Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren is calling on Republicans in Congress to back off attempts to limit the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

View full sizeDemocratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Elizabeth Warren, right, speaks with Financial Services Representative Merri Gagne, of Quincy, Mass., left, while visiting Liberty Bay Credit Union headquarters during a campaign stop in Braintree, Mass., Wednesday, May 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren is calling on Republicans in Congress to back off attempts to limit the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Warren, who is in a heated campaign against U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., helped create the bureau when she served as a special advisor to the secretary of the treasury for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The consumer agency, tasked with protecting citizens from predatory lending and other abusive business practices, has been under fire by GOP legislators since its inception. Currently, the bureau finds itself embroiled in a debate over its funding.

The CFPB is funded directly through the Federal Reserve, and slated to receive $547 million this year.

And although Democrats, including Warren, argue that the funding must remain independent of Congressional control to prevent political coercion, Republicans see things differently.

The GOP argument centers on the idea that funding outside of the appropriations process leaves room for waste and misuse of funds.

Warren said Republicans in the House are working to undermine the agency.

"The House Republicans are engaged in a backdoor attempt to weaken consumer protection and water down oversight," Warren said in a statement. "If Congress really cares about middle class families—and the health of our entire economy—it must ensure there is real accountability for Wall Street."

Republicans serving on the House Financial Services Committee have requested the CFPB provide them with a detailed budget explanation, a request which Director Richard Cordray is expected to grant.

Warren also renewed her call for prosecutions based on the financial crisis of 2008, an plan President Barack Obama announced during his State of the Union speech in January.

"More than three years since the greatest financial crisis in generations, working families are still suffering from unemployment, underwater mortgages, and other economic pressures while there has still been no real accountability for the people who broke this economy," Warren said. "The people whose illegal actions are responsible for this crisis need to be prosecuted and thrown in jail. We need a cop on the beat to make sure no one steals your purse on Main Street and no one steals your pension on Wall Street."

A Justice Department task force created in the wake of the financial crisis is said to be using the little-known Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 to prosecute alleged wrongdoing.

According to a Reuters report from April, the federal statute was passed in the wake of the savings-and-loan scandals in the 1980s and is favorable to prosecutors because it requires a lower burden of proof than criminal charges and has a longer statute of limitations than other financial laws.

Warren's renewed call for action comes on the heels of a week where she found herself embroiled in a controversy over her Native American ancestry and whether it played any part in her tenure as a Harvard Law School professor.

Brown, who has pushed reporters to question Warren on the topic, also had some potentially unflattering media attention this week.

On Wednesday, Brown continued to defend using the president's federal health care law he was elected in 2010 to repeal to cover his daughter Ayla, who is 23. The federal law, branded "Obama Care" by critics, requires that family insurance plans cover children until they are 26.

And the same day, a Boston Globe report revealed that Brown has used a joint-fund-raising committee called the Scott Brown Victory Committee to levy significant campaign cash from the financial sector.

A government report confirmed investors' fears that the U.S. economic recovery is faltering.

By PALLAVI GOGOI | AP Business Writer

File photo | Associated PressThe Labor Department said Friday, May 4, 2012, that the economy added just 115,000 jobs in April. U.S. employers pulled back on hiring for the second straight month, evidence of an economy still growing only sluggishly. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent, but only because more people gave up looking for work. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

NEW YORK — Stocks plunged Friday after the government reported that hiring slowed sharply last month. The report confirmed investors' fears that the U.S. economic recovery is faltering.

The losses in the market were widespread. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 168 points and the Nasdaq composite had its worst day since Nov. 9. Both the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 index closed out their worst weeks of the year. The Dow had its second-worst.

The dollar and U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors dumped risky assets and moved money into lower-risk investments. Energy stocks were among the hardest hit after the price of oil fell below $100 a barrel for the first time since February. Only one of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose, utilities, which investors tend to buy when they're nervous about the economy.

"The jobs numbers were a disappointment," said Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors.

It was the third straight daily loss for the Dow, but it's too early to know if it's the start of a correction in the market. Even after its 1.4 percent decline this week, the Dow is still up 6.7 percent this year.

Investors are on edge about Europe once again as France and Greece both hold elections over the weekend. In France the socialist candidate Francois Hollande has a chance to unseat the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been at the forefront of fashioning Europe's efforts to prevent its share currency from collapsing.

Crude oil plunged $4 to $98.49 a barrel on worries that demand would drop because of a weakening world economy. It was the first time oil has dropped below $100 since Feb. 13.

The late slump in the week was a stark contrast to Monday, when the Dow closed at its highest level more than four years, propelled by a report that showed a pickup in manufacturing. All that become a distant memory after a slew of poor economic reports were released in the rest of the week.

On Thursday major retailers including Costco and Macy's reported that April sales inched up less that 1 percent, the worst performance since 2009. Thursday also brought news that U.S. service companies expanded their business more slowly in April.

The Dow closed down 168.32 points, or 1.3 percent, at 13,038. All 30 companies that make up the index fell, led by Bank of America and Cisco.

The S&P 500 slipped 22.47 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,369, while the Nasdaq index fell 67.96 points, or 2.2 percent, to 2,956.

For the week, the S&P lost 2.4 percent, the Nasdaq 3.7 percent.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped sharply to 1.88 percent from 1.92 percent late Thursday as demand increased for safe investments. The yield hasn't settled that low since early February.

The culprit for the distress in financial markets was a report from the Labor Department Friday showing that U.S. job growth slumped in April for a second straight month. The 115,000 jobs added were fewer than the 154,000 jobs created in March.

Job creation is the fuel for the nation's economic growth. When more people have jobs, they have more money to spend.

Orlando noted that the first few months of the year were marked by a number of abnormal conditions including an uncharacteristically warm January and February. That led to a spurt in hiring which usually occurs in spring.

Retail sales and hiring were also affected by an earlier Easter, which fell on April 8 this year, 16 days earlier than last year. That pushed some retail sales ahead to March, leaving April's numbers weaker than they might have been. Retailers also blamed a late Mother's Day for pushing some sales out of April and into May. Unusually warm weather in February and March also pulled forward some sales that would have normally occurred in April.

"The surge in hiring and spending that usually occurs in March through April, occurred earlier in the year this year," said Orlando. "We have to wait for economic numbers from May and June to get a better idea of the underlying strength of this economy."

After the price of oil fell, energy company stocks turned lower in response. Southwestern Energy Co. fell 7 percent and Marathon Oil Corp. fell 3 percent.

In other trading:

• Warnaco Group Inc. dropped over 6 percent after the clothing maker lowered its 2012 forecast and said that its first-quarter net income fell, hurt by the weak European economy.

