies was killed and his partner injured when a portion of the burning building collapsed while they were searching for a missing resident.

The complaints were to be the subject of a Housing Court hearing later this month.

The building manager, Michael Chan, told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester that the complaints were lodged by disgruntled residents facing eviction for non-payment of rent. He also said he did not feel safe going into the building to fix some of the code violations because of arguments he had with tenants.

The cause of the deadly blaze has not been determined.

It's not clear whether a kidnapping actually occurred, state police said.

Republican file photo

OXFORD - A male and female, sought by police regarding a reported abduction from outside the Walmart here, were at the Oxford station late Friday morning being questioned by investigators.

Initial reports indicated that the female may have been pushed into the pickup by the male at approximately 7:30 a.m. That report prompted state police to issue a bulletin describing the pickup and its occupants.

A release subsequently issued by state police indicates, however, that it’s not clear whether a kidnapping actually occurred.

Oxford Police are investigating the incident, as well as a report that the pickup truck struck a male pedestrian in the Walmart parking lot.

Additional information was not immediately available.

The plan met with resistance at the gathering, with opponents saying a casino could cause traffic and crime problems and destroy the character of the town.

FOXBOROUGH – Hundreds of Foxborough residents packed a planning board meeting to weigh in on a proposal by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Las Vegas casino operator Steve Wynn to build a resort casino near Gillette Stadium.

The plan met with resistance at the gathering Thursday night, with opponents saying a casino could cause traffic and crime problems and destroy the character of the town.

But there were also some calls to support the casino, which Kraft and Wynn say would create thousands of permanent jobs and temporary construction jobs.

The planning board opted not to take an immediate vote on zoning changes that could help the casino proposal. One calls for lifting the town’s 300-foot height limit for buildings.

The state’s new casino law requires the approval of voters in host communities.

Taking exception to Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren's response to the latest ad by Crossroads GPS, the political action committee hit back on Friday, calling the Harvard professor "asleep at the switch."

A still shot taken from the latest Crossroads GPS ad targeting Elizabeth Warren.

Taking exception to Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren's response to the latest ad by Crossroads GPS, the political action committee hit back on Friday, calling the Harvard professor "asleep at the switch."

The ad, released by the special political action committee Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which works closely with Republican strategist Karl Rove, blames Warren for the big bonuses bank executives received from federal bailout money while average citizens were foreclosed upon, following the distribution of monies associated with the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A previous ad by Crossroads GPS tied Warren to the Occupy Wall Street movement and described her as siding with "extreme-left protests."

Following the scathing 32-second video released on Thursday, Warren her campaign struck back.

"Elizabeth was an outspoken critic of the bank bailout and it’s blank check to Wall Street," said Kyle Sullivan, a spokesperson for Warren. "The Wall Street bankers financing these attacks are desperate to stop Elizabeth Warren because she’s worked so hard to stop Wall Street from ripping off middle class families."

In an interview with the Boston Herald, Warren said that Rove along with then President George Bush helped craft the Troubled Asset Relief Program from the beginning, a claim the PAC disputes.

"Professor Warren’s response shows how asleep at the switch she was when the Democrat-led Congress passed the Wall Street bailouts in 2008 and 2009 and put her in charge of overseeing them – more than a year after Karl Rove had left the White House,” Steven Law, president and CEO of Crossroads GPS, said in a statement.

Earlier in the day Thursday, a new U-Mass-Lowell/Boston Herald poll showed Warren was up by a margin of seven percent in her race against incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown.

Late Thursday, Warren took to the airwaves, appearing on MSNBC to discuss the new ad and the Senate campaign.

"I knew that Wall Street was going to come after me with anything they had," Warren said on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. "But it seems like the strategy now is the kitchen sink strategy -- throw anything you can at her."

State prosecutors say Adams is accused of inflating expenses for two films, “The Golden Boys” and “The Lightkeepers,” which were both shot on Cape Cod.

Scene-It? Movie Night: Mega Movies for XBLA and PSN. (PRNewsFoto/Screenlife Games)

BOSTON – A movie director has been charged with inflating expenses in his application for Massachusetts film tax credits, resulting in about $4.7 million in overpayments.

The state attorney general’s office says Daniel Adams was arrested in Boston Thursday night and was expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on Friday on charges of larceny and making a false claim against the commonwealth.

State prosecutors say Adams is accused of inflating expenses for two films, “The Golden Boys” and “The Lightkeepers,” resulting in the overpayments. Both movies were shot on Cape Cod.

The film tax credit allows for a 25 percent credit for certain payroll and production expenses.

Officials say Adams is based in Los Angeles but has ties to Massachusetts. It was not immediately known if he had hired an attorney.

Granby has 147 “school choice” students, said Rodriguez – “and we keep ¤’em!”

3-15-11 Granby - Republican staff photo by Don Treeger- West Street School first grade teacher Colleen LaPointe is being honored Grinspoon teaching award.

GRANBY – Several teaching positions at the Granby Public Schools that were previously cut will be restored in fiscal year 2012, and three part-time special education positions will be added.

