Even thought the Vermont Senate voted to decommission the plant, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the plant a 20-year license extension anyway.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — More than 1,000 people turned out Saturday on the Brattleboro town green for a rally to show support for decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, one of the oldest nuclear power plants in the country.

The event included speeches by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin, both of whom are calling for the state's wishes to be honored and for the 40-year-old Vernon reactor to be shut down.

New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. owns the plant, whose state permit expired in March. The Vermont Senate voted to decommission the plant. But the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the plant a 20-year license extension anyway, leaving the plant in legal limbo. In January, a federal judge issued an order that allows the plant to continue operating while the case plays out in court.

Unlike a March 22 protest in which 130 people were cited with trespassing after walking three miles from downtown Brattleboro to the plant's corporate headquarters, there were no arrests and no disturbances at Saturday's rally.

Putney resident Nancy Olsen, 65, a teacher, said she stumbled upon the rally and stopped to see what people had to say. Overall, she said, she has mixed feelings about the plant remaining open.

"When the school distributed iodine pills to the teachers it was a little bit of a shock, because I hadn't really thought about it that much," she said, referring to the pills that were handed out at Brattleboro Union High School during last year's tritium leak to counteract the radiation poisoning. "But I know I have the parents of students I teach work there, and so it's a really difficult topic. At the same time, Entergy has not done a good job of seeming to maintain the plant. And that's a real concern."

During his speech to the energized crowd, Sanders criticized the NRC for what he said is an overstepping of its legal bounds. He explained that under federal law, the NRC is responsible for making sure power plants are safe and nothing more.

"That's their job," Sanders told The Associated Press. "They are not supposed to be an advocate for expansion of nuclear power. They are not supposed to be an ally for the nuclear power industry. Their job is really quite limited: It's to make sure that the plants are as safe as possible."

He also pointed out that the NRC's decision to keep Vermont Yankee open, despite the wishes of state officials, flies in the face of Vermont's rights. He reminded the crowd that in 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court said states can slow down or end nuclear power within their borders for non-safety reasons.

Shumlin echoed that point in his speech, citing economic and trust issues as reasons the state should fight to close Vermont Yankee. For example, he said, several power providers in the state declined to partner with Vermont Yankee, finding there were other, more affordable options.

He also accused Entergy of being bad business partners, saying there were 10 instances where the company had been at best misleading and at worst dishonest with the public and state officials.

"(Let's) say to the aging nuclear power industry," Shumlin said, "shut them down, go home, tell the truth, we're moving on, we're moving out , you go first, we're not going to rest until you're gone."

Associated PressRobin Panagakos, left, and Gregg Crawford, right, of Greenfield, Mass., protest against the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at a rally in Brattleboro, Vt. on Saturday, April 14, 2012. The plant's original 40-year license expired last month. The state of Vermont has opposed the continued operation of the plant, but the plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear, won an order from a federal court judge that allowed it to continue operating. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

The struggling electronics chain said last month that it would close 50 stores, cut 400 corporate jobs and trim $800 million in costs.

File photo | The Republican

BOSTON — Best Buy says two stores in Massachusetts are among 50 locations that it is closing this year to deal with stiff competition from rivals.

The struggling electronics chain said last month that it would close the stores, cut 400 corporate jobs and trim $800 million in costs.

On Saturday, the company notified workers at two stores in Wareham and Boston's neighborhood of Back Bay that they are among 42 locations that will be closed.

The company has already closed two stores this year. Most of the rest will close May 12, others this summer. Best Buy says it will try to find other jobs in the company for the workers.

Best Buy said CEO Brian Dunn resigned on Tuesday after the board of directors began investigating his "personal conduct."

What was once the boisterous focus of American politics is now the butt of Internet insult.

By PAULINE ARRILLAGA | AP National Writer

Associated PressIn this Friday, March 23, 2012 photo, Pat Denzer holds a copy of the U.S. Constitution to his chest as he attend a Religious Freedom protest in downtown San Antonio. Following the tide-turning elections of 2010, when the tea party revolution sent new conservatives to governors' mansions, statehouses and, of course, Congress, what's the group's role now? The tea party has changed, but it's very much alive. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SAN ANTONIO — Three years ago he was merely a face in a very large crowd, standing outside the Alamo on Tax Day as Glenn Beck spoke of drawing a line in the sand.

A businessman, husband, father of five and grandfather of 14, Bruce Baillio bought a miniature "Don't Tread on Me" flag and watched, a little sheepishly and mostly silently, as a movement was born before his eyes. Like most of America, he didn't know then what the tea party was.

Today, he is part of what it is morphing into.

Twice a month at the Jim's Restaurant not far from his home, Baillio unloads tea party T-shirts and baseball caps, sets an American flag on a Formica table and leads his neighborhood tea party group — one of 23 in the San Antonio area — in a discussion. They talk about the Obama administration's policies regarding insurance for birth control, about how to become a delegate to the conventions that help determine the Texas GOP's leaders and platform.

He does this every first and third Tuesday of the month, even though he knows some are already writing the tea party's obituary. In this, the first presidential campaign since the dawn of the movement, no single contender has been christened the "tea party candidate." And what was once the boisterous focus of American politics is now the butt of Internet insult: "Ding Dong — the Tea Party is dead!" wrote one blogger.

"Are we dead?" Baillio asked several of his members on a recent Tuesday. About 15 had gathered on this night, including retired military men, grandmothers, a few real estate brokers, a city utility worker, a high school Spanish teacher and a photographer.

Their responses were steeped in the kind of confidence that comes with clout, and the San Antonio Tea Party has gained some of that.

"We're persistent and keep driving the issues home," said one member.

"We communicate with each other and ... when it comes time to vote, we'll definitely pull the ballot lever," replied another.

And there was this, from an ex-Air Force man wearing a "Vote. Declare Yourself" shirt: "We're becoming active in things that we didn't even think about before this all began ... and we are finding that our difference is very, very tall. All they're doing when they call us dead is creating something called silent resentment."

Dead the tea party is not. Changed? Perhaps. But still very much alive, in the back room of a Jim's Restaurant in San Antonio and many other places across the land.

It screamed onto the scene

It screamed onto the scene with a memorable rant by a reporter on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Then came the giant Tax Day rallies. The jeers at town hall meetings about a still fledging national health care proposal. Protests in Washington, D.C., with Beck, and bus tours featuring Sarah Palin.

It all culminated with the tide-turning elections of 2010, when the tea party revolution sent new conservatives to governors' mansions, statehouses and, of course, Congress — helping to fuel the largest turnover in the U.S. House in more than 70 years.

But where has the tea party been since? It's a common question, especially as many saw the GOP presidential campaign unfolding without any meaningful tea party influence. Sure, there was a Tea Party Express rally last fall in New Hampshire, featuring most of the Republican presidential hopefuls. And, later, that same group co-sponsored a debate with CNN.

Still, so-called "umbrella" organizations such as the Tea Party Express, the Tea Party Patriots, FreedomWorks and others haven't, to date, put their names behind any one candidate. And only in recent weeks have tea party darlings such as U.S. senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah finally weighed in — endorsing likely nominee Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor whom some see as un-tea-party-like as one could be, in part because of his state's own health care reform law.

Some local tea party groups (in Massachusetts, for example) have divided over divergent priorities — whether to make conservative economic principals or conservative social issues paramount. Others, such as the Tennessee Tea Party, have disbanded altogether.

In researching her recent book, "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism," Harvard professor Theda Skocpol found that about 1,000 local tea party groups formed in 2009-2010. Today, she estimates there are about 600. A declining number, yes, but still what Skocpol, an expert on civic engagement, calls "a very good survival rate."

"They're not dressing up and going to demonstrations in the street. They're meeting. They're poring over the legislative records of these Republicans that they've elected. They're contacting their representatives, and they're keeping the pressure on. They're following the debates, and they're going and they're voting.

"They're determined," she says, "and they haven't gone away."

