Beall worked for 14 years in the job.

Pamela Beall

WILBRAHAM - Pamela Beall, administrative assistant to the Board of Selectmen, is retiring March 30, and the board is now advertising her position.

Beall has worked for 14 years in the job. Before taking the Wilbraham job, she also held similar positions in Brimfield and Hardwick.

Beall also is the elected town clerk in Brimfield.

She said she has mixed feelings about retiring.

She added that she does carry with her a lot of “institutional memory” about the town of Wilbraham.

Wilbraham is a good place to work, so there are a number of employees in the Town Hall who possess “institutional memory,” she said. She said such memory can come in handy when members of elected boards either get defeated or decide not to run for reelection.

In the Town Hall, Town Clerk Beverly Litchfield also possesses “institutional memory,” Beall said, along with Assistant Town Administrator Thomas Sullivan and Department of Public Works Director Edmond Miga.

According to the advertisement for her job, the selectmen are seeking a professional administrative assistant with five years experience working in a busy and varied office environment.

Experience in municipal government is a plus and the ability to interact with a variety of customers and to work under pressure and prioritize.

The town of Wilbraham also is advertising for a part-time assistant reference librarian at the Wilbraham Public Library and for summer camp counselors and lifeguards. Applications are available on the town website, www.wilbraham-ma.gov and Recreation Department.

Selectmen Chairman Patrick J. Brady said departments are filling vacant positions so long as the salary expenditure is not larger than the one currently in the budget.

The race will decide who will move on in the School Committee race during the annual town election on April 10.

EAST LONGMEADOW – Wednesday is the last day to register to vote in the March 13 preliminary town election is Wednesday.

The race will decide who will move on in the School Committee race during the annual town election on April 10.

Voting for all four precincts will take place at Birchland Park Middle School, and voting hours will be from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Residents may register at the town clerk’s office.

Firefighters quickly extinguished a residential fire at 344 Amherst Road.

View full sizeThe Republican | Michael BeswickBelchertown firefighters responded to a Monday night attic fire at an Amherst Road residence. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

BELCHERTOWN – Firefighters responded to a residential structure fire reported at 9:41 p.m. Monday at 344 Amherst Road.

The fire was extinguished by 10:13 p.m., according to Fireground360, a website maintained by area first-responders, including fire and ambulance personnel.

Belchertown fire and rescue officials, including an ambulance crew, remained on scene for a little more than an hour, but it was unclear if anyone was injured in the blaze. Belchertown fire officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Belchertown Police Department records indicated the fire broke out in the attic of the house. Additional details, including the extent of damage to the two-story home, were not immediately available. More information will be posted on MassLive as it becomes available.

The roof of the wood-frame structure showed signs of a spray foam used to combat the flames.

The Amherst Road (Route 9) home is located a little more than a mile south of Gulf Road.

Reporter Conor Berry contributed to this report.

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In 2010, Flores earned $306,912 – $32,000 more than the salaries of Gov. Deval Patrick and state Attorney General Martha Coakley combined for the same period, according to state charity records.

The Republican file photo | Michael S. GordonHeriberto Flores in front of L'uva Restaurant on Main St.

SPRINGFIELD – At 15, Heriberto Flores picked tobacco, working for $1.25 an hour in the sun-baked fields of northern Connecticut.

By 25, after returning from Vietnam and earning a degree at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, he started the region’s first agency for migrant farm workers.

Today, Flores presides over an $80 million human service and development empire, with 340 employees, offices from New Hampshire to Puerto Rico, and newly acquired landmark properties in downtown Springfield.

As his resume suggests, Flores, a genial 63-year-old Puerto Rico native who is widely known as simply “Herbie,” has come a long way from his minimum-wage farm job.

Last year he collected $299,912 for running five publicly funded charities – the New England Farm Workers Council Inc., the Corporation for Public Management Inc., the Corporation for Justice Management Inc., the Brightwood Development Corp. and Partners for Community Inc.

In 2010, he earned $306,912 – $32,000 more than the salaries of Gov. Deval L. Patrick and state Attorney General Martha M. Coakley combined for the same period, according to state charity records.

In 2009, his salary was higher – $362,512, including a $106,000 bonus approved by Partners for Community’s governing board, which determines Flores’ annual salary and benefits.

Overall, Flores earned $1.25 million since 2008 for overseeing his network of non-profits, which provide job training, fuel assistance, mental-health services, family support and other services under contracts in Massachusetts, Connecticut and other states.

To friends and supporters, Flores’ compensation is a bargain, considering it covers leadership for five non-profit agencies and was recommended by a Chicago-based consulting firm that found he was underpaid when compared to executives of similar-sized charities.

“The figures reflect his fair market value to both the agencies he founded and the communities they serve,” said attorney William M. Bennett, the former Hampden district attorney who now provides legal representation for Partners for Community.

“Every community should have a Herbie,” said Dorothy Lortie, of Springfield, a member of Partners for Community’s volunteer board. “He works around the clock; it’s a schedule that the average person couldn’t handle – and the financial packages he puts together with state and federal grants and private funds are just remarkable,” Lortie said.

Still, compared to top state human-service officials, Flores’ compensation is high – Department of Child and Family Services commissioner Angelo McClain was paid $136,000 in 2010, for example, and Department of Youth Services commissioner Jane Tweksbury earned $133,364.

The subject of executive compensation is touchy for non-profit corporations, which rely on public funding but are run by independent boards of directors. By law, there are limits on how much executive directors can earn, but decisions on executive pay packages are generally left to a non-profits’ governing boards.

But non-profits have been under pressure to keep compensation down in the wake of scandals at several national charities. In New York last month, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took the unusual step of banning any state-funded contractors from paying their top executives more than $199,000.

Even while building the region’s largest social-service network here, Flores was acquiring a reputation for other things – as a champion of the city’s predominately Hispanic North End neighborhood, a trustee at the University of Massachusetts and Holyoke Community College, and a savvy political operative with close ties to Democrats and Republicans alike, both here and in Washington, D.C.

The photos hanging on his office wall – from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joseph Biden to former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle and the late U.S. Rep. Silvio Conte, R-Pittsfield – testify to his skill for cultivating bipartisan goodwill.

By the 1990s, the self-described “social entrepreneur” had jumped into the real estate business, starting for-profit development companies that often did business with his non-profit agencies. Nearly a dozen of the North End’s most successful revitalization projects involved a mix of Flores’ public and private ventures.

More recently, two endangered downtown landmarks, the Paramount Theater on Main Street, and the building housing the Student Prince restaurant on Fort Street – were purchased by the New England Farm Workers.