Superintendent Isabelina Rodriguez presented the revised budget last week to the Granby School Committee, who approved it.

The revised budget will also allow the department to purchase a new public address system for Granby Junior-Senior High School, said Rodriguez, and a band director will be added.

Positions will be restored in English, technology, art and music, said Rodriguez. Math and physical education positions that had been reduced did not need to be restored due to decreased enrollment, she said.

Rodriguez said she used “almost all” of the district’s reserve funds, as well as all of the “school choice” funds, for the revisions.

When students choose to attend a school outside their district, the home district pays the tuition to the chosen school. Granby has 147 “school choice” students, said Rodriguez – “and we keep ¤’em!”

Also, as she predicted when she presented the Granby School Committee with a budget last spring, the state came through with special education funds that had been temporarily lifted.

Rodriguez said the budget also fluctuates as staff comes and goes.

The special education positions are for ETLs, or evaluation team leaders.

The Granby public schools have 204 “special” students with physical or learning disabilities.

According to Rodriguez and Granby director of pupil services Marisa McCarthy, the LTRs will be responsible for reporting to the state Department of Education on the IEPs, or individual learning plans, for those students.

Following the procedure mandated by the state is necessary for reimbursement of funds spent on special education.

After listening to both sides, the Planning Board wasted little time.

Submitted photo

NORTHAMPTON – Agreeing with neighbors that it was not an appropriate project for the location, the Planning Board unanimously rejected a proposal to put a Cumberland Farms store in the heart of Florence Center.

Under the plan presented by the company, it would have closed the current Cumberland Farms a few blocks away and opened a bigger, 3,600-square-foot convenience store with six gas pumps at the corner of Main and Maple streets, the village’s main intersection. That site is currently the location of a Mobil gas station that has been closed for more than a year.

As described by Peter MacConnell of the Amherst firm Bacon, Wilson, who represented Cumberland Farms at the hearing, the project would have improved the site by closing three of the five curb cuts, creating a pedestrian walkway on one side, and breathing life back into the nearly 30,000-square-foot parcel.

Florence residents weren’t buying that, however. Lucy Longstreth of Main Street, a teacher at the John F. Kennedy Middle School, said she was concerned that increased traffic from the business would affect the safety of students coming home from school.

“That’s the most heavily pedestrian site in the neighborhood,” she said.

Mary Kasper of High Street worried that the bright LED lighting proposed for the project would disturb residents living near the location. A number of residents also objected to the layout of the complex, in which the convenience store would have been set back from the street with the gas pumps and parking between the store and the sidewalk.

“It’s a highway-type business in a downtown location,” said Robert Ross of Keyes Street.

MacConnell said Cumberland Farms was aware that neighbors preferred a project with the main building on the sidewalk but told board members that safety concerns dictated the orientation. According to Massachusetts law, he said, cashiers must have a direct line of sight to the gas pumps. Cumberland Farms also needs to have a single entrance because of potential thefts, he said.

After listening to both sides, the Planning Board wasted little time. Noting that the board encountered problems with a similar complex on King Street, which is zoned for Highway Business, chairman Stephen Gilson said, “If we can’t make something like this fit on King Street, I can’t see putting it in the middle of Florence.”

Earlier in the evening, the Zoning Board of Appeals asked for more time to consider a request for permission to move the 13 parking spaces on the lot. Although parking between the sidewalk and the business is not allowed under current zoning, MacConnell argued that the use is grandfathered under the previous zoning regulations. The issue is now moot, however.

MacConnell told both boards that Cumberland Farms’ agreement to purchase the parcel runs out later this month. Maintaining that it was not a threat, MacConnell told the Planning Board that the result of its decision will be the reopening of a less-attractive gas station at the site.

This year, the Senior Center is collecting money and gift certificates so seniors can buy their own food.

SOUTH HADLEY – Every year, people in South Hadley donate food to the needy in their community at Christmas. This year they are doing it again, and the system has been fine-tuned.

In the past, the Council on Aging at the Senior Center has collected nonperishable food for the elderly and delivered it in “Christmas Baskets.” This year, they will not be collecting food, but rather money and gift certificates for the recipient to buy food.

The reason: Senior citizens may have special dietary restrictions, and it’s hard to guess who is on a low-salt regimen, for example, and who has lactose intolerance.

Donations of cans and boxes of nonperishable food are still welcome, but this year they are being collected by the young people of South Hadley.

The National Honor Society, the Youth Commission and the Leos (junior branch of the Lions Club) will lead the effort to collect items for the South Hadley Food Pantry, which was founded at United Methodist Church only last winter and serves about 100 families.

Betty Czitrom, 17, a senior at South Hadley High School, is chairing the volunteers. She was inspired to do it, she said, because she worked at the Food Pantry last summer and made many friends there.

“Talking to the clients was a great experience,” she said.

She and other youthful volunteers, including Julia Duda of the National Honor Society and Katelyn LaBrie of the Youth Commission, will soon be dropping off thousands of paper grocery bags at homes throughout South Hadley.

