Snow is expected to start falling between noon and 2 p.m.

Dave Roback / The Republican1-27-12 - Holyoke - A man walks along Ashley Reservoir Wednesday under a partly cloudy sky.

SPRINGFIELD – Heavy wet snow, slated to arrive in Western Massachusetts after noon, has the potential to bring scattered outages to the region, abc40 / Fox 6 meteorologist Dan Brown said.

“I don’t think it will be a huge deal,” Brown said of the potential for outages, adding that they would be nothing like the freak October storm that left hundreds of thousands throughout the region without power for days.

The snow, 3 to 6 inches in the lower areas of the Pioneer Valley and 6 to 10 inches or more in the higher elevations, will start falling between noon and 2 p.m.

Elevations of 1,500 feet or more in northern Berkshire, western Franklin and northwestern Hampshire counties could see as much a foot of snow, Brown said.

The snow, moderate to heavy at times, will change over to a wintry mix or rain in the Greater Springfield overnight. Franklin and Berkshire counties, meanwhile, will seek additional accumulations of sleet and wet snow into Thursday afternoon, Brown said.

The snow won’t likely last long on the ground, however, given the March sun, moderating temperatures and a rainstorm on Saturday.

A winter storm warning and a winter weather advisory remains in effect for all of Western Massachusetts from noon through Thursday.

A typo on a Methuen school lunch menu turned KK Chicken, short for "Krispy Krunchy," into KKK Chicken. School officials characterized the incident as a simple mistake and printed new menus.

METHUEN – Perhaps it's a sign of the super-sensitive times: A typographical error on a school lunch menu turned a benign-sounding dish called KK Chicken, short for "Krispy Krunchy," into KKK Chicken, creating a major headache for Methuen school officials.

Whether or not anyone made a connection to the KKK — the common abbreviation for the Ku Klux Klan, the notorious white supremacist organization that emerged after the American Civil War — remains unknown. School officials did not receive any complaints from parents, though one person did contact Boston's WCVB Channel 5, which filed a report on the menu mishap.

School Superintendent Judith Scannell apologized for the menu misprint, summarizing the matter as an unfortunate typo that was made by an "exemplary employee" who has worked in the school district for many years.

"As she was typing it, she hit a third 'K.' It was an oversight," Scannell told the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence. "I apologize for the school district if we offended anybody. This was cleaned up immediately and a new menu sent out."

Scannell said the only people contacting her about the menu mistake have been news reporters. About 6,500 students took home revised menus on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, one Methuen parent, who requested anonymity, told Channel 5 that she was outraged when her daughter inquired about the chicken dish.

"She said, 'Mom, you know what's KKK chicken tenders?' And I said, 'What did you say to me?'" the TV station quoted the mother as saying.

Methuen City Councilor Sean Fountain said he believed the issue was a non-issue that had been blown out of proportion.

"I really don't think it was intended to be a negative issue or racial issue," he told the Eagle-Tribune. "Somebody made a mistake, and it was corrected. That's it."

One student noted that the issue never would have arisen had school officials spelled "crispy," "crunchy" and "chicken" correctly from the get-go.

Material from the Associated Press, Eagle-Tribune and WCVB Channel 5 was used in this report.

According to Board of Trustees Chairman Matthew Pitoniak, it will take at least 6 months to navigate the regulatory issues inherent in the affiliation.

NORTHAMPTON – A day after announcing that Cooley Dickinson Hospital will affiliate with Massachusetts General Hospital, officials were still assessing the fallout.

Craig Melin

As hospital President Craig N. Melin, Board of Trustees Chairman Matthew Pitoniak and Medical Staff President Margaret Russo met with a stream of reporters Tuesday, excitement over the culmination of the decision-making process triumphed over the weariness of the long grind. The hospital had been weighing proposals from various health care networks since 2010, most recently narrowing the field to the Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital and the Springfield-based Baystate Health System. On Monday, Cooley Dickinson announced it had chosen Mass. General.

Although the decision made the physicians at Cooley Dickinson happy, Baystate expressed dismay at being snubbed. As for the general public, the early returns were good, according to Melin.

“People are quite pleased,” he said, citing emails and phone calls on the subject. “Also, I think they’re pleased to have a decision behind us.”

As a relatively small community hospital, Cooley Dickinson had been seeking to fortify itself financially in the ever-changing and unpredictable world of health care reimbursement. The hospital had undergone its own throes in recent years, cutting jobs and making and breaking other affiliations in an effort to stay ahead of the health care curve. A partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire had come and gone. So had a number of positions at the hospital.

With the Mass. General decision, Cooley Dickinson will be able to avail itself and its patients of the resources and expertise of a world-class hospital. On what some see as the downside, Mass. General will, in effect, own Cooley Dickinson.

As Russo explained it, the doctors at Cooley Dickinson are happy about the move because Mass. General is known as a physician-led organization that is also on the cutting edge in medical research.

“That gets transferred to us,” said Pitoniak, “both to our doctors and patients.”

Through computer hook-ups, specialists at Mass. General will be able to examine and assess local patients in real time. Cooley Dickinson doctors will also be able to confer with their Boston counterparts by telephone. This will especially benefit cancer patients, since Mass. General is in the vanguard of treating that disease.

“The goal here is to improve local services and minimize the need to go to Boston,” said Russo.

Within the disappointment expressed over the decision by Richard B. Steele, Jr., the chairman of Baystate’s Board of Trustees, contained a not-so-veiled criticism of Cooley Dickinson’s willingness to go outside the area for a partner.

“This is particularly troublesome at a time when so many businesses and jobs are leaving the area,” Steele said in a statement.

Pitoniak insisted that the bond between Cooley Dickinson and Baystate will remain strong, despite the new affiliation.

“The whole point of this is to keep Cooley Dickinson here in this community,” he said. “Baystate will still be here for all of us. I still see Baystate as integral to the health care of our patients here in Hampshire County.”

Melin said Cooley Dickinson has tried to focus its resources on preventive medicine, which keeps people out of the hospital and keeps costs down. Because of the health care reimbursement system, the hospital has, in effect, been penalized for this approach. The system is changing, however, and Mass. General has been at the forefront of preventive medicine.

“This is a great opportunity to learn what they’ve learned,” he said.

According to Pitoniak, it will take at least six months to navigate the regulatory issues inherent in the affiliation. Once that’s done, patients who come into Cooley Dickinson will see little difference in terms of the hospital’s organizational structure. It will retain its own separate Board of Trustees. Melin pointed out that, during its affiliation with Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the New Hampshire organization effectively owned Cooley Dickinson, much as Mass. General will.

“It will be the same structural relationship,” he said.

MGH Photography/Sam Riley (left) and Republican file photoMassachusetts General Hospital (left) and Cooley Dickinson Hospital (right) in a composite image.

The arrests were the result of a month-long joint investigation by State Police and the Massachusetts Port Authority following several complaints from travelers about missing items from their checked luggage.

Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts State PoliceA state police photo showing some of the stolen items recovered in the arrest of two Logan baggage handlers.

BOSTON - State police report that two baggage handlers at Boston's Logan International Airport have been arrested and charged with stealing items out of traveler's suitcases.