• Aon Corp. fell almost 6 percent after the insurance broker reported first-quarter net income fell 3 percent due to higher costs and unfavorable currency exchange rates.

• LinkedIn Corp. rose 7 percent after announcing late Thursday that its first-quarter profit more than doubled, topping expectations. The social networking company also announced an acquisition.

• Tilly's Inc. climbed 8 percent in the clothing retailer's debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Tilly's sells surf-inspired and casual West Coast-styled clothing and accessories.

• Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. soared 19 percent after the owner of bagel chain Noah's Bagels said it is considering strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company

Three other males survived the crash.

Springfield Fire DepartmentHere is the aftermath of the car crash at 1104 Bay St. in Springfield early Saturday morning. The driver was killed.

SPRINGFIELD - A 26-year-old city man was killed after he crashed his 2001 Infiniti I-30 into a building at 1104 Bay St. early Saturday morning.

Dennis G. Leger, aide to Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph A. Conant, said the accident was reported just before 1 a.m. Three other male passengers survived the crash. Police said speed is a factor.

Leger said Joseph Kelly was killed in the crash. Two other passengers were taken to Baystate Medical Center. One passenger walked away from the scene. Firefighters had to extricate the passenger who was sitting behind Kelly, Leger said.

"It was extremely dangerous for the firefighters to remove that person from vehicle because of the instability of the building," Leger said, adding parts of the building were "literally falling down around them" as they worked.

Leger said the driver slid sideways into the building, which housed Anderson Services, a landscape supply company.

Seat belt use was unavailable. Police said Kelly was driving west when he lost control of the vehicle.

City officials also said steps are being developed to require the authority follow a plan to repay $465,000 in employee-retirement costs that the city was forced to pay in December.

Todd A. McGee

The Republican file photo | John SuchockiHolyoke Geriatric Authority

HOLYOKE – The state will be asked to audit the finances of the Holyoke Geriatric Authority, city councilors and authority board members said.

Also, officials said in a meeting Wednesday at City Hall steps are underway to require that the authority follow a plan to repay $465,000 in employee-retirement costs that the city was forced to pay in December.

Members of the revamped authority board also said they would abide by councilors’ request that the authority stop hiring consultants. Among fees noted were those from a Springfield law firm who charged $18 to look up names and addresses of city councilors.

The steps came in a City Council Finance Committee meeting with authority officials. That included Patricia C. Devine, the former city councilor who was appointed to the authority board and elected chairwoman April 25.

The steps also prompted City Auditor Brian G. Smith to praise such progress after years of authority officials failing to pay bills to the city and refusing to discuss financial plans.

“This is the most productive meeting we’ve had on this topic yet and I’m actually leaving here with some hope,” Smith said.

Councilors and other officials said they were hopeful with with Devine as board chairwoman, a financial plan will be followed and communication from the authority will improve.

“We’ve been waiting two years for answers to questions,” Councilor Joseph M. McGiverin said.

“The board seems to be a little less divisive, if I can use that word, and we seem to be ready to move forward,” Devine said.

Some councilors, though, said they were disappointed authority Executive Director Sheryl Y. Quinn failed to attend the meeting.

The authority is an 80-bed nursing home with another 80 daycare slots for elderly people at 45 Lower Westfield Road.

The facility 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.

Under the 1971 state act that established the authority, the council and mayor each must appoint one director representing the medical field, one representing the legal or financial field and a third with experience in geriatrics.

Devine is the board’s seventh member, voted in by the other board members. The vote was actually 4-1, because at the time the vote was taken, the board had two vacancies.

Steven J. Kravetz, who had been the seventh member, resigned during the April 25 meeting, saying the process had become a “circus.”

Former board member John P. Counter, executive director of the Greenfield Housing Authority, also resigned a few days before the meeting. He cited professional and personal commitments.

The other authority board members are Joseph T. O’Neill, who preceded Devine as chairman, Raymond P. Murphy Jr., Charles F. Glidden, Jacqueline Watson and James Brunault, who was appointed by the City Council April 17. The board has one vacancy.

Despite the ouster of O’Neill as chairman and the appointments of Devine and Brunault, it was unclear what could be done to get the authority to repay the $465,000 in retirement costs. Authority officials have said an unavoidable problem is a hole created by federal reimbursements covering only about 75 percent of costs.

Finance Committee Chairman Todd A. McGee said he would file an order seeking a review of the authority by the office of State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump.

“Because we don’t know what has happened behind the scenes,” McGee said.

Devine said the board would file a similar request to Bump’s office.

City Solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross said her office is intent on resolving authority issues. She has begun talks with Quinn about an authority payment plan for the city to recoup the $465,000, she said.

Councilors were dismayed to learn the authority paid Ball Consulting Group LLC, of Newton, a public relations company, $30,000 through December and owes it another $13,000.

The authority also amassed $16,145 in fees to the firm Egan, Flanagan and Cohen, of Springfield.

Besides charging $18 for 20 minutes worth of work in obtaining councilors’ names and addresses – which McGiverin noted was available in numerous places, including the city website – the law firm charged $180 for showing up at a meeting on March 30 that wound up being cancelled. The firm charged another $9 for a Feb. 3 call to Quinn to resend a fax.

Also during the meeting, McGee and other councilors questioned members of the city Retirement Board about why authority retirement costs were allowed to go unpaid for years. The $465,000 bill included costs dating back to 2008.

State law requires that entities such as the authority and the city make contributions according to a schedule to ensure retired employees’ pensions get funded.

The authority is current on pension payments made from employee payroll deductions, but struggles with its own pension contributions, and other bills, which prompted McGee’s questions.

“Why are you not having a legal battle with them to get them to pay?” McGee said.

Board member Daniel R. Owens said the Retirement Board took the position that it was best to try to work with the authority.

Board member Jorge L. Neves said the Retirement Board is a panel of trustees that lacks legal standing to bring a lawsuit.

“We don’t have standing to bring the lawsuit, and we all know that even if we could bring the lawsuit, we couldn’t collect on it,” Neves said.

Rodriguez-Ross disputed that, saying the Retirement Board did have legal standing to sue the authority to recover unpaid bills.

“They have breached their contract with you,” Rodriguez-Ross said.

Councilor Linda L. Vacon addressed a point that has irritated some councilors. Criticism of the authority’s failure to pay bills or discuss its finances has been presented by authority defenders as an assault on the facility’s residents and employees, she said.

“Nonsense,” Vacon said.

Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent, she said.

The meeting will take on the issue of corporate citizenship

AMHERST – Town meeting returns for its third session Monday night and will take a break in budget deliberations to open the meeting with a discussion about corporations and people.

