The social networking company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it expects to sell its stock for between $34 and $38 per share. That's higher than a previous range of $28 to $35.

The Associated PressThis Feb. 8, 2012 photo shows a Facebook worker smiling inside Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is raising the price range at which it plans to sell stock to the public.

The social networking company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it expects to sell its stock for between $34 and $38 per share. That's higher than a previous range of $28 to $35.

The increased range is a sign of high demand from investors to own a piece of the world's most popular social network. The initial public offering is the most hotly anticipated in years and would value Facebook at more than $100 billion. The IPO is expected to be completed late Thursday, with shares to start trading Friday.

Facebook has more than 900 million users who log in at least once a month.

Facebook also adjusted the timetable for finishing its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram. In Tuesday's filing, Facebook said it expected the deal to close sometime in 2012. Previously, it had said it expected to complete the deal in the second quarter.

Some have speculated that the acquisition of the photo-sharing network would come under regulatory scrutiny. If the deal doesn't close by Dec. 10, Facebook could have to pay Instagram a breakup fee of $200 million.

Facebook Inc.'s IPO is expected to be the largest ever for an Internet company. It is expected to raise more than 10 times as much as the $1.67 billion raised in Google Inc.'s 2004 IPO.

Costa Rican authorities say they don't have the resources to extradite a 22-year-old Trinity College senior who left that country after driving a rental car into some pedestrians at a bus stop.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Costa Rican authorities say they don't have the resources to extradite a 22-year-old Trinity College senior who left that country after driving a rental car into some pedestrians at a bus stop.

The Hartford Courant reports (http://cour.at/L5R73k) that Michael Phillips of Stow, Mass. got into the accident in March, while heading to the airport from a triathalon. One man suffered a broken leg.

Phillips tells the newspaper he swerved to avoid a man who had run in front of his rental car. He stayed in the country for seven weeks seeking to resolve the case, but left through Nicaragua last week, before a settlement was reached.

Costa Rican authorities say Phillips would face negligent injury charges if he returns to the country.

___

Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com

Maple Drive resident Connor O'Brien, who turns 18 Wednesday, and Arlmont Street resident Stephen Hebert, 17, each were charged with single counts of conspiracy to violate drug laws.

HOLYOKE – A traffic stop Monday afternoon near the intersection of Main and Sargeant streets led officers to charge a pair of Chicopee teenagers with drug and other charges, according to Holyoke police records.

Police said Connor O'Brien, who turns 18 Wednesday, and Stephen Hebert, 17, were each charged with single counts of conspiracy to violate drug laws after a motor vehicle stop at about 1:40 p.m. Monday.

O'Connor, of 103 Maple Drive, was also charged with drug possession, while Hebert, of 36 Arlmont St., was additionally charged with trespassing and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Arraignment and other case information was not immediately available.

MAP of alleged crime scene:

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For Warren, the next most popular states were New York, California and Pennsylvania, compared with Brown, who saw the next highest donations after Massachusetts from Florida, New York and California.

BOSTON (AP) — Democratic Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren continues to raise more big money donations from out-of-state supporters than Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.

An Associated Press review of Federal Election Commission reports found that Brown raised about 58 percent of the nearly $2.3 million in itemized donations he collected during the first three months of the year from Massachusetts residents.

Warren raised about 43 percent of the $4.1 million in itemized donations she accepted during the same period from Massachusetts supporters.

Itemized donations are contributions of $200 or more.

For Warren, the next most popular states were New York, California and Pennsylvania, compared with Brown, who saw the next highest donations after Massachusetts from Florida, New York and California.

The Massachusetts contest is already the most expensive Senate race in the country.

Miles intends to cooperate fully with Hampden District Attorney's investigation, her lawyer, Frank Flannery said.

Submitted photoBritteney Miles

AGAWAM - The 21-year-old woman who was accidentally shot by a police officer responding to a reported domestic disturbance at her apartment on May 5 suffered a shattered jaw and faces numerous additional surgeries, her lawyer said.

Springfield lawyer Frank E. Flannery identified the injured woman as Britteney Miles in a press release issued Tuesday. Flannery said he is representing Miles.

The nature of the woman’s injuries make it difficult for her to communicate but she intends to cooperate fully with Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni’s investigation, Flannery said.

Flannery said that Miles intends to issue a statement to the media after the investigation “so that she may address a number of apparent misconceptions about the incident. In the meantime, we ask that members of the press respect the privacy of Ms. Miles and her family.”

Investigators have identified the police officer who accidentally shot Miles while responding to a domestic disturbance at Elizabeth Manor Apartments as Officer Danielle Petrangelo.

