The store has been broken into several times in recent months.

EAST LONGMEADOW – Police have charged a 14- and 16-year-old with breaking into the Competitive Edge Ski and Bike store and are seeking complaints against a third teenager in Palmer District Court.

Police responded to an alarm just after 9 p.m. on July 15 at the store at 612 North Main St. When they arrived, they found the front window had been smashed with a cement block and a witness reported she saw two teenagers wearing dark clothing running from the area. Shortly after Patrolman Timothy Driscoll found two boys who matched the description and questioned them, Police Sgt. Daniel Bruno said.

The two, who are from Springfield, admitted they had planned to steal bicycles and were charged with breaking and entering and destruction of property. A subsequent investigation led police to a third teenager who is being summonsed to court, Bruno said.

The store has been broken into several times in recent months, Bruno said.

The football program reportedly will avoid the 'death penalty,' but the sanctions could be even worse.

Associated PressPenn State workers cover the statue of former football coach Joe Paterno on Sunday in preparation for its removal. Christopher Weddle

For its part in the Jerry Sandusky child-abuse scandal, Penn State is set to receive a fine from the NCAA that will be at least $30 million and could total as much as $60 million, CBSSports.com reports, citing an industry source.

The unprecedented fine will be put toward an endowment for children’s causes, a source told CBSSports.com.

"This is a fine like no fine before," an industry source told CBSSports.com.

NCAA penalties against Penn State and its ability to compete on the football field will be announced at 9 a.m. ET Monday. Although the school will receive “unprecedented” sanctions, it will not get the death penalty, according to reports. But, according to a CBSSports.com source, Penn State could prefer the “death penalty” after hearing the full scope of its punishment.

A $60 million fine would equal almost half of Penn State’s athletic department earnings in a usual year. The school brought in $116 million in the 2010-11 school year, as CBSSports.com pointed out, citing the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics.

The fine could be just one of several ways the NCAA affects the Penn State football program. It has been said the penalties might be so unique they will be different from any previous judgment the organization has handed down.

In a PBS interview, NCAA president Mark Emmert said he has "never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of just overall conduct and behavior inside a university."

The most severe punishment the NCAA has given was to SMU’s football program in 1987, when it canceled the school's football season for paying players.

No matter the severity of the NCAA punishment, Penn State’s sanctions “will not be appealed or substantively challenged," David Jones of The Patriots-News reported. The school is "desirous of a positive relationship with the NCAA in the future," according to Jones, and any appeal could put that relationship in jeopardy.

Daniel J. Fitgibbons, a spokesman for UMass Amherst, said there are 60 H-1B visa holders on campus, most are teaching faculty with a small number of postdoctoral researchers.

Republican File PhotoMay 16, 2012 - Springfield At the Regional Employment Board Summer Jobs Kick-Off campaign press conference Tuesday, J. William Ward, president and CEO, Regional Employment Board of Hampden County speaks.

SPRINGFIELD – Foreign-born workers with sought-after and highly technical skills hoping to take jobs in the Pioneer Valley requested a total of 313 H-1B visas in the fiscal year that ended in 2011, according to a recent study from the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.

Those 313 visas place Greater Springfield, defined in this study as Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties, at number 92 out of the 106 largest metro areas, according to Brookings. Brookings chose 106 metro areas because 106 metro areas had at least 250 requests.

“Well, it is a small metro,” said Neil G. Ruiz, Brookings senior policy analyst and co-author of the report.

Ruiz said he did the study to get people thinking logically about immigration and the need for highly skilled workers. He said easing the process will help companies grow here and help the economy recover. H-1B visas last up to six years and may lead to permanent residency with a green card, but that doesn’t necessarily happen. Many H-1B visa holders always plan to go back to their homeland.

The 313 requests also work out to just one of the visas requested per 1,000 workers, placing Greater Springfield again 92 out of 106. On average, there were 3.3 requests for H-1Bs per 1,000 workers in the 106 metro areas, compared to 2.4 for the nation as a whole.

Brookings couldn’t get data on the number of visas actually granted, Ruiz said. Where Springfield shines is in taking advantage of the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act funded by the visa requests, Ruiz said.

Employers who sponsor H-1B visas pay into an account used to fund the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act. Contributions are above regular filing and processing fees and amount to $750 for employers with 1 to 25 full-time employees or $1,500 for employers with 26 or more full-time equivalent employees, unless exempt.

The Regional Employment Board Hampden County received $3 million from that program, enough to put greater Springfield at number 47 out of 106 nationally.

Per capita it works out to $5.34 or number 23 out of 106.

The money went to train hundreds of local residents in information technology careers, said J. William Ward, president and chief executive officer of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County.

What’s more, the Hampden Regional Employment Board and its counterpart in the Hartford area share in a new $4.8 million grant from the same visa-funded pot of money. It’s just too new a program to show up in the Brookings study, Ward said. The money will provide on-the-job training in the medical professions. With it, workers can pick up the skills they need to get promotions and earn more money.

“It’s incredibly helpful,” Ward said.

Ruiz said 78 of the 313 visa applications from the Pioneer Valley were in the computer industry. Another 74 are in the medical industry, 38 were college and university teachers and 25 were for engineers.

Top employers sponsoring the applications were the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Baystate Medical Center. Baystate Health has 39 of the visas, spokeswoman Jane Albert said. Most are physicians.

Daniel J. Fitgibbons, a spokesman for UMass Amherst, said there are 60 H-1B visa holders on campus, most are teaching faculty with a small number of postdoctoral researchers.

Even some involved in the weapons trade are troubled by how easily James Holmes stocked up for his alleged rampage.

AP Photo/Ed AndrieskiPeople hold candles as they visit a memorial for the victims in the shooting across the street from the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., Sunday, July 22, 2012. James Eagen Holmes has been charged in the shooting at the Aurora theater early Friday that killed twelve people and injured more than 50.He is scheduled to appear in court Monday morning.

DENVER (AP) — In a world where Amazon can track your next book purchase and you must register to buy allergy medicine, James Holmes spent months stockpiling thousands of bullets and head-to-toe ballistic gear without raising any red flags with authorities.

The suspect in the mass theater shooting availed himself of an unregulated online marketplace that allows consumers to acquire some of the tools of modern warfare as if they were pieces of a new wardrobe. The Internet is awash in sites ranging from BulkAmmo.com, which this weekend listed a sale on a thousand rifle rounds for $335, to eBay, where bidding on one armored special forces helmet has risen to $799.

"We're different than other cultures," said Dudley Brown, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, which advocates for firearms owners' rights. "We do allow Americans to possess the accoutrements that our military generally has."

Gun rights activists like Brown celebrate that freedom, but even some involved in the trade are troubled by how easily Holmes stocked up for his alleged rampage.

