UMass exhibit highlights the early days of football when it Massachusetts Agricultural College.

AMHERST – It’s more than a game.

Football is a tradition at the University of Massachusetts that is more than a century old.

With the UMass football program in transition, archivists wanted to provide people with a look at the program’s past – a heritage that dates to 1878 when the land-grant school was known as the Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Through Jan. 3, visitors can see relics of that history at “Saturday’s Rivals: Football Memories from the ‘Aggie Eleven of 1879’ to the MAC of 2011.”

The exhibit is on the lower level of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at UMass.

The UMass football program will join the elite Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Mid-American Conference in the coming year.

The exhibit features photos of those early teams that hardly look like a modern-day football team – there’s no padding, and their uniforms look more like long johns, according to curator Anne Moore.

Besides photos, there are programs, ticket stubs, drawings by Jim Trelease, a member of the UMass Class of 1963 who went onto a career at an artist and cartoonist for the Springfield Daily News and more recently as author of “Read-Aloud Handbook for Parents and Teacher.”

The exhibit only features two pieces of equipment – a pair of old cleats and a soft “helmet” which looks more like a hat. Most of the equipment had been sold off to raise money, according to Moore, so those were the only two pieces available.

But there’s still plenty of history to display.

In 1904, Dartmouth College graduate, Matthew Washington Bullock, the first African-American to play football at Dartmouth and the second to play in the Ivy League, was named head football coach. He was the first African-American to be named head coach at a mostly white college, according to the exhibit.

In 1947 as Massachusetts Agricultural College became Massachusetts State College, the Yankee Conference was formed by the six land-grant institutions in New England, including University of Connecticut, University of Maine, Rhode Island State College, University of New Hampshire, and the University of Vermont. At that time the UMass team went from being the Aggies to the Redmen.

And there’s a 1964 program cover depicting a red man lording over a terrier as UMass was taking on Boston University. In 1972, the team became the Minutemen. The name change came after a group of American Indians from New York wrote a letter to the UMass administration asking if it was aware of the defamatory connotations of the word Redmen and if it could be curtailed.

In 1997, the Yankee Conference was taken over by the Atlantic 10 Football Conference, with UMass-Amherst having won more league titles 17 and games 160 than any other conference member.

With the changes to the program, Moore said she wanted to focus on the earlier history than the modern.

The display does not contain one key piece of recent UMass history. It was put up before Charlie Molnar was tapped to replace head coach Kevin Morris, who was released from his contact last month.

Hubbard Park is approximately 38 acres, and UniFirst is seeking to buy 0.6 acres for $280,000.

View full sizeMap provided by UniFirst

SPRINGFIELD – City officials are considering a proposal to sell an approximate half-acre piece of Hubbard Park in Indian Orchard to UniFirst Corp., for $280,000, sought by the company for a long-desired expansion of its parking lot.

The city is legally required to find a “replacement” for the lost parkland, and has done so by obtaining a gift of land from a different company, Solutia Inc., also of Indian Orchard, city officials said. Solutia has agreed to give the city its private park on Page Boulevard, known as Solutia Park and also known as Plastics Park, officials said.

The City Council has a special meeting Monday, at 8 p.m., at City Hall, to consider the park deal with UniFirst, which is an industrial laundry company with 140 employees in Springfield. The deal will also need approval from the mayor and the state Legislature.

“We’re very excited,” said Patrick J. Sullivan, the city’s director of parks, buildings and recreation management. “One, we are retaining a business in the city of Springfield. Two, we are graciously accepting land to ensure it stays a park that Solutia kept, and three, we are going to be able to make much needed improvements to Hubbard Park due to the purchase of the land.”

Hubbard Park is approximately 38 acres, and UniFirst is seeking to buy 0.6 acres. The company, located at 295 Parker St., abuts the park.

Under the proposed deal, UniFirst agrees to pay the city $200,000 for the cost of the parcel and for parking lot repairs at Hubbard Park. In addition, it agrees to pay $80,000 for improvements to Solutia Park.

It also agrees to construct a retaining wall and buffer between its parking lot and Hubbard Park, and agrees to plant at least 80 saplings at the park to replace trees felled by the parking lot expansion.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno also praised the plan, saying it will benefit the business, both parks, and the neighborhood.

The company will be able to expand from 75 parking spaces to approximately 115 spaces, said Michael R. Fuller, project manager for UniFirst. There is no other way to expand parking due to tight space and a railroad boundary, he said.

“We are just kind of splitting at the seams with parking,” Fuller said. “Cars are stuffed everywhere they possibly can be put, and it makes it difficult to navigate tractor-trailers.”

The Indian Orchard Citizens Council supported the park land transfer in the past, and it has also gained approvals from the Park Commission, Conservation Commission and Planning Board, and the National Parks Service, officials said.

“We think it’s a win-win for us and the city,” Fuller said. “We have been here almost 80 years. It is a family-owned company and we want to be good corporate citizens.”

“Yes, we need the parking but we are also looking at getting it in such a way that benefits UniFirst and the city of Springfield,” Fuller said.

Sullivan said the city will use the funds from UniFirst as matching funds for state grant money being pursued. The local and state funds will target the parking lot improvements needed at Hubbard Park along with other needed improvements, he said.

The Park Commission determined that the loss of the land at Hubbard “will not have a deleterious impact on the operation, activity, and availability of Hubbard Park to the public, that no specific recreation resources facilities, activities or opportunities will be impacted,” the agreement states.

The agreement will be submitted in the form of a home rule bill, needing approval from the Legislature.

The Park Commission accepted the gift of Solutia Park, which has an existing baseball/softball field, basketball court, pavilion and restrooms. The park is near the boundary of Indian Orchard and East Springfield.

Scott Brown talks jobs in Quincy but leaves without answering questions; Russia erupts into biggest protests since fall of USSR; and more of the morning's headlines.

Russian Communists Party supporters hold flags with the color and emblem of the Communist Party gather together to protest against official results of the parliaments elections in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, with a Christmas three in the background.The Communist Party appeared to benefit most from the protest vote, getting nearly 20 percent, up from less than 12 percent four years ago. The socialist Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party led by mercurial nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky are also expected to increase their representation in the Duma; both have generally voted with United Russia, and the Communists pose only token opposition.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

• Elizabeth Warren heads to Seattle for 2 fundraisers with Sen. Maria Cantwell [SeattlePI.com]


• Sen. Scott Brown talks jobs in Quincy, leaves without answering questions [Boston.com]


• Thousands take to the streets of Moscow to protest vote fraud [AlJazerra.com]


• AT&T Judge May End T-Mobile Merger Plan by Stopping U.S. Lawsuit [Bloomberg.com]


• Palestinians outraged after Newt Gingrich calls them "invented" people [USAToday.com]


• Breast cancer patients quit taking drugs due to nasty side effects[ABC.com]


• With arrival of winter weather, Western Mass. homeless shelters quickly fill up [Gazettenet.com]


Russians demand new vote amid fraud claims as Pres. Vladimir Putin blames U.S. for protests
• Twitter posts tagged #westernma in Western Mass. [MassLive.com]


• Read more News Links »


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The Belts Ensure a Safer Tomorrow coalition is renewing its call for lawmakers to take action on a primary enforcement bill that would allow police to stop drivers solely because people in their cars are not wearing seat belts.