To weigh the continuing success or influence of the tea party by inside-the-Beltway measures — endorsements, numbers of chapters and "constituents," dollars or even wins or losses at the polls — is to miss the point and ignore the power of the movement today, says Skocpol. That stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of what the tea party was and is.

It was never an "it," a party with a capital "P'' in the sense of a third political party, though at one point some tea party insiders may have toyed with the idea and outsiders treated it almost as such. (Consider CNN's decision to televise the tea party response to President Obama's 2011 State of the Union address.)

Rather, it is an ideology and a style of politics — one that "has been in the business of pulling the Republican Party away from the possibility of compromising with Democrats and further toward the hard right," says Skocpol. "And they've been very successful. ... They've taken over the Republican Party, lock, stock and barrel."

Elizabeth Price Foley, a constitutional law professor and author of "The Tea Party: Three Principles," calls the tea party "the new Republican base." ''That causes a lot of people who want to dismiss the tea party to characterize them as puppets of some great wealthy conservative puppet masters," she says. "If anything, the tea party is the one who is moving the mountain. The mountain being the Republican Party."

Associated PressFILE - In this Wednesday, March 28, 2012 file photo, Linda Door of Laguna Beach, Ca., and Ken Campbell of the Tea Party Patriots, kneel at the Supreme Court in Washington as the court concludes three days of hearing arguments on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Following the tide-turning elections of 2010, when the tea party revolution sent new conservatives to governors' mansions, statehouses and, of course, Congress, what's the group's role now? The tea party has changed, but it's very much alive. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

This was on full display during last summer's congressional debt debate, when House tea partyers forced Republican Speaker John Boehner to postpone a vote on legislation to raise the debt ceiling and hastily revise it to add a balanced-budget provision, pushing the government to the brink of default. It was just one example of the strength exerted by newly elected tea party Republicans advocating a tough no-compromise mantra. Earlier, they drove House Republican leadership to rewrite a budget bill to find more spending cuts.

Today, tea party activists are still hard at work promoting a conservative ideology at all levels of government, in part by targeting longtime GOP incumbents deemed not conservative enough. Take this year's congressional races. Though no one expects the type of gains seen in 2010, national tea party-related groups are backing candidates in vital races as part of an effort to not only keep GOP control of the House but possibly gain control of the Senate and move Congress more to the right.

Already, in what some have dubbed the first upset of 2012, an incumbent congresswoman in Ohio has fallen to a tea party-backed challenger in that state's primary. Still to come are the two high-profile primaries featuring tea party targets Orrin Hatch of Utah and Richard Lugar of Indiana, the two most senior Republican members of the Senate.

FreedomWorks, a Washington, D.C.-based group that provides both money and training for tea party activists and candidates, has spent some $650,000 opposing Hatch, whom the group calls "the consummate Washington insider" with a record that "is decidedly opposed to the goals of the tea party" — in part because he voted for the Wall Street bailout in 2008.

The 78-year-old Hatch, first elected in 1976, faces several challengers at an April 21 GOP state convention. It was at that meeting two years ago that tea partyers notched their first congressional victory, defeating three-term Republican Sen. Bob Bennett.

Lugar, who like Hatch is seeking a seventh term, may face a bigger threat in his May 8 primary. State Treasurer Richard Mourdock has been endorsed by a coalition of Indiana tea party groups called Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate but also by national organizations including FreedomWorks, the anti-tax Club for Growth and the Tea Party Express, some of which have spent several hundred thousands of dollars supporting Lugar's opponent.

There is evidence of the tea party's influence, too, in the campaign of Romney, even if many harbor deep suspicions that he is a Massachusetts moderate. He has begun promoting some tea party-friendly positions, including a plan to partially privatize Medicare. And his stump speeches are sprinkled with lines that play to the tea party crowd, whether he's denouncing "career politicians" or imparting the virtues of the Constitution and the founding fathers or accusing President Barack Obama of wanting to "fundamentally transform" America and turn it into a "European-style entitlement society" with "burdensome regulations" that expand the role of government.

"To be successful in politics you have to be connected to the zeitgeist of the times. The tenor of the times today ... is opposition to the increasing size, cost and intrusiveness of the federal government," says Sal Russo, a veteran GOP political strategist who runs the Tea Party Express political action committee. "All of the candidates have successfully addressed the primary tea party issue in a way that tea party people would like. I hear people say (the GOP primary was) a titanic struggle between the tea party and the non-tea partyers. That's silly."

Perhaps nowhere is the persistent power of the tea party more at work today than at the local and state level, where many grassroots activists have decided to shift the focus of their efforts. More tea party-backed candidates are running for county and state Republican leadership positions, with the aim of having a bigger say in the party's agenda and direction.

It's happened in South Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Minnesota and Ohio, where the head of the state GOP resigned this month after a much-publicized battle between him and the governor, as well as tea party groups that aligned against him.

Another notable example is New Hampshire, where tea party organizer and former gubernatorial candidate Jack Kimball was elected GOP chairman in January 2011 by conservatives. Soon, GOP presidential hopefuls were reaching out to Kimball in that first-in-the-nation primary state. But Kimball stepped down eight months later amid infighting with the state's top Republican elected leaders, who questioned his ability to manage the organization and raise funds.

There have been other signs of backlash against the tea party, both within the GOP establishment and among the public at large. In New Hampshire, where Republicans in 2010 won supermajorities in both the state House and Senate, a recent poll of GOP primary voters found most saying they no longer support the tea party movement. That echoes a November Pew Research Center poll, which found waning support nationwide for the tea party but also in those congressional districts now represented by members of the House Tea Party Caucus.

In Indiana, a video popped up on YouTube urging voters to reject tea party candidates to the Madison County Republican Party in that state's upcoming May primary, telling viewers: "If you care about the real Republican Party, you must act now before it's too late," The Herald Bulletin newspaper reported.

In Florida, the state GOP chair removed the local head of the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee after a battle between him and more conservative Republicans. A tea party activist is now in charge, and that prompted one GOP political consultant to write a scathing online column urging Republicans to "resist the temptations and blind allegiance to ... any group that would be so arrogant as to want to change the party by disrupting it and destroying it."

Still, tea party observers such as Foley and Skocpol say the movement may be here to stay. The tea party, says Foley, is "in the fabric of every community. You may not see it, because they're not holding signs. But they're there."

And, she adds, "They're in it for the long haul."

The Woodstock of conservatism

Associated PressIn this Tuesday, March 20, 2012 photo, attendees hold their hands over their hearts as they say the Pledge of Allegiance during a tea party meeting in a restaurant in San Antonio with a U.S. flag in the foreground. Following the tide-turning elections of 2010, when the tea party revolution sent new conservatives to governors' mansions, statehouses and, of course, Congress, what's the group's role now? The tea party has changed, but it's very much alive. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

To better grasp the evolution of the movement, simply follow the journeys of its people.

In March 2010, Hildy Angius, a retired public relations specialist, drove from her condo in Bullhead City, Ariz., to the huge tea party rally in Searchlight, Nev. — what some called the Woodstock of conservatism. Then, she was president of her local Republican women's club. Now, she serves as vice chair of the Mohave County Republican Party and is running for county supervisor.

"I think we realized that just getting together ... and yelling and screaming wasn't going to do anything," says the 52-year-old Angius. "The best thing is to get involved at the local level in the party. Move the local party to the right ... and then the local party will move the state and then the state moves the national.

"The tea party was an idea that people like me, who came from nowhere, could get involved ... and you can really make a difference."

In San Antonio, 60-year-old Bruce Baillio now feels the same.

After the Tax Day rally of 2009, he went home, set his tea party flag aside and went on with life, keeping up with politics but not getting involved. Then he read about a Houston tea party group's call for poll watchers to prevent what they considered possible election fraud. He was trained as an election judge and, urged on by a fellow church member who now serves as head of the San Antonio Tea Party, began attending his neighborhood tea party meetings. Soon enough, he was leading the group.

Today, he and other tea party members have the clout to meet privately with elected officials and press them to hold the line on city projects, including a proposal to spend millions to build new housing in the downtown core.