Chad Weinman runs TacticalGear.com, which caters to police officers looking to augment their equipment, members of the military who don't want to wait on permission from the bureaucracy for new combat gear, and hobbyists like survivalists and paintballers. The site receives "thousands" of orders daily, sometimes from entire platoons that are about to deploy to war zones.

On July 2, Holmes placed a $306 order with the site for a combat vest, magazine holders and a knife, paying extra for expedited two-day shipping to his Aurora apartment. The order, Weinman said, didn't stand out.

"There's a whole range of consumers who have an appetite for these products, and 99.9 percent of them are law-abiding citizens," Weinman said. But he said that "it makes me sick" that Holmes bought material from him. He added that he doesn't sell guns or ammunition and that he was "shocked" at the amount of bullets that Holmes allegedly bought online.

Authorities say all of Holmes' purchases were legal -- and there is no official system to track whether people are stockpiling vast amounts of firepower.

There is no restriction on the sale of bullets in the United States, except for armor-piercing rounds, which can only be bought by law enforcement, said Ginger Colbrun, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Hence the proliferation of websites offering Amazon.com-style wish-lists for hollow-point rifle rounds or tracer bullets.

There is a federal law that bars selling body armor to violent felons -- which Holmes was not -- but it is rarely used because there are is no requirement to check whether purchasers of the material have criminal records, according to Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence.

Over four months, authorities said, Holmes received more than 50 packages at his Aurora apartment and the University of Colorado medical school, where he was studying neuroscience. As the boxes piled up, he began to shop for guns at sporting goods stores -- because of the need to pass a background check to buy a firearm, they are still generally bought at brick-and-mortar locations.

On May 22, law enforcement officials said Holmes bought a Glock pistol. Less than a week later, he upgraded to a shotgun. The following week he bought an AR-15 rifle, versions of which had been outlawed under the assault weapon ban in 1994. But that prohibition expired in 2004 and Congress, in a nod to the political clout of gun enthusiasts, did not renew it.

Holmes also acquired explosive materials and equipment to rig his entire apartment with a complex series of booby traps that took authorities days to dismantle. Officials have not said how he obtained the material for the devices.

Holmes capped off his gun purchases with another pistol on July 7. Authorities say that, 12 days later, Holmes bought a ticket to the midnight premiere of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" and entered the theater with the crowd, then slipped out the side door and returned dressed for battle.

Oates said the shooter wore a ballistic helmet, gas mask, throat-protector, tactical vest and pants -- such complete protective gear that responding officers almost mistook him for a member of the SWAT team. He lobbed gas canisters at the crowd, then opened fire. By the time police arrived, 90 seconds later, Holmes had shot dozens of people because his rifle was modified with a high-powered drum magazine that allowed him to fire immense amounts of bullets without reloading. "It was a pretty rapid pace of fire in that theater," Oates said.

The high-capacity magazine had also been prohibited under the assault weapon ban, and even though the federal law expired a few states outlaw the devices. Colorado, which has relatively permissive gun laws, does not.

Colorado State Senator John Morse, a Democrat, said he wished the state barred large-capacity magazines and guns like the AR-15, but he does not expect the attack to make that likely. "The NRA has managed to convince the country that this has to happen to protect our Second Amendment rights," Morse said. "As long as we let people buy these guns, we will bury our children."

Rep Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), whose husband was killed in a mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad in 1993, has proposed a ban on high-capacity magazines in Congress but acknowledges it has little chance of passage. She said she was horrified by the shooting but most shocked by the other material that Holmes allegedly accumulated -- the bullets and combat gear.

"It befuddles me to think those things should be sold to the general public," she said.

Colorado State Rep. Mike Waller cautioned against trying to limit purchases of ammunition. He noted that Holmes reportedly bought 300 rounds for his shotgun. "My 13-year-old son and I go out to the shooting range all the time," said Waller, a Republican. "I buy more than 300 rounds of shotgun shells when I do that."

He said there may be discussion of limiting the sale of the sort of protective clothing that Holmes allegedly donned. "Is that what the right to bear arms means, that you can purchase tactical gear to stop law enforcement from preventing you from perpetrating a crime?" Waller asked. "In the days and weeks to come, this is going to be a significant conversation."

But gun enthusiasts caution against over-reacting to the massacre. Brown, of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said he thinks citizen's access to weaponry has made the United States "a stronger country." And he doesn't see anything unusual about many of Holmes' alleged purchases.

"If I only had 6,000 rounds for my AR-15s, I'd literally feel naked," Brown said. Then he totaled up Holmes' firearms purchases: "Two handguns, a shotgun and a rifle. That's the average male in Colorado."

A hot and humid day with showers/thunderstorms this afternoon.

Partly sunny skies and more humid conditions return to the region today. An approaching frontal system will spark scattered showers and thunderstorms in this hot and muggy airmass, especially later in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, it will not be the widespread day-long rain that the region desperately needs. Showers and thunderstorms will be scattered in nature, and while a storm may produce a brief heavy downpour, it won't do much in the long run to help with the drought we're in. However, a few storms could potentially be on the strong side later in the day.

An isolated shower sticks around for Tuesday morning, then skies will start clearing out as a more refreshing airmass starts sliding back into town. Sunny weather returns for the middle of the week, and then a few rounds of scattered rain showers will be returning by Friday.

Monday: Partly sunny, scattered afternoon showers and thunderstorms, humid, high 89.

Monday night: An isolated thunderstorm early, mostly cloudy, muggy, low 68.

Tuesday: An isolated shower/thunderstorm, partly sunny, high 88.

Wednesday: Sunny, cooler and less humid, high 83.

Daggett scored a perfect 10 on the high bar to help his team win a gold medal.

File photo by Michael S. Gordon / The RepublicanTim Daggett waves to well wishers during a home town homecoming parade in his honor after winning two gold medals for gymnastics in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Next to Tim in the back seat with glasses is his high coach Bill Jones.

As he looked for something to do on a hot summer afternoon, 8-year-old Tim Daggett got together with a couple of neighborhood friends and went to an area behind West Springfield High School to kick around a soccer ball.

Too hot for that, as they soon figured out, and in search of a drink of water, Daggett found a door ajar, and he and his friends eased their way inside the school. They were hoping to find a fountain.

As they passed the gymnasium, Daggett stopped and stood transfixed as he watched a high school athlete working out on the high bar with an adult standing nearby.

“Up until then, I hadn’t found a sport I really liked, but when I saw that guy swinging on the high bar, I suddenly knew: This sport was me,” Daggett remembered recently.

The adult he met on that fateful day in 1970 was Bill Jones, a Springfield College graduate who served as assistant football coach and head coach of track and gymnastics at West Springfield High from 1961 to 1988.

“I asked him how I could learn to do what that kid was doing, and he told me he could get me into his parks and rec program,” Daggett recalled.