File photo | The RepublicanCurrent state law does not allow motorists to be stopped by police for not wearing a seat belt.

BOSTON (AP) — A coalition is pushing for a new seat belt enforcement law after a study showed that seat belt use in Massachusetts is among the lowest in the country.

According to a University of Massachusetts study prepared for the state, seat belt use overall is down slightly from last year to 73 percent. The study also found that the use of seat belts by teenagers dropped 3.6 percent to below 69 percent.

The Belts Ensure a Safer Tomorrow coalition is renewing its call for lawmakers to take action on a primary enforcement bill that would allow police to stop drivers solely because people in their cars are not wearing seat belts.

"This change is expected to increase seat belt use by 13 percent, according to federal research," the coalition said on its Facebook page. "This change would save an estimated 27 lives, 1000 serious injuries and $260 million in health and related expenses per year in Massachusetts."

Currently, police in Massachusetts can only enforce seat belt laws if a person is being stopped for another offense.

Beating a longtime U.S. Congressman who maintains a presence and popularity in his district is not easy but Andrea Nuciforo Jr. says he will work harder than anyone to try.

This photo shows Andrea Nuciforo Jr., a Pittsfield Democrat, standing outside the statehouse in Boston. Nuciforo served in the State Senate for ten years and now plans to take on Congressman Richard Neal. (Photo courtesy of Nuciforo's Flickr account)

SPRINGFIELD - Beating a longtime U.S. Congressman who maintains a presence and popularity in his district is not an easy feat.

Andrea Nuciforo Jr. said he knows that better than most, and that is why he plans on working extra hard in his primary run to unseat Richard Neal and eventually replace him as the Democratic Congressman from Western Massachusetts.

Nuciforo, a Pittsfield native and resident, graduated from UMass-Amherst in 1986 and later graduated from law school at Boston University. When he finished law school, he was hired as a law clerk in Springfield.

Since his stint in Springfield, Nuciforo has worked as a litigator in Boston and he served as a state senator from 1997 to 2007. Since then, he has served as the registrar of Deeds in Pittsfield.

When asked why he decided not to run again, he said he had accomplished his local goals of the time. Since then, however, he said he has found more reasons to run as he reflected on the state of the world today.

"You have unemployment holding around nine percent over the past few years and economic growth has been around zero. And wages are down while the cost of everything has went up," Nuciforo said. "In this economic circumstance, I think voters, particularly Democratic voters, I think that people are looking for alternatives to what is happening in Washington."

When asked how he plans to deliver his message to the voters since Neal's war chest tallies in the millions with his in the thousands, Nuciforo said he will use all of the tools of the modern world to make a difference.

"We are never going to have more money than a 20-plus year member of Congress, but we will have enough," he said. "I guarantee you won't see me wasting time between now and September. You will see us work. This is going to be simply the best online and social media campaign that anybody has seen in Western Massachusetts."

Neal said previously that he is looking forward to a primary contest.

"I'm going to run as Rich Neal," said Neal, elected in 1988 and currently the sixth-ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee and the No. 3 most senior member of the state's U.S. House delegation in a previous interview. "I'm not going to reinvent myself."

As Nuciforo focuses his campaign over the next few weeks, he will travel throughout the district to meet the voters who will directly decide his political future.

To see a list of Nuciforo's scheduled appearances in Holyoke, Easthampton and Pittsfield, visit his campaign website.

Police are asking the public for assistance identifying a man who allegedly robbed a West Springfield gas station on Friday.

West Springfield police say this man robbed a gas station for cartons of cigarettes on Friday, Dec. 9.

WEST SPRINGFIELD - Police are asking the public for assistance identifying a man who allegedly robbed a West Springfield gas station on Friday.

The suspect, pictured to the right, allegedly walked into a store on Park Avenue in West Springfield on Friday and stole several cartons of cigarettes.

Police say he is a suspect in other similar larcenies around the area.

On Nov. 27, two white men wearing masks used a gun and a hammer to threaten a West Springfield store clerk as they cleared out the register.

Anyone with information about the man's identity is asked to call the West Springfield Police Department's detective bureau at 413-263-3210 ext. 272.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Jason Varao

Jason A. Varao, 40, of Westfield, died Tuesday. He was born in Falmouth. Varao was a 1989 graduate of West Springfield High School, and was employed as a truck driver for Conway Freight in Chicopee since 1996. He was a U.S. Navy veteran, serving in Iraq during Desert Shield. Varao was a youth football coach, enjoyed playing his guitar and spending time with his family.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Brush, Jerome Merrill "Jerry"
  



• 
  Cauley, Anne Elizabeth (Brown)
  




• 
  Cohen, Melvin E. "Mel"
  



• 
  Devine, Josephine (Fimognari)
  



• 
  Feen, Mark D.




• 
  Fruwirth, Anne M. (Normoyle)
  



• 
  Gaj, Richard J.
  




• Gallerani, Alfred
  




• 
  Gelinas, David R.
  



• 
  Hapgood, Stephen A.




• 
  Houle, Carol R.
  



• 
  Howard III, Atty. William F.
  




• LaRose, Ilmelda M. "Mel" (Miner)
  




• 
  MacAuthur, Barbara C.
  



• 
  McCabe, Wilfred "Gerry"




• 
  McGowan, Marjorie R. (Ross)
  



• 
  Santana, Juan Ramon
  




• Schiller, Louise (Koenig)
  




• 
  Stathatos, Dr. Antonios P.
  



• 
  Varao, Jason A.




• 
  Watters, Thomas J.
  



• 
  Wolf, Karen Gilfoil
  

Kimberly "Jaia" Snyder found three messages in one bottle at the edge of Provincetown Harbor.

