Supporters of the legalization of marijuana gather in Amherst to celebrate the 20th annual Extravaganja festival.

Staff Photo by Robert RizzutoNearly 2,000 people gathered in the heart of Amherst Saturday to rally for the legalization of marijuana.

Thousands of people who support the legalization of marijuana gathered in Amherst to celebrate the 20th annual Extravaganja festival.

This was the first time in the festival’s history that the event was held for two continuous days which was meant to raise awareness on the issues of legalizing marijuana. The festivities were surrounded by music, guest speakers, vendors and supporters of the legalization movement.

The two-day festival ended on Sunday evening with no arrests made. Although the police were tolerant of people smoking marijuana only on the town commons, a total of 17 citations were issued for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

This is what some of our readers had to say about this weekend’s festival:

Masslivepers says: This is a perfect example of the outlandish, free for all, liberal ideas that exist in this state. In a conservative state, all would be arrested. There had to be a lot of pot there and I'm sure there were plenty of other illegal drugs. The state police did nothing. The local police did nothing. Isn't that what happened in some states before the civil rights laws were passed?

Notindahood says: Pretty much makes the Amherst Police Department look like a joke. "Hey guys, you can break the law within the designated law-breaking quadrangle. But nowhere else, okay?!" It's straight out of South Park.

And the State Police don't look much better. They should have intervened and enforced the Mass General Laws that the Amherst Police can't. It is not the place of law *enforcement* to single-handedly decide, in advance, which laws to enforce. That's not discretion. That's putting your personal beliefs above the law. It's an abuse of power.

joe says: Sensible marijuana laws are the way to go. The world is changing and views of marijuana are changing too. That is why such an event like this is going on, because it started out as a small event and now has proved it can for the most part responsibly go on as a good festival to support certain peoples views on marijuana.

rrudd says: Sense and sensibility is all it takes to wade through this swamp of nonsense. A few tokes on a joint ain't going to breed some wild-eyed drug-crazed monster. Pot is not the evil weed of your grandparents' nightmares. Pot is just pot. It ain't no big deal. Give it a break, for crying out loud.

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One of the victims was taken to Baystate Medical Center for treatment.

Jovan Murphy

SPRINGFIELD – Police charged two city men with armed robbery Sunday night following two separate incidents involving the theft of cash and cell phones from victims in the Liberty Heights neighborhood.

Sgt. John M. Delaney said the incidents began about 9 p.m. when police were summoned to the area of 11 Wait St. for an armed robbery.

The victim told police that a man, armed with a knife, stole his cell phone and $2 in cash, Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said.

At about that time, police were then summoned to the area of 494 Newbury St. for yet another armed robbery reportedly committed by three males, Delaney said.

That victim later told police that he had been walking near the Racing Mart on Carew Street when a suspect threw him to the ground, punched him in the face and chest several times and stole his cell phone and $25 in cash.

Karl Covington

See photos of the Beetle's new design.

Associated PressKlaus Bischoff, head of design, Volkswagen Brand, introduces the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, in New York, Monday, April 18, 2011.

NEW YORK — In its 73-year history, the Beetle has evolved from the hippie ride of choice to a cute chick car. Now Volkswagen is reinventing it again.

The company introduced an edgy design Monday for its signature model, giving it a flatter roof, a less bulbous shape, narrowed windows and a sharp crease along the side. Gone is the built-in flower vase on the dashboard.

It's the first overhaul since 1998, when Volkswagen came up with the New Beetle. VW, which wants to triple its U.S. sales of cars and trucks over the next decade, says the changes will appeal to more buyers, especially men.

But the changes could also anger fans, who love the little four-seater for its huggable curves and perky attitude.

"I hope they keep the fun in the car, and all the round angles," says Howie Lipton, who owns a computer repair business in Hamilton, Ontario, and helps organize an annual New Beetle show in Roswell, N.M.

Lipton says he was hoping VW would update the spare interior, and his wish has been granted. VW's lead Beetle project manager for the U.S., Andres Valbuena, says the 2012 model will have a navigation system, a significantly larger trunk, more luxurious materials and ambient lighting.

"It ties in more with our other products. It's more upscale," Valbuena says. The 2012 Beetle goes on sale this fall. VW won't yet say how much it costs.

The design is based not on the New Beetle but on the original Beetle, which was created in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, came to the U.S. after World War II and became a counterculture favorite because of its low cost and unusual look.

It was the antithesis of the land yachts being churned out in Detroit, and Baby Boomers loved it. In 1968, a Beetle with a mind of its own, Herbie, starred opposite Dean Jones in the hit Disney movie "The Love Bug."

But sales slowed as VW faced tough competition in the small-car segment from Japanese and U.S. automakers and money problems back in Germany. U.S. sales of the original Beetle peaked at 200,000 in 1962. VW stopped selling the car in the U.S. in 1979.

In 1998, the company introduced the New Beetle, an overhaul of the original that became a huge hit. Buyers swooned over its cute, rounded styling. For a time, the Beetle was outselling such stalwarts as the Ford Focus and Chevrolet Impala. When a convertible version was released in 2003, U.S. sales rose to almost 93,000.

Larry Erickson, who led a lauded redesign of the Ford Mustang six years ago along with New Beetle designer J Mays, says people are unusually attached to the original Beetle and New Beetle because of their friendly shapes and the confident but unaggressive way they sit on the road.

It will be difficult for VW designers to capture that emotion and still make the car look current, he says, especially because it hasn't been that long since the 1998 redesign.

"Every car manufacturer faces this when they do a facelift, but in the case of the Beetle, you've got something people feel fairly strongly about," says Erickson, who now teaches at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. "It has a certain personality to it, an endearing quality."

Valbuena says VW believes the new design stays true to the name but will broaden the car's appeal beyond the 1998 version, which appealed heavily to women in their 50s and 60s. In focus groups, men liked the more aggressive design.

In addition to an upgraded, 170-horsepower, 2.5-liter gas engine, VW will offer a sportier, 200-horsepower, turbocharged gas engine — Volkswagen hopes it will appeal to guys — and a fuel-efficient diesel. VW estimates that the new basic engine will be slightly more efficient than the current one, which gets 29 mpg on the highway. The diesel will get up to 40 mpg.

