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Damian Cote to start job as Holyoke's new building commissioner in days, Mayor Alex Morse says

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Cote is the husband of a city councilor who supported the mayor in the last election.

damian.jpgDamian J. Cote

HOLYOKE – Carpenter Damian J. Cote will begin as city building commissioner March 19 at about $60,000 a year, Mayor Alex B. Morse said Monday.

The appointment has been controversial because Cote is the husband of Rebecca Lisi, a city councilor and campaign supporter of Morse, who said Cote was the most qualified for the job.

Previous commissioner Paul Healy resigned in April and the city since has had an acting commissioner.

The appointment of a building commissioner is a decision of the mayor. That means it was unnecessary to post a notice about the job’s availability for applicants or for the mayor to interview hopefuls, though Morse said he did interview a few candidates and the job was posted on the city website.

Critics such as Councilor at Large Daniel B. Bresnahan have said the move was a political favor and counters Morse’s vow to run a transparent government. Such criticism is without merit, Morse, Cote and Lisi have said.

Another issue is that Cote, of 25 Reservation Road, is a defendant in a suit filed Nov. 14 in Hampden Superior Court, in Springfield, by neighbors Robert H. and Mary D. Moriarty, of 31 Reservation Road. The suit, which also names as defendants the city Zoning Board of Appeals, is over a two-story garage Cote built in 2007 and its proximity to the line dividing their properties.


Latest Hasbro layoff of 170 jobs worldwide includes 3 in East Longmeadow

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Hasbro's East Longmeadow factory had 475 workers as of last week.

EAST LONGMEADOW – Hasbro’s U.S. toy and game operations had a disappointing 2011 and changes had to be made, spokesman Wayne S. Charness said.

Those changes include 170 layoffs worldwide, including 55 in the company’s Rhode Island Headquarters and three jobs cut from the company’s sprawling plant in East Longmeadow, Charness said. The jobs represent that last of the game sales and marketing staff who were stationing in East Longmeadow.

Hasbro’s East Longmeadow factory had 475 workers as of last week. But that number fluctuates seasonally, swelling as workers are brought in over the summer to make games like “Monopoly” and “Life” for the Christmas rush.

Hasbro had as many as 1,200 employees in East Longmeadow as recently as two years ago. That would have made it one of the largest manufacturing employers in the region.

Springfield’s Smith & Wesson has 1,200 employees. OMG Inc., in Agawam, a maker of hardware and roofing products, has more than 1,000 workers.

“This isn’t about East Longmeadow. It’s about the sales and marketing,” Charness said. “This really isn’t about the future of that operation.”

Hasbro announced in April it was reallocating about 150 jobs in marketing and game development from its East Longmeadow facility to the corporation’s Rhode Island headquarters. That left just about 50 white-collar workers in East Longmeadow not counting the three jobs cut Wednesday.

“The truth is, why the company’s business is strong, this group has not been able to perform the past couple of years,” Charness said “We need that business to return.”

For the full year of 2011, Hasbro reported record revenues of $4.29 billion, an increase of 7 percent over the $4 billion it recorded in 2010.

But most of that growth was overseas and evidently in realm of movie licensing and electronic games. U.S. and Canadian revenues were $2.25 million, down 2 percent from $2.29 million in 2010.

Worldwide game-and-puzzle revenue was $1.16 million, according to financial information released in February. That was a 10 percent drop from the $1.29 million recorded a year earlier.

Health teacher at Glenbrook Middle School in Longmeadow uses grants to promotes healthy eating

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Glenbrook Middle School teacher Philippa Siegel teaches Longmeadow students about healthy eating.

LONGMEADOW– A health and physical education teacher at Glenbrook Middle School is using cooking demonstrations and a vegetable garden to teach students about healthy eating and living.

Teacher Philippa Siegel is working with the Longmeadow schools food service department as well as local grocery stores and a local chef to bring cooking demonstrations to three of her health classes on March 21. She received a $2,000 cookware set which will be used by the classroom as well as an $800 grant from the Longmeadow Educational Excellence Foundation to start a vegetable garden on school grounds.

Siegel said she got involved with the Chef’s Move To Schools program launched by Michelle Obama as part of the Let’s Move! campaign as a way to give her students hands-on experience with healthy foods and habits.

The national program encourages chefs and schools to work together to teach kids about food in a fun, appealing way, Siegel said.

“We were eligible for the cookware as part of our participation in the program,” she said. The set includes professional pots and pans as well as induction burners, utensils, cutting boards and more.

Siegel worked closely with the school district’s Food Service Director Heidi Gregory to get a Chartwells chef Mark Brunton to the school to cook a variety of vegetables and fruits for students to try.

“This is an opportunity to teach students about healthy foods they might not be familiar with,” she said.

Brunton is donating his time for the program. Siegel is also working with Big Y in Longmeadow and Costco in Enfield, Conn., which will be donating food for the demonstration.

“It’s been a collaborative effort to teach children some healthy skills they can take with them for their daily lives,” she said.

As for the garden Siegel said there are already students interested in gardening who will serve as mentors for students who have never done it before.

“It’s an interactive way to get students to learn about healthy foods and see the whole process from planting the seeds to growing a successful garden,” she said.

Siegel teaches health to 350 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade.

Western Massachusetts temperatures break 35-year record; warm weather no friend to Valley's maple syrup producers

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Springfield recorded a high of 74 degrees, Westfield reached 74 and Orange up Franklin County had a high of 69 degrees.

View full sizeNineteen-year old Greggory Nicholson of Springfield takes advantage of amazing weather to play tennis at Van Horn Park. His tattoo is in Greek and reads " Rise against all odds".

SPRINGFIELD – One day after the start of daylight-saving time and it seemed as if the calendar has sprung forward by a couple of weeks.

Western Massachusetts on Monday shattered a 35-year-old regional record for the hottest daily record for the date, and although temperatures should drop for the remainder of the week, it will still be higher than the seasonal average for mid-March.

“It’s been a record-setting day for sure,” said Mike Skurko, meteorologist for CBS3. “A lot of people were probably happy to shed their jackets and roll up their sleeves.”

The high temperature recorded at Bradley International Airport Monday afternoon was 74 degrees, besting the previous April 12 mark of 69 degrees set in 1977.

Springfield recorded a high of 74 degrees, Westfield reached 74 and Orange up Franklin County had a high of 69 degrees.

The forecast for the next few days calls for temperatures to be in the 60s for the rest of the week, he said.