Each bag will be stapled with a request to fill the bag with food and have it ready for the volunteers to pick up on a certain date.

Adult volunteers will drive kids around for the pick-up. “We have a lot of routes,” said Czitrom.

Nonperishable food can also be dropped off by Dec. 15 at South Hadley High, Smith Middle and Mosier Elementary Schools; Fire Stations in Districts 1 and 2; the Gaylord Library, and the South Hadley Public Library – which will forgive fines on overdue books for a food donation.

Money or gift certificates for senior citizens can go to the South Hadley Council on Aging, 45 Dayton St., South Hadley, 01075, with a note indicating what the donation is for.

In addition to nonperishable goods, the Food Pantry also appreciates financial donations for items that are in short supply. Checks should be made payable to “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” and sent to the Food Pantry, c/o United Methodist Church, 30 Carew St., South Hadley, Mass., 01075.

Sampson downplayed the funeral board’s findings, saying that the business will continue regardless of the outcome of his case.

File photo by David Molnar / The RepublicanJohn N. Sampson, left, president of the T.P. Sampson Co., is seen in this 2003 photo with Ann Sampson Bushy and Eileen Sampson at their Chapel of the Acres Funeral Home in Springfield. The state is attempting to revoke John Sampson's license to operate.

SPRINGFIELD – Citing a pattern of financial misconduct, state funeral home regulators are moving to revoke the license of John N. Sampson, jeopardizing his future with the 131-year-old T.P. Sampson’s funeral business.

The state Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers voted to revoke Sampson’s license in January after finding 481 violations in pre-paid funeral contracts with more than 100 customers.

The ruling is being challenged by Sampson, whose license was reinstated pending a decision on an appeal he filed in Palmer District Court.

If the appeal fails, the Wilbraham resident will be barred from playing any role in the operation of the region’s oldest family-run funeral company, which has parlors on Liberty Street and Tinkham Road.

Sampson downplayed the funeral board’s findings this week, and said the business founded by his great-grandfather will continue regardless of the outcome of his case.

“These are contractual issues; it’s about signatures and paperwork,” said Sampson, adding that nobody is disputing the quality of his funeral services.

In its 27-page decision, the funeral home board ruled that T.P. Sampson’s had improperly signed and amended contracts with customers, failed to provide fully-itemized bills, and misused $77,000 in customer funds that was supposed to be used to buy insurance.

Statewide, 26 funeral directors have had licenses revoked since 2005, less than 2 percent of the 2,289 directors practicing in the state. Eight cases involved pre-paid contracts, an area of heightened regulatory scrutiny in Massachusetts and other states.

The company’s lawyer, James F. Martin, of Springfield, says John Sampson had unintentionally violated some state regulations governing pre-paid contracts, which allow customers to pay funeral expenses in advance.

But, the attorney added, revoking his client’s license is too severe a punishment, especially since Sampson had no previous disciplinary history and the disputed cases represented a small fraction of the overall business.

“This involves one tenth of 1 percent of the files” reviewed by the state, Martin said. “The sanction is extremely disproportionate.”

Sampson blames a former business manager for mishandling the $77,000 kept by the funeral home instead of being used to buy funeral insurance. The money – which Sampson said represented commissions on 103 funeral contracts – has since been applied to its intended purpose, Sampson said.

The state action against Sampson’s comes four months after the director of the Northampton-based Drozdal Funeral Home had his license suspended for mishandling customers’ funds, holding services without proper permits and other violations.

Karol Drozdal, who operates a funeral chapel in South Deerfield, agreed last month to surrender his license.

As Sampson’s case was before the state funeral home board, a dozen well-known officials, from Hampden County, including Sheriff Michael J. Ashe, state Sen. Gale D. Candaras, D-Wilbraham, and former state Sen. Stephen J. Buoniconti, D-West Springfield, wrote letters in his support.

The board’s decision was handed down on Jan. 25.

Jason Lefferts, a spokesman for Division of Professional Licensure, said T.P. Sampson’s business can remain open as long as a new funeral director in put in place.

“As the final decision details, the board found serious issues with Mr. Sampson’s handling of pre-need money, and the board maintains its decision to revoke Mr. Sampson’s license is appropriate,” Lefferts said.

Sampson's appeal is on file in Palmer District Court, but there has been little action in the case because the board’s lawyer has been out on medical leave.

The next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 13.

For the first time, the state’s contribution of tax credits will exceed the amount of federal credits used within the state

06.19.2008 | HOLYOKE - An American flag flies from a porch in the Churchill Homes project. Funded in part by a Hope VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Churchill Homes replaced several blocks of deteriorating, inner-city public housing apartments with single-family homes and rental duplexes. Despite being marketed to low-income, first-time homebuyers, Churchill Homes has weathered the mortgage crisis with only one foreclosure.

By ANDY METZGER

BOSTON - The same stock market crash that deflated retirement accounts and siphoned value out of real estate also walloped government-subsidized housing developments.

That market is coming back, in Massachusetts at least, and starting next year the state will double its funding for low-income housing, in the form of tax credits.

