The gunman behind the Connecticut elementary school massacre stormed into the building and shot 20 children at least twice with a high-powered rifle, executing some at close range and killing adults who tried to stop the carnage, authorities said Saturday.

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — The gunman behind the Connecticut elementary school massacre stormed into the building and shot 20 children at least twice with a high-powered rifle, executing some at close range and killing adults who tried to stop the carnage, authorities said Saturday.

He forced his way into the school by breaking a window, officials said. Asked whether the children suffered, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver paused. "If so," he said, "not for very long."

The terrible details about the last moments of young innocents emerged as authorities released their names and ages — the youngest 6 and 7, the oldest 56. They included Ana Marquez-Greene, a little girl who had just moved to Newtown from Canada; Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old teacher who apparently died while trying to hide her pupils; and principal Dawn Hochsprung, who authorities said lunged at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him and paid with her life.

The tragedy has plunged Newtown into mourning and added the picturesque New England community of handsome Colonial homes, red-brick sidewalks and 27,000 people to the grim map of towns where mass shootings in recent years have periodically reignited the national debate over gun control but led to little change.

Faced with the unimaginable, townspeople sadly took down some of their Christmas decorations and struggled Saturday with how to go on. Signs around town read, "Hug a teacher today," ''Please pray for Newtown" and "Love will get us through."

"People in my neighborhood are feeling guilty about it being Christmas. They are taking down decorations," said Jeannie Pasacreta, a psychologist who was advising parents struggling with how to talk to their children.

School board chairwoman Debbie Leidlein spent Friday night meeting with parents who lost children and shivered as she recalled those conversations. "They were asking why. They can't wrap their minds around it. Why? What's going on?" she said. "And we just don't have any answers for them."

The tragedy brought forth soul-searching and grief around the globe. President Barack Obama planned to visit Newtown on Sunday. Families as far away as Puerto Rico planned funerals for victims who still had their baby teeth, world leaders extended condolences, and vigils were held around the U.S.

"Next week is going to be horrible," said the town's legislative council chairman, Jeff Capeci, thinking about the string of funerals the town will face. "Horrible, and the week leading into Christmas."

Police shed no light on what triggered Adam Lanza, 20, to carry out the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, though state police Lt. Paul Vance said investigators had found "very good evidence ... that our investigators will be able to use in painting the complete picture, the how and, more importantly, the why." He would not elaborate.

However, another law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators have found no note or manifesto from Lanza of the sort they have come to expect after murderous rampages such as the Virginia Tech bloodbath in 2007 that left 33 people dead.

Lanza shot to death his mother, Nancy Lanza, at the home they shared, then drove to the school in her car with at least three of her guns, forced his way in and opened fire, authorities said. Within minutes, he killed 20 children, six adults and himself.

Education officials said they had found no link between Lanza's mother and the school, contrary to news reports that said she was a teacher there. Investigators said they believe Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary many years ago, but they had no explanation for why he went there Friday.

Authorities said Adam Lanza had no criminal history, and it was not clear whether he had a job. Lanza was believed to have suffered from a personality disorder, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lanza had been diagnosed with Asperger's, a mild form of autism often characterized by social awkwardness. People with the disorder are often highly intelligent. While they can become frustrated more easily, there is no evidence of a link between Asperger's and violent behavior, experts say.

The law enforcement officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation.

Richard Novia, the school district's head of security until 2008, who also served as adviser for the school technology club, of which Lanza was a member, said he clearly "had some disabilities."

"If that boy would've burned himself, he would not have known it or felt it physically," Novia said in a phone interview. "It was my job to pay close attention to that."

Amid the confusion and sorrow, stories of heroism emerged, including an account of Hochsprung, 47, and the school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, 56, rushing toward Lanza in an attempt to stop him. Both died.