In this Dec. 5, 2011 photo, Kimberly "Jaia" Snyder displays one of three messages she found in late November in the harbor at Provincetown, Mass. She had to break open the bottle to get to the messages, and broken pieces are displayed on the table. (AP Photo/Cape Cod Times, Merrily Cassidy)

By ERIC WILLIAMS & JASON KOLNOS,The Cape Cod Times

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP) — Fate uncorked a doozy last week at the Cape tip. Kimberly "Jaia" Snyder found three messages in one bottle at the edge of Provincetown Harbor.

"I had the blues," recalled Snyder. "And I went down to the beach to do my usual morning exercises."

Something uplifting and translucent was waiting. A bottle stood on part of a sea wall.

"I could see right through the green glass to the message," said Snyder. "And I thought maybe it's like a treasure map or some important papers. It could have been anything."

Snyder took the bottle home. A dramatic decanting ensued.

"I got the cork, out and I spent probably 20 minutes trying to get the message out with a chopstick and then an oyster knife and a steak knife and it was tearing up the paper," said Snyder. "So I put it in a paper bag and brought it outside and smashed it with a brick."

Among the shards were three messages, detailing a strange journey powered by the vagaries of the Atlantic.

In this Dec. 5, 2011 photo, Kimberly "Jaia" Snyder sits at the site where she found a message in a bottle at the harbor in Provincetown, Mass. She had to break the bottle to get to the messages. She was contemplating using this bottle to launch her own message. (AP Photo/Cape Cod Times, Merrily Cassidy)

The bottle was first launched from New Harbor, Maine, in September 2009 by two lifelong friends on vacation.

Jean Nicholson, 70, of Crossville, Tenn., said she and her friend Bonnie Ferguson, 65, of Big Rapids, Mich., were inspired by the bucolic setting and the 1999 Kevin Costner movie "Message in a Bottle," partly filmed in New Harbor.

The pair decided to launch a bottle, with a note that included the lines, "the ocean lulls us to sleep — peace is here, for all those who take it in. Savor the moments forever."

In December 2009, the bottle was found along Cape Cod Bay in Barnstable. It was given to Katie Carey, a second-grade teacher at Barnstable-West Barnstable Elementary School, who took it to class.

Talk about teachable moments: Here was a chance to learn geography and practice letter writing! Students penned notes to Nicholson and Ferguson and received letters back. A fine friendship was formed.

"We were reaching out to people we didn't know, and they responded so generously and kindly," said Carey.

"We're making a whole chain of friends just through this bottle," Nicholson said.

The students added a note to the bottle and Carey plunked it back into the water at Craigville Beach in Centerville. Then something weird happened. Somehow, the bottle spun around the Cape, coming to rest on Sandy Neck, back along Cape Cod Bay, where it was found by Bill and Ann Monroe in August 2010.

According to their note, the Monroes relaunched the now-jam-packed bottle on Labor Day weekend in 2010.

More than a year later, Snyder found it in Provincetown.

"There's something about it that is just classically magical — like storybook and exciting," said Snyder, who said she has been considerably cheered by her glassy adventure. "I think people love connection and people love to know there are always ways to connect, no matter what."

Snyder has acquired a new bottle, plans to place the three messages inside, add one of her own and release it soon.

"It's the message that matters," she said.

In adopting a tax shift factor Monday, the City Council rejected a proposal by Mayor Richard Cohen.

Republican file photo

AGAWAM – The City Council has adopted a tax shift factor that sets the fiscal 2012 residential tax rate at $14.40 per thousand dollars of valuation and the business rate at $28.45.

Those rates represent a slight increase over the residential rate of $14 for homeowners and $28.32 for business in fiscal 2011, which ended June 30.

The council voted 9-1 on the new tax rate Monday on a motion by Town Councilor John F. Walsh. Town Councilor Robert E. Rossi cast the sole dissenting vote.

In adopting a tax shift factor of 1.64, the council opted to reject Mayor Richard A. Cohen’s proposal to set the tax shift factor at 1.65.

However, Cohen said Tuesday that he is fine with the council’s action.

“I proposed what I thought was a fair shift for everybody, but I can certainly live with the shift they chose,” Cohen said.

Richard Cohen

Noting that his proposal would have meant a lower tax rate for homeowners, Cohen said, “I think it is a very reasonable adjustment and I’m glad it was approved.

If the council had adopted Cohen’s proposal it would have triggered a residential tax rate of $14.35 per thousand dollars of valuation and a business tax rate of $28.63.

Massachusetts laws allow municipalities to shift some of the property tax burden from residential property owners to business owners to provide tax relief for homeowners.

Under the newly triggered tax rates, the bill on the average home valued at $219,000 will be $3,154 versus the $3,143 under Cohen’s plan. The bill on the average commercial property valued at $556,200 will be $15,824 and the bill on the average industrial property valued at $826,600 will be $23,517.

This year’s taxes are projected to raise a total tax levy of $47,120,212 on a total assessed value of all the property in the city of $2,715,790,563.

If there were a single tax rate it would be $17.35 per thousand dollars of valuation, according to information the mayor provided councilors.

For fiscal 2011, Agawam had a lower residential tax rate than the neighboring communities of Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Holyoke, Longmeadow, Springfield, West Springfield and Westfield. Only Southwick’s rate, at $13.44 per thousand dollars of valuation for homes, was lower when comparing Agawam to nearby communities in materials Cohen sent to the council.

Sirleaf, Africa's first democratically elected female president, shared the award with women's rights campaigner Gbowee, also from Liberia, and Karman, a female icon of the protest movement in Yemen.

View full sizeAssociated PressNobel Peace Prize winners Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, left, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, center, and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, right, take the stage at City Hall in in Oslo, Norway Saturday Dec. 10, 2011. The peace prize committee awarded the prize to Karman, Johnson-Sirleaf and Gbowee for championing women's rights in regions where oppression is common and helping women participate in peace-building., (AP Photo/John McConnico)

By BJOERN H. AMLAND
and LOUISE NORDSTROM

OSLO, Norway – Three women who fought injustice, dictatorship and sexual violence in Liberia and Yemen accepted the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, calling on repressed women worldwide to rise up against male supremacy.

"My sisters, my daughters, my friends — find your voice," Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said after collecting her Nobel diploma and medal at a ceremony in Oslo.

Sirleaf, Africa's first democratically elected female president, shared the award with women's rights campaigner Leymah Gbowee, also from Liberia, and Tawakkul Karman, a female icon of the protest movement in Yemen.

The peace prize was announced in October, along with the Nobel awards for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics. Worth 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) each, the Nobel Prizes are always handed out on the anniversary of award founder Alfred Nobel's death on Dec. 10, 1896.