In the first two nights of the 254th annual Town Meeting last week, voters approved the $28.5 million regional and the $21.5 million elementary school budgets, the $2.2 million library operating budget with the town’s $1.6 million appropriation and the $927,560 conservation and development budget.

Voters also approved the $1.6 human services budget but rejected by tally vote two attempts to increase that budget, first by $66,000 and then by $26,000.

Monday night, voters will take up the Supreme Court and corporate personhood before returning to a discussion for the $8.8 million public safety budget, which incudes police and fire.

By petition, Town Meeting will consider an amendment to reverse the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allows corporations, unions and wealthy people to raise and spend unlimited campaign money through political action committees known as super PACs, provided candidates are not directly involved.

Northampton recently passed a resolution calling for an amendment to reverse the Supreme Court decision as well.

Town officials are also looking at amending another petition article before it comes to the meeting.

This article is asking voters to amend town bylaws to address the Secure Communities program, where fingerprints taken from a criminal are turned over to the FBI, who share them with the Department of Homeland Security. 


The bylaw instructs the FBI to "immediately cease the dissemination to other agencies." The Northampton City Council and the Springfield City councils passed resolutions. 

But since then the American Civil Liberties Union discovered a federal regulation that allows communities to enact an actual law, said Jeff Napolitano director of the Northampton-based American Friends Service Committee.

“Municipalities can dictate what the FBI does with criminal background checks,” he said.

But town officials sought and opinion from Town Counsel Joel Bard who disagrees the town can enact such a law.

Bard wrote that he does not believe the town can “limit the FBI from further disclosing criminal history information it has lawfully obtained and is legally authorized to disseminate.”

“The Board was not comfortable with it as a bylaw,” said Town Manager John P. Musante.

The board takes a position on all articles. The board is expected to discuss a draft compromise motion at its Monday night meeting prior to Town Meeting. The motion would consider adopting a resolution similar to what Northampton and Springfield approved.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Amherst Regional Middle School.

Officials hope to convince the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to let them use a $6.3 million grant awarded to build a new library to instead renovate and expand the existing building housing the West Springfield Public Library.

Republican file photoThe West Springfield Public LIbrary..

WEST SPRINGFIELD – The Town Council is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to authorize a $7.1 million bond for a major library building project.

It is scheduled to take that action during its regularly scheduled meeting set for 7 p.m. in the municipal building.

The request originated under the administration of former Mayor Edward J. Gibson last year when plans called for building a $13.4 million library on the site of Mittineague School

However, those plans changed about the time Mayor Gregory C. Neffinger took office in January and it was learned that the school site would not be available. Proponents of building a new library had hoped the city would get a grant from the state to put an addition onto Tatham School to create space for students who would otherwise have attended Mittineague. No grant for that purpose has been forthcoming from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

The Town Council’s ad hoc committee studying the situation is expected to recommend to the council Monday that it move ahead to bond to renovate and expand the existing library at 200 Park St.

Library officials are hopeful that they can reduce the amount of money ultimately needed to bond for a project by $2 million that a steering committee being formed by the Board of Library Trustees plans to raise through a local fund drive.

Local officials want to use a $6.3 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners awarded last year to build a new library at Mittineague School for a project at the current library building. They plan to make their case to the state board when it meets June 7.

“I think a consensus has been built with all the individuals who have sat at the table that this is the course to take,” Town Councilor Brian J. Griffin, chairman of the Town Council’s New Library Ad Hoc Committee, said Friday of using the state grant for a project at the library.

The 24-foot-wide road with a sidewalk would be completed when the planned assisted living facility at the former state school site is done.

By JIM RUSSELL

BELCHERTOWN – Town Meeting approval of a $1.25 million roadway bond is the key to finally unlocking the full economic potential of the remaining 60 acres of land and buildings that for years have stubbornly resisted development efforts at the former Belchertown State School, local officials said at a public hearing Wednesday.

The town’s willingness to build a new road attracted a private company that has agreed to clean up the environmental mess at a portion of the land on its own dime.

To date, the Patrick administration has refused to release any money from a $10 million bond approved by the legislature to clean up the remainder of the former state property. The pollution occurred when the state owned the property.

Concerns about cleanup costs and the attendant liability have thwarted efforts to attract private development, and frustrated town officials who want the land sold so it can be placed on the tax rolls.

According to an arrangement with the town and Weston Solutions Inc., the company will spend $2 million of its own money to remove the four buildings contaminated with lead paint and asbestos at an 11-acre parcel known as Pad 1.

Members of the town-appointed Belchertown Economic Development and Industrial Corporation said Weston would create at least fifty construction jobs for three years to remediate Pad 1 then build a 150,000-square-foot, 170-unit, assisted living facility that would permanently employ more than 100 in a wide range of positions.

“We have a good strong partner, we have a good development plan,” the development corporation’s chairman William Terry said at the May 2 public hearing sponsored by the board.

The board said Weston has identified a business associate to build the assisted living facility. The company, which would run the housing project, would pay Weston to oversee the construction.

The development board said Weston has asked that the name of their business associate remain confidential until the deal becomes a sure thing. The board did not disclose its name at the hearing

Before the housing is built, a plan calls for the town to spend up to $1.25 million to build a new road leading to the site from Route 202.

The 24-foot-wide road with a sidewalk currently planned on one side would be completed when Weston finishes construction of the assisted living facility, town officials said.

The roadway project also includes drainage work, piping for water and sewer access, and electrical and cable work.

Selectman Ronald Aponte and Town Administrator Gary L. Brougham said the $1.25 million bond voters will be asked to approve at the May 14 annual town meeting includes some initial outlays but would eventually be paid from property tax money, and ultimately cost taxpayers nothing.

They estimate the 15-year payout will cost the town $125,000 the first year, reducing to $75,000 by year 15.

Town officials say that if Weston reneges on its remediation and development promises, no road would get built by the town.

“We are not going to build this highway to heaven and have nothing on the other end,” Brougham said at the hearing.

Aponte said that if Town Meeting approves the roadway bond, Weston is expected to take title of the 11 acres “within weeks.” Because of the pollution on the property, and the $2 million cost estimate to clean it, the development board said the land currently has a “negative value.”

Although few attended the May 2 public hearing, residents Max Bock and Fred Fabbo peppered the board with questions at the 90-minute meeting.

They wanted to know what happened to the $10 million promised by the state to remediate the property. The men also reminded the corporation about previous ideas for the site that went nowhere. The corporation is legal owner of the state school land.

Aponte said that success building the assisted living quarters should convince the governor to release the $10 million bond.

The $10 million would be used to clean up the remainder of the property so it can be developed, Aponte said. He said Weston hopes to remediate the remainder of the property using money from the state bond.

