Morse said a key to his veto was the school superintendent saying no layoffs would occur.

Left to right, Alex Morse and Devin Sheehan

HOLYOKE – Mayor Alex B. Morse has vetoed a $344,352 transfer that the City Council approved for the School Department, prompting criticism from a school official.

Morse, who is chairman of the School Committee, said Monday the city can’t afford such a large transfer this late in the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Morse said a factor in the veto is Superintendent David L. Dupont having said the schools could function with a smaller transfer to cover some of that shortfall without drastic consequences such as employee layoffs.

“I’d been assured there’d be no layoffs,” Morse said in an interview in his office.

Also, he wrote in the veto letter dated Friday to the City Council, state officials have said education aid from the state to the city will increase in the next fiscal year, to $69.5 million from the current $67.5 million.

The City Council on April 17 approved the transfer from the free cash account by a 9-5 vote.

But the councilors who voted no said they did so because the full $344,352 was unnecessary so close to the fiscal year’s end.

School Committee vice chairman Devin M. Sheehan said Morse’s veto was a surprise, showed poor communication and will hurt the school system.

Layoffs will be avoided, but teacher and other vacancies will go unfilled, he said.

“It’s really quite shocking to us,” Sheehan said.

Aside from day-to-day operations, he said, the schools now are locked in a hiring and spending freeze.

Counting on an increase in aid before the state budget is final is a risk, he said.

“I am disappointed in his decision. It hurts the students in the public schools, it hurts the teachers in the public schools,” Sheehan said.

Morse said later that approving the full transfer would have cut the free-cash account below $1 million, money that will be needed in the next fiscal year to try avoid layoffs.

“As mayor, I am responsible for balancing the budget. As chairman of the School Committee, I am incredibly committed to the School Department. ... We have to be responsible over the next two months of the fiscal year,” Morse said.

The School Department budget is short, but different officials have cited different reasons for that.

Todd A. McGee, chairman of the council Finance Committee, said during the March 20 meeting that preparations of the school budget for the current fiscal year were based on best estimates of what the state funding totals to the city would be.

It turned out, school officials had over-budgeted, and, in order to abide by the net school spending formula the state requires of the city, the $344,352 had to be returned to the city side of the budget, McGee said.

But, he said, the school budget for the current fiscal year was based on having the original estimated total of state aid, and that included the $344,352.

School officials said the issue is that the city is under-funded by the state in charter school reimbursements, special education costs and the more than $500,000 the city will spend this year to transport homeless children to school.

If the state places a homeless family from Agawam or Greenfield at a hotel here, Sheehan said, Holyoke must pay to bus such a family’s students to their hometown schools.

It was unclear at this point if the City Council would approve a lesser transfer or try to override Morse’s veto. An override would require support of two-thirds, or 10 members, of the 15-member council.

Unless one of the five councilors who voted no – President Kevin A. Jourdain and councilors Rebecca Lisi, Gladys Lebron-Martinez, Anthony Soto and Aaron M. Vega – changes sides, an override appears to be unlikely. The only councilor who was absent from the April 17 meeting, Linda L. Vacon, opposed the transfer.

The list of shops from 1982 offers a record of retailers from a bygone era.

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It's a little bit of local economic archaeology: this morning, a 1982 store directory popped up on the Facebook page for the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside.

Lisa L. Wray, the mall's marketing director, said she recently started combing through images from the shopping center's archives after switching the mall's account over to Facebook's new "Timeline" format.

The 1982 directory lists close to 150 tenants, including the food court restaurants and an 8-theater cinema complex. An expansion project in the early 1990s increased the size of the mall by 50 percent, and the shopping center is now home to nearly 200 stores, Wray said.

The mall opened in 1979; a survey of the early '80s shop roster is quite a nostalgia trip.

Steiger's was an anchor store. The scent from the Original Cookie Co. washed over the second level, beckoning. Shoe shoppers had their choice of Thom McAn Family or Thom McAn Men's -- not to mention Florsheim, Kinney, Stride Rite and others. Long before the gleam of the Apple Store, Electronics Boutique offered the latest in home computing.

There were two bookstores. Remember books?

So, some points of discussion: What stores or restaurants listed in the 1982 directory would you bring back if you could?

What's your favorite mall memory from that era?

Do you miss the fountains?

If you grew up in western Massachusetts in the 1980s, how many hours of your youth did you spend waiting for your parents to pick up purchases from Service Merchandise?

Share your memories in the comments.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Natalie Pascale

Natalie S. (Gagnon) Pascale, 47, of Palmer, died Saturday. Born in Springfield, she resided in Palmer for the last 30 years, previously living in Ware. She owned and operated her own Tupperware distribution service and was a regional director. Pascale enjoyed trips to Foxwoods, a good game of pitch, cooking, traveling, walks on the beach and most especially, time with her family.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Astacio, Rafael
  



• 
  Bottoms, Kathy Dean
  



• 
  Brown, Gertrude E. "Trudy" (Nugent)
  



• 
  Burns, Clair Ernest "Ernie"
  



• 
  Bushior, Elwin Joseph "Al"
  



• 
  Dragon, Bertille H. (Horton)
  



• 
  Farling, Pauline E. (Roby)
  



• 
  Fissora, Robert
  



• 
  Fleming, Mark T.
  



• 
  Florian, Raymond V.
  



• 
  Folger, Ann (Doughty)
  



• 
  Frenier, Ruth E.
  



• 
  Gaudette, Linden L. "Bud"
  



• 
  Gerstung, Gary W.
  



• 
  Hebert, Dolores A. "Dee" (Trudeau)
  



• 
  Jackson, Raymond Thomas
  



• 
  Jordan, Dennis T.
  



• 
  Kalesnik, Leon A.
  



• 
  King Jr., Francis Joseph
  



• 
  Leja, Richard E.
  



• 
  Letendre, Richard A. "Tut"
  



• 
  Marshall, Nancy A.
  



• 
  Menzel, Ruth L.
  



• 
  Meucci, Doris A. (Gelineau)
  



• 
  O'Shea, James "Jim"
  



• 
  Paquin, A. Ronald
  



• 
  Pascale, Natalie S. (Gagnon)
  



• 
  Peloquin, Maria A. (Rossi)
  



• 
  Pineault, Roland F.
  