Petrangelo is an 11-year-veteran of the force, according to a release issued last Thursday by Agawam police

Petrangelo and Officer Thomas L. Forgues, who also responded to the apartment at 238 Maple St., are both on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation, according to the release.

The police department release states that Petrangelo and Forgues responded to a call, made shortly before 4:30 a.m., regarding a breaking and entry and possible domestic disturbance. While they were outside the apartment, yelling and glass breaking could be heard from inside the apartment, the release states.

“As police entry was being made, the weapon of Officer Danielle Petrangelo was discharged. The bullet struck a female party within the apartment causing a non-fatal injury,” police said.

The suspect who apparently prompted the call for police assistance fled out the back door and has since been located by police, according to the release. That person has not been arrested, Lt. Richard Light said today.

Robert Connell, who identified himself as the victim’s uncle, has said she is pregnant and the mother of two.

Taken together, four different national opinion surveys over the past week indicate that President Obama's stand on gay marriage could well hurt him politically.

File photos / Associated PressThree -time World Series champion Curt Schilling, right, is seen with other officials from his videogame company, 38 Studios, during an autograph signing in San Diego in 2010. Click on the link, above right, for a report from the Boston Herald that indicates 38 Studios may be in trouble.

• Curt Schilling's video game company, 38 Studios, appears to be in trouble [Boston Herald]


• Framingham man accused of pouring hot sauce in 6-year-old boy’s mouth [CBS Boston.com]


• Polls suggest President Obama's gay-marriage stance not helping him politically [Los Angeles Times]


• Officials in Delarware worried about people texting while walking [DelawareOnline.com]


• Boston day-care owner in court over alleged parking dispute with priest [WHDH-TV, Channel 7, Boston]


• Use of antipsychotic drugs remains issue in Pioneer Valley nursing homes [Daily Hampshire Gazette]


• Key Rupert Murdoch aide indicted in British phone hacking scandal [New York Times]


• Half of America calls Facebook a fad, new poll suggests [Boston.com]


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


• Read more News Links »


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Harvard University apparently described Elizabeth Warren as the institution's "first woman of color" in a 1996 article about affirmative action.

The Associated PressDemocratic candidate for U.S. Senate Elizabeth Warren faces reporters during a campaign stop at a diner in Shrewsbury, Mass., Sunday, April 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

With the controversy surrounding Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren's contested Native American ancestry still fresh, an online political news website has unearthed a 1997 article where Harvard University apparently described her as the institution's "first woman of color."

Politico reports that in a 1997 Fordham Law Review story by Laura Padilla called “Intersectionality and positionality: Situating women of color in the affirmative action dialogue,” a news director at Harvard Law School said Warren was the first woman professor at the university to hold such a distinction.

"There are few women of color who hold important positions in the academy, Fortune 500 companies, or other prominent fields or industries," Politico quotes the original story as saying. "This is not inconsequential. Diversifying these arenas, in part by adding qualified women of color to their ranks, remains important for many reaons. For one, there are scant women of color as role models. In my three years at Stanford Law School, there were no professors who were women of color. Harvard Law School hired its first woman of color, Elizabeth Warren, in 1995."

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., who has been under fire for refusing to return $50,000 in campaign cash from J.P. Morgan employees following the company's loss of $2 billion following an admitted risky investment, took aim at the law professor via his campaign manager Jim Barnett.

"This new revelation that Harvard characterized Elizabeth Warren as a 'woman of color' in the context of affirmative action is a clear indication that something is deeply wrong. As we all now know, Professor Warren is not a minority, her ridiculous claims notwithstanding," Barnett said in a statement following the report by Politico. "She is certainly not a 'woman of color.' This disturbing development illustrates why it is critically important that Warren, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania stop stonewalling, release her personnel records and come clean about why Warren is continuously represented as a minority hire at these schools."

Warren's contested Native American ancestry has been questioned for weeks as Brown's campaign and others have questioned whether she used family stories of such heritage to further her career through affirmative action programs. Although Warren has repeatedly denied such claims, and the universities that previously hired her released statements saying they weren't aware of such heritage claims or that they played no part in her hiring, the specter of such allegations has lingered.

Although the Boston Globe initially reported that the New England Historic Genealogical Society had unearthed a marriage license listing Warren's great-great-great grandmother as Cherokee, which would make the consumer advocate 1/32 Cherokee, it quietly retracted the claim in a correction, which can be read below:

"Because of a reporting error, a story in the May 1 Metro section and the accompanying headline incorrectly described the 1894 document that was purported to list Elizabeth Warren’s great-great-great grandmother as a Cherokee. The document, alluded to in a family newsletter found by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, was an application for a marriage license, not the license itself. Neither the society nor the Globe has seen the primary document, whose existence has not been proven."

