McCoy, 28, is accused of holding his girlfriend Kristen Johnson against her will in their Northampton apartment while assaulting her on July 12, 2011.

Hakem McCoy

A Hampshire Superior Court jury deliberated four hours Tuesday without reaching a verdict in the kidnapping case of Hakam A. McCoy.

McCoy, 28, is accused of holding his girlfriend Kristen Johnson against her will in their Florence apartment while assaulting her on July 12, 2011.

McCoy, who testified in his own defense, said he was injured as well in his fight with Johnson, and that he was only trying to restrain her. He also faces charges of malicious destruction of property over $250, assault and battery and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Deliberations are expected to continue Wednesday.

Police say the driver ignored multiple warnings that a train was coming and proceeded through the crossing anyway.

Photo by Doug Wertman / courtesy of Flickr

WEST SPRINGFIELD - Police are saying a 30-year-old Springfield man is lucky to be alive after his car was struck by a train on Front Street Tuesday night.

The man, whose name was not being released by West Springfield police, was taken to Baystate Medical Center for treatment of injuries sustained in the 7 p.m. collision. Capt. Thomas Wilkinson said his injuries did not appear to be life threatening.

His car, a 2004 Mitzubishi Gallant sedan was destroyed in the crash.

Wilkinson said the driver was heading north on Front Street, and as he approached the train crossing, there were multiple warnings to indicate a train was coming.

Warning lights were activated, the engineer was blowing a horn, and swinging gates at the intersection dropped down to block automobile traffic, Wilkinson said.

The driver ignored it all and drove through the crossing, he said.

"He thought he would beat the train if he went through it, "Wilkinson said. "And he didn't."

The car was struck on the passenger side of the vehicle by the train's front end, Wilkinson said.
He said it was fortunate no one else was in the car because a passenger would have gotten seriously hurt.

That side of the car was smashed in, and someone in the passenger seat would have needed to be cut out of the car with Jaws of Life equipment, Wilkinson said.

The train, heading west bound, had just pulled out of the train yard, and was probably going about 30 mph, he said.

The driver will be cited by police for failing to stop for flashing lights at a railroad crossing, which Wilkinson said carries a $200 penalty.

View train collision in West Side. in a larger map

A City Council committee is leaning toward not making DePalma pay sewer betterment assessments until he develops his land.

The recommendation is scheduled to be voted on by the City Council.

Daniel Knapik

WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee voted Tuesday to recommend that the city pay $40,000 in legal fees for a First Amendment lawsuit being brought against Mayor Daniel M. Knapik.

“This is about three individuals trying to bankrupt my family, and it’s not going to work,” Knapik said Tuesday night after learning of the vote. “I look forward to my day in court.”

The lawsuit, alleging Knapik ordered the removal of political lawn signs on property along East Silver Street on Nov. 7, was filed in U.S. District Court by the Western Regional Office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU represents City Councilor David A. Flaherty, Municipal Light Board Commissioner Jane Wensley and property owner, David Costa, of Russell. The full council will vote on the matter during its meeting on Thursday.

City Solicitor Susan C. Phillips told Finance Committee chair Richard Onofrey and member Christopher Crean that the city’s municipal code, under indemnification of certain officers, clearly states “the city shall” provide representation.

“It’s incredibly clear to me when we look at the indemnification code that we have to pay,” Phillips said. “I couldn’t more strongly recommend this. This is my opinion after 27 years of doing this. I don’t put my license (to practice law) at risk for anyone.

“We have no choice. We need to fund this,” she said.

As the attorney for the city, Phillips added that for her to advise the mayor on the lawsuit would pose a conflict of interest, especially in light of the fact that one city official is involved in a lawsuit against another one.

“We have no choice,” she said. “We need to fund his defense.”

She also noted that the city would not be responsible for Knapik’s legal expenses if he had behaved intentionally or in a negligent, willful or malicious manner.

The mayor said Phillips determined what he did was a lawful action.

“She determined that I acted within the law,” he said. “The signs posed a danger to pedestrians and motorists.”

The appropriation was originally presented to the City Council during an executive session because it involved litigation, but it was exposed to the public by Councilors Mary L. O’Connell and Agma Sweeney during the public comment portion of the regular City Council meeting held April 5.

O’Connell and Sweeney questioned the appropriateness of spending taxpayer funds on legal expenses of a civil suit.