Brougham said revenue estimates from the proposed assisted living facility show the town would not lose money building the road. He also pointed to Keystone Commons in nearby Ludlow.

Keystone Commons opened in 2008 on West Street with 90 units. Saying there was a waiting list, the company asked the town for permission to add ten apartments in November, which the Ludlow Planning Board approved the next month.

The Ludlow collector’s office said the town received $170,280.53 in the past year from the property taxes owed and the five-acre parcel is assessed at $10,028,300.

The American Red Cross is assisting the displaced family, which includes two adults and four children.

SPRINGFIELD – A kitchen fire caused by unattended cooking on the stove at 166 Quincy St. displaced two adults and four children.

Dennis G. Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph A. Conant, said the fire was reported at the two-family home just before noon on Saturday.

He said the fire caused between $7,000 and $10,000 in damage, and started in the first floor kitchen. The upstairs apartment was vacant.

The homeowner is Lawrence Shea. The American Red Cross is assisting the displaced family, he said. Leger said the children all are under five years old.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Robert Daunais

Robert H. Daunais, 76, of South Hadley, died Friday. He was born in Springfield. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was discharged in 1963. Daunais worked for area car dealerships and retired from Burke-Whitaker in Northampton. He was a member of the Elks in Ludlow and the American Legion.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Bernardara, Lisa (Chandler)
  



• 
  Chelo, Manuel A. "Manny"
  



• 
  Curran-Lambert, Rita E.
  



• 
  Daunais, Robert H.
  



• 
  Diaz, Amando J.
  



• 
  Galanek, Edward W.
  



• 
  Geissler, Dr. Elaine
  



• 
  Gola, Matilda "Tillie" (Kaczmarczyk)
  



• 
  Haaga, Hella I. (Kress)
  



• 
  Hartmann, Mildred H.
  



• 
  Heckman, Elizabeth A. (Bruno)
  



• 
  John, Julia St.
  



• 
  Lenihan, Francis M. "Fran"
  



• 
  Quirk, W. Michael
  



• 
  Remillard, Marie L.
  



• 
  Samson, Frank L.
  



• 
  Tardif, Eugene
  

The woman was shot once; she was brought to Baystate Medical Center for treatment. Her condition was not available.

03.09.11 | Photo by Julian Feller-Cohen – An Agawam Police cruiser.

An update to this story was posted at 10:05 p.m. Saturday

AGAWAM – A 21-year-old woman was shot accidentally by a police officer who was responding to her 911 call at her apartment at 238 Maple St. for what was believed to be a breaking and entering and possible domestic dispute.

Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni said the incident happened at approximately 4:30 a.m. on Saturday. The apartment complex is Elizabeth Manor.

When police arrived at the address, they heard breaking glass and loud voices and became concerned as they were trying to gain entry into the apartment, he said.

As the officers were readying themselves to get enter the apartment, one officer’s gun went off, and the woman was shot, Mastroianni said.

He is not releasing the name of the woman or where she got shot. He said she was shot once and treated at the scene by the officers then brought to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. He described the shot as “non-fatal.” Her condition was not available.

Mastroianni is not releasing the name of the officer who shot the woman. Agawam police said the incident remains under investigation.

Mastroianni said a male suspect fled out the back door after the shooting, but was apprehended after. Police are still investigating whether or not he will be charged. His name also has not been released.

State police also were called to the scene. The incident is now under investigation by Agawam police, Massachusetts State Police and District Attorney’s Office.

Selectmen suggested that cuts should be considered to the administrative portion of the school budget.

LUDLOW - When the School Committee meets Tuesday it is scheduled to begin prioritizing the cuts it will make if no additional funds become available to the proposed fiscal 2013 School Department budget.

Interim School Superintendent Donna Hogan has proposed a fiscal 2013 school budget of $25.4 million, which she says is $579,000 under the fiscal 2012 spending level due to cuts in grants and federal stimulus money.

School officials are hoping that some additional funds will become available in the form of additional state aid to the town and the schools.

Selectmen told the School Committee the town has to live within its means and taxpayers cannot afford another large tax increase.

Selectmen said School Committee members may have to make their case before Town Meeting if they hope to get additional funds for the School Department budget.

The School Committee has heard from students and parents who object to losing a science and technology teacher at Baird Middle School and a Portuguese language teacher at Ludlow High School.

“We’ll take the issue up Tuesday,” School Committee Chairman Charles D. Mullin said.

Hogan has proposed cutting 10 teachers, a guidance counselor at the high school, three teacher aids and two tutors.

Enrollment in the elementary schools will be down next year by about 60 students, Hogan said. She said many of the cuts will be made through retirements and resignations.

Selectmen Chairman Jason Barroso suggested that administrative costs in the School Department may be too high.

He suggested that school officials consider cutting one of two assistant principal positions at the high school.

Selectman Carmina Fernandes said, “The public is our boss, and they have told us that budgets are out of control.”

Fernandes also suggested that the administrative part of the School Department budget may be too high.

“If you have too many chiefs and not enough Indians, you will lose,” Fernandes said.

She said the School Department budget may need to be streamlined at the administrative level.

“I hope they let him go Monday. There’s no way they should have found him guilty,” said Wilhite’s grandmother, Helen W. Drungo.

The Republican/John SuchockiSheila Drungo, of Springfield, is the mother of Charles Wilhite who was convicted of the murder of Alberto Rodriguez. Drungo holds up T-shirts with the likeness of her son and was at the rally to protest his conviction. The rally was held at Gerrish Park in the Six Corners.

SPRINGFIELD – Supporters of Charles L. Wilhite, convicted in 2010 of murder, gathered at Gerrish Park in Six Corners on Saturday to rally for his release.

Judge Peter A. Velis is expected to make a decision regarding the 28-year-old Wilhite’s future on Monday. Wilhite’s lawyer, David A. Lewis, said the first-degree murder conviction should be overturned, or Wilhite should be given a new trial.

At issue is the recantation of Nathan Perez, who had testified at the trial that Wilhite shot Alberto L. Rodriguez in front of the Pine Street market in October 2008. However, Perez, at a hearing last month, said that he was lying when he testified against Wilhite, saying he was coerced by Springfield Police Officer Anthony Pioggia, a claim Pioggia denied at the hearing.

“I hope they let him go Monday. There’s no way they should have found him guilty,” said Wilhite’s grandmother, Helen W. Drungo.

Drungo said she was heartened by the turnout in support of her grandson. Twenty family members and at least 40 other people turned out for the rally, some sporting “Justice for Charles” T-shirts. The event featured numerous speakers and a ride for children, as well as face painting.

“He’s innocent and I know for a fact that he didn’t do it,” Drungo said.