"We are showing up at city council meetings on a regular basis, showing up at county commission meetings on a regular basis. We have organized neighborhood groups to attend town hall meetings," says San Antonio Tea Party president George Rodriguez. "It is at those meetings that we bring up the issues of: How are you using our money?"

Political candidates are also coming to them, seeking votes and volunteers.

That Tuesday night in San Antonio, three candidates showed up to court Baillio's members, including Matt Beebe, a conservative newcomer taking on the speaker of the Texas House in the state's May 29 primary. Beebe credited tea party groups like Baillio's for paving the way for more conservative candidates to seek office.

"The tea party ... has provided a backdrop where the opportunity to beat an entrenched incumbent exists," he says. "They're putting their money where their mouth is. They're putting their time and effort where their mouth is, and so I feel like they are absolutely significant."

This, Baillio says, is "the new normal" — his group of citizen activists who may not dress up in revolutionary garb, make signs and converge on large rallies, but instead work behind the scenes to influence their democracy in myriad ways.

"We have definitely changed the dialogue. People now have to consider the tea party," he says. "Are we a paper tiger? I think that's our biggest fear. And the answer to that question is in our own hands. We get to decide. It's about who else can we educate. Who else can we wake up?"

Emergency officials in Iowa said a large part of the town of Thurman in the western part of the state was destroyed but no one was injured.

By TIMBERLY ROSS

OMAHA, Neb. — Tornadoes were spotted across the Midwest and Plains on Saturday as an outbreak of unusually strong weather seized the region, and forecasters sternly warned that "life-threatening" weather could intensify overnight.

Storms were reported in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Emergency officials in Iowa said a large part of the town of Thurman in the western part of the state was destroyed but no one was injured. A hospital in Creston, southwest of Des Moines, was damaged but patients and staff were not hurt.

And a reported tornado in Wichita, Kan., caused widespread power outages and other damage, including to housing and at an Air Force Base.

National Weather Service forecasters issued sobering outlooks that the worst of the weather would hit around nightfall, predicting that conditions were right for exceptionally strong tornadoes. Weather officials and emergency management officials worried most about what would happen if strong storms hit when people were sleeping, not paying attention to weather reports and unlikely to hear warning sirens.

When it's dark, it's also more difficult for weather spotters to clearly see funnel clouds or tornadoes.

"This could go into, certainly, to overnight situations, which is always of immense concern to us," said Michelann Ooten, an official with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., which specializes in tornado forecasting, said that the outbreak could be a "high-end, life-threatening event" nearly two days before the weather hit.

It was just the second time in U.S. history that the center issued a high-risk warning more than 24 hours in advance. The first was in April 2006, when nearly 100 tornadoes tore across the southeastern U.S., killing a dozen people and damaging more than 1,000 homes in Tennessee.

While there were no fatalities as of Saturday evening, storms were erupting faster than spotters could tally them all. The danger began Saturday morning when tornado sirens sounded in Oklahoma City around dawn.

One of the suspected tornadoes in central Oklahoma touched down near the small town of Piedmont and followed a similar path the one last May that killed several people, Mayor Valerie Thomerson said. Later in the day, several tornadoes were reported to have touched down in the northeast part of the state. Aside from damage to a camper, the chaos was minor.

More than 5,000 people who had gathered in Woods County, Okla., for a rattlesnake hunt scattered when a tornado touched down, said county emergency management director, Steve Foster.

In Iowa, Thurman — a town of about 250 people — was severely damaged by a possible tornado. Fremont County Emergency Management Director Mike Crecelius said that about 75 percent of the town was destroyed, but there were no injuries or deaths. Crecelius said the town was on lockdown and some residents took refuge in City Hall, which still had power. Officials and residents expect to start cleaning up Sunday.

In Creston, about 75 miles from Des Moines, the Greater Regional Medical Center suffered roof damage and had some of its windows blown out by a storm, said John Benson, a spokesman for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. No injuries were reported. Medical center officials were calling other area hospitals to determine how many beds they had available in case they needed to move patients.

The National Weather Service in Des Moines also received reports of high winds that toppled at least five semis on Interstate 29.

In northeast Nebraska, Boone County Sheriff David Spiegel said baseball-sized hail had damaged vehicles, shattered windows and tore siding from houses in and around Petersburg, about 140 miles northwest of Omaha. In southeast Nebraska, an apparent tornado took down barns, large trees, and some small rural structures. Johnson County emergency director Clint Strayhorn said he was trying to determine the twister's duration and the damage it caused.

"I'm on a 2-mile stretch that this thing is on the ground and I haven't even gotten to the end of it yet," he said, walking the path of destruction near the Johnson-Nemaha county line. He didn't immediately know of any injuries.

Two possible tornadoes were reported father south in Nebraska near the Kansas border, and as many as 10 others were reported in largely rural parts of western and central Kansas, including one north of Dodge City that was said to be on the ground for a half-hour, weather officials said.

In Kansas, a suspected tornado narrowly avoided Salina, meteorologists said. Another was on the ground for about a half-hour north of Dodge City.

Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for Kansas Division of Emergency Management, said there were reports of damage to housing in the southeast part of Wichita as well as at McConnell Air Force Base and Spirit AeroSystems.

Forecasters warned once Saturday night's danger had passed, the threat from the storm system wasn't over. Severe weather was also possible for a significant band of the center of the country on Sunday.

"The threat isn't over with tonight, unfortunately. Severe weather is possible again tomorrow from east Texas and Arkansas and up into the Great Lakes," said Bill Bunting, chief of operations at the Storm Prediction Center, which is part of the National Weather Service.

Associated Press reporters Grant Schulte in Omaha, Neb.; David Pitt in Osceola, Iowa; Sean Murphy and Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo.; Erin Gartner in Chicago; and Ed Donahue in Washington contributed to this report.

While politicians and political hopefuls have been branding themselves as "outsiders" in contentious elections across the country, there still is no substitute for the power of incumbency.

View full sizeFollowing the signing of the JOBS Act on Thursday, April 5, 2012, President Barack Obama and Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., shook hands as those present celebrated the passage of bipartisan legislation in an otherwise partisan session of Congress. Brown and Obama share the advantage of incumbency in their respective elections. (Photo courtesy of Sen. Scott Brown's Senate office)

While politicians and political hopefuls have been branding themselves as "outsiders" in several of the contentious elections across the country this year, there still is no substitute for the power of incumbency.

Incumbents running for re-election have several factors playing into their favor. They typically have more money, a trained staff and lessons learned from their previous advances on public office.

They have experience, name recognition and easier access to the media, which helps explain the statistic that in 2010, 84 percent of incumbent U.S. senators and 85 percent of congressman were re-elected.

"You're working to give the voters a reason to vote for you instead of your opponent, and for a challenger, it is three times as much work," said Tony Cignoli, a political strategist not associated with any of the candidates mentioned in this article. "Incumbents have seasoned political troops and can raise money from established sources, whether it is an individual or a PAC, because their voting record is known. With a challenger, all you have to go off is their word."

In the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown started out with $7 million cash left over from his 2010 special election win over Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Elizabeth Warren, the chief Democratic opponent in Brown's re-election bid, has amassed approximately $13 million since jumping into the race, an impressive haul, although at this time she is still $2 million behind Brown in what is being billed as potentially the most expensive Senate race in history.

Still, the high-profile, high-stakes nature of winning the Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy for 47 years has rallied national Democratic support for Warren, contributing to her out-raising Brown in the two most recent fiscal quarters.

In the race for the newly drawn 1st Congressional District in Massachusetts, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, is millions ahead of challenger Andrea Nuciforo Jr., a former state senator who announced his bid for the seat in 2009 before the district was even created.

Bill Shein, a Berkshire County Democrat also vying to unseat Neal, a 22-year Congressional veteran, has taken a different approach, only accepting donations of $99 or less from individuals in a statement against the power of money in politics.

Both Brown and Neal have more money than their challengers and have more experience dealing with the media.

