Vega is in his 2nd term on the City Council and Kane has held the legislative seat since 2001.

State Rep. Michael Kane, D-Holyoke, left, and Holyoke City Councilor Aaron Vega

HOLYOKE – City Councilor at Large Aaron M. Vega is running for state representative.

Vega, a Democrat, said Thursday in an email he is running in the fall election for the seat held since 2001 by state Rep. Michael F. Kane, D-Holyoke.

“I believe there is great momentum, energy and spirit here in Holyoke, and I’m ready to carry that energy to Beacon Hill,” Vega said.

Vega in January began his second two-year term on the council. He and wife Debra Vega own Vega Yoga and Movement Arts, 4 Open Square Way.

His official campaign announcement will be Feb. 14 at 10 a.m. at Holyoke Heritage State Park on Appleton Street, he said.

Vega’s campaign website is vegaforholyoke.com.

Kane has held the 5th Hampden District seat since defeating Evelyn Chesky in the 2000 election. He had been Ward 5 city councilor from 1996 to 2000.

Kane said he will announce his plan to run for re-election in the spring.

“But at this point, there are important issues we’re working on like health care payment reform, the budget and economic development,” Kane said.

The representative’s yearly salary is $61,133.

Vega said he would bring experience, leadership and fresh ideas to the seat, “and will always continue to listen to all the residents of Holyoke and be a voice of positive change for our city.”

He is chairman of the council Redevelopment Committee and succeeded in getting a public comment period established before City Council meetings.

The primary election is Sept. 6, to narrow the field of candidates if there is more than one from a party, and the general election is Nov. 6.

Police said there was no obvious signs of homicide but police are awaiting the results of the medical examiner's report to determine the cause of death.

The Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD - Police continue to investigate the death of a 38-year-old city woman found at the foot of steps leading to the basement of The Progressive Community Chapel at 599 State St. Wednesday afternoon.

Police Sgt. John M. Delaney said there was no obvious signs of homicide but police are awaiting the results of the medical examiner's report to determine the cause of death. Police consider it an "unattended death."

He said while the steps lead to rest rooms, some people have used the stairway as a refuge to use drugs.

The Detective Bureau is investigating. The woman's name is being withheld for notification of family.

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School Committee Vice Chairman Christopher Collins said that the composition of a 13-member search committee has been established, and members will be appointed in the next few weeks.

Christopher Collins

SPRINGFIELD – The first stage of a national search for Superintendent Alan J. Ingram’s replacement will begin next week with hearings to gather suggestions and opinions from the public.

School Committee Vice Chairman Christopher Collins said Thursday the composition of a 13-member search committee has been established, and members will be appointed in the next few weeks.

The committee hopes to hire a new superintendent by early June, according to Collins, who urged the public to attend meetings or fill out on-line surveys to give the committee guidance in its search.

“We want to hear what skills and qualities they believe the next superintendent should possess – and what they believe are the important issues” facing the city’s school system, Collins said.

The first meeting will be Tuesday, at Chestnut Middle School, between 5:30 and 7 p.m. for residents of Wards 1 and 3.

The next session will be Wednesday, at Central High School, between 3:30 and 5:30 for teachers and staff; on Thursday, a meeting will be at Central between 5:30 and 7 p.m. for students.

A fourth session will be Feb. 14, at the Rebecca M. Johnson School, between 5:30 and 7:30, for residents of Wards 4 and 5.

Meetings with Wards 2, 6,7 and 8 and the business community will be held later in the month, but no dates have been set, Collins said.

To prevent conflicts, the meeting for school staff at Central on Feb. 8 will be conducted by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Collins said.

Information from sessions will be used to develop a profile of the school district and the desired candidate to be used in advertisements, Collins said.

In addition, residents can fill out a survey to be posted on the School Department’s web site.

The search committee will consist of 3 parents; 3 members from the community; 2 representatives from the business community; 2 teachers and 2 school administrators; and 1 student, Collins said.

Serving on the committee will require a major short-term time commitment, with anyone missing a meeting being dropped from the search, Collins said.

Appointments to the committee will be made in the next few weeks, Collins said,

To prevent conflicts, the meeting for school staff at Central on Feb. 8 will be conducted by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Collins said.

Ingram announced last summer that he would resign in June, at the end of his four-year contract.

The Republican presidential candidate said he was glad to get the support, but seemed bemused to be caught up in the Trumpian drama.

This is an updated version of a story posted at 2:39 this afternoon.

Photo by Gerald Herber / Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, flanked by Donald Trump, and Romney's wife Ann, speaks at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Thursday where Trump endorses Romney.

By BETH FOUHY

LAS VEGAS – With his trademark flair for spectacle, Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday on the famed Las Vegas strip – just hours after Newt Gingrich’s advisers were spreading the word that The Donald would be anointing him instead.