She said she heard the report about the shooting over the scanner, and immediately called her grandson, who was home taking care of his daughter, Iesha, at the time.

“It’s a sad situation,” said Wilhite’s girlfriend, Victoria E. Hazel. “But there are some positive things coming out of it. Hopefully he will get another chance to see the ground again.”

Wilhite’s aunt, Vira Cage, of Amherst, said what happened to her nephew is part of a larger problem of people being wrongfully convicted.

“He wasn’t the first person that happened to, and he won’t be the last,” said Cage, adding they are trying to increase awareness. They do not want anybody to be treated unfairly, she said.

She said they were at the trial every day and were stunned when the jury came back with the conviction, which meant life in prison without parole. She said her nephew did not know the person who was killed, and described the murder as a “feud between the store owner and the victim.”

A co-defendant, Angel Hernandez, also was found guilty of first degree murder. In the trial, the prosecution said Hernandez, 44, hired Wilhite to kill Rodriguez and gave Wilhite a gun. Hernandez owned the market.

The press release advertising the rally said the jury seemingly delivered the verdict based on Wilhite’s skin color. Wilhite is black.

Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni said he thought the press release was offensive to the justice system in general, specifically citing the statement about the jury.

Mastroianni added that someone can’t just say that they want to recant their testimony, and expect a verdict to change.

“You can’t just take a recantation like that at face value,” Mastroianni said about Perez. “You have to explore the motivation behind that.”

Mastroianni said the justice system is working exactly as it should, and the district attorney’s office has never been opposed to the hearing regarding Wilhite’s motion to overturn his murder conviction.

“Let’s explore it . . . and see what the judge rules,” Mastroianni said. “The system is doing just what the system is supposed to do for situations like this.”

Ed Cage, Wilhite’s uncle, said the rally wasn’t about bashing the police, or the district attorney’s office.

“We need more rallies like this, of peace,” Cage said.

Some of Wilhite’s supporters included people who were affiliated with the “Justice for Jason,” a group of supporters for Jason W. Vassell, who was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and battery stemming from a February 2008 incident at his University of Massachusetts dormitory in which he stabbed two men. Vassell, who is black, said the men, who are white, made racial taunts, and the men got into a fight. Vassell’s lawyers argued that his arrest and prosecution were racially influenced. Vassell has no criminal record because the charges against him were expunged.

Daniel L. Keefe, of Northampton, who was involved with “Justice for Jason,” said there are similarities between the two cases, and said “it’s going to take a grass-roots movement, a community movement, to get justice for Charles.”

“The same way we got Jason justice,” Keefe said.

“We can’t say yes to everything but we can’t say no to everything,” Bissonnette said.

Michael D. Bissonnette

CHICOPEE – Repairing or replacing the police station, finding a use for the former library building, replacing dozens of vehicles for firefighters, police and the Department of Public Works and continuing to improve the sewer and water system are all on the top of the list for upcoming improvement projects for the city.

That list is added to the construction of the senior center, which is to cost between $6 and $8 million and expected to start in late summer or fall, and the renovation of the former Chicopee High School, which is being designed.

“Where we are right now is we can’t say yes to everything but we can’t say no to everything,” Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette said.

The City Council recently asked Bissonnette to meet with them to discuss different capital improvement projects to help with financial planning as they start developing the budget for the upcoming year.

With the senior center and renovations of Chicopee High School under way, Bissonnette said he now wants to focus on replacing or renovating the troubled police station building and finding a new use for the former library.

In this fiscal year, the city paid $4.87 million in principal and interest on bonds borrowed for projects such as building two new high schools and a library. In the upcoming fiscal year, that will drop to $4.84 million in principal and interest, City Councilor James K. Tillotson said.

“Where do you feel comfortable with the whole bonding and indebtedness?” City Councilor Jean J. Croteau Jr. asked.

Bissonnette said the city can legally pay one-sixth of its $158 million budget on principal and interest which is about $26 million, but that is far more than he would support.

“Where we are is a self-imposed cap of $6 million and we aren’t anywhere close,” he said.

But Tillotson said the $6 million worries him.

“I would be comfortable with $6 million if our local aid (from the state) was going up but it isn’t,” he said.

The city’s state assistance has dropped annually. It is expected to be $9 million in the upcoming fiscal year, which is the same as last year but $4 million less than the city received four years ago.

One of the projects Bissonnette said he would like to examine is re-using the former library. The City Council has put off allocating the $160,000 he requested to remove asbestos and gut the building so a structural engineer can examine it to see if it can support a second floor.

Bissonnette has proposed renovating it, connecting it to City Hall and eventually moving the School Department from the Helen O’Connell Building, which has structural problems.

“It will give us a road map for this building. Do we save it, board it up for future generations or knock it down?” he said.

According to an Agawam police statement, "As police entry was made, the weapon of one of the responding officers was discharged. The bullet struck a female party within the apartment."

The Republican | Patrick JohnsonThe scene at Elizabeth Manor Apartments at 238 Maple St. Agawam police accidentally shot a woman there will responding to a domestic call.

This is an update of a story originally posted at 4:17 p.m.

AGAWAM – Agawam police accidentally shot a 21-year-old woman in her apartment early Saturday in a complex off Maple Street as they responded to a 911 call for a break-in and possible domestic assault, officials said.

The incident happened at about 4:30 a.m. in an apartment at Elizabeth Manor Apartments, 238 Maple St. The woman, whose name was not disclosed, suffered what police described as a non-fatal wound, but officials would not specify that injury.

She was being treated at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Her condition was not able to be determined Saturday evening.

Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said that according to the briefing given to him by Agawam police, officers arrived on scene and could hear breaking glass and shouting from inside the apartment.

He said as the officers were readying themselves to enter the apartment, one officer’s gun went off, and the woman was shot.

She was struck once and treated at the scene by the officers before being taken to Baystate.

Mastroianni is not releasing the name of the officer who shot the woman.
Agwamn Police Press Release on May 5 shooting

The district attorney said a male suspect who fled out the back door after the shooting was apprehended. Police are investigating whether or not he will be charged. His name also has not been released.

According to a two-paragraph press statement issued by the Agawam police, officers arrived and could hear yelling and noise inside. “As police entry was made, the weapon of one of the responding officers was discharged. The bullet struck a female party within the apartment causing a non-fatal injury,” the statement reads.

The names of the officers responding to the call were not released, nor was the identity of the officer discharging the weapon.

The Massachusetts State Police assigned to Mastroianni’s office responded to the scene, as did the state police ballistic unit. The investigation is being conducted by the Agawam police, the state police and Mastroianni’s office.