• 
  Poules, Nicholas
  



• 
  Reich, Jeanne (Baskin)
  



• 
  Ribeiro, José
  



• 
  Rivet, Bernadette A. (Vanasse)
  



• 
  Senecal, Marie J. (Menard)
  



• 
  Troy, Mary B. (Begley)
  



• 
  Wenzel, Alberta M. (Barnes)
  



• 
  Windyka, Mary S. (Topor)
  



• 
  Woods, William A. "Bill"
  

Hollywood producer and television legend Dick Clark died of a heart attack a day after having prostate surgery, according to a death certificate obtained by CNN.

File photo / Associated PressTelevision personality Dick Clark hosts a New Year's eve special from New York's Times Square in this undated photo from ABC-TV. Click on the link, above right, for a report from CNN that says the Hollywood producer died a day after having prostate surgery.

• Hospital videotape shows Meridan cop allegedly punching man on ground, shocking him with Taser [Hartford Courant]


• Bones found in Falmouth reported to be those of Nantucket woman missing since 2010 [Cape Cod Times]


• TV legend Dick Clark died a day after having prostate surgery, death certificate reveals [CNN]


• Concern grows for fate of missing Arizona girl, Mercedes Celis, 6 [USA Today]


• State orders South Hadley Landfill to assess crack in berm [WWLP-TV, 22 News, Chicopee]


• BP engineer charged with destroying evident in Gulf of Mexico oil spill [Washington Post]


• New Hamsphire brewery worker killed by exploding beer keg [Seacoast Online.com]


• Newt Gingrich's daughter says Republican presidential candidate will reassess campaign after today's Delaware primary [msnbc.com]


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


• Read more News Links »


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Investigators observed that the two were seen arguing earlier in the night at a local restaurant.

Courtesy Easthampton Police DepartmentRyan D. Welch.

NORTHAMPTON – A Hampshire County grand jury has indicted Ryan D. Welch for murder in the death of his girlfriend, Jessica Ann Pripstein.

Welch, 36, of 75 Oliver St., Easthampton, was previously arraigned for murder at Baystate Medical Center, where he was brought for treatment of injuries after he was arrested. His case will now move from Northampton District Court to Hampshire Superior Court, where he is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.

Police responded to a 911 call from Pripstein hours before her body was found in her 27 Ward Ave. apartment on Feb. 20. According to a report by Easthampton police officer Eric Alexander, he and another officer observed blood and had to kick in the door when no one responded to their knocking. They found Pripstein lying on the floor in a pool of blood, a knife resting on her back. Investigators said she died from a sharp force injury to the neck.

The officers found Welch in another room of the apartment. He was also on the floor, bleeding. The handle of a knife protruded from his pocket, Alexander said. Police said Welch’s wounds were self-inflicted.

Investigators observed that the two were seen arguing earlier in the night at a local restaurant. Pripstein was a licensed aesthetician who had also worked at a local pizzeria for several years. Executing a search warrant on Welch’s apartment, police found numerous prescription medications used to treat drug dependency, depression and anxiety.

Welch is currently being held without right to bail. His arraignment is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Friday.

At 10.1 percent unemployment for March 2012, Springfield had the 18th highest unemployment rate in the state, behind a number of Cape Cod and islands communities.

SPRINGFIELD – Unemployment in the city of Springfield fell last month to 10.1 percent from 11.7 percent in February and 12.3 percent in January, according to statistics released Tuesday by the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Springfield had an unemployment rate of 12.3 percent the year before in March 2011.

At 10.1 percent unemployment for March 2012, Springfield had the 18th highest unemployment rate in the state, behind a number of Cape Cod and island communities where few work in the cold-weather months.

Local unemployment numbers are not adjusted for seasonal changes in the economy. The statewide seasonally-unadjusted unemployment rate statewide was 6.4 percent in March, down from 7.5 percent in February and 7.8 percent in March 2011. The statewide adjusted unemployment rate for Massachusetts was 6.5 percent in March, below the February rate of 6.9 percent. The national average was 8.2 percent in March, adjusted for seasonal changes.

Locally, Holyoke had an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, down from 10.9 percent in February 2012 and 10.7 percent a year ago in March 2011. Chicopee had an 8 percent unemployment rate, down from 9 percent in February and 9.4 percent a year ago in March 2011.

“I would say that things are feeling a little better,” said David C. Gadaire, executive director of the CareerPoint one-stop career center in Holyoke. “It just feels like there is more planing on the part of businesses, less circling the wagons and business are saying ‘lets go somewhere’.”

Gadaire said listings of available jobs are up at the center as is the number of CareerPoint customers reporting having found work.

Greenfield had an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent in March, down from 7.5 percent in February.

Patricia H. Crosby, executive director of the Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board, said there is a general perception that the labor market has improved. Manufacturers are looking for employees, although the skills manufacturers require are not always readily available.

“I’ve also been hearing employers really eager to talk to veterans,” Crosby said.

People with office administrative backgrounds are continuing to have trouble finding work, Crosby said. A lot of professionals have grown accustomed to doing their office work themselves, she said.

As a region, Greater Springfield added 1,600 jobs in March., according to the state. The region is still down 2,600 jobs since March 2011, however.

The labor force also fell by about 1,100 last month which might account for some , but not all of the improvement in the unemployment rate, said Karl J. Petrick, an assistant professor of economics at Western New England University.

Unemployment rates are figured by telephone surveys. Survey participants without jobs who answer “no” when asked if they are looking for work are not counted.

He said new college graduates will have trouble finding jobs in their fields as has been the case for the past few summers.

“There are a lot of people working in jobs that don’t require their degree or don’t require a degree,” he said.

Those people working below their qualifications mean there are fewer jobs for those without college degrees. People without high-school diplomas are especially stuck. This hurts Springfield especially hard because it has a relatively larger population of people with few educational credentials.

Gore is coming for the inauguration of Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash.

File photo by David Coates / Detroit NewsFormer Vice President Al Gore, seen here speaking in Minnesota last year, is planning a visit to Western Massachusetts Friday.

AMHERST 
- Former Vice President Al Gore will be in town Friday as the keynote speaker at the inauguration of Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash.

Gore, who served as vice president under President Clinton for two-terms, ran unsuccessfully for president in 2000.

In 2007, Gore won the Nobel Prize with the U.N Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “An Inconvenient Truth,” a film about his campaign to educate people about global warming, won two Oscars in 2006.
In 2005, he co-founded Current TV.