Trump’s endorsement seemed likely to affect this Saturday’s Nevada caucuses – and the GOP nomination fight in general – about as much as a Sin City breeze disturbs the real estate mogul’s legendary hair. But he managed to create a stir of a different sort, at least for a day.

Romney said he was glad to get the support, but he seemed almost bemused to be caught up in the Trumpian drama.

“There are some things you just can’t imagine happening. This is one of them,” Romney said with a smile, looking out at the reporters and cameras jammed into the lobby of the hotel complex that bears Trump’s name. The real estate mogul had entered to applause, with Romney and his wife, Ann, at his side

“Mitt is tough, he’s smart, he’s sharp and he’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love,” Trump said. He vigorously shook Romney’s hand and said, “Go out and get ‘em. You can do it.”

But the endorsement was just the finale for a puzzling chain of events that began Wednesday when Trump’s office announced he would be flying to Las Vegas for a “major announcement” related to the presidential contest. Trump had announced last spring he would not run for the Republican nomination but had hinted as recently as last month that he might run for president as an independent.

What would he say in Las Vegas? Gingrich advisers suggested Trump had sent “signals” that he planned endorse the former House speaker. The Gingrich team began leaking word of an impending endorsement to news organizations including The Associated Press.

Nope. Reporters learned Thursday that Trump would be endorsing Romney instead.

Earlier, on a tour of a Las Vegas manufacturing facility, Gingrich made clear he had gotten the message.

“No,” the former House speaker replied when asked if he was expecting Trump’s endorsement. He added that he was amazed at the attention Trump was getting.

Romney hasn’t always been Trump’s man.

In an interview with CNN last April, Trump dismissed Romney as a “small business guy” and suggested Bain Capital, the venture capital firm where Romney made his millions, had bankrupted companies and destroyed jobs.

“He’d buy companies, he’d close companies, he’d get rid of jobs,” Trump said.

Romney, for his part, turned down an invitation to participate in a presidential debate that Trump planned to moderate in Iowa in December, leading Trump to cancel the event. And while Romney, like most of the GOP hopefuls, visited Trump at his office in Manhattan to discuss campaign strategy, he slipped in and out of the building without speaking to reporters.

Trump has played an unusually prominent role in the presidential contest since last spring, when he mused publicly about joining the Republican field.

He also stirred controversy and considerable criticism during that time by openly questioning the validity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, lending credence to the chorus of “birthers” who say Obama was not born in the United States and not eligible to be president. The fuss pushed Obama to release a long-form version of his birth certificate, showing he was born in Hawaii in 1961.

The president dismissed Trump as a “carnival barker” and then memorably skewered him at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, which Trump attended.

On Thursday, Romney said he was honored to receive the endorsement, but hoped even more to win the support of Nevada voters. The state holds presidential caucuses Saturday.

Trump, for his part, called Gingrich “a wonderful person” but said he had decided to endorse Romney two weeks ago.

“He’s a friend of mine, I like him a lot. I respect him a lot. But this is the way I went,” Trump said.

Trump said China policy was a key factor in his decision to back Romney. Trump has often accused China of manipulating its currency and “cheating” the U.S. – a theme Romney has echoed on the campaign trail.

At a later event, Romney criticized the Obama administration on a different point of foreign policy – the possibility of releasing several inmates from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an incentive for the Taliban to join peace talks.

“A sign of good faith? Are you kidding me? A sign of good faith to our enemy?” Romney said.

Trump, a multimillionaire and host of a reality show where he famously proclaims “You’re fired,” said he wasn’t worried that his endorsement would hurt Romney, another wealthy businessman whose opponents have criticized as out-of touch.

“I really think he does connect, and he’s starting to connect really well,” Trump said.

Democrats, for their part, signaled they believe Trump’s endorsement of Romney could work against him. The campaign sent out video of the endorsement event on the president’s Twitter feed, with no added comment.

Rival candidate Rick Santorum said of the Trump endorsement, with no small amount of sarcasm: “I can’t imagine Donald Trump being hypocritical. That would be totally out of character for Donald Trump.”

Santorum added: “You know, Donald Trump does things for one reason and we all know what that reason is. And I think people the people of Nevada are smart enough to figure out who they’re going to vote for. It’s not going to be based on what Donald Trump recommends.”

Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt, Shannon McCaffrey and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.

Police made the arrest after following the car from Maple Street.

File photo

HOLYOKE – Three Vermont residents were arrested on drug charges on Cherry Street Thursday, police said.

Police had the vehicle containing two men and a woman under surveillance on Maple Street and made the arrest at 92 Cherry St. at 6:44 p.m., Lt. Matthew F. Moriarty said.