The theater is due to be reopen by the fall; vacant upper floors of the Fort’s building are being converted to condos, Flores said.

The Republican file photo | Mark M. MurrayHeriberto "Herbie" Flores, President of the New England Farm Workers Council, inside the Paramount Theater building on Main Street, which the council purchased in 2011.

The purchases cast Flores in yet another role, as a potential savior for Springfield’s downtown.

Meanwhile, his non-profit network continued to grow, though not without trouble.

In 2006, one of Flores’ top aides, Jerome L. Weiner, of Longmeadow, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to making a false statement to investigators during a federal probe into then-Sen. Ernest E. Newton II, of Bridgeport, who doubled as a public-relations director for Partners for Community in Connecticut.

Newton was overheard on a federal wiretap negotiating a pay raise from Weiner in exchange for lobbying for a $75,000 funding increase for Partners for Community, according to prosecutors. During the investigation, federal agents raided the Springfield offices of Partners for Community.

Flores was never publicly implicated in any wrongdoing.

In October, he was targeted by an anonymous letter suggesting that his salary was excessive, that his non-profit firms improperly used public funds to pay lobbyists and that his real-estate firms reaped unreasonable profits from deals with the Farm Workers Council.

The letter – backed up with dozens of pages of public records – was mailed to area banks, regional media outlets, city, state and federal officials and – in an especially ambitious touch – the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.

“An anonymous smear campaign,” replied Tracy Miner, a Boston-based lawyer representing the Farm Worker’s Council, in letters sent to the recipients of the unsigned package.

“The allegations are false, and based on a distorted and incomplete reading of the public records,” Miner added.

Four months later, Flores refused to speculate on who was behind the mailings.

“I don’t have time for negative energy,” he said, during an interview on Friday in his Hampden Street office.

To clear up any suspicions, Partners for Community hired the Hartford-based law firm of Reid and Riege to investigate the allegations.

In a report released Monday, the firm found that Flores’ salary was not excessive when compared to similar-sized non-profits nationwide, and that all lobbying expenses were proper.

Regarding the purchase of the Paramount Theater, the firm asserted that Farm Workers Council’s mission is broad enough to include operating a theater, and noted that a separate corporation has been created to acquire the liquor license.

Vietnam veteran Heriberto Flores of Springfield, in a photo from October 1968, when he was a helicopter gunner in the US Army.

Allegations that Flores improperly mixed his non-profit and for-profit businesses were baseless, the firm found.

In in his Hampden Street office last week, Flores turned philosophical, saying he feels a particular responsibility to help young people the develop skills and work ethic required to succeed in business.

“Growing up, my uncle taught me the value of work,” said Flores, whose father died when he was a child. “That’s one of the most valuable lessons you can ever learn,” he said.

As a teenager, he was forced to move repeatedly as apartment buildings were leveled for highways, churches or schools.

Now photos of his projects – from the La Plaza del Mercado shopping center to the 30-unit Villa Taino house for migrant workers – share wall space with sports, entertainment and show business celebrities posing with Flores.

To get the 41-unit Borinquen Apartment project on Main Street built, Flores pledged $3 million of his own money as security.

“This is my way of giving back, of leaving a legacy,” he said.

Police in Henniker, N.H., spent hours looking for a Belmont woman who wandered off from the Pats Peak ski area.

Here are the most-read stories that appeared on MassLive.com yesterday. If you missed any of them, click on the links below to read them now.

The most viewed item overall, was the Holyoke grand colleen coronation ball photo gallery, seen at right.

1) Easthampton, state police investigate 'suspicious' death of woman on Ward Avenue [The Republican Newsroom]

2) East Longmeadow police charge local teenager with allegedly assaulting his girlfriend [Conor Berry]

3) Police in New Hampshire looking for missing Mass. woman, Melanie Quinton [Associated Press]

4) Holyoke Planning Board closes public hearing after 10 hours on $16 million project that will include Big Y [Mike Plaisance]

5) Will Rajon Rondo be suspended after Sunday's ejection? [Pam McCray]

This was the second most-viewed item on the website overall yesterday:

Massachusetts public safety and security payroll database: How much do state police and corrections officers make? [Mandy Hofmockel]

Analysts say that although there is consistent talk about Iran's next move after the country cut off oil supply to Europe, that is not the reason for rising gas prices in the United States.

• Child calls 911 after elderly woman killed in Dorchester home, police say [CBS Boston.com]


• Teens who host underaged drinking parties, but don't supply alcohol, can't be held liable, Massachusetts' highest court rules [Boston.com]


• Analysts say investors, not Iran, to blame for rising gas prices [WWPL-TV, 22 News, Chicopee]


• Afghans protest after troops mistakenly burn Korans at U.S. base [Washington Post]


• U.S. Supreme Court to take up affirmative action in college admissions [Christian Science Monitor.com]


• Bridgewater State University students rally in support of writer assaulted after expressing support for same-sex marriages [New England Cable News]


• U.S. mobile phone industry reportedly running running out of airwaves necessary to provide voice, text and internet service [CNN Money.com]


Longtime Connecticut TV news anchorman Al Terzi will reportedly be leaving WFSB-TV, cbs3, in Hartford at the end of the week. Click on the link above, right, for a report from the New Haven Register that says Terzi is leaving after contract talks failed.
• Longtime Connecticut news anchor Al Terzi leaving WFSB-TV, Channel 3 in Hartford after contract talk fail [New Haven Register]


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


• Read more News Links »


• Do you have News Links? Send them our way or tweet them to @masslivenews

NOTE: Users of modern browsers can open each link in a new tab by holding 'control' ('command' on a Mac) and clicking each link.

Investigators have reason to believe that this death is suspicious and foul play is suspected.

EASTHAMPTON – The police tape is gone from the 27 Ward Ave. apartment building and the door on apartment C that been broken down has been replaced but police have not released the name of the victim found there early Monday morning.

Easthampton Police responded to 27 Ward Ave. after receiving a 911 call from a female caller.



When they arrived, they found a deceased female, according to a prepared statement from the Northwestern District Attorney’s office. Police are not saying the woman who died lived in the building.

“Investigators have reason to believe that this death is suspicious and foul play is suspected. 

Investigators have reason to believe this was not a random act and there is no threat to public safety at this time. 

 We cannot comment further until next of kin are notified and this death is more fully investigated,” according to the statement.

James Finn, who lives across from the woman who lived in that apartment, was home Sunday night watching drag racing on television while his wife was asleep.