Lash has been serving at the college's sixth president since July.

He was president of the Washington D.C.-based World Resources Institute before becoming president. He was also the co-chairman of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, a group of U.S. government, business, labor, civil rights, and environmental leaders appointed by President Clinton that developed recommendations for strategies to promote sustainable development.

The theme of the inaugural is “Educating for Change: Critical Thinking in a Critical Time.”

Gary Hirshberg, class of 1972 and co-founder and of the New Hampshire based Stoneyfield Farm will introduce Gore.

Students, faculty, trustees and alumni will talk along with Mount Holyoke College President Lynn Pasquerella speaking on behalf of the Five Colleges. Lash will give an inaugural address. Ceremonies begin at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are required.

Hampshire College will be streaming the inauguration live. People can also follow along with the ceremony at Twitter at #jlash.

As lawmakers resumed work on the budget, protesters outside the gallery warned of life-threatening consequences of pending fare hikes on the MBTA.

By KYLE CHENEY and MICHAEL NORTON

State House News ServiceSenior citizens frustrated with the Legislature's lack of a response to transportation and other public policy issues disrupted House budget deliberations Tuesday afternoon, prompting Rep. Paul Donato to declare a recess and instruct court officers to clear the gallery of protesters.

BOSTON — Senior citizens frustrated with the Legislature's handling of transportation and other public policy issues disrupted House budget deliberations Tuesday, prompting House leaders to declare a recess and instruct court officers to clear the public gallery of protesters.

"We got kicked out. I've never been kicked out of anyplace," Cathy Laroche, 70, of Fall River told the News Service while standing outside the gallery with her sisters, Ruth Grant, 76, and Claire Karl, 75.

The protest began shortly after 3 p.m. with House Speaker Robert DeLeo presiding. As protesters began to express themselves, Rep. Paul Donato (D-Medford) took the gavel and asked them “respectfully” to quiet down. When they didn’t, Donato quickly declared a recess, after which court officers swarmed the gallery, shouting at the protesters, including some in wheelchairs, and directing them to the exits.

As lawmakers resumed work on the budget, protesters outside the gallery warned of life-threatening consequences of pending fare hikes on the MBTA. Assembled by the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and the T Riders Union, the noisy but swift protest was the tensest moment of largely staid budget deliberations that began Monday and have primarily unfolded behind closed doors.

The protest, involving about 200 seniors, transit rider advocates and their supporters, occurred as lawmakers milled about the chamber waiting to begin afternoon deliberations on transportation amendments to the $32.3 billion state budget proposal.

“It’s an emergency situation for people with disabilities and seniors because they’re facing fare hikes that could endanger their living situation,” said John Robinson, a Somerville resident and member of Senior Action Council. Robinson said seniors and disabled residents might be forced to choose between paying for rides to work or their medical appointments and putting food on their table.

As they were ejected, protesters serenaded lawmakers with a rendition of “God Bless America” and then resumed chanting outside the House chamber, yelling “Banks got bailed out. We got sold out.” The Senior Action Council’s slogan, according to the group’s web site is, “Don’t just take it. Take charge!”

Protesters were equipped with a list of budget priorities assembled by the council. The priorities include investing in public transportation and blocking planned service reductions, ending the waiting list for home care services, restoring a program intended to help seniors pay for prescription drugs, and raising revenues and taxes.

“Massachusetts is facing a nearly $1.5 billion budget deficit yet the services and programs that help keep our communities strong are needed now more than ever,” according to the council. “We must take a balanced approach to the fiscal crisis and raise additional revenue so that we can maintain the services we need and value. We support tax reforms that will raise substantial new revenue while holding down increases for low and middle income families.”

The House budget, unlike the spending plan unveiled in January by Gov. Deval Patrick, includes no new taxes or fees, with House leaders saying their approach is aimed at keeping down tax burdens as Massachusetts looks to accelerate its economic recovery.

Other council priorities include ensuring that a personal needs allowance for nursing home residents is maintained at $72.80 per month, reinstating a policy that allows MassHealth nursing home residents to keep their beds if they leave for a hospital stay, increasing supports for councils on aging to help those organizations cope with an increasing elderly population.

About 15 minutes after it began, the protest subsided and seniors began filing out of the State House. Some visitors criticized their tactics as “disorganized” and said they would have been better off taking their message to reporters. “They have to learn how to hit the media, but it doesn’t just mean disorganization,” complained Mary Crozier, an elderly Boston resident who ripped the prosters’ tactics.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill) told colleagues at the outset of this week’s budget debate that the House’s budget proposal “maintains essential services while at the same time charges the administration with the responsibility of continuing to provide and deliver those services as efficiently as possible.”

But Tuesday’s protest underscores the fact that many in Massachusetts disagree.

The protest is largely an outgrowth of a decision by the MBTA earlier this month to embrace a budget-balancing plan that asks disabled riders to, in some cases double the amount they pay for the T’s RIDE service. The board of the MBTA, facing a projected $160 million budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year, backed a plan that would raise subway and bus fares, impose modest service cuts and eliminate a subsidy on ferry riders. The cuts could go deeper, T officials have warned, if the Legislature doesn’t back the agency’s plan to draw $51 million from a motor vehicle trust fund surplus.

Roche pleaded guilty to shooting Bruno in cold blood in 2008 and is testifying under a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

The Republican file photo | Dave Roback11.23.2003 | SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Police detectives investigate the fatal shooting of Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno.

NEW YORK — The prosecution in an ongoing Mafia murder trial in Manhattan paraded its second self-confessed killer to the witness stand on Tuesday.

Frankie Roche, the admitted hitman in the 2003 contract killing of Springfield mob boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno, coolly told jurors of a criminal history that began when he was a boy in Westfield, Mass., with grand theft auto, armed robbery and a prison escape.

The lanky, tattooed former fringe character in Springfield's organized crime circles began testifying on Tuesday afternoon against Emilio Fusco, a Longmeadow man and "made member" of the New York-based Genovese crime family. Fusco is accused of a racketeering conspiracy that included the Bruno hit, the grisly murder of police informant Gary D. Westerman and sports-betting and drug dealing conspiracies.

Frankie Roche

Fusco has denied any involvement in the murders and lesser conspiracies. Prosecutors contend Fusco was a longtime rival of Bruno and among a group of young, upstart gangsters looking to wrest power from the then-boss.