The signs in question belonged to Flaherty, Wensley and City Councilor John Beltrandi, and were placed on Costa’s land with his permission, according to the suit, which said Knapik has a “contentious” relationship with Flaherty. Beltrandi did not join in the civil suit.

“This is to be decided by the courts,” Onofrey said. “Not by a crowd with torches and pitchforks.”

The fire involved approximately 200 square feet of land in the rear of the cemetery.

SPRINGFIELD - Two engine companies and the brush fire wagon have been called out to deal with a fire in a wooded section in the rear of Hillcrest Park Cemetery, said Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant.

The fire, reported shortly after 7 p.m., involved approximately 200 square-feet of land in the back of the cemetery. Leger said he did not believe the fire had reach an area where any of the graves are.

Firefighters were on scene for more than two hours trying to contain the fire, he said.

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The authority is a nursing home that has been beset by financial problems.

The Republican file photo | John SuchockiHolyoke Geriatric Authority, 45 Lower Westfield Road.

HOLYOKE – James Brunault, counselor with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, was appointed to the Holyoke Geriatric Authority board of directors Tuesday by the City Council.

Councilors said they hope the step can lead to improvements at the financially troubled nursing home at 45 Lower Westfield Road.

Brunault, one of four candidates, won the seat on the first ballot by getting the votes of 10 councilors at City Hall.

Angela A. Boyle got two votes and Catina Galanes Grass and William J. Moriarty received one vote each.

Brunault’s term is for three years.

Brunault said outside the meeting he was pleased to get support from a majority of the council and was ready to face issues at a facility one councilor called a “morass.”

“My biggest personal consideration is not the personal stuff, not the eruption you read about at a recent board meeting, but where is it financially,” Brunault said.

The authority is overseen by a board consisting of three appointed by the City Council and three appointed by the mayor, with those six choosing a seventh.

Brunault could get to work quickly. Some authority board members want a meeting to held held Thursday so the board can vote a new chairman and a new seventh member.

But the state Open Meeting Law requires notices be posted 48 hours in advance and as of Tuesday night, no such posting was visible on the bulletin board outside the city clerk’s office in City Hall or on the city website meetings calendar.

Lawyer Edward J. McDonough Jr., representing the authority, questioned whether the City Council vote Tuesday was proper. He sent a letter earlier Tuesday to City Solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross questioning whether three councilors should participate in the vote to fill the board vacancy because of possible conflicts.

McDonough noted council President Kevin A. Jourdain works at Sisters of Providence Health System, which operates nursing home facilities that compete with the Geriatric Authority; Ward 6 Councilor Todd A. McGee is the son-in-law of Raymond P. Murphy Jr., who is an authority board member and thus is considered a municipal employee under state law; and Ward 5 Councilor Linda L. Vacon, who works at Loomis House Nursing Center, also an authority competitor.

Councilors addressed McDonough’s letter during the meeting.Jourdain, senior financial analyst at the Sisters of Providence Health System, said he received clearance from the state Ethics Commission Tuesday afternoon, as he has previously, to participate in authority-related discussions and votes. McGee said the same. Vacon was absent from the meeting.

Curiously, McDonough’s letter omitted mention of Councilor at Large Brenna E. (Murphy) McGee. She is Raymond Murphy’s daughter and recently married Todd McGee. She also said she had received clearance from the Ethics Comnmission to vote on appointing an authority board member.

Each board member is eligible to be paid $4,000 a year, though some return the money to the authority.

Some councilors and other city officials have been clashing with authority officials over what they consider to be the authority’s reluctance to answer questions about the facility’s finances and refusal to repay city financial help.

In December, the City Council reluctantly voted to have the city absorb $465,000 in employee-retirement contributions that the authority had failed to make dating back to 2008.

Authority officials have blamed financial problems on federal reimbursements covering only about 75 percent of costs, but councilors also fault management and a failure to adapt to as the economy changed over the years.

In interviewing Brunault and the other candidates for the board seat last week, councilors said they wanted whomever got the seat to provide information councilors request.

The authority is a nursing home that has 80 beds and 80 other slots for the daycare of senior citizens.

Police said the shooting was reported at about 11:15 p.m. by several callers to police. The shooting was also registered by the police’s ShotSpotter audio surveillance system.

SPRINGFIELD – A man was found with a gunshot wound to the head on Union Street near Orleans Street late Tuesday night, according to Capt. William Collins.

Police said the shooting was reported at about 11:15 p.m. by several callers to police. The shooting was also registered by the police’s ShotSpotter audio surveillance system.