A caller who contacted The Republican and identified himself as Robert Connell, a spokesman for the family of the wounded woman, said she is the single mother of two children and is expecting a third. He said the shot shattered her jaw.

Officials could not be reached to confirm Connell’s statements.

Elizabeth Manor Apartments off Maple Street is an L-shaped apartment complex.

Residents at the complex declined to comment. One woman who said she was the wife of the assistant manager told a reporter he was on private property and had to leave.

The shooting is the third in the area in less than a month involving law enforcement officers. Each involved officers responding to reported domestic disturbances.

On April 7 at 2 a.m., Westfield police responding to domestic disturbance at 128 Elm St. shot and killed 28-year-old Douglas Gusto, of Southampton, after Gusto stabbed an officer in the leg. Officials said the shooting appeared justified, although the district attorney’s office is investigating.

One week later on April 13 at 7:45 a.m., state and Chicopee police were involved in a shoot-out with a heavily armed man barricaded in the 102 West St. apartment of his estranged girlfriend while firing upon passing pedestrians and vehicles. One state trooper and a civilian passer-by were wounded.

The gunman, Carlos A. Gonzalez-Laguer, 41, of Springfield, was later found dead in the apartment. An autopsy revealed he took his own life after having been wounded by police. The district attorney is investigating the case.

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Thirty-teams converged this weekend on Amherst for the two-day tournament, now in its 21st year. Watch video

AMHERST - In Ultimate circles, the Amherst Invitational Tournament is the ultimate event. And next year there are plans to make it even better.

Thirty-teams converged this weekend on Amherst for the two-day tournament, now in its 21st year. Teams came from as far south as Atlanta and as far west as Seattle. Organizers say next year with additional sponsors on board and more fields, it could easily grow to 50 teams.

Tiina Booth, coach of the Amherst Regional High School Boys varsity team and the organizer of the first tournament in 1992, said the first year
there were just eight teams, and four of them were from New York City.

“Since then the sport has just exploded,” she said.

“There are teams all over Western Massachusetts, there are teams all over the country. I can’t even keep up with them all anymore,” she said.

“This is the ultimate tournament for ultimate in the United States,” said spokesman Joseph Bohan “It’s the ultimate Ultimate tournament.”

With several local businesses and organizations signing on as sponsors, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, the Amherst Chamber of Commerce, Amherst Cinema, and the local Rotary Club, Bohan said there are there are plans to make it more of a community event.

“A bigger and better community event,” he said. “We’re trying to give a boost to the local economy with next year’s event.”

Teams played on field at four locations throughout Amherst: Amherst High School, Amherst Middle School, Groff Park and Hampshire College. It continues today from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Boys Division A final match will begin at 1:45 p.m. at the high school. The Boys Division B final and the Girls final will each be at 3:30 p.m., also at the high school.

Booth said if the tournament could get the use of some of the athletic fields at the University of Massachusetts, it could easily expand to 50 teams. “We’re turning down teams all the time,” she said.

The sport, originally known as ultimate Frisbee but now just called Ultimate, combines the nonstop movement of soccer, the physicality of rugby, and the aerial passing of lacrosse and football. Ultimate is a game of speed and quickness, athleticism, strength and agility, and, without referees to enforce rules and maintain order, it’s also a game of sportsmanship.

Watching on the sidelines of the match between Amherst Boys Varsity vs. Paideia High School of Atlanta, Ga., Ginny Elkin, of Amherst, said “The athleticism is amazing.”

The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four co-defendants defiantly disrupted an arraignment that ended late Saturday in the opening act of the long-stalled effort to prosecute them in a military court.

Associated PressIn this photo of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin and reviewed by the U.S. Department of Defense, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ammar al Baluchi, Ramzi Binalshibh, Walid bin Attash and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed pray during their arraignment at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, Saturday, May 5, 2012. The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants defiantly disrupted an arraignment that dragged into Saturday night in the opening act of the long-stalled effort to prosecute them in a military court. (AP Photo/Janet Hamlin, Pool)

By BEN FOX

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — They knelt in prayer, ignored the judge and wouldn't listen to Arabic translations as they confronted nearly 3,000 counts of murder. The self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four co-defendants defiantly disrupted an arraignment that ended late Saturday in the opening act of the long-stalled effort to prosecute them in a military court.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the admitted architect of the 2001 attacks that sent hijacked jetliners into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the four men accused of aiding the conspiracy put off entering pleas until a later date. Another hearing was set for June 12.

Saturday's arraignment, which should have taken a couple of hours at most, lasted almost 13 hours, including meal and prayer breaks, as the men appeared to make a concerted effort to stall the hearing at the U.S. military base in Cuba.

At one point, Mohammed cast off his earphones providing Arabic translations of the proceeding and refused to answer Army Col. James Pohl's questions or acknowledge he understood them. All five men refused to participate in the hearing; two passed around a copy of The Economist magazine and leafed through the articles.

Walid bin Attash was confined to a restraint chair when he came into court, released only after he promised to behave.

Ramzi Binalshibh began praying alongside his defense table, followed by Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, in the middle of the hearing; Binalshibh then launched into a tirade in which he compared a prison official to the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and declared that he was in danger.

"Maybe they will kill me and say I committed suicide," he said in a mix of Arabic and broken English.

The detainees' lawyers spent hours questioning the judge about his qualifications to hear the case and suggested their clients were being mistreated at the hearing, in a strategy that could pave the way for future appeals. Mohammed was subjected to a strip search and "inflammatory and unnecessary" treatment before court, said his attorney, David Nevin.

It was the defendants' first appearance in more than three years after stalled efforts to try them for the terror attacks, in which hijackers steered four commercial jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a western Pennsylvania field. The accused face charges including 2,976 counts of murder and terrorism, which carry the death penalty

The defendants' behavior outraged 9/11 family members watching on closed-circuit video feeds around the United States at East Coast military bases. One viewer shouted, "C'mon, are you kidding me?" at the Fort Hamilton base in Brooklyn.

"They're engaging in jihad in a courtroom," said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon. She watched the proceeding from Brooklyn.

A handful of people who lost family members in the attacks and were selected by a lottery to attend the proceedings watched in the courtroom.

The Obama administration renewed plans to try the men at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay after a bid to try the men in New York City blocks from the trade center site faced political opposition. It adopted new rules with Congress that forbade testimony obtained through torture or cruel treatment, and officials now say that defendants could be tried as fairly here as in a civilian court.

Human rights groups and defense lawyers say the secrecy of Guantanamo and the military commissions, or tribunals, will make it impossible to defend them. They argued the U.S. kept the case out of civilian court to prevent disclosure of the treatment of prisoners like Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times.