Roche pleaded guilty in 2008 to shooting Bruno six to seven times in a dark parking lot for a $10,000 fee.

Prior to that, however, Roche made it clear to jurors that he generally did what he had to do to get what he wanted. In 2000, for instance, he told jurors that he went back to prison after breaking into a liquor store.

"Why did you break into a liquor store?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel S. Goldman asked Roche on direct examination.

"Because it was closed," Roche responded.

Five of the 30 big companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 1.5 percent.

By DANIEL WAGNER | AP Business Writer

File photo | Associated PressThe AT&T Michigan headquarters is shown in Detroit. AT&T led gains on Wall Street on Tuesday after reporting better-than-expected profit.

Muscular U.S. corporate earnings and higher spirits in Europe propelled U.S. stocks higher Tuesday.

Five of the 30 big companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 1.5 percent. AT&T led the gains after reporting better-than-expected profit. Verizon, AT&T's main rival, was close behind. 3M rose sharply after delivering an impressive quarterly report. GE and DuPont rounded out the list of top gainers.

Traders punished Apple after AT&T said it activated far fewer of Apple's iPhones. Apple fell two percent, dragging the Nasdaq composite average to a lower close. Apple shares recovered the day's losses several times over in after-hours trading after the company announced another record quarterly profit that easily beat analysts' forecasts.

Chocolate maker Hershey and regional bank Regions Financial helped boost the Standard & Poor's 500 index after both companies outpaced Wall Street's estimates.

Earnings reports are blowing the tops of analysts' expectations, providing temporary relief for markets roiled by fears about Europe, said Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist with financial-data firm S&P Capital IQ. He said analysts had expected only a half-percent profit increase for the S&P 500 this quarter. Based on the results so far, he said, the gain could be ten times bigger.

"These are legitimately strong results, and in retrospect, the bar was set too low," Stovall said.

The gains for blue chips were broad. Only five Dow components fell, led by Wal-Mart Stores. The world's biggest retailer is reeling from reports over the weekend that top company officials knew about widespread bribery of foreign officials.

European stocks rallied into the close a day after one of their worst drops in months. Monday's sell-off followed fears that deficit-cutting deals by some European nations might unravel.

On Tuesday, as Monday's panicked atmosphere lifted, interest rates on Spanish bonds already in circulation declined. France's CAC-40 index closed up 2.3 percent. Germany's DAX rose one percent, London's FTSE 100 0.8 percent.

Still, there were signs that Europe's troubles persist. Bond investors demanded much higher interest rates from Spain and Italy when they auctioned new debt, suggesting that there is more pain ahead for those debt-strapped countries.

Stovall expects fears about Europe to overshadow earnings results in the coming weeks. After months of strong stock-market gains and little talk about Europe, traders are again nervous that the crisis will boil over, harming the global economy and gumming up the financial system, he said.

"First-quarter earnings are helping to justify the equity market's advance since early October," Stovall said, but "if Europe continues to have its problems, that will outweigh" the corporate earnings news.

Stocks rose consistently from early October through the end of the first quarter on March 31. Trading has since turned volatile. Swings of more than 100 points in the Dow have become common, a contrast to the steady, modest gains of the first three months of the year.

The Dow closed up 74.39 points, or 0.6 percent, at 13,001.56. IBM rose solidly after the company said it is raising its quarterly dividend and plans to repurchase $7 billion more of its stock.

The S&P 500 rose 5.03 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,371.97.

The Nasdaq composite average fell 8.85 points to 2,961.60. Apple is the Nasdaq's biggest component and the biggest company by market value.

As stocks rose, traders sold ultra-safe Treasurys. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.97 percent from 1.94 percent late Monday.

Among the other U.S. companies swinging on earnings news:

• Oilfield services contractor Baker Hughes rose 5 percent after its profit exceeded expectations because of strong drilling activity in Africa.

• Coach fell 4 percent after the maker of high-end leather goods said results in U.S. department stores were weak, despite stronger sales in China.

• Netflix plunged 14 percent after saying it is adding new subscribers slowly in the second quarter. Investors are nervous about stronger competition from video-streaming rivals such as Amazon.com and Comcast.

A wave of weak U.S. economic data failed to douse the rally for stocks. Sales of new homes fell by 7 percent last month, the biggest decline in a year, the government said after markets opened. Home prices in most major U.S. cities fell in February for a sixth straight month.

Americans' confidence in the economy held steady despite rising gas prices and falling home values, according to the Conference Board, a private research group.

Two debt exclusion questions, one for a new police station and one for a new public works facility could be on the ballot, too.

PALMER - There will be a three-way race for an at-large town councilor position in the June election, and residents also may be faced with two debt exclusion votes for a new police station and public works department.

Tuesday was the deadline for residents to turn in their nomination papers to be on the June 12 ballot.

At-large councilor Karl S. Williams, of 1462 North Main St., is being challenged by Michael Lees, 3161 Main St., Bondsville, and Jason Polonsky, of 3024 High St., Bondsville. Williams has been on the council since 2009 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy.

Running unopposed are District 2 Councilor Barbara A. Barry, of 14 Colonial Drive; District 3 Councilor Blake E. Lamothe, of 1088 Thorndike St.; Planning Board member Norman Czech, of 2022 Oak St., Three Rivers, and School Committee member Gary A. Blanchette, of 4 Walters Way. All positions are for three years.

Town Clerk Susan M. Coache said former town councilor Matthew J. Lovell had taken out papers to run for council, but told her he was not going to return them.

On Monday night, Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said the council will discuss placing two debt exclusion questions on the ballot, for a new police station and new public works facility. A two-thirds vote from the council is needed to place the questions on the ballot, Blanchard said.

Blanchard said the cost estimates for the facilities are still being developed, but said they are in the range of what has been previously reported: $6 million to $8 million for a new, 14,000-square-foot or 19,000-square-foot police station, and $4.8 million to $6 million for a new, 20,000-square-foot to 25,000-square-foot public works building.

The current police and public works buildings are old, and cramped for space, officials have said. Blanchard has called the current facilities "substandard."

A new police station would be built behind the Town Building, and a new public works department may be built either at Burleigh Park, or could move into an existing building in town, Blanchard said.

Preliminary estimates project that the owner of the average home valued at $184,500 would pay an extra $234 a year if a 20-year debt exclusion passed - an amount that would decrease each year.