For the first time, the state’s contribution of tax credits will exceed the amount of federal credits used within the state – at least by one metric.

“This will put people to work and provide housing,” Rep. Kevin Honan, D-Brighton, said before the increase was passed by the state Legislature in an October spending bill. “It’s a wonderful thing that Massachusetts is doing here, stepping up to the plate on housing.”

The federal government provides $14.2 million in federal tax credits in Massachusetts, according to Novogradac & Company, a certified public accountant company. That’s compared to the $10 million the state has provided in recent years.

As part of the supplemental budget passed in October, the state will increase its tax credits from $10 million to $20 million for two years, ending June 30, 2014, meaning that for those two years the state awards will surpass the federal awards.

Without the increase, all of the tax credits would have gone towards state matching funds for only public housing redevelopment efforts in South Boston and Taunton, according to Citizens Housing and Planning Association.

With the increase, according to the association, private investment will increase and an estimated 25 developments, 1,200 housing units and 1,224 jobs are expected to advance. Sean Caron, CHAPA’s director of public policy, said demand outpaces supply for tax credits by a four to one margin and Caron said he expects the developments will advance after a competitive process.

Caron said constituent concerns over rental costs helped generate support for the bill.

“A lot of legislators are really seeing how much rents are rising thin their district and just how tight the rental market is,” he said.

Since 1986, most large affordable housing developments throughout the country have been funded by banks and other major companies seeking federal tax breaks. In 1999, the state launched its own tax credit program.

“Before ‘86, really all of the federal affordable housing programs were classic, government programs where the government gave grants or subsidized loans directly to developers,” said Mark Curtiss, managing director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership. The funding change 25 years ago, “imposed a private market discipline” on a program that had previously lacked oversight, Curtiss said.

The way the program works is developers compete for tax credits, and once they have those credits the developers seek investment from large corporations, which stand to gain those tax breaks by investing in the housing projects, Curtiss said.

Government inspectors follow up to see that the housing is built on time and that the units are going to qualified recipients, Curtiss said. Those tax credits are on the hook for 15 years, and they can be taken away if the project doesn’t meet standards, he said.

“They are in it for the 15 years that they have to be in it, and then they want to get out of it,” Curtiss said, typically transferring the property to the affordable housing developer that the company partnered with.

Tax credits are the largest resource for developing affordable housing in Massachusetts, but because of their reliance on private investment they are subject to market forces.

“That market was devastated in 2008 after the Lehman collapse,” said Curtiss. “There was nobody to buy those tax credits.”

A total of 31 projects in Massachusetts that had received the tax credits lost their investors and lay fallow until federal stimulus incentives revived the market, Curtiss said.

Before the 2008 crash, investors such as Bank of America and TD Bank would pay 80 or 90 percent of a tax credit’s value. After the crash, those tax credits were only fetching about 60 or 70 percent of their value, Curtiss said. When the prices dropped, other investors such as Google, Verizon and Liberty Mutual Insurance started investing in affordable housing, collecting the discounted tax credits, Curtiss said.

While tax credits are at the mercy of the market, they are less vulnerable to the whims of politics than grants and other means of government funding. Tax credits are deferred revenue not appropriations, meaning the dollars never make it into the state treasury.

In 1999, when Paul Cellucci was governor, the state replicated the federal government’s low-income housing tax credit program, though at a lower rate. The state awards tax credits that have a five-year term while the federal tax credits last 10 years.

The market for those tax credits has picked back up, so investors are paying around 85 percent of what the credits are worth in tax savings, Curtiss said.

Even with more valuable tax credits available, competition among developers should be fierce, Curtiss said.

“The strongest, most public-oriented projects are usually the ones that get funded… It’s so competitive that it will very often take a developer two or three funding rounds,” Curtiss said. “It’s really a reflection of how strong the needs are.”

The defendant pleaded guilt to robbery, conspiracy and firearms possession.

MassLive.comJury selection remains a controversial process.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.) – A Springfield, Mass. woman has pleaded guilty to charges she was a lookout in a fatal 2010 robbery outside a Rhode Island bank.

Federal prosecutors said Friday that 33-year-old Kelley Lajoie of Springfield pleaded guilty to robbery, conspiracy and firearms possession during a crime of violence.

Prosecutors say Lajoie acted as a lookout during the robbery of gas station manager David Main. They say she also provided information by cell phone about Main’s movements. Prosecutors say Lajoie was pressured to be a lookout by co-defendants Jason Pleau, of Providence, R.I., and Jose Santiago, also of Springfield. They say she and Santiago shared about $6,500 from the robbery.

Pleau is accused of killing Main. He is in a legal tug-of-war over whether he’ll be tried in state or federal court, where he could face the death penalty.

Army slashing 8,700 jobs as budget cuts begin, Stranded Nome man survives 3 days in cold eating frozen beer and snow, and more

AP Photo/Charles DharapakJoint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey sings "Christmas in Killarney" after speaking about "Security and Partnership in an Age of Austerity at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington, Friday, Dec. 9, 2011.