Even if it satisfies its fans, the third incarnation of the Beetle will have to compete in a U.S. small-car market that is bigger and much more competitive than it was in 1998.

When the New Beetle was introduced, European cars like the Mini Cooper, Smart Fortwo and Fiat 500 weren't sold in the United States. By last year, the Mini Cooper was outselling the Beetle almost three-to-one.

And buyers who want a funky design have new options like the Kia Soul, Nissan Cube and the Scion xB. VW sold about 16,500 New Beetles in the United States last year, down 82 percent from the 2003 peak.

Working to Volkswagen's advantage are higher gas prices and fuel-economy standards, which make small cars a smarter choice, along with a population boom of young buyers. Their parents, the Baby Boomers who fell in love with the Beetle 50 years ago, are also looking to trade down in size.

Rebecca Lindland, director of strategic review at the consulting firm IHS Automotive, says U.S. sales of small specialty cars like the Beetle dropped during the recession as buyers went for bigger, cheaper options like the Toyota Corolla. The Corolla costs almost $3,000 less than the Beetle, which starts at $18,690.

But Lindland says U.S. specialty car sales are expected to more than double to 350,000 cars per year by 2013.

VW will depend on high-volume sellers like the Jetta and Passat sedans to meet its ambitious sales goals, which call for selling 1 million vehicles in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide by 2018.

But it still sees the Beetle as a key part of the brand, as it showed Monday with simultaneous unveilings of the car in New York, Berlin and Shanghai. To many people, VW is synonymous with the Beetle.

"It is an iconic vehicle," Lindland says. "It represents, for most Americans, a very positive image."

Mutai's unofficial time marks the fastest marathon run ever.

BOSTON — Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds — the fastest anyone has ever run the 26.2 mile distance.

The previous best of 2:03:59 was by Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin 2008. Because Monday's race had a strong tailwind on a downhill course, Mutai's run is not recognized by track's international governing body as a record.

But Mutai was almost three minutes better than the course record set just last year by Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot.

Caroline Kilel won the women's race to complete the Kenyan sweep, outsprinting American Desiree Davila to win by two seconds, in 2:22:36. Davila led as late as the final stretch on Boylston Street and ran the fastest time ever for a U.S. woman, five seconds faster than Joan Benoit finished to win in 1983.

No American — man or woman — has won Boston since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach in 1985. Ryan Hall ran the fastest marathon ever for an American, finishing fourth in 2:04:58, and Kara Goucher ran a personal best 2:24:52 to add a fifth-place finish to her third in 2009.

Kilel and Mutai each earn $150,00 for the win, and Mutai gets $50,000 for the world best and another $25,000 for the course record.

A year after Cheruiyot lowered the course record by more than a minute, the runners lined up in Hopkinton with temperatures in the high 40s and a wind at their back — perfect marathoning weather.

Kim Smith, a New Zealander who lives in Providence, took off at a record pace and led the women's race for more than 20 miles. The men were more steady, and they were the ones to take down the old mark.

Four men, including Hall and third-place finisher Ethiopian Gebregziabher Gebremariam, broke the 2:05 milestone that just 12 months ago had seemed insurmountable on the hilly Boston course.

Mutai and Moses Mosop ran side-by-side for the final miles before Mutai pulled ahead for good on Boylston Street and won by four seconds. The 19th Kenyan winner in the past 21 years, Mutai raised his arms in the air and grinned; Cheruiyot, who injured his side in a car accident in Kenya, dropped out in the first half of the race.

Smith took off at the start, and the pack let her go, falling almost a minute behind. But 20 miles in, as she ran down Commonwealth Avenue in Newton toward Heartbreak Hill, she began to stutter-step.

Soon, she had stopped completely to rub her right calf. It was only for a few seconds, but when she resumed she had clearly slowed and the pack was upon her less than a mile later. Among them was Davila.

The American ran with Kenyans Kilel and Sharon Cherop through Chestnut Hill and briefly broke out of her rhythm to wave as the crowd began chanting, "U-S-A!" The three swapped leads down Beacon Street in Brookline, and Davila led even on the final stretch before Kilel outkicked her.

Masazumi Soejima and Wakako Tsuchida gave Japan a sweep of the men's and women's wheelchair divisions. It was the fifth straight win for Tsuchida and the second overall for Soejima.

The saola looks like a small deer or antelope with two horns, but is locally known as an Asian "unicorn."

Associated Press/WWFA saola pauses in the jungle of Vietnam, in this undated photo released by the international conservation group WWF. The saola looks like a small deer or antelope with two horns, even though it's locally called an Asian "unicorn."

HANOI, Vietnam — A nature reserve has been set aside in central Vietnam for the critically endangered saola, raising hope for the antelope-like species' survival, a wildlife official said Monday.

The saola looks like a small deer or antelope with two horns, but is locally known as an Asian "unicorn." They are thought to number from a few dozen to a few hundred, and are threatened by poachers wanting its horns. The conservation group WWF says none has survived in captivity.

The land set aside last week in the central province of Quang Nam is rich in bio-diversity and home to an estimated 50 to 60 saolas, said Pham Thanh Lam, director of the Forest Bureau in the province.

"For ethnic minority people, hunting is a way of earning their living," Lam said. "They would not spare the saola, so it's necessary to create conditions for them to earn their living to minimize hunting for wild animals including saola."

Saola, described as a primitive member of the bovine family which includes cattle, sheep and antelopes, was discovered in the forests in central Vietnam in 1992.

"If no reserve activities are launched now, the danger of the saolas' extinction is clear," he said.

The efforts to protect the species will incude education campaigns and jobs, including patrolling the nature reserve, that provide stable income, Lam said.

The reserve of 15,800 hectares (39,000 acres) is in the Annamite mountains along the Laos border. Another reserve is in neighboring Thua Thien Hue province.