By selecting Karman, the prize committee recognized the Arab Spring movement that has toppled autocratic leaders in North Africa and the Middle East. Praising Karman's struggle against Yemen's regime, Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland also sent a message to Syria's leader Bashar Assad, whose crackdown on rebels has killed more than 4,000 people according to U.N. estimates.

"President Assad in Syria will not be able to resist the people's demand for freedom of human rights," Jagland said.

Karman is the first Arab woman to win the prize and at 32 the youngest peace laureate ever. A journalist and founder of the human rights group Women Journalists without Chains, she also is a member of the Islamic party Islah.

Wearing headphones over her Islamic headscarf, she clapped and smiled as she listened to a translation of Jagland's introductory remarks.

In her acceptance speech, Karman paid tribute to Arab women and their struggles "in a society dominated by the supremacy of men."

According to an English translation of her speech, delivered in Arabic, she criticized the "repressive, militarized, corrupt" regime of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh. She also lamented that the revolution in Yemen hasn't gained as much international attention as the revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria.

"This should haunt the world's conscience because it challenges the very idea of fairness and justice," Karman said.

No woman or sub-Saharan African had won the prize since 2004, when the committee honored Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who mobilized poor women to fight deforestation by planting trees.

Sirleaf, 73, was elected president of Liberia in 2005 and won re-election in October. She is widely credited with helping her country emerge from an especially brutal civil war.

The Nobel chairman noted that she initially supported Charles Taylor but later dissociated herself from the former rebel leader who is now awaiting judgment from the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Sierra Leone.

Gbowee, 39, challenged Liberia's warlords as she campaigned for women's rights and against rape. In 2003, she led hundreds of female protesters through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters, who continued to prey on women, despite a peace deal.

"We used our pains, broken bodies and scarred emotions to confront the injustices and terror of our nation," she told the Nobel audience in Oslo's City Hall.

She called the peace prize a recognition of the struggle for women's rights not only in Yemen and Liberia, but anywhere that women face oppression.

"We must continue to unite in sisterhood to turn our tears into triumph," Gbowee said. "There is no time to rest until our world achieves wholeness and balance, where all men and women are considered equal and free."

This year's prize generated less controversy than the 2010 award, which went to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, infuriating China's leadership. Xiaobo was represented by an empty chair at the award ceremony.

The other Nobel Prizes — in medicine, chemistry, physics and literature, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences — were presented by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at a separate ceremony Saturday in Stockholm.

In an emotional moment, Claudia Steinman accepted the Nobel diploma and medal on behalf of her husband, Canadian-born Ralph Steinman, who died of cancer just days before the medicine prize was announced on Oct. 3. Before sitting down, she blew a kiss toward the ceiling of Stockholm's Concert Hall.

An exception was made to Nobel rules against posthumous awards because the jury wasn't aware of Steinman's death when it tapped him to share the award with American Bruce Beutler and French scientist Jules Hoffman for discoveries about the immune system.

The typically stiff white-tie crowd erupted in cheers when wheelchair-bound Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer, partially paralyzed by a stroke two decades ago, received the Nobel Prize in literature. The 80-year-old had figured in Nobel speculation for so many years that even his countrymen had started to doubt whether he would ever win.

U.S.-born scientists Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess collected the physics prize for discovering that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace.

The chemistry award went to Israel's Dan Shechtman for his discovery of quasicrystals, a mosaic-like chemical structure that researchers previously thought was impossible.

Americans Christopher Sims and Thomas Sargent won the economics prize for describing the cause-and-effect relationship between the economy and government policy.

Louise Nordstrom reported from Stockholm.

Expect direct criticism of his record from fellow Republicans who are aware that Gingrich has climbed to the top largely because of his earlier debate performance.

File photo | Associated PressRepublican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney laugh before a Republican presidential debate at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Miss., last month Gingrich is facing his first debate as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination Saturday night, Dec. 10, 2011. Standing next to him will be Romney, whose campaign has launched an all-out offensive against Gingrich's record and leadership style. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

By THOMAS BEAUMONT

DES MOINES, Iowa – Newt Gingrich has leapfrogged Mitt Romney to become the GOP front-runner and prime target of his rivals at their latest presidential debate less than a month before the leadoff vote to determine President Barack Obama's challenger.

Expect direct criticism of his record from fellow Republicans on Saturday night who are aware that Gingrich has climbed to the top largely because of his earlier debate performance.

Romney, the earlier leader in national polls, has responded with an aggressive attack on the former House speaker, trying to raise questions about Gingrich's leadership, judgment and party loyalty.

Gingrich stirred up trouble for himself right before the debate, intended to focus on the federal budget deficit, when he told a Jewish cable channel that Palestinians are an "invented" people and are really Arabs who chose not to live elsewhere.

His campaign clarified the comments, released Friday, by saying that Gingrich supports a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians. "However, to understand what is being proposed and negotiated you have to understand decades of complex history, which is exactly what Gingrich was referencing," according to a statement Saturday.

The fast-developing Gingrich-Romney rivalry threatened to overshadow the four other candidates scheduled to attend the debate at Drake University: Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Ron Paul of Texas, along with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

It was the 12th debate of the Republican nominating campaign, the first since businessman Herman Cain suspended his campaign a week ago, and the 11th that both Romney and Gingrich attended.

Gingrich has emerged as the leader in Iowa and some other early-voting states after his campaign nearly disintegrated last summer. Paul and Romney are next in Iowa polls.

The policy-minded former college professor, has used the steady stream of nationally televised debates to gain momentum while challengers of the moment to Romney's establishment campaign have risen then fallen throughout the summer and fall.

For most of the week, Romney assigned surrogates to highlight Gingrich's criticism of important parts in the House budget blueprint. Romney weighed in himself Friday, noting Gingrich's support for ideas such as mining the moon.

Romney suggested Gingrich's background as a Washington insider would be a liability, a theme Gingrich might expect at the debate and in the weeks ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses in Iowa.

"We're very different people, my background and his. We followed very different paths," Romney told The Des Moines Register editorial board. "And someone who has spent their time in the private sector has by far the best chance of defeating the president."

Bachmann has called Gingrich an "influence peddler." Santorum has criticized Gingrich's record in Congress. Perry has hit his support for a national insurance mandate in the 1990s. Paul is running an ad accusing Gingrich of "serial hypocrisy."

Romney supporters have begun describing Gingrich as self-serving and untrustworthy, assessments Romney said he stood by during the Register interview. They said Gingrich has a tendency for off-the-cuff remarks aimed at promoting his own policy acumen or stirring controversy, and that Romney's disciplined message would help keep the focus on Obama's handling of the economy.