Christopher Scott-Smith, 18, of White River Junction, Vt., was charged with possession of heroin, possession to distribute heroin, drug violation for being near a school or 100 feet near a park and conspiracy to violate the drug law, Moriarty said.

Victoria Thompson, 18, of White River Junction, Vt., was charged with conspiracy to violate the drug law, he said.

Hunter Truell, 18, of Hartford, Vt., was charged with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and conspiracy to violate the drug law, he said.

They are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Holyoke District Court, he said.

Here are the average energy prices in the Pioneer Valley for the week ending today.

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Fried Oppenheim, taking the stand in his own defense, maintained his innocence throughout, saying that he never committed any of the acts described by the witnesses or confessed them to anyone.

The Republican | Michael BeswickDavid Fried Oppenheim listens to a question as he testifies on Friday during his trial on child rape charges in Hampshire Superior Court in Northampton.

NORTHAMPTON – Five witnesses in the David Fried Oppenheim child rape trial testified that he either admitted his sexual escapades to them or had sex with them, including one who said she was 14 and 15 at the time.

Fried Oppenheim, taking the stand in his own defense, maintained his innocence, saying none of it is true.

Someone has been telling big lies in Hampshire Superior Court, and now it's up to a jury of 12 to decide who that is.

Fried Oppenheim, 38, faces five counts of child rape, each regarding a different kind of sex act, involving a girl who acted at the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton, which the defendant founded. The alleged victim, now 20, said Fried Oppenheim developed a sexual relationship with her while teaching her an acting method he invented called "primitives," in which he urged her to keep a journal describing her physical reactions to emotional situations.

Other prosecution witnesses in the case include a woman who said she had sex with Fried Oppenheim more than 100 times while she was 17 and acting at PACE and another who testified that Fried Oppenheim told her she was "hot" and offered to waive her fees for the center in exchange for sex.

Two other witnesses told a jury that Fried Oppenheim admitted to them his liaison with the underage girl, including one who produced copies of an instant message exchange in which a person purported to be the defendant described having sex with the 14-year-old girl in lurid detail.

Fried Oppenheim, who testified on his own behalf, denied all of it, saying he never had sex with either the alleged victim or the other woman and that he never confessed such a relationship to anyone. Members of his family, who also testified for the defense, painted a picture of a bustling art center where it would have been impossible to have sex without being seen. They also depicted the prosecution witnesses as needy, attention-seeking and untrustworthy.

In his closing argument Friday, defense lawyer David P. Hoose picked up on that theme, suggesting that the witnesses – four young women and one who has transitioned from female to male – made up their stories for various reasons.

"They're all little actresses," he said. "They're into the drama."

Hoose contended that none of the testimony about instant messages or telephone calls with the defendant have been forensically corroborated and called the charges against his client "Kafkaesque."

"Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the last refuge of an innocent man," he said, "and no case can illustrate that better than this case."

Hoose described to the jury an alleged victim who did not come forward with her complaint against Fried Oppenheim until several years after the fact, when she was under stress at college in New York. Citing the woman's testimony that she threw out the potentially incriminating journal she kept for her "primitives" experience, he called the act "preposterous." Hoose suggested that the allegations didn't arise until the alleged victim was having a crisis with her boyfriend.

"No one who is sexually molested at 14 can fail to show some symptom of it to the people around them," he said.

Hoose attempted to cast similar doubt on the testimony of the other witnesses, calling the transgender witness "a professional at fooling people."

"At the end of the day," he said, "all we have here are just actresses."

Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Linda Pisano called Hoose's theory about the alleged victim's timing "ludicrous." Taking issue with Hoose's interpretation of the woman's demeanor on the stand, she invited the jury to decide for themselves whether or not she was credible. During her first day of testimony, the judge called a recess when the woman broke down on the stand describing her alleged anal rape.

"All the evidence you need is if you believe her," she said.

However, Pisano said, her testimony was backed up by no fewer than four other witnesses who had been at PACE. She also cited testimony by the alleged victim's parents that they drove her to the center on almost a daily basis, far more frequently than Fried Oppenheim said she was there.

Pisano's closing picked up on her cross-examination of the defendant, which had just taken place on Friday. During that often tense questioning, Fried Oppenheim maintained that nearly all the damning testimony against him was false. He only qualified his stance when asked about the testimony of the woman who said he suggested she give him sex in exchange for fees. In that case, Fried Oppenheim acknowledged he might have made some inappropriate remarks but said he couldn't remember exactly what he said because he was ill at the time.

The cause of the blaze, reported mid-morning Friday, remains under investigation.

Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanLudlow - 2-3-12 - Investigators continue to probe cause of fire that heavily damaged a home at 72 Prospect Gardens Friday morning. A father and son safely escaped the blaze and called 911.