There is a chance of showers Tuesday morning and evening with a break in the clouds during the middle of the day. Historically, the average high temperature for the second week of March in this area is in the mid-40s, he said.

“In the 60s for the rest of the week is still pretty good,” he said.

The weather is one of those things that can be subjective depending on the circumstances, and one person’s fortune can be someone else’s misfortune.

MW weather feature 1.jpgMatthew and Lori Mutti of East Longmeadow look on as their daughter Grace Mutti, age 2 chases bubbles at Stanley Park in Westfield on Monday.

Such is the case for area maple sugar farmers for whom warm temperatures mean the kiss of death for the sugaring season.

“I pulled my taps out today. We’re all done,” said Mike Rycsek of The Maple Hut in Agawam.

“It’s very bad for us,” he said.

Jeff Hubbard of Gothic Top Farm Sugarhouse in Sunderland said he is still collecting sap from trees but conceded the way things are going it will not be much longer before his season is done.

“It’s warming up fast,” he said.

With the temperatures as warm as they have been, it’s a matter of days before the trees start to bud. Once that happens, sap shuts down.

Everything has been earlier this year as if the calendar has been moved up a couple of weeks, he said.

“We’re having to do things a couple of weeks ahead of the time we usually do it,” he said.

“Usually, I always try to have my taps in by the end of February, certainly by March 1,” he said. “This year I had the taps in by the middle of February - And I probably could have started at the beginning of February.”

Last year he produced about 55 gallons of syrup. This year he is at about 20 gallons, although he hopes he can make another 5 gallons yet.

Ryczek, who has been producing maple syrup since 2005, said he usually has his taps in the trees until around April 1. Previous years, he has produced 50 gallons of finished syrup. This year it was 25 gallons. Each also said the sugar content of the sap this year is significantly lower than in previous years, which means it takes more sap to produce the same amount of syrup.

Ryczek said its usually around a 40 to 1 ratio, meaning 40 gallons of sap have to be boiled down to make one gallon of syrup. This year its been around 50 to 1.

Ryczek said he is already moving from his winter to his spring hobby, raising honey bees. The bees have not been affected by the weather.

“There are ups and downs,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad.”

Springfield political activists climb aboard Democratic and Republican party committees

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Anyone who ran for the Democratic or Republican ward committees in Springfield was elected on March 6, as there were less candidates than seats available.

Gallery preview

SPRINGFIELD – The pundits might say there were three winners last Tuesday in the Massachusetts Presidential PrimaryMitt Romney of the Republican ballot, an unopposed President Barack Obama of the Democratic ballot; and Jill Stein of the Rainbow Party.

But for the 5.6 percent of registered voters who showed up at the polls in Springfield, many may have been surprised that their ballot also featured slates of candidates running for the Democratic and Republican state committees and ward committees.

With up to 35 people allowed to serve on each ward committee, and far less than that number running, every candidate was elected. Those elected will serve four-year terms, and are the local, grassroots organizers of their political parties, according to party officials.

Daniel M. Walsh III, a former city councilor in Springfield, said that service on the Ward 6 Democratic Committee in the Forest Park area has been a family tradition. Both he and his wife, City Councilor Kateri B. Walsh, ran and were elected.

Daniel Walsh believes he has served about 40 years on the ward committee, which follows in the footsteps of his late father. The ward committee members do a lot of the work to endorse and promote party candidates and issues, Walsh said.

112610 daniel walsh iii springfield veterans services.jpgFormer Springfield Councilor Daniel M. Walsh III

“It’s the grassroots, it’s as basic as it gets,” Walsh said. “The ward committees can have a lot of influence in the ward, and do a lot of the leg work, the phone calls, door to door.”

According to a summary from the Secretary of the State’s office, the ward committees: “represent their party at the local neighborhood level; promote the objectives of the party; (and) work for the nomination and election of party candidates.”

There seems to be, however, less interest in the committees than in past decades, Walsh said.

In the ward races, the number of people running for ward seats on the Democratic ballot ranged from a high of 32 people in Ward 7 to a low of no names on the Ward 8 ballot. A sticker campaign in Ward 8, however, generated six people to serve on that committee, as anyone with five write-in votes qualified to serve.

On the Republican ballot, the number of people running for ward seats ranged from a high of nine people in Ward 7, to no names on the ballot in Wards 1, 2, 3, and 8. There were some people elected by write-in votes, including two people in Ward 8.

Local and state party committees can act to recruit people to serve on the committees after the primary, said Gladys Oyola, city election commissioner.

tosado.JPGJose F. Tosado

Former City Councilor Jose F. Tosado, who was the top vote-getter on the Ward 5 Democratic Committee, said the committee serves to discuss issues of importance to the party, to endorse candidates, and make sure people in the ward are kept informed.

“We are sort of the ground troops for the Democratic Party,” Tosado said.

Republican City Committee President Alexander J. Sherman said the ward committees are important for recruiting and supporting Republican candidates for public office. He and three family members were elected on the Ward 7 Republican Committee.

The ward committees are “the building block of the Republican City Committee,” Sherman said. He wishes the numbers running for the seats was higher.

Of approximately 87,350 registered voters in Springfield, there were 45,974 Democrats, 7,596 Republicans and 33,273 listed as unenrolled.

Many of those elected to the state and ward committees resembled a “Who’s Who” list in local politics, including current and former politicians, political activists and their family members.

In Ward 7, for example, the Democrats who were elected included: state Rep. Angelo J. Puppulo; City Councilors Timothy C. Allen, James J. Ferrera III, Timothy J. Rooke and Bud L. Williams; and former Councilor William T. Foley.

In the state committee races, 40 men and 40 women are elected statewide. They are elected in the 40 Senatorial districts in Massachusetts.

However, the two state committee races that were part of the Springfield ballot — the Hampden District and the First Hampden & Hampshire District — had three unopposed candidates and one two-man race.

The state committee meets monthly, and is the governing body for the state Democratic Party, said Kevin Franck, Democratic state committee spokesman. It selects officers, decides on a budget, sets rules and bylaws, and “does everything but the day-to-day business of the Democratic Party” and the platform for the party which is decided at the annual convention, he said.

State committee men and women are automatically delegates at the annual convention. Delegates elected at caucuses and the chairmen of each ward also participate in the annual convention.

Springfield Ward Committee Results, March 6, 2012

Monson High School graduation to go on as planned, despite being anniversary of June 1 tornado

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High School Principal Andrew Linkenhoker said that he talked with the Student Council, and many faculty members, and the majority wanted to keep the graduation date, which was set in April 2011.