The Quang Nam reserve will abut Xe Sap National Park in western Laos, said Tran Minh Hien, country director of WWF Vietnam, in a statement.

Placanico, injured Thursday night, was pronounced dead at Baystate Sunday night.

WARE - A 55-year-old Palmer man, seriously injured Thursday night when his motorcycle collided with a horse trailer that jack-knifed into his path of travel on Route 9, has died at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

A hospital spokesman, speaking late Monday morning, confirmed the death of Joseph Placanico, of 131 Breckinridge St. Family members said that Placanico was pronounced dead at Baystate Sunday night.

Police Officer Alan C. Kusek said the accident occurred shortly before 5:45 p.m. as Placanico, of 131 Breckinridge St., drove his 2001 Harley Davidson east on Route 9, also known as Belchertown Road.

When a westbound pickup truck, hauling an empty horse trailer, slowed and stopped to allow a third vehicle, also westbound to turn left into an entrance to Quabbin Reservoir, the trailer jack-knifed into the eastbound lane and into Placanico’s path.

Placanico was taken to Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware and then taken by Lifestar helicopter to Baystate in Springfield.

Kusek said the driver of the pickup was Michael P. Austin, 34, of 270 West St., Belchertown.

Kusek, speaking Friday, said no citations had been issued in the accident. Investigators could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.

The crash marked the region’s second motorcycle facility within a week’s time.

Abimael Mestre, 28, of Ludlow, was fatally injured in Granby on the morning of April 11 when he lost control of his motorcycle while riding east on New Ludlow Road. Investigators said that Mestre went off the road and hit a utility pole.

Timothy J. Woering, 26, of Easthampton, was seriously injured on Route 10 later that afternoon in a crash on Route 10 of that city.

Woering, who has since been discharged from Baystate, was riding north when he entered the southbound lane to pass a line of traffic that had stopped to allow a sports utility vehicle to pull out into traffic, police said.

Alejandro Lopez made a full confession to police when arrested in 2009.

The Republican / File photo

SPRINGFIELD – Alejandro R. Lopez admitted in Hampden Superior Court he sold guns and drugs here and that his enterprise ended because he was selling them to an undercover state trooper.

Lopez, 40, of Springfield, pleaded guilty to 18 crimes Friday and was sentenced to a seven to nine year state prison sentence by Judge Peter A. Velis.

Lopez admitted to eight counts of cocaine distribution (as a subsequent offender); three counts of carrying a firearm without a license; three counts of possessing ammunition illegally; two counts of trafficking cocaine; and one count each of trafficking firearms and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

In a 2009 operation run by state police attached to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office in conjunction with the Hampden County Narcotics Task Force, undercover troopers purchased drugs and guns from Lopez over a four month period.

Assistant District Attorney James R. Goodhines said Troopers Jeffrey Cahill and Peter Konstantakos, along with other officers, did an outstanding job “to identify and remove a significant drug and gun dealer from city of Springfield.”

Goodhines said Lopez gave a full confession to troopers.

State law says a person who sells three or more guns in a 12-month period can be charged with trafficking firearms, Goodhines said.

Of the guns sold, two were .25-caliber handguns and one was a 380-caliber handgun, Goodhines said.

Entergy Corp. has a new federal license in hand for the Vermont Yankee power plant, but state officials are vowing to shut it down next year.

The Republican | John SuchockiVermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant as seen from the Hinsdale, N.H., side of the Connecticut River.

JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The owners of Vermont's troubled nuclear plant sued state officials Monday to stop them from closing the plant down next year, setting up a court fight about who has jurisdiction — the state or federal nuclear regulators.

Entergy Corp. has a new federal license in hand for the Vermont Yankee power plant, but state officials are vowing to shut it down next year. The company's federal lawsuit says Vermont's law giving it the power to block relicensing violates the Atomic Energy Act and the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Vermont contends it has the power to say no to a new operating permit for the 38-year-old plant, which sits on the banks of the Connecticut River in Vernon. Its current permit expires in March 2012. Last year, the state Senate voted 26-4 against allowing continued operation. Gov. Peter Shumlin is a staunch critic and wants it shut down.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted the plant a new 20-year license last month, saying it could keep operating until 2032.

New Orleans-based Entergy, which has battled with state officials since the discovery of radioactive tritium last year, now says the state doesn't have the authority to prevent continued operation.

The civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington by subsidiaries Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee and Entergy Nuclear Operations, names Gov. Peter Shumlin, state Attorney General William Sorrell and the members of the state Public Service Board as defendants.

"The question presented by this case is whether the state of Vermont ... may effectively veto the federal government's authorization to operate the Vermont Yankee Station through March 21, 2032," the lawsuit says. "The answer is no."

Shumlin didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. He scheduled an afternoon news conference.

In a conference call, Entergy Corp. executive Richard Smith said the company didn't want to resort to litigation but felt it had to.

"We believe we have made every reasonable effort to accommodate the state of Vermont and its officials while allowing for the continued operation Vermont Yankee, an outcome that benefits all stakeholders, including Vermont consumers and the approximately 650 men and women who work at the plant," he said.

Vermont officials say state law gives the Legislature the say-so on Yankee's bid for a 20-year license extension.

"They're disobeying the law and they're asking the court to sanction their illegal activity," said Sandra Levine, senior staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England environmental advocacy group.

Police seized cocaine and nearly $4,000 in cash from the suspect.

Edwin Martinez

SPRINGFIELD – Police said the distinctive odor of marijuana, wafting from a vehicle that officers pulled over early Sunday in the North End, lead to the arrest of a 31-year-old city man on cocaine and open container charges.

Sgt. John M. Delaney said police saw a maroon BMW traveling at a high rate of speed in heavy rain on Main Street at about 2 a.m.

After pulling the vehicle over at Main and Portland streets, police smelled burnt marijuana and asked the driver and his passenger to stop outside the car so they could search for drugs, Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said.

The driver, Edwin Martinez, 31, of 70 Temple St., then told police he had marijuana in his pocket which the officers found. They also found $2,000 in cash and two open containers in the vehicle.