This updates a story originally filed at 10:52 a.m.

LUDLOW - Investigators continue to probe the cause of a fire that caused extensive damage to a Prospect Gardens home Friday morning.

The owner of the home at 72 Prospect Gardens and his son safely escaped the burning raised-ranch-style home and called 911 shortly after 10:15 a.m., Fire Capt. John Moll said.

The fire started in the basement area and was spreading up the stairwell to the upper level when firefighters arrived, Moll said.

Firefighters remained at the scene Friday afternoon. State Trooper David Percy is assisting the Ludlow Fire Department with the investigation.

The fire department called all off-duty personnel back in to fight the blaze and an engine from Wilbraham provided coverage to the town.

Moll said it’s not immediately clear where the fire started in the lower level. That area consists of a garage, utility room and living area.

Prospect Gardens, a one-way street, was closed for a time while firefighters fought the blaze. Prospect Gardens is off West Street and the property abuts the Massachusetts Turnpike

Actress Roseanne Barr said she's been fighting for working-class families and women for decades.

FILE - In this July 13, 2011, file photo, actress Roseanne Barr attends a special screening of 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' hosted by the Cinema Society at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York. Barr is running for the Green Party's presidential nomination, and she says it's no joke. The actress-comedian said in a statement Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012, that she's a longtime supporter of the party and looks forward to working with people who share her values. She said Democrats and Republicans aren't working in the best interests of the American people. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

Actress Roseanne Barr has filed paperwork to be a presidential nominee representing the Green Party.

The Green Party is expected to choose its nominee at its convention July 12-15 in Baltimore. Barr tweeted Thursday that she'll continue to run until the convention, when she expects Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to win the nomination.

Barr said she has being fighting for working-class families and women for decades. She tweeted Thursday, "my hope is that america can return to the brilliant middle of the road away from all of these idealogues& radical extremists on both sides!"

In a questionnaire submitted to the Green Party, Barr wrote, "I will barnstorm American living rooms. Mainstream media will be unable to ignore me, but more importantly they will be unable to overlook the needs of average Americans in the run-up to the 2012 election."

Barr most recently appeared last year on Lifetime's "Roseanne's Nuts," a one-season reality show about her macadamia nut farm in Hawaii. Barr has also sold to NBC the show "Downwardly Mobile," featuring her as a resident of a mobile home community. She won an Emmy and Golden Globe for her show "Roseanne" about a blue-collar family, which ran from 1988 to 1997.

Watch Barr reading her presidential candidacy announcement in Washington, D.C., below (Editor's note: Warning, video contains some profanity):

The demolition contractor's supervisor said 60 to 80 percent of the wood, metal and other materials from the building will be recycled. Watch video

The Republican | Don TreegerEdwin Paz from J.R. Vinagro Corp. directs a stream of water to keep the dust down during demolition of the Market Square building in Chicopee.

CHICOPEE – Bricks, wood, cinderblocks, insulation and plastic collapsed as the massive jaws of a 28-foot-tall excavator ripped apart the old Market Square Billiards building at 6-20 Springfield St. across from City Hall on Friday morning.

By Monday it will all be gone, said Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette, and the city will be looking for a construction company to turn the area into a parking lot.

“We’re doing what we should have done 40 years ago,” Bissonnette told a group that had gathered to watch the demolition.

He said the building had been a fine hotel on the National Register of Historic Places during Chicopee’s golden era.

Then a fire destroyed the top two floors, and over the decades the place has deteriorated into a fire hazard and a draw for vagrants.

The original cost of demolition rose from $350,000 to $690,000 as more asbestos removal became necessary, but City Councilor Chuck Swider said it was well worth the price. “This is a great opportunity for the city,” said Swider.

“Multiple small businesses will benefit from this new landscape,” he said, citing a bakery, a dance studio and a Quicky’s restaurant among others.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for the city,” said business owner Corey Briere, who owns the building next door. He said a sparsity of parking spaces will no longer be a reason for people to avoid going downtown.

The demolition was paid for in part by a $600,000 “Smart Growth” grant from the state, earmarked for the district occupied by the Market Square building.

Bissonnette said the district includes not only the successful Munich Haus restaurant, but the old Rivoli theater, which the city plans to turn into an entertainment center.

Alan Corron, supervisor for J. R. Vinagro Corp., the demolition contractor, said it took three months to remove the asbestos in the building. The mayor compared the process to a Whac-a-Mole game. “Every time we got one problem resolved, another one came up,” Bissonnette said.

Corron said Vinagro will recycle 60 to 80 percent of the wood, metal and other materials from the building.

Hans said she only confronted the girl for hitting her 6-year-old son when school officials ignored her complaints that the kindergartner hit the little boy first.