When asked by Politico to respond to the story showing that Harvard described Warren as a minority professor in 1996, Warren's Press Secretary Alethea Harney said that the report included nothing new and it was time to refocus the campaign dialogue of other issues.

"Elizabeth has been clear that she is proud of her Native American heritage and everyone who hired Elizabeth has been clear that she was hired because she was a great teacher, not because of that heritage," Harney told Politico. "It's time to return to issues - like rising student loan debt, job creation, and Wall Street regulation - that will have a real impact on middle class families."

For more than a decade, Warren said she listed herself as Native American in a directory of law school professors in order to meet people like her. She said she stopped "checking the box" when it never happened, admitting it wasn't the intention of the directory.

Domenic Maloni said he would like to reopen the farm stand by September.

File photo by Mark M. Murray / The Republican03/2/09 Wilbraham Mark M.Murray Photo- The Rice Fruit Farm stand is seen 757 Main St., Wilbraham shortly after it closed its doors in 2009.

WILBRAHAM - Voters at Monday’s annual Town Meeting approved a new zoning amendment which will allow the Rice farm stand to reopen, upon approval of a special permit from the Planning Board.

A two thirds vote was needed for the zoning amendment to be approved. Planning Director John Pearsall said the vote appeared to be unanimous.

One resident had questions on the agricultural uses which would be allowed.

Pearsall said the intent is to allow similar uses to those which were in place when Jesse Rice ran the farm stand.

Jesse Rice, the longtime owner of Rice Fruit Farm, died in November 2010 at the age of 91. The Rice family operated Rice Fruit Farm for more than 100 years. A large portion of the property has been preserved as Rice Nature Preserve.

Dominic Maloni of Wilbraham plans to reopen the agricultural farm stand on Main Street and sell the same things that Jesse Rice sold for many years, including apples, ice cream, pies, muffins, cookies and Christmas trees.

Maloni said he is talking to the Rice family’s baker about coming back to work.

The zoning amendment which was approved allows approval of a heritage farm stand use which would allow agricultural products to be sold from the region. Other uses such as greenhouse uses, food services and an art gallery also would be permitted.

The earliest the farm stand will open is September, Maloni said.

Pearsall said Maloni seems anxious to reopen the farm stand and plans to seek approval of the special permit so he can make needed repairs to the building.

Planning Board member Richard Butler said he has heard “universal support” in town for getting the farm stand up and running.

“Everybody is for it,” he said.

The Malonis currently operate Cindy’s Drive In on Route 202 in Granby, which sells burgers and ice cream.

The new heritage farm stand use calls for agricultural products to be sold from the region. Other uses such as greenhouse uses, food services and an art gallery also would be permitted.

A lawyer for the state and two nurses said nothing was done wrong in the treatment of Cynthia Brace.

Cynthia Brace

SPRINGFIELD – There was nothing “sudden or silent” about the death Cynthia Brace endured at the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow in August 2005, the lawyer for her estate argued Tuesday.

Shawn P. Allyn, who brought suit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Brace’s estate and her husband Cecil Brace, said her death was the result of improper assessment, lack of communications and lack of monitoring and treatment of her condition as she experienced alcohol withdrawal.

Edward McDonough, representing the state and two nurses at the jail – the three named defendants in the civil suit – said Brace’s death certificate “is unshakable evidence in this case.”

Showing the death certificate on a monitor in the federal courtroom, he said the cause of death is listed as cardiac arrhythmia.

“It does not say she died from alcohol withdrawal,” he said.

The jury will continue deliberations Wednesday after deliberating for about four hours Tuesday.

Cynthia Brace, 41, was arrested along with her son and husband Cecil in 2005 for essentially hijacking the home of an elderly friend in Holyoke, assaulting the man and turning his house into a drug den.

Family members pleaded guilty to charges in 2006, including Cecil Brace who admitting assaulting the homeowner, receiving stolen property and possessing cocaine.

McDonough said Steven Gobielle and Jennifer Kane, nurses who were on duty at the jail when Brace was brought in after her arrest and when she died, have for seven years “been unfairly and publicly blamed for this death.” Gobielle and Kane are two of the named defendants, with the other being the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

McDonough attacked the reputation of defense expert witness Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, who he said testified like “a hired gun.”

Laposata told jurors that Brace died of “untreated opiate and ethanol (alcohol) withdrawal.”