Romney's strategy with Gingrich is beginning to mirror what his campaign did with Perry, who entered the race in August and immediately rose to the top of polls.

Ahead of debates, Romney's team rolled out new attacks on Perry, first on some of the governor's comments on Social Security and then on his immigration record. Romney also delivered those attacks himself in two debates.

Romney has turned in a series of strong debate performances. He's made few mistakes and hasn't been repeatedly attacked by his rivals.

But it's Gingrich's performances that voters have noticed.

In a Des Moines Register poll released in early December, 50 percent of likely caucus-goers said Gingrich is the best debater. Romney was a distant second with 14 percent.

The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years.

Associated PressU.N. climate official Christiana Figueres, right, talks with delegates at the climate change summit as it nears it's end in the city of Durban, South Africa, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011. Some ministers and top climate negotiators left Durban without an agreement Saturday, with time running out and the prospect of an inconclusive end jeopardizing new momentum in the fight against global warming. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

By ARTHUR MAX

DURBAN, South Africa – Diplomats frazzled by sleeplessness debated into the early hours of Sunday at a U.N. conference over a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming decades.

South Africa's foreign minister and chairman of the 194-party conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told delegates that failure to agree after 13 days of work would be an unsustainable setback for international efforts to control greenhouse gases.

"This multilateral system remains fragile and will not survive another shock," she told a full meeting of the conference, which had been delayed more than 24 hours while ministers and senior negotiators labored over words and nuances.

The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with changing forces of nature.

The package must be approved by consensus, and no vote will be called. Determined opposition from even a small group of countries would unravel the deal put together after hundreds of hours of contentious negotiations.

Speakers from many developed countries said the package of documents more than 100 pages thick did not go far enough to help poor nations and did not require industrial countries to make more immediate and serious cuts in their carbon emissions. But most said they would accept it for lack of a better option.

But not Venezuela. "We all know this is a very bad agreement, that it will require more work next year and it cannot be adopted," chief delegate Claudia Solerno said.

After weeks of being accused of obstructionism and delay, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern voiced surprisingly strong support for the deal.

"This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it. Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about," Stern said. But the package captured important advances that would be undone if it is rejected.

Saturday afternoon, as negotiations dragged on with no sign of breakthrough, some ministers and top negotiators left Durban with no assurance of an agreement.

Associated PressSouth Africa's foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane speaks during a media briefing at the climate change conference taking place in the city of Durban, South Africa, Friday, Dec 9, 2011. The United States, China and India could scuttle attempts to save the only treaty governing global warming, Europe's top negotiator said Friday hours before a 194-nation U.N. climate conference was to close. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, drawn and fatigued after two nights with minimal sleep, warned that failure in Durban would jeopardize new momentum in acting against global warming.

Introducing the package late Saturday, Nkoana-Mashabane said its four documents, which were being printed as she spoke, were an imperfect compromise, but they reflected years of negotiations on the most central political responses to global warming.

The package would give new life to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, whose carbon emissions targets expire next year and apply only to industrial countries.

A separate document obliges major developing nations like China and India, excluded under Kyoto, to accept legally binding emissions targets in the future, by 2020 at the latest.

Together, the two documents overhaul a system designed 20 years ago that divide the world into a handful of wealthy countries facing legal obligations to reduce emissions, and the rest of the world which could undertake voluntary efforts to control carbon.

The European Union, the primary bloc falling under the Kyoto Protocol's reduction commitments, said an extension of its targets was conditional on major developing countries also accepting limits with the same legal accountability. The 20th century division of the globe into two unequal parts was invalid in today's world, the EU said.

The package also would set up the structure and governing bodies of a Green Climate Fund, which will receive and distribute billions of dollars promised annually to poor countries to help them adapt to changing climate conditions and to move toward low-carbon economic growth.

But the document made no specific mention of how those funds would be mobilized. Wealthy countries have pledged $100 billion a year by 2020 to poor countries, scaling up from $10 billion today.

The remaining document of more than 50 pages lays out rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of technical issues.

In the final hours, talks focused on unresolved differences on a clause encouraging countries to pledge greater reductions of greenhouse gases and to close what is known as the "ambition gap." More than 80 countries have made either legally binding or voluntary pledges to control carbon emissions. But taken together, they will not go far enough to avert a potentially catastrophic rise in average temperatures this century, according to scientific modeling and projections.

Hedegaard said a lack of ambition could derail progress made on a host of other issues.

Countries had made concessions that they had resisted for years, and it would be "irresponsible" to lose that momentum now, she said.

Strong language on curbing emissions is of prime importance to small islands endangered by rising ocean levels and by many poor countries who live in extreme conditions that will be worsened by global warming.

Throughout the talks, the U.S., China and India remained stubbornly opposed to the EU's plan to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto accord by 2020 that also would put them under legal obligations. The talks would conclude by 2015, allowing five years for it to be ratified by national legislatures. The plan insists the new agreement equally oblige all countries — not just the few industrial powers — to abide by emission targets.

Hours were devoted to arcane but diplomatically important questions of whether the objective of the talks was a legal "framework," an "outcome," or an "instrument."

The expiring of Kyoto's targets have hung over the U.N. process for years, and was the most contentious issue dividing rich and poor nations.

Developing countries were adamant that the Kyoto commitments continue since it is the only agreement that compels any nation to reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is deeply flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting developing countries. It was for that reason that the U.S. never ratified it.

Agreement by developing countries to accept binding targets essentially redraws the map. "That's a very big deal," said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. "That reflects a major macroeconomic and geopolitical change" in climate negotiations.

Monson’s Long Term Recovery Group and Street Angels volunteer team also held an event for tornado victims on Saturday called a "Home Grown Monson Christmas."

The Republican/Lori StabileSanta Claus, also known as Charlie Kaniecki, a district health officer with the state Department of Public Health, stands with Monson Fire Chief George L. Robichaud on Saturday as firefighters string lights on the town Christmas tree. Firefighter Jeremy Bedson is in the bucket loader behind them.

MONSON — Carolyn Bedard watched as Monson firefighters strung lights on the 25-foot Christmas tree and said her late partner, assistant fire chief Andrew Piwcio, would be proud.

The lighting of the tree almost didn’t happen this year due to a lack of funding for new holiday lights - until resident John Rahkonen stepped in and donated the $3,500 needed.

“This is beautiful. I’m so excited,” said Bedard, who, with Piwcio, decorated the tree at the Civil War monument for 24 years.

The tree was uprooted by the tornado on June 1, but was secured with cables and survived. Residents were wondering if it would be lit, and the tree became the subject of Internet chatter.