Monson High School graduation poster.jpgThis is the poster that Monson High School students created about the graduation issue.

MONSON – The tornado may have disrupted the Monson High School graduation last year, but the students aren’t about to let it happen again.

Even though the graduation falls on June 1 – the anniversary of the tornado that devastated areas of town – students Cameron Braz, Amanda Scott and Michelle Foster went before the School Committee last week to make the case for keeping the date.

Karen C. King, a member of the Tornado Anniversary Committee, had asked about the possibility of moving the date, as a remembrance ceremony is being planned.

In advance of the meeting, the students conducted a survey of the 78 seniors, and found that 52 of them did not want the date changed, while 16 had no preference, seven did not respond, and three said the date should be changed.

Reasons for keeping the date that were given – outlined on a poster that was presented to the committee – included “We have the right to graduate on the anniversary of the tornado. It will make our graduation that much more sentimental.”

“We wanted to hear from the kids,” School Committee Chairman Jeffrey D. Lord said.

High School Principal Andrew Linkenhoker said that he talked with the Student Council, and many faculty members, and the majority wanted to keep the graduation date, which was set in April 2011.

“It’s a difficult day for everybody. We all lived through it,” Linkenhoker said.

Linkenhoker said that it was his personal feeling that they shouldn’t be “beaten down by the storm a second straight year.” The tornado pushed graduation back a week last year.

“I want to sort of take the stand now that we will not be beaten by this tornado once again and let’s move on,” Linkenhoker said.

The graduation is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the soccer field at Granite Valley Middle School. It will be moved inside the high school if the weather does not cooperate.

Superintendent Patrice L. Dardenne said he agreed with Linkenhoker. While King had asked if the committee could use the middle school for the remembrance ceremony, which she said would begin at 4:30 p.m., Dardenne expressed concerns about traffic, as graduates and their families would be gathering in the same spot.

King said the committee plans to hold a somber moment of silence at 4:45 p.m., the time the tornado struck. She added that it will not be a sad event, and the focus will be looking at where the town is a year later. King said there will be several speakers and that she expected the program to end around 6 p.m.

King said the committee’s priority is the children, and said it will meet Tuesday to discuss where it will hold the remembrance ceremony.

“We certainly did not want to cause any disruption to our seniors,” said King, adding students were among the first volunteers helping in the days after the tornado.

Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum court Southern support on vote eve

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Primaries in Alabama and Mississippi have the potential to solidify or shake Romney's standing as Republican presidential front-runner.

031212_romney_gingrich_santorum.jpgOn the campaign trail in Alabama and Mississippi on Monday, clockwise, from top left: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets supporters who braved the rain during a campaign stop at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Mobile, Ala.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at the Gulf Coast Energy Summit in Biloxi, Miss.; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum eats ribs at the Original Dreamland BBQ in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

By BETH FOUHY and DAVID ESPO

BILOXI, Miss. — Republican presidential contenders and their super PAC supporters campaigned aggressively on land, through the mail and over the airwaves Monday on the eve of primaries in Alabama and Mississippi with the potential to solidify or shake Mitt Romney's standing as front-runner.

In the Deep South, one of the most conservative regions of the country, Romney and his Republican rivals polished their credentials with attacks on President Barack Obama's handling of the economy and the nation's use of energy. "The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is," said Rick Santorum.

But those criticisms were mere warm-up for the candidates going after each other. Newt Gingrich is struggling for survival in Tuesday's primaries, and Santorum is laboring to redeem his claim that Romney can't secure the support of conservatives, particularly evangelicals who are part of the party's key base.

"If the opportunity provides itself in an open convention, they're not going to nominate a moderate Massachusetts governor who has been outspending his opponent 10-1 and can't win the election outright," Santorum said in a television interview as he campaigned across Alabama and Mississippi.

Romney countered, also on television. "We're closing the deal, state by state, delegate by delegate," he said, emphasizing his lead in the category that matters most.

He has more delegates than his rivals combined, and is amassing them at a rate that puts him on track to clinch control of nomination before the convention opens next summer, a prospect that his rivals prefer not to dwell on. AP's tally shows him with 454 of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination, Santorum with 217, Gingrich with 107 and Ron Paul with 47.

The Republican contenders pointed toward the next primaries as a pair of national polls indicated Obama's support has fallen after recent gains. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 46 percent of those surveyed approve the way the president is handling his job, and 50 percent disapprove. A New York Times/CBS poll found 41 percent approval, and 47 percent disapproval.

Evangelical voters play an outsized role in both state primaries. Four years ago, 77 percent of GOP primary voters in Alabama and 69 percent in Mississippi said they were born again or evangelicals, a group that Romney has struggled to bring to his side in the primaries. His best showing in a contested primary was 38 percent in Florida.

Hoping to establish a connection with Southerners, the former Massachusetts governor campaigned in Mobile, Ala., with comedian Jeff Foxworthy, whose trademark jokes that begin "You might be a redneck if. ..."

Romney isn't — he was born in Michigan, educated at Harvard and elected governor of Massachusetts. And he drew laughter from his audience when he poked fun at himself by saying he hoped to go hunting with an Alabama friend who "can actually show me which end of the rifle to point."

"We have a moral responsibility not to spend more than we take in," he says in an ad his campaign ran in both primary states, although not all the commercials were as self-deprecating as his rhetoric or as positive as his on-air message.

Restore Our Future, a super PAC that supports Romney, aired ads critical of Santorum for having voted in Congress to provide federal funding for Planned Parenthood, and attacking Gingrich for supporting action to combat climate change through cleaner sources of energy.

A radio ad the group aired across both states makes use of Santorum's own voice, including him saying in a debate last month that he was proud of the earmarks he has supported and that he had voted for federal education mandates even though they are against his principles.

"But you know, when you're part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team," he says.

The same organization hit Santorum in mail sent to thousands of homes in Alabama.

"Rick Santorum voted with Hillary Clinton to allow felons to vote. Typical behavior from Washington insider," says one mailing, which makes no mention of Romney.

Red, White and Blue Fund, which backs Santorum, was hardly kinder. It aired commercials saying that Romney and Obama "aren't much different" on key issues such as federal spending and supporting a requirement for individuals to purchase health care coverage. That's a reference to a Massachusetts law that Romney signed in his home state that bears similarities to the legislation Obama won from Congress.

Gingrich, who said over the weekend that Romney is the weakest Republican front-runner in nearly a century, is backed by a super PAC airing ads, as well.