Thus, began one of the golden stories in the history of Western Massachusetts Olympics athletes. With Bill Jones as his constant mentor from then through his high school days, Daggett put everything he had into gymnastics. Combining the help of Jones with his own natural talent and work ethic, Daggett became a regional and state champion for West Side, dominating all opposition in his sophomore, junior and senior years.

So accomplished was Daggett that he made his way to UCLA, where he performed on a Division I powerhouse team that would produce three members of Uncle Sam’s men’s gymnastics team for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Daggett made it along with UCLA teammates Peter Vidmar and Mitch Gaylord. They joined Bart Connor, Jim Hartung and Scott Johnson to give the United States its first gold medal in gymnastics.

The most remarkable part of Daggett’s Olympic story is this: He clinched the gold for his Uncle Sam by performing a perfect 10 routine on the high bar, the very event that first attracted him to gymnastics when he was 8.

“I’ve been all over the world and asked the same question in many languages, about how I felt winning the gold, and I still can’t quite put it into words. The best I can do is, it felt like a large current going through my body, amplifying my emotions,” Daggett said.

The 1984 team members, coached by Abie Grossfeld and Mako Sakamoto, won seven individual medals, including a bronze for Daggett on the pommel horse.

Because he was so well trained, so talented and so focused, pressure was not part of his gymnastics vocabulary.

“I was fifth up on the high bar (in the team competition), and the scoring was such that I knew I could clinch the gold for my team and my country, but I felt no pressure. Instead, I felt excitement – and that was a positive, not a negative. I knew that everything I had learned up to that point would serve me well.”

Photo by Michael S. Gordon / The RepublicanTim Daggett holds one of the two gold medals he won in the men's gymnastic competition in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles Wednesday in his Tim Daggett Gold Medal Gymnastics school in Agawam.

So it did. After Daggett clinched the gold medal with his perfect 10, Vidmar added to the jubilation by scoring a 9.95.

“Actually, the U.S. Olympic trials were more daunting to me than the Olympics themselves,” Daggett said. “Making the team was something I dreamed of as a kid. I wanted it so badly (that) it was like I was compelled to be an Olympian.”

He credits coach Jones for helping him reach that pinnacle.

“He was my mentor, even before high school. We traveled the Northeast in search of places to work out and knowledge about the sport. Like me, Bill was constantly learning,” Daggett said. “We did it together, so it was wonderful that he could be there in Los Angeles when we won the gold.”

When he rode in a convertible to a rousing welcome home from the ¤’84 games, his old coach was right there with him.

“Everything I have in life is because of Bill and the interest he took in me,” Daggett said.

Jones died in 2008, at the age of 80.

After high school, Daggett was much sought by college coaches. He almost picked Nebraska, which was an NCAA gymnastics power in the 1980s, but finally settled on UCLA – mainly because of something he saw on television.

“I tuned in one night, and I saw Peter Vidmar doing a routine for UCLA. I couldn’t believe how good he was. I said to myself, ‘He’s only a year older than I am, but he’s so much better.’ From that moment on, I wanted to mirror that guy,” Daggett said.

When Daggett arrived at UCLA, he had one of his “magic moments” as he was sauntering along Bruin Walk, which winds through the campus.

“It suddenly came to me. It was a feeling that said, ‘I can do this.’ So from then, I went out and did everything that Peter did, and a little more.”

Daggett, who was still an undergraduate when he competed in the Olympics, received his UCLA degree in 1986, a year he also reigned as the U.S. all-around gymnastics champion. He continued to compete internationally until 1988.

Over the years, Daggett has maintained close ties to Vidmar.

“I named my son Peter, and he named his son Timothy,” Daggett said.

Now 50, he has operated Tim Daggett Gold Medal Gymnastics in Agawam since 1990. He’s still close to the Summer Olympics, serving as a television commentator for NBC. He’s in London for this year’s games, which will be the seventh of his TV career.

He is married to the former Deanne Lazer, a gymnast in her collegiate years at Eastern Michigan University. She is a doctor, practicing in the field of anesthesiology. The Daggetts have two children, Peter, 15, and Carlie, 13.

Son Peter happens to be Daggett’s star pupil. His high school does not have a gymnastics team, but he competes nationally in events sanctioned by USA Gymnastics.

“We’ve had dozens of kids from our program who have received full college scholarships,” Daggett said.

One of them, Jonathan Deaton, of Longmeadow and Williston-Northampton School, is a USA Gymnastics national champion in floor exercise and vaulting.

“Jonathan started in our Tiny Tots program, and he’ll be going to Stanford in the fall,” Daggett said. “He could be an Olympian one day.”

Another gymnast, another dream. Tim Daggett knows all about it.

Obama kept his focus on the lives and dreams of the fallen and the survivors, not the sole shooting suspect or his "evil act."

AP Photo/Susan WalshPresident Barack Obama talks about one of the victims and her injury during a statement from the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colo., Sunday, July 22, 2012, after visiting with families of victims of the movie theater shooting as well as local officials. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is at left.

AURORA, Colo. — Despair all around him, President Barack Obama on Sunday offered hugs, tears and the nation's sympathy to survivors of the Colorado shooting rampage and to families whose loved ones were shot dead. He looked for hope in the heartbreak, insisting a brighter day will come for the grieving and declaring that "much of the world is thinking about them."

In dramatic detail, Obama offered a glimpse inside the horror that took place in the Denver-area movie theater early Friday, relaying a story he said spoke to the courage of young Americans. With two fingers pressed to his own neck, Obama recalled how one woman saved the life of a friend who had been shot by keeping pressure on a vein that had "started spurting blood" and by later helping carry her to safety.

In private, Obama visited one by one with anguished families gathered at a hospital and wounded patients recovering in intensive care. He emerged before the TV cameras and kept his focus on the lives and dreams of the fallen and the survivors, not the sole shooting suspect or his "evil act."

"I come to them not so much as president as I do as a father and as a husband," said Obama, addressing reporters from a hospital hallway after his visits. "The reason stories like this have such an impact on us is because we can all understand what it would be to have somebody we love taken from us in this fashion."

For a president nearing the end of his term and seeking a second one, it was another grim occasion for him to serve as national consoler in chief, a role that has become a crucial facet of the job. National tragedies compel presidents to show leadership and a comforting touch — or risk a plummeting public standing if they cannot match the moment.

The massacre in the Aurora movie theater left 12 dead and 58 wounded. It also temporarily silenced a bitter campaign fight for the White House between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

Both men were searching for the right time and manner to re-enter the political debate.

Obama's stop in Colorado — which happens to be a key electoral state in the race — came as he was about to shift into a mix of campaign fundraisers and official travel across the West starting Monday. Romney resumed political activities Sunday in California, where he courted Republican donors in three fundraisers in the San Francisco area.