He heard a knock and thought there was someone at his door but when he opened it, he saw two police officers across the way. They told him to stand back and they battered in the door. They told him later “‘We’ve had a tragedy.’” They declined to elaborate, he said.

Finn said the woman who lived in that apartment moved in less than a year ago. Neither he nor his wife knew her name but they would always say hello or ‘nice day’ when they’d see each other. She was quiet.

The couple’s bedroom wall abutted her bedroom but he said they never heard any noise or commotion. “Just a quiet building,” he said. There are four units in the building.

Finn said he did remember how when she moved in last March or April she said something like “I finally got my own apartment all by myself.” She seemed happy about that he said.

The Finns have lived in the building for more than three decades most of them in the apartment where the victim was found. They moved out when the landlord was renovating, he said.

Additional meetings will be scheduled in the spring

James T. Welch

SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. James T. Welch, D-West Springfield, has launched a listening tour in Springfield to give residents a chance to speak directly to the senator and his staff about the issues that are affecting their communities.

“Each neighborhood in the city of Springfield is unique and each one has different needs,” Welch said. “This is an opportunity for residents to have a conversation about how state government can be more helpful in addressing their concerns.”

The following are the next scheduled meetings:

• Feb. 27, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., St. Welch’s Springfield District Office, 510 Boston Road, Pine Point.

• March 7, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the Raymond Sullivan Safety Complex, 1212 Carew St., East Springfield.

• March 8, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the Mason Square Branch Library, 765 State St., Mason Square area.

Additional meetings will be scheduled in the spring.

A chimney fire Monday night caused damage to the building exterior and an upstairs closet of a home at 344 Amherst Road.

View full sizeThe Republican | Michael BeswickBelchertown firefighters responded to a Monday night attic fire at an Amherst Road residence. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

This is an update of a story that was originally posted at 1:09 a.m. Tuesday

BELCHERTOWN - A chimney fire Monday night caused damage to the building exterior and an upstairs closet of a home at 344 Amherst Road, according to fire officials.

Firefighters knocked down the fire before it could cause significant damage to the house. There was no estimate for the amount of damage to the house, but fire officials said it was minimal.

No one was injured in the fire, which was reported at 9:40 p.m. The fire was extinguished and the scene under control in about 30 minutes, officials said.

The residents spent the night staying with family, but were expected to be able to move back inside within the next day once the inside is cleaned up, officials said.

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GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum is second in a new poll asking registered voters who they want as vice president.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. receives a standing ovation as he addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tops the list for vice president on the Republican ticket in a new national poll.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University poll was a open ended and respondents wrote the name of someone they wanted to be vice president without prompting. Rubio's name was written by 8 percent of the respondents.

Rubio's name was mentioned during a January debate in Florida as a top Hispanic leader and someone GOP presidential candidates would consider adding to their Cabinet if elected president.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's name was written down by 7 percent of the respondents, according to the poll. Coming in third, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie received 6 percent.

The poll, released Monday, listed 2008 Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin in fourth with 4.3 percent, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich in fifth with 4 percent and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul in sixth with 3 percent.

Forty-four percent responded "don't know," according to the poll.

The poll was conducted from Feb. 6-12 and surveyed 799 registered Republican and independent voters. The margin of error is 3.5 percent.

Christina Harms said she believes the schizophrenic woman would have chosen to have an abortion if she had been mentally competent.

By DENISE LAVOIE | AP Legal Affairs Writer

Associated PressRetired Massachusetts Judge Christina Harms, of Weston, Mass., is seen at her home Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012. Harms defended her decision Tuesday to order a mentally ill woman to have an abortion and be sterilized against her wishes. Harms said a decision by Boston University's School of Law to back out of a job offer shortly after the Appeals Court overturned her ruling sends the wrong message about judicial independence. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

BOSTON — A retired Massachusetts judge on Tuesday defended her decision to order a mentally ill woman to have an abortion and be sterilized against her wishes, and she blasted Boston University for rescinding a job offer after her ruling sparked controversy.

Christina Harms said she believes the schizophrenic woman would have chosen to have an abortion if she had been mentally competent. In her ruling, she granted a petition from the woman's parents to have their daughter declared incompetent and awarded guardianship to them for the purpose of consenting to the abortion.

Harms' ruling drew spirited debate among bloggers on both sides of the abortion issue. Her written ruling remains sealed under family court rules, but the gist of it became public after the state Appeals Court overturned the decision on Jan. 17.

Now Harms has taken the unusual step of defending her decision publicly, both in media interviews and in a letter she sent Monday to other family court judges in Massachusetts. The Boston Globe first reported on the judge's letter.

Harms, who retired six days before the Appeals Court ruling, said a decision by Boston University's School of Law to back out of a job offer shortly after the Appeals Court overturned her ruling sends the wrong message about judicial independence.

"Being a judge is not like being a contestant on 'American Idol,' " Harms told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "You are not looking for votes."

The woman has not been named; she was identified in court papers only as "Mary Moe."

Harms said many factors went into her decision in favor of the abortion, most importantly, concerns about the woman's health. She said the woman had been taken off some of her anti-psychotic drugs because the medications could have harmed the fetus. After hearing from the woman herself and from her parents, Harms said she found that the woman had severe delusions — including her belief that she was not pregnant — and was not competent to decide whether to have an abortion. Harms said she also found that the woman, if she had been mentally competent, would have chosen an abortion to protect her own well-being.

"I viewed the interruption of Mary's full medical regimen as potentially life-threatening. If Mary understood this, which my observation of her behavior, demeanor, and responses indicated that she did not, I believed then, as I do now, that she would elect to abort the pregnancy in order to protect her own well-being," Harms wrote in her letter to her former colleagues on the bench.

Harms said she had been negotiating with BU's law school since August about a newly created position where she would help the school in its efforts to increase the number of judicial clerkships and internships offered to its law students. On Jan. 17 — the day the Appeals Court ruled — she said she received an email from a BU official asking her to send a short biography and photo to introduce her to the law school community. Three days later, after a media flurry about her ruling, she said she got an email from the school canceling an appointment she had to fill out paperwork for the job.

BU says it never made a formal job offer to Harms, but it acknowledges that the controversy created by her ruling contributed to the decision to take her out of the running for the job.

In a letter to Harms' lawyer, BU 's deputy general counsel, Erika Geetter, said that it was not disagreement with the content of the judge's ruling that caused the school not to move forward on the job. Geetter said the job was a position that would require Harms to do marketing within the school and the legal community.