However, more exact numbers are being worked out so voters can make educated decisions at the polls about the proposals, he said.

A proposal from consultants includes work that would be done over the next 16 weeks, culminating with a strategic plan for the commission to advance casinos.

AP photoMembers of the five-person Massachusetts Gaming Commission attend a news conference in Boston on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, where the last two appointees were introduced on Tuesday, March 20, 2012. From left the members are: Enrique Zuniga, James F. McHugh, Chairman Steve Crosby, speaking, Bruce Stebbins, and Gayle Cameron. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

BOSTON - The Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Tuesday unveiled a general road map for achieving key work over the next four months including approval of a process for reviewing bids for casinos.

Commissioners released a four-page proposal for advancing casinos from their two consultants, Spectrum Gaming Group of Pennington, N.J. and Michael & Carroll of Atlantic City, N.J. The proposal includes work that would be done over the next 16 weeks, culminating with a comprehensive strategic plan for the commission.

Stephen P. Crosby, chairman of the commission, said the proposal is comprehensive, well-organized and thorough.

Photo by Josh Reynolds / Associated PressMembers of the five-person Massachusetts Gaming Commission are shown in this panel of photos. From left the members are: Enrique Zuniga, James F. McHugh, Chairman Stephen Crosby, Bruce Stebbins and Gayle Cameron.

"For what it is, I think it is great," Crosby said after the commission completed a three-hour meeting at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

James F. McHugh, a retired judge and commission member, said the consultants' proposal offers "a good, aggressive start" for the commission, but he warned against delegating substantive decisions to consultants.

"We need to make sure we remain in control," McHugh said.

Gayle Cameron, a retired New Jersey State Police lieutenant colonel and commission member, said the commission will have "total control," while receiving options from the consultants.

Cameron, Crosby, McHugh and the two other gaming commissioners -- Bruce Stebbins, a former Springfield City Councilor and Enrique Zuniga, former executive director of the Massachusetts Water Pollution Abatement Trust -- held their third-ever meeting since being appointed.

At the end of 16 weeks, the two consultants said they would deliver a strategic plan to the commission that would include missions and goals of the commission, the roles and responsibilities of different commission employees and units, a budget for the commission and regulations for the short and long term.

The plan would also include a process for soliciting bids from potential casino operators, a process for reviewing bids based on best practices, the criteria in the gaming law and other state laws and a coordinated approach for law enforcement to reduce duplication.

The plan would also include a proposed timeline for putting into effect all aspects of the strategic plan.

The consultants also identified some "short-term" work that could be done simultaneously with writing of the strategic plan including planning for a process that would qualify companies before they submit full bids for casinos.

Crosby said the commission might soon release requests for companies to submit material that show they are in top financial shape, for example.

Crosby said the qualification effort could show critics such as Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno that the commission is interested in doing everything it can to expedite the process.

"If there is a bidder who we feel is not qualified for their financial integrity, their professional integrity, whatever, and they are disqualified, then they don't have to go through the expensive process of working with the town," Crosby said. "The town doesn't have to go through the process of putting together a proposal. You're out of the game from way back at the beginning. That is a real asset for everybody."

Crosby said he still needs to negotiate a contract with the consultants. During its first meeting, commissioners authorized Crosby to negotiate up to $500,000 in services from the consultants.

The five-member commission, an independent agency created in a casino law passed in November, is preparing to select, license and regulate all casinos in the state.

The state's gaming law authorizes the commission to award licenses for up to three casino resorts including one for anywhere in Western Massachusetts. The commission must also first award a license for a slot facility that could be anywhere in the state.

The Mohegan Sun is proposing a casino resort for Palmer. Also in Western Massachusetts, Ameristar Casinos of Las Vegas is planning a resort for Page Boulevard in Springfield on 41 acres it purchased for $16 million in January.

The commission is planning a public educational forum from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 3 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

The program includes presentations from New Jersey and Pennsylvania gaming regulators and an afternoon panel on the processes that must be established to seek casino proposals.

People can register for the event and submit questions through the commission's website, which can be found here at this link.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is fatal to cows and can cause a fatal human brain disease in people who eat tainted beef.

File photo | The Republican

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and SAM HANANEL

WASHINGTON — The first new case of mad cow disease in the U.S. since 2006 has been discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health authorities said Tuesday the animal never was a threat to the nation's food supply.

The infected cow, the fourth ever discovered in the U.S., was found as part of an Agriculture Department surveillance program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the fatal brain disease.

No meat from the cow was bound for the food supply, said John Clifford, the department's chief veterinary officer.

"There is really no cause for alarm here with regard to this animal," Clifford told reporters at a hastily convened press conference.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is fatal to cows and can cause a fatal human brain disease in people who eat tainted beef. The World Health Organization has said that tests show that humans cannot be infected by drinking milk from BSE-infected animals.

In the wake of a massive outbreak in Britain that peaked in 1993, the U.S. intensified precautions to keep BSE out of U.S. cattle and the food supply. In other countries, the infection's spread was blamed on farmers adding recycled meat and bone meal from infected cows into cattle feed, so a key U.S. step has been to ban feed containing such material.

Tuesday, Clifford said the California cow is what scientists call an atypical case of BSE, meaning that it didn't get the disease from eating infected cattle feed, which is important.

That means it's "just a random mutation that can happen every once in a great while in an animal," said Bruce Akey, director of the New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell University. "Random mutations go on in nature all the time."

The testing system worked because it caught what is a really rare event, added Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety.

"It's good news because they caught it," Doyle said.

Clifford did not say when the disease was discovered or exactly where the cow was raised. He said the cow was at a rendering plant in central California when the case was discovered through regular USDA sample testing.

Dennis Luckey, executive vice president of Baker Commodities, told The Associated Press that the disease was discovered at its Hanford, Calif., transfer station when the company selected the cow for random sampling.

Luckey said the cow died at the dairy and was randomly tagged for the surveillance program.

Michael Marsh, chief executive of Western United Dairymen, said it was an adult cow over 30 months old, not a downed or sick animal, and it appeared normal when it was last observed. He said the cow was first tested on April 18.

Rendering plants process animal parts for products not going into the human food chain, such as animal food, soap, chemicals or other household products.