McDonough accused Laposata of purposely forgetting her file on the case when she traveled here to testify from Rhode Island.

“She didn’t want me to see the file. She didn’t want you to see the file,” he said.

McDonough said “when cornered,” Laposata couldn’t deny what was written on the death certificate as cause of death.

“What did Steve and Jen have to do with that?” he said. “Nothing...Exonerate these two nurses.”

Allyn said Brace is dead because of “two people (Gobielle and Kane) who failed to do their jobs.”

He said Kane did not do a complete medical intake of Brace, and just sent her to segregation without any medical plan after doing a “mini-intake.”

“I never told you the Brace family was a perfect family,” Allyn said. He said Cynthia Brace “may have been lost in her ways” but documents show she sought addiction treatment at different points in her history.

Massachusetts citizen and community groups are suing the state for allegedly failing to offer recipients of public assistance help in registering to vote.

File photo | The RepublicanMassachusetts citizen and community groups are suing the state for allegedly failing to offer recipients of public assistance help in registering to vote.

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts citizen and community groups are suing the state for allegedly failing to offer recipients of public assistance help in registering to vote.

The suit was filed in federal court on Tuesday by the regional office of the NAACP, the group New England United for Justice and Bethzaida Delgado, a Massachusetts woman who said she was repeatedly denied voter registration services.

The suit alleges that Secretary of State William Galvin's office and the state Department of Transitional Assistance violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by failing to offer registration opportunities to the poor.

Plaintiffs cited a DTA internal report suggesting about 94 percent of public assistance clients did not receive the services.

A spokesman for Galvin said the office does not comment on on-going cases and DTA had no immediate response to the suit.

Manuel Lora was 1 of 3 convicted felons who rented and fired several handguns at the Smith & Wesson Shooting Sports Center last year.

File photo | The Republican

SPRINGFIELD — Smith & Wesson has temporarily closed its Shooting Sports Center and retail store at 299 Page Blvd., in part because an accused killer was arrested in October on a federal gun charge stemming from a round of target practice at the range.

“We recently made the business decision to temporarily close our Shooting Sports Center, while we make changes to better align its purpose with our key business objectives as a firearm manufacturer,” wrote Elizabeth A. Sharp, Smith & Wesson vice president for investor relations, in an email Tuesday afternoon. “This is a decision that we made internally and on our own accord for a number of business-related reasons which include the many complexities of operating a public range, combined with our desire to focus on our manufacturing operation.”

Sharp didn’t include a date for when the center could reopen. She said the Shooting Sports Center is less than a decade old and she didn’t know how many people work there.

Founded in Springfield in 1852, Smith & Wesson has about 1,200 employees at its factory and corporate headquarters on Roosevelt Avenue.

Springfield Police Dept.Manuel Lora

Manuel A. Lora, 22, was one of three convicted felons who rented and fired several handguns at the Smith & Wesson Shooting Sports Center in Springfield on May 28, 2011, according to court documents first reported by MassLive.com and The Republican on May 3.

Because Lora had been convicted on a drug charge in August 2007 that was punishable by more than a year in prison, his afternoon at the range triggered a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was snared along with 12 other suspects — including his two shooting partners — in an Oct. 6 sweep by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Lora is one of the three people charged in the Aug. 23, 2011 slaying of Jonathan Tallaj, 25. Tallaj, who worked as a nursing assistant, was shot outside his Wilmont Street home around 10:30 p.m. Priscilla Texidor, 21, and her 18-year-old brother, James Texidor, also were charged in the Tallaj case. The Texadors were not shooting with Lora at the Smith & Wesson range.

Sharp wrote that all visitors to the Shooting Sports Center are asked to provide legal identification and must attest that they comply with all state and federal laws regarding the possession and operation of a firearm.

“In keeping with our long-standing role as a responsible member of our community, we have always operated our shooting sports center in full compliance with all applicable laws, procedures, and regulations, with the safety of our customers and our community as our paramount objective,” Sharp said.

In December, P. James Debney, Smith & Wesson’s president and CEO, told area stockbrokers that the company liked having the Shooting Sports Center because it is Smith & Wesson’s only direct with the gun-buying public. Most firearms are sold through a carefully tended network of independent gun and sporting goods retailers.

Smith & Wesson announced March 8 that net sales were $98.1 million in the preceding quarter. That was up 23.8% from the $79 million recorded in the same time period the year before. The increase was driven by strong sales of M&P-brand handguns, M&P sporting rifles, and all Smith & Wesson personal protection and concealed carry pistols.

Gross profit for the third quarter was $30 million, or 30.6 percent of net sales, compared with gross profit of $19.4 million, or 24.5 percent of net sales, for the same period last year.