An ambulance was called to transport the man to the hospital.

Before Tuesday night, three people had been injured by gunfire since Friday, including a double shooting Monday in the city’s North End that sent two people to the hospital with non-life-threatening wounds.

Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, said taxes will not help the economy, free markets will.

04.18.2012 | AMHERST– Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, speaks on the UMass campus in a lecture titled, "How Capitalism Will Save Us" (Photo by Brian Canova)

AMHERST — Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, told a University of Massachusetts audience Tuesday night that taxes will not help the economy, free markets will.

“Taxes are not just a way of raising revenue for government, they are also a price and a burden,” Forbes said in a lecture at the Student Union Ballroom hosted by the UMass Republican Club, the Smith College Republican Club and the Young America's Foundation. “The tax you pay on income is the price you pay for working. Tax on profits, if you have a business, is the price you pay for being successful, and tax on capital gains is the price you pay for taking risks that work out.”

Citing the approximately 9 million words that comprise the federal income tax code, Forbes offered a simpler alternative: a flat tax rate of 17 percent on individuals who earn more than $46,000 a year, the same proposition he campaigned on during his 1996 and 2000 presidential bids.

Twenty-five countries around the world have adopted flat-tax policies similar to the one Forbes envisions, including Russia, Hungary and Iceland.

“What I hope ultimately happens in this country is we recognize one of the biggest burdens on this country is the federal income tax code,” said Forbes. “Nobody knows what’s in it. How many people prepare their own tax returns? It’s become an abomination.”

As part of Forbes’ policy, the 17 percent flat-tax rate would be extended to corporations, lowering the 35 percent rate on them, currently the highest in the developed world.

04.18.2012 | AMHERST– Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, speaks with a group of students after delivering a speech on the UMass campus Tuesday night (Photo by Brian Canova)

Asked about the "Buffett Rule" bill after the lecture, Forbes called the legislation destructive. The "Buffett Rule," derived from a statement by billionaire Warren Buffett, who suggested that he shouldn't be taxed at a lower rate than his secretary, would impose a minimum tax rate of 30 percent on the wealthiest Americans.

“In effect it raises the capital gains tax to rates we haven’t seen since the '70s, which means two things, you destroy capital, and you get less revenue and less capital creation. We’ve seen this movie before,” Forbes said, calling the move a political stunt.

“They don’t like rich people,” Forbes added.

Also during the speaking event, Forbes offered his take on health care, and the expected Supreme Court ruling due in June on the constitutionality of President Obama’s 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, using the opportunity to frame his qualms with regulatory expansion.

“Ask yourselves, ‘Why is there a health care crisis?’ People will say, ‘Well, we want more health care, people like me are getting older and consuming more health care and it becomes more expensive.’ But ask yourself, why is the demand for health care considered a crisis, and not an opportunity? In every other part of our lives, if we want more of something, it seems a great opportunity for our entrepreneurs. So what’s with health care? Why is this seen as a disaster and not a real opportunity?” said Forbes. “The answer is we don’t have real free markets in health care.”

Forbes argued that in areas where free markets have permeated the health care industry, technological innovations have flourished while the cost to consumers has stayed relatively the same.

04.18.2012 | AMHERST– Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine (Photo by Brian Canova)

“For example Lasik surgery for the eyes,” said Forbes. “Millions of people have done it. Lasik surgery today is better than it was 10 years ago and in real terms costs less than it did 10 years ago. Why? Because you, the consumer, write the check. Therefore providers have every incentive to make it more affordable to you, more attractive to you.”

Danielle Stone, a University of Massachusetts senior psychology student, said while she agreed with much of what she heard from Forbes, the health care discussion raised concerns, especially when it came to middle- and low-income earners and households.

“With health care, it’s easy to say ‘Pay what you can afford.’ But how do you account for the middle income people with families who can’t afford it right now?” said Stone, a founding member of Democracy Matters, a student organization on campus.

Nathan Lamb, president of the UMass Republican Club, said the magazine editor’s take on the health care issue was the night’s biggest takeaway.

“You don’t hear a lot of that on the news. You hear a lot about the Affordable Care Act, and not a lot about the alternatives,” Lamb said.

Nathan Fatal, president of the New England Objectivist Society, which also took part in the event, said while he admired Forbes as a businessman he felt the lecture failed to make a moral argument for free markets and capitalist enterprise.

“The moral argument is it allows us to act on our own judgment and provide for our own life,” Fatal said.

Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder barred prosecutor Carrie Russell from questioning McCoy about his 2002 conviction for involuntary manslaughter.

A jury apparently believed Hakam McCoy's story of self defense.

NORTHAMPTON – A Hampshire Superior Court jury Wednesday found Hakam A. McCoy guilty of hitting his former girlfriend with a drinking glass, but acquitted him of kidnapping and other assault charges in her alleged beating.

McCoy, 28, was accused of holding Kristen Johnson against her will in their Florence apartment and beating her on July 12, 2011. Johnson told the jury that McCoy slammed a door against her head, threw her to the floor and bit her during an altercation that grew out of an argument about money. McCoy, who took the stand in his own defense, said the fight was a two-way affair and that he was acting in self-defense.

Although he admitted biting Johnson, McCoy said he did so gently in order to get her to stop scratching him. The jury found him not guilty on that charge. It also acquitted him of throwing Johnson to the floor, slamming her head with the door and holding her against her will.

The jury did find McCoy guilty of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for hitting Johnson with a pint glass. It also convicted him of malicious destruction of property over $250 for punching a hole in a dresser that belonged to Johnson.

Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder barred prosecutor Carrie Russell from questioning McCoy while he was on the stand about his 2002 conviction for involuntary manslaughter. McCoy pleaded guilty to that charge in connection with the death of his 2-month-old son in Springfield. Prosecutors in that case said that the child had injuries consistent with previous abuse. McCoy served seven years for that crime.

Russell is expected to raise that conviction during her sentencing argument on Monday, however. Defense lawyer Alan Rubin argued prior to the trial that the manslaughter plea has nothing to do with McCoy’s current case and asked Kinder to ban cameras from the courtroom. Kinder denied that request.

The crash occurred shortly before 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

Republican file photo

WILBRAHAM - Police continue to probe a three-vehicle crash Wednesday morning at Boston and Brainard roads that sent a Chicopee woman and a Wilbraham man to area hospitals.

Investigating officer John Siniscalchi said the accident occurred shortly before 8 a.m. as Chase Bordenuk, a 19-year-old Wilbraham resident, drove a Toyota Rav 4 west on Boston Road.

Nancy Mruk, 56, of Chicopee, was driving a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee east when she collided with Bordenuk as he made a left turn onto Brainard, Siniscalchi said.

“It appears the Bordenuk vehicle cut out in front of her, she didn’t have time to stop,” Siniscalchi said, adding that Mruk hit the passenger side of the Rav.

The impact of the crash sent Mruk’s Grand Cherokee over onto its roof, Siniscalchi said.

Bordenuk’s vehicle spun 180 degrees and struck a van that was stopped on Brainard, at the intersection of Boston, waiting for traffic to clear.

The driver of the van, Fred Ferraro, 47, of Wilbraham, was not injured.

It took police and fire responders about ten minutes to get Mruk out of the Grand Cherokee. Mruk, who was not wearing a seat belt, was discovered in the rear passenger area of the overturned vehicle.

“She was really lucky she didn’t get ejected,” Siniscalchi said, adding that Mruk was conscious and complained of back pain. “She got banged around pretty good,” Siniscalchi said.

According to reports, Mruk was listed in good condition at Baystate and Bordenuk was taken to Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer where he was treated and released.

Bordenuk was also not wearing a seat belt and one of his air bags deployed. His head struck the windshield during the crash, Siniscalchi said.

Ferraro was wearing a seat belt. Seat belt use by the other two drivers would have likely resulted in less serious injuries to them.

These days, Siniscalchi, said, more people tend to wear seat belts than not. “Especially a lot of the younger drivers,” he said.

The map below shows the approximate location of the crash. (Note: Google maps erroneously lists this section of road as "U.S. Route 20 in Illinois.")

View Site of three-vehicle crash on Boston Road in Wilbraham in a larger map

Obituaries from The Republican.

Lorri Ford

Lorri J. Ford, of Springfield, passed away on Saturday. She was born in 1968 in Queens, N.Y., and raised in Passaic, N.J., where she attended Mt. Carmel Catholic School and Passaic High School. She also attended United Tractor Trailer School of Springfield and Holyoke Community College. Ford worked in the human services field, including at Northern Educational Services from 1997 to 2010 and New North Citizen Council since November 2010.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Ashe, Mary Sikora
  



• 
  Beaulieu, Doreen J. (Robtoy)
  



• 
  Breault, Joseph U.
  