Republican file photo

SALEM – A Salem woman has been released after pleading not guilty to boarding a school bus and hitting a 5-year-old girl she said hit her son first.

Dominique Hans was arraigned Friday in district court on charges of assault and battery and disorderly conduct. She was allowed to go free on the $1,000 bail she posted after her arrest Thursday and on the condition that she have no contact with the alleged victim or her family and stay away from the bus stop.

Hans said she only confronted the girl for hitting her 6-year-old son when school officials ignored her complaints that the kindergartner hit the little boy first. She said she did not hit the girl, but simply held her face to get her attention.

The girl was not hurt.

She said the government-affiliated mortgage giants should agree to modify existing loans to help struggling homeowners.

Martha M. Coakley

BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is urging the government-affiliated mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to agree to modify existing loans to help struggling homeowners.

In a letter Friday to the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Coakley said the agency should also allow for principal forgiveness to help prevent foreclosures.

Coakley said adopting the changes could help stabilize the nation’s housing market and give a boost to the wider economy.

Coakley said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should become leaders in the area of loan modification, not an obstruction.

Coakley’s office has brought a number of legal actions against major banks and financial institutions – including Countrywide, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs – which she said are aimed at keeping people in their homes.

Faced with austere budgets, the Air Force is refocusing and reducing the size of its forces to comply with the president’s new defense strategy.

CHICOPEE – Air Force officials announced Friday a proposal to cut half of the 439th Airlift Wing’s C-5 fleet in 2016 as a result of Pentagon budget cuts.

While the host unit 439th Airlift Wing flies 16 C-5B models, eight C-5s are slated to be transferred from Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, officials said in a prepared statement. They added, the fleet is scheduled to be upgraded by 2016 to the re-engined M-models. In the plan, Westover would retain eight of the refurbished C-5Ms.

“The proposed changes will have an operational impact on the base, but Westover will remain a viable part of the Reserve. We are committed to fulfilling our global mobility mission,” said Col. Steven Vautrain, the 439th's commander.

Faced with austere budgets, the Air Force is refocusing and reducing the size of its forces to comply with the president’s new defense strategy and the Budget Control Act’s requirements to cut $487 billion from the defense budget over the next 10 years, the Air Force said in its statement.

“We’re going to do everything we can to take care of our people as these changes occur,” said Lt. Gen. Charles E. Stenner Jr., chief of Air Force Reserve at the Pentagon. “We’re putting together programs to retain as many of our reservists as possible.”

The Air Force is scheduled to announce staffing changes caused by this force restructuring in the next few weeks.

In order for the planned reductions to take effect, they must be approved by Congress and signed into law by the president, according to Air Force officials.

“We worked closely with our regular Air Force and Air Guard partners to rebalance our total force team,” said Lt. Gen. Stenner. “In order to make our Air Force smaller, all three components had to find efficiencies and reductions – to get smaller together.”

The following is a report from the Air Force on its proposed structure changes:

Proposed Air Force Changes

More details coming on MassLive and in The Republican.

The autopsy determined that the victim, identified as Judy I. Ramirez, died as a result of blunt force trauma and the death was a homicide.

Staff photo by Patrick JohnsonThe Progressive Community Baptist Church, 599 State St.,

SPRINGFIELD - The state Medical Examiner’s Office has determined a 38-year-old woman found dead Wednesday at the bottom of a stairwell outside the Progressive Community Baptist Church, 599 State St. was a victim of homicide, police said.

Sgt. John Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William Fitchet, said Friday afternoon the autopsy showed the death was the result of injuries related to blunt force trauma.

The woman was identified as Judy I. Ramirez with a last known address of 47 Pendleton Ave.

Her death is the first homicide of the year in Springfield and the first since late October.

There were 19 homicides in Springfield last year. That figure had been reported as 20 but the medical examiner’s office recently notified Springfield it could not determine a cause of death in the Nov. 6 death of Ramon Lopez, who was found outside 564 Chestnut St.

Lopez died of injuries related to blunt force trauma, but the autopsy could not determine of the injuries were the result of foul play, suicide or were accidental. The cause of death is listed on the death certificate as undetermined.

Ramirez’s body was found at the bottom of an external stairwell in the rear of the church on the Lillian Street side of the church. Delaney said people frequently go down the stairs to go to the bathroom and to do drugs.

The stairwell was lined Friday afternoon with several memorial candles and a display of roses.

Dr. Brett Snowden, pastor of the Progressive Community Baptist Church, said he did not know Ramirez and she was not a member of his congregation.

Staff photo by Patrick JohnsonThe stairwell in the rear of Progressive Community Baptist Church where the body of Judy Ramirez was found Wednesday. Someone placed several candles and flowers as a memorial to Ramirez on Friday. The church pastor said he did not know who placed the memorial there.