Smith & Wesson’s stock closed Tuesday at $7.08 a share, having gone up $3.54 on the year and 9 cents on the day.

Smith & Wesson has also announced that it is raising its anticipated net sales outlook from continuing operations for fiscal 2012 to between $395 million and $400 million.

The euro plunged, and the Dow Jones industrial average extended a slide that has wiped out nearly 5 percent of its value in two weeks.

By DANIEL WAGNER | AP Business Writer

Associated PressA woman is hold a sign during a demonstration against the banks in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Spain got caught up in the uncertainty surrounding the European single currency and the electoral stalemate in Greece Monday as it saw its borrowing costs rise and stock prices fall at alarming rates. The sign reads in Catalan: "Stop evictions". (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Europe's latest political impasse cast a gloom over financial markets Tuesday. The euro plunged, and the Dow Jones industrial average extended a slide that has wiped out nearly 5 percent of its value in two weeks.

The biggest action of the day came shortly before U.S. markets opened, when a Greek party leader announced the talks to build a coalition government had failed. The euro and major European stock markets turned sharply lower and stayed there the rest of the day.

Newly elected political leaders in Greece disagree about whether to accept more international bailouts and continue with painful spending cuts. If Greece exits the euro currency, it could rattle financial markets around the world.

In the U.S., stocks opened mixed and then staged a weak, mid-morning rally after word that confidence among U.S. builders rose to a five-year high in May. Homebuilders gained: Hovnanian Enterprises surged 10 percent, Lennar Corp. 3 percent and PulteGroup Inc. 2 percent.

The Dow and other stock indexes meandered between gains and losses for much of the day, then turned decisively lower in the last hour of trading.

The Dow wound up with a loss of 63.35 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 12,632. Losses by most of its components were offset by a big gain for JPMorgan Chase. The nation's biggest bank rose 1.3 percent, recovering some of the losses it has sustained since revealing a $2 billion trading loss last week.

The Dow has lost 647 points, or 4.9 percent, since May 1, when it hit a four-year high of 13,279.32. In that time it has fallen every day but one. The Dow is on track for its first monthly decline since September, when it fell 6 percent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index finished down 7.69 points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,330.66. The Nasdaq composite index fell 8.82, or 0.3 percent, to 2,893.76.

The euro fell as low as $1.2720, a four-month low against the dollar, after Greek socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos declared that attempts to form a governing coalition there had failed and new elections will be held next month.

Aside from fears about Europe, stocks are suffering because a string of weaker economic data has dimmed hopes for corporate profits in the current quarter ending June 30, said John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, a financial data provider.

For the first month of the quarter, as earnings came in strong and stocks rose, analysts' expectations for second-quarter earnings growth held steady at 6 percent, Butters said. In the two weeks since, as the U.S. economy appeared to soften and Europe's problems reemerged, he said, analysts cut their estimates for S&P 500 earnings growth to 5 percent.

Analysts expect earnings to decline this quarter for half of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500, Butters said. He said many expect a strong rebound in the fourth quarter as demand returns in emerging markets like China and India.

Among other stocks making big moves:

• Home Depot slumped 2.4 percent after the world's biggest home-improvement company forecast revenue that was below what Wall Street analysts were expecting.

• TJX Cos., which owns the T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods store chains, shot up 6.9 percent, the most in the S&P 500 index. The discount retailer reported a 58 percent surge in first-quarter income and raised its full-year profit forecast.

• Avon Products Inc. fell 9.7 percent, the most in the S&P 500 index, after perfume marketer Coty Inc. canceled its unsolicited, $10.7 billion bid for the cosmetics retailer.

• Groupon rose 3.7 percent after the online daily discount site reported first-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts' expectations.

Network Health provides health care coverage to more than 200,000 Massachusetts residents with low and moderate incomes, according to the organization.

File photo | The Republican

NORTHAMPTON — An agreement between Cooley Dickinson Hospital and a Medford-based health plan will give MassHealth and Commonwealth Care insurance members new options for accessing Cooley Dickinson’s health care providers.

Network Heath, a non-profit subsidiary of Tufts Health Plan announced the agreement with Cooley Dickinson on Monday. It will give Commonwealth Care and MassHealth members in its plans access to up to 285 physicians in the Cooley Dickinson network, including primary care providers and specialists. Although Cooley Dickinson already accepts people insured by MassHealth and Commonwealth Care, this will give those members greater latitude to pick among different plans.

Network Health provides health care coverage to more than 200,000 Massachusetts residents with low and moderate incomes, according to the organization.