Lashawn Fontenot, 25, and Joshua Wright, 25, both of Mattapan, were arrested Tuesday and charged with larceny of more than $250. Additional charges may be added, police said.

Both defendants arraigned Wednesday afternoon in East Boston District Court. Judge Roberto Ronquillo, Jr., released both defendants on their own recognizance with orders to stay away from Logan Airport while their cases are pending. Each is due back in court on April 18.

Following their arrests, their airport access was revoked by Massport, police said.

The arrests were the result of a month-long joint investigation by Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts Port Authority following several complaints from travelers about missing items from their checked luggage, police said.

Among the items reported missing were cash, cameras, tobacco and electronics worth thousands of dollars, police said.

Police said that at the time of their arrests, Fontenot and Wright had items in their possession that had recently been reported stolen.

State Police and Massport are working to return valuables to passengers, police said.

Names of the candidates will not be announced until the meeting, according to Ryan Bagley, chairman of the Golf Commission.

File photo | The RepublicanThe Ledges Golf Course club house in South Hadley.

SOUTH HADLEY – Four finalists for the position of new manager of The Ledges Golf Course will be interviewed tonight at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. The public is welcome to attend.

The interviews will go on as planned despite today's snowstorm.

The setting will be a joint meeting of the South Hadley Selectboard, the Golf Commission and the General Manager Screening Committee.

Names of the candidates will not be announced until the meeting, according to Ryan Bagley, chairman of the Golf Commission.

The Ledges, a municipal course, opened in 2001 with the expectation that it would earn money for the town. Instead, it has lost money, and as a result has spawned finger-pointing and bad feeling in some quarters.

Bagley said he expects that to change. “We’re so excited about the season coming up,” he said. “It’s been a mild winter, so everyone is thinking ahead to golf.”

He said he is hoping to open the course earlier than usual, depending on the weather.

As part of its effort to improve the course, the town has hired Frigo’s Gourmet Foods to be in charge of food and beverages at the clubhouse. Bagley said even non-golfers have told him they are pleased with the selection.

Members of the Golf Commission, besides Bagley, are Stanley Czerwiec, William Foley, Gale Gurek, David Levy, Bruce Forcier and Mark Zraunig.

These members are also serving on the screening committee, where they are joined by acting Town Administrator Jennifer Wolowicz and contractor Mike Fontaine of IGM, the company that maintains the grounds.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure everything is in top shape,” said Bagley, adding that a number of large trees were felled by the October snowstorm and “it’s been quite a big project to get it cleaned up.”

In response to criticism that some of the staff on the course was unhelpful or untrained, he said the town will make sure the people they hire are well-trained, so golfers feel special from the moment they walk in the gate. The expectation, he said, is that “at the end of the day they will walk out saying: What a great experience.”

The meeting on Wednesday is not a public forum, so the public can watch but not speak. It will take place in the Selectboard meeting room at Town Hall.

Apple, the Nasdaq's biggest component, topped $500 billion in market value, the only company above the half-trillion mark and only the 6th in U.S. corporate history to grow so big.

By DANIEL WAGNER | AP Business Writer

Associated PressThe technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index hit 3,000 for the first time since the collapse in dot-com stocks over 10 years ago.

The Nasdaq composite index briefly touched 3,000 on Wednesday for the first time since the collapse in dot-com stocks more than a decade ago. Stocks ended lower, but it was still the best February on Wall Street in 14 years.

The milestone for the Nasdaq, heavy with technology stocks, came a day after the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008.

Apple, the Nasdaq's biggest component, topped $500 billion in market value, the only company above the half-trillion mark and only the sixth in U.S. corporate history to grow so big. Apple might reveal its next iPad model next week.

The Nasdaq last hit 3,000 on Dec. 13, 2000. Its last close above 3,000 was two days earlier. It was only above 3,000 for seconds on Wednesday before closing down 19.87 points at 2,966.89.

The Dow lost 53.05 to close at 10,952.07. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 6.50 points to close at 2,966.89.

For the month, the Dow gained 2.5 percent, the S&P 4.1 percent and the Nasdaq 5.4 percent. The last time the stock market had such a strong February was in 1998, when the S&P gained 7 percent.

Stocks opened higher after the government said that the economy grew faster at the end of last year than previously estimated — a 3 percent annual rate, the best reading since the spring of 2010.

Stocks fell sharply after about an hour, then recovered by mid-afternoon, after the Federal Reserve's survey of regional economic conditions said the economy strengthened in the first six weeks of the year.

They turned negative after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified on Capitol Hill that the economy has performed better than expected in recent months. He said gas prices will add to inflation and unemployment is falling faster than expected.

Bernanke's remarks made it appear less likely that the Fed will begin another round of bond-buying to juice the economy. Bond-buying increases the money supply and could add to inflation, so signs of inflation make it a less appetizing option. And unemployment must remain high for the Fed to justify such an aggressive policy.

U.S. Treasury debt plunged on speculation that the Fed wouldn't enter the market again. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note spiked to 2.02 percent during Bernanke's remarks, from 1.94 percent minutes earlier. It fell back to 1.97 percent. Bond yields rise as their prices fall.

Materials and energy companies had the steepest losses of the S&P 500's 10 industry groups. Consumer products and financial companies rose modestly.

The price of gold plunged $77 per ounce, the biggest one-day drop since September, as traders dialed back their expectations that the dollar would be weakened by another round of economic stimulus from the Fed. Gold settled at $1,711.30 an ounce , its lowest close since Jan. 25. Silver also fell sharply.

The Nasdaq has gained 14.5 percent this year, compared with 6.4 percent for the Dow and 9.1 percent for the S&P 500. The Nasdaq already has risen almost as much this year as it did in all of 2010. It edged lower in 2011.

The strength of tech stocks is no surprise when you consider the licking they took during last year's market gyrations. Tech stocks tend to be more risky and rise faster as investors regain confidence in the economy.

The Nasdaq also is benefiting from long-term economic currents that could carry tech stocks even higher. Many companies put off replacing worn-out technology during the recession and now are investing again.

There's also a growing global market for technology, and big tech companies face less competition these days when they try to acquire smaller ones. Established companies like IBM and Oracle can be picky about buying only companies that will increase their earnings.

The gains have some analysts on the lookout for another tech bubble, like the one that yanked the Nasdaq from 5,132 in February 2000 down to 1,792 in October 2001.

"It's justifiable to worry about exuberance," said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ. But he said he expects the broad market to rise another 3 to 10 percent in the next few months before hitting a ceiling and correcting downward.

"It's momentum, combined with too many investors on the sidelines," Stovall said. "As the market blows past these benchmarks, these investors selectively throw in the towel" and buy stocks whose prices are rising.

In corporate news:

– DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. plunged 12.2 percent after the maker of "Kung Fu Panda" said its fourth-quarter profit fell 71 percent on weak DVD sales.

– News Corp. rose 0.3 percent after James Murdoch stepped down as executive chairman of News International, the British newspaper arm at the center of a phone-hacking scandal. James is the youngest son of 80-year-old CEO Rupert Murdoch.

– Staples Inc. dropped 8.4 percent after the office supply retailer said international sales weakened in the fourth quarter. The company's outlook for 2012 was far weaker than analysts had expected.

The school's marketing director an exterminator determined that the bugs were isolated to 1 room.