In an average week, reporters receive more than a dozen press releases from Brown, split between his Senate office in Washington and his re-election campaign in Massachusetts.

From the Senate office, the dispatches typically consist of issue-based statements and highlights about pending or passing legislation. Brown's campaign usually sends announcements about events, releases about new ads and statements on issues relating directly to the conversation in the Senate race.

And although the campaign does take swipes at Warren, the Massachusetts Republican Party typically serves as the attack arm of Brown's operation, releasing statements and videos critical of Warren and her stance on issues.

And while the Massachusetts Democratic Party and liberal activist groups do take aim at Brown, Warren's campaign is primarily left to do the work of what Brown, as an incumbent, can spread strategically through several offices and operations.

Tony Cignoli

"The way they coalesce together is intriguing," Cignoli said of Brown's operation. "There is no in-fighting in Brown's camp. They know their strategy and they stay on message that he in an independent in the Senate. Warren has some of the best political consultants in the country and they want this badly, but it is difficult to get those gears moving in the same way."

In the Congressional race, things have been slow thus far, with Neal's office typically only issuing updates about his public schedule while challengers Nuciforo and Shein have taken aim at Neal's strength – his experience.

When prodded, Neal's office issues a response to criticisms from the challengers, but so far, the incumbent has been moving along as if no real challenge exists.

Warren, like Shein and Nuciforo, although somewhat dishonestly on the last candidate's part, have all touted their outsider status while approval ratings for the Congress as a whole are at an all-time low.

But despite the attempt to capitalize on the mood of the nation, the challengers' respective battles are an uphill fight.

"Though many people say they want change, there is this engrained belief in voters that someone already in office can accomplish more," Cignoli said. "What we often see is that volunteers and supporters are more fired up for an incumbent unless there is a violation of public trust. And if such an issue exists, the challenger has to seize it and work three times harder to convince the voters they can do better."

On the big stage of politics, the American presidency, the same advantages typically apply, but there are also some downsides to running as the Commander-in-Chief.

John Baick, a professor of history and political science at Western New England University, recalled George H.W. Bush's first term as president, noting how the problems he inherited became his own, similar to what President Barack Obama has faced.

"Despite Bush's best efforts to avoid a recession, the policies set in place before he took office had already taken course and he inherited those problems," Baick said of the first President Bush. "Pertaining to Obama, if the jobs report looks like it did this month through November, I'd say he has a less-than-even chance of being re-elected. Even if you didn't create the problem, once you inherit it, you own it."

On the topic of campaign finance in the presidential election, Baick said that the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that allowed corporations to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in an election shifted the dynamic to favor the likely GOP presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

John Baick

"Typically, a sitting president has a fundraising advantage, but this year it is different," Baick said. "It looks like Romney will have no problem out-raising Obama on his own and with the conservative super PACs. But if you look at how the money was spent in the Republican primary, most of it went to attacks. You can spend to destroy a name, but it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to spend to build one up."

Name recognition is one of the most important factors when it comes to running for office, and although it isn't as much of an issue in this year's presidential election, it can make the difference between success and failure in the senate and congressional races in Massachusetts.

Recent polls have shown Warren's name recognition among voters improving over the past few months as she tours the state, but compared to Brown, who is widely known, there is still much work to be done.

"Since Brown was elected, he was worked to be visible throughout the state and not be controversial," Baick said. "So for casual political followers who've heard of him, many have nothing negative to say. But if Warren takes her ground-game up a notch between now and November, she could close that gap."

The goal of the partnership is to provide Western Massachusetts a richer, more comprehensive picture of local news, weather and up-to-the minute information. Watch video

SPRINGFIELD – The Republican and MassLive.com will this week launch a media partnership with CBS3.

The goal of the partnership is to provide Western Massachusetts a richer, more comprehensive picture of local news, weather and up-to-the minute information.

CBS3 is the newest media outfit in Springfield, having begun broadcasting from its offices in Monarch Place almost seven years ago. With this partnership, it will be working with one of the oldest, The Republican, which has been reporting on Springfield and the region since 1824, and one with the most extensive reach, MassLive.com, which draws readers from around the world.

“It’s no secret we’re the newest news player in the market,” said Dave Ward, news director for CBS3. “It’s a great opportunity to partner with The Republican and MassLive and to share resources among all three entities.”

Those sentiments were shared by Wayne E. Phaneuf, executive editor for The Republican, and Ed Kubosiak Jr., editor-in-chief of MassLive.com.

“We are looking forward to this partnership with CBS3 which will be mutually beneficial to The Republican, MassLive.com and our new television partner,” Phaneuf said. “Ultimately, the winners will be our readers, online users and CBS3 TV viewers who will be offered a richer multi-media experience.”

Added Kubosiak, “We are looking forward to a strong partnership with CBS3 Springfield that benefits everyone. Our readers will benefit from deeper local content, thanks to the combined resources of these outstanding news organizations.”

Ward said he sees the partnership evolving in incremental stages.

For now, the first steps will be making the station’s two meteorologists, Mike Skurko and Nick Morganelli, available to The Republican and MassLive. Both will lend their expertise with Western Massachusetts weather for stories about storms, heat waves or any other unusual weather patterns. Each will also provide daily forecasts in print and online.

“It’s exposure for us,” Ward said. “We’re sharing our talent and our resources with the newspaper and the web.”

Skurko and Morganelli both said they are excited about having access to a broader audience beyond the scope of the airwaves.

“Mike and I are excited. The station is excited,” said Morganelli. “We get to reach a different audience out there. People are going to get an up-to-the-minute forecast no matter how they want to get it.”

Providing weather information in a different format from their segments on the evening newscasts will be a great opportunity, said Skurko.

“Sometimes there’s only so much that we can say in a three-minute format on television,” Skurko said. “We can add a lot more content on MassLive and in The Republican.”

Ward said he sees the partnership expanding in the coming weeks and months as the three partners share resources on news coverage and other special projects, including coverage of the election season.

As an example of how such a cooperative benefits the community at large, Ward cited the Springfield mayoral debate last fall between Domenic Sarno and challenger Jose Tosado. The debate was broadcast live from the CBS3 studios, Phaneuf and Peter Goonan, City Hall reporter for The Republican, were part of the media panel, and readers on MassLive were able to ask questions in real time that were then posed to the candidates.

There was no partnership in place at the time, but the success of the event demonstrated how one could work, according to Ward. “That was a nice first start,” he said.

In the modern media landscape, such partnerships are nothing new. Roughly a third of print news organizations across the country have some sort of partnership or cross-promotional agreement with a TV station in the same market.

The partnership doesn’t only make sense for the three parties involved, Ward said.

“This industry has changed dramatically in a short period of time. We’re all looking for ways – the best ways – that we can deliver our product,” he said. “In the end, the winner isn’t CBS3, it’s not The Republican, and it’s not MassLive. The winner is the news consumers of Western Massachusetts.”

The son of a judge and former Springfield mayor, Milton C. Long died after the Titanic struck an iceberg a century ago.

The RepublicanMilton C. Long, 29, of Springfield was among the 1,517 to die in the Titanic disaster on April 15, 1912.

A century after he died in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, more is known about Milton C. Long’s final hours than his entire life.

Long, the only child of a Hampden County judge and former mayor of Springfield, was among the 1,517 passengers and crew aboard the RMS Titanic to die in the early hours of April 15, 1912 after the ocean liner struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage.
A first-class passenger, Long was one of two victims of the great maritime disaster with ties to Western Massachusetts.

Irish-born Jane Carr, 47, worked as a domestic and cook in Springfield and at the Chicopee Falls Hotel before returning home to Ireland in 1909. She was traveling as a third-class passenger aboard the Titanic to return to America, settle her affairs and then go home to Ireland. Her body, if recovered, was never identified.

Long and Carr will both be recalled on Saturday at the dedication of the Titanic Centennial Memorial at Oak Grove Cemetery in Springfield.