His campaign is advertising at lower levels, including a commercial that hits Obama for high gas prices and another that says the president modeled his health care reform plan after the one Romney had enacted in Massachusetts.

The former House speaker also using a recorded phone message from Chuck Norris in Alabama.

"As president, Newt will repeal Obamacare, get rid of Obama's czars, and use commonsense measures, like building the Keystone Pipeline to lower the cost of gas to two and half dollars a gallon," says Norris, whose website notes he is a movie star and World Professional Middle Weight Karate Champion.

Santorum and Gingrich employed different approaches as they campaigned during the day, the former Pennsylvania senator more critical of Romney, while the former House speaker focused his attacks on Obama.

His comment dismissing Obama's concerns about global warming, however, oversimplified the issue. While it's true that plants need carbon dioxide to grow, the gas also is promoting global warming. "For many plants, that's going to more than offset the benefits of carbon dioxide," said David Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University. "If you have a plant that's dead from heat stress, you can give it all the CO2 you want, but it's not going to benefit."

Gingrich, at the same conference, said Obama is presiding over a "very anti-fossil fuel administration. The left wing environmental movement hates oil."

Romney made the economy his text for criticizing Obama.

He said the president wrongly thinks the country is doing better because of recent increases in employment. More than 200,000 jobs have been created in each of the past three months, but Romney said the president, "should go out and talk to the 24 million Americans who are out of work or stopped looking for work or are unemployed."

Associated Press writers Charles Babington, Beth Fouhy, Philip Elliott and Phillip Rawls in Alabama and Stephen Ohlemacher, Kasie Hunt, Seth Borenstein and Jack Gillum in Washington contributed to this story.

Afghanistan massacre further dents Americans' support for war

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The Obama administration and its allies insisted the horrific episode would not speed up plans to pull out foreign forces.

By ANNE GEARAN | AP National Security Writer

031112_afghanistan.JPGIn this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, Afghan official Asadullah Khaled, right, makes a phone call as villagers gather at a U.S. military base after the death of 16 civilians in Panjwai, Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, March 11, 2012. An Afghan youth recounted on Monday the terrifying scene in his home as a lone U.S. soldier moved stealthily through it during a killing spree, then crouched down and shot his father in the thigh as he stepped out of the bedroom. The soldier, now in U.S. custody, is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in their homes in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday and then burning some of their corpses. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said nine of those killed were children and three were women.(AP Photo/Allauddin Khan)

WASHINGTON — The weekend massacre of Afghan civilians, allegedly carried out by a U.S. soldier, newly undermines the rationale for a war that a majority of Americans already thought wasn't worth fighting. But the Obama administration and its allies insisted Monday the horrific episode would not speed up plans to pull out foreign forces.

President Barack Obama called the episode "tragic," and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called it "inexplicable."

Obama told a television interviewer Monday that the killings underscore the need to hand over responsibility for security to Afghans. But he said it won't lead to an early withdrawal of U.S. troops.

"I think it's important for us to make sure that we get out in a responsible way so that we don't end up having to go back in," Obama told Pittsburgh station KDKA. "It makes me more determined to make sure that we're getting our troops home. It's time."

Clinton told reporters at the United Nations in New York, "This terrible incident does not change our steadfast dedication to protecting the Afghan people and to doing everything we can to build a strong and stable Afghanistan."

Administration officials were reacting to the weekend killing of 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children asleep in their beds. A U.S. Army staff sergeant is accused of slipping away from his base in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar and shooting nearby villagers in their homes.

Despite the deaths, "Our strategic objectives have not changed and they will not change," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

In an interview Monday with Denver station KCNC-TV, Obama said, "We've got to make sure that we're caring for our soldiers, caring for our men and women in uniform who are serving so valiantly, and we're caring for their families. And that's why we've actually put more resources into dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries."

"And obviously what happened this weekend was absolutely tragic and heartbreaking. But when you look at what hundreds of thousands of our military personnel have achieved under enormous strain, you can't help but be proud generally."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking with reporters traveling with him to Kyrgyzstan, said the death penalty is a consideration as the military moves to investigate and possibly put on trial the soldier suspected in the deaths. In his first public remarks on the incident, Panetta said Monday the shootings must not derail the military mission in Afghanistan, and pressure to do so from political leaders in Kabul and Washington must not alter that course.

The killings were the latest in a series of deadly incidents that caused outrage for both Americans and Afghans.

The killing of Americans by their Afghan hosts and of Afghans by the Americans who are supposed to help them have forced an acute examination of a war strategy that calls for Afghans to assume greater responsibility for security through mentoring and "shoulder by shoulder" joint operations.

Obama expanded the Afghan war in the first year of his presidency, saying it was in keeping with U.S. national security interests in contrast to the Iraq war he opposed. But the war, now in its 11th year, remains a stalemate in much of the country, while the al-Qaida terror network that the war is supposed to deter has largely abandoned Afghanistan. U.S. commandos killed Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden last year.

"It's been a decade, and frankly now that we've gotten bin Laden and we've weakened al-Qaida, we're in a stronger position," to hand over security control to the Afghans, Obama said in the KDKA interview.

The war is increasingly becoming a political headache for Obama, with American voters showing increased frustration and Republican rivals accusing him of mishandling it.

In results from a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted before the killings and released Sunday, 55 percent of respondents said they think most Afghans oppose what the United States is trying to do there. And 60 percent said the war in Afghanistan has been "not worth fighting."

Many Republicans — who as a party fought against a quick exodus in Iraq and criticized Obama's 2008 presidential campaign promise to end that war — are now reluctant to embrace a continued commitment in Afghanistan.

"We have to either make a decision to make a full commitment, which this president has not done, or we have to decide to get out and probably get out sooner" than planned in 2014, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said Monday. He spoke on NBC's "Today" show.

Said GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich: "I think that we're risking the lives of young men and women in a mission that may, frankly, not be doable."

Still, Mitt Romney said he "wouldn't jump to a new policy based upon some deranged, crazy person."

Under an agreement with the Afghan government, some U.S. and NATO forces are to stay in Afghanistan at least through the end of 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sought assurances that the foreign forces that support his fragile government will not leave en masse. He is due to leave office in 2014, and both he and Western leaders have said it will take that long to get the Afghan military ready to take on Taliban-led militants who are unlikely to quit the fight.

Carney would not say whether Obama worries that the killings increase security risks for Americans in Afghanistan. The United States has about 90,000 troops in the country; that number is scheduled to drop to 68,000 by the end of September.