File photo | Associated PressThis photo provided by Virginia Tech Department of Entomology shows mother and child bed bugs. (AP Photo/Virginia Tech Department of Entomology, Tim McCoy, File)

WILBRAHAM – Bed bugs were discovered Tuesday morning in a mattress in one dormitory room of Wilbraham & Monson Academy, and an exterminator was immediately called, school officials said.

Meghan Rothschild, marketing director for the school, said the exterminator determined that the bugs were isolated to one room.

Nevertheless, all students and parents were notified by electronic mail.

The students are leaving for spring break on Friday, so a letter was sent out telling parents how to treat all clothing articles as a precaution.

Articles of clothing can be treated by putting them in the dryer on high heat for 30 minutes, school officials said.

School officials are trained in how to deal with such situations, Rothschild said.

Towns are required to give schools 95 percent of net spending, but are allowed to dip as low as 90 percent; Ware went below the limit and could be hit with a $338,000 penalty.

File photo | The RepublicanWare Town Hall.

WARE – The state says the town has underfunded the school district by about $1 million in the past two years and has to make up for it, or else face a steep fine.

The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 said that towns and cities that had included retired teachers’ health benefits in the schools’ net spending in that fiscal year could continue to do so. Ware did not, so it was required to pay the benefits on top of the net spending from that point on.

But, according to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the town has included the benefits in the net spending ever since. In most other years, it has made up the net funding gap in other ways, so no one ever noticed the problem, but the town now owes the School Department just under $1 million for this fiscal year and last.

Towns are required to give schools 95 percent of net spending, but are allowed to dip as low as 90 percent. Ware went below the limit and could be hit with a $338,000 penalty.

“We’re not anxious to penalize them,” said Roger Hatch, DESE’s Administrator of School Finance. “This year is more difficult than most, so a lot of districts have these shortfalls now.”

View full sizeMary-Elizabeth Beach

Superintendent Mary-Elizabeth Beach said at a recent meeting of the School Committee that she is not going to pursue any possible debts from earlier than fiscal year 2011 and hopes everyone can agree on a payment plan.

Andrew Paquette of Management Solutions, the district’s business consultant, explained at the meeting how the problem was revealed.

“When I did the report for FY11... it kept coming up that Ware did not meet the minimum net school spending,” said Paquette. He did the math a second time, came up with the same result, then sent a report to the DESE, which told him where the problem lay.

“Going forward, it’s the schools’ expectation and the state’s expectation that the town meets its net school spending,” said Beach. She said she wants the town to reconcile for fiscal years 2011 and 2012, then make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Paquette said there were several reasons no one noticed the benefits problem before. One is that, prior to fiscal year 2010, the schools and the town split the Medicaid funding obligation, but the schools didn’t spend it all.

“So we had accumulated ... close to $400,000 in our Medicaid revolving account, which was a local receipt, which then is reported” as part of net school spending, he said. “That’s how it was reported as us meeting net school spending or within the allowable five percent.”

Paquette said meeting the requirement will cost the town an extra $500,000 per year.

“This won’t happen again. It can’t happen again,” Town Manager Stuart B. Beckley said to the committee. “The town cannot afford a $338,000 penalty. ... Once we get to a real number of what we believe should be the deficit, then we’ll work with the schools to talk about how, over time, we can pay that back.”

Hatch said he was working on coming up with an exact dollar amount, but it would not vary much from the $1 million estimate.

The Town Council will hold working sessions to discuss budget requests with department heads.

The Republican/Mark MurrayPalmer Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard

PALMER – Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard unveiled a preliminary fiscal 2013 budget of $32 million this week that includes requests from several department heads to restore positions that have been cut over the years.

Blanchard said that as the budget process continues, he will evaluate the benefit of restoring the positions.

"We want to get as much information as we can from department heads," Blanchard said. "We can't just restore everything because it would be nice to do it. We have to see where the work is."

He added that his goal is to also improve wages for department heads, and make them more competitive with their counterparts in the area. A salary subcommittee has been meeting to work on this issue, he said.

At this stage, the requests from some departments appear to be more of a wish list.

The Board of Health is asking to more than double its budget of approximately $22,000 to $45,976. The money would add three positions (two inspectors and a part-time employee), and restore the clerk's position from part-time to full-time.

The Planning Department is asking for $13,000 for a clerk; the department has been without a clerk since February 2010. Town Planner Linda G. Leduc said she wrote a letter in support of the position, as she is now the sole employee in the department and handles all the clerical work in addition to her regular duties.

Assessor Beverly A. Morin-Lizak is asking for the assistant's salary to be restored to 32.5 hours a week; it had been cut to part-time. That would change the position from a $15,000 a year to $26,000.

"We've always had a minimum of two full-time people," Morin-Lizak said.

Treasurer-Collector Paul A. Nowicki wants to restore the part‐time payroll and benefits clerk to full-time, which he said in his memo to Blanchard "would increase the time allocated to customer service at the window, telephone ... and also would free up time of treasurer-collector to devote to tax foreclosure and auction activities as well as cash management functions. The job would go from $10,000 a year to $21,880 if it becomes full-time.

Public Works Director Craig Dolan is seeking an additional $140,000 in the hourly wages line, from $557,000 to $695,000.

"The DPW over the years has taken a lot of hits on the budget," Blanchard said.

The council will continue holding work sessions in which department heads, as well as representatives from the library and School Department, will discuss their budgetary needs.

While a meeting had been scheduled for Tuesday, Blanchard said it will likely be canceled because that is the day of the primary. The other work sessions are scheduled for March 20, for the finance department; March 27, for public safety and public works; and April 4, for the schools and library.

"I'm glad we're starting early," Town Council President Paul E. Burns said. "I think Charlie outlined a very clear process."

The fiscal 12 budget was approximately $31 million.

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayPalmer Town Manager Charles Blanchard

The tornado that blasted Harrisburg in southern Illinois, killing six, was an EF4, the second-highest rating given to twisters based on damage. Scientists said it was 200 yards wide with winds up to 170 mph.

View full sizeThis aerial photo shows a path of damage stretching west from the backside of a Wal-Mart Supercenter to the east in Harrisburg, Ill., after a severe storm hit Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012. Several deaths have been reported in Harrisburg and left the city's medical center scrambling to treat an influx of injured, the hospital's top administrator said. (AP Photo/The Southern, Steve Jahnke)

By JIM SALTER and JIM SUHR

HARRISBURG, Ill. (AP) — Twisters roared through the nation's heartland in the early morning darkness Wednesday, flattening entire blocks of homes in small-town Illinois and Kansas and killing at least nine people.

Winds also ripped through the country music mecca of Branson, Mo., damaging some of the city's famous theaters just days before the start of the city's busy tourist season.

The tornado that blasted Harrisburg in southern Illinois, killing six, was an EF4, the second-highest rating given to twisters based on damage. Scientists said it was 200 yards wide with winds up to 170 mph.

By midday, townspeople in the community of 9,000 were sorting through piles of debris and remembering their dead while the winds still howled around them.

Not long after the storm, Darrell Osman raced to his mother's home, arriving just in time to speak to her before she was taken to a hospital with a head injury, a severe cut to her neck and a broken arm and leg.

"She was conscious. I wouldn't say she was coherent. There were more mumbles than anything," he said. "She knew we were there."