There was also 27-year-old teacher Victoria Soto, whose name has been invoked as a portrait of selflessness and humanity among unfathomable evil. Investigators told relatives she was killed while shielding her first-graders from danger. She reportedly hid some students in a bathroom or closet, ensuring they were safe, a cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News.

"She put those children first. That's all she ever talked about," a friend, Andrea Crowell, told The Associated Press. "She wanted to do her best for them, to teach them something new every day."

There was also 6-year-old Emilie Parker, whose grieving father, Robbie, talked to reporters not long after police released the names of the victims but expressed no animosity, offering sympathy for Lanza's family.

"I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you," he said.

On Saturday, Carver, the medical examiner, said that all the victims at the school were shot with a rifle, at least some of them up close, and that all were apparently shot more than once. All six adults killed at the school were women. Of the 20 children, eight were boys and 12 were girls.

Asked how many bullets were fired, Carver said, "I'm lucky if I can tell you how many I found."

Parents identified the children through photos to spare them some shock, Carver said.

Relatives of the shooter were at a loss for words.

"The whole family is traumatized by this event," said Donald Briggs Jr., police chief of Kingston, N.H., who knows the family. "We reach out to the community of Newtown and express our heartfelt sorrow for this incomprehensible and profound loss of innocence," the family said in a statement.

James Champion, Nancy Lanza's brother and a retired police captain in Kingston, N.H., said through the police chief that he had not seen his nephew in eight years. Champion, who still works as a part-time officer, said he would not discuss what might have triggered the rampage since the case is under investigation.

Acquaintances describe the former honor student as smart but odd and remote.

Olivia DeVivo, now a student at the University of Connecticut, recalled that Lanza always came to school toting a briefcase and wearing his shirt buttoned all the way up. "He was very different and very shy and didn't make an effort to interact with anybody" in his 10th-grade English class, she said.

Lanza would also go through crises that would require his mother to come to school to deal with. Such episodes might involve "total withdrawal from whatever he was supposed to be doing, be it a class, be it sitting and read a book," said Novia, the tech club adviser.

When people approached Lanza in the hallways, he would press himself against the wall or walk in a different direction, clutching his black case "like an 8-year-old who refuses to give up his teddy bear," said Novia, who now lives in Tennessee.

Even so, Novia said his main concern about Lanza was that he might become a target for teasing or abuse by other students, not that he might become a threat.

"Somewhere along in the last four years there were significant changes that led to what has happened Friday morning," Novia said. "I could never have foreseen him doing that."

Nancy Lanza, who was once a stockbroker for John Hancock in Boston and once lived in Kingston, N.H., was a kind, considerate and loving person, Briggs said.

"She was very involved in the community and very well-respected," Briggs said.

Lanza's family was struggling to make sense of what happened and "trying to find whatever answers we can," his father, Peter Lanza, said in a statement late Saturday that also expressed sympathy for the victims' families.

Sandy Hook Elementary will be closed next week — some parents can't even conceive of sending their children back, Leidlein said — and officials are deciding what to do about the town's other schools.

Asked whether the town would recover, Maryann Jacob, a clerk in the school library who took cover in a storage room with 18 fourth-graders during the shooting rampage, said: "We have to. We have a lot of children left."

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jim Fitzgerald, Bridget Murphy, Pat Eaton-Robb and Michael Melia in Newtown; Adam Geller in Southbury, Conn.; and Stephen Singer in Hartford, Conn.

This is Toy for Joy's 90th year.

LUDLOW — Ludlow Family Dentistry, for about a quarter of a century now, has made it an annual tradition to donate to the Toy for Joy holiday campaign.

Alissa Chapin, a dental assistant at the Kendall Street practice, said employees donate to Toy for Joy in lieu of giving gifts to each other.

“Sometimes you just don’t know what to buy,” said Chapin, talking on the idea of buying gifts for co-workers. “It’s for a good cause.”

This year, the practice contributed $300 towards brightening the Christmas mornings of thousands of needy children from across Western Massachusetts.

