According to FBI supplementary homicide reports, over two-thirds of the spouse and ex-spouse victims were killed by guns.

SPRINGFIELD - Slain police officer Kevin Ambrose likely faced a courteous and clean-cut professional with a law enforcement background and no criminal record, just minutes before Shawn Bryan fatally shot him three times during a routine domestic call.

By all accounts, Ambrose, a 36-year-veteran, was a particularly well-schooled cop in the pitfalls of calls for domestic warfare, which represent a significant chunk of 911 calls annually for Springfield and for police departments big and small across the country. Law enforcement officials locally have taken pains to point out that Ambrose apparently did everything right, and had an amicable conversation outside the apartment where Charlene Mitchell, Bryan’s estranged girlfriend, lived with the couple’s 1-year-old child.

But around 1 p.m. on Monday, Mitchell and Ambrose were shot multiple times each, and Bryan, a New York corrections officer, shot himself in the chest while sitting in his car outside with a Glock Model 19 for which he carried a license. Mitchell had been granted an emergency restraining order against Bryan less than an hour before.

The incident was the most recent and tragic of explosive, domestic-related crimes to plague the region over the past three months that have left police officers wounded or dead, although domestic violence watchdogs say local police departments are well-trained and the vast majority of domestic calls are not noteworthy.

“The vast majority of these instances police officers deal involve minor violence or no violence,” said Denise Kindschi Gosselin, a retired Massachusetts State Trooper and chair of the criminal justice department at Western New England University. “There’s been some movement by experts to change classifying perpetrators by risk rather than having a similar response to all cases, which is how we do it now.”

Before Ambrose was killed, Chicopee Police Officer Jeffrey Couture was beaten and choked by an angry estranged boyfriend, former court officer Jay DiRico, during a “keep the peace” call on April 17. Four days earlier in the same city, 41-year-old Carlos Laguer terrorized the downtown during a shoot-out with police that wounded a state trooper and a female bystander over a domestic disturbance; Laguer was wounded by police but fatally shot himself in the head, according to reports.

In Westfield, a police officer fatally shot 28-year-old Douglas Musto in an apartment building after Musto stabbed another patrolman while they were trying to coax him away from his ex-girlfriend’s apartment on April 7.

According to statistics from the Massachusetts Court System, the number of people seeking restraining orders sought in 2011 in District Courts statewide and Boston Municipal Court statewide was 43,743.

Those in local communities included: Springfield, 2,359; Holyoke, 615; Palmer, 488; Eastern Hampshire, 476; Westfield, 468; Chicopee, 467; and Northampton, 292.

That shows increases in those courts over 2010 figures, including 495 more filings in Springfield; 175 more in Palmer; 170 more in Eastern Hampshire; 119 more in Northampton; 62 more in Holyoke; 83 more in Chicopee; and four more in Westfield.

Those statistics include domestic abuse filings (filed against a spouse, love interest or relative) and criminal harassment filings.

Gosselin said communities like Springfield, which has its own police academy, are better positioned to properly train its officers than smaller police departments which may send officers to the occasional in-service training.

She added that any indication that the target of a restraining order is licensed to carry a gun, like Bryan, should put responders on high alert.

“The availability of guns has been a frequently noted factor contributing to all forms of homicide, including intimate partner violence. Despite a decline in gun use, firearms are still a frequent weapon used in intimate homicide,” Gosselin said.

According to FBI supplementary Homicide Reports, over two-thirds of the spouse and ex-spouse victims were killed by guns.

Springfield police have credited Ambrose with averting the killings of Mitchell and her 1-year-old daughter, who was in the apartment when the shooting erupted. The child was unharmed and Mitchell is in stable condition, according to officials.

Chicopee Deputy Police Chief William Jebb said his officers are trained to watch body language when responding to a domestic call and are sensitive to whether restraining orders are fresh - which experts consider the most dangerous time for a victim. However, Jebb said even the best-trained officers can get caught off guard.

“As in the case with Officer Couture, everything was calm and that guy just flipped a switch,” Jebb said. “He thought he was going to die and he’s a veteran of 15 years. You can’t prepare for every situation.”

Couture required 11 stitches in his head and suffered a black eye, but is back to work, Jebb said.

Hampden County Assistant District Attorney Melissa G. Moran said the emotional spikes of a break-up create an uncertain landscape for responders.

“It’s a volatile situation. The offender has a lot to lose as far as their children, their family, when there is intervention. That creates a situation where emotions are heightened,” she said.

Victim witness advocate Tina Walker added that their office helps victims develop safety plans, recognizing that making a break can send abusers over the edge.

Gosselin noted that police officers are not required to assist perpetrators to collect their belongings from their former places of residence - as in the case of Bryan, who was going to retrieve a television before suddenly forcing Mitchell into the apartment.

Hampden County District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni likens the tragedies that crop up during domestic calls to police killings that occur during traffic stops.

“Cops are trained in how to do traffic stops. They do them every day and everything goes right. Then lo and behold one day there’s a lunatic behind the wheel with a gun,” Mastroianni said. “The only hallmark of these tragedies is that the unexpected happened.”

Prosecutors say then-17-year-old Aaron Deveau sent 193 text messages the day of the fatal crash, including some just a minute or so before impact and dozens more after it.

Associated PressDefendant Aaron Deveau, 18, is led away in handcuffs in Haverhill District Court in Haverhill, Mass., Wednesday, June 6, 2012, after he was convicted on charges of motor vehicle homicide while texting. Authorities said the then-17-year-old Deveau was texting when he crossed the center line of a Haverhill street on Feb. 20, 2011 and crashed into a vehicle driven by 55-year-old Donald Bowley of Danville, N.H., who died 18 days later in the hospital. (AP Photo/Eagle Tribune, Tim Jean, Pool)

Updates a story posted Wednesday at 11:25 a.m.

HAVERHILL — A Massachusetts teenager was sentenced Wednesday to spend a year in jail for a fatal traffic accident that happened while he was texting.