The boy smelled smoke at 4 a.m. and ran though the building to wake family members and other residents in the 2-family home Watch video

George GrahamDemetrius Faust

SPRINGFIELD - Springfield Veterans Activities Committee Chairman Richard Tyrell announced Tuesday that this year’s recipient of the Lt. J. Frank Murphy Medal of Valor will be Dimetrius Faust, a 13-year-old boy who is credited with saving nine people during an early morning house fire at 51-53 Daytona St on Sept. 14.

The boy smelled smoke at 4 a.m. and ran though the building to wake family members and other residents in the 2-family home. The house sustained more than $100,000 in damages, but no one was injured, and officials at that time called Faust a hero.

The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. in the council chamber at Springfield City Hall. Tyrell and Mayor Domenic Sarno will make the presentation.

Murphy, a Springfield native for whom the award is named, led a raid in 1945 behind enemy lines to capture a Japanese prison camp, freeing 511 survivors of the Bataan Death March.

He was a member of the Army 6th Ranger Infantry Battalion. He was awarded the Silver Star by Gen. Douglas McArthur and elected posthumously into the Ranger Hall of Fame in Fort Benning, Ga.

The award is given on an annual basis to a citizen of Springfield who has risked his or her life in saving the lives of others, or to a non-resident who performed such an act within the city of Springfield.

Morse said Boyle was entitled to her opinion but his actions on authority issues have been transparent.

Staff Photo by Dave RobackAngela A. Boyle, left, shown with husband Daniel C. Boyle in September, has withdrawn her candidacy for Holyoke Geriatric Authority board seat.

HOLYOKE — A vacancy will be filled on the board that oversees the Holyoke Geriatric Authority this month, but it won’t be Angela A. Boyle.

Boyle, a nurse practitioner who was on the board from 2000 to 2008, said Tuesday she told Mayor Alex B. Morse she felt he was treating her like “a pawn in a political game” and withdrew her candidacy.

Morse said that that was untrue and that he has handled authority issues openly.

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

Morse is filling the seat vacated last month by former board member John P. Counter, who resigned because of personal and professional commitments.

Morse said Tuesday he plans to fill the seat in about a week from a field that includes candidates for a previous board opening and other residents.

Boyle was among four candidates for the seat to which the City Council on April 17 appointed James Brunault.

Boyle said Morse asked her if she was interested in being appointed by him to the seat and she told him yes. But then she learned Morse was considering others, as well, she said.

“I withdrew, obviously, because I was very disappointed at the way he handled it,” said Boyle, nurse practitioner with Hampshire Family Physicians, in Belchertown.

“I have a lot of experience (in geriatric care). ... I wanted to join the board to help the Geriatric and I love the elderly,” Boyle said.

Morse said Boyle was entitled to her opinion but his actions on authority issues have been transparent.

“As with all appointments, I take my time and do my research in the hopes of appointing the best possible person for the position. In this case, it seems like Angela Boyle is not that person,” Morse said.

He and his staff have been working on authority-related issues, he said, such as money owed to the city for employee retirement contributions.

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

Each board member is entitled to a $4,000-a-year-stipend. Those who take the stipend are Chairwoman Patricia C. Devine and members Raymond P. Murphy Jr., Charles F. Glidden, Joseph T. O’Neill and James Brunault. Member Jacqueline Watson said she returns the money to the authority.

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.

Residents will have the chance to vote on a new $7.4 million police station at the June 12 election.

PALMER — Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said that public information meetings on the proposed Police Station project will be held May 23 and 30 and June 6 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall meeting room.

Blanchard said depending on the activity at the Police Department at the time, tours will be given as well.

There also will be an open house at the Police Department on Memorial Day, May 28, from noon to 4 p.m.

Residents will have the chance to vote on a new $7.4 million police station at the June 12 election. It would be funded through a 20-year debt exclusion, which raises taxes only for the life of the project. A new police facility would be built on town-owned land behind the current town offices and police building on Main Street.

The committee held its first organizational meeting on Tuesday.

Photo by Don Treeger / The RepublicanMembers of the new Springfield Casino Site Committee gather for their first meeting Tuesday. Seated around the table are, from left, committee members Bobbie Rennix, Zaida Luna, William Pepin, Bub Williams, Paula Meara, Richard O'Connor, James Ferrera III, and Maurice Thomas.

An Associated Press-MSNBC poll shows that half of all Americans think Facebook is a fad.

Mark M. Murray/ The Republican05/15/12 West Springfield- Republican Photo- Christopher Franks, reference librarian at the West Springfield library with the library's Facebook page on the computer

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Christopher Franks, a reference librarian at the West Springfield Public Library, can tack up dozens of fliers and never hear back from anyone.