Mary Osman died a short time later.

The twister that raked Branson seemed to hopscotch up the city's main roadway, moving from side to side.

As sirens blared, Derrick Washington stepped out of his motel room just long enough to see a greenish-purple sky. Then he heard tornado roaring up the strip.

"Every time the tornado hit a building, you could see it exploding," he said.

At least 37 people were reported hurt, but most suffered only cuts and bruises. After the start of Branson's peak tourist season in mid-March, up to 60,000 visitors would have been in hotels on any given day.

Just six people were staying at J.R.'s Motor Inn, and all of them escaped injury by taking refuge in bathtubs. Engineers deemed the building a total loss.

Lori McGauley, manager of the inn, choked back tears thinking about what might have been.

"We had 25 people booked for next week," McGauley said. "If this happened a week later, we would have lost some people."

At the 530-room downtown Hilton, intense winds shattered windows and sucked furniture away. Hotel workers were able to get all guests to safety.

Looking at the city's main strip, it was difficult to believe there weren't more serious injuries. A strip mall was nearly completely demolished. The Legends Theater, the Andy Williams Moon River Theater and the Branson Variety Theater all sustained significant damage.

The Veterans Memorial Museum was in shambles, and a small military jet that sat in front of the museum was blown apart.

View full sizeSt. Joseph's Catholic Church is left in ruins after a severe storm hit in the early morning hours on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, in in Ridgway, Ill. Several deaths have been reported in Harrisburg and left the city's medical center scrambling to treat an influx of injured, the hospital's top administrator said. (AP Photo/The Southern Illinoisan, Paul Newton)

Some of the most popular theaters were barely damaged. The popular Presley's Country Jubilee was virtually unscathed, as was Smirnoff's theater. A manager at the Baldknobbers Jamboree Show expected to cancel just three or four shows before performances resume next week.

Other venues weren't so lucky. Branson Variety Theater's 1,600-seat auditorium was intact, but the lobby and gift shop were virtually destroyed. It could be nearly two months before the theater's popular Twelve Irish Tenors and Shake Rattle & Roll shows perform again.

Back in Harrisburg, the winds were strong enough to blow the walls off some rooms at the local medical center, leaving disheveled beds and misplaced furniture. The staff had enough warning to move the most endangered patients. Then they heard the walls collapse, officials said.

The hospital discharged patients who could go home or moved them to other medical facilities. But they also had to confront an influx of injured.

"Helicopters have been coming in and out here all morning," said the Vince Ashley, CEO of the Harrisburg Medical Center.

Osman and his sister sorted through twisted debris and chunks of pink insulation at the site of their mother's duplex, looking for photos and financial records.

They found 10 old picture slides that were among a collection of hundreds. Some were caked in mud and damaged by water.

"My mother was a Christian," Osman said. "I know she's in a better place. That is the only thing getting me through this."

In Missouri, one person was killed in a trailer park in the town of Buffalo, about 35 miles north of Springfield. Two more fatalities were reported in the Cassville and Puxico areas.

The tornado that barreled through the tiny eastern Kansas town of Harveyville was an EF-2, with wind speeds of 120 to 130 mph, state officials said. It left much of the community in rubble.

The twisters were spawned by a powerful storm system that blew down from the Rockies on Tuesday and was headed toward the East Coast.

Corey Mead, lead forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said a broad cold front was slamming into warm, humid air over much of the eastern half of the nation.

At least 16 tornados were reported from Nebraska and Kansas across southern Missouri to Illinois and Kentucky, according to the storm center, an arm of the National Weather Service.

Branson has long been a tourist destination for visitors attracted to the beauty of the surrounding Ozarks. But the city rose to prominence in the 1990s because of its theaters, which drew country music stars including Merle Haggard and Crystal Gayle as well as other musical celebrities such as Chubby Checker and Andy Williams.

It is about 110 miles southeast of Joplin, which was devastated by a monstrous twister last May that killed 161 people. Memories of the disaster motivated residents and guests to quickly take cover after the sirens sounded early Wednesday.

"I think so many people from Branson went over to help in Joplin and having seen that, it was fresh on our minds," said Mayor Raeanne Presley, whose family owns Presleys' Theater. "We all reached for our loved ones a little sooner and got to the basement a little faster."

The violent weather also lashed parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky, where three buildings belonging to an Elizabethtown trucking company were heavily damaged.

"It picked the whole building up," said Jim Owen, son of the owner of Harry Owen Trucking. "It would take a group of 20 men five days with equipment to tear that down."

The Midwest and South were to get a reprieve from the menacing weather Thursday, ahead of another strong system expected Friday.

Ryan Jewell, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the next system is forecast to take a similar path as Wednesday's storms and has the potential for even more damage.

On Friday, he said, both the Midwest and South would be "right in the bull's eye."

___

Salter reported from Branson, Mo. AP photographer Mark Schiefelbein in Branson and writer Janet Capiello in Louisville, Ky., also contributed to this report.

Gulfstream Aerospace plans to begin construction on a new maintenance facility in May.

The Republican file photoBarnes Regional Airport in Westfield.

WESTFIELD – City officials will open bids March 15 on an estimated $1.3 million relocation of an access road at Barnes Regional Airport considered critical to Gulfstream Aerospace’s planned expansion at the airport.

The successful bidder for the project must complete the relocation within 50 days of the contract award.

“Work must be completed before May 15,” said Westfield Advancement Officer Jeffrey R. Daley. That is the expected groundbreaking date for Gulfstream’s project, a $23 million maintenance facility on an 11-acre tract it will lease from the airport.

Daley said the road project includes the relocation of utilities and a grasslands area for wildlife and construction of a aircraft ramp for Gulfstream.

Financing for the project is included in a recent $3 million grant awarded by the state Department of Transportation for infrastructure improvements at the regional airport.

The road is used by the Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing, airport contractors and maintenance crews, said Airport Manager Brian P. Barnes.

“This is a critical project because right now it is directly in the path of Gulfstream’s planned project,” said Barnes.

The access road is located in the Northeast side of the airport.

Daley said Gulfstream plans to have the new maintenance facility in operation within one year of its groundbreaking.

Gulfstream currently maintains operations just outside the airport property with a workforce of about 130 employees. The new maintenance facility will create an additional 100 jobs for the company.

The remainder of the state grant, along with $2 million the city plans to appropriate, will be used on other road work inside the airport and to realign and upgrade Airport Industrial Road in an effort to attract more industrial development north of the airport perimeter, officials said.

North Korea faces tough U.N. sanctions that were tightened in 2009 when it conducted its second nuclear test and fired a long-range rocket.

View full sizeAssociated PressIn this Oct. 9, 2010 file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Kim Jong Un, the third son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, applauds while watching the Arirang mass games performance staged to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang, North Korea.

By FOSTER KLUG and MATTHEW PENNINGTON

WASHINGTON (AP) — North Korea raised hopes Wednesday for a major easing in nuclear tensions under its youthful new leader, agreeing to suspend uranium enrichment at a key facility and refrain from missile and nuclear tests in exchange for a mountain of critically needed U.S. food aid.