Nevin said he believed Mohammed was not responding because he believes the tribunal is unfair. Jim Harrington, representing Binalshibh, said his client would not respond to questions "without addressing the issues of confinement."

Cheryl Bormann, a civilian attorney for bin Attash, appeared in a conservative Islamic outfit that left only her face uncovered and she asked the court to order other women present to wear "appropriate" clothing so that defendants do not have to avert their eyes "for fear of committing a sin under their faith."

Pohl warned he would not permit defendants to block the hearing and would continue without his participation.

"One cannot choose not to participate and frustrate the normal course of business," Pohl said.

Pohl brought translators into the courtroom to interpret the proceedings live once the men refused to use earpieces attempted to stick to the standard script for tribunals, asking the defendants if they understood their rights to counsel and would accept the attorneys appointed for them.

The men were silent.

In the past, during the failed first effort to prosecute them at the U.S. base in Cuba, Mohammed has mocked the tribunal and said he and his co-defendants would plead guilty and welcome execution. But there were signs that at least some of the defense teams were preparing for a lengthy fight, planning challenges of the military tribunals and the secrecy that shrouds the case.

Defendants typically do not enter a plea during their arraignment but are offered the chance to do so.

Army Capt. Jason Wright, one of Mohammed's Pentagon-appointed lawyers, declined to comment on the case.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2009 that Mohammed and his co-defendants would be tried blocks from the site of the destroyed trade center in downtown Manhattan, but the plan was shelved after New York officials cited huge costs to secure the neighborhood and family opposition to trying the suspects in the U.S.

Congress then blocked the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo to the U.S., forcing the Obama administration to refile the charges under a reformed military commission system.

Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who grew up in Kuwait and attended college in Greensboro, North Carolina, has admitted to military authorities that he was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks "from A to Z," as well as about 30 other plots, and that he personally killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Mohammed was captured in 2003 in Pakistan.

Binalshibh was allegedly chosen to be a hijacker but couldn't get a U.S. visa and ended up providing assistance such as finding flight schools. Bin Attash, also from Yemen, allegedly ran an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and researched flight simulators and timetables. Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi is a Saudi accused of helping the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Al-Aziz Ali, a Pakistani national and nephew of Mohammed, allegedly provided money to the hijackers.

Associated Press writer Verena Dobnik in New York contributed to this report.

Prosecutors said that Jieming Liu died at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

Associated PressJieming Liu, 79, appears for arraignment in Westborough District Court, where he faced a murder charge in the death of his wife, Yuee Zhou, in their of Shrewsbury home last month. (AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Allan Jung)

BOSTON — A 79-year-old man accused of killing his wife and eating some of her flesh before he was found sitting in a rocking chair in their Shrewsbury apartment has died.

Prosecutors said Saturday that Jieming Liu died at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

Tim Connolly, spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early, said he did not have information on when Liu died, the cause of death and circumstances surrounding the passing.

Liu appeared disoriented and was wearing a white jumpsuit with no shoes when he was arraigned on April 16. He was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for mental evaluation, but was later transferred to Shattuck for treatment.

The couple arrived from China in November. His son said he thought his father may have Alzheimer's disease.

The emancipation of slaves in Washington, D.C., had prompted more than 1,000 escaped slaves from Maryland to seek shelter in the capital only to be subject to violations of the Fugitive Slave Law

Currier & Ives Springfield Museums CollectionRebels blow up Merrimac after fall of Norfolk May 11, 1862.

Springfield & The Civil War

We at The Republican are launching a four-year project to tell the story of how our community coped with 48 months of war, from April of 1861 to April of 1865.

On the first Sunday of each month we will run a report of what was happening here 150 years ago during that month.

by Wayne Phaneuf, Executive Editor

• Parts 1 - 9 -- April 1861 - December 1861

• Part 10 -- January 1862: Storm-ravaged Springfield troops live to fight another day

• Part 11 -- February 1862: 1st battle of the 27th Massachusetts a 'glorious victory'

• Part 12 -- March 1862: Lincoln inches toward Emancipation, Monitor battles Merrimac, Springfield regiments fight on as Civil War ends first year

• Part 13 -- April 1862: Springfield native unsung hero of Shiloh, slavery ends in Washington D.C.

• Introducing the project

On May 1, 1862 the first regiment of Union soldiers marched into New Orleans. Most of them were boys from Western Massachusetts who were there to enforce an occupation that would last throughout the Civil War.

The 31st Massachusetts had been recruited in the four western counties and trained in Pittsfield. New Orleans, the biggest city in the Confederacy, had surrendered the week before and the surly mobs were being held back by a handful of Marines and the threat of cannons from the U.S. fleet.

At this point in the war three regiments from Western Massachusetts were now deployed. The 10th was at the Siege of Yorktown, the 27th in North Carolina, and the 31st in New Orleans. Thousand of soldiers and sailors from the four western counties were in other units scattered across the country and the seas.

On that first day of May, under the heading “Miscellaneous War News,” The Republican ran a speculative story on the possibility that the rebels could make “a grand strike on Washington” while the Army of the Potomac was busy capturing the Confederate capital of Richmond.

The same article of miscellaneous news quoted a New York Tribune correspondent as reporting that Gen. David Hunter was preparing to clothe and arm “loyal blacks” in North Carolina to fight for the Union cause.

There was also mention of the dreaded southern iron-clad “The Merrimac” heading out of Norfolk to destroy the Union armored ship “Monitor.”

One sentence reported the death at Shiloh of rebel officer Samuel B. Todd, brother of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Another short item announced the promotion of William T. Sherman to major general.

Back on the homefront there was excitement over Bailey’s menagerie and circus coming to town, and the dedication of Central Hall in the new Union Block on Main Street. On May 2 a new dance called “Burnside’s Reel” would be introduced at the dedication and one of the instruments to be used by the orchestra was described as a “violincello” which had been captured by a member of the regimental band of the 27th Mass. at the Battle of Newbern, N.C., a victory commanded by Burnside

The Republican reported that Henry Warner, clerk of the Massasoit House, had returned to Springfield after attending to his brother Lt. George Warner, who had been wounded at Newbern. The lieutenant was now in the hospital at New York.

The newspaper frequently reported the movement of wounded soldiers by train either to or through Springfield. The following article ran in The Republican:

“The Wason Manufacturing Co. recently refitted, for the Western Railroad, two passenger cars of the New York and Boston express line for the special conveyance of wounded soldiers. About half of the seats have been taken out and their places filled with berths, six on a side, which are furnished with hair mattresses and pillows and blankets.”

The cars were designed to hold 30 soldiers each, 12 in berths and others in seats. Over the next few months they would get a lot of use.