Military movements were kept to a minimum Monday near the shooting site as commanders waited to see how the local population reacts, but there were no huge protests in the country. U.S. officials were worried that the Taliban would stoke public outrage this week in an attempt to turn the regular Friday prayer sessions into mass demonstrations.

"We're fully aware that this has the possibility of raising ire and emotions in a place where tensions are already running high," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "We would appeal for calm. "

Like other U.S. officials, Toner promised a thorough U.S. investigation and prosecution.

Even before the shootings, anti-Americanism was boiling in Afghanistan over U.S. troops burning Muslim holy books, including Qurans, last month on an American base. The burnings came to light soon after a video purporting to show four Marines urinating on Taliban corpses was posted on the Internet in January.

Americans, meanwhile, were outraged by the killings of American military advisers by Afghan soldiers. In the month of February, there were at least seven cases of Americans killed by Afghan soldiers, more than died in combat.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said the weekend house-by-house killing spree has not changed the U.S. approach to the war. Without offering any details about the killings, he stressed that it should be seen as an aberration.

"This is having no impact on the war effort at this time," he said. "No one should think that we are steering away from our partnership with the Afghan people, from our partnership with the Afghan security forces and from our commitment to prosecute the war effort."

But the strategy is already changing in small ways, with plans to shift combat operations to the Afghans earlier than once envisioned and some of the NATO partners largely recruited to the war by the U.S. increasingly entertaining an earlier exit.

Many war analysts predict a further telescoping of the withdrawal calendar after a NATO summit in May. Obama is hosting that meeting, in his adopted home town of Chicago.

Some of Obama's close advisers, including Vice President Joe Biden, opposed the large troop buildup Obama authorized in 2009. Obama has heard from advisers and analysts who remain ambivalent about whether a large U.S. "footprint" may do more harm than good, by presenting a target for Afghan anger and feeding the insurgent narrative that the Americans are colonial invaders.

The U.S. and Afghanistan are currently struggling to frame a security agreement that would govern how smaller numbers of U.S. forces can operate in the country after 2014, when the mission would narrow to hunting terrorists, conducting specialized military training and keeping an eye on neighboring Iran. The U.S. envisions a force of perhaps 20,000, according to military officials.

The U.S. role in civilian deaths has been a major sticking point in negotiations. Responding to massive public anger over the perceived indifference of the U.S. military to civilian deaths, Karzai wants greater Afghan control over "night raids." That's a catchall term for the military practice of entering and searching Afghan homes at night, in pursuit of militants and their supplies.

Kate Clark, of the Kabul-based Afghan Analysts Network, said the latest shootings are straining already tense relations.

"Relations are really irritable between the Americans and the Afghan government at the moment," Clark said. "This issue is just like a further irritant, like grit."

Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt in Kabul, Lolita C. Baldor traveling with Panetta and Matthew Lee, Robert Burns, Julie Pace and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.


Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse close to appointing task force to address Geriatric Authority woes

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City Councilor Todd McGee, meanwhile, has filed an order asking the City Council to consider removing three authority board members.


HOLYOKE – Recommendations to fix financial and other problems at the Holyoke Geriatric Authority will be the job of a task force Mayor Alex B. Morse said Monday he is close to appointing.

Also, Ward 6 Councilor Todd A. McGee has filed an order the council will consider March 20 to hold public hearings to remove three authority board members.

A nursing home at 45 Lower Westfield Road, the authority is overseen by a board consisting of three appointed by the City Council, three by the mayor and a seventh chosen by those six.

Less-than-complete federal reimbursements for health care are a major reason for the facility’s financial problems, officials said, resulting in unpaid bills to city agencies piling up for years.

Morse was backed in his successful bid for mayor in the Nov. 8 election by some authority officials. They felt he was more willing to listen to their position than former Mayor Elaine A. Pluta, who was among those who felt the authority had milked city finances for too long without try to resolve the facility’s problems.

But even Morse has said he wants authority issues addressed so he isn’t still dealing with them in two years. The task force will get about three months to study the authority and recommend solutions, he said Monday.

Morse himself will be on the task force, along with city Treasurer Jon D. Lumbra, City Solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross, Chief of Staff Dori Dean and city councilors David K. Bartley and Jason P. Ferreira, he said.

People from the business community also could be appointed, he said.

McGee said the hearings for removal would target authority board Chairman Joseph T. O’Neill and members Steven J. Kravetz and John P. Counter.

Those three have shown an unwillingness to acknowledge the burden that the authority’s unpaid bills place on taxpayers, have raised concerns about whether the state Open Meeting Law is being followed and in O’Neill’s case, failed to schedule a meeting for more than two months until one was held Feb. 14, McGee said.

“It’s inappropriate and they have not been held accountable to the taxpayers of Holyoke,” said McGee, chairman of the council Finance Committee.

O’Neill, Kravetz and Counter referred questions to board lawyer Edward J. McDonough Jr. He said Monday he would decline to comment until he could research details of the removal-hearing process.

Board members Charles F. Glidden, Raymond P. Murphy Jr. and Jacqueline Watson are considered by McGee and others to have acted properly. Murphy is the father of Councilor at Large Brenna E. Murphy, whose wedding to McGee is scheduled for March 24.

Officials disagree on whether the authority board has a vacancy. Some officials said Helen Arnold no longer is a board member because the City Council voted to replace her Jan. 17. That’s the case even though a State Ethics Commission opinion said the replacement – former city councilor Donald R. Welch – was ineligible for six months after leaving the council because he was a former councilor and is a city employee, they said.

Welch, a city police officer, was defeated in the Nov. 8 election and his last day on the council was Jan. 3.

But McDonough has said Arnold is a board member until a replacement is voted in. Arnold has been participating in open and executive sessions of the board.

Richard Nixon love letters reveal his sensitive side

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Decades before he became known to some as "Tricky Dick," Nixon was the one penning nicknames (sweet ones) to his future bride in gushy love notes.

060560 richard nixon pat nixon.jpg06.05.1960 | Former President Richard Nixon, left, and his wife Pat pose for photos while campaigning at Rockefeller Center in New York. Six love letters between the 37th president and his wife will go on display Friday, March 16, 2012 as part of an exhibit at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The exhibit is intended to celebrate what would have been Pat Nixon’s 100th birthday and is dedicated to her life and accomplishments. (AP File Photo)

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — When Richard Nixon first met his future bride, he was so smitten he pined for her night and day, he schemed of romantic getaways and he put it all down in writing.