Martinez was cited for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

A state police K-9 unit, called in to assist in searching the vehicle, found cocaine hidden in the front driver’s seat and an additional $1,800 in cash in the center console.

Martinez was charged with possession of cocaine, speeding and open container.

Reenactors in Lexington today commemorated the 236th anniversary of the opening day of the Revolutionary War by recreating the skirmish between the Lexington Minute Men and British forces.

Stew Milne | The Associated PressWakako Tsuchida, center, from Japan, waits for the start of the wheelchair division of the 115th running of the Boston Marathon, in Hopkinton, Mass., Monday, April 18, 2011.

• Kenya's Geoffery Mutai and Caroline Kilel win mens and womens Boston Marathon, Japan's Masazumi Soejim and Wakako Tsuchida win wheelchair divisions [MassLive.com]


• Muskets flare on Lexington Green, commemorating 236th anniversary of battle [BostonHerald.com]


• Radiation near Japanese reactors well above safe levels for repair crews and workers [NYTimes.com]


• Swollen Connecticut River floods low-lying land in Pioneer Valley [GazetteNet.com]


• U.S. credit outlook cut by S&P over deficit fears, stocks down [Reuters.com]


• West Hartford man who posed as UConn athlete arrested on child porn charges [Courant.com]


• Publisher of "Three Cups of Tea" to conduct review after 60 Minutes investigative report questions book's truthfulness [NYTimes.com]


Staff Photo by Manon L. MirabelliBestselling author Greg Mortenson spoke to a crows of nearly 1,500 adults, students and children at Westfield State College on April 28, 2010. A 60 Minutes investigative report calls Mortenson's bestselling book, Three Cups of Tea, into question.
• Massachusetts gas prices rose three cents in the past week [WGGB.com]


• Driver at Logan Airport sends two to hospital, facing criminal charges [BostonHerald.com]


• San Fransisco Giants fan back in medically induced coma after setbacks over the weekend [LATimes.com]


• Emerson College student falls to his death while working on film project [Patch.com]


• Bones could offer clues to serial killings in New York City [CNN.com]


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


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Local educators have a number of questions and concerns about Chester's recommendations.

Republican file photo

The Massachusetts education commissioner is recommending a universal evaluation process for all teachers and administrators in the state that would use students’ MCAS scores as one way to judge educators.

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester said some recommendations are his own and others are based on the findings of a statewide task force of teachers, principals, superintendents and parents who have been studying the issue for months.

“Many of the Task Force recommendations are strong and promise to advance an agenda dedicated to ensuring continuous development of our teaching and administrative work force, and I have incorporated them into the proposed regulations. In my judgment, however ... we need to be more specific than the Task Force was regarding the use of student performance data and the consequences of consistently strong and consistently low performance,” Chester said in a memo.

Chester’s recommendations call for teachers to be evaluated using results from two types of student assessment, one of which must be the growth data from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems exam where it applies, the memo said.

Republican file photoMitchell D. Chester

Principals can also use a wide variety of other local, district, state or commercially-available standardized exams and student work samples, Chester said.

They will also be judged during classroom observations on elements such as instruction, student assessment and curriculum use, he said.

It also gives teachers who do not make the grade a year to show improvement or face termination.

The changes do not come as a surprise. Before the state applied for federal Race To The Top funds to implement innovative programs in schools, School Committees and teachers’ unions had to agree to develop new teacher evaluations that included using student evaluation data.

In August, the U.S. Department of Education approved the state’s application for the funds and granted it $250 million.

Several educators in Western Massachusetts said they are in favor of improving evaluations, but had a number of questions and concerns about Chester’s recommendations.

Chester released his recommendations Sunday in an email in reaction to a Boston Globe story. Neither he nor other officials for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education responded to requests for further information.

Republican file photoTimothy Collins

Springfield Education Association President Timothy T. Collins said he is concerned Chester did not follow the recommendations of the task force closely, especially since there was a strong representation from educators and parents on the group.

“It is another example of something written by politicians and education bureaucrats who are so far from the classroom they really don’t know what is workable and reliable,” he said.

Just 17 percent of teachers have MCAS data from their classrooms, since students are only tested in math, science and English and only in grades three through eight and 10, Collins said.

He also questioned the idea of using the MCAS growth model. The model places students who received similar scores the previous year into the same category and compares their scores in the next year’s test to determine if they had a small, typical or large growth compared to their academic peers.

“I don’t have a lot of confidence in their growth model. I don’t know if it is a legitimate tool to show growth,” he said.

Collins said it would be preferable to use something that shows students’ academic history over multiple years.

Springfield teachers and administrators together have improved their evaluation system over the past five years and the School Department now has a record of evaluating nearly all of its teachers every year. The instrument has a improvement plan which gives teachers and evaluators specific instructions on where they can get help if needed, Collins said.

Collins and Holyoke Superintendent David L. Dupont said they are concerned about overwhelming the evaluators, who are mainly principals.

“The immediate impact is the amount of work that will be put on principals. How do you handle all the things people have to do?,” Dupont said.

He said he is also waiting for more information about how art, foreign language, music and early elementary teachers are going to be evaluated, since there is no MCAS test for them.

David Dupont

Dupont, who was reached Sunday, said he also had not seen Chester’s recommendations but he said his biggest concern is hearing that chronically underperforming Level 4 schools, must start the new evaluations in September.

“There should be more time for planning and in-service (training) and we have to do this for the fall with the Level 4 schools,” he said.

In his memo, Chester calls for a two-month public comment period and will ask the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to adopt regulations in June. By September 2013 each school district is to complete union negotiations and be ready to start using the new evaluations.

But the 35 Level 4 schools in the state are required to start the new evaluations this fall under his recommendations. There are two Level 4 schools in Holyoke and 10 in Springfield.

Many educators, including Dupont and Chicopee Education Association president William D. Howe, said they believe it is a good idea to have a universal evaluation process.

“I think purely from a teacher’s standpoint this will be a lot clearer,” said Howe, who also teaches English at Chicopee High School.

His union worked for 18 months to create a better teacher evaluation instrument and failed. Knowing the state was working on the project, members decided to wait for those results before trying again.