Long, 29, had been traveling in Europe. Funeral records described him as a “gentleman of leisure.” His obituary stated he attended Harvard and Columbia law schools, though a search of university records shows only that he left Columbia University before graduating in 1905.

Long was no stranger to the sea, having escaped injury when the coastal steamer SS Spokane struck a rock in Seymour Narrows, British Columbia in Canada just 10 months before he boarded the Titanic in Southampton, England.

A poster celebrating the White Star liner RMS Titanic

What is known is that Long acted calmly and with compassion in his final hours, according to the accounts given by Jack B. Thayer, a 17-year-old fellow first-class passenger who Long befriended that fateful night.

Long and Thayer met over a cup of coffee on April 14 at about 9 p.m. During their conversation, Long said he had avoided risky slopes on a recent ski trip because he feared the impact his death would have on his parents.

“We talked together for an hour or so,” said Thayer in a published account of the disaster. “Afterwards, I put on an overcoat and took a few turns around the deck. I have never seen the sea smoother than it was that night; it was like a mill pond and just as innocent looking. It was the kind of night that made one feel glad to be alive.”

The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m., but Thayer recalled feeling only a slight shock. “If I had had a brimful glass of water in my hand, not a single drop would have been spilled,” he wrote.

Thayer said he soon learned from the ship’s designer, Thomas Andrews, that the Titanic would sink in an hour or so.

At 12:15 a.m., a steward instructed Thayer to put on a life jacket. In the crowded “A” deck lounge, Thayer, his parents and their maid were joined by Long, who was traveling alone.

“There was a great deal of noise,” Thayer recalled. “The band was playing lively tunes without apparently receiving much attention from the worried moving audience.”

The iceberg believed to have been involved in the 1912 Titanic disaster.

Long and company made their way to the deck below in an attempt to get Thayer’s mother to a lifeboat, but Long and Thayer became separated from the others in the milling crowd.

“Long and I could not catch up and were entirely separated from them,” he said. “I never saw my father again.”

The pair decided not to fight their way into one of the last two remaining lifeboats. Long persuaded Thayer not to dive from a height of 60 feet – roughly six stories – into the 28-degree water, where the teenager believed he could swim to one of the partially-filled lifeboats in the distance.

At 2:15 a.m. – minutes before the Titanic slipped beneath the ocean’s surface – Long, Thayer and hundreds of other passengers made their way towards the stern of the ship.

“We were a mass of hopeless, dazed humanity, attempting as the Almighty and nature made us, to keep our final breath until the last possible moment,” Thayer recalled.

As the water rushed up the sinking deck, Long and Thayer stood at the starboard rail near the second funnel, shook hands and prepared to jump into the water, now just 12 to 15 feet below them.

“Go ahead, I’ll be right with you,” Thayer recalled telling Long. “I threw my overcoat off as (Long) climbed over the rail, sliding down facing the ship.”

Thayer said he struggled in the numbing cold as he swam against the suction of the sinking liner. He was pulled from the frigid water by a few men who had found refuge on an overturned collapsible Engelhart lifeboat.

“I never saw Long again,” Thayer said. “I am afraid that the few seconds elapsing between our going meant the difference between being sucked into the deck below, as I believe he was, or pushed out by the backwash.”

From the overturned lifeboat, Thayer watched the Titanic sink.

“Probably a minute passed with almost dead silence and quiet,” Thayer said. “Then an individual call for help, from here, from there; gradually swelling into a composite volume of one long continuous wailing chant, from the 1,500 in the water all around us.”

The cry lasted for 20 to 30 minutes, fading as those in the water succumbed to the cold, according to Thayer’s recounting of the disaster scene.

“The partially-filled lifeboats standing by, only a few hundred yards away never came back,” Thayer recalled. “How could any human being fail to heed those cries? They were afraid the boats would be swamped by people in the water.”

Two of the 20 lifeboats did come back and rescued five people. The 712 survivors waited until the rescue ship Carpathia came over the horizon shortly after 4 a.m.

This pocket watch belonged to Springfield resident Milton C. Long.He gave it his chauffeur before boarding Titanic .

Word of the Titanic’s sinking soon reached Springfield. Long’s father, Judge Charles L. Long, is reported to have been so distraught that a special judge was called in to preside over Hampden Probate Court in his place.

“I have almost given up hope of hearing that my son is among the rescued,” Charles Long told the Springfield Union on April 17, 1912. “I understand that the complete list of survivors is yet unknown and I have wired instructions to the White Star steamship company in New York to make every attempt to learn if my son is among them, Until we receive definite news from the Carpathia, we must hold out a little hope.”

Milton Long’s uncle, James D. Gill, went to New York City, where he stood at Pier 53 on 14th Street and watched the survivors disembark. His nephew was not among them.

“I talked with some of them, but I could find no one who could remember having seen Milton Long after the accident,” Gill told the Springfield Daily News on April 19, 1912.

Gill held out hope his nephew was aboard the steamer Californian and went to Boston for that ship’s arrival. But, Long was not on board.

A week later, Long’s body was identified among the dead picked up by the cable ship MacKay-Bennett.

Long was buried in the family’s eight-grave family plot at Springfield Cemetery. Judge Long died in 1930 and his wife, Hattie, in 1952. The five remaining plots are empty.

Although Long’s death marked the end of the family line, he is remembered by the Titanic Historical Society, which is headquartered in Indian Orchard.

The Titanic society’s museum displays an engraved, silver pocket watch that Long entrusted to the family’s chauffeur, Fred McDonald. The Long family told the chauffeur to keep it as a memento of their son. It was donated to the museum by McDonald’s son, Curtis.

As for Thayer, he later wrote a booklet recounting the sinking in which he maintained the Titanic tore in half, contrary to the popular belief that it sank in one piece. Oceanographer Robert D. Ballard used that information in determining the sunken wreck’s location in 1985. Its discovery came 40 years after Thayer, then a University of Pennsylvania vice president, committed suicide. He was despondent over the death of one of his sons in World War II.

View full sizeThe plaque placed on Milton C. Long's gravestone at Springfield Cemetery by the Titanic Historical Society.

In 1996, Titanic Historical Society officers Edward and Karen Kamuda, along with Paul A. Phaneuf, of St. Pierre-Phaneuf Funeral Home, a member of the society’s advisory board, placed a bronze plaque noting Long’s death at sea on his grave at Springfield Cemetery. Previously, the headstone made no mention of his death on the Titanic.

At the memorial service, country singer Mark Statler performed “Nearer My God, to Thee,” one of the last songs believed to have been played by the Titanic’s band as the ship sank.

Another monument to honor Long, Carr and the others who died on that “night to remember,” will be dedicated on Saturday morning at Oak Grove Cemetery.

The wording on the black granite monument, conceived by Phaneuf and endorsed by the historical society, reads “May the memory of Titanic be preserved forever.”

The New England Adolescent Research Institute is using the grant to spread the word about how its brain studies can help special education students learn.

HOLYOKE — The New England Adolescent Research Institute is using a recently received $50,000 foundation grant to spread the word about how its brain studies can help special education students learn.

“For students with learning and behavioral difficulties and their families, these innovations can be life changing,” said Steven Bengis, director of the facility at 70 North Summer St.

The Jessie B. Cox Charitable Lead Trust-Cox Family Fund awarded the grant this year and the money is being used for two purposes. One is to establish an online newsletter about the school’s use of science’s in understanding of how the brain learns best, he said.

The other purpose is to pay for the research and writing of a peer-reviewed article about how the school’s work affects student learning, he said.

Peer-reviewed articles are read by specialists on a subject before publication in a journal to ensure the highest quality article, according to online definitions.

A previous $50,000 grant from the same foundation helped the school move to electronic data storage from the previous method of dealing with data by hand, Bengis said.

The school was founded in 1986. It has 50 students and 45 employees, he said.

The school deals with students of ages 7 to 22 with multiple learning disabilities, developmental delays, Asperger syndrome and other learning and mental health problems.