Decades before he became known to some as "Tricky Dick," Nixon was the one penning nicknames (sweet ones) to his future bride in gushy love notes that reveal a surprisingly soft and starry-eyed side of the man taken down by Watergate. Nixon shared the stage with Patricia Ryan in a community theater production and six of the dozens of letters they exchanged during their two-year courtship will be unveiled Friday at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum as part of an exhibit celebrating the 100th birthday of the woman Nixon playfully called his "Irish gypsy."

In Nixon's letters, he recalls their first meeting in flowery prose, daydreams about their future together and waxes poetic about the first time his "dearest heart" agreed to take a drive with him.

"Every day and every night I want to see you and be with you. Yet I have no feeling of selfish ownership or jealousy," he writes in one undated letter. "Let's go for a long ride Sunday; let's go to the mountains weekends; let's read books in front of fires; most of all, let's really grow together and find the happiness we know is ours."

Eighteen years after his death, the correspondence offers a tiny window into a fiercely private side of Nixon that almost no one ever saw and represents a love letter of sorts to fans of the 37th president, who were infuriated when the National Archives took over the museum and overhauled it to include a detailed chronicle of Watergate.

"These letters are fabulous. It's a totally different person from the Watergate tapes that people know. President Nixon started out as an idealistic young man ready to conquer the world and with Pat Ryan he knew he could do it. There's a lot of hope, there's a lot of tenderness and it's very poetic," said Olivia Anastasiadis, supervisory museum curator.

"He loved her, he was absolutely enthralled by her and that's all he thought about."

nixon love letters.JPGView full sizeIn this photo taken Thursday, March 8, 2012, Richard Nixon Foundation consultant Bob Bostock reads love letters exchanged between Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat in the early years of their romance and long before he became president, that are displayed at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library upcoming exhibit celebrating Pat Nixon's 100th birthday, in Yorba Linda, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The letters stand in stark contrast to the grim-faced leader forced to resign in 1974, disgraced.

Instead, Nixon comes across as an ardent and persistent suitor in the letters, which date from 1938 to just before the couple's marriage in June 1940.

The two met while auditioning for "The Dark Tower" in the Southern California town of Whittier and dated for two years until Nixon proposed to his sweetheart on the south Orange County cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He later delivered her engagement ring in a small basket overflowing with mayflowers. They were married in a small ceremony on June 21, 1940.

The romantic touch and chivalry that Nixon brought to his seaside proposal comes through in the letters, as well.

In two of the handwritten notes, Nixon — raised a Quaker — uses "thee" instead of "you" to refer to his future bride, a pronoun that signals a special closeness in the Quaker tradition. He also writes about himself in the third person, referring to himself as a "prosaic person" whose heart was nonetheless "filled with that grand poetic music" upon knowing her.

"Somehow on Tuesday there was something electric in the usually almost stifling air in Whittier. And now I know. An Irish gypsy who radiates all that is happy and beautiful was there. She left behind her a note addressed to a struggling barrister who looks from a window and dreams. And in that note he found sunshine and flowers, and a great spirit which only great ladies can inspire," Nixon wrote. "Someday let me see you again? In September? Maybe?"

A much more practical — and somewhat less impulsive — Pat Ryan replies in one short note: "In case I don't see you before why don't you come early Wednesday (6) — and I'll see if I can burn a hamburger for you." The object of Nixon's affection was slower to come around, but eventually was just as smitten with Nixon as he was with her, said Ed Nixon, Nixon's youngest brother, in a phone interview from his Seattle home.

"She was quite an independent young lady and she was very cautious about anyone she met and if they couldn't smile, she wouldn't want to do too much unless she could make them smile. That captured Dick's imagination," the younger Nixon said. "She was challenging. She challenged me and I think she challenged Dick."

Nixon's presidency began to unravel in 1972 when burglars who were later tied to his re-election committee broke into the Democratic headquarters to get dirt on his political adversaries. Nixon denied knowing about plans for the break-in beforehand, but an 18 1/2 minute gap in a recording of a post-Watergate White House meeting led many to suspect a cover-up.

Faced with impeachment and a possible criminal indictment, Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, and retreated to his native California. The following month he was granted a pardon by President Gerald Ford.

Pat Nixon never doubted her husband and stood by him until she died in 1993, a day after their 53rd wedding anniversary, said Robert Bostock, a consultant to the Richard Nixon Foundation, which is co-sponsoring the exhibit, and a former aide to Nixon after he left the White House.

Her loyalty and spirit was a testament to their love and part of what bound them together from the earliest days of their courtship in Whittier, when he was a young attorney and she a high school stenography teacher fresh out of college.

"She was with him the whole way; she never lost faith in him. Her feeling was that it was the country's loss when he had to resign, that he had accomplished so much good and had so much more good to accomplish," Bostock said. "Her favorite saying was, 'Onward and upward.' She spent no time looking back. She was always looking forward."

Court: Massachusetts residents can't stop sale of land in dispute over 17th century will

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In 1660, William Payne's gift of 35 seaside acres created the nation's oldest charitable trust. Rent

022212 little neck ipswich will dispute.jpgA Massachusetts appeals court has ruled residents of Little Neck in Ipswich can't stop the sale of land that has raised millions for the town's public schools. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON — A Massachusetts appeals court has ruled Ipswich residents can't stop the sale of land that has raised millions for the town's public schools.

In 1660, William Payne's gift of 35 seaside acres created the nation's oldest charitable trust. Rent from cottages on the land has helped fund the schools.

Last year, trustees agreed to sell the units to tenants to settle a 2006 rent increase lawsuit. A probate judge and school officials approved, but some residents said it shortchanged the schools.

One plaintiff said Monday the group is disappointed and will study the ruling.

A state Attorney General's Office spokesman said officials are pleased the court decided they'd acted appropriately to protect the trust's assets. He said the settlement the court upheld would restore a revenue stream to the schools.

Funding approved to upgrade Westfield High School library collection

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The high school library has more than 16,000 publications, many dating back to the 1970s.

WESTFIELD – The School Committee has committed funding to upgrade library inventories at Westfield High School over the next five years.

Approved was the allocation of $20,000 from School Choice funding that finance the initial attempt to replace an estimated 900 publications this year. The School Committee also agreed to consider similar allocations in each of the next four years to help move the library towards compliance with New England Association of Schools and Colleges requirements for high school libraries.