Aaron Deveau of Haverhill was sentenced to 2 ½ years behind bars with a year to serve and the remainder suspended for the February 2011 crash that took the life of Donald Bowley Jr., 55, of Danville, N.H., and seriously injured Bowley's girlfriend.

Prosecutors say the then-17-year-old high school student sent 193 text messages the day of the crash, including some just a minute or so before impact and dozens more after it.

A Haverhill District Court jury convicted Deveau of motor vehicle homicide and negligent operation while texting. Family members of both Deveau and Bowley, sitting just feet from each other in court, cried and hugged as the verdict was read.

Deveau apologized to Bowley's family. He was among the first people convicted under a law that took effect in September 2010 that created the criminal charge of texting while driving negligently and causing injury. Deveau faced that charge for the injuries caused to Bowley's girlfriend.

Now 18, Deveau, who had faced a maximum of four years behind bars, also was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and surrender his driver's license for 15 years.

Police say Deveau's car crossed the center line on a Haverhill street and crashed head-on into Bowley's vehicle. Bowley, a father of three, died 18 days later of injuries authorities say he suffered in the crash. His passenger and girlfriend, Luz Roman, had an extensive stay in the hospital recovering from her injuries.

Associated PressDefendant Aaron Deveau, 18, listens to assistant district attorney Ashlee Logan while testifying at Haverhill District Court, where he was on trial on charges of motor vehicle homicide while texting. (AP Photo/Eagle Tribune, Paul Bilodeau, Pool)

"This has been giving me a lot of pain. There are no words to describe," Roman said outside of court Wednesday.

Bowley's sister, Donna Burleigh, said, "We hope this sends a message that it's not OK to text and drive."

Deveau testified Tuesday, saying he was not sending or receiving text messages in the moments before the collision. He said he put his phone on the passenger seat and was distracted and thinking about his homework when the crash occurred. He told police after the crash that he swerved to avoid another vehicle in front of him that suddenly hit its brakes.

His lawyer, Joseph Lussier, said prosecutors failed to prove that Deveau was texting at the time of the crash. Lussier said the number of texts Deveau sent that day was irrelevant.

School Prinicpal Gilbert Traverso praised the graduates of Putnam for their "hard work, tenacity and courage".

SPRINGFIELD – The new graduates of Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy were told Wednesday to “never give in,” and to remember they are a class of champions.

The Class of 2012 has the distinction of being the last class to graduate from the current Putnam building, set to be replaced in September by a newly constructed school on the State Street site.

Principal Gilbert E. Traverso congratulated the 286 graduates during a ceremony at Symphony Hall that was packed with hundreds of family members, friends and faculty.

Traverso said the school raised the bar in academics the past two years, and the students met that challenge through “hard work, tenacity, and courage.” He urged them to “never give in” as they face the challenges ahead.

It was a “class filled with champions,” he said, citing their academic and athletic accomplishments.

“I’m so excited,” class valedictorian Tyler Gaynor said just prior to the ceremony. “I worked really hard. My whole class worked really hard. So I’m just ready to start our future.”

She and class salutatorian Trankay Dukuray, and class president Samantha Diaz were among the speakers. Gaynor and Diaz are planning to attend American International College and Dukuray was choosing between two colleges.

According to school records, about 90 percent of the students were planning to further their education, with the majority planning to attend community college.

Dukuray said students “now have to step out of that bubble” and guide themselves in the right direction.

“We have worked hard to get to where we are today and we already have the tools needed to continue moving toward our goals until they appear less as dreams and more as reality,” Dukuray said.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said the graduates “stand as shining examples of the good in Springfield,” and asked them to be ambassadors of the city.

School Committee members Norman Roldan, who was a graduate of Putnam, and Antonette E. Pepe, also spoke before the graduates. Diplomas were presented by Superintendent of Schools Alan J. Ingram.

The Health Director oversees a wide range of issues, from restaurant cleanliness to disease outbreaks to hoarding.

NORTHAMPTON – Benjamin Wood, who has directed the city’s Health Department through some major organizational changes, is leaving his post to take a job with the state.

Benjamin Wood

Wood, 36, was named Health Director in November 2009, during a time when former Mayor Mary Clare Higgins began making changes in the structure of the department. Since then, a city ordinance has formally created a Health Department. Wood now reports directly to the mayor instead of to the Board of Health.

Also, a change in the city charter, which is not yet in effect, will increase the size of the Board of Health from three to five members.

Donna Salloom, the chairwoman of the Board of Health, said Wood will be sorely missed.

“He’s been fabulous,” she said.

Salloom praised Wood for steering the department through trying times in a job that is difficult even at its best.

“It’s a tough position overseeing the public health of a city the size of Northampton,” she said. “It requires a lot of collaboration. You never know what’s walking in the door.”

The Health Director oversees a wide range of issues, from restaurant cleanliness to disease outbreaks to hoarding. Wood is a fixture at the emergency command post in the fire station during crises such as last October’s blackout.

In his new post with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Wood will conduct health impact assessments on a statewide basis, mostly from an office on Service Road in Northampton, where Salloom also works. Although he is sad to be leaving the city, Wood said he’s excited about his new opportunity.

“It’s been a great experience or me,” he said. “It’s an incredibly diverse job. You get into the weeds of housing complaints but you also have to deal with the broader issues.”

Wood makes $57,567 a year as Health Director. Salloom said the salary for the new director has not yet been set. Mayor David J. Narkewicz will appoint an acting director until a permanent one is chosen. Salloom said the position will be advertised as soon as Narkewicz approves some minor changes in the job description that were recently made by the Board of Health.

In his last commencemnt ceremony as superintendent, Apostolou told the graduates they became part of a family in their years at Smith Vocational.

NORTHAMPTON – Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School sent 105 seniors out into the world Wednesday while also bidding farewell to Superintendent, Arthur P. Apostolou.

Friends and family of the graduates packed John M. Greene Hall for the annual rite, which included remarks by Apostolou and Mayor David J. Narkewicz. Apostolou, a fixture at the school for 18 years, is retiring in August. The board of trustees hopes to appoint his successor by the end of June.