He said stopped down at the church on Wednesday afternoon while detectives were there. He said they asked him a lot of questions but he did not know anything to be able to help.

The church has had a problem the last few years with people coming onto the church property and going to the stairwell and “doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”

The Lillian side of the property has a chain-link perimeter fence but people ignore it, he said. The church also removed some bushes on the property to increase visibility of the stairwell but that has not deterred people from coming on the property.

He said the church’s leadership board will likely discuss the stairwell at the next meeting and ways to keep people out of it. Snowden said he did not know where the memorial to Ramirez came from. No one affiliated with the church put it there as far as he knew.

There have been no arrests in Ramirez’s death. The investigation into her death remains ongoing, Delaney said.

People with information are asked to call the Springfield Police Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355. Those who wish to remain anonymous may text a tip via a cell phone by addressing a text message to “CRIMES” or “274637,” and then beginning the body of the message with the word “SOLVE.”

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Brown finished the year with nearly $12.9 million on hand, while Warren's war chest had grown to $6.1 million by Dec. 31.

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and chief democratic rival Elizabeth Warren finished 2011 neck-in-neck in terms of total receipts and total expenditures, with the republican incumbent still posting a sizable cash-on-hand advantage in the Massachusetts senate race.

New data released by the Federal Election Commission show that Warren collected $8.9 million in contributions between mid-August and the end of the year, while Brown received $8.6 million during all of 2011. Brown spent slightly more than Warren in 2011, recording $2.9 million in expenditures to her nearly $2.8 million.

Brown finished the year with nearly $12.9 million on hand. Warren's war chest had grown to $6.1 million by Dec. 31.

While more PAC money has gone to Brown so far -- his committee recorded $1.1 million in PAC contributions, while Warren has received $142,486 -- PAC money accounts for only 7.3% of the $17.5 million the two candidates raised during 2011. Warren recorded nearly $8.7 million in individual contributions, while Brown's individual contributions totaled over $6.8 million.

FEC filings have not yet appeared for democratic challengers Marisa Ann DeFranco and James King.

The graphic below summarizes the year-end totals for Brown and Warren.

U. S. Senator Scott P. Brown is seen with Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.

A powerful winter storm swept across Colorado on Friday as it headed east, bringing blizzard warnings to eastern Colorado and western Kansas, and winter storm warnings for southeast Wyoming and western Nebraska.

Photo by Paul Aiken / The Daily CameraArt Allen throws snow for his dog Willie as he clears his Boulder, Colo. driveway after a winter snowstorm hit Friday. Click on the link, left, for a report from the Huffington Post about the powerful winter storm that swept across Colorado as it headed east.

• Boston Globe's website reportedly attracts only 16,000 subscribers [Boston Herald]


• Order to demolish Cape Cod mansion stirs debate in Truro [Boston.com]


• Mayor loses patience with Occupy Boston as Hub Police Department's website hacked [WCVB-TV, Channel 5, Boston]


• Powerful snowstorm sweeps across Colorado heading east [Huffington Post.com]


• Israeli defense minister implies a strike on Iran nuclear program is near [Christian Science Monitor]


• 2 New England Patriots fans scammed of $1,400 on Craigslist for Super Bowl tickets [New England Cable News]


• Connecticut medical board suspends license of Dr. Edwin Njoku charged with rape [Hartford Courant]


• 3 dolphins die following another stranding on Cape Cod beach [Cape Cod Times]


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


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Obituaries from The Republican.

Sheryl Freedman

LONGMEADOW - Sheryl Beth (Glaser) Freedman, 50, passed on Thursday after a valiant fight with a rare and aggressive form of liver cancer. Born in Boston, and raised in Medford, Mass., and Waterville, Me., she moved to Longmeadow in 1987. She completed her undergraduate work in speech pathology at Northeastern University. She received a bachelor of science degree in communications disorders at the University of New Hampshire in 1983 and a master of science in speech pathology at Worcester State College in 1987. She spent most of her working career as a certified speech and language pathologist dedicated to improving the lives of children in Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut. In Enfield, Conn., she implemented a literacy program called "Lively Letters." This program is designed to help speech and learning challenged children by utilizing artistically-designed flash cards to improve reading skills through the use of imagery and mnemonics. She taught parents, teachers, and administrators how to use the materials. She was a member of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. She was also a member of Temple Beth El and a lifetime member of Jewish Geriatric Services, both in Springfield.

Obituaries from The Republican:

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  Afonso, Maria (Canavarro)
  



• 
  Aversa Sr., Antonio "Tony"
  




• 
  Black, Kenneth A.
  