School Committee vice chairman Kevin J. Sullivan said the committee will consider similar action each years over the next four years to finance the needed library upgrade.

The high school generates more than $300,000 annually through School Choice with more than 50 non-Westfield students enrolled at the school. School Choice funds are used to enhance students programs and services.

WHS librarian Sandra A. Berestka said the library has 16,000 books, many published in the 1970s and 1980s and most date back to 1973 when the high school opened.

“We must update our non-friction print collection. We must purchase new and get rid of the old,” she said.

Principal Raymond K. Broderick said as many as 5,500 books may be outdated by current standards and most will have to be replaced.

He estimated the purge will cost the school more than $90,000 during the process.

Berestka said all books in the library “support the curriculum being taught” but information in non-fiction publications may have changed especially in 30 and 40 years.

NEASC library recommendations coincide with the agency’s accreditation standards for high schools, Broderck and Berestka said.

Plans to upgrade the high school library, along with the entire building, have been on the table for many years. Broderick remains optimistic that rehabilitation of the school will be done in the near future. Enrollment at the high school is nearly 1,600 students.

Currently, the city plans to break ground in September for a $36 million elementary school at Cross and Ashley streets. The state School Building Authority is financing 62 percent of the cost.

Holyoke fugitive Gordon Pomeroy, suspect in Feb. 6 shooting, apprehended in New Mexico

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Pomeroy was returned to the city on Sunday and booked on multiple charges including two counts of attempted murder.


HOLYOKE - A 17-year-old Holyoke teen who was wanted in connection with a Feb. 6 double shooting on South Street was arrested on a fugitive warrant by authorities in New Mexico, police said.

Gordon Pomeroy was returned to the city on Sunday and booked on multiple charges including two counts of attempted murder, said Holyoke Police Lt. Matthew F. Moriarty.

Holyoke police detectives Jorge Monsalve and James McGillicuddy investigated the case and determined Pomeroy was a suspect. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and police were notified on Friday that he had been picked up in New Mexico and held once authorities learned he was wanted in Holyoke.

The shooting occurred about 11:15 p.m. in the parking lot near Save-A-Lot, 235 South St., Moriarity said. Two people suffered serious gunshot injuries that required hospitalization, but each has since recovered, he said.

The shooting was apparently the result of an argument that escalated, he said.

Pomeroy was charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and single counts of discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, possession of ammunition without a firearms identification card, possession of a firearm without a license, and carrying a loaded firearm inside a vehicle.

Three Vermont residents face drug charges following traffic stop in Holyoke

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Police became suspicious when the license plate on the car did not match the vehicle's registration.

HOLYOKE - A traffic stop Saturday on Cabot Street resulted in the arrest of two men and a woman from Vermont and the seizure of more than 100 bags of heroin and a .45 caliber handgun, police said.

The car was stopped just before 4:30 p.m. on Cabot Street near Nick Cosmos Way, said Lt. Matthew F. Moriarty.

Police became suspicious when the license plate did not match the registration for the car, he said.

Driver Zachary Pouech, 39, of Hinesburg Vermont, was charged with attaching false plates to a motor vehicle, but additional charges followed when police found he was carrying a illegal handgun and that there were drugs in the car.

Pouech was also charged with possession of a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without a firearms identification card, carrying a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

A passenger, James Wright, 21, of South Burlington, Vermont, was charged with possession of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, conspiracy to violate drug laws, and violation of a drug-free school zone.

A second passenger, Cara Behm, 30, of Williston, Vermont, was charged with conspiracy to violated drug laws.

Former Monson Academy buildings, damaged by tornado, being demolished

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The fate of the Holmes gymnasium next door was not immediately clear.

Monson Academy 31212.jpgDemolition of the former Monson Academy buildings on Main Street began Thursday and continued Friday. The vacant buildings took a direct hit from the June 1 tornado.

MONSON – A Monson landmark that bore the scars of the tornado is being demolished.

The former Monson Academy buildings on Main Street took a direct hit from the June 1 twister. Crews started taking down the newer structure, the Harper building, which was dedicated in 1961, on Thursday.

It was unclear if the brick Holmes gymnasium next door, built in 1900, also would be torn down, as property owner Daniel R. Levesque, of Pelham, could not be reached. However, according to postings on the Monson Tornado Watch 2011 Facebook page, the older building will be torn this week.

The newer building once had a shooting range in the basement. Both buildings have been vacant for years.

Monson Historical Commission Chairman Dennis S. Swierad said the Holmes gymnasium was built by Esther Holmes in honor of her father, Cyrus Holmes Jr.

“We hate to see the old one go down. The newer one didn’t fit in the with downtown ... but the old, brick one we felt very bad about,” Swierad said.

Swierad explained that the Monson Academy left Monson in the early 1970s. The private school merged with the former Wilbraham Academy to become what is now known as Wilbraham & Monson Academy, he said.

What Levesque plans to do with the property remains to be seen. He has owned the property since 2004.

Levesque had wanted to open a fitness center in the Harper building at 96 Main St., and put a residence and office space in the smaller, brick Holmes building, but was denied a special permit for a mixed use in 2008 by the Zoning Board of Appeals. Following the decision, he launched a website – www.reformmonson.com – detailing his dealings with the planning and zoning boards.

The Zoning Board of Appeals denied the plan because it said it lacked enough detail relative to specific uses proposed in each building.


Yesterday's top stories: Former Holyoke teacher Lisa Lavoie charged with probation violation, suspect in ear-biting attack on coach surrenders and more

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Employees of the University of Massachusetts occupy many of the top spots on the list of state employees who earned the most in 2011, according to a state payroll database.

Ae lisa lavoie .jpgFormer Holyoke teacher Lisa Lavoie, of Ludlow, is seen in Hampden Superior Court last year on charges of violating her pre-sentencing guidelines by using alcohol. She was charged with violating her probation Monday when an officer found the now-18-year-old student with whom she was charged with having had a sexual relationship, hiding in her closet Friday.

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.

1) Former Holyoke teacher Lisa Lavoie charged with violation of probation when former student victim of statutory rape found hiding in her closet [Buffy Spencer]

2) Springfield police: Suspect in ear-biting attack on CYO basketball coach surrenders at courthouse [Conor Berry]

3) University of Massachusetts payroll: How much do UMass executives and professors make? [Mandy Hofmockel]

4) NCAA basketball tournament bracket prediction: Syracuse, UNC, Wichita State, Michigan State picked for Final Four [Associated Press]

5) Massachusetts State Police catch wanted man in Springfield [Conor Berry]

Favorite Place: Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton offers family-friendly activities

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The museum includes four floors of exhibition galleries that house the college’s permanent art collection, as well as the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs and changing exhibitions that regularly include a family-friendly resource area.