When he posts something on Facebook, he gets results.

“Every time we get a new book in that people are talking about, we post it to the Facebook page. People come right on down to the library and request the book,” Franks, who manages the library’s social media outreach on Facebook and the microblogging site Twitter, said. “We can post things to our regular website. But Facebook gets people communicating back and forth and talking to other people.”

On Tuesday, the Associated Press and MSNBC released a poll showing that half of all Americans think Facebook is a fad.

But look at the library: People are not only clicking “like” online, but going to a brick-and-mortar library to check out an old fashioned ink-and-paper book after seeing something on Facebook.

John J. Garvey, president of Garvey Communications Inc., would like to see a pet rock, a mood ring or the Macarena pull that off.

Garvey, who helps clients manage and expand their reach and influence on Facebook as well as Twitter and picture-sharing website Pinterest, said Facebook is a tool that isn’t going away soon, especially, he said, because of its ability to collect and analyze data then present users with information that meshes with interests people have already demonstrated on the site.

Facebook will go public later this week with an initial valuation of $100 billion. That would make Facebook worth more than Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.

More than 40 percent of American adults log in to the site at least once a week. Some 900 million people around the world are users. Facebook’s revenue grew from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. And in the first quarter of 2012 its revenue was more than $1 billion, according to The Associated Press.

Donald J. Anderson owns the The Cruise Store in East Longmeadow with his wife Maureen Anderson. He said regular advertising, including in The Republican, is a good way to get attention.

“But it is once and done,” Anderson said. “Go to our Facebook page, stay on it and hopefully create a relationship through social media.”

PeoplesBank staff check the bank’s Facebook page at night and on weekends scouting for customer service issues that need to be dealt with offline or simply answering questions, said Karen J. Buell, PeoplesBank’s Internet branch officer.

Garvey, who works for PeoplesBank and for Anderson, said PeoplesBank’s Facebook page has a reach of more than 120,000 users, and 12 percent of them are women over the age of 55.

The Associated Press Poll said older people are much less likely to use Facebook.

And Franks said the West Springfield library has already noticed a migration of junior high school and high school readers to Twitter, which allows users to post messages of 140 characters or less.

That’s too short for Saumajit “Sam” Saha, 30, of West Springfield, who uses Facebook to keep in touch with friends all over the world.

“And they are all real friends, people I have met in person and talk with in person,” he said. “I’m not like one of these teenagers with thousands of Facebook friends they don’t really know. As you get older, you prune the hedges.”

He said he's also careful with what he shares and how he arranges the privacy settings on his account.

Hoffman, of Hatfield, is charged with witness intimidation and witness harassment.

The Republican | Michael S. GordonPolice and fire officials investigate a bomb threat Monday at Hampshire County Courthouse on Gothic Street in Northampton.

WORCESTER – The federal obstruction of justice criminal case against the Hampshire Superior Court’s acting chief probation officer, who told a subordinate being interviewed by the FBI that she was a rat who would end in jail, according to court records, was continued Tuesday until June 26 for a pre-trial conference.

Christopher J. Hoffman, 39, of 112 Main St., Hatfield, is charged with witness intimidation and witness harassment involving threats prosecutors said he made to the subordinate. Hoffman has been the acting chief probation officer at Hampshire Superior Court since 2009. His salary was $73,170 per year.

Records show Hoffman’s Dec. 21 arrest is related to a much larger FBI corruption probe under way and involving alleged fraudulent hiring practices at the state Commissioner of Probation office. He is currently free on $10,000 bond.

Hoffman’s alleged threats occurred at the courthouse when a subordinate, Probation Officer Maureen Adams, informed him she would be missing some work due to the FBI’s interview request, records on file at U.S. District Court show.

Adams’ FBI interview occurred on Oct. 19, and records show the allegations of criminal intimidation and harassment by Hoffman took place just previous to the interview and the following day.

“I will tell everyone that you are a rat; You will be in jail within a week,” the FBI said Adams told them Hoffman said prior to her interview. She has been a probation officer since 2001.

“After the interview you have to come back and tell me everything that they ask you and everything that you said,” Hoffman said to Adams, according to records.

The statements appear in an affidavit of FBI Special Agent Kevin D. Constantine signed the day the federal case was filed against Hoffman on Dec. 19.

“Hoffman obstructed justice by using intimidation and threats towards Adams, with the intent to hinder, delay and prevent her from communicating with the FBI regarding the federal investigation into the alleged fraudulent hiring practices within the Massachusetts Probation Department,” Constantine wrote.