"I know the president is in Colorado today," Romney told supporters while keeping a subdued tone. "He's visiting with families and friends of the victims, which is the right thing for the president to be doing on this day — appreciate that."

Obama said his conversations with family members were filled with memories of brothers, sons and daughters who had left their mark on others. He said there were laughs as well as tears.

Jordan Ghawi, brother of shooting victim Jessica Ghawi, tweeted that Obama was already familiar with his sister's story before sitting down with him but wanted to learn more.

"My main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and let them know that we are thinking about them at this moment and will continue to think about them each and every day," Obama said. "The awareness that not only all of America but much of the world is thinking about them might serve as some comfort."

A single suspect, James Holmes, is being held without bond on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder after the shooting rampage, which occurred minutes into a premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" Batman movie early Friday in this suburb outside Denver.

Obama said he assured the families that even though the suspect behind "this evil act has received a lot of attention over the last couple of days, that attention will fade away. And in the end, after he has felt the full force of our justice system, what will be remembered are the good people who were impacted by this tragedy."

The president's most vivid lines came in describing the story of two friends, 19-year-old Allie Young and her best friend, 21-year-old Stephanie Davies. Both were in Young's hospital room when Obama visited.

Obama recounted that when the gunman entered the movie theater and threw canisters of gas at the start of his killing spree, Allie stood up to warn people.

"And she was shot in the neck, and it punctured a vein, and immediately she started spurting blood," Obama said.

"And apparently, as she dropped down on the floor, Stephanie — 21 years old — had the presence of mind to drop down on the ground with her, pull her out of the aisle, place her fingers over where Allie had been wounded, and applied pressure the entire time while the gunman was still shooting," Obama said.

The president said Davies eventually joined others in carrying her friend to an ambulance. He said Young was going to be fine.

"As tragic as the circumstances of what we've seen today are, as heartbreaking as it is for the families, it's worth us spending most of our time reflecting on young Americans like Allie and Stephanie," Obama said. "They represent what's best in us, and they assure us that out of this darkness a brighter day is going to come."

The task of articulating sorrow and loss has become a familiar one for Obama.

In November 2009, he led mourners at a service for victims of the mass shooting at Texas' Fort Hood. In January 2011, he spoke at a memorial for the six victims killed in Tucson, Ariz., when a gunman attacked Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as she met with constituents.

The following April, when some 300 people were killed in a multistate series of tornadoes, Obama flew to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to commiserate with residents whose homes were in ruins. A month later, Obama went to Joplin, Mo., after a monster twister claimed 161 lives.

Commentators have skewered the mascots for scaring children and projecting a creepy surveillance-state image of the Olympic games.

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelA pair of boys run across a hospital rooftop adjacent to an artist's rendition of an Olympic mascot on Saturday, July 21, 2012, in London. The statue is one of 84 fiberglass sculptures of the mascots Wenlock or Mandeville that were painted by various artists and erected across the city for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

LONDON (AP) — Sinister. Disturbing. Creepy. Frightening.

The official mascots of London's Olympic and Paralympic Games — Wenlock and Mandeville — have been called all of those things, but organizers are hoping to tack on a more positive title: merchandising magic.

The futuristic-looking pair have popped up all over London, casting their one-eyed gaze at tourists and locals alike from posters, statues and a slew of Olympic merchandise ranging from key chains to cutlery.

Bloggers and other commentators, however, have been skewering the duo for scaring children and projecting a creepy surveillance-state image of the Olympic games.

Wenlock — named after an English town in Shropshire that helped inspire the modern Olympic games — and Mandeville, whose name pays tribute to the hospital considered the birthplace of the Paralympic Games — look more like surveillance robots than humans or animals.

In place of a face, each have one large, staring eye — a camera, according to Olympic organizers, to let them "record everything."

They have legs, but no feet; arms bearing "friendship bands" in the colors of the Olympic rings, but no fingers. Both of their heads have "taxi light" in the middle, a tribute to London's famous black cabs.

Wenlock's head is round, while Mandeville has ridges atop his noggin. They peer out of official London Olympics snow globes, adorn backpacks and towels, decorate magnets and mugs.

Olympic mascots over the years have raised the question: What were they thinking? (Turin's humanized snowball and ice cube in 2006, anyone?) But even Sydney's spiky echidna managed to look cute and cuddly, while a barrage of critics say Wenlock and Mandeville are anything but.

"It's not so friendly," said Jenny Zhang, looking at a Wenlock while in London from China for business. "We don't see a smiling face, it's not a friendly eye. It's just watching you."

Since they were selected as the official mascots back in 2009, detractors have had a field day with the pair, questioning how faceless monsters fashioned out of "drops of steel" — the duo's creation story — won out over 100 other designs by artists and agencies.

Their watchful eyes —described in many forums as toy versions of London's omnipresent CCTV lenses — seem to have caused the most discomfort, drawing Orwellian comparisons and references to surveillance states. Wenlock figurines in police gear have come under fire from dozens of online commenters decrying the "fascist playthings" and "totalitarian toys."

Actor Ewan McGregor tweeted his disappointment Friday after seeing plastic mascot statutes in London's Regents Park: "With this country's artistic heritage this one eyed joke made me sad."

Despite the vocal backlash, mascots are proving to be an important part of the London 2012 product range, according to the city's Olympic organizing committee. It said in an email that soft toys of Wenlock and Mandeville were a "consistent best seller."

Organizers would not provide a breakdown of sales so far, but said Wenlock and Mandeville items make up around 20 percent of the total London 2012 licensed merchandise, which is expected to generate more than 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) worth of sales.

Despite the ever-present mockery, visitors to the mascots' official website have created more than 105,500 personalized avatars, and mascot statues in London seem to be inspiring more curiosity than criticism.

On a recent afternoon, some tourists gawked at the life-size statues while others hung off them for photos.

Six-year-old Nimaran Sandhu's face lit up when she saw a Wenlock statue.

"It hasn't got a face and I think it's funny," she told a reporter, adding with a giggle that Wenlock looked "fat."

Alessia Goldthorpe, 5, rattled off facts about Wenlock and Mandeville to her father in the same park before declaring that she likes Wenlock.

"He's happy!" she exclaimed.

As a part of MassLive.com's ongoing "Ask Mayor Morse" video series, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse addressed the how city parks are maintained and kept up. Watch video

As a part of MassLive.com's ongoing "Ask Mayor Morse" video series, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse addressed the how city parks are maintained and kept up.

The city's parks are a "big priority," Morse said, including Community Field, which reopened in June after $3.1 million and a year's work of renovations.

During construction on that park, security cameras and waste receptacles were installed, and park rangers now also make sure people abide by the park's curfew, he said.