It was only a preliminary step but a necessary one to restart broader six-nation negotiations that would lay down terms for what the North could get in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang pulled out of those talks in 2009 and seemingly has viewed the nuclear program as key to the survival of its dynastic, communist regime, now entering its third generation.

But the announcement, just over two months after the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong Il, also opened a door for the secretive government under his untested youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to improve ties with the United States and win critically needed aid and international acceptance.

It also opened the way for international nuclear inspections after years when the North's program went unmonitored.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the agreement, which was announced at separate but simultaneous statements by the long-time adversaries, was a modest step but also "a reminder that the world is transforming around us."

"We, of course, will be watching closely and judging North Korea's new leaders by their actions," Clinton told a congressional hearing.

Indeed, North Korea has reneged on nuclear commitments in the past. An accord under the six-party talks collapsed in 2008 when Pyongyang refused to abide by verification that U.S. diplomats claimed had been agreed upon.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry's statement, issued by the state-run news agency, said the North had agreed to the nuclear moratoriums and U.N. inspectors "with a view to maintaining positive atmosphere" for the U.S.-North Korea talks.

North Korea faces tough U.N. sanctions that were tightened in 2009 when it conducted its second nuclear test and fired a long-range rocket. In late 2010, it unveiled a uranium enrichment facility that could give North Korea a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.

In the meantime, its people have continued to go hungry. The North suffered famine in the 1990s and appealed for the aid a year ago to alleviate its chronic food shortages. U.S. charities reported after a trip to North Korea last fall that children were suffering "slow starvation."

Clinton said the United States will meet with North Korea to finalize details for a proposed package of 240,000 metric tons of food aid. She said intensive monitoring of the aid would be required — a reflection of U.S. concerns that food could be diverted to the North's powerful military.

A senior Obama administration official said it was only in talks last week in Beijing that presaged Wednesday's announcement that the North had dropped its demand for rice and grains — viewed as easier to divert — and agreed to accept the U.S. "nutritional assistance" such as corn soy blend and other food targeted to young children and pregnant women.

The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivity.

North Korea's chief rival, South Korea, a staunch U.S. ally supported by 28,000 American troops, welcomed the agreement, although it has yet to receive the apology it wants from the North for two military attacks that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.

Those hostilities nearly pitched the divided Peninsula into war, and the elder Kim's Dec. 17 death had fueled concern that the North could attack again and conduct another nuclear test.

Wednesday's announcement should ease those concerns, and was a welcome development for President Barack Obama in an election year when he will be looking to avoid another security crisis to add to the pressing list of urgent U.S. foreign policy concerns. Those include Iran's nuclear program, the bloodshed in Syria and a deeply unstable Afghanistan.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he hoped North Korea would take steps toward "a verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was positive news and that the change in North Korean leadership offered a chance for "renewed engagement with the international community."

Outsiders have been closely watching how the younger Kim, believed to be in his late 20s, handles nuclear diplomacy with the United States and delicate relations with South Korea. His consolidation of power, with the help of senior advisers who worked with his father and grandfather, appears to be going smoothly, although determining the intentions and internal dynamics in Pyongyang is notoriously difficult.

Since Kim Jong Il's death, North Korea has vowed to maintain the late leader's policies and has linked its nuclear program to Kim's legacy. Many observers are skeptical whether North Korea will ever give up its nuclear program.

"North Korea uses (the nuclear program) as leverage to win concessions in return for disarmament measures. Since Kim Jong Il's death, it has called (the program) the country's most important achievement," Baek Seung-joo, an analyst at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said. "There is still a long way to go."

While Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. welcomed the agreement, some Republicans reacted with skepticism, warning that Washington was heading down a path it has trod before — offering aid in return for nuclear commitments, only to see North Korea renege.

"Pyongyang will likely continue its clandestine nuclear weapons program right under our noses. We have bought this bridge several times before," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The administration official echoed some of that caution. But he also said the U.S. took it as a positive sign that the new North Korean leadership had carried on with a policy set in train before Kim Jong Il's death, and had shown some swiftness in reaching the accord before the official 100-day mourning period was over.

While North Korea's commitments meet the pre-steps set by the U.S. for the resumption of six-party disarmament-for-aid talks, the official said the U.S. had made no promise to restart them. He said North Korea would first have to make good on its latest commitments. The U.S. would also have to map out a strategy with the other parties in the talks — China, Japan, Russia and South Korea — on what they could offer the North in return for the irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. and North Korean statements on the agreement differed on some details, including whether inspectors from U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency would be allowed into both the uranium enrichment and plutonium-based programs. The North Korean statement referred only to uranium enrichment.

A senior Obama administration official acknowledged that omission but said the U.S. was in no doubt that the North had agreed to let IAEA inspectors in to confirm the disabling of plutonium-producing reactor at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.

____

Foster Klug reported from Seoul. Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Asher could face more than 2 years in jail at his sentencing in March before Judge Maureen Walsh.

The Republican | John SuchockiJeffrey Asher hears the verdict of guilty on both counts of assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in his trial in Chicopee District Court on Tuesday.

SPRINGFIELD – A sharply divided issue was illustrated in the make-up in the gallery on either side of the aisle in Chicopee District Court.

During closing arguments in the police brutality trial of now-convicted former patrolman Jeffrey M. Asher Monday, dozens of police packed the rows behind the defense table and the arrestee’s supporters and civil rights activists filled up some seats behind the prosecution.

Police were largely dejected after Asher, a white city patrolman, was convicted of two counts of assault on Melvin Jones III, a black city resident, during a 2009 traffic stop.

“I’m disappointed with the verdict. I think the evidence supported acquittal. There was a good case of self-defense,” Police Officer Joseph Gentile, president of the Springfield Patrolman’s Union, said a day after the verdict. “And being colleagues for as long as we were, it’s difficult to see anyone I worked with for that long go through that.”

The set of facts that led to the week-long trial three years after police stopped the car Jones was riding in for a broken tail light was messy, at a minimum.

The car was stopped after midnight by an overtime detail which included Asher, who had a bumpy disciplinary history on the force. Jones, who had an equally bumpy history with police, tried to take off during the stop – prompting Asher to hit him repeatedly with a police flashlight while Jones was prone on the hood of the police car.

An officer involved in the arrest said he could feel Jones trying to take his gun. Asher testified he only struck to defend himself and his fellow officers.

Asher’s blows were caught on amateur video by a woman on Rifle Street, which Jones’ criminal lawyer said propelled what could otherwise be an obscure late-night occurrence into the spotlight.

“If there wasn’t a video of this I highly doubt we’d even be talking about it,” said public defender Jared Olanoff, who represented Jones when he filed the criminal complaint against Asher over the arrest.

Instead, the 17-year veteran of the police force could face more than two years in jail at his sentencing before Judge Maureen E. Walsh on March 28. Meanwhile, Jones himself faces trial for alleged drug trafficking later this year. He was charged with drug possession and resisting arrest in connection with 2009 traffic stop; those charges were dropped.

He was later arrested for shoplifting pants from a department store and domestic assault, before being charged with trafficking last year.

“(We feared) personal background may overtake the evidence but the great thing about a jury trial is the focus is mainly about conduct ... and after seven hours of deliberations over two days, this was a thoughtful verdict,” Olanoff said, referring to the all-white, six-member jury.