In his last commencement ceremony as superintendent, Apostolou told the graduates they became part of a family in their years at Smith Vocational.

"You will graduate knowing you have the skills and knowledge to be successful in life," he said.

After teaching and serving as an administrator at Smith Vocational, Apostolou knows the school as well as anyone. Priot to the ceremony he acknowledged that some people attach a stigma to vocational schools but noted that Smith Vocational has consistently sent its students on to college, the military and good jobs in the trades. In fact, the school has boasted some of the best-trained trades students in the state in recent years. This year alone, three of them won gold medals in the Skills, USA competition.

“They come to us scared and shy, and they come out as leaders,” Apostolou said. “They all feel that they’re going somewhere."

Apostolou said he’s gotten good feedback on the Class of 2012 for being an especially nice and well-behaved group of youngsters.

The council can not add to the budget only reduce it.

Michael A. Tautznik

EASTHAMPTON – The City Council adopted Mayor Michael A. Tautznik’s $35.2 fiscal 2013 million budget at its meeting Wednesday night after about 30 minutes of review.

The City Council Finance Subcommittee, which held three meetings with department heads to review it last month, supported it unanimously.

Finance Subcommittee chairman Daniel C. Hagan pointed out that the council by law can only reduce not add to the budget.

Tautznik explained after the meeting that councilors, residents and department heads can lobby him for money before the budget is finalized but not after.

The budget is $1.4 million less than city departments requested but up $1.2 million over fiscal 2012, or 3.7 percent. 


Councilor Donald L. Cykowski criticized the $15 million school budget, saying that it was too much. “People in town are very upset,” he said. And he said they are angry that school officials are asking the council to place a $1.4 million Proposition 2 ½ property tax override question on the November ballot.

“What is this, a credit card mentality,” he said they are asking. “I’m going to abstain from the vote to support these people.” He did on that particular section.

Councilor Daniel D. Rist said that budget is actually less than the School Department needs. “People are getting pink slips.” The schools are slated to cut six teaching positions to help close a $660,000 budget deficit.

The council will discuss whether to place the override on the ballot at a public hearing July 11. Even if voters approved the additional funding, the schools need to cut for the fall.

“I think this is an appropriate use of the money,” Councilor Joy E. Winnie said.

Cykowski was also critical of the Department of Public Works $1.5 million budget, but for a different reason. “I think that is underfunded,” he said.


The city budget restores two of three hours to non-union employees that were cut four years ago.

According to the mayor, the Municipal Building beginning July 1 will open for business at 7:30 a.m. on Monday and Tuesdays, a half hour earlier than it currently opens now. The building will remain open until 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, an hour later and maintain Thursday hours of 8 .m. to 5 p.m.

The City Council, like all municipalities, must adopt a budget by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

Monthly updates on all building repairs can be found on the city's website: www.cityofwestfield.org

WESTFIELD – The city will spend upwards of $13 million in the next several months on a comprehensive repair and renovation project involving several schools and municipal buildings.

Overall, the total project cost is about $17 million but Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said the project is being completed in phases.

File photo | The RepublicanWestfield City Hall.

Work started this week at Westfield Vocational-Technical High School that will cost about $8 million to replace windows, roof boilers and revamping of the school’s heating system. Work was also scheduled, depending on the weather, at City Hall as part of an overall $3.4 million facade repair and roof replacement.

The project is being directed by P3 Inc. of Norwell and Chapman Water Proofing Inc. of Boston was issued the renovation contract at City Hall.

In addition to building repairs, Knapik plans complete other capital improvement projects including the purchase of a new platform vehicle for the Fire Department.

The vocational school repairs represent just one school project. Roof and boiler replacements at also scheduled at Highland, Franklin Avenue and Southampton Road schools and new boilers are scheduled at Westfield High School and Papermill Elementary School. The state’s School Building Authority is provide 62 percent or about $7 million towards school repairs.

Other projects include roof replacements at both the Police and Fire department headquarters, air conditioning installation at City Hall and upgrades at Westfield Athenaeum.

The majority of projects are scheduled to be completed by fall. Knapik said school work involving boilers and windows must be completed before the start of the 2012-2013 heating season.

“The project addresses items that have been postponed for the number of years,” and all work is designed to be energy efficient under the state’s Green Repair Program, Knapik said.

“When completed the city expects to see a substantial decrease in energy costs in addition to preserving our municipal buildings,” the mayor said.

The project management firm plans at least monthly updates on progress for residents through a community report to be posted on the city’s website: www.cityofwestfield.org.

A campaign official said there have been long-standing plans to shift the candidate’s assets from a trust overseen by a Boston attorney to a stricter blind trust overseen by federal officials if he wins.

Photo by Evan Vucci / Associated PressRepublican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. W. Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign stop at USAA insurance company, Wednesday in San Antonio, Texas.

By STEPHEN BRAUN

WASHINGTON – A week after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney disclosed a fortune worth as much as $250 million, his campaign said Wednesday that he plans to put his holdings in a federal blind trust if he is elected president.

A Romney campaign official said there have been long-standing plans to shift the candidate’s assets from a trust overseen by a Boston attorney to a stricter blind trust overseen by federal officials if he wins in November. Some assets might be disclosed or sold off before such a move, campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.

“If Gov. Romney is elected president, his blind trust will be terminated and a new federal blind trust will be created,” Saul said. “Any assets that are not fully compliant with federal disclosure and other rules applicable to the office of the presidency will be disposed of.”

In a divisive presidential campaign where Romney’s vast fortune and his long association with the Bain Capital private equity firm have become central issues, the move could serve to insulate Romney politically from criticism about his wealth as well as possible ethics conflicts. But the move might not stop the flow of new payments from Bain, which has been both lionized for its record of successful investments and vilified for mass layoffs at some of the companies it bought.

Just last week, Romney disclosed more than $2 million in new income from Bain, the firm he co-founded and managed until departing in 1999. Finance and taxation experts said this week that the new Bain payments raised the prospect that Romney could continue receiving income from his former company over the next several years.