There have been three confirmed cases of BSE in cows in the United States — in a Canadian-born cow in 2003 in Washington state, in 2005 in Texas and in 2006 in Alabama.

Both the 2005 and 2006 cases were also atypical varieties of the disease, USDA officials said.

The Agriculture Department is sharing its lab results with international animal health officials in Canada and England who will review the test results, Clifford said. Federal and California officials will further investigate the case. He said he did not expect the latest discovery to affect beef exports.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association said in a statement that "U.S. regulatory controls are effective, and that U.S fresh beef and beef products from cattle of all ages are safe and can be safely traded due to our interlocking safeguards."

Clifford said the finding shows that safeguards the U.S. government and other nations have put into place in recent years are working. In 2011 there were only 29 worldwide cases of BSE, a dramatic decline since the peak of 37,311 cases in 1992. He credited the decline to effect of feed bans as a primary means of controlling the disease.

There have been a handful of cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — the human version of mad cow — confirmed in people living in the United States, but those were linked to meat products in Britain and Saudi Arabia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Past scares about mad cow disease have affected beef exports to Japan and other countries. Japan banned all U.S. beef imports in 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the United States. Japan resumed buying American beef in 2006 after the bilateral trade agreement setting new safety standards.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Tuesday that the latest finding would not affect trade between the US and Canada.

Associated Press writer Gosia Wozniacka contributed to this report from Fresno, Calif.

The one person who spoke during a public hearing on the proposed fiscal 2013 School Department budget thanked officials for being willing to spend more money.

William P. Sapelli

AGAWAM – The School Committee Tuesday approved a fiscal 2013 School Department budget of $36,488,490, an increase of $1,983,340 or 5.7 percent over this year’s spending plan.

The plan was proposed and promoted by School Superintendent William P. Sapelli as one that would keep educational services at their current level.

The committee approved the budget by six affirmative votes and a vote of “present” by Mayor Richard A. Cohen, who also serves as chair of the School Committee.

Cohen said he always votes "present" on the School Committee budget to reserve the option of adding to or cutting from the spending plan based on what the city can expect in terms of local aid from the state. Currently, the amount of state local aid the city can anticipate for the next financial year is unknown.

The budget now officially goes to the mayor so he may incorporate it into the entire city budget that he expects to submit to the City Council by about May 15. The council then has until July 1 to make any cuts to the plan, otherwise the mayor’s budget takes effect by that date.

There was no debate on the School Department spending plan, for which a public hearing during the School Committee meeting took up just a few minutes. The only resident to speak during it was Dina J. Miller, a parent who lives on Paul Revere Drive.

She encouraged the committee to approve the budget as presented by the school superintendent and thanked officials for coming up with that plan. Following the meeting, Miller said she was heartened that officials realized that now is the time to spend more money on education to keep the school system moving forward.

A chart submitted by Sapelli to the committee shows the amounts of School Department budgets for the following years: $33,989,637 for fiscal 2009, $33,989,637 for fiscal 2010 and $33,909,498 for fiscal 2011 and $34,505,150 for fiscal 2012, the current financial year.

Sapelli has described the fiscal 2013 spending plan as a fiscally responsible one that will meet unfunded state and federal mandates.

His proposal takes into account negotiated contractual salary increases for five collective bargaining units, vocational educational tuition increases, transportation cost increases, special education cost increases and increased costs associated with the new teacher evaluation system. The proposal would keep all existing staff and services as well as replace teachers who are retiring.

It includes $431,046 to cover 2 percent cost-of-living raises for teachers and $576,502 for teachers’ step raises. A pie chart supplied by Sapelli shows that 79 percent of the proposed budget would go for payroll and the remaining 21 percent for purchased services and supplies.

Romney laid claim to the hard-fought Republican presidential nomination, anticipating a sweep of 5 more primaries and urging all who struggle in a shaky economy to "Hold on a little longer; a better America begins tonight."

An updated version of this story is now available at MassLive.com

Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a building supply store in Green Bay, Wis., earlier this month. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

By DAVID ESPO and KASIE HUNT

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney laid claim to the hard-fought Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, anticipating a sweep of five more primaries and urging all who struggle in a shaky economy to "Hold on a little longer; a better America begins tonight."

Connecticut and Rhode Island fell quickly into Romney's column on the first primary night since Rick Santorum conceded the nomination. The vote count was slower in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware

After a long struggle, the Republican nominee-in-waiting was eager to turn the political page.

"After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and not a few long nights, I can say with confidence — and gratitude — that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility," he said in excerpts of a speech to be delivered in New Hampshire.

Vowing to defeat President Barack Obama, he said that in the past three years, "we have seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership. Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less."

Opinion polls have long made the economy the top issue of the campaign, and Romney posed a series of rhetorical questions designed to lead voters to his side.

"Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it earlier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement?" he said in the excerpts released by his campaign.

The speech was meant to cap the nominating campaign that still had some loose ends, including the pursuit of national convention delegates.

Romney is still more than 400 Republican National Convention delegates shy of a nominating majority, although he is far ahead of his most persistent rivals. There were 209 at stake in Tuesday's primaries.

Romney began the day with 698 delegates of the 1,144 needed for the nomination, compared with 260 for Santorum, 137 for Newt Gingrich and 75 for Ron Paul.

Santorum suspended his campaign two weeks ago rather than risk losing a primary in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Gingrich, too, seemed to be heading toward the sidelines, but first he wanted to see the outcome of the primary in Delaware, where he has campaigned in recent days and has pocketed a few endorsements. Jackie Cushman Gingrich, his daughter, said the former House speaker intended to reassess his debt-strapped candidacy on Wednesday.

The nomination in hand, Romney has begun focusing more on Obama in recent days, campaigning in key battleground states, appointing an aide to oversee his search for a vice presidential running mate and accelerating his fundraising for the fall.

On Monday, he offered support for Obama's call for legislation to prevent an increase in the interest rate on some student loans. In a second move toward the middle, he said his campaign was reviewing legislation to let young illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents apply for non-immigrant visas.

Under a measure being drafted by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential ticket-mate for Romney, the immigrants affected by the legislation would be allowed to study or work in the United States but would not have a special path to citizenship.

At the same time, Romney is slowly accumulating the delegates to ratify his nomination at the party convention in Tampa, Fla., this summer.

He picked up 12 delegates at congressional district conventions over the weekend in Missouri, a state Santorum once planned to contest heavily in hopes of blocking Romney's path to victory.