The 90th annual Toy for Joy campaign got off to a busy start last month with approximately 3,000 Greater Springfield families signing up for gifts for their children. The campaign is sponsored by The Republican and the Salvation Army.

Toy company Hasbro joined as partner last year, and has donated a portion of the toys for the program.

The remainder is funded by the generosity of readers of The Republican and Masslive.com. This year’s goal is $150,000.

The weeklong process of distributing all those toys ended last week.

This year, the program is being overseen by Salvation Army Capts. John and Ronda Ferreira, who took over this summer as co-commanders of the citadel from Thomas and Linda-Jo Perks, who have been reassigned to the Midwest.

State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, another longtime donor, contributed $200 to Toy for Joy this holiday season.

Also, $25 was given in celebration of the life of David Woodman. Woodman was the 22-year-old Southwick man whose heart stopped as Boston police took him into custody in 2008 during a celebration of the Boston Celtics’ NBA Championship; his family established a charitable foundation in his name.

This most recent batch of contributions tallies to $2,899. Some $38,157 has been raised to date, leaving $111,843 to be raised by noon on Christmas Eve Day.

For more information, call 733-7581. To make a contribution to the Toy for Joy fund, write: Toy for Joy, P.O. Box 3007, Springfield 01102. Contributions may also be dropped off with the coupon at The Republican, 1860 Main St., Springfield, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. until Dec. 21.

Here’s a list of the latest contributors:

• In loving memory of Rita A. Maruca from Karen and George Shea, $100
• Merry Christmas to all the children, in memory of Rita, $20
• Anonymous, $100
• In memory of my two special angels, love Peg, $25
• In memory of our father and Popou Socrates Babacas, with love from daughter Pam, son-in-law Bobby and grandchildren Krysten, Jen and Katie, $25
• Anonymous, $50
• Thank you St. Jude for prayers answered, CPO, $20
• Merry Christmas from Tim and Michelle, $25
• In memory of Donald Couchon, Mary Ann Salmen, Mary Ward and Evelyn Williams, $10
• In memory of my dear brother Neil Croteau, love Fran and Tom, $25
• Ruth, $25
• Happy Christmas to all, $30
• Happy Holidays from MJB, $10
• In memory of Genevieve and Henry Ciak, $50
• In loving memory of our son Tom, $75
• From Aiden and Caclyn LaPierre, $15
• Remembering Ray and Dot Hosley and June and George Keefe, $15
• In memory of Eleanor, George and Margaret Reilly, love Kathy, $25
• God bless the children, love Nancy and Roger, $25
• In memory of Joe and Noel Fortier and Lisa Meade, always in our hearts, $10
• In memory of Jesse Wood, $25
• Celebrating the life of David Woodman, $25
• In honor of our parents Tim Dunne and Merrill and Tom McManamy, $25
• In memory of Wilma, $25
• In loving memory of my boxer Ozzie, $30
• Janz and Ted, $100
• In memory of my dear boy, $18
• Merry Christmas and God bless from Tank and Princess, $20
• Noel Joyeux, $25
• Memory of Andrew and Una Parsons, $100
• In memory of Marge, Ukie and Jeff Rainaud, $25
• In loving memory of Richard and Mary Bourque and Maureen, $25
• In memory of my husband Arthur Krowchenko, $25
• In loving memory of Con and Mary Buckley from Peg, $30
• In memory of Raymond Dupre, so missed at this time of year, $20
• In loving memory of Lee Allman, $10
• Remembering Manya, love Jeri, Judi, Bev, Estelle, Natalie, Suzie and Kelli, $70
• In loving memory of Nani from Keith and Jo, $25
• In memory of our parents and extended family members, $50
• In memory of our beloved Peggy over the rainbow, $50
• Remembering Mamie, Pop, Marg and Flip from Jack and Mary, $50
• In loving memory of my husband Kerry Blanchard, love Bette, $25
• In memory of Margaret and Roy Smith, love Margaret, Linda and Bette, $50
• In memory of Marion Wineberg, $20
• Delores, $20
• In loving memory of Paul Jr., Dad and family members, $10
• For prayers answered, publication promised from Andrea, $10
• Remembering Jake, $25
• Celebrating Lizzie’s first Christmas, $25
• In loving memory of our parents from Bill and Jean, $25
• Remembering Mom, Wally and Mum, $25
• In memory of deceased loved ones from Richard and Ellen, $20
• Anonymous, $100
• In memory of Pierre, Finnegan, Melvin and Kelsey, love Fawn, Monkey, Milton and Moses, $321
• In memory of the late George Speliopoulos, $20
• Happy Holidays, hope there is much happiness in your hearts and enjoy your family or whoever you’re able to hug and smile this holiday season, $125
• In memory of my grandsons Jonathan and Louis Hyder and Benjamin MacDugall with love from Grandma Misiaszek, $25
• Wishing you the happiest of holidays and joy in the new year, from Senator Stan Rosenberg and staff, $200
• In memory of my friend Ben Larkin, $100
• Merry Christmas to all from Drs. Szarlan, Wegiel and Mitera, Ludlow Family Dentistry, $300