Hoffman was placed on administrative leave Oct. 26. Hoffman also tends bar at the popular Joe’s Café on Market Street in Northampton, a night-spot known for its thin-crust pizza pies.

When Hoffman appeared in U.S. District Court in Worcester Tuesday, he appeared with a shaved head and wearing a dark suit. He stood beside his lawyer, Springfield attorney Vincent A. Bongiorni. Hoffman did not speak to the presiding judge, Judge Timothy Hillman.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin M. Bell, who is prosecuting the case, was present.

Though Bongiorni and Hoffman talked briefly with a reporter following the court appearance, the men declined to comment on the facts presented by the government. Bongiorni said his client is innocent a jury would decide the matter.

A spokeswoman for Citizens for Jobs & Growth in Palmer said Stebbins, of Springfield, does seem to have a conflict in selecting a casino license for Western Massachusetts.

Associated PressMassachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Steve Crosby, left, and commissioner Bruce Stebbins.

BOSTON — A member of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission from Springfield says he has been cleared by state ethics officials to vote on a casino license for Western Massachusetts, even though he worked for the city of Springfield before joining the commission.

Gaming commissioner Bruce W. Stebbins discussed his ethics opinion following a meeting of the commission in Boston in which panel members moved ahead on a plan to hire a permanent executive director. Last week, acting executive director C. Stanley McGee stepped down from his job after a dispute erupted over allegations that he assaulted a 15-year-old boy in the steam room of a Florida resort in 2007. Prosecutors in Florida found no evidence to corroborate the allegations.

Critics have said they are concerned that Stebbins, a former two-term member of the Springfield City Council and city employee, might be biased in favor of a casino for Springfield in a possible competition for the single casino license that could be available in Western Massachusetts.

Bruce Stebbins

In an interview after Tuesday's commission meeting, Stebbins said he requested an opinion from the state Ethics Commission, partly because he had been working as a business development manager for the city and would need to make decisions on the commission that could affect his former employer.

"Before I took this job, I approached the state Ethics Commission to get some type of guidance on how I can conduct myself as a member of the commission," Stebbins said. "They came back to me and said there really isn't anything that they would see as a violation of the conflict of interest law in Massachusetts that would prohibit me from participating in the commission's work."

Stebbins said he would need to first disclose his intent to vote on a Springfield issue, such as selecting a casino resort for Western Massachusetts.

But Stebbins said he can't say right now whether he would be allowed to vote on the Western Massachusetts casino license. That uncertainty stems from a provision in the state's gaming law that says the commission must establish a code of ethics that is more restrictive than key chapters in the state's conflict of interest laws.

Stephen Crosby

The commission's code of ethics might allow Stebbins to vote on issues affecting Springfield, or it might not, said Karen Schwartzman, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

Jennifer Baruffaldi, a spokeswoman for Citizens for Jobs & Growth in Palmer who supports the Mohegan Sun's proposal for a casino, said Stebbins does seem to have a conflict.

"I'm very concerned," said Baruffaldi, who attended the commission meeting on Tuesday. "I want to know he can be objective."

Stebbins said he will be objective.

"I''m a diligent, impartial, thoughtful person," Stebbins said. "I've brought that attitude and that mentality to the commission."

The state's casino law authorizes the commission to approve up to three casino resorts, including one for anywhere in the four counties of Western Massachusetts.

In Western Massachusetts, two companies have released plans for casino resorts. Ameristar Casinos of Las Vegas wants to build a casino on Page Boulevard in Springfield and the Mohegan Sun of Connecticut is planning a casino off Exit 8 of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Palmer.

The mayors of Chicopee and Westfield have said they could receive casino proposals for their cities.

Stephen P. Crosby, chairman of the commission, said the panel plans to hire a search firm to help select a full-time executive director. The commission has received bids from two search firms and has a goal of hiring an executive director within four or five months.

Until a new executive director is named, the commission plans to hire a couple of people to help with administration and organization, Crosby said.

Crosby declined to comment on any lessons learned from the appointment of McGee. McGee is a Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Law School graduate who planned to return to his job as an assistant secretary for policy and planning at the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

"That is history," Crosby said. "Our job is to move the commission forward. We want to be rigorous and thorough in our process, and we will be."

James F. McHugh, a retired Massachusetts Appeals Court judge and member of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, on Tuesday also released a summary and index of the provisions in the state's lengthy casino law. The index was completed by Anderson & Kreiger, a law firm in Cambridge hired by the commission.

Summary and Index of Massachusetts Gaming Law