• Planners reject Cumberland Farms in Florence [Gazettenet.com]


• Valley Jazz Network gets area joints jumping, promotes performances [Amherst Bulletin]


• Pittsfield man guilty of animal cruelty [BerkshireEagle.com]


• The latest pictures from Occupy Boston [Boston.com]


• Gen. Martin Dempsey knows how to sing a tune [WashingtonPost.com]


• 13-Year-Old Girl Charged After Allegedly Distributing Sleeping Aid To Classmates [Philadelphia.CBSLocal.com]


• Army slashing 8,700 jobs as budget cuts begin[WashingtonPost.com]


• Stranded Nome man survives 3 days in cold eating frozen beer and snow [ADN.com]



CNN Exclusive: Taliban attack caught on tape by Marine Corps aameraman

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Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., a Democrat from Pittsfield, is taking notes from history as he crafts his campaign against Democratic Congressman Richard Neal. Watch video

Pittsfield native Andrea Nuciforo Jr.

SPRINGFIELD - If a state politician working to make his name in the United States Congress doesn't learn from the failures of those who came before him, his campaign will be in trouble.

Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., a Democrat from Pittsfield, knows this cliche to be true. And he is taking notes from history as he crafts his campaign against Democratic Congressman Richard Neal.

Nuciforo served in the State Senate from 1997 to 2007. He said that he had accomplished many of his goals when he decided to step out of public service four years ago, but has since decided to take things to the next level.

In regards to Democrat Martha Coakley's failed attempt to defeat Republican Scott Brown in the 2010 special election fill the vacancy left by Edward Kennedy's death, Nuciforo said that Coakley was more influential in the outcome than Brown was.

(AP Photo/Steven Senne)Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley concedes after losing a special election in Boston, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, held to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy.

"I know Scott Brown. I sat in the Senate chamber with him for ten years," Nuciforo said. "If you had to rank from 1-to-40 those that are most likely to least likely to get elected to the U.S. Senate, Scott Brown would have been number 40. And when he pulled it off, I don't think that said a lot about Scott, who is a great guy. It said a lot about Martha. Watching Martha was like watching a slow-motion train wreck. You could see every mistake she made along the way."

Nuciforo said that he plans on paying much more attention to voters across his district in contrast to Coakley, who was mostly absent in the western half of the state during her Senate bid.

He also said that even though he will likely be outspent by Neal, money doesn't change everything.

"(Coakley) had a boat-load of money too. She was really ringing the bell in Boston with the insurance and legal companies," Nuciforo said. "She was very aggressive about it and did well. But in the end, it wasn't enough."

Nuciforo believes that Brown will have a more difficult road to get back to the nation's capitol than when he was first elected in 2010.

"I think Elizabeth Warren is terrific. Scott is not going to face a challenger like (Coakley) this time," he said. "He is going to face someone who I think is a much more capable candidate and I think that is the difference."

The Pittsfield Democrat said he will run his campaign against Neal online and throughout the recently-recreated district.

"I guarantee you won't see me wasting time between now and September. You will see us work," he said. "This is going to be simply the best online and social media campaign that anybody has seen in Western Massachusetts."

For more about Nuciforo's campaign, visit his website.

The judge agreed that it would send the wrong message to send Lally to a tougher prison than DiMasi or co-defendant Richard McDonough.

File photo / Associated PressJoseph Lally is seen oustside of the U.S. District Court in Boston in October. Lally, a former software salesman who cooperated with federal prosecutors, testified during the May corruption trial of former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and cooperated with federal prosecutors in exchange for a potentially lighter penalty. (Photo by Charles Krupa)

BOSTON – A key prosecution witness in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has won his bid to serve his 18-month sentence in the minimum-security prison at Devens, Mass.

Joseph Lally was originally assigned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was slated to cook and clean for high-security inmates awaiting trial.

Lally asked U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf to recommend he serve his sentence in a minimum-security camp closer to home. The judge agreed, saying it would send the wrong message if Lally were assigned to tougher prison conditions than DiMasi and co-defendant Richard McDonough.

Lally is scheduled to report to prison Monday.

DiMasi was convicted of using his clout as speaker to steer two state contracts to the software firm Cognos in exchange for payments of $65,000.

As he seeks the GOP nomination, the former House speaker frequently combines traditional political campaigning with the sales job for his books and films that has earned him millions.

File photo / Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in the company of his wife, Callista Gingrich, finishes signing a copy of his book "A Nation Like No Other" as he greets supporters during a book signing event at Books-A-Million in Naples, Fla., last month. (Photo by Erik Kellar)

WASHINGTON – Newt Gingrich loves selling himself – both as a presidential hopeful and as a for-profit author.

As he seeks the GOP nomination, the former House speaker frequently combines traditional political campaigning with the sales job for his books and films that has earned him millions. As his rivals on Friday scheduled busy days with voters in early nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich canceled his single public event: a book signing in the nation’s capital.