"We've made very deliberate decisions to make sure that Community Field in particular is upkept," Morse said.

To submit a question for a future "Ask Mayor Morse" segment, write to feedback@masslive.com.

The first phase of the project is expected to open in late 2014.

SPRINGFIELD -- U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is scheduled to visit Springfield this morning to formally announce $17 million in funding for the long-awaited renovation of Union Station.

LaHood's appearance is scheduled for 10:45 a.m.

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, first confirmed in June that the final block of funding for the $45 million project had been secured.

Built in 1926, Union Station closed in 1973 and has been owned by the city since 1988.

The reopening of the station will be bolstered by a $78 million federal project designed to improve passenger rail service north and south through Springfield from Vermont south to New Haven, Conn.

Renovation plans for the terminal building call for 33,000 square feet for PVTA, Amtrak, commuter rail and intercity bus operating facilities. The terminal will include 58,000 square feet of retail and office space, including day care.

Administrative offices for the PVTA are slated to relocate to the building, according to plans posted by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority, and additional 30,000 square feet of space will be renovated for future economic development.

A baggage building at the site will be demolished to make way for a 139,000 square-foot bus terminal with 23 bays.

The first phase of the project -- currently dubbed the Union Station Regional Intermodal Transportation Center -- is expected to open in late 2014.

This is a developing story. Updates will be posted as our reporting continues today.

Officials say a Lynn man was shot and killed by police after the car he was inside allegedly rammed a police vehicle.

LYNN, Mass. (AP) — Officials say a Lynn man was shot and killed by police after the car he was inside allegedly rammed a police vehicle.

Police say they saw 23-year-old Brandon Payne walking with a gun before getting into a vehicle on Sunday night around 9:30 p.m.

They say they tried to stop that vehicle, and another that was following it.

They say the vehicle Payne was inside rammed a police vehicle, and three Lynn officers and a Massachusetts state trooper opened fire, hitting Payne twice.

Payne was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where a spokeswoman for the Essex County district attorney's office said he died Monday morning.

Three other suspects, two Lynn men and a New Jersey man, were arrested.

They face arraignment Monday on charges including assault with a dangerous weapon and firearms charges.

Hannaford Supermarkets is alerting consumers that Cargill Beef is voluntarily recalling 29,339 pounds of ground beef that may contain salmonella.

SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) — Hannaford Supermarkets is alerting consumers that Cargill Beef is voluntarily recalling 29,339 pounds of ground beef that may contain salmonella.

The 85-percent-lean ground beef was produced at Cargill's plant in Wyalusing, Pa., on May 25, and repackaged for sale to consumers by customers of the Maine-based grocery chain.

Cargill President John Keating says in a statement, "Food borne illnesses are unfortunate and we are sorry for anyone who became sick from eating ground beef we may have produced."

Hannaford's says consumers should check their ground beef for "use or sell by" dates between May 29 and June 16. Refunds will be offered for ground beef that is returned.

Additional information is available at the U.S. Department of Agriculture recall website at: www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recalls/index.asp.

Cargill is based in Minnetonka, Minn.

Federal safety regulators are investigating complaints that rear wheels can lock up on Ram pickup trucks and the engines can catch fire on Jeep Grand Cherokees.

(AP Photo/Chrysler)This image made available by Chrysler shows the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8.

DETROIT (AP) — Federal safety regulators are investigating complaints that rear wheels can lock up on Ram pickup trucks and the engines can catch fire on Jeep Grand Cherokees.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it's gotten a dozen complaints from owners of 2009 and 2010 Ram pickups. The agency says gears that turn the rear wheels can fail, causing them to lock up.

The government has received a dozen complaints including one that caused a crash into a concrete barrier. The investigation affects up to 230,000 Ram 1500 pickups.

On the 2012 Grand Cherokee, the agency says a hose can leak power steering fluid and cause engine fires. The probe affects nearly 107,000 vehicles. The investigations could lead to recalls. No one was hurt in either case.

NCAA hits Penn State football with $60 million fine, vacates Paterno's wins from 1998-2011.

(AP Photo/John Beale)People visit the Joe Paterno statue early Sunday July 22, 2012. in State College, Pa. The famed statue of Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday morning, eliminating a key piece of the iconography surrounding the once-sainted football coach accused of burying child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant.

The NCAA slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties Monday, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno's victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, the loss of 20 scholarships per year over four years and five years' probation. The NCAA also said that any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school.

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the staggering sanctions at a news conference in Indianapolis. Though the NCAA stopped short of imposing the "death penalty" — shutting down the Nittany Lions' program completely — the punishment is still crippling for a team that is trying to start over with a new coach and a new outlook.

Sandusky, a former Penn State defensive coordinator, was found guilty in June of sexually abusing young boys, sometimes on campus. An investigation commissioned by the school and released July 12 found that Paterno, who died in January, and several other top officials at Penn State stayed quiet for years about accusations against Sandusky.

Emmert fast-tracked penalties rather than go through the usual circuitous series of investigations and hearings. The NCAA said the $60 million is equivalent to the annual gross revenue of the football program. The money must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at Penn State.

"Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people," Emmert said.

Emmert had earlier said he had "never seen anything as egregious" as the horrific crimes of Sandusky and the cover-up by Paterno and others at the university, including former Penn State President Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley.

The investigation headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh said that Penn State officials kept what they knew from police and other authorities for years, enabling the abuse to go on.

There had been calls across the nation for Penn State to receive the "death penalty," and Emmert had not ruled out that possibility as late as last week — though Penn State did not fit the criteria for it. That punishment is for teams that commit a major violation while already being sanctioned.

The scholarship to be awarded through The Republican's Newspaper in Education program.

Republican photo by MICHAEL S. GORDONFrom left, committee members of the Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation at the recent media appreciation day include, from left, Helen R. Caulton-Harris, Linda Belton, Gwynnetta Sneed, founding director, and Sister of Providence Senga Fulton.

During a recent media appreciation day held by the Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation, Eileen Kirk shared her memories of Carl, the sixth-grader at New Leadership Charter School in Springfield who committed suicide in 2009 after repeated bullying.

Kirk remembered him as an enthusiastic and happy participant who “lit up the room” in the 2008 Quest program for middle school boys that Kirk co-directed at the time at Elms College in Chicopee.

“He was the first to run into the classroom. He would sit up front and take in everything like a sponge. He loved everything about life. If there was something new to learn, he wanted to be part of it,” said Kirk, now the Elm’s assistant director of campus ministry and a member of the foundation’s committee.

“I remember the drumming teacher, Joe Sallins, encouraging him to lead the class and at first Carl said, ‘No, I can’t.’ But then, during the show at the end of the program, he lead the group and brought the house down.”