A Romney campaign official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss his finances, said the campaign’s analysis of his income stream indicated that any future Bain income pay-outs were unlikely but that such payments were out of his control.

Saul disclosed the plans for a federal blind trust after The Associated Press raised questions about how Romney would deal with any future Bain Capital income.

In his latest federal financial disclosure, filed last week, Romney’s trustee revealed that the candidate made $1.9 million from a single “Bain Capital Inc.” payment as well as more than $200,000 from three other Bain entities. Although Romney’s retirement agreement with Bain expired in 2009, the trustee said the income came in the form of “true-up” payments – in essence, catch-up payments made to make up for earnings not provided to Romney before the entities ceased operation.

None of the Bain entities had previously been listed on Romney’s 2011 financial disclosure.

The details of Romney’s severance agreement have largely remained secret, but experts in private equity finance and taxation say that the financial fallout from Romney’s retirement plan will continue to reverberate.

Critics have warned that concerns about the steady flow of income from Bain are made more acute by Romney’s long-standing decision to withhold crucial details about his Bain separation agreement, leaving voters with little information about his continuing ties to the firm.

“While he may not be actively managing the business anymore, he remains financially linked to them,” said Victor Fleischer, a University of Colorado law professor and private equity expert who has testified before Congress on complex finance issues. “The point of financial disclosure is to communicate the full extent of one’s potential conflict of interest, and until he discloses the severance agreement, we don’t know whether he’d manage the country on our behalf or be influenced by his ongoing relationship with Bain Capital.”

Romney’s holdings are in what his campaign describes as a blind trust, preventing him from having direct control over his investments. Although the trust would qualify as a blind trust in Massachusetts, where Romney served as governor, critics have complained that the candidate is not totally blind to its contents. Romney’s trustee, Boston lawyer R. Bradford Malt, has said that he buys and sells investments that he believes would be consistent with Romney’s public policy positions.

Malt bought and sold off a number of investments over the last several years that appeared to conflict with Romney’s political positions. Since 2010, as the presidential election neared, Malt has sold off a number of stocks in companies based in China and others that traded with Iran and backed stem cell research – all stances that Romney has opposed as a candidate.

The broad outlines of Romney’s portfolio were signed off by him in annual disclosures in 20111 and 2012 to the federal Office of Government Ethics and the Federal Election Commission, and then shared with the media and with voters.

A federally “qualified diversified” blind trust would have much stricter standards, preventing Romney – and the American public – from knowing what is contained in his portfolio. The OGE would qualify both the trust and any nominee for trustee to make sure that the trust’s contents were not disclosed.

“In order to be truly blind, an official cannot really know what investments are held in the blind trust,” said Stephen D. Potts, an OGE director in the first Bush and Clinton administrations who later served as deputy White House counsel for President George W. Bush.

Even with a federal blind trust, Romney could continue to receive income from Bain throughout his presidency, if he’s elected – even if he remains unaware of the specific payments. Rebecca Wilkins, a senior counsel with the Citizens for Tax Justice, a tax fairness advocacy group, pointed to an obscure note to the Internal Revenue Service that turned up at the end of the 2010 tax returns for a trust for Romney’s wife, Ann.

In the note, Romney’s trustee told the IRS that the trust would elect to begin receiving interest from a Bain Capital fund known as “Bain Capital Partners (AM) X, LP.” Although the fund is not detailed further in the return, the AP has learned that the fund is a partnership that was set up in the Cayman Islands, a foreign base that could allow U.S. investors to defer some of their future taxes under certain circumstances.

The fund is apparently tied to Bain Capital’s 2010 purchase of Air Medical Group Holdings, the largest independent U.S. provider of emergency air medical services. The deal cost Bain an estimated $1 billion.

Under typical private equity arrangements, the Romney trust could receive interest from the “Bain Capital Partners (AM) X” investment fund over the next five to seven years, Wilkins said – meaning that Romney’s Bain Capital income might continue flowing through 2017.

And because that income is treated as long-term capital gains, Romney would pay taxes on the earn-outs at the 15 percent capital gains tax rate, well below the higher rates paid by many middle-class American taxpayers.

“He’ll be getting this income for a long time,” Wilkins said.

The officers found the 25-pound reptile, along with its pit bull companion, after getting a call that animals had been abandoned in an apartment.

View full sizePhoto by Peter Pereira / The Standard-TimesEmmanuel Maciel, director of New Bedford Police animal control, retrieves an alligator from a residence in New Bedford Tuesday. A pitbull, recovered from the same home, can be seen peeking through the rear window of the van, left.

NEW BEDFORD – New Bedford animal control officers say finding an alligator isn’t unusual for them, but a 4-foot one is something new.

The officers found the 25-pound reptile, along with its pit bull companion, Tuesday after getting a call that animals had been abandoned in an apartment.

Animal Control Director Emanuel Maciel tells the Standard-Times of New Bedford that the gator was “the biggest one we’ve ever gotten.” He said they get calls about alligators a couple of times a year, but they’re usually in the 2-foot range.

Maciel and another officer found the alligator roaming a room in the second-floor apartment. Maciel said a former tenant could face animal cruelty charges. The alligator had scrapes under its leg, and there was no water for the dog.

He said alligators “definitely have attitude problems” and should live in the wild.

About 40 officers attended the budget hearing eager to hear the Quinn Bill discussion.

Staff Photo by Dave RobackHolyoke Police Chief James M. Neiswanger

HOLYOKE – Police Chief James M. Neiswanger urged full funding of the incentive that pays officers extra money for having college degrees.

Officers over the years sacrificed to ensure the incentive, known commonly as the Quinn Bill, was funded by taking low or no raises, paying higher amounts for health insurance and surrendering some sick-time buyback, he said Wednesday.

“My officers have already sacrificed significantly to fund this Quinn Bill,” Neiswanger said, in a City Council budget hearing at City Hall.

Neiswanger spoke as about 40 uniformed and plainclothes police officers packed the audience and spilled into the hallway. Police union President James J. Bartolomei said the officers were off duty.