Like the trial, Asher’s sentencing proceeding will be closely watched. The Springfield branch of the NAACP has already fired off a letter to the judge, urging the judge to consider Asher’s adverse effects on the police relations in the city.

“Jeffrey Asher has been a scourge on our community and has terrorized our neighborhoods for too long,” Springfield NAACP President Rev. Talbert W. Swan wrote in a letter to Walsh.

It was the second time Asher was caught on video. In 1996 he was filmed kicking the head a suspect who had been handcuffed and was on the ground. Asher was suspended for that incident.

He was also among a group of officers accused by a school principal of beating him while he was having a diabetic attack. While a split vote of the Police Commission found no fault with the officers, the city made a financial settlement with the educator.

Asher took a disability retirement one day before he was formally fired by Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet in 2010.

Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said he was slightly puzzled by the strong police turnout in court on Asher’s behalf.

“I can’t imagine the vast majority of police – 99.9 percent of whom do their jobs professionally – would want to be associated with excessive force. I wouldn’t want this to be a reflection on all the good and positive roles that police play in the community,” Mastroianni said.

But, Officer Charles Youmans, community relations director who worked the streets for 26 years, said policing can be a thankless, grinding but critical profession.

“I don’t think really people understand the role of police. We’re trained professionals but we’re still human beings. When you’re dealing with people who want to spit on you and fight you and challenge your authority all the time, it can be very difficult,” said Youmans. “We can all be Monday morning quarterbacks ... but then again, we’re held accountable for our actions ... and a verdict is a verdict.”

NAACP Letter to Judge Maureen Walsh

Elected officials from Massachusetts are joining a chorus of lawmakers upset over what is being charged as an attempt to balance the country's defense budget on the backs of the nation's military service members and their families.

AP Photo/Detroit Free Press, William ArchieIf the Defense Department's 2013 budget proposal is approved without tweaking, there will be fee increases for both active duty and retired military service members, a situation which many Massachusetts lawmakers say is unacceptable. Pictured are members of the 1225th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion march after a Depart Ceremony at the Detroit Light Guard Armory in Detroit on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010.

Elected officials from Massachusetts are joining a chorus of lawmakers upset over what is being charged as an attempt to balance the country's defense budget on the backs of the nation's military service members and their families.

The controversy stems from a proposal in the Defense Department's 2013 budget that aims to save millions of dollars by raising the insurance premiums and prescription co-pays for retired and active duty military members and their dependents who are enrolled in the TRICARE insurance plan administered by the Assistant Secretary of Defense's office.

The proposed prescription co-pay hike would mean that brand-name drugs purchased from a physical pharmacy would climb from $12 to $26 for a 30-day supply with a slated $2 a year increase until reaching $34 in 2016. A co-pay for mail order brand-name drugs, which is currently $9 under the TRICARE plan, would spike to $26 for a 90-day supply, incrementally edging closer to the $34 mark in 2016.

Proposed TRICARE insurance premium hikes would only affect military veterans and retired service members and in some cases, triple what they pay for health care coverage.

The Defense Department can enact the prescription co-pay hike without Congressional approval, but in order to hike policy premiums as proposed, Congress would have to give its seal of approval, a task that will likely prove difficult as several Bay State politicians denounced the suggested measures on Wednesday.

Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a war veteran, will work to find other areas of the defense budget to cut, according to Whitney Smith, a spokesperson for the senator.

“Senator Kerry has always fought to protect TRICARE for our military families. He's a decorated veteran who knows what TRICARE means to so many who earned it putting their lives on the line," Smith said. "The Defense Department is facing tough budget constraints, but TRICARE is a lifeline for countless families, veterans, and retirees in Massachusetts. He will be working to reduce or eliminate waste and redundancy in the military budget before resorting to increasing fees on military families. There are better choices we can make."

Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, an active member of the Massachusetts National Guard, said that instead of proposing cuts that affect the nations military service members, it makes sense to cut benefits for civilian military employees.

"These cuts damage the sacred trust we have with our service members who put their lives on the line for the rest of us," Brown said. "It is wrong to ask our men and women in uniform to shoulder this burden. Balancing the budget is going to require hard choices. I suggest we start down that path by cutting the health care benefits for the government’s civilian employees, including all the members of Congress and their staffs."

U.S. Rep. John Olver, an Amherst Democrat who is retiring at the end of his term, said that he agrees with President Barack Obama's decision to decrease defense spending, but he doesn't support cutting health care benefits for military service members.

“President Obama is right to cut defense spending overall. By continuing our withdrawal from Afghanistan, we should be cutting our deployment costs. And I support cuts in weapons development and procurement. I believe it is possible to refine our defense strategy along with Pentagon budget cuts and still maintain an effective, agile twenty-first century military geared to meet our nation’s needs," Olver said. "However, cutting health care is another matter. Health care is health care, and I do not support cutting health care assistance to any middle class American families. I would look for other areas within DoD or elsewhere to cut or raise revenues without requiring military families to bear the burden by instituting or hiking TRICARE fees and co-pays.“

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, a Springfield Democrat, also thinks that there are better ways to save money, according to William Tranghese, his spokesperson.

"Congressman Neal believes the men and women who serve our country in uniform deserve our unyielding gratitude and appreciation," Tranghese said. "As a result, he does not support an increase in health care costs for our military personnel."

In addition to the direct implications any change in health care premiums and prescription co-pays would have on the nation's active and retired service members, the issue has also played a part in the Presidential election.

GOP Presidential hopeful Ron Paul released a statement this week, echoing many GOP members of Congress in calling for Obama to demand civilian employees bear the burden before the nation's military service members.

"As a doctor, an Air Force veteran, and Congressman, who serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and has always fought for the best interest of our troops, I am appalled at President Obama’s disregard for the health and well-being of America’s military families and his continued fealty to union boss special interests," Paul said. "The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget would require military families and retirees to pay exceedingly more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. This is unacceptable."

A makeup date for the meeting hasn't been set, but it might be next week.

File photo | The RepublicanHolyoke City Hall.

HOLYOKE – A snowstorm forced cancellation of Wednesday’s Planning Board meeting on a $16 million mini-plaza that would feature a Big Y supermarket at Lower Westfield Road and Homestead Avenue.

City planning staff said a new date for the meeting to vote on the project’s site plan has yet to be set, but it might be next week.

O’Connell Development Group here is planning a commercial project with two buildings and 110,000 square feet of retail that might include a restaurant, bank and other stores, officials said.

Supporters have said the project will benefit the city with 250 jobs, $400,000 a year in property tax revenue and restoring life to a dormant site. The site was formerly occupied by the Atlas Copco compressor factory, which closed in 2005.

Critics said the project would unleash a flood of traffic and noise in an area already busy with the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside and other stores.

Helen Kensick, who lives in South Hadley, has known Jones for more than 50 years.

SOUTH HADLEY – Davy Jones' longtime publicist remembered The Monkees' lead singer Wednesday as a kind-hearted, joyful person, and was surprised to learn of his death.

“It was a shock,” said Helen L. Kensick, who lives in South Hadley and has known Jones for more than 50 years. When she first met Jones he was on Broadway performing in the “Artful Dodger.”

Jones died of a heart attack on Wednesday at the age of 66.

She has been his publicist on and off for 50 years as well, she said. As far as she knew he was very healthy.