A press release from Bengis credited the work of school associate director Penny Cuninggim and her colleagues in the school’s Brain-based Education and Resource Center. The center seeks to translate the latest research about how the brain learns best into classroom and counseling strategies, according to nearipress.org.

Casino panel will hold public meeting.

The Associated PressMembers of the five-person Massachusetts Gaming Commission are shown in this panel of photos taken during a news conference in Boston Tuesday, March 20, 2012, where the last two appointees were introduced. From left the members are: Enrique Zuniga, James F. McHugh, Chairman Steve Crosby, Bruce Stebbins, and Gayle Cameron. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

BOSTON (AP) — The state panel appointed to oversee casino gambling in Massachusetts continues to lay the groundwork for future operations.

The Gaming Commission is scheduled to hold its second public meeting on Tuesday. The agenda for the meeting includes personnel issues and an update on negotiations with two outside consultants.

The commission voted at its initial meeting last week to seek agreements with Spectrum Gaming Group and the law firm of Michael & Carroll for advice in establishing casino regulations and law enforcement procedures. Both firms are based in New Jersey.

The panel is also scheduled to discuss a process for providing information to communities that may host or are located near a potential casino. Communities including Palmer, Westfield, Holyoke and Springfield have been eyed as possible locations for a casino in Western Massachusetts.

The new state gaming law allows up to three destination casinos and one slots parlor in Massachusetts.

Federal prosecutors allege that Hoffman made threatening and intimidating remarks to Maureen Adams, a probation officer under his supervision.

BOSTON - The acting chief probation officer in Hampshire Superior Court, charged with intimidating and harassing a witness in the federal investigation into the state Probation Department, may settle the case without going to trial, according to an order issued by a judge on Friday.

Christopher J. Hoffman, 39, who is on leave from his state job without pay, was arrested on Dec. 21 and charged with two counts of obstruction of justice. Hoffman, of Hatfield, appeared in U.S. District Court in Worcester and was released on certain conditions including avoiding contact with Rep. Thomas M. Petrolati, a Ludlow Democrat who recommended people for jobs in probation, and current or former members of probation.

According to an order issued by U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor, Hoffman's lawyer and prosecutors are in the process of "attempting to resolve the case short of trial."

The order effectively gives both sides more time to possibly find a solution to the case without a trial.

A spokeswoman for the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz declined comment.

Vincent A. Bongiorni of Springfield, who is Hoffman's lawyer, could not be reached for comment.

Federal prosecutors allege that on Oct. 18 and 19, Hoffman - in his capacity as acting chief probation officer of the Hampshire Superior Court in Northampton - made threatening and intimidating remarks to Maureen Adams, a probation officer under his supervision.

On Oct. 19, Adams was scheduled to be interviewed by the FBI in connection with the federal investigation into the alleged fraudulent hiring practices at the state probation department, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a press release.

The U.S. Attorney office alleges there was a sham hiring system in the probation department that favored politically-connected candidates pushed mostly by current or former state legislators

On March 23, Ortiz unveiled indictments against former Springfield deputy probation commissioner William H. Burke III of Hatfield, former state probation commissioner John J. O'Brien and former second deputy probation commissioner Elizabeth V. Tavares. During their arraignments that day, all three pleaded innocent to racketeering and mail fraud.

That indictment says Burke, who retired in 2009, sponsored Hoffman for employment as a probation officer in Hampshire Superior Court. The indictment says Hoffman was not the most qualified candidate but was hired in December 2005.

In December, Hoffman was released on several conditions requested by the prosecution including one to have no contact "with any persons who are or may become a victim or potential witness in the subject investigation or prosecution," including Petrolati or his family members.

John P. Pucci, a lawyer for Petrolati, said last month that he was not part of the Hoffman proceeding and he does not know why the no-contact order was issued. Petrolati had little or no relationship with Hoffman, Pucci said.

Bongiorni has said the complaint against Hoffman had nothing to do with Petrolati and that the no-contact order for Petrolati didn't mean much.

Jones is still behind bars awaiting trial in Hampden Superior Court on the trafficking and shoplifting charges for which he could face jail terms.

SPRINGFIELD – It seems nothing ever takes a predictable route for Melvin Jones III.

The RepublicanMelvin Jones III

Jones, the impetus for onetime Springfield police officer Jeffrey M. Asher’s 18-month jail sentence for assault during a 2009 traffic stop, has had his ups and downs in the criminal justice system.

He is partially blind in one eye as a result of the beating Asher delivered with a metal flashlight when Jones tried to escape a pat-frisk during a traffic stop by police on Nov. 27, 2009.

Drug possession and other charges brought against him in connection with those events were later dropped.

In the intervening 2½ years, Jones picked up new charges for allegedly stealing more than a dozen pairs of pants from a department store and selling cocaine to an FBI informant while out on bail.

Now, it turns out the star witness in his prosecution for drug trafficking is also charged in a murder case, which presents the defense with a potential opportunity to take issue with the witness’ credibility.

Jones logged what civil-rights activists believe is a moral victory when Asher was convicted in late February of assault with a dangerous weapon and sentenced on March 28 in Chicopee District Court while a dejected police force looked on.

Jones is still behind bars awaiting trial in Hampden Superior Court on the trafficking and shoplifting charges for which he could face jail terms.

Allegedly caught on videotape selling crack cocaine to a government informant in December, the state’s case against Jones would seem not to be an uphill battle.

But during a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni conceded that their star witness has been charged in a murder case in Springfield. He said the case will go forward nonetheless on April 27.

“This isn’t even a close call. There’s a way to go forward on the case without the informant,” Mastroianni said.

Neither Mastroianni nor defense lawyer Jared Olanoff would provide additional details about the informant.

Man trapped in car under a tree in West Springfield.

WEST SPRINGFIELD- Police have not released the name of the man who was trapped in his pickup truck after a tree collapsed on him Saturday afternoon.

Sgt. Mark Sypeck said the man, who was taken to Baystate Medical Center, is still in serious condition.

The accident happened on Squassick Road around 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

"A private contractor was bringing down an old oak tree when the tree kicked back the wrong way and fell on top of the pickup truck trapping a man in his vehicle," Sypeck said.

He said police and fire responded to the scene and firefighters extricated the man from the vehicle using the Jaws of Life.

Sypeck said representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,(OSHA) were also at the scene.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Deborah Lynn Magoon-UpChurch

Deborah Lynn Magoon-UpChurch, 49, of Westfield, died on Monday, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Born in Pittsfield, she was educated in the Adams and Westfield public schools and was a 1980 graduate of Westfield High School. Magoon-UpChurch graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in illustration, and chose art as a lifelong profession. Deborah was a vice-president of University Products in Holyoke, and ran Hamms/Spectrum Art Supplies Division in St. Petersburg, The Muse Gallery in West Hartford, Conn., and The Muse Gallery in Holyoke. Deborah also founded and ran Chantelle Publishing, a publisher and distributor of limited edition prints as well as the exclusive publisher of the works of artist Karl Bang.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Croteau, Betty A. (Brady)
  



• 
  Dasilva, Arminda "Mimi"
  



• 
  Dooley, Teresa
  



• 
  Egan, Richard C.
  



• 
  Florian, Claire J. (Martin)
  



• 
  Gaudrault, Timothy L.
  



• 
  Geoffrion, Jeannette (Wiley)
  



• 
  Habel, William F.
  



• 
  Harris, Patricia A. (Marceau)
  



• 
  Holland, Robert
  



• 
  Janulewicz, Helen C. (Kencki)
  



• 
  Lak, Evelyn E. (Gardzienski)
  



• 
  Magoon-UpChurch, Deborah Lynn
  



• 
  Marceau, Marion (Gauthier)
  



• 
  Mathisen, Norman R.
  



• 
  Messier, Robert F.
  



• 
  Pliska Jr., Stanley J. "Sonny"
  



• 
  Pollak, Morris
  



• 
  Punska, Anthony
  



• 
  Rosario, Christina Vazquez
  



• 
  Senechal, JoAnn G. (Turcotte)
  



• 
  Shea, Thomas E.
  