“With Race To The Top we recognize change is going to happen and we are ready for it,” he said.

But Howe said teachers are concerned if tests for students who move in mid-year will be used to judge teachers. Some schools, especially those in Springfield and Holyoke, have mobility rates which are as high as 40 percent.

“We have a high transient population and we have students who are limited English proficient,” he said. “We are trying to get some sense of how do we fairly evaluate teachers.”

Proposed Regulations on Evaluation of Educators

The School Committee wants to have an interim superintendent on board by the end of June.

LUDLOW – The School Committee hopes to have hired an interim superintendent of schools by the end of June, School Committee Chairman Michael J. Kelliher said.

The interim superintendent will replace Theresa M. Kane who will leave July 1 to take a job as superintendent of the East Windsor, Conn., public schools.

The School Committee is looking for an interim superintendent to take the job for six months, or longer if a permanent superintendent cannot be found in six months.

Consultant Patricia Correira of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees is helping the School Committee do a preliminary screening of applicants for the position. The School Committee requested a list from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees of candidates who could serve as interim superintendent.

Kelliher said the School Committee is planning to interview some finalists for the interim superintendent position either the last week of April or the first week of May. Kelliher said he wants to get an interim superintendent on board as soon as possible so Kane and the interim superintendent can work together to provide a transition before Kane leaves.

Kane said she will be available in the summer to help ease the transition.

Correira told the School Committee in an interview that there are retired superintendents who are willing to take the job of interim superintendent.

Once an interim superintendent is hired, the School Committee will contract with a consultant to advertise and interview for a permanent school superintendent for the school district, Kelliher said.

The School Committee also has voted to advertise for two elementary principals. The principal positions at East Street School and Veterans Park School will be advertised for 30 days.

Two search committees will interview for the principal positions, and it will be up to the interim superintendent to appoint the new principals in July, Kelliher said.

Before Fritsch could be considered, voters would have decide to recall Selectman George Archible.

Richard Fritsch

BELCHERTOWN – Richard J. Fritsch, a retired firefighter, had been planning to run for the Board of Selectmen before recall efforts were started against three selectmen and has decided to run for the two years remaining in the term of Selectman George D. Archible, one of the recall targets.

For this contest to be counted, voters would first have to vote in a majority to recall Archible.

If that happens, the rest of his term would be served by whoever wins the contest between Archible, Fritsch and William J. Huber.

Fritsch said he was not involved with the recall petition process beyond signing petitions for it.

The recall drives were started against Archible and Selectmen James A. Barry and Kenneth E. Elstein in response to their original votes against offering a contract renewal package to Police Chief Francis R. Fox Jr., votes that were that were ultimately rescinded.

Fritsch said the selectmen would have been within the bounds of their office to decide against offering a new contract to Fox, but he said it was wrong of these three selectmen to try to replace Fox without telling him what was wrong.

If elected, Fritsch said he wants to look for ways to trim an already tight town budget.

He said he would look for duplication of efforts in the School Department as a first place to come up with budget reductions.

Fritsch said he would focus on trying to attract high-tech businesses to Belchertown.

With a strong school system and with colleges and the University of Massachusetts nearby, Fritsch said the town should make an effort to attract research and development operations from high-tech businesses that deal with communications, data storage and renewable energy.

Fritsch said his style as a selectman would be to ask a lot of questions and do extensive research before making decisions.

Fritsch, 59, was born and raised in Chicopee and moved three years ago to Belchertown, where he has family roots because his grandfather owned a farm in town.

He was a firefighter in the Air Force and for the city of Springfield and Westover Air Reserve Base before retiring three years ago.

Fritsch was on the Chicopee Comprehensive High School Building Commission and has served on the Belchertown Personnel Board but has never run for public office before.

He has been active in Belchertown as a basketball referee and with Boy Scout Troop 507.

Coach Gary Huggett: "They learn to think on their feet. They learn how to analyze, how to logically progress."

Don GTreeger ./ The RepublicanCoach Gary Huggett, foreground, meets with some of the 17 students in the Mock Trial team at Pioneer Valley Peforming Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley. The team won the Massachusetts Mock Trial Championship recently.

SOUTH HADLEY – As soon as the news hit the public address system at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School on April 1, everyone began screaming and dancing.

Moments earlier, the school’s mock trial team had won the statewide 2011 Mock Trial Championship in Boston, defeating Boston Latin.

Now the team is trying to raise money to send eight of its members to the National Mock Trial Championship in Phoenix on May 4-8.

Administered by the Massachusetts Bar Association, the state Mock Trial program is in its 26th year. Participating teams are assigned a hypothetical case in November and then train for all the roles – attorney, witness, defendant.

“They learn to think on their feet,” said Gary Huggett, team coach at Performing Arts. “They learn how to analyze, how to logically progress. It teaches them the court system and how to argue in a coherent fashion.”

The 17 members of the Performing Arts team sharpened their skills in class twice a week and also after school.

While some may think actors, dancers, poets and other creative youths are ill-suited for courtroom battle, the state champs beg to differ. “We have confidence,” said junior Sam Farnsworth, of Belchertown.

“It’s really like acting,” said eighth-grader Kayleen Welch, of Westfield. “You have to pretend to be a character.”

“You have to think creatively to fill in the blanks,” said Rafael Fields, a junior from Northampton. “You have to captivate your audience, yet at the same time appear nonchalant.”

After preliminary rounds, schools were narrowed down to 16 regional teams that then competed in Boston.

Days after they won, the victory is still sweet for the Performing Arts School. “You can’t walk down the hall without getting a round of applause,” said Welch.

It will cost more than $5,000 to send eight members of the team and their two coaches to Phoenix. The Massachusetts Bar Association will contribute $2,500.

In these pinched times, the school can’t foot the rest of the bill, so donations are welcome.

Also, a portion of proceeds from a Friends of PVPA raffle to benefit the school will go toward the Mock Trial trip. Raffle tickets are $100, but the prize is majorly awesome.