RECEIVED: $2,899
TOTAL TO DATE: $38,157
STILL NEEDED: $111,843

All in all, 12/12/12 was a great day for Western Massachusetts philanthropy.

It seemed like money from heaven. It took only 24 hours – and the miracle of the Internet – to raise $1 million for almost 270 Pioneer Valley nonprofit organizations.

Last Wednesday, on 12-12-12, the region’s first ever e-philanthropy drive – Valley Gives Day – lured thousands of donors to the Web site in search of their favorite nonprofits. And the drive helped educate some organizations about the value of social media.

The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, sponsor of Valley Gives Day, provided social media training to nonprofits as a requirement for their participation. And it worked.

Margaret R. O’Donnell, director of Valley Radio Reading Service, was eager to learn how to harness social media to help her organization continue its work reading news and information aloud to the visually impaired. “We just aren’t too up on the latest technology,” O’Donnell said. We don’t have the resources to raise money like this on our own.”

Kristin Leutz, vice president of philanthropic services for the Community Foundation, said organizers were “blown away” with the generosity displayed by Western Massachusetts residents. To spur donor participation, nonprofit organizations also had a chance at winning some of the $200,000 in donated prize money. Scott Kaplan, endowment director for the Jewish Foundation of Western Massachusetts, one of the event’s co-sponsors, said donors encouraged their friends and contacts to participate through Facebook and Twitter. “It’s the idea of viral marketing. I’ve done this; you should join me,” he said.

All in all, last Wednesday was a heavenly day for Pioneer Valley philanthropy. Kudos to all those who made it happen.

Band director Gary Bernice says the musical group is "student-led" and its members mentor each other. Watch video

SPRINGFIELD — Five saxophones, four trumpets, three trombones and a rhythm section.

That’s the lineup for the usual high school jazz band, but it doesn’t come close to matching the musical ensemble at Springfield’s High School of Science & Technology.

Sci-Tech’s jazz band, directed by a 29-year-old bundle of energy named Gary Bernice, has 51 players in its alto sax section alone. Altogether, this band consists of 100 members – and that’s only part of the total package in the school’s music program.

“Altogether, we have 300 students involved. The jazz band represents just a part of what we do,” Bernice says.

Sci-Tech’s music program begins with Symphonic Band, as an introductory course. Concert Band, Jazz Band and Advance Percussion Ensemble and Chamber Ensembles also are offered.

The Jazz Band recently played at the Springfield Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony, and drew round after round of applause from the crowd. The band not only displayed musical togetherness, but exciting animation as the players swayed and waved their instruments aloft during certain songs.

The band’s rendition of John Lennon-Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” was a highlight of the night.