• 
  Stallsmith, Roy L.
  



• 
  Trudeau, Ruth E.
  



• 
  Vega, Carlos A.
  



• 
  Webb, Anne L. (Kandior)
  

Lisa Ziegert was killed on April 15, 1992. Her killer has not been found.

AGAWAM – Whenever Kimberly Souders-Murray met up with her best friend Lisa Ziegert at the local Friendly’s Lisa would always order black raspberry ice cream, a vanilla coke and french fries to share.

Souders-Murray listed that as one of the many things she remembers about her friend who was killed on April 15, 1992. Now, 20 years after her death, Lisa’s family still does not know who killed the young woman loved by so many.

Many family and friends gathered outside the Agawam Public Library Sunday to remember Lisa and release white balloons in her honor.

“I’m overwhelmed to see so many people here,” said Diane Ziegert, Lisa’s mom.

Lisa, a graduate of Westfield State University, worked days as a teaching assistant at Agawam Middle School and nights and weekends at Brittany’s Card and Gift Shoppe on Walnut Street Extension in Agawam. On April 15 she was raped and killed and left in the woods where she was found four days later on Easter Sunday.

Many people spoke about Lisa, her warm smile, her love of children and her love of friends and family.

Souders-Murray read a statement sent by another one of Lisa’s best friends Susie Wilkinson-Hay, who now lives out of state. She wrote about their many sleepovers, their discovery of a “peppermint tree” which she later discovered was a birch tree and her memories of Lisa dancing at her wedding.

“Most people remember April 15 as tax day, for me it’s the day I lost my best friend,” she wrote.

City officials including Mayor Richard Cohen and detectives who have worked on the case over many years also spoke.

Cohen said he remembered meeting Lisa when his brother worked at Agawam Middle School.

She had a smile so bright it lit up the room, he said.

Souders gave a touching speech talking about the many experiences the girls shared since they met in sixth grade from playing footsie with a boy in class to discussing majors once they were in college to the blood oath they took when they were teenagers promising to be friends forever.

“When she died I was afraid I would not remember,” she said. “But I do remember her unruly chestnut hair, her blueberry eyes, her blue suede cowboy jacket with the fringe... I remember she liked the Black Crowes, Billy Joel...she loved to dance and she loved children.”

Diane Ziegert said she is thankful to the many people who keep her daughter’s memory alive. She said over the years more than $90,000 in donations have been used to award scholarships and purchase computers, software for the visually impaired and other items for city schools.

Cosby says there is a need to get guns off the streets, and that people should be taught to use every possible alternative before shooting someone.

In this April 6, 2011 AP file photo, Bill Cosby speaks at the National Action Networkís Keepers of the Dream Awards Gala in New York. Cosby says the debate over the killing of Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer should be focused on guns, not race.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Actor and comedian Bill Cosby says the debate over the killing of Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer should be focused on guns, not race.

In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" aired Sunday, Cosby said calling George Zimmerman a racist doesn't solve anything. Cosby says the bigger question is what Zimmerman was doing with a gun, and who taught him how to behave with it.

The shooting of the 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26 has ignited a nationwide debate about race and self-defense.

Cosby said during the interview, which was taped Thursday afternoon, that he once owned a gun but no longer does. He says there is a need to get guns off the streets, and that people should be taught to use every possible alternative before shooting someone.

The shooter, Carlos Laguer of Springfield, was killed during the stand-off with police.

State Trooper John Vasquez, who was injured in a Chicopee shoot-out Friday, has been released from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and is recovering at home with his wife and teenage son.

Vasquez, 44, was shot in the hand and in the lower left leg and had shrapnel wounds in his right leg during the two-hour siege on West Street in Chicopee.

Vasquez, a 20-year-veteran of the state police assigned to the Springfield barracks, was the first to respond to a 7:45 a.m. call for assistance. When he arrived, Carlos Laguer opened fire from an apartment at 102 West St., injuring the officer.

Chicopee Police Officer David Benoit was recognized for being able to load Vasquez into his cruiser while under fire and bring him to the hospital. He was assisted by Ward Hamilton, a former New Haven, Conn. police officer who just started work at Central Oil, which is near West Street. He assisted Benoit as Laguer continued to shoot at them.

Courtesy of Massachusetts State PoliceState Trooper John Vasquez, in this undated state police photo.

On Friday Vasquez underwent surgery for his wounds, said David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police.

Police returned fire. In total more than 70 shots were discharged on the small street.

Vazquez’s car was shot multiple times, the back window was shattered and there and there were bullets in the headrest.

Carlos Laguer, 41, of Springfield, was killed during the two-hour shoot-out. Police are continuing to investigate to see if he took his own life, was killed by bullets fired by police or a combination of the two.

A woman and her 8-year-old son were in the apartment when the shooting began. They were able to flee uninjured. Police have not released their names.

The woman has been upgraded from critical to serious condition.

Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD – A 28-year-old woman is in serious condition after being shot while lying in bed at home next to her 3-year-old daughter.

The shot was fired at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday outside the house at 139 Cambridge St. in the Bay neighborhood. It penetrated the exterior wall of the second-floor and hit the woman in the back and abdomen, Police Capt. William Collins said.

“Her husband heard the shots fired and heard her from the second-floor front bedroom screaming in agony,” Collins said.

The husband called police and brought his wife to Baystate Medical Center. She was immediately brought to surgery Saturday night. She was first listed in critical condition but has been upgraded to serious condition, Lt. Trent Duda of the detective bureau said.

“The shooting wasn’t random, but the victim was,” Duda said. “They weren’t the intended targets, and she is fighting for her life.”

Duda did not release the name of the woman or her husband.

Police are unsure if the shooters were in a car or on foot. The intended victims may have been standing in front of the home at the time that the shots were fired, he said.

Police are looking for anyone who witnessed the shooting or saw anything in the area near the time it happened. Witnesses may call the Springfield Police Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355. Those who wish to remain anonymous may text a tip via a cell phone by addressing a text message to “CRIMES” or “274637,” and then beginning the body of the message with the word “SOLVE.”

On Friday at about 8:30 p.m., there were reports of gunfire in the same neighborhood where the woman was shot Saturday. Later that night, police found a young man who had been pistol whipped, but he had little information that helped officers.

Police believe that both incidents Friday and Saturday’s shooting could be connected. They would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the Friday night assault on the young man, Duda said.

The two other drivers were taken to the hospital and are recovering.

Republican file photo

HADLEY – Police have identified the 24-year-old man who was killed in a three-vehicle accident Saturday morning on Route 116, but are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.

Daniel Haley, 24, of Amherst, died while driving a motorcycle on Route 116 at about 2:20 a.m. The drivers of the two others cars involved in the crash were taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and are recovering, Police Sgt. Michael Mason said.

Brittini Benton, 23, of Sunderland, who was brought to the hospital by helicopter, was treated and released Sunday. Jon Weeks, 57, of Leyden, who was taken to the hospital by ambulance, is in good condition, Mason said.

Massachusetts State Police reconstruction team is assisting in investigating the accident, Mason said.

Preliminary autopsy results show the gunman, Carlos Laguer, likely committed suicide.

Republican staff photo by Don TreegerBullet holes and police tape numbering them can be seen in a window after a shooting in Chicopee Friday that left a state trooper injured.

CHICOPEE – The man who sprayed bullets over the city’s downtown Friday morning, shooting a police officer, houses and parked cars, is believed to have committed suicide to end the gun battle.

Preliminary autopsy results show Carlos Laguer, 41, likely shot and killed himself while holed up in the first-floor apartment at 102 West St. Friday morning, Hampden County District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said.

“Based on the preliminary report, there is a strong likelihood the cause of death will be self-inflicted, but we will find he was struck by the return fire by officers,” he said.

The autopsy, which is not expected to be finalized until later this week at the earliest, is mostly based on the location of the wounds and type and size of bullets used, he said.