The City Council is authorized to cut, but not add to, the budget.

Full funding of the incentive is an issue in light of a March 7 ruling of the state Supreme Judicial Court. The court ruled that municipalities aren’t responsible for 100 percent funding of police education benefits, known as the Quinn Bill.

That means that with the state having ended its paying of 50 percent of such costs, cities and towns don’t have to pay the state’s share, the court said.

Quinn Bill costs to officers here are slightly more than $1 million, consisting of the city and “state” shares of $500,000 each.

Council President Kevin A. Jourdain, Councilor Linda L. Vacon and others have said the city can’t afford to keep paying the full $1,026,419 for the Quinn Bill.

But in the $11.7 million budget proposed for the Police Department, Mayor Alex B. Morse funds the full Quinn Bill amount.

“Obviously, we like the support the chief gives us. He understands both the importance of the Quinn Bill and having an educated police force,” said Bartolomei, president of Local 388, International Brotherhood of Police Officers.

Jourdain said in the hearing the city can’t afford to pay $500,000 a high court ruled is unnecessary.

The city is nearing its property tax limit, low property values means revenue is down and city contributions to employee retirements are rising yearly. That latter cost is going to $11.3 million as of July 1 from the current $10 million, he said.

“This issue is going to have to be talked about by your department,” Jourdain told Neiswanger said.

The incentive ensures officers with an associate’s degree get an increase of 10 percent of their base pay, those with a bachelor’s get 20 percent and those with a master’s get 25 percent.

An officer making $50,000 a year, depending on the college degree, would get annual bonuses of $5,000, $10,000 or $12,500.

Neiswanger was about two-thirds into his budget hearing, with the police officers in attendance clearly waiting for the discussion to turn to the Quinn Bill, when Ward 3 Councilor David K. Bartley raised the issue.

“The elephant in the room, I guess, is the Quinn Bill,” Bartley said.

“I do believe my officers are very sensitive to the issue,” said Neiswanger, who became police chief July 19.

Officers hired after July 2009 don’t get Quinn Bill pay, meaning such costs will drop over time as officers who get the incentive retire.

“That number will never increase,” Capt. Denise M. Duguay said in the hearing. “It will only decrease over time.”

Councilor at Large Daniel B. Bresnahan eyed the audience of police officers and joked, “I’m hoping that the streets of Holyoke are safe noting the police presence that we have here tonight.”

Bresnahan, former city health director, urged that Neiswanger ensure officers have ordinance books and work with health, building and other departments to get minor infractions enforced.

“Sometimes, it’s the enforcement of these smaller crimes that can stop the bigger crimes,” Bresnahan said.

“Well, that’s what community policing is all about,” Duguay said.

“You guys obviously have more juice than we do,” Bresnahan said, regarding enforcement of ordinances.

Police opened a community policing substation at 415 Maple St. for the Churchill and South Holyoke neighborhoods. Neiswanger told councilors he would like to increase community policing to other neighborhoods.

Morse also agreed to his request for funding for a canine unit, $36,000. Trained dogs can sniff out drugs in cars, and drug-dealers often have guns, he said.

“Every gun I get off the street is a win for us,” Neiswanger said.

The proposed police budget of $11.7 million is $501,911, or 4.5 percent, more than the current $11.3 million.

The budget funds 92 patrol officers, 15 sergeants, eight lieutenants, four captains and the chief, Neiswanger said. Neiswanger’s yearly salary is $130,000.

Neiswanger said he understands city expenses are tight, but said there’s money at the Police Station at 138 Appleton St. only for a part-time janitor. That makes it a challenge to keep restrooms and other areas clean with daily use by more than 100 employees and visitors, he said.

“It’s a beautiful building, but we really need to maintain it,” Neiswanger said.

Ward 2 Councilor Anthony Soto offered a custodial tip: “Maybe we should have some of these guys sit down in the restroom and they’d be a little cleaner.”

Easthampton Mayor Michael A. Tautznik said the city could save $90,000 a year in electric costs.

Associated Press

EASTHAMPTON – The city’s solar array is now generating electricity.
The array went on line Friday after those involved with the system were able to solve several problems including one insuring the system would automatically shut off in the case of live wires.

“I am very pleased that the facility has met all the requirements necessary to safely operate as a part of the WMECO. electricity distribution grid,” Mayor Michael A. Tautznik said in a prepared statement. “It’s been a real challenge to all involved and I am confident that the lessons learned here will make the process easier for those who follow our lead.”

The array was the first such project under construction in the state. The 2.3-megawatt installation is expected to save residents $1.5 million on power over 10 years.
Work was completed in December but several issues had to be resolved before it could become operational.

Tautznik expects the city will save more than $90,000 the first year of production.

According to Borrego Solar Systems Inc., which installed the system, the site is estimated to produce 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity in the first year, Tautznik said.
Each kilowatt-hour will cost the city $0.06 and will result in an estimated utility credit of $0.09047, he said in an email. That means positive cash flow of $0.03047 per kilowatt-hour.

That savings will be distributed to five city electricity accounts. Ten percent each to the public safety and municipal building accounts, 15 percent to the Hendrick Street drinking water plant, 30 percent to the cost of streetlights and 35 percent to the wastewater treatment plant, he said.

Anyone wishing to see the electricity production can follow the following link at the city’s website.

Solar projects have come on line in Holyoke and Springfield. Ludlow officials signed a lease with Borrego in March and Amherst officials are still planning to move ahead with a project on a capped landfill in that town, among the area communities seeking power from the sun.

The Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Conn. filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last week, claiming Stamford-based WWE rendered illegal corporate assistance to McMahon's campaign. WWE called the allegation "baseless."

Vince McMahon, left, stands with his wife, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Linda McMahon, right, at Republican state convention in Hartford, Conn., Friday, May 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut newspaper claims wrestling company WWE Inc. violated federal election laws by illegally helping former chief executive Linda McMahon's U.S. Senate campaign when it threatened a lawsuit against the newspaper two weeks ago.