Four field box tickets for a historic May 20 Red Sox vs. Chicago Cubs game will be raffled off. The Cubs have not played at Fenway Park since 1918. The school will print 300 raffle tickets. They’ll go on sale April 11.

Members of the winning Mock Trial team also include team captain Hannah Sokoloff-Rubin, Gabriella Magnani, Jake Engram and Noah Loving, all of Amherst; Ian Fox, Alana Young and Kayla Smith, of Belchertown; John Tyler and Nathaniel Matthews, of Hadley; Gabe Benevento-Levin, of Pelham, Graham Weston, of Hatfield, Rosemary Tropeano, of Westfield, Grace Chamberlin of Chesterfield and Hannah McNeight, of Williamsburg.

Sokoloff-Rubin, Fields, Fox, Farnsworth, Matthews, Tyler, Weston and Young have been selected for the Phoenix trip.

The minority party in the Connecticut General Assembly is planning to unveil its' own state budget proposal, one the Republicans say does not need to raise taxes to cover the deficit.

(AP Photo/Douglas Healey)An aerial view of the Connecticut State Capitol Building in Hartford.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The minority party in the Connecticut General Assembly is planning to unveil its' own state budget proposal, one the Republicans say does not need to raise taxes to cover the deficit.

The majority Democrats appears poised to pass a plan that raises taxes by $1.5 billion next fiscal year, but Senate Minority Leader John McKinney of Fairfield says Republican lawmakers want to point out there's a different vision for how state government should be run.

He says the GOP plan, to be released on Tuesday, cuts the number of state agencies and state employees and scales back various programs. McKinney says the plan does not raise taxes and does not borrow any money to cover the projected $3.5 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Vermont state fire investigators are still working to determine what sparked a blaze that destroyed the historic Brooks House complex on Main street in Brattleboro Sunday.

In this April 17, 2011 photo released by the Brattleboro Fire Department, firefighters battle flames at a fire in Brattleboro, Vt. Police say there were no apparent injuries in the fire in a Brattleboro building that had 59 residential units. (AP Photo/Brattleboro Fire Department, Jason Henske)

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — Main Street in the Vermont town of Brattleboro remained closed to traffic Monday while officials assessed the damage to the historic Brooks House building that was heavily damaged by an overnight fire.

It appears that 53 of the 59 residences in the five-story building were occupied, although it's unclear how many people were left homeless by the fire, which was reported at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday, officials said.

The fire was discovered on the fourth floor and it spread to the fifth. Fire Departments and emergency crews from New Hampshire and Massachusetts also responded to the fire, which was not fully contained until 6 a.m.

Fire crews remained on the scene throughout the day.

(Submittted Photo by Tim Sanborn)This image submitted by MassLive visitor Tim Sanborn shows the various fire departments still on the scene on Main street in Brattleboro early Monday morning.

"It's a really tough blow for Brattleboro," said Gov. Peter Shumlin, who toured the scene Monday.

"Initially there was talk of tearing the structure down, but the governor and others urged the owner to keep the building intact and seriously focus on renovating the historic structure, which has a brick exterior," said Shumlin spokeswoman Susan Allen, who visited with him.

State housing and development officials were in Brattleboro to help determine the extent of the damage and the options for redevelopment and finding the displaced residents places to live, Allen said.

Three firefighters were treated for minor injuries. Shumlin called it "extraordinary" that no one inside was injured.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.

This undated postcard shows the Brooks House building back when it was the largest hotels in New England.

Main Street between the Junction and the Municipal Center will remain closed until the structural analysis is complete. High and Elliott Streets, from Main Street to east of the Harmony Lot, are also closed.

Pedestrian traffic along these routes is also restricted. Parking in the area is limited and the Harmony Lot is closed.

Due to the high volume of water utilized to fight the fire citizens may notice a decrease in water pressure.

A Massachusetts corrections officer has been arrested on allegations that he attempted to smuggle heroin to sell to inmates at a medium-security prison near Boston.

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts corrections officer has been arrested on allegations that he attempted to smuggle heroin to sell to inmates at a medium-security prison near Boston.

Ronald McGinn Jr. of Bridgewater was charged Monday with possession of heroin with intent to distribute at MCI-Norfolk.

U.S. District Attorney Carmen Ortiz says the 40-year-old sent text messages and discussed with an undercover FBI agent the amounts he would smuggle into the prison and fees he would charge to do so. He was arrested Monday afternoon in possession of 28 grams of heroin.

The investigation began after a Massachusetts Department of Corrections officer told the FBI that someone was smuggling contraband to the facility about 25 miles southwest of Boston.

It was not immediately clear if McGinn has legal representation. He faces up to 20 years in prison on conviction.

Top nuclear industry officials maintain the public has nothing to fret about - that the NRC is a tough regulator that asks tough questions.

Editor's note: This series is a collaboration between the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (www.necir-bu.org), a nonprofit investigative newsroom based at Boston University.

By SHAY TOTTEN | New England Center for Investigative Reporting

Internal government watchdogs and outside experts alike say the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is too lenient on the industry it is charged with regulating, often making decisions based on the industry’s profit margins rather than safety.

The charges are similar to complaints leveled against the Mine Health Safety Administration and the Minerals Management Service over the past year, after high-profile tragedies - the Upper Big Branch Mine collapse and the Deepwater Horizon spill - in the industries they are responsible for regulating.

In the wake of the events in Japan, there is a heightened sense of concern throughout the United States that a similar meltdown could occur, particularly in New England where reactors similar to those in Japan remain in operation.

Top nuclear industry officials maintain the public has nothing to fret about - that the NRC is a tough regulator that asks tough questions. NRC critics counter that the agency might ask tough questions, but is all too willing to accept easy answers.

Concerns about the NRC’s oversight are nothing new. A clear illustration is a series of reports issued since 2002 by the NRC’s internal inspector general and the U.S. General Accountability Office related to a near-catastrophe at Davis-Besse, a nuclear reactor on the shores of Lake Erie.

This photo provided by FirstEnergy shows the hole found in the Davis-Besse reactor's 6.5-inch-thick carbon steel reactor lid.