• 
  Bousquet, E. Robert "Bob"
  



• 
  Carmody, Kathleen M.




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  Champagne, Linda (McLain)
  



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  Davis, Elizabeth T. (Helms)
  




• DeSantis, Patricia S.
  




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  Dowdall, Walter G.
  



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  Eddington, Mary Ann




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  Fournier, Frances L. (Shea)
  



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  Freedman, Sheryl (Glaser)
  




• Hartwell, Harry Deane
  




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  Kraft Jr., Rudolph G.
  



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  Lagoditz, Paul




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  MacCallum, Lee Gordon
  



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  Mazzaferro, Myrtle A. (Foy)
  




• McNally, Thomas J.
  




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  Nadeau, Ronald A. "Ron"
  



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  Napiorkowski, Christine (Chevalier)




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  Rattray, Esther L.
  



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  Rivest, Eileen M. (Flavin)
  




• Rondeau, Dawn D.
  




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  Tomlinson, Marion L. (Gilson)
  



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  Treml, Helen M. (Kelleher)




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  Veal, Bobby
  



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  Wadsworth, Jeanne M. (Sweeney)
  




• Wrzesien, Jane D.
  

Customers come into the authentic Italian eatery to grab a quick cup of coffee in the morning, sit down for lunch or relax after dinner with a dessert, Owner Salvatore Circosta said. Watch video

Since Sal's Bakery & Cafe opened in the Forest Park neighborhood of Springfield last November, the three men who run the place have been busy.

Customers come into the authentic Italian eatery to grab a quick cup of coffee in the morning, sit down for lunch or relax after dinner with a dessert, Owner Salvatore Circosta said.

"There's no shortage of restaurants locally," Business Manager Nunzio Bruno said, "But it's the after-restaurant scene that was kind of lacking, and that's where we found an opportunity."

In Sal's Bakery & Cafe, patrons can make themselves comfortable at tables or on the couch, eating together or reading the paper alone. Pastries, cookies, pasta and sandwiches wait to be bought in the glass cases near the front door.

"This is basically a dream come true," Operations Manager Santino Bruno said.

When business people come to call and ask for the owner or manager and they see the young the Bruno brothers and Circosta, they're a little taken aback, Circosta said.

Michael S. GordonNovember 16, 2011 - Springfield - Sal's Bakery and Cafe at 513 Belmont Ave.

But as long as they're determined, have supportive friends and family and live in a great community like Forest Park, he said anything is possible.

And when it comes to which treat at the eatery is their favorite, it's a toss up.

Nunzio Bruno likes "anything with Nutella," including the bakery's tarts and cookies.

Santino Bruno, an "espresso drinker," is a fan of their coffee machine.

And Circosta is favors his grandmother's cannoli recipe, which calls for simple, thin-shelled cannolis with no chocolate chips. The cannolis are made in small batches and filled to order, he said.

"We'd rather make small batches and work harder than to make a vast majority of them and have them sit around," he said.

The couple argued that evidence in their operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol case should not be allowed because a press release from state police announcing a sobriety checkpoint gave inaccurate information.

BOSTON - An inaccurate press release about a police sobriety checkpoint is not enough to dismiss charges against drivers stopped at a road block, the Massachusetts Appeals Court said on Friday.

Two Connecticut drivers - Peter J. Cosumano, 34, and Holly A. Aviano, 27, - contended that evidence should be suppressed in their cases because a state police press release said the Aug. 29, 2010 road block on West Columbus Avenue in Springfield would be on "a secondary state highway," according to court records. The avenue is actually a city street.

Both drivers were charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol after being stopped in the early morning at the checkpoint on West Columbus between Union and Broad streets, according to records at the Appeals Court in Boston.

State police are not required to give public notice of a road block but if they do, they should be held to a strict standard of giving correct information, according to a brief for one of the defendants. The press release went out to about 20 news outlets, court records said.

Last year, Springfield District Court Judge Christine M. McEvoy agreed to suppress the evidence because of the mistake in the press release, but the Appeals Court disagreed and reversed the lower court's ruling. The appeals court denied the motions approved by the lower court judge.

"The defendants' suggestions that constitutional requirements are violated when a press release contains inaccurate information concerning the location of a planned roadblock ring hollow," said the decision written by Judge Mark V. Green.

"The Supreme Judicial Court has made it clear that the actual location of a planned roadblock need not be announced in advance, and nothing in the record of the present case suggests either that the reference in the press release to a "Secondary State Highway" was purposely designed to mislead the public or that it otherwise derogated from the objectives articulated in support of giving prior announcement of planned roadblocks."

Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni had appealed the district court judge's decision, saying the language in the release was superfluous and should not be the basis for suppression.