The reminders of the tornado are all around the tree, from the barren hillside along Ely Road, to the destruction still evident downtown. Forty-one homes were totally destroyed by the twister, and another 300 sustained damage.

Jeremy Bedson, a firefighter in charge of the holiday light displays, used a bucket loader on Saturday to string the 25 strands of lights. Bedson took over the job years ago from Bedard and Piwcio.

He had help on Saturday from other firefighters, including Lt. Jeffrey D. Chaffee, Darius Taylor and Andrew Nothe, and the fire chief’s administrative assistant, Kathleen M. Corish. Fire Chief George L. Robichaud also was on hand, as was “Santa” and his “elf.”

“A lot of people stopped by to visit. They’re tickled to death” about the tree being decorated, Robichaud said.

Bedson’s wife, Christine, said they are thankful to Rahknonen for his donation.

Maria Fontaine, who was watching the tree being decorated with her children Logan, 8, and Bretonya, 6, said the lighting is a “big deal.” She lives in Palmer, but grew up in Monson. Her father, Russell Bressette, lost his Stewart Avenue home to the tornado.

“It’s been a hard year,” Fontaine said.

Said resident William V. Skillman, “I’m here to support these guys . . . You have to find something to celebrate, even the little things.”

Also on Saturday, the Long Term Recovery group and Street Angels volunteer team held “Home Grown Monson Christmas” event at Monson-Glendale United Methodist Church for families affected by the tornado. Gift baskets, food, quilts and toys were given to the 100 or so families who attended.

“It’s what Monson does. It’s as if these people were waiting in the wings” to help, Bethany Road resident Louie Vacon said about “Home Grown Christmas.”

Vacon said his home received “flesh wounds” compared to what happened to others on his road that were totally obliterated by the twister.

Jennifer K. Brodeur, who is from Main Street, attended with her daughter, Amelia, 6.

“This is awesome. The street angels have been wonderful,” Brodeur said.

State police said the car was a total loss.

Republican file photo

HOLYOKE — An electrical malfunction caused an older model Toyota Camry to go up in flames on the exit 17 ramp off Interstate 91 southbound on Saturday, state police said.

State police said no one was injured, and what was left of the car was towed away just after 5:30 p.m. The car fire was reported at 4:50 p.m.

State police did not report any traffic backups due to the car fire.

Just as the Soviet Union's downing of the American U-2 spy plane revealed a hidden aspect of the Cold War, Iran's recovery of the drone has shed light on the espionage that is part of U.S.-Iran hostilities.

Associated PressThis photo released on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, claims to show US RQ-170 Sentinel drone which Tehran says its forces downed earlier this week, as the chief of the aerospace division of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, right, listens to an unidentified colonel, in an undisclosed location, Iran. (AP Photo/Sepahnews)

By DOUGLAS BIRCH

WASHINGTON – The loss to Iran of the CIA's surveillance drone bristling with advanced spy technology is more than a propaganda coup and intelligence windfall for the Tehran government. The plane's capture has peeled back another layer of secrecy from expanding U.S. operations against Iran's nuclear and military programs.

Just as the Soviet Union's downing of the American U-2 spy plane revealed a hidden aspect of the Cold War, Iran's recovery of the drone has shed light on the espionage that is part of U.S.-Iran hostilities.

Iran has charged the U.S. or its allies with waging a campaign of cyberwarfare and sabotage, and of assassinating some Iranian scientists. The U.S. has accused the Iranian government of helping kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan and plotting to murder the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

"It's beginning to look like there's a thinly-veiled, increasingly violent, global cloak-and-dagger game afoot," Thomas Donnelly, a former government official and military expert with the American Enterprise Institute, said at a Washington conference.

The covert operations in play are "much bigger than people appreciate," said Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush. "But the U.S. needs to be using everything it can."

Hadley said that if Iran continues to defy U.N. resolutions and doesn't curb its nuclear ambitions, the quiet conflict "will only get nastier."

Some historians and foreign policy experts compared the drone incident to the Soviet Union's 1960 downing of the U-2 spy plane and pilot Francis Gary Powers. While those two countries sparred publicly on many issues, the world only occasionally glimpsed each side's secret operations.

"When I first heard about the drone, my first thought was thank goodness there wasn't a pilot in it," said Francis Gary Powers Jr., the son of the U-2 pilot and founder of the Cold War Museum.

"They were both on intelligence-gathering missions. They were both doing photo reconnaissance. They were both supporting the U.S. government's intelligence-gathering to find out intelligence about our adversaries," Powers said. The difference this time, Powers said, was that "there are no family members that have to be notified, there's no prisoner in a foreign country."

The U-2 downing shocked U.S. military planners, who thought the advanced aircraft flew too high to be hit by a Soviet missile. Likewise, Iran says it used advanced electronic warfare measures to detect, hack and bring down an RQ-170 Sentinel drone.

Iran aired TV footage Thursday of what current and former U.S. officials confirm is the missing Sentinel. The robotic aircraft suffered what appeared to be only minimal damage.

Iran protested Friday to the United Nations about what it described as "provocative and covert operations" by the U.S. The Tehran government called the flight by the drone a "blatant and unprovoked air violation" that was "tantamount to an act of hostility."

American officials said Friday that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Iran played no role in the downing, either by shooting it down or using electronic or cybertechnology to force it from the sky. They contended the drone malfunctioned. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the classified program.

Some U.S. experts expressed skepticism that Iran would be capable of such hacking. But others said Iran's capacity to counter drones may have been bolstered by Russia's decision, announced in October, to sell Tehran an advanced truck-mounted electronic intelligence system.

The RQ-170 is stealthy but not infallible, said robotics expert Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

Singer, who has written extensively about drones, noted Russia's announcement about the sale of an undisclosed number of truck-mounted electronic intelligence systems, called the IL-222 Avtobaza, to Tehran.

He said the equipment included "really good electronic warfare gear," citing reports that its radars were designed to detect drones and included other equipment intended to intercept their data communications.

No country has demonstrated that it can seize control of a spy drone remotely, said Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

But if any could, Karasik said, the likely candidates would include China and Russia, which has conducted research on the subject. Karasik said either country might have aided Iran against the U.S.

The stealth drone is especially useful to the U.S. because it provides what is called "persistent surveillance" of Iran's nuclear sites.

The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran is building a nuclear weapons complex under cover of a civilian program, a charge that Tehran adamantly denies.

John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, an expert on defense and intelligence policy, said that continuous surveillance of such sites from aerial drones can help intelligence analysts track vehicles to other facilities.

The images also can tell military planners when most workers at a site are expected to be on the job, he said, in the event the president orders a military strike against Iran's nuclear program.