"This matter therefore has nothing to do with academic freedom, judicial independence, 'blacklisting,' or 'threats to a cornerstone of our constitutional system.' Instead, it has everything to do with the School's legitimate conclusion that it did not want to worry about whether an individual who was at the center of a controversy would need to overcome that obstacle when serving as the public face of the School," Geetter wrote.

Harms said she believes the school would not have made the decision if her ruling had involved an issue other than abortion.

"I think that abortion is such a third-rail issue that it creates strong opinions, public debate, controversy. People feel very strongly about it — pro and con — and I became therefore controversial," she said.

"There was no decision I could make here that would please everybody, but that's not the standard here anyway."

Opening statements will be heard Wednesday, followed by the beginning of testimony.

The Republican/Dave RobackJeffrey M. Asher, Elizabeth Dunphy Farris and Thomas W. Monahan III, front, during view on Rifle Street at start of Asher's trial

CHICOPEE – Jurors in the police brutality trial of former Springfield police officer Jeffrey M. Asher were taken by bus Tuesday afternoon to view the Springfield street where Asher is alleged to have assaulted a man during a traffic stop.

Asher is charged with assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the November 2009 arrest of Melvin Jones III, of Springfield, on Rifle Street.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Dunphy Farris and defense lawyer Joseph W. Monahan III will give opening statements and testimony will begin Wednesday.

Jury selection began Tuesday morning in Chicopee District Court and was complete by mid-day, when four men and three women were seated.

In district courts, the deliberating jury has six members. One extra juror was selected in case for any reason a juror has to be excused during the trial.

An amateur video of the arrest made public by The Republican and MassLive.com showed Asher apparently beating Jones with a police flashlight after a car in which Jones was a passenger had been pulled over on Rifle Street.

Police maintained that the use of force came after Jones attempted to flee the scene and tried to grab an officer’s gun in the scuffle that ensued.

Jones' injuries included damage to an eye, eye socket and face.

Asher left the police force on a stress-related leave in January 2010, days after the amateur video of the traffic stop surfaced. Nine months later, the Springfield Retirement Board approved Asher's application for disability retirement.

The trial is being held in Chicopee District Court with District Court Judge Maureen E. Walsh specially assigned to the case. The case is in Chicopee District Court to avoid any conflicts of interest.

Three other white Springfield police officers faced internal department discipline in connection with the Jones matter. Those officers received suspensions by Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, but avoided criminal charges.

Asher was fired by Fitchet, but Asher received state disability retirement approval.

Jones, who will testify, is currently in the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow awaiting trial on an unrelated drug case.

Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni had dismissed drug and resisting arrest charges against Jones from the Nov. 27, 2009, arrest on Rifle Street.

“These charges relate to an incident which also gave rise to one of the arresting officers (Asher) being charged criminally for his alleged conduct during the arrest,” Mastroianni said at the time.

He said available evidence didn’t allow for “consistent and credible prosecutions of both defendants (Asher and Jones) related to this incident.”

Dow Jones, which decides which 30 companies are the best barometer, says the index can accurately represent the economy because the Dow 30 make up 25 to 30 percent of the market value of all U.S. public companies.

By CHRISTINA REXRODE | AP Business Writer

Associated PressTraders laugh on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012. U.S. stocks are opening higher and the Dow Jones industrial average is nearing 13,000 after Greece secured a bailout deal to keep it from default. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK — It came and went in a flash, a number on a board for seconds at a time, but its symbolic power couldn't be dismissed.

The Dow Jones industrial average, powered higher all year by optimism that the economic recovery is finally for real, crossed 13,000 on Tuesday for the first time since May 2008.

The last time the Dow occupied such rarefied territory, unemployment was a healthy 5.4 percent, and Lehman Brothers was a solvent investment bank. Financial crises happened in other countries, or the history books.

The milestone Tuesday came about two hours into the trading day. The Dow was above 13,000 for about 30 seconds, and for slightly longer at about noon and 1:30 p.m., but couldn't hold its gains. It finished up 15.82 points at 12,965.69.

Still, Wall Street took note of the marker.

It was just last summer that the Dow unburdened itself of 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. S&P downgraded the United States credit rating, Washington was fighting over the federal borrowing limit, and the European debt crisis was raging.

A second recession in the United States was a real fear. But the economy grew faster every quarter last year, and gains in the job market have been impressive, including 243,000 jobs added in January alone.

"Essentially over the last couple of months you've taken the two biggest fears off the table, that Europe is going to melt down and that we're going to have another recession here," said Scott Brown, chief economist for Raymond James.

The tumult of last summer and fall left the Dow as low as 10,655. Its close Tuesday put it 22 percent above that low. The Dow is 1,199 points from an all-time high, a 9 percent rally from here.

A long-awaited deal to cut the debt of Greece and prevent a potentially catastrophic default, announced before dawn in Europe after 12 hours of talks, helped the Dow clear 13,000.

Under the bailout deal, Greece will get €130 billion, or about $172 billion, from other European nations and the International Monetary Fund. In a separate deal, investors in Greek bonds will forgive €107 billion in debt.

After months in which talks crawled along and vague headlines yanked the market up and down, the conclusion was almost anticlimactic because the markets were already expecting an agreement.

European markets didn't take the news as well. Stocks closed down 3.5 percent in Greece, where stocks have lost 80 percent of their value since 2007. Stocks declined less than 1 percent Tuesday in Germany, France and Britain.

Investors noted that Greece remains in deep recession. Its bond investors will take a 53.5 percent loss on the face value of their bonds, which could discourage future investment.

In the U.S., investors were cheered by earnings from Home Depot, watched closely as a barometer of American spending on homes, and Macy's. Wal-Mart missed Wall Street expectations, and its stock lost 4 percent, worst among the 30 stocks in the Dow.

The Dow has climbed 6 percent this year and has not lost 100 points on any day. The Greek debt crisis may be receding, but high gasoline prices are emerging as a threat to the economic recovery, and thus the stock market.

A gallon of regular gas costs $3.57 on average, the highest on record for this time of year. With tension building over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Iran has halted oil exports to Britain and France and threatened to stop shipping to other European countries.

The price of oil settled at $106.25, up $2.65 for the day and its highest level since last May. The price jumped more than $1 in about 20 minutes after Iran's foreign ministry spokesman told reporters that a U.N. team visiting Iran has no plans to inspect the country's nuclear facilities and will only hold talks with Iranian officials.

"That was the olive branch the market was holding onto," said Phil Flynn, an analyst for the brokerage PFGBest. "If they're not going to discuss the nuclear program, then we're a lot closer to a conflict than further away," he said.