Kirk shared her stories during a noon-time thank you held at Chili’s Grill & Bar on Cooley Street at which Gwynnetta J. Sneed, founding director of the foundation, announced that The Republican would fund a scholarship to be given in the names of both Carl and Phoebe Prince by the foundation as an addition to the scholarships given in Carl’s memory at its spring fund-raiser gala.

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover

"The scholarship will be presented at our 2013 scholarship gala to a deserving graduating high school senior,” Sneed said.

“Western Massachusetts lost two young people who committed suicide because they were bullied at school. Carl and Phoebe will never have an opportunity to realize their dream of a college education; but through the efforts of the foundation, we can keep their dream alive. With the support of The Republican, we can increase our scholarship giving at our 2013 gala.”

Phoebe Prince, 15, who had enrolled as a freshman at South Hadley High after moving here from Ireland with her mother and sister, committed suicide in 2010 following intensive bullying from other students. In the aftermath of her and Carl’s deaths, Gov. Deval L. Patrick signed the state’s landmark anti-bullying law in 2010. The Phoebe Prince case also resulted in six South Hadley High School students being charged in connection with her death.

Phoebe Prince

"These two area victims of bullying died within a year of each other and, though different in age, gender and background, their short lives deserve to be remembered in a positive way and in a way that educates against what happened to them from happening to others.

“The foundation asks scholarship candidates to write an essay on their efforts to combat bullying and The Republican has a regular teen section as well as an annual contest in which area young people are encouraged to speak their minds, stand up for what they believe in and encourage effective change by writing articles.”

Sneed also announced that the foundation’s fall fund-raiser, the back-to-school anti-bullying 5K road race and 2K walk on Sept. 15 in Forest Park, will have cash prizes of $100 for the first place male and female winners.

Registration will be from 8 to 8:45 a.m. with step off at 9. Entertainment will include Ty Lyricz, a recording artist from Sacramento, Calif., area guitarist Eva Snyder and zumba with the staff from Best Fitness. Cost for runners is $25, $5 for walkers.

Republican photo by MICHAEL GORDON Committee members of the Carl Joseph Walker -Hoover Foundation, Tony Pettaway, left, and Helen Bushey at a media appreciate day at Chili's Grill & Bar on Cooley Street in Springfield.

"Since the inception of the foundation, we have appeared on ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ and Madonna has given us a $5,000 donation; it doesn’t get any better than that. The foundation has given Carl a voice even in his silence.”

Committee member Sheila King-Goodwin, senior vice president at People’s Bank in Holyoke, attributed the success of the foundation that was started from Sneed’s vision in the spring of 2010 to the “big heart of New England.”

Supporters in attendance included Linda Butterfield, of Chicopee, of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Springfield auxiliary, and the recently elected auxiliary state president for Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

“Coming in as president, I had to pick a charity and I had seen the news about Carl,” said Butterfield, who had pins with the foundation’s logo made up to sell for $5.

“I was bullied growing up, as many people were,” Butterfield said, “and I want to help get the word out – I have nieces and nephews in school – how important it is to understand how bullying effects children and to teach ways to stop it.”

Butterfield attended the event with Nena Koy, an auxiliary member also from Chicopee, and said anyone interested in purchasing a pin could email their business address at ImpressionsLaserEngraving@yahoo.com.

Republican file photo by MICHAEL S. GORDONEileen Kirk

In her remarks, Kirk thanked Sneed for her vision and noted the foundation’s “little by little ripple of change in the community.”

“We had two foundation scholarship recipients – Tess Domb Sadof and Raul Centeno Pedraza – come to the Elms and speak to Putnam Vocational Technical Academy students in the Baystate-Springfield Educational Partnership and they were amazing,” Kirk said.

Kirk also praised Sirdeaner L. Walker, Carl’s mother, for her commitment to education. Walker helped promote the passage of the state anti-bullying law and has traveled across the country to promote an anti-bullying law at the federal level.

“Carl was a great writer and thinker and he was also into science. He was always reading and that goes back to his mom, who always looked for every opportunity that would be good.

"Sirdeaner is all about creating educational opportunities not only for her own children, but for everybody’s children,” said Kirk, noting that Carl’s oldest sister, Dominique, who just completed her freshman year at Bennet College for Women in Greensboro, N.C., was in the Step Forward program for adolescent girls when Carl was in the Quest program.

Other media in attendance included Matthew Kullberg, of WGBY, Public Television for Western New England, and Marjorie J. Hurst, editor of Point of View. Other committee members present included Linda Belton, Helen Bushey, Sister of Providence Senga Fulton, Helen R. Caulton-Harris, Regina Jeames, Tony Pettaway and Rosemary Woods.

For more information about the Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Foundation and its scholarships, visit carljoseph11.org/.

Kerry said he will have staff in the Franklin County towns of Leverett and Shutesbury on Tuesday and in the Worcester County town of Charlton on Thursday.

In this July 29, 2009, file photo, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

More politics news

Mitt Romney's tenure as Mormon Church leader gives clues to his ability to relate to average people: Those who interacted with Mitt Romney during his time as a church leader in Massachusetts give differing opinions about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

• Sen. Scott Brown to compete against Springfield NAACP President Talbert Swan in charity basketball game
• Senate race roundup: Elizabeth Warren screens questions at open forum; Brown, Romney share staff, but not campaign tactics; and more
• U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visits Union Station in Springfield, officially announces funding

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., announced his staff will hold additional office hours in several Massachusetts communities this week to discuss local issues, offer assistance on individual cases, and answer any and all questions.

“My office doors are always open to folks, but I think especially that in these tough economic times we have to do more to make sure everyone in Massachusetts can get in touch with their government and find out how we can help,” Kerry said in a statement. “That’s why we’re sending the team to Leverett, Shutesbury and Charlton this week to hear folks’ questions and concerns and offer assistance.”

Kerry said he will have staff in the Franklin County towns of Leverett and Shutesbury on Tuesday and in the Worcester County town of Charlton on Thursday.

So far in 2012, Kerry’s staff has held office hours 72 different locations throughout the state, according to his office.

Information about future office hours is available online at Kerry's Senate website.

The schedule for this round of visits is as follows:

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Leverett Town Hall

2nd floor

9 Montague Road

Leverett, MA 01054

1 – 2:30 p.m. Shutesbury Town Hall

1 Cooleyville Road

Shutesbury, MA 01072


Thursday, July 26, 2012

10 – 11:30 a.m. Charlton Town Hall

Selectman’s Meeting Room

37 Main St.

Charlton, MA 01507

Love started 13 games last season, recording 33 tackles and three sacks.

The New England Patriots announced the signing of exclusive rights free agent Kyle Love on Monday.

The defensive lineman will return for one-year at the minimum salary.

Love, 25, is a veteran of two seasons after signing as an underrated free agent out of Mississippi State in 2010. He started 13 games last season, recording 33 tackles and three sacks.

Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren have been criticized for statements about the role of government in business; historians say they are channeling a debate that has existed – in various forms – for decades.

More politics news

Mitt Romney's tenure as Mormon Church leader gives clues to his ability to relate to average people: Those who interacted with Mitt Romney during his time as a church leader in Massachusetts give differing opinions about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

• Sen. Scott Brown to compete against Springfield NAACP President Talbert Swan in charity basketball game
• Senate race roundup: Elizabeth Warren screens questions at open forum; Brown, Romney share staff, but not campaign tactics; and more
• U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visits Union Station in Springfield, officially announces funding

“Small business is the gateway to opportunity for those who want a piece of the American Dream. Wouldn't it be nice to hear a little more about the forgotten heroes of America, those who create most of our new jobs…The brave men and women everywhere who produce our goods, feed a hungry world, and keep our families warm while they invest in the future to build a better America. That's where miracles are made. Not In Washington, DC.” – President Ronald Reagan, cited by U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.

“Wealth in the modern world does not come merely from individual effort; it results from a combination of individual effort and of the manifold uses to which the community puts that effort. The individual does not create the product of his industry with his own hands; he utilizes the many processes and forces of mass production to meet the demands of a national and international market,” – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, cited by the Washington Post.

Democratic President Barack Obama – echoing comments made by Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren – has tipped off a firestorm of criticism for a statement he made about the role of government in business.

At a campaign rally in Virginia, Obama said, “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life….Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Warren, in August 2011, said similarly, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. You built a factory out there, good for you…but you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate.”

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown immediately jumped on the comments to paint Obama and Warren as unfriendly to small business. Business owners, they argued, are responsible for their own successes. In a web video released Monday, Brown contrasted the statements by Obama and Warren to statements from Reagan and Presidents John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford and Lyndon B. Johnson praising free enterprise.

Historians say the contrast Brown is drawing is hardly so clear cut. Kennedy and Johnson, for example, both Democrats, championed a major expansion of government programs. But the debate, in one form or another, has existed at various points in U.S. history, with liberal politicians championing the role of government as conservatives focused on the individual.

Sean Wilentz, professor of American history at Princeton University, said Obama’s remark touches on perennial political issues. “If you talk about people who get rich, there’s always both what you do on your own and the world you’re a part of, how it gets you there, whether a matter of education, or a matter of the government doing things which encourage certain sectors of the economy,” Wilentz said, pointing to government investment in railroads in the 19th century.

At the same time, Wilentz said, there is a contrasting image of the self-reliant “rugged individual.” “Whether it’s the cowboy on the range or the baron of industry, there’s this idea that somehow they’ve done this completely on their own,” Wilentz said.

While both ideas have truth, Wilentz said there is also tension. “If you have an ideology based on the idea that government can only do harm to individuals, you’re going to get very upset if it’s pointed out in this very obvious way that in fact individuals need something more,” Wilentz said.

John Baick, professor of history at Western New England University, said since the 19th century, there has been an idea within the Republican Party that business should be allowed to do whatever it wants.

John Baick

But under the New Deal in the 1930s, Roosevelt, a Democrat, greatly expanded government’s role in business –through direct employment and increased regulation of the financial industry. “It was never the case that the Democratic Party was anti-capitalist, but it is a question of in whom do you put your faith – primarily in the employer industrial class or do you put it in the worker?” Baick said. “It’s the New Deal that said the government should take a role on both sides, not just on the side of big business.” Johnson further expanded the role of government by establishing Medicare and Medicaid. Baick said taxation levels in those years were high, and there was a belief in the importance of the community.

“Warren was the first person to articulate these ideas last year. Obama seems to be tapping in to what she started, this notion that we’re all in this together as a community,” Baick said. “It’s something that was very clear from the 1930s to the 1960s, this was just a basic bedrock idea.”

Baick said Brown and Romney are tapping into the ideology espoused later by Reagan, who in the 1980s pushed for deregulation, with a conservative attitude that “tilts more toward the rights of the individual rather than the collective good of the community.”

Dennis Hale, associate professor political science at Boston College, said the current debate is less about the role of government than government’s policy of taxation. The idea that government roads benefit commerce is “so obviously true,” he said.

Hale said the reason for Obama to bring it up “is to talk about why we should raise taxes on the rich,” despite concern by economists over the impact of a tax increase on an economy recovering from recession.

“It focuses people’s attention on the rich, and helps the president and Professor Warren rally their base and raise questions in the mind of independents about maybe the rich are responsible for the terrible recession,” Hale said.

In the past, Hale said there has always been a basic understanding that the private sector was the engine of job creation. A Rasmussen poll released Monday found 72 percent of those polled still believe small business owners are primarily responsible for their own success. Hale said Obama and Warren’s comments are a manifestation of a Democratic Party that has become more “anti-business.”

“Everybody understands government is responsible for building infrastructure…There isn’t a debate about that,” he said. “What they’re trying to do is change the subject and frankly throw pixie dust in people’s eyes, to think if only we raised taxes on the rich, we’d be out of this mess.”

File photos | Associated PressElizabeth Warren and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.

Fear that Spain may need a bailout sent its borrowing costs soaring, the euro to a 2-year low against the dollar and stocks around the world tumbling as investors pulled back from all manner of risk.

By BERNARD CONDON | AP Business Writer

Associated PressNuns shop at Rome's Porta Portese flea market. Italy's market watchdog on Monday, July 23, 2012 imposed a week-long ban on the short-selling of financial stocks as the Milan index plunged amid fears that if Spain needs a bailout, Italy could be next. The main stock index, the FTSE-MIB, closed 2.8 percent lower after being down by more than 5 percent in the morning. (AP Photo/Paola Barisani)

NEW YORK — Fear that Spain may need a bailout sent its borrowing costs soaring, the euro to a two-year low against the dollar and stocks around the world tumbling as investors pulled back Monday from all manner of risk.

The Dow Jones industrial average, after falling 239 points earlier in the day, ended down 101.11 at 12,721.46. Yields for U.S. government bonds sank to record lows as traders sought the safety of American debt.

Borrowing costs rose sharply for Spain and Italy after news that the Spanish economy contracted by 0.4 percent in the second quarter. Falling economic output makes it more difficult for Spain to deal with its debts.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 12.14 points to 1,350.52. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 35.15 points to 2,890.15.

"Increases in Spanish borrowing costs have brought back questions about the health of Europe," said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. "That's driven a flight to safety."

The selling was widespread. All 10 industry groups within the S&P 500 were down, with materials and health care companies off more than 1 percent. Including Friday's drop, the Dow is down 222 points, the biggest back-to-back drop in more than a month.