She spoke to him a few days ago and he was excited about heading back to Broadway. “That made me very happy,” she said.

Of the outpouring in response to his passing, she said, “He struck a happy chord in people’s hearts. He gave a lot of joy.”

He also he took “very good care of the people in his life closest to him,” she said.

The School Committee voted 5 to 0 to offer the position to Gazda, the principal of Gateway Regional Middle School in Huntington and Chester Elementary School.

Todd Gazda

LUDLOW – The School Committee Wednesday night voted 5 to 0 to offer Todd H. Gazda the school superintendent position.

Gazda is the principal of Gateway Regional Middle School in Huntington and Chester Elementary School.

School Committee Chairman Michael Kelliher called Gazda and offered him the position, and Gazda accepted. A contract is still to be negotiated.

The School Committee interviewed two finalists for the position – Gazda and Diana Roy, a longtime English teacher at Baird Middle School and curriculum director for the Ludlow public schools. All five School Committee members said both candidates were qualified for the job.

School Committee member Charles Mullin said Roy is respectful of teachers and keeps a level-headed demeanor, but he said Gazda has more administrative experience and is “a forward thinker.”

School Committee member Jacob Oliveira called Gazda “inspiring” and “visionary.”

“We had two wonderful candidates,” School Committee member Patricia Gregoire said. She added, “People here are looking for a leader.”

Gazda said his school district has some cutting edge technology. He said 6-year-olds can learn to use iPads without being taught.

“There are many educational applications for iPads,” he said.

Gazda said he has used teachers who are advanced in using technology to give professional development sessions to their fellow teachers.

“Teachers will listen to their colleagues,” he said.

In the last few years, Gazda said classes at Gateway Regional Middle School have grown to 26, 27 and 28 students as budget cuts had to be made.

“This year I recommended that my position be eliminated” so as not to cut more classroom teachers, Gazda said. He said his position will be eliminated next year, following his recommendation. Another principal will oversee his schools, he said.

When Kelliher called to offer him the Ludlow superintendent job, he told him, “You’re no longer unemployed.”

The Ludlow school superintendent position was advertised to pay between $130,000 and $150,000, with negotiable benefits and a three-year contract.

Todd Gazda

Beginning Thursday, Google will operate under a streamlined privacy policy that enables the Internet's most powerful company to dig even deeper into the lives of its more than 1 billion users.

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE | AP Technology Writer

File photo | Associated Press10.15.2010 | An attendee uses a mouse over a Google mousepad at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Beginning Thursday, March 1, 2012, Google will operate under a streamlined privacy policy that enables the Internet's most powerful company to dig even deeper into the lives of its more than 1 billion users. (AP Phioto/dapd, Torsten Silz, File)

SAN FRANCISCO — If you're amazed — and maybe even a little alarmed — about how much Google seems to know about you, brace yourself. Beginning Thursday, Google will operate under a streamlined privacy policy that enables the Internet's most powerful company to dig even deeper into the lives of its more than 1 billion users.

Google says the changes will make it easier for consumers to understand how it collects personal information, and allow the company to create more helpful and compelling services. Critics, including most of the country's state attorneys general and a top regulator in Europe, argue that Google is trampling on people's privacy rights in its relentless drive to sell more ads.

Here's a look at some of the key issues to consider as Google tries to learn about you:

Q: How will Google's privacy changes affect users?

A: Google Inc. is combining more than 60 different privacy policies so it will be able to throw all the data it gathers about each of its logged-in users into personal dossiers. The information Google learns about you while you enter requests into its search engine can be culled to suggest videos to watch when you visit the company's YouTube site.

Users who write a memo on Google's online word processing program, Docs, might be alerted to the misspelling of the name of a friend or co-worker a user has communicated with on Google's Gmail. The new policy pools information from all Google-operated services, empowering the company to connect the dots from one service to the next.

Q: Why is Google making these changes?

A: The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., says it is striving for a "beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google." What Google hasn't spent much time talking about is how being able to draw more revealing profiles about its users will help sell advertising — the main source of its $38 billion in annual revenue.

One reason Google has become such a big advertising network: Its search engine analyzes requests to figure out which people are more likely to be interested in marketing pitches about specific products and services. Targeting the ads to the right audience is crucial because in many cases, Google only gets paid when someone clicks on an ad link. And, of course, advertisers tend to spend more money if Google is bringing them more customers.

Q: Is there a way to prevent Google from combining the personal data it collects from all its services?

A: No, not if you're a registered user of Gmail, Google Plus, YouTube, or other Google products. But you can minimize the data Google gathers. For starters, make sure you aren't logged into one of Google's services when you're using Google's search engine, watching a YouTube video or perusing pictures on Picasa. You can get a broad overview of what Google knows about you at http://www.google.com/dashboard , where a Google account login is required. Google also offers the option to delete users' history of search activity.

It's important to keep in mind that Google can still track you even when you're not logged in to one of its services. But the information isn't quite as revealing because Google doesn't track you by name, only through a numeric Internet address attached to your computer or an alphanumeric string attached to your Web browser.

Q: Are all Google services covered by the privacy policy?

A: No, a few products, such as Google's Chrome Web browser and mobile payment processor Wallet, will still be governed by separate privacy policies.

Q: Is Google's new privacy policy legal?

A: The company has no doubt about it. That's why it's repeatedly rebuffed pleas to delay the changes since announcing the planned revisions five weeks ago. But privacy activists and even some legal authorities have several concerns.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group, sued the FTC in a federal court in an effort to force the FTC to exercise its powers and block Google's privacy changes. A federal judge ruled the courts didn't have the authority to tell the FTC how to regulate Google. The FTC says it is always looking for evidence that one of its consent orders has been violated.

Earlier this week, the French regulatory agency CNIL warned Google CEO Larry Page that the new policy appears to violate the European Union's strict data-protection rules. Last week, 36 attorneys general in the U.S. and its territories derided the new policy as an "invasion of privacy" in a letter to Page.

One of the major gripes is that registered Google users aren't being given an option to consent to, or reject, the changes, given that they developed their dependence on the services under different rules. In particular, people who bought smartphones running on Google's Android software, and signed two-year contracts to use the devices, may have a tough time avoiding the new privacy policy. They could switch to non-Google services, but those typically don't work as well on Android software. Or they could buy a different smartphone and pay an early-termination penalty.

Q: What regulatory power do government agencies have to change or amend the privacy changes?

A: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission gained greater oversight over Google's handling of personal information as part of a settlement reached last year. Google submitted to the agreement after exposing its users email contacts when it launched a now-defunct social networking service called Buzz in 2010. The consent order requires Google's handling of personal information to be audited every other year and forbids misleading or deceptive privacy changes.

Google met with the FTC before announcing the privacy changes. Neither the company nor the FTC has disclosed whether Google satisfied regulators that the revisions comply with the consent order.

U.S. tobacco companies were to put large graphic images on their cigarette packages to show the dangers of smoking and encouraging smokers to quit lighting up.