Airline stocks got clobbered. United Continental lost 9 percent, Delta Air Lines 7 percent. The Dow transportation average lost 1.5 percent.

Materials, telecommunications and energy companies led the industries gaining ground. Health care companies, makers of consumer staples and utilities, traditionally stocks to own in more cautious times, were lower.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index surpassed 1,363, its peak from April 2011, but closed at 1,362.21, up 0.98 point. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavy with technology stocks and trading at levels not seen since December 2000, closed down 3.21 points at 2,948.57.

Metals prices jumped because of expectations that demand may improve after the Greek bailout package was approved and China took another step to stimulate economic growth. Silver finished up 3.7 percent, and platinum, copper and palladium all rose 3 percent or more. Gold ended up 1.9 percent.

The Dow industrials last closed above 13,000 on May 19, 2008. The next day, they crossed under 13,000, not to return for almost four years. They fell as low as 6,547 on March 9, 2009. A reading of 13,094 would double that.

Dan McMahon, director of equity trading at Raymond James, called the 13,000 mark "just a big round number" as a matter of market fundamentals. But he added: "Psychologically, it matters."

The milestone could motivate cautious investors to pump more money back into the stock market. The yield on the government's benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.06 percent from 2.01 percent Friday, a sign that fewer investors wanted the bonds and were instead willing to buy riskier stocks.

"You need notches along the way to measure things," and Dow 13,000 is as good as any, said John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo's funds group. "Is 50 older than 49 and a half? Yes, by six months. Do those six months really make a difference? Probably not. But it does give us a fixed point, something we can look at."

The Dow is also an imperfect measure of the economy's health. It is made up of just 30 companies, and it's weighted so that the few with the highest stock prices carry the most heft.

A tiny percentage change in the stock of IBM, which is trading around $193, sways the index much more than a giant change in the stock of Bank of America, which is trading around $8.

Last year, the Dow rose 5.5 percent. But strip out IBM and McDonald's, the two stocks with the highest prices last year, and it rose just 1.8 percent, according to calculations by Birinyi Associates.

Dow Jones, which decides which 30 companies are the best barometer, says the index can accurately represent the economy because the Dow 30 make up 25 to 30 percent of the market value of all U.S. public companies.

Among the big movers:

• Barnes & Noble fell 4 percent after missing expectations. Rising costs offset higher sales of both traditional books and digital books. Investors seemed encouraged that the bookstore chain, a survivor in an era that has felled competitors like Borders and Waldenbooks, plans to introduce a cheaper Nook to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire.

• J.C. Penney, which is trying to reinvent itself and just brought in an Apple veteran as CEO and changed its logo, fell 3 percent after Fitch Ratings dropped its credit grade to junk status.

• Wal-Mart fell 4 percent after missing analysts' expectations for revenue and per-share earnings.

• High-end department store Saks rose 3 percent after beating analysts' expectations.

AP Business Writer Sandy Shore contributed to this report.

Usually, motorists just hit the hedges, something that happens monthly, owner Vicki Henry said.

The Republican | Lori StabileDamage to the side stairs can be seen at 2007 Palmer Road in the Three Rivers section of Palmer. A 19-year-old driver struck the house early Sunday morning.

PALMER – When a loud bang woke Vicki M. Henry from her sleep early Sunday morning, she said, “Oh God, where is it this time?”

A car plowed into the side of her two-family home at 2007 Palmer Road in the Three Rivers section, marking the fourth time the house has been hit in the five years that she’s owned it.

And this time, her car, a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder, was totaled, too.

“This was the first time my vehicle got wiped out,” Henry said on Tuesday.

Police Sgt. Rodney A. North said the two-family house has been struck by motor vehicles many times over the years. Detective Sgt. Scott E. Haley blamed the crashes on a combination of intoxication and speeding.

Henry also blamed speeding drivers who fail to negotiate the curve right before her house. She said all of the accidents except one have happened in the middle of the night.

Henry called 911 just before 4 a.m. on Sunday. North and Officer William Bray responded and found a 2005 Chevrolet Malibu with its driver, Michael J. Hogan Jr., 19, of 1075 Central St., trapped inside.

North said Hogan, who was driving west, failed to negotiate the curve on the road and struck the Pathfinder, sending it 40 feet across the yard from the driveway, then crashed into the side stairs and home.

From there, the car then struck the rear side deck, pushing the deck off the foundation and taking out a hemlock tree, North said. The Malibu was totaled, police said.

Three Rivers firefighters had to extricate Hogan from the car. Hogan was brought to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield by Palmer Ambulance. He was treated and released, according to a hospital spokesman.

Hogan will be summonsed to Palmer District Court on a charge of operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, marked lanes violation, speed greater than reasonable and failure to wear a seat belt, police said.

Building Inspector Richard W. Rollet inspected the home and determined that the residents could stay there, but noted the extensive damage to the foundation, walls, stairs and deck, North said.

As for Henry, she said she is considering selling the home.

While her family has lived across the street for 70 years, she said that the home has become an unwitting target only in recent years – since she has owned it. Usually, motorists just hit the hedges, something that happens monthly, she said.

Her insurance company pegged the latest damage at between $35,000 and $40,000.

“There’s over 18 feet of cracked foundation just on the side you can see,” she said.

Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard, who started working for the town last year, said it was his first time hearing about the problem of cars hitting the home.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has warned the city not to delay the MCAS tests.

Domenic J. Sarno

SPRINGFIELD – Mayor Domenic J. Sarno signed a home rule bill on Tuesday that, if approved, would give Springfield teachers and students additional time to prepare for the MCAS tests.

The postponement in the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems MCAS tests is being sought by local officials, including the Springfield Education Association and was unanimously approved by the City Council on Feb. 13.

Local officials said they are concerned about students who have faced disruptions in their academic and personal lives due to severe weather. Disruptions have included a June tornado and a late-October snowstorm that triggered a week-long power outage.

“The bottom line is I am always looking to do what is best for the students our school system,” Sarno said. “The ball is now in the state Legislature’s court.”

However, Sarno said there is no certainty that the bill, affecting just Springfield, will pass the Legislature. He urged teachers and students to prepare to take the MCAS tests as currently scheduled in March in April.

The bill would postpone the tests until April and May.

Sarno said he did have some concerns about signing the bill, including warnings from Mitchell D. Chester, the state commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, who said that such as delay was not allowed.

Chester stated there is no provision for such a lengthy postponement, and repercussions could be serious. He said a delay “would mean that Springfield would fail to administer the 2012 ELA (English Language Arts) MCAS tests to its students.”