The Journal Inquirer of Manchester filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last week, saying Stamford-based WWE rendered illegal corporate assistance to McMahon's campaign. WWE denies the allegation and says it is defending itself against false allegations by the newspaper's managing editor.

The newspaper reported that Brian Flinn, WWE's senior vice president of marketing and communications, accused the paper of libel in a letter dated May 24 and threatened legal action if it didn't print a retraction by Monday. The letter was in response to two opinion columns written this year by Managing Editor Chris Powell, who asserted that McMahon made her fortune from the businesses of pornography and violence.

Powell, however, did not specifically mention WWE in his columns.

"The only purpose of Flinn's letter is intended to use WWE to defend the candidate and to seek to have a chilling effect on journalists in Connecticut who might otherwise criticize Linda McMahon during her campaign," Journal Inquirer lawyer Richard Weinstein wrote in the FEC complaint.

McMahon, the party-endorsed Republican running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring independent Joe Lieberman, stepped down as WWE's chief executive before her unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2010, during which she spent about $50 million of her own money. Her husband, Vince McMahon, is now chief executive and board chairman of WWE.

WWE has faced criticism for sexually suggestive content in its wrestling events.

Flinn emailed a statement to The Associated Press on Monday afternoon saying there is no basis for the FEC complaint.

"WWE is not attempting to prevent the media from exercising its First Amendment rights," the statement said. "WWE acted solely and specifically to defend its business and corporate reputation from the reckless and false statement that WWE is in the business of pornography."

An FEC spokeswoman confirmed the agency had received the complaint but declined further comment.

Michael Toner, a lawyer for McMahon's campaign, said in a statement that the complaint is frivolous.

A federal judge in Manhattan joined a growing chorus of judges across the country Wednesday by striking down a key component of a federal law denying benefits to partners in a gay marriage.

FILE - In this June 23, 2009 file photo, Keegan O'Brien of Worcester, Mass., leads chants as members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community protest the Defense of Marriage Act outside a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Boston. A battle over the federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman appears headed for the Supreme Court after an appeals court ruled Thursday, May 31, 2012, that denying benefits to married gay couples is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Manhattan joined a growing chorus of judges across the country Wednesday by striking down a key component of a federal law denying benefits to partners in a gay marriage.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones said the federal Defense of Marriage Act's efforts to define marriage "intrude upon the states' business of regulating domestic relations."

She said, "That incursion skirts important principles of federalism and therefore cannot be legitimate, in this court's view."

The judge said the law fails because it tries to re-examine states' decisions concerning same-sex marriage. She said such a sweeping review interferes with a system of government that places matters at the core of the domestic relations law exclusively within the province of the states.

The ruling came in a case brought by Edith Windsor, a woman whose partner died in 2009, two years after they married in Canada. Because of the federal law, Windsor didn't qualify for the unlimited marital deduction on her late spouse's estate and was required to pay $363,053 in federal estate tax. Windsor sued the government in November 2010.

As part of her ruling, Jones ordered the government to reimburse Windsor the money she had paid in estate tax.

The government declined to comment through Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for government attorneys in Manhattan.

Civil rights groups praised the ruling. The American Civil Liberties Union included comments from Windsor in its release.

"It's thrilling to have a court finally recognize how unfair it is for the government to have treated us as though we were strangers," Windsor said of her 44-year relationship with Thea Spyer.

The ruling came just days after a federal appeals court in Boston found the law's denial of federal benefits to same-sex couples unconstitutional. The decision by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal judge's 2010 ruling. In California, two federal judges found this year that the law violates the due-process rights of legally married same-sex couples. The issue is likely to reach the Supreme Court.

The law was passed in 1996 after a 1993 decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court made it appear Hawaii might legalize gay marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, led by Massachusetts in 2004 and continuing with Connecticut, New York, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington state and the District of Columbia. Maryland and Washington's laws aren't yet in effect and might be subject to referendums.

James Esseks, director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, said the ruling "adds to what has become an avalanche of decisions that DOMA can't survive even the lowest level of scrutiny by the courts."

Brian Silva, executive director of Marriage Equality USA, called the ruling "another example of the trend of the judiciary continuing to see that treating same-sex couples differently than their heterosexual counterparts is not only wrong but goes against the laws of equality and justice here in the United States."

State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman called the decision "a major step forward in the fight for equality."

In court papers filed last August, a lawyer for the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives defended the role of the federal government in defining marriage.

"While it is true that regulating the details of traditional marriage historically has been left to the states, it also is true that the federal government has been involved with and injected itself into marriage law when states have deviated from the traditional definition. Thus, for instance, the United States Congress banned polygamy in United States territories when faced with widespread plural marriage in the Utah Territory," wrote attorney Paul D. Clement on the group's behalf.

In another point in his papers, Clement noted that multiple studies concluded that a high number of people who experience sexual attraction to members of the same sex early in their adult lives later cease to experience such attraction. In a footnote, he pointed out that Windsor had once been married to a man, a fact that she responded to in an affidavit of her own in August, saying that her brief 1951 marriage didn't indicate she had a choice about her sexual orientation.

"Although I tried to make a 'choice' about my sexual orientation by getting married to a man, I was simply unable to do so. Thus, as a matter of fact, I really had no choice at all," she wrote.

She added that in the "context of the homophobia that was so prevalent in the 1950s, I certainly did not want to be a 'queer.' Instead, I wanted to live a 'normal' life."

She noted that she parted on good terms with her ex-husband, who married another woman and had a family.

"He telephoned me on my 70th birthday in 1999 to wish me well," Windsor said.

___

Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela contributed to this story.

A chart in the CDM report has an “anticipated debt service” category that jumps from zero in 2011 to more than $2 million in 2016.

NORTHAMPTON – The cost of getting rain and other run-off from the ground and into the local system of rivers is about to hit home.