"They want to bomb the buildings housing people when the largest numbers of people are present," Pike said, noting that similar weapons-development efforts have depended much more on the technicians, scientists and other experts than on their physical structures. "The people can rebuild the buildings, the buildings cannot rebuild the people," he said.

Experts said the drone probably carried an advanced radar system as well as other specialized sensors, including detectors for monitoring nuclear sites. If those were reverse-engineered by Iran, they could give insights into how to hide its nuclear facilities from the U.S. surveillance.

Russia, China, North Korea and others may be interested in examining the Sentinel. For example, U.S. drones have advanced engines that allow them to remain patrolling an area for days. China is thought to be struggling to master this technology.

Singer said it would be difficult for any country to exploit the technological bonanza of a downed Sentinel, but having one to pull apart will give them a start.

"Bottom line, it's never easy to reverse-engineer anything, let alone something like a radar, but having a working or even damaged system in hand to study up close makes it a heck of a lot easier," he said.

Francis Gary Powers Jr. noted that spy technology advances quickly.

Powers said that the CIA suspended U-2 flights for several months after his father was shot down, but by then the U.S. had launched its first reconnaissance satellite, which could gather vastly more information.

Associated Press reporters Lolita Baldor and Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.

Police said the injury is not life-threatening.

Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD — A female city resident was in custody Saturday night after she allegedly stabbed a man at 155 Mill St., police said.

Lt. John M. Bobianski said Lacrisha Wise, 37, of 84 Commonwealth Ave., was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and malicious destruction of property in connection with the incident that sent Michael Johnson, 50, of 155 Mill St., to Baystate Medical Center by ambulance.

Johnson was stabbed in the arm; Bobianski said the wound was not life-threatening.

Bobianski said Wise was charged with malicious destruction because she slashed the tires of a car that was parked in Johnson’s driveway. She will be arraigned Monday in district court on the charges.

The incident was reported just before 8:30 p.m. and Wise was arrested a short time after. She fled in a black Lexus in the direction of Belmont Street and was pulled over at White and Orange streets in the Forest Park section.

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, and other labor leaders and politicians said they wanted to roll back new voting rules passed in several states.

Photo submitted by Talbert W. Swan IITalbert W. Swan II, president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, and other members of the organization, join a voting rights march in New York City Saturday.

NEW YORK – Civil rights activists protested stricter voting laws Saturday with a march from the New York offices of Koch Industries, whose owners have supported an organization that favors tighter safeguards against election fraud.

“You can’t accomplish anything if you’re not prepared to fight,” said U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, wearing a hat with embroidered with “NAACP.” Rangel and other labor leaders and politicians said they wanted to roll back new voting rules passed in several states.

From Springfield, Mass., the Rev. Talbert W. Swan II said he brought 45 people by bus to join the “Stand for Freedom” protest.

“The local branch wanted to show its support in the effort to relieve the country of voter suppression. .¤.¤. We wanted to aid in that effort, to stand for freedom for our voting rights,” said Swan, president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP and pastor of the Spring Hope Church of God in Christ in that city.

Photo submitted by Talbert W. Swan IIMalinda Davis, a member of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, demonstrates during a voting rights march in New York City Saturday.

Some of the laws passed in more than a dozen states around the country include requiring photo IDs at the ballot box and restricting voting by ex-felons. Critics say the laws will have a negative effect on blacks, Latinos, students and the elderly.

“Voting rights are being challenged all across the United States,” said Diane Sanders, 50, an organizer with 1199SEIU, the service employee’s international union and one of the nation’s largest unions. “People have died for the right to vote. We can’t just sit by and let our rights be taken from us.”

The group met and rallied among the tony Upper East Side buildings where Koch Industries has New York offices. The company is headquartered in Wichita, Kan. The protesters say Koch is directly responsible because it funded the political lobbying group that helped pass the laws.

Though Koch Industries is the oft-cited corporate sponsor of the lobby group behind the voting laws, and is one of its largest, there are others, including Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and AT&T. Koch, owned by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, is one of the nation’s largest privately held companies with business interests that include refining, chemicals and commodities trading.

“Koch has taken no position on the voter ID issue, which is why these groups are wrong and completely misguided in their false accusations,” company spokesman Bill O’Reilly said in a statement.

Rangel, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton, and Hazel Dukes of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, locked arms and led the march on Madison Avenue south to a plaza near the United Nations in honor of U.N. Human Rights Day.

“Voting is a human right,” said Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid. “And human rights are sacred rights.”

The tone was respectful, at least in the early moments of the debate, the stakes ever higher as 6 rivals met on a stage in the Iowa capital city.

Associated PressRepublican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, and former Speaker of the House Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, right, take part in the Republican debate, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

By THOMAS BEAUMONT

DES MOINES, Iowa – Attacked as a lifelong Washington insider, newly minted Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich parried criticism from Mitt Romney in campaign debate Saturday night, telling the former Massachusetts governor, "The only reason you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994."

Gingrich also defended against attacks from Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in the first debate since he soared to the lead in polls nationally and in Iowa. Caucuses on Jan. 3 in this state will kick off the competition for Republican National Convention delegates who will pick an opponent to President Barack Obama.

Under questioning from Paul, Gingrich said he had never lobbied for Freddie Mac, a quasi-government agency that paid him at least $1.6 million to provide strategic advice. Paul shot back, "It's the taxpayers' money, though. We were bailing them out."

The tone was respectful, at least in the early moments of the debate, the stakes ever higher as six rivals met on a stage in the Iowa capital city. The debate was the 12th since the long campaign began, and the first since Herman Cain's candidacy imploded after allegations of sexual harassment and an extra-marital affair.

The six contenders split down the middle on legislation making its way toward a year-end vote in Congress to extend a Social Security payroll tax into 2012.

Romney, Gingrich and Paul said they favored it. Bachmann, Texas Gov., Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said they opposed the measure.

Whatever the impact of their differences on the presidential race, the internal disagreement could well portend difficulties for legislation that Obama has proposed and Republican leaders in Congress view as essential if the party is to avoid being tagged for raising taxes.

For Gingrich, the debate brought new standing — a center position onstage that comes with being a leader in the polls — as well as the challenge of fielding criticism from his rivals.

Paul has been airing television commercials in Iowa attacking the former House speaker, and Romney's campaign has become increasingly critical of him, bolstered by a multimillion-dollar television ad campaign that is financed by allies.

Associated PressRepublican presidential candidates, from left, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, take their place for a Republican debate, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Bachmann criticized Gingrich for first supporting a requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance in 1993. She folded Romney into her attack, saying he had pushed successfully for a state health care law as Massachusetts governor that contained an individual mandate.