Students would lose “a crucial opportunity” to take the English Language Arts test, with passage of that test a prerequisite for obtaining a high school diploma, Chester said.

In addition, Grade 10 students who do not take the ELA tests would be ineligible to qualify for the Jon and Abigail Adams Scholarship which provides a tuition waiver at Massachusetts colleges and universities, Chester said.

Timothy T. Collins, president of the Springfield Education Association, said the bill would not threaten the students. If the bill is passed, Chester would be bound to follow its provisions, he said.

Collins praised Sarno and the City Council for supporting the legislation.

Collins said he is calling local legislators and asking them to go the Senate president and House speaker to move the legislation forward expeditiously “so we can get what is right and just for the students in the Springfield public schools.”

Without a postponement, it would not be fair to compare Springfield MCAS results with results in Eastern Massachusetts when those students have not faced the same disruptions and “trauma,” Collins said.

Jonathan Considine, a spokesman for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the current schedule is critical to get results graded and returned to districts in a timely manner. A few days extension could be worked out, but not a lengthy delay sought by Springfield, he said.

There is also an issue of making sure test security is preserved in having all students take the tests during the same period of time, Considine said.

The new concept is an effort to create an "adult" image for the ice-cream shops.

CHICOPEE – Zinfandel with a Fishamajig? Big Beef with a beer?

Wilbraham-based Friendly Ice Cream Corp. has applied for a beer-and-wine license for its location at 529 Memorial Drive in Chicopee. It’s part of an effort by the family-friendly chain to reinvent itself after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Jan. 9.

Friendly resurfaced after its corporate owners, Sun Capital Partners LLC, repurchased the iconic brand for $122.6 million, and in the process wiped away $297 million in debt and closed more than 100 locations, nine of them in the Springfield area.

The sales price was about a third of the $337.2 million owners Sun Capital paid for Friendly in 2007.

Harsha V. Agadi, chairman and CEO of Friendly Ice Cream Corp. since August 2010, quit Feb. 9.

Brothers Curtis L. and S. Prestley Blake founded Friendly's in 1935; the brothers made the brand famous for simple meals and ice cream and no beverage stronger than an extra-thick Fribble.

“I’m glad they are experimenting,” S. Prestley Blake, 96, said Tuesday from his winter home in Florida.

He said the company tried selling beer and wine at a few stores outside Massachusetts, but the competition was too stiff, and alcohol proved to be a management headache. What’s more, the Blake brothers’ parents disapproved of drinking, he said.

“We don’t drink,” Blake said. “They would have been very upset.”

Blake said he doesn’t have an ownership or a management role in Friendly's now.

Friendly's management said in an e-mailed statement: “Along with the test of beer and wine, this concept will exhibit many changes, including a new dramatic fountain experience as well as a healthier, higher quality food offering. The timing of the opening of the new concept is yet to be determined.”

Friendly's management declined further comment saying everything is in the planing stages.

A new concept is going to take some getting used to.

“It would seem strange to me to get a sundae and a beer at Friendly’s,” said Catherine L. Brown Chicopee’s Planning Director. “It would seem that they are going to use Chicopee as a new prototype.”

The liquor license application filed Feb. 2 came with plans to renovate the location with large windows. Brown said the City Council will vote on the liquor license Feb. 28. It’s standard procedure for alcohol license applications in the business district to go before the City Council, she said.

The application is for a beer, wine and cordials license. The company isn’t looking to serve mixed drinks. Friendly's is also talking with the city about renovating the restaurant at 529 Memorial Drive, Brown said.

Memorial Drive is already home to casual dining chains that also sell alcohol, including Ninety Nine Restaurant and Applebee’s.

“Places where people can take their children,” Brown said. “Rather than places where the children take the parents.”

Part of Friendly’s problem is that the only reason people go there is because their kids like it, said Elizabeth L. R. Elam, professor of marketing at Western New England University in Springfield.

“I’m extremely biased because I have young children (ages 6 and 10), and we love Friendly’s,” Elam said. “But there just aren’t that many people interested in sit-down family meals where the focus is so much on the kids and the ice cream.”

She said Friendly's might have to come up with a new name for restaurants with alcohol to differentiate old from new.

“Friendly’s as we know it with alcohol, that makes no sense at all,” she said. “Someplace with a different name, a different target and a different vibe? That might make sense.”

The 9th Circuit panel said Prop. 8 violated the U.S. Constitution's promise of equal protection because it singled out a minority group for disparate treatment for no compelling reason.

View full sizeBrian Keeton and Jay Dwyer, of San Francisco, celebrate outside City Hall in San Francisco, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012, after a federal appeals court declared California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. The court agreed to give sponsors of the bitterly contested, voter-approved law time to appeal the ruling before ordering the state to resume allowing gay couples to wed. (AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, The Tribune, Laura A. Oda)

By LISA LEFF

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The backers of California's same-sex marriage ban petitioned a federal appeals court Tuesday to review a split decision by three of its judges that struck down the voter-approved law known as Proposition 8.

Lawyers for the religious and legal groups that qualified the ban for the 2008 ballot had faced a Tuesday deadline for asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the 2-1 decision made two weeks ago.

The ruling declared Proposition 8 to be a violation of the civil rights of gay and lesbian Californians.

Andy Pugno, legal counsel for the Protect Marriage Coalition, said the backers appealed to a bigger 9th Circuit panel instead of going directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The move means same-sex marriages will remain on hold at least until the 9th Circuit decides to accept or reject the rehearing petition.

"Generally speaking, we think the 9th Circuit as a whole deserves the chance to basically fix this because the decision is such an outlier, it's really not representative of what the 9th Circuit's thinking on this issue has been," Pugno said.

He said backers of the ban made the decision even though the 9th Circuit is considered to be liberal in its rulings.

"There is liberal and then there is insanity, and there is just no way the entire 9th Circuit would sign off on a decision like this," Pugno said.

If a majority of its more than two dozen actively serving judges agrees to reconsider the case, it would be assigned to a panel of 11 randomly selected judges.

Proposition 8 amended the California Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriages five months after the state Supreme Court threw out a pair of statutes that limited marriage to a man and woman. The proposition was approved by voters in November 2008 with 52 percent of the vote.

"Today's petition shows how far the anti-marriage proponents of Proposition 8 will go to ensure that gay and lesbian Americans remain second-class citizens," said Chad Griffin, president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which sued to overturn the California ban. "Separate is never equal — and I am confident that one day, very soon, every American will be able to enjoy the fundamental freedom to marry."