The Board of Public Works is scheduled to discuss a recent report by CDM of New Hampshire that projects it will cost almost $100 million to repair, replace and improve the city’s aged storm water and flood control system. The most likely source of revenue would be a storm water enterprise fund that would be fed by property owners. The new bills would be similar to the water and sewer bills that now go out. The initial estimate of $66 per month for a single-family house could increase over time.

Neglected for years, the city’s system of storm water drains is more than a century old in places and has had little more than emergency maintenance. Storm water drains differ from sewer lines in that they carry mostly run-off from rain into the Connecticut and Mill rivers while sewer lines carry household and industrial waste to the wastewater treatment plant, which cleanses it before discharging it into the Connecticut.

Edward S. Huntley

Historically, some city lines carried both storm water and sewage, but the two systems were separated years ago. The sewer enterprise fund pays to maintain and upgrade the sewer system, just as the water enterprise fund finances the delivery of clean water. Due in part to federal mandates, Northampton will now be required to upgrade its storm water system as well.

“Every city is going through this right now,” said Edward S. Huntley, the Director of the Department of Public Works.

Chicopee and Westfield are among the local communities that already bill users of their storm water system, but every city and town that flushes its run-off into the Connecticut must come into compliance with the federal mandates, Huntley said.

The Army Corp of Engineers, which oversees the dams and levees that control flooding, is demanding that the city correct deficiencies in that system at an estimated cost of $1.2 million. A separate mandate from the federal government will cost taxpayers about $250,000 a year. CDM projects the 20-year cost at $95 million.

“And that’s just the start of it,” Huntley said.

Stricter standards are demanding that communities purge storm water of nitrates and other contaminants, which could prove even more costly. A chart in the CDM report has an “anticipated debt service” category that jumps from zero in 2011 to more than $2 million in 2016.

Huntley said the original estimate of $66 per household will probably get the city through the first five years of the 20-year plan laid out by CDM. The Board of Public Works will probably discuss the matter this month, Huntley said. If it approves the creation of a storm water enterprise fund, the measure would go before the City Council for approval.

The wake will be held at the Tinkham Road funeral parlor from 2 to 7 p.m. today, followed by an 11 a.m. funeral Mass Friday at St. Catherine of Siena Church.

SPRINGFIELD — The wake for slain Springfield Police Officer Kevin Ambrose is scheduled for today from 2 to 7 p.m. at Sampson's Chapel of the Acres Funeral Home, 21 Tinkham Road.

Ambrose, one of the city's longest-serving officers, was shot to death Monday by a man embroiled in a domestic dispute with the mother of his child.

Thousands are expected to turn out to honor Ambrose's life and law enforcement career on Friday, when a funeral Mass is scheduled for 11 a.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church, 1023 Parker St. Burial will follow at nearby Hillcrest Cemetery.

Law enforcement officers from New England and beyond are expected to converge on Sixteen Acres center to take part in the funeral procession, which will leave the Tinkham Road funeral chapel at 10 a.m. and proceed to the church for the Mass, then to the cemetery. Out-of-town police officers are expected to march from the church to the burial site.

Ambrose was killed when he responded to a 911 call involving Charlene Mitchell, a Sixteen Acres resident who said she feared for her life after a dispute with her former boyfriend, Shawn Bryan, a New York City corrections officer who works at Riker's Island.

Bryan killed Ambrose and critically wounded Mitchell before shooting himself in the chest outside Mitchell's Lawton Street apartment, police said. Ambrose and Bryan were pronounced dead at Baystate Medical Center. Mitchell is recovering at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray will be among the dignitaries attending today's wake. Gov. Deval L. Patrick will be in New York City this afternoon, and will not be attending the wake. The governor and both U.S. senators from Massachusetts are among the many officials slated to attend Friday's funeral. Murray will not be attending, according to a spokeswoman.

After the Mass and burial, visiting police officers and invited guests are expected to fill Court Square in downtown Springfield for an open-air reception beginning at 1 p.m. Friday. Ambrose's family will have its own private viewing perch from a terrace at One Financial Plaza.

Authorities are asking people who do not plan on watching Friday's funeral procession from Tinkham Road to Wilbraham Road to Parker Street to avoid driving in that section of Sixteen Acres center from roughly 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Parker Street, from the corner of Wilbraham Road to Hillcrest Cemetery, will be reduced to two lanes after 9 a.m. Friday to accommodate the procession.

The City Council will hold hearing on school override request next month.

Nancy Follansbee

EASTHAMPTON – The School Committee is asking the City Council to put a single Proposition 2 ½ property tax override request on the November ballot instead of two.

Last month, the committee was considering an override request for $1,384,956 plus a debt exclusion override of $465,000 to pay for new computers and repairs to the football field. The debt exclusion request would have come off the tax rate as soon as that debt was paid off. As a Proposition 2 1/2 request it would remain part of the permanent tax rate.

School Superintendent Nancy Follansbee said that it makes sense however to request a single amount so money would be available to replace computers as needed over time.
The committee is now looking at a $1,407,456 total override request to be put on the ballot instead of what could have amounted to a $1.84 request with the two separate questions.

The City Council Finance Subcommittee met with the School Committee earlier this week to ask questions and hear from residents.

The committee will likely vote whether to recommend putting it on the ballot to the full council at its next subcommittee meeting June 18.

Finance Subcommittee chairman Daniel C. Hagan said a public hearing will be held at the July 11 City Council meeting and the council would likely vote then whether to support placing it on the ballot.

Several parents who attended the meeting told councilors that the system needs the money and urged their support to place the question on the ballot.

Shelly Bathe said that a good school system helps improve property values so every homeowner would benefit regardless if they had children. “This is an all city issue.”

Finance Director Melissa Zawadzki said that the amount requested would add about $1.07 per $1,000 to the tax rate. With a home valued at the average of $228,000 that would mean about a $244 hike in taxes.

But residents will also be paying another 83 cents per $1,000 for the new high school voters supported building. That will add about 189 to the homeowner’s tax bill. The current rate is $13.27 per $1,000 or about $3,002.

Councilor Daniel Rist pointed out that Easthampton ranks 260th lowest in the state when it comes to the tax rate out of 328 communities.