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM | AP Tobacco Writer

File photo | Associated PressThis handout image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. The federal government fought an uphill battle Wednesday to convince a skeptical judge that tobacco companies should be required to put large graphic photos on cigarette packs to show that the habit kills smokers and their babies. (AP Photo/U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

RICHMOND, Va. — A judge on Wednesday blocked a federal requirement that would have begun forcing U.S. tobacco companies to put large graphic images on their cigarette packages later this year to show the dangers of smoking and encouraging smokers to quit lighting up.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington ruled that the federal mandate to put the images, which include a sewn-up corpse of a smoker and a picture of diseased lungs, on cigarette packs violates the free speech amendment to the Constitution.

He had temporarily blocked the requirement in November, saying it was likely cigarette makers will succeed in a lawsuit, which could take years to resolve. That decision already is being appealed by the government.

Some of the largest U.S. tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co., had questioned the constitutionality of the labels, saying the warnings don't simply convey facts to inform people's decision whether to smoke but instead force the cigarette makers to display government anti-smoking advocacy more prominently than their own branding. They also say that changing cigarette packaging will cost millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has said that the public interest in conveying the dangers of smoking outweighs the companies' free speech rights.

In his ruling Wednesday, Leon wrote that the graphic images "were neither designed to protect the consumer from confusion or deception, nor to increase consumer awareness of smoking risks; rather, they were crafted to evoke a strong emotional response calculated to provoke the viewer to quit or never start smoking."

"While the line between the constitutionally permissible dissemination of factual information and the impermissible expropriation of a company's advertising space for government advocacy can be frustratingly blurry, here the line seems quite clear," Leon wrote.

The judge also pointed out alternatives for the federal government to curb tobacco use, such as increasing anti-smoking advertisements, raising tobacco taxes, reducing the size and changing content of the labels, and improving efforts to reduce youth access to tobacco products.

The FDA and the Justice Department declined to comment Wednesday. But the Department of Health and Human Services released a statement late Wednesday saying the administration is determined to do everything it can to warn young people of smoking's dangers.

"This public health initiative will be an effective tool in our efforts to stop teenagers from starting in the first place and taking up this deadly habit," the statement said. "We are confident that efforts to stop these important warnings from going forward will ultimately fail."

Floyd Abrams, a lawyer representing Lorillard in the case, said he was pleased with Wednesday's ruling.

"The government, as the court said, is free to speak for itself, but it may not, except in the rarest circumstance, require others to mouth its position," Abrams said.

While the government, public health officials, tobacco companies and others "share a responsibility to provide tobacco consumers with accurate information about the various health risks associated with smoking ... the goal of informing the public about the risks of tobacco use can and should be accomplished consistent with the U.S. Constitution," Martin L. Holton III, executive vice president and general counsel for R.J. Reynolds, said in a statement.

Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, called Leon's ruling "wrong on the science and the law."

"(The warnings) unequivocally tell the truth about cigarette smoking — that it is addictive, harms children, causes fatal lung disease, cancer, strokes and heart disease, and can kill you. What isn't factual or accurate about these warnings? Not even the tobacco industry disputes these facts," Myers said in a statement.

The nine graphic images approved by the FDA in June include color images of a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat; a plume of cigarette smoke enveloping an infant receiving a mother's kiss; a pair of diseased lungs next to a pair of healthy lungs; a diseased mouth afflicted with what appears to be cancerous lesions; a man breathing into an oxygen mask; a cadaver on a table with post-autopsy chest staples; a woman weeping; a premature baby in an incubator; and a man wearing a T-shirt that features a "No Smoking" symbol and the words "I Quit."

The FDA requirement said the labels were to cover the entire top half of cigarette packs, front and back and include a number for a stop-smoking hotline. The labels were to constitute 20 percent of cigarette advertising, and marketers were to rotate use of the images.

Joining North Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds, owned by Reynolds American Inc., and Lorillard Tobacco, owned by Lorillard Inc., in the lawsuit are Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Inc.

Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc., parent company of the nation's largest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, which makes the top-selling Marlboro brand, is not a part of the lawsuit.

The free speech lawsuit is separate from a lawsuit by several of the same companies over the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. That law, which took effect in 2009, cleared the way for the more graphic warning labels and other marketing restrictions. But it also allowed the FDA to limit nicotine and banned tobacco companies from sponsoring athletic or social events or giving away free samples or branded merchandise.

A federal judge upheld many parts of the law, but the case is now pending before the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

While the tobacco industry's latest legal challenge may not hold up, it could delay the new warning labels for years. And that is likely to save cigarette makers millions of dollars in lost sales and increased packaging costs.

Tobacco companies are increasingly relying on their packaging to build brand loyalty and grab consumers. It's one of few advertising levers left to them after the government curbed their presence in magazines, billboards and TV.

File photo | Associated PressThis handout image provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows one of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012. The federal government fought an uphill battle Wednesday to convince a skeptical judge that tobacco companies should be required to put large graphic photos on cigarette packs to show that the habit kills smokers and their babies. (AP Photo/U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

In all, 40 were arrested in Connecticut, and five in the Western Massachusetts communities of Springfield, Pittsfield, Holyoke and Longmeadow.

This is an update of a story that was posted at 10:20 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD - Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on Wednesday that a four-day sweep through Connecticut and Massachusetts resulted in the arrests of 45 illegal aliens with prior criminal convictions, officials said.

In all, 40 were arrested in Connecticut, and five in the Western Massachusetts communities of Springfield, Pittsfield, Holyoke and Longmeadow.

Forty-four of those arrested were considered convicted criminal aliens, meaning they had prior convictions elsewhere in the country for such offenses as indecent assault and battery of a child, sexual assault, possessing and selling dangerous drugs, drunken driving and larceny charges. Twenty-four had prior felony convictions, and 18 of the 44 had multiple convictions.

The 45th person arrested had active warrants issued in New York and Texas.

Names of those arrested, or addresses where they were taken into custody was not being released Wednesday night.

“The results of this targeted enforcement operation underscore ERO’s ongoing commitment to public safety,” said Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston Field Office Director Dorothy Herrera-Niles

“Because of the tireless efforts and teamwork of ERO officers — along with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners — there are fewer criminal aliens in our neighborhoods,” she said.

Numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agencies throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts assisted with the arrests.

In Connecticut, the arrests occurred in the communities of Bridgeport, Danbury, Darien, Derby, East Hartford, Hamden, Hartford, Meriden, Naugatuck, New Britain, New Haven, New London, Shelton, Stamford, Stratford, Trumbull, Waterbury, and Willimantic.

The 38 men and seven women ranged in age from 21-57 years.

There were 17 from Jamaica, five from the Dominican Republic, three from Poland, two each from Peru and Mexico, and one each from Bosnia, Canada, Columbia, El Salvador, England, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Montserrat, Philipines, Portugal, Russia and Tanzania.

Forty-four of the 45 individuals were arrested administratively for being in violation of immigration law, and all are being held in custody pending immigration removal proceedings. The individual with an outstanding warrant for their arrest will be turned over to the New York State Police via the extradition process. “This operation is one of the many tools that ERO uses to effectively reduce crime at the street level in communities throughout New England,” added Herrera-Niles.

In November 2011, ERO Boston conducted a similar enforcement operation that yielded 53 arrests of convicted criminal aliens in Massachusetts.

In the last year, ERO located and removed a record 396,906 illegal nationwide and nearly 55 percent, were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors — an 89 percent increase in the removal of criminals since FY 2008.