The 9th Circuit panel said in its Feb. 7 ruling that the amendment violated the U.S. Constitution's promise of equal protection because it singled out a minority group for disparate treatment for no compelling reason.

The two judges in the majority concluded that the law had no purpose other than to deny gay couples marriage, since California already grants them all the rights and benefits of marriage if they register as domestic partners.

The lone dissenting judge insisted that the ban could help ensure that children are raised by married, opposite-sex parents.

All three judges agreed there was no evidence that former Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker, who struck down Proposition 8 after conducting a 13-day trial, should have disclosed that he was gay and in a long-term relationship with another man before he presided over the proceedings.

The appeals court focused its decision exclusively on California's ban, rather than stating that banning same-sex marriages would be unconstitutional in every instance, even though the court has jurisdiction in nine western states.

Whether same-sex couples may ever be denied the right to marry "is an important and highly controversial question," the court said. "We need not and do not answer the broader question in this case."

Legal analysts have questioned whether the Supreme Court would agree to take the case because of the narrow scope of the ruling.

Six states allow gay couples to wed — Connecticut, New Hampshire, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont — as well as the District of Columbia. The governor of Washington signed a bill last week that would make that state the seventh.

But California, as the nation's most populous state and home to more than 98,000 same-sex couples, would be the gay rights movement's biggest prize of them all.

According to the report, an increase in worker absences as a result of the new paid sick day benefit would translate to lost sales and production.

(File Photo)According to the report by the National Federation of Independent Business, an increase in worker absences as a result of the new paid sick day benefit would translate to lost sales and production.

By Kyle Cheney, STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON - Legally mandated paid sick days for workers would stamp out billions of dollars worth of productivity and potentially 16,000 jobs over five years, according to a new report issued by a small-business advocacy group that has long opposed legislation that would guarantee Massachusetts employees up to a week of sick time.

The report, issued by the National Federation of Independent Business, estimates that 1.3 million Massachusetts workers lack guaranteed paid sick time out of a workforce of nearly 3 million. The NFIB Research Foundation issued the report, the latest salvo in a public policy battle that has drawn intense interest but little legislative action in recent years.

The legislation would impose a mandate allowing employees to accrue paid sick time depending on the number of hours they work, but makes no exceptions for small firms and would cover temporary and part-time employees, according to the report, which estimates that a quarter of the job losses would hit firms with between 20 and 99 employees.

The issue of providing guaranteed paid sick time has floundered for years on Beacon Hill. Backers, including Gov. Deval Patrick and dozens of lawmakers, have argued that paid sick days would actually enhance productivity by guaranteeing recovery time for ill workers and lessening the likelihood that they’ll show up to work with a contagious condition. Some of those supporters ripped the NFIB’s report.

“In these tough economic times, no one should have to lose income -- or worse, lose their job -- because they get sick, but it happens all the time. Paid sick days is a commonsense measure that will help get our economy moving again by making sure hardworking men and women can hold onto their jobs, support their families and sustain local businesses,” said Elizabeth Toulan, coordinator of the Massachusetts Paid Sick Leave coalition. “Business owners across the state support paid sick days because it’s a good policy for their workers, their customers and their bottom lines. The NFIB is a corporate lobby that continues to show it is out of touch with business and the economy in Massachusetts.”

According to the report, an increase in worker absences as a result of the new paid sick day benefit would translate to lost sales and production.

“The financial loss from this increase can be material and is an important consequence of the proposed legislation,” the report concludes.

The report also concludes that a statewide mandate would result in new costs to taxpayers, as government would likely be tasked with policing and enforcing the mandate.

“Small firms would bear two-thirds of the job losses and more than half of lost sales,” the report concludes. “Although the state unemployment rate has gradually fallen … job creation remains a priority and policymakers would do well to bear in mind the potential negative effects to employment and production that employer mandates can have.”

But backers of the bill say it would save hundreds of millions of dollars a year by reducing employee turnover, slowing the spread of contagious illnesses in the workplace and increasing worker productivity.

Paid sick day advocates also note that they’re important to enable family members to care for sick children or other relatives, and they can be used by employees who are dealing with domestic violence or abuse.

Last year, Gov. Patrick’s secretary of labor, Joanne Goldstein, called paid sick days a “basic right” and rejected claims that businesses should be allowed to decide for themselves.

“All those who oppose these bills themselves enjoy sick days, probably more than the bill provides for,” she said, acknowledging what she said was a presumption, at a public hearing on the legislation. “To me there's some disconnect in fighting against something that you yourself enjoy and take advantage of. I would challenge all of you to find some folks who would say, 'We think this is such a bad idea … we're willing to forgo it.’”

Goldstein backed identical bills (H 1398 / S 930) offered by Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville) and Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton) that would enable workers in Massachusetts who currently lack paid sick days to earn an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked and up to seven days per year. The bills, the subject of a public hearing last July, are sponsored by 43 House Democrats, 13 Senate Democrats, and one Senate Republican.

The NYPD monitoring effort included schools far beyond the city limits, including the Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.

View full sizeThis Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012 photo shows Jawad Rasul near the City College of New York where he is a student. Rasul's name ended up in a New York Police Department report after an undercover officer accompanied him and other Muslim students on a whitewater rafting trip in upstate New York. The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

By DAVID B. CARUSO and JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's mayor faced off with the president of Yale University on Monday over efforts by the city's police department to monitor Muslim student groups.

The Associated Press revealed over the weekend that in recent years, the NYPD has kept close watch on Muslim student associations across the Northeast. The effort that included daily tracking of student websites and blogs, monitoring who was speaking to the groups, and in one case sending an undercover officer on a whitewater rafting trip with students from the City College of New York.

Yale President Richard Levin was among a number of academics who condemned the effort in a statement Monday, while Rutgers University and leaders of student Muslim groups elsewhere called for investigations into the monitoring.

"I am writing to state, in the strongest possible terms, that police surveillance based on religion, nationality, or peacefully expressed political opinions is antithetical to the values of Yale, the academic community, and the United States," Levin wrote.

Speaking to reporters later Monday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dismissed those criticisms as baseless.

"I don't know why keeping the country safe is antithetical to the values of Yale," he said.

He said it was "ridiculous" to argue that there was anything wrong with officers keeping an eye on websites that are available to the general public.

"Of course we're going to look at anything that's publicly available in the public domain. We have an obligation to do so, and it is to protect the very things that let Yale survive," Bloomberg said.