Gingrich, enjoying a surge in the polls just a month before the first contests are held, prides himself on his non-traditional campaign style. It isn’t clear whether it will pay off politically. But it certainly has not hurt his own income.

Gingrich’s personal financial disclosure form shows that he and wife, Callista, reported between $500,000 and $1 million in assets from Gingrich Productions, the couple’s media company that produces books and films. The filings also list a promissory note worth between $5 million and $25 million owed to the production company, records show, although details of that asset are unclear.

The July filings list Gingrich’s income and assets since early 2010, including rental income, investment dividends and capital gains.

Gingrich has turned over the production company to his wife as he works to build support for his White House bid. Yet he still promotes their films, often hosting screenings on the sidelines during conservative conferences.

Afterward, aides sell DVDs of the programs and their companion books.

It is a routine for Gingrich. He delivers a rousing speech, as he did at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Orlando, Fla., this summer; a short time later, he and his wife are at a table signing freshly purchased copies of their books. The same thing happened last week at events in South Carolina.

It is all legal, said former Federal Elections Commission chairman Dave Mason.

“The basic rule is that he can do both things, as long as he doesn’t use any revenues from the book tour to subsidize the campaign, and as long as he doesn’t use campaign funds in a way that benefits him personally,” said Mason.

The only hiccup is logistics, as it was on Friday. In a statement released through the campaign, the news stand that was hosting the Gingriches cited security concerns and canceled the event.

For Gingrich, a former history professor, the books and films are a point of pride, and he seems programmed to promote them.

When asked last week about Russia during a town hall-style meeting in South Carolina, he noted that he made a film about the Ronald Reagan-Margaret Thatcher-Pope John Paul II nexus that he posits helped bring down the Soviet Union. Any mention of “American exceptionalism” earns a mention of his movie on the subject of America’s special role. And his film and book about Reagan seldom go unmentioned as he hails the former president as a role model.

“I’ve done a movie on Ronald Reagan called ‘Rendezvous with Destiny,’” Gingrich told CNBC this week. “Callista and I did. We’ve done a book on Ronald Reagan. You know, I campaigned with Reagan. I first met with Reagan in ‘74. I’m very happy to talk about Ronald Reagan.”

Even when asked about real estate mogul Donald Trump’s upcoming debate for GOP hopefuls, Gingrich can’t help but plug the connection: Trump appeared in a Gingrich film.

At times, there seems little distinction between his campaigning and bookselling.

For instance, before a one-on-one debate with then-contender Herman Cain outside of Houston, Texas, the Gingriches signed copies of their books for fans who lined up to buy an autographed copy just outside the venue’s doors. Nearby, a volunteer donned an elephant costume and stood in for the star of Callista’s children’s book, “Ellis the Elephant.”

For Gingrich, the campaign sometimes takes on the feeling of an extended book tour.

“At 8:30 tomorrow morning, we’re going to be at the Westin at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and we’re going to be talking about jobs and the economy,” Gingrich told a radio interviewer last month. “And then after the town hall meeting, Callista is going to be signing her new book, the New York Times bestseller, ‘Sweet Land Of Liberty.’ ... And I’ll be signing my new novel, ‘The Crater,’ about the Civil War, and a book on American exceptionalism called ‘A Nation Like No Other.’”

Gingrich, meanwhile, continues to run a campaign perhaps like no other.

Warren and Brown's campaigns both denounced the latest negative ad released by the Karl Rove-backed Crossroads GPS, although Brown added a barb for the Harvard professor.

File photos | The Republican (Brown) and The Associated Press (Warren)U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., left, and Elizabeth Warren, who is running for the Democratic Senate nomination.

Democratic Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren and rival Republican Sen. Scott Brown's campaign have both denounced the latest negative ad released by the Karl Rove backed Crossroads GPS political action committee, although Brown added a barb for the Harvard professor.

“Senator Brown has made it clear that he wishes third-party groups on both sides would keep their negative ads out of Massachusetts," said Jim Barnett, Brown's campaign manager. "Regrettably, Professor Warren has cheered on negative attack ads against Scott Brown, and refuses to join his call for outside groups to stop interfering.”

Warren said previously that she believes "a blanket notion that nobody talks except the two candidates is not within the spirit of how democratic elections work."

Brown, however, called for all outside groups to keep out of the Senate race in Massachusetts.

The latest ad released by Crossroads GPS, a conservative group backed by Republican strategist Rove, blames Warren for the big bonuses bank executives received from federal bailout money while average citizens were foreclosed upon, following the distribution of monies associated with the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A previous ad by Crossroads GPS tied Warren to the Occupy Wall Street movement and described her as siding with "extreme-left protests."

"I expected Wall St. to throw everything they had at me in this race; I helped found the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to curb their abuses, after all," Warren said on her Facebook page. "But I never did imagine they'd fund an ad attacking me as being their own ally."

Warren stuck back at Rove and Crossroads GPS on Thursday following the video's release and on Friday issued a video of her own.