In addition to Spain, investors are worried that Greece might get cut off from emergency loans it needs to avoid default. On Tuesday, inspectors from its international creditors arrive in the country to check on its progress in cutting its budget and in meeting other conditions it had agreed to in exchange for aid.

The Greek government has repeatedly failed to hit targets required for the two bailouts it has received so far.

Adding to the jitters, a Chinese central bank adviser forecast that China's economic growth could slow from its second-quarter rate of 7.6 percent, which was already the slowest in three years.

Investors had hoped that the world's second-largest economy would compensate for slowdowns in the U.S. and Europe but now aren't so sure.

"I wish it were still the weekend," said Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors, a mutual fund firm. "People were initially worried just about the Europe, but now it's spread to China and beyond."

In Spain, the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond rose to 7.43 percent, the highest since the euro was launched in 1999 and a level considered unsustainable for more than a few months. The fear was registered in other trading, too. The cost for investors to take out insurance on Spanish government debt soared to a record high Monday.

The message: After Spanish banks had to seek money from international creditors to stay afloat, now maybe the Spanish government needs help.

The prospect of bailing out Madrid is worrisome for Europe because the potential cost far exceeds what's available in existing emergency funds.

The fear ratcheted up over the weekend when a southern region of Spain announced that it might need a financial lifeline from Madrid to make ends meet. That followed news last week that an eastern region of the country had asked for help.

In a move that recalled the global financial crisis four years ago, Spain's market regulator on Monday said it was temporarily banning short selling of shares on its stock indexes. In a short sale, an investor seeks a profit by betting that the price of a certain stock will fall.

The U.S. briefly banned short selling of dozens of stocks in 2008 as prices were tumbling.

Strong selling rattled European markets. The main stock index dropped more than 7 percent in Greece, 1 percent in Spain, 3 percent in Germany and France. Asian stocks were also sharply lower.

Bank stocks, which tend to take a hit when fear flares in Europe, were among the biggest losers. Citigroup stock dropped 53 cents, or 2 percent, to $25.34.

The price of oil fell $3.69, or 4 percent, to finish the day at $88.14 per barrel in New York. Exxon Mobil stock declined 74 cents, or nearly 1 percent, to $85.21.

The euro slipped just below $1.21 against the dollar, its lowest since June 2010.

There were also signs that a global economic slowdown is hitting U.S. companies that rode out the anemic recovery well by selling more abroad. Now, they can't grow those sales as fast as before, and what they do sell has fallen in value as foreign currencies have weakened against the dollar. That's because U.S. companies must translate foreign currency earnings into dollars when reporting to investors, and weaker foreign currencies fetch fewer dollars.

While global sales at McDonald's restaurants open at least a year rose 3.7 percent, for instance, profits slid by about the same rate due to currency exchange. McDonald's generates about two-thirds of its revenue outside the U.S.

"A disproportionately large amount of revenue overseas is seen as a negative today," said Creatura of Federated Investors. "The list of weakening overseas markets is getting longer by the day."

Stock in the world's largest hamburger chain slid $2.64, or 2.9 percent, to $88.94 after the company fell short of most Wall Street expectations for both net income and revenue.

Hasbro is also getting hurt by currency trading. If not for the surge in the dollar, its international revenue in the second quarter would have risen 5 percent, instead of falling 4 percent, the toy maker said Monday. Still, the company beat analyst estimates of net income, thanks partly to cost cutting.

Stock in Hasbro, whose products include Monopoly and Scrabble, rose $1.35, or 4 percent, to $35.19.

In other stock news:

• RailAmerica Inc., a short-line railroad operator, rose $2.44, or nearly 10 percent, to $27.25 after announcing it planned to sell itself another short-line operator, Genesee & Wyoming, for $1.39 billion in cash.

• Halliburton, an oil and natural gas services firm, rose 2.4 percent after reporting flat earnings for the second quarter. The company has benefited lately from selling oil drilling around the world.

• Peet's Coffee and Tea surged 28 percent to $73.05 after announcing a sale to Joh A. Benckiser, a privately-held consumer goods company in Germany.

AP Business Writer Matthew Craft contributed to this report.

As a state senator, Brown voted to extend Massachusetts' ban on selling or importing military-style semi-automatic weapons.

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. said that he believes legislation dealing with regulating firearms should be left to the states, not the federal government. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

By STEVE LeBLANC

BOSTON – U.S. Sen. Scott Brown said Monday that it should be left up to lawmakers in individual states to decide whether to approve new bans on assault weapons.

The Massachusetts senator’s comments follow a shooting rampage in Colorado that left 12 people dead and 58 others injured at a midnight screening of the newest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”

The shootings also promoted supporters of tighter gun laws to renew their call for the reinstatement of a federal ban on 19 types of military-style assault weapons that expired in 2004.

Brown, a Republican, said such restrictions are better left to states.

“Scott Brown supports the state assault weapons ban here in Massachusetts, and believes that the states are the appropriate venue for making these types of decisions,” a spokeswoman for Brown said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Brown’s Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, said she supports reinstating the federal assault weapons ban, and also backs Massachusetts’ law.

The federal ban expired the same year that Brown, then a state senator, voted to extend Massachusetts’ ban on selling or importing military-style semi-automatic weapons.

Under the law at the time, the state ban would have automatically expired if Congress did not renew the federal law. The new law allowed the state ban to continue even as Congress took no action.

While Brown supported the extension of the ban, he also opposed – and the state Senate ultimately rejected – an attempt to close what critics described as a “loophole” in the original law that allowed the sale and transfer of assault weapons owned prior to 1994.

The bill to extend the ban also included a provision to establish a five-member firearm license review board to examine cases of individuals who were convicted of misdemeanor offenses early in life and had been barred from buying the weapons under the 1998 law.

Then-Gov. Mitt Romney later signed the bill into law.

At the time critics said the law unfairly punished people who had turned their lives around and become law-abiding citizens.

Gun control has yet to surface as a major issue in the contentious Massachusetts Senate race.

While both Brown and Warren rushed to release statements after the shooting to express sympathy for the victims, neither called for reassessing the nation’s gun laws.

That’s frustrating for gun control advocates like John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, who supports reinstating the federal assault weapons ban.

“Renew the federal ban and you will absolutely see a reduction in the use of assault weapons in crime,” Rosenthal said. “That’s a relative no-brainer.”

Supporters of gun rights, however, argue that it’s unfair to penalize responsible gun owners for the actions of one individual.

The relative lack of discussion about gun control measures in the Senate race is reflected on Capitol Hill.

Democratic demands for tougher gun control laws in the wake of the Colorado shootings appear destined to fizzle. Congress hasn’t passed strict legislation in more than a decade and any attempt to push through tighter restrictions in an election year appear unlikely.

A 24-year-old former doctoral student, James Holmes, was arrested in the Colorado shootings.