In rebuttal, Gingrich said the mandate he supported was a conservative alternative to President Bill Clinton's national health care plan.

"It's now clear the individual mandate is unconstitutional," he said.

Gingrich's decision to invoke Kennedy, the late senator from Massachusetts, served as a dual reminder — that Romney has been running for office since the mid-1990s and also that he lost to the man whose politics conservatives detested above all others.

As for the question of whether he would have become a career politician if he'd beaten Kennedy, Romney replied with a smile that if he'd been good enough to play in the National Football League, as he had hoped, "I would have been a football star all my life, too."

He then tried to turn the tables, saying his defeat in 1994 "was probably the best thing I could have done for preparing me for the job I am seeking, because it put me back in the private sector."

One of Romney's campaign calling cards is his career as a businessman, a time he says helped him understand how jobs are created.

The U.S. Geological Service initially estimated the quake at magnitude at 6.8, but downgraded it to 6.7.

MEXICO CITY – A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck in Mexico's western Guerrero state Saturday night, shaking buildings and causing panic in the nation's capital and the Pacific resort of Acapulco. There were no reports of deaths or serious damage.

The U.S. Geological Service initially estimated the quake at magnitude at 6.8, but downgraded it to 6.7. A quake of that magnitude is capable of causing severe damage.

The USGS said the quake occurred 40.3 miles (64.9 kilometers) deep and was centered about 26 miles (42 kilometers) southwest of Iguala in Guerrero. That is 103 miles (166 kilometers) south-southwest of Mexico City.

A Twitter message from President Felipe Calderon said one person had been reported injured by a collapsed ceiling in the Guerrero town of Tuxpan, which is near Iguala. It said there were no other reports of casualties in the quake area.

High-rises swayed in the center of Mexico City for more than a minute, and shoppers were temporarily herded out of some shopping centers until the danger passed.

Mexico City's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, reported by Twitter that no major damage had been reported. He said power failed in some parts of the city.

People in one part of Mexico City's upscale Condesa neighborhood ran out of their houses and gathered in the streets, hugging each other while some shook and began to cry.

On one street, a group of women joined hands in a circle, closed their eyes and began to pray.

"Please God, help us and let everything be OK," said one. "It's OK. It's OK. Everything is OK."

In Acapulco, hundreds of anxious tourists congregated in the streets after fleeing rocking buildings. City officials said no structural damage was reported. The Pacific resort was about 87 miles (140 kilometers) from the quake's epicenter.

Each year, the hot dog company selects 12 recent college graduates to spend 12 months as "hotdoggers"; each year some 1,500 people apply. Watch video

The Republican | Patrick JohnsonDylan Hackbarth, an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Hotdogger, gets some gear out of the Wienermobile's trunk during a visit to Hadley on Saturday.

HADLEY — When Dylan Hackbarth goes out for a drive, complete strangers wave, give him a thumbs-up or scramble to aim their cell phone cameras.

He's gotten used to it.

Hackbarth, a native of Appleton, Wisc., is a “hotdogger” for Oscar Mayer, a term used for the goodwill ambassadors for the famed hot dog company. His ride is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, a 27-foot long rolling pop culture icon that can arguable lay claim to being the coolest thing on four wheels.

Although he's driven up and down the East Coast from Maine to Virginia and as far west as Indiana over the last six months, Hackbarth said every now and then it just strikes him how unusual his first job out of college turned out to be.

“We drive a hot dog. I can't believe this is happening,” he said.

Hackbarth and his partner Kylie Hodges of Madison, Wisc., stopped in Hadley on Saturday as part of a swing through Western Massachusetts.

Hodges, who recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin, said serving as an Oscar Mayer hotdogger is “only the greatest job ever.”

She said she enjoys the travel and the meet and greets with people at each stop along the way.

Although the Wienermobile invites smiles and laughter, Hodges said she takes her part in the hotdogger legacy quite seriously. Through the years, only 300 or so people have been allowed to drive the Wienermobile.

“There have been fewer people driving the Wienermobile than there have been people in space,” she said.

Oscar Mayer has six Wienermobiles spread out throughout the country. The Wienermobiles and the hotdogger teams stop at over at 1,500 events per year, choosing from among 15,000 requests, to spread good will and promote the Oscar Mayer brand.

“The Wienermobile is the one of the oldest mobile marketing (promotions) in the world, other than some Clydesdales. We've been on the road for 75 years,” he said.

“We're bringing smiles, making everyone happy and bringing good will.”

The Wienermobile will make three stops over the next few days.
It will be at Stop & Shop, 1600 Boston Road, Springfield on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Stop & Shop on King Street in Northampton from noon to 5 p.m. on Monday, and at the Bangs Community Center in Amherst from noon to 3 p.m.

Each year, the hot dog company selects 12 recent college graduates to spend 12 months as hotdoggers. Each year some 1,500 people apply.

“It's harder to be selected a hotdogger than it is to be accepted into Harvard,” he said.

Hackbarth said he learned he was chosen to be one of this year's 12 just two days after he was notified he had been accepted to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University.

“My mother was excited when I made it into Johns Hopkins, but she cried when I was picked as a hotdogger,” he said. “She was excited for Hopkins, but this was too exciting.”

Before hotdoggers get a chance to sit behind the wheel, they have to go through a two-week intensive training course, known as Hot Dog High.

“When you finally get the chance to drive, it's unbelievable – or 'bun-believable,” he said.

A portion of the training is devoted to the use of hot dog puns, and a conversation with Hackbarth and Hodges is filled with lines about them relishing their work, fearing they would not pass mustard and the thrill of getting a chance to drive the big dog.

When you're an Oscar Mayer hotdogger, that's just how you roll.

“Make sure you fasten your meat belt,” Hackbarth says as he drops the Wienermobile in drive.

Hackbarth estimates he's driven 12,000 to 15,000 miles over the last year. This particular Wienermobile has been on the road since 2009 and it has more than 75,000 miles on the odometer.

“We calculate about 1,000 smiles per mile,” he said.

Driving through Hadley and Amherst, 1,000 per mile seems a conservative estimate. Along the way, people, both young and old, stopped what they were doing to stare, to wave, to take photos of the Wienermobile. Even the most nonplussed denizens of downtown Amherst were reduced to giggles when Hackbarth would cue up the “I wish I was an Oscar Mayer wiener” jingle on the PA system.

“The looks range from surprise to glee,” Hackbarth said. “We wonder how many cell phones we are on. Everyone takes out their cell phone to take a picture.”