• 
  Casey, Thomas J. "The Barber"
  



• 
  Clegg, John R. "Jack"
  



• 
  Durand, Shirley L. (Bushey)
  



• 
  Ford, Lorri Joscelyn
  



• 
  Gauthier, Eleanor M. (Mazur)
  



• 
  Gill, Lillian A. (Jolie)
  



• 
  Hickey, John T.
  



• 
  Jackson, Raymond Thomas
  



• 
  Lambert, Jeannette C. (Lefebvre)
  



• 
  Leite, Albert
  



• 
  Lessin, Jean F. (Marchand)
  



• 
  Marchese, Ruth (Hosmer)
  



• 
  McCarthy, Dorothy M. (O'Connor)
  



• 
  Murray, Joseph C. "Papa Joe"
  



• 
  O'Connor, Francis H. "Fran"
  



• 
  Patenaude, Marilyn S. (Merick)
  



• 
  Patterson Jr., James T.
  



• 
  Sanford, Dexter E.
  



• 
  Teehan, Christopher E.
  



• 
  Tetreault, Anne Marie (Fiorini)
  



• 
  Therrien, Richard E.
  



• 
  Waldron, Robert A.
  



• 
  Zisk, Helen E. (Devanski)
  

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's re-election campaign today launched "The Dog Blog," to give voters a look at the family's pets.

View full sizeSen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., with the family's Shih Tzu Snuggles, right, and Baby Yorkie Koda, left. (Photo courtesy of Scott Brown's campaign)

BOSTON - Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's re-election campaign today launched "The Dog Blog," to give voters a look at the family's pets.

The website has a slideshow of Brown interacting with the family pets and a new web video offering the history of Snuggles, a 15-year-old Shih Tzu and Koda, a 5-year-old Baby Yorkie.

"Harry Truman once said that If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," Brown wrote on the new dog blog. "I've only been in the Senate for two years, but I definitely agree it's helpful having our two family pets, Koda and Snuggles, by my side whenever possible. They are both members of our family, and I am looking forward to their companionship as I spend more time on the campaign trail in Massachusetts in the coming months."

Brown's campaign has also made the content available via a Facebook app.

Brown is in a heated re-election campaign with the two remaining Democratic challengers, Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren and Middleton immigration attorney Marisa DeFranco.

Selectmen also voted to change the language of a Town Meeting article that proposes a bylaw that would prevent a person from running for 2 elected positions at once.

EAST LONGMEADOW — Residents will be able to view the salaries of all town employees now that the Board of Selectmen has voted to put the salaries online.

Selectmen Enrico J. Villamaino proposed the idea during the board's Tuesday night meeting.

"I think this will help increase transparency and give the taxpayers an opportunity to see how their money is being spent," he said.

Board of Selectmen Chairman James D. Driscoll and member Paul L. Federici also voted in favor of the idea.

The town already records on video and audio all meetings of elected boards, and this is the next step in making information easily accessible to the public, Villamaino said.

In other business:

• The board voted to add a warrant article requesting $17,500 for the 4th of July Parade Committee.

Town Accountant Thomas Caliento said the money is already in the general budget, but now it will become its own line item instead of being part of the overall celebrations fund.

• The board voted to include a request from the East Longmeadow Community Access Television department with the capital planning projects warrant article.

The department is in the process of reconstructing the studio located within East Longmeadow High School. The article will request an amount not to exceed $350,000 for the project. The money comes from a special reserve fund dedicated solely to the cable access station and funded through Charter customer fees, not from the town's general fund.

• The board voted 2 to 1 to add an additional $20,000 to the town's legal budget, which is currently $78,000 and includes $42,000 in legal fees.

Driscoll and Federici voted in favor of the addition. Villamaino said he does not feel the increase is warranted.

"We negotiated all of our union contracts this year, which is why the legal fees were higher. We won't be in that position for another three years when the contracts are negotiated again," Villamaino said.

• The board voted to change the language of a Town Meeting article that proposes a bylaw that would prevent a person from running for two elected positions at once. The amended article would include an option that would also prevent an elected official from serving on two elected boards at once.

The annual Town Meeting is May 21.

Arillotta's testimony is expected to continue at least through Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Anthony J. Arillotta

NEW YORK - Anthony Arillotta, take two.

Arillotta, 44, a Mafia soldier-turned-informant from Springfield, resumed the witness stand Wednesday for the second day in a mob murder trial in Manhattan. On trial is Longmeadow loan shark Emilio Fusco, a fellow "made man" in the New York-based Genovese organized crime family. Both Arillotta and Fusco were indicted for a string of crimes including the 2003 murder of their onetime boss, Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno, amid a power play in 2003.