“We must be doing something right if Karl Rove is attacking us. And boy is he ever - with ridiculous attack ads financed by Wall Street,” Warren said in the video. “Let’s be clear, Karl Rove isn’t just attacking me. He and his buddies are attacking all of us in Massachusetts who want a level playing field for middle class families.”

Both ads can be seen on MassLive.com by clicking here.

Judge said two men carried out a callous, vicious attack.

The Republican / File photo

SPRINGFIELD – Hampden Superior Court Judge Tina S. Page told two 21-year-old men Friday their actions were “callous, vicious” when they stabbed and beat a 62-year-old East Longmeadow man as they robbed his home.

Page accepted Assistant District Attorney Richard B. Morse’s recommendation and sentenced both Andre Blanks and Nikko Rivera, both of Springfield, to a 5-8-year state prison sentence followed by three years probation.

Morse said the sentence recommendation would have been in double digits if the victim had not died in May of this year, from causes not directly related to the Aug. 8, 2010, crime.

Morse said because the man was not alive to testify at trial about exactly what happened and what was said by the men in the house he was not confident he could prove the charge of armed burglary and assault.

Under questioning from Page as to whether the attack was random, Morse said Rivera had been in the home before but he did not specify in court how that came about.

The victim’s wife, speaking to Page in court, said she believes the attack on her husband, a disabled veteran of the Vietnam War, contributed to his death. She said her husband had been unable to sleep, lost his appetite and became fearful of everything around him after the attack.

Blanks and Rivera had both pleaded guilty late last month to armed robbery while masked, unarmed burglary, assault and battery on a person over 60 years old, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and intimidation of a witness.

Morse said it appeared the two men, who had disabled the telephone in the house, expected the house to be empty.

He said the victim, who was bleeding from his mouth and other locations on his body, went across the street to get a neighbor to call police.

Page said she grew up during the Vietnam Warn and everyone she knew who went to Vietnam to fight came back changed mentally or physically. She said for a veteran of that war to suffer the way he did during the attack by Blanks and Rivera was terrible.

Morse said the defendants hurt the man in “one of the most malevolent, violent ways” short of death.

James J. Bregianes, Blanks lawyer, described the childhood Blanks went through, including being the son of a drug-addicted mother and being temporarily put in the care of state social services when he was found in the home at three months old when police raided the house and his mother had left.

Blanks' grandmother took care of Blanks and two siblings for a time, but then his mother was allowed to have the children back, but she died in 1995, Bregianes said.

The storm debris pickups will end Monday, while season collection of leaves and yard waste is due to shut down for the winter on Dec. 16.

SPRINGFIELD - Monday is the final day for city residents to leave out tree limbs and other debris from the late October snowstorm out on the tree belt for collection by the city, the Department of Public Works announced.

The end of the special debris pickup should not be confused with the end of the city's seasonal program of removing leaves and yard waste. The yard waste collections will end on Friday, Dec. 16 and not resume until spring.

The DPW is again asking residents who park on city streets to avoid blocking tree debris that has been placed on tree belts for collection. Tree debris cannot be collected where vehicles are parked in front of the debris and the truck collection equipment cannot reach it.

Tree branch debris can be placed on city tree belts and along the edge of the street on residential properties (for houses without tree belts), and it will be picked up in the coming days. Residents are being asked not to block sidewalks or the street with tree debris.

Contractors hired by residents are responsible for their own debris removal.

Residents are encouraged to contact their homeowners’ insurance company for questions about insurance coverage regarding large trees and branches on private property.

The jury deliberated over the span of five days before returning the verdict against Joshua Komisarjevsky, who will join his accomplice Steven Hayes on Connecticut’s death row.

Joshua Komisarjevsky

NEW HAVEN, Conn.– A jury condemned a Connecticut man to death Friday for killing a woman and her two daughters during a night of terror inside their suburban home, rejecting defense attorneys’ request to spare his life in light of the abuse he suffered as a boy.

The jury deliberated over the span of five days before returning the verdict against Joshua Komisarjevsky, who will join his accomplice Steven Hayes on Connecticut’s death row. Komisarjevsky stood rigidly with his arms behind his back and had no visible reaction.

The two paroled burglars tormented a family of four in the affluent New Haven suburb of Cheshire before killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and leaving her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, to die in a fire.

The only survivor, Dr. William Petit, was beaten with a baseball bat and tied up but managed to escape. He appeared calm as the verdict was pronounced, his eyes blinking rapidly and his hand clenched in a fist on the seat in front of him. He later bowed his head and closed his eyes.

The sentencing verdict concluded two lengthy trials that subjected jurors to grim evidence including charred beds, rope used to tie up the family and autopsy photos. The crime in 2007 drew comparisons to the one described in Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” led to the defeat of a bill to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut and sparked tougher state laws for repeat offenders and home invasions.

In closing arguments, a prosecutor said the two men created “the ultimate house of horrors” by inflicting extreme psychological and physical pain on the victims that amounted to torture.

“It was shockingly brutal. It was evil. It was vicious,” prosecutor Gary Nicholson said.

Before the verdict was announced, defense attorney Walter Bansley said his client was prepared for a death sentence.