Asked by a reporter if he thought it was a "step too far" to send undercover investigators to accompany students on rafting vacations, Bloomberg said: "No. We have to keep this country safe."

"It's very cute to go and blame everybody and say we should stay away from anything that smacks of intelligence gathering. The job of our law enforcement is to make sure that they prevent things. And you only do that by being proactive."

Bloomberg added that he believed that police officers had obeyed the law.

The NYPD monitoring effort included schools far beyond the city limits, including the Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, the AP reported Saturday.

Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles away in Buffalo. The undercover agent who attended the City College rafting trip recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed. Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

View full sizeThis combo made from file photos shows Yale President Richard Levin in New Haven Conn. on Sept. 13, 2009, left, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Cambridge, Mass. on Nov. 29, 2011. Bloomberg is facing off with Yale University over efforts by the NYPD to monitor Muslim student groups. Levin on Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 said in a statement that monitoring of students based on religion was "antithetical" to the schools' values. Bloomberg defended the practice, saying there is nothing wrong with officers keeping an eye on websites that are available to the general public. (AP File Photos)

Levin said Yale's police department did not participate in any monitoring by NYPD and was unaware of it.

A 2006 report explained that officers from the NYPD's Cyber Intelligence unit visited the websites, blogs and forums of Muslim student associations as a "daily routine." The universities included Yale; Columbia; Penn; Syracuse; Rutgers; New York University; Clarkson University; the State University of New York campuses in Buffalo, Albany, Stony Brook and Potsdam, N.Y.; Queens College, Baruch College, Brooklyn College and La Guardia Community College.

An NYPD spokesman said police wanted to get a better handle on what was occurring at student associations. He cited 12 people arrested or convicted on terrorism charges in the United States and abroad who had once been members of Muslim student associations, or MSAs.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said police monitored student websites and collected publicly available information, but did so only between 2006 and 2007.

"Students who advertised events or sent emails about regular events should not be worried about a 'terrorism file' being kept on them. NYPD only investigated persons who we had reasonable suspicion to believe might be involved in unlawful activities," Browne said.

Faisal Hamid, a Muslim student leader at Yale, challenged the NYPD's justification.

"An MSA is simply a group of Muslim students; just because a terrorist happened to be member of an MSA does not mean that MSAs which nationally represents hundreds of thousands of Muslim students have any connection to criminal activity," Hamid said. "Law enforcement should pursue actual leads, not imaginary ones based on Islamophobia."

Syracuse University does "not approve of, or support, any surveillance or investigation of student groups based solely on ethnicity, religion or political viewpoint," said Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs at Syracuse.

Columbia University "would obviously be concerned about anything that could chill our essential values of academic freedom or intrude on student privacy," spokesman Robert Hornsby said.

The University of Buffalo said in a statement that it "does not conduct this kind of surveillance, and, if asked, UB would not voluntarily cooperate with such a request. As a public university, UB strongly supports the values of freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, and a reasonable expectation of privacy."

The University of Pennsylvania contacted the NYPD and received assurances that none of its students is being monitored, a spokesman said.

The Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for officials to investigate to determine the extent of the monitoring and how to prevent it from happening again.

"They're just going out and casting a wide net around a whole community, so they're criminalizing in a way a whole community based on their religion," said Mongi Dhaouadi, director of CAIR in Connecticut.

Rutgers University in New Jersey called for the NYPD to investigate its own activities. The Muslim Student Association at Rutgers called the monitoring a violation of civil rights.

"The Rutgers populace should openly condemn the clear violations of the NYPD, who conducted illegitimate profiling outside of their jurisdiction and breached the constitutional rights of an individual," the Rutgers student group said in a statement.

The Association of Muslim American Lawyers called for the New York attorney general to investigate.

The Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada expressed concerns as well. "The NYPD clearly overstepped its boundaries when it began spying on average American Muslim college students who were simply taking whitewater rafting trips or innocently participating in school activities at their college or university campus," said President Zahir Latheef.

The Muslim Students Association of the University at Buffalo said it felt discriminated against "by this secret investigation conducted by a police agency 400 miles away."

The student monitoring was part of a much larger intelligence operation that has put entire Muslim neighborhoods under scrutiny. The NYPD built databases showing where Muslims lived, worked, shopped and prayed. Plainclothes officers known as "rakers" eavesdropped in cafes and informants known as "mosque crawlers" reported on weekly sermons.

Since the AP began reporting on these programs in August, civil liberties groups and nearly three dozen members of Congress have called for the Justice Department to investigate.

But calls for an inquiry have so far yielded little. The NYPD's intelligence unit operates in secret. Even the City Council, which funds the department, isn't told about police intelligence operations. And though the NYPD receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money, the Obama administration has repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether it endorses the NYPD's tactics.

___

Christoffersen reported from New Haven, Conn. Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo in Washington, Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J., and Rik Stevens in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

In December, a British judge made headlines for filing an injunction against London-based protesters from the Occupy movement via text message.

By RAPHAEL SATTER

LONDON (AP) — Status update: You're sued.

Legal authorities said Tuesday that a High Court judge in England has approved the use of Facebook to serve legal claims.

Lawyers in a commercial dispute were last week granted permission to serve a suit against a defendant via the popular social networking site.

Justice Nigel Teare permitted the unconventional method of service during a pretrial hearing into a case which pits two investment managers against a brokerage firm they accuse of overcharging them.

A former trader and an ex-broker, Fabio De Biase and Anjam Ahmad, are also alleged to have been in on the scam.

Jenni Jenkins, who represents Ahmad, said lawyers in the case had been trying to track De Biase in order to serve him with legal documents. She said that a copy of the suit was left at his last known address, but that it wasn't clear whether he was still living there.

The lawyers didn't have his email address, so they applied for permission to send him the claim through Facebook.

Jenkins, an associate with London-based law firm Memery Crystal, said the lawyers were confident that De Biase's account was still active.

"The counsel told the judge that someone from the firm had been monitoring the account and they'd seen that he's recently added two new friends, which made the judge chuckle," she said.

De Biase was given extra time to respond to the claim "to allow for the possibility that he wasn't accessing his account regularly," she added.

Ordinarily, British legal claims are served in hard copy — either in person, by mail, or by fax — although unconventional means are occasionally employed if the people involved are hard to pin down.

In December, a British judge made headlines for filing an injunction against London-based protesters from the Occupy movement via text message.

The Judicial Office for England and Wales confirmed Tuesday that Teare had allowed lawyers to serve their claim through Facebook. A spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to give her name, said it was the first time anyone had been served via the site "as far as we're aware."

Facebook declined a request for comment on the issue.