Arillotta, however, entered into a plea deal with federal prosecutors shortly after his arrest in 2010 and has testified against his closest confidantes and bosses over two trials. Last year, Arillotta took the stand against two of his most trusted enforcers, Fotios "Freddy" and Ty Geas, of West Springfield, plus the former acting boss of the Genovese family, Arthur "Artie" Nigro, of Bronx, NY.

Those three were convicted and are serving life sentences in federal prison. Fusco, whose trial was delayed because he fled to his native Italy, according to prosecutors, has opted to take his chances. He has denied all charges against him including racketeering, murder and extortion.

Arillotta has begun recounting a startling history of criminal behavior dating back to the 1980s, including a string of murder plots, drug deals, gun deals, and shakedowns -- mitigated slightly by the fact that he's done it in the same courtroom before.

Much of Arillotta's testimony in this trial so far has focused on crimes he told jurors he committed with Fusco, including drug dealing, extortion, loan-sharking and sports betting. Arillotta said Fusco and Bruno were longtime rivals in Springfield's organized crime landscape until Bruno was anointed boss of the "Springfield Crew" in 2001.

Once Bruno was made boss and at the urging of higher-ranking gangsters, he stepped up shake-downs of bar and pizza shops owners in Massachusetts and Connecticut, plus bookies and loan sharks in order to generate more revenue for mob types, Arillotta said. The Mafia quickly began netting $12,000 per month to be split among New York and "made guys" locally.

Fusco approved, according to Arillotta.

"He liked the idea. He said that's how they do things in Italy and they should have done that a long time ago," Arillotta recounted.

The harmony between Bruno and Fusco was short-lived, he added. Once Bruno learned Fusco was dealing marijuana -- traditionally prohibited in the Italian Mafia -- he unsuccessfully lobbied New York bosses for permission to take Fusco out, according to Arillotta.

"He talked to Artie (Nigro) about clipping Emilio," Arillotta testified.

Instead, Bruno was the one who got clipped. He was shot dead in a parking lot in downtown Springfield on Nov. 23, 2003, one day shy of his 58th birthday. Fusco is alleged to have furnished a paid hitman with the gun and alerted the shooter to Bruno's whereabouts that night.

Arillotta's testimony is expected to continue at least through Thursday.

Friendly’s former CEO, Harsha V. Agadi, resigned in February.

Republican File Photo

WILBRAHAM – John Maguire will be the next CEO of Friendly’s Ice Cream LLC, according to an announcement made Wednesday by his old employer.

Maguire has resigned as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Panera Bread in St. Louis effective May 31.

Maguire joined Panera Bread in 1994, according to his biography on the Panera Website. He has held various positions, including director of commissary operations, vice president of commissary operations, vice president of bakery supply chain, and senior vice president, chief company and joint venture operations officer. In March 2008, Maguire was named executive vice president and co-chief operating officer.

Prior to joining Panera, Maguire held various manufacturing positions with Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. and was with Bread and Circus/Whole Foods Supermarkets and Continental Baking Company.

Maguire attended Kansas State University and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School, according to the biography.

Friendly’s former CEO, Harsha V. Agadi, resigned in February.

The company emerged from bankruptcy Jan. 9 after its corporate owners, Sun Capital Partners LLC, repurchased the iconic brand for $122.6 million, and in the process wiped away $297 million in debt and closed more than 100 locations, nine of them in the Springfield area. The sale price was about a third of the $337.2 million owners Sun Capital paid for Friendly in 2007. Brothers Curtis L. and S. Prestley Blake founded Friendly in 1935 in Springfield’s Pine Point neighborhood; the brothers made the brand famous for simple meals and ice cream. Neither has an ownership stake anymore.

Friendly’s has about 10,000 employees across the country with just 900 employees locally including 300 at its Wilbraham headquarters and factory and another 100 at a distribution center in Chicopee.

There they go again. President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney both like to channel Ronald Reagan. Neither one should probably push it too far.

The Associated PressThis composite image of Associated Press photos shows President Barack Obama and chief Republican rival Mitt Romney.

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press

EDITOR'S NOTE: With 202 days left until Election Day, here are insights into today's highlights in U.S. politics:

There they go again. President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney both like to channel Ronald Reagan. Neither one should probably push it too far.