From those reports:

• In 2002 the GAO found the NRC weighed the financial impacts of its safety-related decisions on the industry’s bottom line - stalling a forced reactor shutdown at Davis-Besse because the NRC fretted about the impact on the plant owner’s finances and the “black eye” an emergency shutdown might give the industry.

• In 2004 the GAO found that little had changed within the NRC’s safety and inspection culture since Davis-Besse. An internal NRC task force failed to look at more agency-wide issues uncovered during their post-mortem review, the GAO found.

• In 2009, the inspector general found that key NRC staff couldn’t name the four core areas of improvement the NRC had identified to better protect the public’s health and safety after Davis-Besse incident. In fact, the inspector general discovered many NRC staff didn’t know the “lessons learned” project existed.

A report issued last month by the nuclear watchdog group, the Union of Concerned Scientists, found 14 “near misses” at U.S. nuclear reactors in 2010, with the NRC’s response to some critical errors less than reassuring.

“If you still believe that the NRC is a nuclear watchdog, you are probably still sending your money to Bernie Madoff,” said Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear-industry executive turned whistleblower.

Key safety rule weakened

As detailed earlier in this series, an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting and Hearst Connecticut Media Group found the NRC has routinely allowed operators to pack spent fuel rods into cooling pools far beyond the pools’ original licensed capacity and design basis, rather than forcing the plant owners to move the fuel into safer but more costly dry casks.

But the investigation also has found that the NRC has weakened a key, decades-old safety standard, potentially saving owners tens of millions of dollars by removing a key requirement that could avert a nuclear tragedy.

The failing reactors at Fukushima Diiachi in Japan are of the General Electric Mark 1 design. There are 23 such reactors in operation in the U.S, including Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vt., and Pilgrim in Plymouth, Mass.

NRC Chairman Gregory Jazcko told a panel of U.S. senators recently during a congressional hearing that the NRC had required upgrades of the Mark 1 model in the U.S. that would prevent some of the failures seen in Japan.

Still, additional concerns with the Mark 1, as well as Mark 2 and Mark 3 boiling water reactors, have arisen thanks to the recent change in safety rules.

In 2005, both Gundersen and David Lochbaum, a former nuclear operator and now a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, questioned the NRC’s decision to allow some nuclear power operators the ability to use their containment vessel as a way to help cool a reactor before turning to emergency cooling water pumps.

If the containment vessel is allowed to absorb heat from reactor and spent fuel pool water, the overall pressure could add stress to the concrete containment shell, increasing the risk of a failure, Lochbaum and Gundersen contend.

While the analogy isn’t perfect, said Lochbaum, think of a plastic bottle half filled with soda. If you stick a straw down into the soda, you can drink the soda. But, if you put your thumb over the top and shake it up vigorously, the bottle is filled with foam. If you stick a straw into the foam region, you don’t get soda.

That, in a nutshell is what happens inside a boiling water reactor (BWR). Trying to use emergency pumps without containment pressure is like drinking foam from a soda bottle with a straw, added Gundersen.

“In the old days, we had protection, and nowadays, we’re relying on one thing, the containment remaining intact. If that’s gone, we lose our ability to cool the reactor cores, and we also open up a pathway for radiation to be released to the environment,” said Lochbaum.

NRC staff and industry officials disagree. In multiple filings, including an allowance at Vermont Yankee, the NRC claims BWR containment vessels can absorb additional heat for short periods of time without causing a drop in the reactor pressure levels necessary to push water through emergency pumps.

The Republican | John SuchockiThe Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vt., from across the Connecticut River in Hinsdale, N.H. Although it uses the same General Electric Mark I reactor as the at Fukushima Daiichi reactor in Japan that was damaged as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Vernon plant has undergone a number of safety upgrades since it went into service.

“These credits were granted to some licensees on their original licenses, so this issue is not new,” said Tony Pietrangelo, senior vice president and chief nuclear operator, of the Nuclear Energy Institute. The NEI is the industry’s chief lobbying and trade association. “I know there is some disagreement, but the NRC has reviewed this issue extensively.”

It’s not just external critics who disagree with the NRC’s position. The NRC’s own internal Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards has objected to the policy and believes the new stance is a “serious compromise” of reactor safeguards.

Lochbaum contends the NRC is unnecessarily putting industry profits ahead of public safety.

“The NRC sold out the American public in order to boost profits of companies,” said Lochbaum. “It’s put millions of Americans at undue and elevated risk, and it was done simply for business purposes instead of safety. There’s no excuse for doing that.”

Lessons learned - or ignored?

NRC’s blurring of lines between public safety and company profits isn’t a concern only raised by outside agitators.

The closest the U.S. has come to full-scale core reactor meltdown was in February 2002 when workers at the Davis-Besse reactor in Ohio found a pineapple-sized cavity in the reactor’s vessel head - a cavity caused by leaking boric acid used, in part, to help cool the reactor.

Davis-Besse’s owner, FirstEnergy Corp., had sought, and received, permission from the NRC to remain open 45 days beyond a required end-of-year inspection date.

This photo provided by FirstEnergy shows an aerial view of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Carroll Township, Ohio. The plant's reactor was close to failure when corrosion was discovered.

The NRC allowed FirstEnergy to remain in operation beyond the end of 2001 to conduct a more thorough inspection of boric acid-related damage during a scheduled February 2002 refueling.

In 2002 the OIG found the NRC backed away from forcing FirstEnergy to shut down Davis-Besse prior to the refueling because the NRC fretted about the impact on FirstEnergy’s finances and the “black eye” it might have on the industry as a whole.

It took two years, and millions of dollars in improvements, before Davis-Besse restarted in 2004.

The same year, a separate GAO report found that an internal NRC task force missed an opportunity to learn lessons from the Davis-Besse incident.

“Because the Davis-Besse task force did not address NRC’s unwillingness to directly assess licensee safety culture, we are concerned that NRC’s oversight will continue to be reactive rather than proactive. NRC’s oversight can result in NRC making a determination that a licensee’s performance is good one day, yet the next day NRC discovers the performance to be unacceptably risky to public health and safety. Such a situation does not occur overnight,” the GAO concluded in 2004.