Federal prosecutors say 29-year-old Zachary Roberts of Cambridge was sentenced on Monday in Brattleboro to three years of supervised release.

MassLive.comJury selection remains a controversial process.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — A Massachusetts man accused of dealing cocaine in Vermont's Chittenden County has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to the charges.

Federal prosecutors say 29-year-old Zachary Roberts of Cambridge, Mass., also was sentenced on Monday in Brattleboro to three years of supervised release.

Court records say Roberts sold cocaine to an informant working with the Burlington Police Department in February 2010. He also was stopped on Interstate 89 returning from Boston when police say they found nearly half a kilogram of cocaine hidden in the vehicle's engine block.

Prosecutors say the district court found that Roberts was responsible for distributing between half and two kilograms of cocaine.

Michael Badger is channeling his grief into a project that supports school arts programs in his children's memory.

File photo | Associated Press01.05.2012 | NEW YORK – Matthew Badger, left, and Madonna Badger, the parents of three children that were killed in a Christmas fire in Stamford, Conn., react as the children's caskets are carried into a church during the funeral. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The father of three girls killed in a Christmas morning fire said Tuesday he's channeling his grief into a project that supports school arts programs in their memory.

Matthew Badger told The Associated Press that the Lily Sarah Grace Fund has helped him cope. Badger said when he's working on the fund, he feels happy and finds himself laughing, but when meetings related to the fund end, he finds himself crying.

"Every time I worked on it, my mood changed from grief into love," Badger said.

His daughters, 9-year-old Lily and 7-year-old twins Sarah and Grace, along with their grandparents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson, were killed in the fire at the girls' mother's house in Stamford, Conn. Lomer Johnson had worked as safety director for a Louisville, Ky., company and the couple lived in Southbury, Conn.

The girls' mother, Madonna Badger, and her friend, Michael Borcina, escaped. Authorities say the blaze began after Borcina, a contractor working on the house, discarded fireplace ashes in or near an entryway, close to the trash.

The fund was created several weeks after the tragedy.

"It was created out of a very dark place that I was in and out of a tremendous amount of grief that was overwhelming me," Badger said.

He said his daughters loved the arts. Lily always seemed to be in character and could do accents in many languages. "She was incredibly good at acting," Badger said.

Grace was always creating art. "She was totally content to spend an entire day in an art room," Badger said.

Sarah was known to paint.

The fund supports projects in underfunded elementary schools in which art is infused into the curriculum throughout the semester and across subjects. Math and dance, for instance, can be combined to spark more student interest, Badger said.

"When you do that the children become more enthusiastic about math," he said. "They're energized by the subject."

Badger, who consulted numerous educators, is partnering with donorschoose.org. Teachers post their projects on the nonprofit site and donors decide which efforts to fund.

"I desperately wanted my children to have meant something," Badger said. "The role of the father at this point is to create a mark that these children have left in this world and they have done something with their lives."

Badger said he spent the week before Christmas with his daughters in New York, visiting a museum, getting a Christmas tree and watching the girls dance.

After the fire, everything changed.

"My whole life doesn't make sense," Badger said.

But it's the project in memory of his daughters that enables him to get out of bed.

"I don't think I will ever recover but I think I will get to a place where I'll have acceptance and I will feel love for my children and when I think of them it will be with love, not with weeping or wailing or with sadness."

Voters have the ultimate say over the school budget at the May 14 annual Town Meeting.

BELCHERTOWN - The School Committee moved forward a fiscal 2013 budget of $25.1 million, despite concerns voiced by parents and students about the elimination of certain sports programs.

Superintendent Judith Houle said it is a difficult budget year, and that the district lost approximately $600,000 in grants. The situation was made difficult by federal stimulus funding drying up, and they looked for ways to evenly distribute approximately $270,000 in cuts, she explained.

"These are not cuts that we take lightly. These are not cuts that we want to do," Houle told the crowd gathered in the Belchertown High School auditorium.

School Committee Vice-Chairman Eric Weiss echoed her comments, saying the decisions were not easy, and it was the best budget they could create under difficult circumstances.

The cuts included $45,962 for athletics. That means the elimination of the junior varsity ice hockey program for $8,600, which officials said was suggested by the coach because there are not enough students to form a team, as well as the elimination of the freshman girls' volleyball team and freshmen girls' and boys' basketball teams.

Houle said students will still be able to play on the junior varsity teams, and noted that Belchertown is one of the last districts to still have freshmen teams.

She said they will no longer charge for some sporting events, like swimming, as attendance is not enough to warrant paying a ticket taker. They also will cut two games from all junior varsity and varsity sports, and reduce the number of wrestling tournaments. Football, which had 11 games last year, will play 10 next year under this plan.

Many students and parents asked if they could fundraise to keep their sports. Junior Matthew W. Popowich said he understands eight wrestling tournaments is a lot to ask for, but said they would like to help fundraise two of them. Houle suggested that those interested in fundraising contact the Belchertown Orioles Athletic Association, but to also come before the School Committee to get approval before they start collecting money.

School Committee Chairwoman Linda Tsoumas said doubling the athletic fee from $100 to $200 would bring $48,000 in revenues, but said it creates other issues, such as how many students would be able to pay it.

"We have chosen not to raise our fees. Families said we really cannot afford higher fees," Tsoumas said.

Junior James S. Ryan, who plays three varsity sports, credited having a freshman basketball team with keeping him interested in the sport. Also a football player, Ryan said he is concerned that if the team only plays 10 games, it will not be as competitive and it will be that much harder to get into the playoffs.

School Committee member Clare Popowich suggested that the committee postpone voting on the budget, as final numbers from the state still are not in. She said the committee should "take people's thoughts into consideration."

The committee ended up voting 3 to 1 in favor of the budget, with Tsoumas, Weiss and member Beverly Phaneuf voting in favor, and Popowich voting against it. Member Paul Anziano was absent, but in an interview prior to the meeting he expressed his opposition to the athletic cuts.

"I don't agree with reducing sports. I think they're a needed opportunity for kids, especially at the high school level," Anziano said.

Other cuts include three teacher positions due to retirements, one at Chestnut Hill Community School for approximately $49,000, and two at Swift River Elementary School for $98,000. Whiteboards at Jabish Brook Elementary School are being cut to save $25,000, an English Language Learner teaching position will be reduced to save $30,193 and maintenance will be trimmed to save $27,300.