Obama frequently mentions the conservative icon and hints at parallels between now and 1984.

Then, President Reagan also was seeking a second term after a severe recession that sent unemployment soaring into double digits. His approval ratings that April were in the low 50s. Obama's now are just below 50 percent.

But as Election Day neared, Reagan benefited from a surging recovery and swamped Democrat Walter Mondale. Obama still faces stubbornly high joblessness and anemic growth.

Obama was campaigning Wednesday in Ohio and Michigan — battleground states hard hit by the recession and home in the 1980s to blue-collar "Reagan Democrats."

Obama even tried renaming his "Buffett Rule" proposal for higher taxes on millionaires to "the Reagan Rule" because Reagan supported closing tax loopholes.

But Reagan only favored closing certain ones and never advocated raising taxes on the wealthy as have Obama and billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Republicans fumed, with House Speaker John Boehner calling Obama's gambit "pathetic."

Romney claims the president is trying to hide his identity as a liberal who promotes government programs instead of individual opportunity — the antithesis of Reagan.

Romney portrays himself as a Reagan-like advocate for smaller government and lower taxes, although he's yet to persuade many Republicans that he's truly a conservative. .

He recently suggested the possible elimination of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and dramatically scaling back the Education Department.

Reagan once proposed abolishing the Departments of Education and Energy and criticized the housing department.

But as president, he did little to scale back these agencies.

Romney also reprises the hawkish, sometimes unilateral, foreign policy doctrine that Reagan sounded.

But Reagan served during the Cold War — and global geopolitics were different then.

6 members of the American Institute of Architects whose specialties lend themselves to the revitalization of neighborhoods will tour and meet in South Hadley.

Submitted photo/fileA photograph of South Hadley Falls, circa 1940.

SOUTH HADLEY – Six members of the American Institute of Architects whose specialties lend themselves to the revitalization of neighborhoods will be in town from April 22 to 26.

Their mission: to help bring vitality back to the Falls.

The visit by these experts, who have lent their talents to towns all over the country, is funded by a $15,000 grant from the American Institute of Architecture and its Center for Communities.

“What we’ve heard from other communities is that it’s a great way to get a fresh, independent perspective on our town,” said Helen Fantini, chair of the Sustainable Development Assessment Team in South Hadley, which applied for the grant and is organizing the visit.

The visiting professionals will take part in tours and meetings with town officials, as well as a public hearing on April 23 and a public presentation on April 25, both at Town Hall at 6 p.m. As Fantini describes it, they will use every minute they have in South Hadley.

Fantini is eager for as much public participation as possible. “This is an opportunity for people who live and work and care about South Hadley Falls,” she said, “but it only works if people in town tell the team what they think.”

The town is chipping in $5,000 and providing a place for the team to work.

The team will offer both long-term and short-term solutions, with some that can make a difference right away, said Fantini.

The six professionals who will be landing in South Hadley are:

• Todd Scott, an architect specializing in historic preservation and downtown revitalization, currently working on a project near Seattle, Wash.

• Carol Mayer Reed, a landscape architect from Portland, Ore., with 33 years of experience.

• Bonnie Scott, executive director of a successful Main Street project in Baltimore, Md., that transformed an impoverished neighborhood.

• Cheryl Morgan, a professor of architecture at Auburn University in Birmingham, Ala.

• Wendy Weber Salvati, an environmental planner and specialist in land use.

• Nancy Fox, a specialist in redevelopment, affordable housing and public financing.

Her husband works with Orlando attorney Mark NeJame, who was first approached by Zimmerman's family to represent the neighborhood watch volunteer.

Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler holds a status hearing Friday, April 13, 2012, in Sanford, Fla., in the second-degree murder case against neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Attorneys are asking for a bond hearing next Friday and for the judge to remove herself from the case because her husband is a member of a law firm whose founder is a legal analyst on television. Zimmerman has been charged in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, in Sanford. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Tom Benitez, Pool)

MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The judge presiding over the Trayvon Martin shooting case on removed herself Wednesday after the attorney for defendant George Zimmerman argued she had a possible conflict of interest that related to her husband.

Judge Kenneth M. Lester Jr. will preside over the case. The next judge who would be in the court rotation, John D. Galluzzo, also cited a conflict, so Lester was selected, according to a news release from the court.

Florida Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler had said she would make a decision by Friday, when a bond hearing for Zimmerman had previously been set. Her husband works with Orlando attorney Mark NeJame, who was first approached by Zimmerman's family to represent the neighborhood watch volunteer.