On May 5th, The Republican reported that the month-long Siege of Yorktown had ended, not in a great battle as expected, but in the stealthily withdrawal of the Confederate Army during the night. But they left behind “presents” for the Union troops. Rebel Gen. Gabriel Rains had instructed his men to rig artillery shells to go off either by trip wire or foot pressure. The land mine had entered into modern warfare and would be refined by Rains throughout the war.

Harper's Weekly fileIllustration of a land mine exploding among Union troops at Yorktown

The first casualty was a Union horseman killed 150 years ago by the first roadside bomb.

fileLand mine inventor Gen. Gabriel Rains

On the day the news from Yorktown, Va., was announced The Republican also ran a story quoting now retired Gen. Winfield Scott predicting that the war would be virtually over by the 1st of July. It wasn’t the first time he predicted, wrongly, the impending end of the war.

On May 9th The Republican reported that the arsonsist who had been plaguing Springfield for more than two years had struck again. Fire broke out at the planing shops of Daniel Colton at the foot of Howard Street, spread to adjoining buildings and “consumed several small houses.” Colton had canceled his insurance policy the week before.

On the same day the fire was reported news of an engagement near Williamsburg, Va., appeared in The Republican. It would be the first major engagement of Gen. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign. It was essentially a rear-guard action of a portion of the rebel army which had been dispatched to delay the Union troops who had been pursuing them from Yorktown. By the time it ended, the Union had suffered 2,282 casualties, the Confederates 1,682. Hadley native Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s troops fought valiantly.

The 10th Massachusetts had been on a forced march to catch up to the battle, but the troops who had been the first to leave Springfield in 1861, arrived just as the rebels were retreating back towards Richmond. They had missed their first taste of battle but were around to view the horrors of war as they helped bury dead and attend to wounded on both sides.

“A lover of horrors here could find his fill in viewing the mangled remains of victor and vanquished, and contemplating the dying positions,” wrote one soldiers from the 10th regiment.

On May 12, The Republican reported, “Norfolk has fallen and the Merrimac is destroyed, is the glorious intelligence that comes to us from Fortress Monroe.”

The rebels withdrew from Norfolk as 5,000 Union troops marched on the port city. Most of the ship-building facilities were burned and the dreaded ironclad was taken out of the harbor and blown up. Pieces of the ship washed up on shore and were kept as mementos and at least one found its way back to Springfield. Currier & Ives soon came out with a color illustration of the exploding gunboat.

On the day of the news of the Merrimac, The Republican also reported that “Lt. George Warner of the 27th Regiment has returned home. His foot was shot off at the Battle of Newbern, and he has undergone two amputations.”

It was also reported that the Chicopee Manufacturing Company purchased a large quantity of cotton and will start up a new mill in addition to the two already running. Also in Chicopee, the Massachusetts Arms Co., was reportedly turning out 600 Smith’s carbines per month for the Army and would soon increase that to 1,000.

For those of us who think California wines are a recent phenomenon, The Republican reported on May 16, 1862, “California is to become one of the most important grape-growing and wine-producing regions of the world.”

Also on May 16 it was reported that the body of the hero of Shiloh, Col. Everett Peabody, was being returned to Springfield after being disinterred from the battlefield for burial in Springfield Cemetery. A funeral attended by hundreds in Boston was held the day before the Springfield ceremony.

fileCol. Everett Peabody grave in Springfield Cemetery

On the arrival of the train carrying the body of the fallen hero a cannon salute was fired, his body was taken from the train at Springfield depot by a hearse drawn by four black horses as Colt’s Army Band of Hartford played dirges and a procession of 30 carriages traveled down streets lined by hundreds to the Unitarian Church where Peabody’s father had served as pastor.

The following day another train pulled into the depot carrying 60 sick and wounded soldiers from throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

In addition to reporting the news of the death of Henry David Thoreau, the newspapers of that week had several reports from Europe that gauged the sentiment on the war there. They were signed by S.B. That would be Samuel Bowles, editor of The Republican who was traveling on the continent.

By the middle of May the slavery question was raging on several fronts. The emancipation of slaves in Washington, D.C., had prompted more than 1,000 escaped slaves from Maryland to seek shelter in the capital only to be subject to violations of the Fugitive Slave Law. Meanwhile Lincoln denounced General Hunter’s proclamation to free and arm slaves in North Carolina.

“Neither General Hunter, nor any other commander, or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States, to make proclamations declaring the slaves of any State free; and that the supposed proclamation, now in question, whether genuine or false, is altogether void, so far as respects such declaration,” wrote the president in a declaration of his own, which stated unequivocally that only he had the right to decide these issues, not commanders in the field.

As the month drew to a close Gen. Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter visited Springfield and spent two days at the Armory, the shad fishery on the Connecticut was having a banner year, and Gen. Nathaniel Banks had to withdraw to Baltimore from Front Royal Md., putting the nation’s capital in jeopardy. Panic ensued and Gov. Andrews of Massachusetts, on May 26, put out an urgent call for more troops.

fileGreenfield native Gen. Rufus Saxton

On May 29th, The Republican ran a story entitled “The Panic is Over.” The governor had called back the militia units which were already on their way to Washington. He explained that the orders were sent out following an urgent call from Lincoln.

On May 30th, Stonewall Jackson’s forces attacked Harper’s Ferry and were repulsed by Union general Rufus Saxton, a Greenfield native who would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions.

On the last day of the month, a Saturday, The Republican weekly summary proclaimed “this has been the most extraordinary week of the whole war — a week of needless defeat and retreat, and of sudden panic a quick reassurance.”

What the readers in Western Massachusetts didn’t know was many of their sons, brothers, fathers and friends of the 10th Massachusetts were fighting for their lives on that last day of May in what would become known as the Battle of Fair Oaks. News would not reach Springfield until the first week of June.

Springfield Police search for robbery suspect.

Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD – Police are searching for a man involved in a robbery around 4 a.m. this morning, officials said.

WWLP is reporting that the man fled police and jumped into the Connecticut River after he was seen leaving a robbery at 39 Lowell St.

Police and fire departments from Springfield, West Springfield, and Agawam have been searching for the man all morning. Officials are concerned because the water is very cold and the current is strong.

The story will be updated as more information becomes available.

State police arrest six for operating under the influence.

File photo

CHICOPEE — A sobriety checkpoint on Memorial Drive in Chicopee resulted in 13 arrests, said state police Lt. Stephen Kelly.

Police began stopping vehicles around 8 p.m. Saturday night until 3 a.m. Sunday morning.

Kelly said during that time there were 254 cars stopped. Six arrests were made for operating under the influence, two drug arrests and one criminal summons.

Kelly said the sobriety checks are conducted regularly.

"During the summer months with the warmer weather we will do several a month," he said.