Police are continuing to try to piece together what caused the Springfield man to engage in a two-hour shoot-out with police.

“We are getting a clearer picture of what happened, and it will continue to be clarified over the next days and weeks,” Mastroianni said, adding more information is expected to be released this week.

The one known victim, State Trooper John Vasquez, was released from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield Sunday and is now home recuperating, said David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police.

Vasquez, a 20-year police veteran assigned to the Springfield barracks, was shot in the hand and the lower left leg. He also had shrapnel wounds in his right leg, Procopio said.

Vasquez, 44, was the first to respond to a 7:45 a.m. call for assistance. When he arrived, Laguer opened fire from the West Street apartment, police said.

The initial call to police is believed to have come from one of the owners of 102 West St., who was confronted by Laguer, who demanded to be allowed into the house so he could talk to one of the tenants.

Donna Dube, the owner of the three-family home at 102 West St., said her husband refused to let Laguer in the house. She said he pointed a gun at her husband and pulled the trigger but it didn’t go off.

After Dube’s husband refused to let Laguer inside, he apparently kicked in the door and confronted the tenant. Her 8-year-old son was inside the home as well.

Mastroianni did not confirm the scenario, but did say the initial call, which came in at about 7:45 a.m., was about a domestic disturbance.

“It was a pretty serious domestic type situation in the making. A gentleman intervened, and the police got there so quickly to prevent that,” he said.

The stand-off continued for about two hours in the busy street where children walk to school and people stop for coffee and gasoline at the store across from the apartment.

Between 70 and 100 bullets are believed to have been fired when Laguer and local and state police exchanged gunfire for about two hours.

“I don’t know the total shots fired yet. We are examining every officer’s gun to see how many shots were fired,” Mastroianni said.

Police are also using ballistics testing and have diagrammed the crime scene to determine where the shots were fired.

Investigators are trying to determine if anyone else received minor injuries from the shooting.

“We are continuing to talk to people and gather information. A number of bullets hit glass panes and cars and asphalt ... and fragments went in many different directions and anyone may have been hit by them,” he said.

The woman and her 8-year-old son who were in the apartment were eventually allowed to leave. Their names have not been released to give them some privacy while they cope with the aftermath of the shootings. She did have a restraining order against Laguer, but Mastroianni did not know the details of it.

“The emotional well-being of her and her child is a concern,” he said, adding the District Attorney’s victim witness unit is offering assistance, and Chicopee schools have also contacted the family to give counseling to the child.

With Laguer dead, the investigation will partly focus on the illegal guns and ammunition that he used.

Mastroianni would not release details on the weapons, but said Laguer had more than one gun and at least one “automatic-type weapon.”

“We want to look at the weapons involved that the deceased was using,” he said. “We are interested in trying to track these guns and find out where they came from.”

He is working with state police as well as federal agencies to try to find more information about the weapons.

Police are also looking into Laguer’s background more to try to find out what led to the shooting.

“You try to find out how this happened to try to prevent things like this, but I don’t know how you prevent an insane thing like this,” Mastroianni said.

The one thing that is known is Laguer was devastated over the September 2010 murder of his son Jean Carlos Laguer. The boy was 16 and a freshman at Holyoke High School when he was killed in an altercation at a party in Holyoke where he was trying to defend his older brother.

Mastroianni said he is examining the case as part of the long investigation into the shooting.

“It will take some time to finish what we need to do,” he said.

The 11 employees in question were special agents and Uniformed Division Officers; none were assigned to directly protect Obama

By JULIE PACE and LIBARDO CARDONA

Associated PressU.S. secret service agents walk around the Convention Center in Cartagena, Colombia, prior to the opening ceremony of the 6th Summit of the Americas at the Convention Center in Cartagena, Colombia, Saturday, April 14, 2012. Last Thursday, a dozen secret service agents sent to provide security for U.S. President Barack Obama, were relieved from duty and replaced with other agency personnel after an incident of alleged misconduct. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

CARTAGENA, Colombia — An embarrassing scandal involving prostitutes and Secret Service agents deepened Saturday as 11 agents were placed on leave, and the agency designed to protect President Barack Obama had to offer regret for the mess overshadowing his diplomatic mission to Latin America.

The controversy also expanded to the U.S. military, which announced five service members staying at the same hotel as the agents in Colombia may have been involved in misconduct as well. They were confined to their quarters in Colombia and ordered not to have contact with others.

All the alleged activities took place before Obama arrived Friday in this Colombian port city for meetings with 33 other regional leaders.

Put together, the allegations were an embarrassment for an American president on foreign soil and threatened to upend White House efforts to keep his trip focused squarely on boosting economic ties with fast-growing Latin America. Obama was holding two days of meetings at the Summit of the Americas with leaders from across the vast region before heading back to Washington Sunday night.

The Secret Service did not disclose the nature of the misconduct. The Associated Press confirmed on Friday that it involved prostitutes.

The White House said Obama had been briefed about the incidents but would not comment on his reaction.

"The president does have full confidence in the United States Secret Service," presidential spokesman Jay Carney said when asked.

Carney insisted the matter was more a distraction for the media than Obama. But Secret Service assistant director Paul Morrissey said in a statement: "We regret any distraction from the Summit of the Americas this situation has caused."

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the AP after he was briefed on the investigation on Saturday that "close to" all 11 of the agents involved had brought women back to their rooms at a hotel separate from where Obama is now staying.

The New York Republican said the women were "presumed to be prostitutes" but investigators were interviewing the agents.

The lawmaker also offered new details about the controversy.

King said he was told that anyone visiting the hotel overnight was required to leave identification at the front desk and leave the hotel by 7 a.m. When a woman failed to do so, it raised questions among hotel staff and police, who investigated. They found the woman with the agent in the hotel room and a dispute arose over whether the agent should have paid her.

King said he was told that the agent did eventually pay the woman.

The incident was reported to the U.S. embassy, prompting further investigation, King said

The 11 employees in question were special agents and Uniformed Division Officers. None were assigned to directly protect Obama. All were sent home and replaced, Morrissey said, given "the nature of the allegations" and a zero tolerance policy on personal misconduct.

The Secret Service says the incidents have had no bearing on its ability to provide security for Obama's stay in Colombia.

Another jolt came Saturday when the U.S. Southern Command said five service members assigned to support the Secret Service violated their curfew and may have been involved in inappropriate conduct. Carney said it was part of the same incident involving the Secret Service.

As for the apparent misconduct by the military members, Gen. Douglas Fraser, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said he was "disappointed by the entire incident" and said the behavior was "not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military."

Col. Scott Malcom, chief of public affairs for Southern Command, said of the five service members: "The only misconduct I can confirm is that they were violating the curfew established. He said he had seen the news reports about the Secret Service agents involved in alleged prostitution at the hotel but could not confirm whether the service members also were involved.

The military is investigating.

The Secret Service agents at the center of the allegations had stayed at Cartagena's five-star Hotel Caribe. Several members of the White House staff and press corps subsequently stayed at the hotel.

King credited the Secret Service director for acting quickly to remove the agents in question and replace them before Obama's arrival.

A hotel employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said the agents arrived at the beachfront hotel about a week ago and said the agents left the hotel Thursday, a day before Obama and other regional leaders arrived for the weekend summit.

Three waiters interviewed by the AP at the hotel described the agents as drinking heavily during their stay.

On Friday, the hotel began filling up with the delegations of some of the more than 30 countries whose leaders are convening for the weekend Summit of the Americas.

The hotel's public relations director, Ana Beatriz Angel, refused to comment on the incident, which she said "concerns only and exclusively the U.S. government."

On the steamy streets of Cartagena, a resort city with a teeming prostitution trade, there was condemnation for the Secret Service agents for what residents saw as abusing their station and dishonoring their country.

Edwin Yepes, a souvenir vendor, said "they are supposed to come here and set an example. We are an inferior culture, and so it's better if they don't come than if they damage our image of them."

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas and Ben Feller in Washington, Frank Bajak and Pedro Mendoza in Cartagena and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this story.