“He’s very accepting,” Bansley said. “He’s been realistic from the beginning and he understood that public sentiment is very much against him.”

Komisarjevsky will join 10 other men on Connecticut’s death row. The state has executed only one man since 1960, and the 31-year-old Komisarjevsky will likely spend years, if not decades, in prison.

The jury of seven women and five men, the same panel that convicted Komisarjevsky, sentenced him to death on each of six capital felony counts.

The jurors heard 20 days of testimony from defense witnesses including psychologists, his parents and his sister. In arguing for a life sentence, his lawyers said his ultra-religious family never got Komisarjevsky proper psychological help after he was repeatedly sexually abused as a child by his foster brother.

“The only option he ever had was to go through life damaged,” Bansley said in his closing argument.

Hayes was convicted last year of raping and strangling Hawke-Petit and killing the girls. The girls died of smoke inhalation after they were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline before the house was set ablaze. Komisarjevsky was convicted Oct. 13 of the killings and of sexually assaulting Michaela.

Komisarjevsky admitted in an audiotaped confession played for the jury that he spotted Hawke-Petit and 11-year-old Michaela at a supermarket and followed them home. After putting his daughter to bed, he and Hayes returned to the Petit house in the middle of the night to rob it.

In the morning, Hayes brought Hawke-Petit to a bank to withdraw money, promising her no one would be hurt if she complied. Komisarjevsky took cell phone pictures of Michaela while she and Hayes were out.

The men, who blamed each other for escalating the crime, were caught fleeing in the family’s car.

Komisarjevsky did not testify during his trial but objected unsuccessfully to an effort by his attorneys to play a videotaped interview of his 9-year-old daughter. Speaking outside the presence of the jury, he said he didn’t want his daughter to feel compelled to help “one of the most hated people in America.”

His lawyers said they did not believe it was in his best interest to take the stand.

“The severity of his damage would have been obvious and it would have alienated him from the jury,” Bansley said.

The defense focused heavily on the family’s evangelical Christian religion and on Komisarjevsky’s mental health. The family’s church believed that the end of the world was near and that outsiders were potential agents of the devil, according to testimony.

Komisarjevsky told a defense psychologist that he was repeatedly sexually abused by his foster brother from ages 4 to 6 and burned with a cigarette. He also said he was raped as a teenager by someone he trusted.

Prosecutors said those claims emerged years later when he faced prison time for 19 nighttime residential burglaries committed a decade ago.

Komisarjevsky was hospitalized when he was 15 after setting a vacant gas station on fire. He was having homicidal thoughts about his father and had upside-down crosses on his arms and a marking declaring Jesus is dead, according to a hospital evaluation. The hospital wanted to put him on Prozac and other treatment, but his parents were uncomfortable with medication and sent him to a religion-based treatment program in Vermont, where he claimed to hear voices telling him to kill himself.

Komisarjevsky also claimed as a teenager to have seen a demon with glowing eyes in his room. His mother called church leaders to intervene and pray to remove the demon.

Komisarjevsky’s sister testified that he sexually abused her for years.

He suffered from a mood disorder since he was about 9 that included bouts of profound depression, according to a defense psychiatrist.

Prosecutors emphasized that Komisarjevsky’s parents provided him a good home, mentors, vacations, values and mechanical skills he would later use in the construction trade. They said Komisarjevsky’s rape claims emerged years later when he faced prison time for 19 nighttime residential burglaries he committed a decade ago.

Jurors were flooded with photos of Komisarjevsky as a baby, young boy and with his daughter. Prosecutors objected and at one point Judge Jon Blue suggested it was “overkill.”

The defense tried to show that Komisarjevsky has redeeming qualities, noting he won custody of his daughter when he was briefly out of prison, did well at a construction job and was known to volunteer to help others as a teen who toured with a Christian singing group.

His family and other witnesses described him as remorseful and in shock over his role in the crime. Prosecutors tried to raise doubts about his remorse, noting he blamed Petit, the only survivor, for not doing more to help his family even though Komisarjevsky had beaten him with a bat and tied him up.

Marx, President of the New York City Public Library, lost his license for six months, was fined $500 and ordered to attend alcohol counseling.

Republican file photoAnthony Marx, left, is shown here awarding an honorary degree at the 2011 Amherst College commencement. Marx pleaded guilty to drunken driving in New York City on Friday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Amherst College president Anthony Marx, now head of the New York Public Library, admitted Friday he was driving drunk when he backed into a parked car in Harlem.

Anthony Marx pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated. It's a misdemeanor.

He was fined $500 and ordered to attend alcohol counseling and a driving program. His driver's license will be revoked for six months.

His lawyer, Daniel Parker, declined to comment. Marx has said he deeply regrets embarrassing his family and the library. He became its president in July.

Marx was arrested last month. Authorities said his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

A library spokeswoman says the institution is satisfied the case has been resolved.

The library was founded in 1895.

Marx, the 18th president in the history of 189-year-old Amherst College, stepped down in June after 8 years to take over the New York Public Library post.