Yet, he said some in the city especially on fixed incomes have said they could not afford the hike. He suggested that the school committee look at reducing the amount of money they would need.

“I’m very concerned it will not pass at $1.4 million.”

City Council President Just P. Cobb, who is on the finance subcommittee, said the proposal “is a little over reaching.” He also said the city needs a new elementary school. “I see it as a greater need.”

Mayor Michael A. Tautznik, who as a member of the School Committee, said he voted to support the override request.

Cranberries are a big industry in Massachusetts, so big that the state's delegation has formed a bipartisan Congressional Cranberry Caucus.

Associated PressU.S. Senators Scott Brown, R- Mass., left, and John Kerry, D- Mass. listen during a hearing at the Statehouse in Boston Monday, Oct. 3, 2011 regarding the state of the Massachusetts fishing industry. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON (AP) — Cranberries are a big industry in Massachusetts, so big that the state's delegation has formed a bipartisan Congressional Cranberry Caucus.

The caucus hopes to educate members of Congress, their staffs and federal agencies about cranberry production in Massachusetts and across the country. It will focus specifically on conservation, environmental and nutritional benefits and concerns, as well as the international trade of cranberries.

Massachusetts has more than 600 cranberry farms, supplying thousands of jobs.

Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown are launching the caucus, along with U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern and William Keating.

Transportation authorities say the latest flaw discovered in Boston's $15 billion Big Dig highway project is expected to cost $1 million repair.

The Associated PressIn this July 15, 2006, file photo, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, speaks to members of the media outside one of the Big Dig tunnels, following a tour of the deadly Big Dig highway tunnel in Boston. Mike Lewis, Big Dig project director is at center. Romney was at his New Hampshire vacation home on a summer night in 2006 when tons of concrete ceiling panels in one of Boston’s Big Dig highway tunnels collapsed. Romney, then in his final year as Massachusetts governor, dashed back to Boston and immersed himself in the crisis. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole, File)

BOSTON (AP) — Transportation authorities say the latest flaw discovered in Boston's $15 billion Big Dig highway project is expected to cost $1 million repair.

Frank DePaola (duh-POW'-luh), the state's highway administrator, says concrete road surfaces in the Central Artery tunnels that were supposed to last 30 years are failing in less than a decade, causing potholes and crumbling road surfaces that must be repaved.

He tells The Boston Globe the problem stems from a decision by the Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff team that oversaw Big Dig design and construction to pave the project with concrete, more common in warmer climates, instead of traditional New England asphalt. That surface concrete is now separating from the structural concrete slabs below it.

DePaola said the problem is a surface issue, not a structural or safety matter.

Wake and funeral services for a Massachusetts police officer who died in Indianapolis last week have been scheduled.

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Wake and funeral services for a Massachusetts police officer who died in Indianapolis last week have been scheduled.

Calling hours for Rutland Officer Sean Cooney are scheduled for 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Athy Memorial Home in Worcester.

The Telegram & Gazette reports that a funeral Mass is scheduled for Friday morning at Blessed Sacrament Church in Worcester followed by burial in St. John's Cemetery.

The 27-year-old Cooney was in Indiana following the death of a close friend from Massachusetts. He had planned to go to Chicago to visit his brother and his new niece, born May 23.

He was found in a downtown Indianapolis alley last Friday suffering from head injuries. He later died at a city hospital. Indianapolis police have not released additional details.

The governor will attend Friday's funeral for Ambrose, according to Patrick administration spokeswoman Kimberly Haberlin.

Gov. Deval Patrick

SPRINGFIELD — The daily schedule for Gov. Deval L. Patrick indicates he'll be in New York City late Thursday afternoon, which means he won't be attending today's wake for slain Springfield Police Officer Kevin Ambrose.

That news apparently has gotten the Wakefield-based Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a right-leaning taxpayers' watchdog group, a bit hot under the collar. The alliance issued a press release this morning criticizing Patrick for "avoiding the wake of fallen Springfield Police Officer Kevin Ambrose to visit a New York City 1199 SEIU Union reception."

Patrick will be in Manhattan for today's 6 p.m. union event, spokeswoman Kimberly A. Haberlin confirmed, but he does plan to attend Friday's funeral at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Springfield. "That is the appropriate protocol and venue" for the governor to honor Ambrose, she said.

Officer Kevin Ambrose

"The governor always honors Massachusetts public safety officials and veterans killed in the line of duty by attending their funerals. Tomorrow, he will pay his respects to the Ambrose family and the Springfield Police Department, and express the commonwealth's deep gratitude for Kevin's bravery, selflessness and dedication to protecting the public," Haberlin said.

Ambrose's wake will be held today from 2-7 p.m. at Sampson's Chapel of the Acres Funeral Home in the Sixteen Acres section of the city.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray will attend the wake, but not Friday's funeral. The traditional protocol is for the lieutenant governor to attend wakes, and the governor to attend funerals, according to Lauren Jones, a spokeswoman for Murray.

Paul D. Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said Patrick should make honoring the death of a Massachusetts police officer a top priority. Ambrose, a veteran Springfield cop, was killed in the line of duty Monday after responding to a domestic incident at a Sixteen Acres apartment complex.

"Governor Patrick is putting the interests of a New York City SEIU reception ahead of a fallen Springfield police officer. The governor has a responsibility to his home state before that of the SEIU Union and New York City," Craney said in a statement issued this morning.

Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance director Paul Craney

"Massachusetts taxpayers should not be on the hook for the governor's trip," Craney said. "If the Governor wants to do something meaningful in Springfield, he should spend time with the Springfield Police Department, the Ambrose family and the community."

Patrick was expected to speak at Milton Academy's graduation ceremony Friday, but he canceled that engagement to attend Ambrose's funeral, according to the governor's press office.

At 6 p.m. today, Patrick will attend a graduation ceremony for Service Employee International Union Local 1199's Training and Employment Fund at Manhattan's Sheraton New York Hotel, 811 Seventh Ave, according to his schedule.