The most recent appearance by Sci-Tech musicians came at a Dec. 13 WinterFest, subtitled “Celebrating Student Success in the Arts,” at Chestnut Middle School. In recent years, they have played at the inauguration of Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, at fireworks displays, area college events, community music festivals, pancake breakfasts and school graduations.

In spring, the band’s growth over the school year is measured, in an “Arts Alive” concert. The 2013 event will take place on May 16, also at Chestnut Middle School.

Bernice, the maestro of all this, sees much more to his role than merely teaching students how to play instruments and advance their musical skills. Rather, he sees the band as a way of helping them learn the value of teamwork and leadership.

“I consider this a student-led program,” he said. “Every day they mentor each other, and from this process they can become leaders in whatever path they may choose. The band is an extremely effective teaching tool.”

Stepping to the forefront of band leadership in the current school year are its president, Antonio Narvaez, and vice president, Carlos Cintron Torres.

Narvaez ranks among the 99 percent of Sci-Tech band members who came to the music program with no prior experience in playing an instrument.

“The theory is that music education should start early, in the lower grades,” Bernice said. “That’s not how it is with our school population, so we have to make up all that time and still become a performing band. To do that, we don’t spend the school year working on ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ They grow and learn with the music. They prove what’s possible when you have high expectations for them. I believe and they believe, and together we carry on with what I would call relentless persistence. The fact that all of this happens, merely shows what students are capable of,” Bernice said.

Members of the Springfield High School of Science and Technology concert and jazz band during the rehearsal for WinterFest 2012 in the auditorium at Chestnut Accelerated Middle School Thursday morning for the vocal and band concert there Thursday evening. Michael S. Gordon, The Republican  

Narvaez first had to pick an instrument, and he chose a dazzling white sousaphone (tuba).

“My father was afraid that I’d break my instrument, or lose it, and he would have to pay for it. So I chose the biggest instrument I could find. My father accepted what I wanted to do when he saw the passion I have for music, and how I was getting better at it.”

Cintron Torres plays the baritone sax – a hefty instrument that stands nearly as tall as he is. Unlike most of his bandmates, he came to the program with some musical background.

“We lived in Virginia before we moved here, and I had some music education there. They wanted me to play the alto sax, but it just felt too small for me. So I picked the ‘barry.’ I love playing jazz, but I’m also interested in other genres of music,” he said.

Both band officers extol the ‘family’ feeling they get from playing music with their fellow students. And, both plan to pursue careers in music.

“I’ll be going into the Navy after I graduate, and I hope to play in the Navy band,” Narvaez said. “Ultimately, my hope is to be the director of a symphony orchestra.”

Cintron Torres says his dream is to compose and conduct.

“The feeling I get from interpreting music is amazing,” he said.

Although Bernice says “our focus not on developing music majors,” he does take pride in having one of his former students, Jeremy Turgeon, studying at Berklee School of Music in Boston, and another, Alton Skinner, studying music performance at Holyoke Community College.

“Our main goal is to give our students something they can share with their families forever,” Bernice said.

Gary Bernice, right, director of bands at Springfield High School of Science and Technology, leads the rehearsal for WinterFest 2012 in the auditorium at Chestnut Accelerated Middle School Thursday morning for the vocal and band concert there Thursday evening. At left is Carlos Cintron Torres on baritone saxophone. Michael S. Gordon, The Republican  

An undertaking as large as Sci-Tech’s band program can only work if it really is a labor of love. And so it is with Bernice and his students.

“They know I care about them, and in turn they care about me and each other. We call ourselves ‘The Pride of Springfield’ because we want our students to take pride in their city,” Bernice said.

The Sci-Tech job is the first of his teaching career. He calls it “the most challenging thing I have done, and the most meaningful.” He came to the school on Jan. 27, 2007, after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in music education at the University of Massachusetts.

In his first class, he had 20 students. Now, he teaches six classes involving 300.