But NeJame declined and referred them to Mark O'Mara, who is now representing Zimmerman. NeJame has since been hired by CNN to comment on the case.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for the Feb. 26 shooting of the 17-year-old Martin. Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self-defense after Martin attacked him. Martin was unarmed.

Galluzzo said he had a conflict because of his personal and business relationship with O'Mara.

O'Mara said he requested that Recksiedler step down now because the case is just beginning. Recksiedler was assigned the case after Zimmerman's arrest last week.

Ted Nugent recent said, "If Barack Obama becomes the next president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."

Associated PressIn this May 1, 2011 file photo, musician and gun rights activist Ted Nugent addresses a seminar at the National Rifle Association's convention in Pittsburgh.

WASHINGTON — Rocker and gun rights champion Ted Nugent says he will meet with the Secret Service on Thursday to explain his raucous remarks about what he called Barack Obama's "evil, America-hating administration" — comments some critics interpreted as a threat against the president.

"The conclusion will be obvious that I threatened no one," Nugent told radio interviewer Glenn Beck on Wednesday. Nugent said he'd been contacted by the agency and would cooperate fully even though he found the complaints "silly."

The controversy erupted after the self-styled "Motor City Madman" made an impassioned plea for support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis last weekend. "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November," Nugent said of the Obama administration.

He also included a cryptic pronouncement: "If Barack Obama becomes the next president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."

Outraged Democrats circulated the remarks and suggested they were threatening. Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie confirmed that the agency was looking into the matter but declined to give details. "We are aware of the incident and we are taking appropriate follow-up," Ogilvie said.

Nugent said he was simply trying to galvanize voters. The hard rocker, best known for '70s hits like "Cat Scratch Fever," is a conservative activist and has a history of heated and sometimes vulgar criticism of Obama. Nugent endorsed Romney after speaking to him last month.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called on Romney to "condemn Nugent's violent and hateful rhetoric."

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul addressed the issue with a brief statement: "Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from. Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil."

"It's a real blight down there," Town Administrator Gretchen Neggers said about the boarded-up town offices on Main Street. "It's a real visual reminder of the tornado ... We need to do something."

The Republican | Lori StabileThe Monson Town Office Building on Main Street is pictured here on June 2, the day after the tornado struck Monson.

MONSON – There will be an article on the annual Town Meeting warrant next month asking voters if they want to build a new combination Town Office Building and Police Station at a cost of $10.3 million.

If it is approved, the proposal would then go before voters again at a special election, where they would be asked to OK a debt exclusion of $3.4 million for either 15 years or 20 years; that figure represents the cost that would not be covered by insurance.

The Town Office Building on Main Street has not been used since it was severely damaged by the June 1 tornado. In addition to town offices, it also housed the Police Department, which has moved into temporary trailers on the property. Town offices now are operating out of the former Hillside School on Thompson Street.

Town Administrator Gretchen E. Neggers on Tuesday night discussed the findings from Reinhardt Associates of Agawam, which was hired to study space needs of the town offices and police station, with selectmen.

Reinhardt gave the cost estimate for a new, two-story, 26,000-square-foot brick building at $10.3 million, which is approximately $3.4 million over the anticipated insurance settlement of $6.9 million for the condemned building. Neggers said she would have figures regarding the tax impact for a $3.4 million debt exclusion at an upcoming meeting. The building would be approximately 5,000 square-feet less than the old town office building.

Neggers said she plans to post the report from Reinhardt on the town's website, www.monson-ma.gov.

She said features include accessible restrooms for staff and the public, full automatic fire and sprinkler protection, two multi-purpose holding cells for the police (something the police have not had; prisoners are transported to other communities, or the state police barracks), energy efficient construction, full accessibility between floors with an elevator and two stairways, and shared meeting space.

Previously, each department had its own meeting space.

Neggers said she anticipates significant savings in energy and capital costs with the new building. She said the closed Town Office Building on Main Street, which was built in 1925, had 30 percent of its structural damage from the tornado, the remaining 70 percent was existing, and insurance will only cover the tornado damage.

Neggers also expressed concern about mold problems in that building, as it was open to the elements after the tornado ripped off part of the roof.

"It would have mold for rest of eternity," Neggers said.

She said the proposal will be presented to the townspeople so they can make an informed decision.

"It's a real blight down there," Neggers said about the boarded-up town offices on Main Street. "It's a real visual reminder of the tornado ... We need to do something."