Voters have the ultimate say over the school budget at the May 14 annual Town Meeting.

The former Massachusetts governor added New York to earlier wins in Pennsylviania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.

This is an updated version of a story posted at 8:47 this evening.

Photo by Jim Cole / Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and his wife Ann wave to supporters Tuesday in Manchester, N.H.

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney completed a five-state sweep of Republican presidential primaries Tuesday, adding a victory in New York to earlier wins in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.

The five primaries held Tuesday are the first since Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign two weeks ago, essentially conceding the GOP nomination to Romney.

Romney is still about 400 delegates short of the number he needs to formally gain his party’s presidential nomination this summer at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. There are 209 delegates at stake in Tuesday’s five primaries and they are generally awarded on a proportional basis.

Newt Gingrich had campaigned heavily in Delaware, hoping for a win there. Pennsylvania is also a notable win for Romney, because it is Santorum’s home state.

In New York, Romney took home a big chunk of delegates by winning the New York primary Tuesday night, a race marked by low turnout around the heavily Democratic state.

New York has 95 delegates, the most of any of the five East Coast states that held primaries Tuesday.

According to unofficial results in New York, Romney had 56 percent of the vote to 16 percent each for Gingrich and Paul with 11 percent of the precincts reporting.

While New York Republicans had once hoped to play a major role in the primary race, those hopes faded as Romney solidified his front-runner status and began focusing more on the general election against President Barack Obama.

Romney did not even make a public campaign stop in this heavily Democratic state in the run-up to the primary. Gingrich spoke to a rally in Buffalo last week, and Paul appeared at Cornell University.

If he ends up winning more than half the popular vote Tuesday, Romney will take the state’s 34 at-large Republican delegates. Also in play were two delegates from each of New York’s current 29 congressional districts, which will go to the winner of each district.

In addition, New York Republican Chairman Ed Cox and two other New York members of the Republican National Committee are “super delegates” who are free to commit to any candidate. Cox has already endorsed Romney.

New York state has 2.8 million registered Republicans, compared with 5.6 million registered Democrats.

Romney will have a steep hill to climb in November. When he won the presidency in 2008, Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain in the state 62 percent to 37 percent.

Eager to turn the political page to the general election, Romney accused President Barack Obama of “false promises and weak leadership.” He said, “Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired, and many of those who are fortunate enough to have a job are working harder for less.”

He delivered his remarks to a national television audience from New Hampshire, the state where he won his first primary of the campaign and one of about a dozen states expected to be battlegrounds in the summer and fall campaign for the White House.

Six months before the election, opinion polls show the economy to be the top issue by far in the race. The same surveys point toward a close contest, with several suggesting a modest advantage for the incumbent.

Obama won the presidency in 2008 in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, and since then economic growth has rebounded slowly and joblessness has receded gradually while housing prices have continued to drop in many areas of the country.

In an indication that Romney was treating the moment as something of an opening of the general election campaign, his speech seemed aimed at the millions of voters – non-conservatives and others – who have yet to pay close attention to the race for the White House.

He blended biographical details, an attack on Obama and the promise of a better future, leaving behind his struggle to reassure conservative voters who have been reluctant to swing behind his candidacy.

“As I look around at the millions of Americans without work, the graduates who can’t get a job, the soldiers who return home to an unemployment line, it breaks my heart,” he said. “This does not have to be. It is the result of failed leadership and of a faulty vision.”

Romney spoke dismissively of the president’s tenure in office. “Government is at the center of his vision. It dispenses the benefits, borrows what it cannot take and consumes a greater and greater share of the economy,” he said.

He added that if the president’s hard-won health care law is fully installed, “government will continue to control half the economy, and we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society.”

By contrast, he said, “I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living. I see children even more successful than their parents...”

Romney was eager to leave the nominating campaign behind.

“After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and not a few long nights, I can say with confidence – and gratitude – that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility,” he said.

Romney posed a series of rhetorical questions designed to lead voters to his side.

“Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it earlier to sell your home or buy a new one? Have you saved what you needed for retirement?” he asked.

“Are you making more in your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Do you pay less at the pump?”

At each question, his partisan audience shouted, “No.”

The nominating campaign that still had some loose ends, including the pursuit of national convention delegates.

Romney is still more than 400 Republican National Convention delegates shy of a nominating majority, although he is far ahead of his most persistent rivals. There were 209 at stake in Tuesday’s primaries.

Romney began the day with 698 delegates of the 1,144 needed for the nomination, compared with 260 for Santorum, 137 for Newt Gingrich and 75 for Ron Paul.

Santorum suspended his campaign two weeks ago rather than risk losing a primary in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Gingrich, too, seemed to be heading toward the sidelines, but first he wanted to see the outcome of the primary in Delaware, where he has campaigned in recent days and has pocketed a few endorsements. Jackie Cushman Gingrich, his daughter, said the former House speaker intended to reassess his debt-strapped candidacy on Wednesday.

The nomination in hand, Romney has begun focusing more on Obama in recent days, campaigning in key battleground states, appointing an aide to oversee his search for a vice presidential running mate and accelerating his fundraising for the fall.
On Monday, he offered support for Obama’s call for legislation to prevent an increase in the interest rate on some student loans. In a second move toward the middle, he said his campaign was reviewing legislation to let young illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents apply for non-immigrant visas.

Under a measure being drafted by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential ticket-mate for Romney, the immigrants affected by the legislation would be allowed to study or work in the United States but would not have a special path to citizenship.

At the same time, Romney is slowly accumulating the delegates to ratify his nomination at the party convention in Tampa, Fla., this summer.

He picked up 12 delegates at congressional district conventions over the weekend in Missouri, a state Santorum once planned to contest heavily in hopes of blocking Romney’s path to victory.

The fire was called in at approximately 5:30 p.m., and it took about an hour to extinguish it, according to police.

WALES - A fire at 91 Union Road Tuesday closed a section of the road and displaced the residents.

The fire was called in at approximately 5:30 p.m., and it took about an hour to extinguish it, according to police.

The Telegram & Gazette reported that three people were displaced by the fire, and the state fire marshal's office was assisting with the investigation. Fire departments from Monson, Brimfield and Stafford Springs, Conn. provided mutual aid, the newspaper reported.