“Actually, it could have been more. Something like 500 kids applied at the beginning of the year, but we just couldn’t handle that,” he said.

As it is, Bernice’s program encompasses one-fourth of Sci-Tech’s total enrollment.

“The six classes become a unified band, and our goal is to be growing together at the end of the year,” he said.

Handling such large music classes and holding the attention of a 100-piece band would seem to be an awesome task for any leader.

Not so for Bernice, because he has a lot of help.

“I don’t have to control the band. The students take care of that. They take ownership of their program, and control it because they are so invested in it. They choose the music we will be playing,” he said.

“Some of these students have seen a lack of success in their lives. So if they see that this (the music program) works, it gets into their hearts and helps them grow.”

Bernice grew up in Ridgefield, N.J., which he describes as “an affluent community.” He followed the lead of his grandfather, who was a well-known trumpet player in his home state.

“In my town, if you wanted to play a trumpet, the school gave you a trumpet. In some schools, if students want to be in a band, they have to own their instruments. We don’t do that. We provide our students with the instruments, getting them through support of sponsors, the school and the city,” Bernice said.

Sci-Tech has been successful in musical productions even though the school does not have an auditorium. Its building on upper State Street formerly housed the Springfield Fire & Marine Insurance Co.

“When they were remodeling it for school purposes, they had to make a choice – auditorium or swimming pool. They picked the pool,” Bernice said.

So it is that every “gig” for the school’s band requires a major moving job. A large van transports all the equipment and instruments that go with a 100-piece musical ensemble.

Who pays for the van? Bernice admitted that he and his wife take care of that.

His stress on having students learn to be leaders resulted in a heartwarming experience for him and his family last June.

“The band was scheduled to play at Symphony Hall for our school graduation,” Bernice said. “The date was June 12 – and that just happened to be the day my wife, Elise, gave birth to twin girls, Lily and Hannah. I didn’t make the graduation because I wanted to be with my wife and our new daughters. So the students took complete charge of the band’s performance at graduation. From the start, my dream has been that the band should be student-led - and it came true on a very special day.”

Letter-writer: There is nothing about "our" concocted holiday season that gives us hope and joy except the one who invented hope and joy.

Meaning of Christmas is lost in America

For centuries, Old Testament prophets accurately foretold the coming of Christ despite the world’s consideration of them as lunatics. Angels, who had nothing to win since they are already in heaven knelt and bowed down in reverent adoration to a newborn lying upon hay. Now that the faith has been given to us what have we culturally given back to Him, especially this season?

It is difficult if not impossible to see a connection, if any, of public celebrations over the birth of Christ. “Holiday trees,” horse-drawn sleighs, snowmen, Black Friday hysteria, selected secular carols, endless pagan parties, gingerbread houses, somehow are designed to elicit joy among us?

Rather a pervasive fear has replaced joy for even Christians have cowered in replying “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”

All heaven and the attending angels at His birth could give a hoot about holiday trees for they were not part of the joyous event coming upon the earth that night. By allowing ourselves to celebrate Christmas secularly, we truly offend Christ as we worry more so of offending those who won’t believe in Him. In this age, the media reminds us endlessly with a barrage of celebrities’ birthdays. Yet when Christ’s birthday approaches we put him in the nosebleed section of society.

We’ve got it messed up. Before his second coming, we would do well to emulate the myriad of angels who knelt and adored him despite what the world thought. We should worship him privately and publicly despite the growing religion of secularism and its transient victories. When he comes again, who among us will tell him that practicing the faith he gave us is un-constitutional?

I think no one. There is nothing about “our” concocted holiday season that gives us hope and joy except the one who invented hope and joy. That is the message of Christmas, if we allow ourselves to see through the veiled smoke, hope for a fallen world, joy that there is a way to save ourselves from ourselves. So it is a joyful thing that we use this hope to change our lives as he intended. The event of the birth of Christ and its celebration will never go away even by those who would like it to because for the celebration of Christmas to go away is to make God go away which isn’t likely to happen soon.