Family-friendly activity at Smith College Museum of ArtFamilies participate in an activity at the Smith College Museum of Art.

If you think an art museum is just for adults, consider what the Smith College Museum of Art offers on the second Friday of each month: free family-friendly art activities from 4 to 8 p.m.

“It has been proven that arts facilitate and enhance children’s ability to learn,” says Margi Caplan, membership and marketing director for the museum in Northampton. “It helps them focus,” even about subjects like mathematics and science which one might think are far removed from the world of art.

The museum includes four floors of exhibition galleries that house the college’s permanent art collection, as well as the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs and changing exhibitions that regularly include a family-friendly resource area.

“The arts are inseparable for all other aspects of life,” Caplan said. “It enhances the quality of life to be inspired by great art.”

The museum’s holdings include paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, books, antiquities, decorative arts and emerging collections of non-Western art including works from Asia and Africa.

Smith College Museum of ArtSmith College Museum of Art, Northampton

Its works-on-paper collections are housed in the Cunningham Center, a state-of-the-art study and storage facility within the museum. The Cunningham Center houses more than 1,600 drawings, more than 5,700 photographs spanning the history of the medium and more than 8,000 prints by artists from Durer to contemporary printmakers.

“The collection is astounding,” Caplan said.

The museum’s exhibitions are closely tied to Smith College’s curriculum and teaching needs. “We are first and foremost a teaching museum,” Caplan said. “It’s here as a laboratory for Smith and Five College students.”

But the museum is “very much a destination” for young families and persons of all ages who have “a world-class art experience” there, she continued.

Second Fridays are special days at the museum; besides the family-friendly art activities there are, from 6 to 6:30 p.m., free “Open Eyes” guided gallery conversations.

The museum is housed in the Brown Fine Arts Center on Elm Street, not far from the city’s Main Street. The building opened in 2003 and also houses the Smith College Department of Art and the Hillyer Art Library.

Caplan’s favorite part of the museum experience is seeing people enjoying all it offers. “I get a thrill seeing people here and enjoying themselves,” she said.

Hadley car crash sends man to hospital after he's ejected from vehicle

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The man, whose name and address were unavailable, is believed to still be in the intensive care unit at Baystate Medical Center, an official said.

HADLEY – A single-car accident on Bay Road early Sunday morning sent two people to the hospital with injuries, one of whom remains at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, according to Hadley public safety officials.

A male subject was ejected after the vehicle struck a guardrail near 24 Bay Road at about 3:03 a.m. Sunday, a public safety official said early Tuesday. The last update for the man, whose name and address were unavailable, indicated that he was still in Baystate's intensive care unit .

Hadley Police Sgt. Damian Shanley told CBS3 News on Monday that the man was in the car's rear seat when he was ejected. A female driver also was hospitalized with injuries, but her status was not immediately known this morning.

A third passenger did not require hospitalization, police said, adding that the crash remains under investigation.

Hadley police and firefighters responded to the crash scene, which was south of Route 9 and not far from the Calvin Coolidge bridge linking Hadley to Northampton.

Additional information will be posted on MassLive as it becomes available.


THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate site of a single-car crash on Sunday in Hadley. A man was ejected from the vehicle after it struck a guardrail on Bay Road:


View Larger Map

Springfield police: Man arrested for flashing gun at woman on Lyman Street

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Homer Gabson, 27, of Springfield, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon after threatening a woman with a gun, police said.

SPRINGFIELD – A man was arrested after allegedly flashing a gun at a woman who ignored his advances shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, according to police and a press report.

Springfield resident Homer Gabson, 27, whose street address was unavailable, allegedly made a sexually suggestive remark to the woman as she walked by his car on Lyman Street, Springfield Police Lt. Robert P. Moynihan told 22News.

The man then pointed the gun out of the window of the car and threatened the woman after she ignored him, Moynihan said, adding that Gabson was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.

Arraignment information for Gabson was not immediately available.

The incident happened in the city's entertainment district, just after bars and clubs had closed for the night, the TV station reported.


Love of outdoors helped Chase Ouellette of Granby earn Eagle Scout rank

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Ouellette looks forward to studying construction management after he graduates from Granby Junior-Senior High School in June.

Np scout.jpgChase Ouellette, center, an avid outdoorsman and Eagle Scout, posed with his troop when he received the highest honor in Boy Scouting last year.

GRANBY – Chase Ouellette lives right down the street from the Mount Holyoke Range, and that says a lot about him, symbolically and otherwise.

At 17, Ouellette is an outdoorsman who likes mountain biking and looks forward to studying construction management after he graduates from Granby Junior-Senior High School in June.

He is also an Eagle Scout, having earned the highest rank in Boy Scouting. State Senator Ellen Story was among the guests when Ouellette received his honor at the American Legion in Granby last summer.

As part of the festivities, he received a badge, a pin, a citation and a letter from President Barack Obama.

To be designated an Eagle Scout, Ouellette had to earn 21 merit badges, in such areas as camping, family life, leadership, world citizenship and personal (financial) management.

“You become very well-rounded,” he said.

In 2008 he joined fellow Scouts for whitewater rafting and rock climbing in Colorado and backpacking in New Mexico.

One of his service projects involved the Appalachian Trail in the Berkshires and went by the ponderous name of Exterior Corridor Boundary Maintenance. “We were maintaining property lines for the National Park Service,” Ouellette explained.

“When they first get the land, they survey it and put little paint marks on trees, called ‘blazes.’ My job was to keep clear the bushes and branches and repaint the blazes so you can identify the property line with ease.” He also hung signs to indicate where government property began.

Ouellette joined the Cub Scouts in middle school, inspired by a couple of his friends. His older sister, Karen, and older brother, Jason, also had a history of Scouting.

Chase belongs to Troop 306, led by Scoutmaster Joseph Denette of Granby.

He plans to go to Springfield Technical Community College next year, but he also has plenty going on now.

“He’s very industrious,” said his mom, Beverly, whether he’s washing dishes at the Early Mug or pursuing a little tree-cutting business with a friend, in a town that is still cleaning up from the October storm.

Although his years in high school may end, Chase says Boy Scouting will continue for him. “The whole point is that you stay involved with your troop,” he said.

Granby will be the better for it.

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