An NRC spokesman disagrees.

“The NRC is a learning organization and always strives to incorporate lessons learned from previous events and developments,” said spokesman Neil Sheehan. “In the case of the reactor head corrosion identified at Davis-Besse in 2002, the NRC formed a Lessons Learned Task Force that produced more than 50 recommendations, 21 of which were considered high-priority.”

A 2009 OIG report found otherwise: Key NRC staff responsible for disseminating information about the Lessons Learned Task Force couldn’t name the four core areas of improvement the NRC had identified to better protect the public’s health and safety, according to the OIG report.

NEI’s Pietrangelo said it’s not just luck that has kept the U.S. safe from a serious accident since Three Mile Island in 1979.

“They are tough regulators who are devoted to their public health and safety mission and are not afraid to bring down a plant if it is not safe to operate,” said Pietrangelo. “I say, don’t look the reports, look at the record. We’re operating now at record levels of safety for a decade and the proof is in the performance.”

Lochbaum and the Union for Concerned Scientists think the NRC can be an effective regulator - if it forces the industry to live up to existing rules and regulations and not grant exemptions.

A UCS report of safety problems issued last month found 14 “near misses” at U.S. nuclear power plants, a high number for what Lochbaum calls a “mature industry.”

“This overview shows that many of these significant events occurred because reactor owners, and often the NRC, tolerated known safety problems,” the report said.

The report highlighted both effective and ineffective responses by the NRC to safety problems, including an ineffective response at Vermont Yankee, where the agency allowed the release of radioactively contaminated air in ways that had forced shutdowns at other reactors.

“The chances of a disaster at a nuclear power plant are low and current events remind us how important it is to keep them that way,” notes the report’s executive summary. “The NRC is capable of functioning as a highly effective watchdog, but ... much work remains to be done before the agency can fulfill that role as consistently as the public has a right to expect.”

A Chinese farmer has appealed the death sentence he was given for raping 116 women, a state-run newspaper said Tuesday.

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese farmer has appealed the death sentence he was given for raping 116 women, a state-run newspaper said Tuesday.

Dai Qingcheng, 46, was given the death penalty in December for raping the women between 1993 and 2009 in Anhui province in eastern China, the China Daily reported.

The paper said he appealed to the Higher People's Court of Anhui, but did not say when the case would be heard.

Dai usually preyed on the wives of migrant workers who had gone to bigger cities for work, the report said. His victims ranged from young girls to women in their 50s and included a woman who was six months pregnant.

The China Daily quoted police as saying Dai evaded capture for so long because some of his victims were too ashamed to go to the police.

Dai's lawyer at his trial, Ming Tian, told the newspaper that he did not expect the appeal to be successful because there was no new evidence. He did not say what Dai was basing his appeal on.

Calls to the court rang unanswered Tuesday.

Global automakers unveiled ambitious expansion plans for China on Tuesday, targeting the country's newly prosperous drivers as the industry struggles to recover from Japan's tsunami.

FILE - In this Dec. 23, 2010 file photo, customers open a car's engine hood to check interior parts at a used car market in Beijing. Global automakers are bringing their flashiest SUVs, luxury sedans and electric concept cars to Auto Shanghai, the country's biggest auto show of the year opening on April 21, 2011, as the industry reels from disruptions caused by Japan's tsunami. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

By KELVIN CHAN, AP Business Writer

SHANGHAI (AP) — Global automakers unveiled ambitious expansion plans for China on Tuesday, targeting the country's newly prosperous drivers as the industry struggles to recover from Japan's tsunami.

Nissan Motor Co. said it plans to raise sales by about 15 percent to 1.15 million vehicles this year, said CEO Carlos Ghosn. He spoke as the company unveiled the new Tiida sedan, one of a series of world premieres at Shanghai's auto show by automakers that reflect China's critical importance to their sales.

China is the biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold and is the biggest for General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG, Nissan and other major brands. Automakers are looking to China to drive future sales as growth slows in Western markets, and producers are creating models aimed at China's fast-growing population of car buyers.

"We are paying close attention to what they want and what they need," Ghosn said. He said Nissan is investing heavily to expand production to meet booming demand.

FILE - In this file photo taken Jan. 25, 2011 photo, an assembly line worker puts a battery, seen right under the body, to a Nissan Motor Co.'s electric vehicle Leaf at the Japanese automaker's Oppama plant in Yokosuka near Tokyo. Nissan plans to resume auto and parts production at more Japanese factories next the week of March 17, 2011, but it may be several months before inventories and other elements of the country's auto industry return to normal.(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, file)

GM said it plans to double the number of cars it sells in China to 5 million by 2015. GM China President Kevin Wale called the target "ambitious" and "aggressive" but he said he's optimistic it could be achieved because of low vehicle ownership rates and a strong economy.

The company will roll out 60 new or upgraded models in China over the next five years, many aimed at newly middle class drivers.

In a sign of China's importance to GM, the company chose the Shanghai auto show for the world premier of its best-selling Malibu midsized sedan, which it plans to sell in nearly 100 countries.

Ford Motor Co. announced plans to launch 15 new vehicles in China by 2015 and double the number of dealerships as it seeks to gain more market share in China. The company currently has 340 dealers in China.

"The new nameplates will significantly strengthen Ford's penetration in existing segments and drive new growth in others," said Ford China CEO Joe Hinrichs.

Automakers have been hit by production halts and slowdowns because of supply chain disruptions stemming from a devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan's industrial northeast on March 11. The disaster killed 25,000 people, destroyed towns, upended a nuclear reactor, and decimated scores of businesses and factories. The region also had a high concentration of auto parts suppliers that were hit.

Daimler's Japanese production was interrupted for more than a month and it is slowly restarting now, CEO Dieter Zetsche said. He said the recovery efforts are looking "promising these days."

GM executives said they have experienced "minimal" impact on production, and a team of more than 200 people around the world is monitoring the situation.

___

AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed to this report.