The state Supreme Judicial Court has said in the past that advance publication of the date of a road block, even without announcing the precise location, does have the virtue of reducing surprise, fear and inconvenience, according to court records.

The Appeals Court, citing case law, said that in order for sobriety checkpoints to be constitutionally reasonable, the selection of motor vehicles to be stopped must not be arbitrary, safety must be assured, motorists' inconvenience must be minimized, and assurance must be given that the procedure is being conducted pursuant to a plan devised by police.

The jury of seven men and five women are scheduled to resume deliberations Monday morning.

This is an updated version of a story posted at 1:11 this afternoon.

Photo by Dave Roback / The RepublicanDavid Fried Oppenheim, left, stands with his lawyers, Luke Ryan and David Hoose, in Hampshire Superior Court Friday afternoon watching the jury exit for the day.

NORTHAMPTON - The jury in the David Fried Oppenheim child rape case spent about two hours deliberating Friday afternoon before stopping for the weekend.

The jury of seven men and five women are scheduled to continue Monday morning.

Five witnesses in the trial testified that Fried Oppenheim either admitted his sexual escapades to them or had sex with him, including one who said she was 14 and 15 when they had sex.

Fried Oppenheim, taking the stand in his own defense, maintained his innocence, saying none of it is true.

Someone has been telling big lies in Hampshire Superior Court, and now its up to a jury of 12 to decide who that is.

Fried Oppenheim, 38, faces five counts of child rape, each regarding a different kind of sex act, involving a girl who acted at the Pioneer Art Center of Easthampton, which the defendant founded. The alleged victim, now 20, said Fried Oppenheim developed a sexual relationship with her while teaching her an acting method he invented called “primitives,” in which he urged her to keep a journal describing her physical reactions to emotional situations. She said she was 14 when the sexual relationship began.

Other prosecution witnesses in the case include a woman who said she had sex with Fried Oppenheim more than 100 times while she was 17 and acting at PACE and another who testified that Fried Oppenheim told her she was “hot” and offered to waive her fees for the center in exchange for sex.

Two other witnesses told the jury that Fried Oppenheim admitted to them his liaison with the underage girl, including one who produced copies of an instant message exchange in which a person purported to be the defendant described having sex with the 14-year-old girl in lurid detail.

Fried Oppenheim, who testified on his own behalf, denied all of it, saying he never had sex with either the alleged victim or the other woman and that he never confessed such a relationship to anyone. Members of his family, who also testified for the defense, painted a picture of PACE as a bustling art center where it would have been impossible to have sex without being seen. They also depicting the prosecution witnesses as needy, attention-seeking and untrustworthy.

In his closing arguments Friday, defense lawyer David P. Hoose picked up on that theme, suggesting that the witnesses – four young women and one who has transitioned from female to male – made up their stories for various reasons.

“They’re all little actresses,” he said. “They’re into the drama.”

Hoose contended that none of the testimony about instant messages or telephone calls with the defendant have been forensically corroborated, and he called the charges against his client “Kafkaesque.”

“Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the last refuge of an innocent man,” he said, “and no case can illustrate that better than this case.”

Hoose described the alleged victim to the jury as someone who did not come forward with her complaint against Fried Oppenheim until several years after the fact, when she was under stress at college in New York. Citing the woman’s testimony that she threw out the potentially incriminating journal she kept for her “primitives” experience, he called the act “preposterous.” Hoose suggested that the allegations didn’t arise until the alleged victim was having a crisis with her boyfriend.

“No one who is sexually molested at 14 can fail to show some symptom of it to the people around them,” he said.

Hoose attempted to cast similar doubt on the testimony of the other witnesses, calling the transgender witness “a professional at fooling people.”

“At the end of the day,” he said, “all we have here are just actresses.”

Pisano called Hoose’s theory about the alleged victim’s timing “ludicrous.” Taking issue with Hoose’s interpretation of the woman’s demeanor on the stand, she invited the jury to decide for themselves whether she was credible. During her first day of testimony, the judge called a recess when the woman broke down on the stand describing her anal rape.

“All the evidence you need is if you believe her,” she said.

However, Pisano said, her testimony was backed up by no fewer than four other witnesses who had been at PACE. She also cited testimony by the alleged victim’s parents that they drove her to the center on almost a daily basis, far more frequently than Fried Oppenheim said she was there.

Pisano’s closing picked up on her cross-examination of the defendant, which took place immediately before on Friday. During that often tense questioning, Fried Oppenheim maintained that nearly all the damning testimony against him was false. He only qualified his stance when asked about the testimony of the woman who said he suggested she give him sex in exchange for fees. In that case, Fried Oppenheim acknowledged he might have made some inappropriate remarks but said he couldn’t remember exactly what he said because he was ill at the time.