– GERRY O’BRIEN, Springfield

Hamas guilty party in Palestinians’ story

Palestinian supporters of Hamas wave flags during a rally to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the militant group, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Friday. Associated Press/Mohammed Ballas  

I feel obliged to reply to a recently published letter which stated that Jewish-Americans fail to see the Palestinian side. The letter writer clearly does not “agonize over the fact that rockets are being fired from Gaza into Israel” but in fact justifies it by the historically disproved claim the “this barrage of rockets were sent in retaliation for the assassination by Israel of Ahmed Jabaari, a Hamas leader who was, at the time speaking with Israelis about ‘peace.’” The writer’s suggestion that the rocket barrage began with and was in retaliation for the “assassination” of Jabaari is patently incorrect.

According to the Israel Security Agency’s monthly summaries, there were nine rockets or mortar shells fired into Israel from Gaza in January 2012, 37 in February, 446 in March, 10 in April, 3 in May, 94 in June, 27 in July, 24 in August, 25 in September, 171 in October and 130 in November prior to November 14. This represents a total of 973 rocket attacks on a civilian population of about 1 million people in the 10½ months prior to the “assassination” of Jabaari.

How many rockets would the American government allow to fall on the U.S. before attacking the source?

The suggestion that Jabaari “speaking with Israelis about ‘peace’” is at best a distortion – and, at worst, an intentional lie. Ahmed al-Jabaari was the second-in-command of the military wing of Hamas, and was directly responsible for many terrorist attacks and the deaths of multiple Israelis. While, in fact, Israel was even willing to negotiate with Hamas which is labeled as a terrorist group by almost all western countries, it was not speaking to Jabaari.

He was a known terrorist, responsible for the deaths of Israeli citizens, and like the government of the U.S., the Israeli government killed him with a missile. It should also be noted that there were no collateral casualties. The letter writer then goes on to distort the blockade of Gaza. Not only are “Mercy shipments (not) stopped and turned back at the borders,” Israel continued to send food into Gaza during the conflict.

Israel demands aid to Gaza to be inspected to prevent rockets and other armaments from entering. This does not seem unreasonable considering that 1,456 rockets were fired at Israel between Nov. 14 and 21. But I agree with the writer, “(l)et’s cut to the quick.” The Palestinians in Gaza may want their homes back, but they will have to recognize and negotiate with the State of Israel, and their leaders will have to stop behaving as a terrorist organization. The Palestinians in Gaza may want: Freedom of religion and of the press. Those things are not being denied by Israel, they are being denied by Hamas. The right to be free from unlawful searches and seizures. Again, most unlawful searches and seizures are being performed by Hamas. Ask members of Fatah. They had the right to vote, but since Hamas forces overthrew the Palestinian Authority government, there has been no vote. He may blame Israel for the plight of the Palestinians, and may blame “Jewish-Americans (for viewing) Israel through rose-colored glasses, but his lenses are so distorted with misinformation and falsehoods that he poisons the debate.

– MORDECHAI KAMEL, Northampton

‘Financial experts’ have their heads in sand

Submit your letters to The Republican at letters@repub.com. All letters must include the writer's name, address and telephone number or e-mail address, and are subject to editing. MassLive.com photo illustration  

The “fiscal cliff” will be far overshadowed by the next looming financial crisis in America. The burst of the inflation bubble will be an economic catastrophe for America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the monthly Consumer Price Index, that represents the “reported” inflation rate in our country.

In 2009 the inflation rate was reported as flat, and even went negative for a few months! In 2012 it is running about 2 percent, or less.

Yet those of us who buy food and all the necessities to live by, and pay for energy costs, gasoline, health insurance, increasing taxes and fees, etc. realize that REAL inflation is running from 10 to 15 percent . . . much higher than reported. Generally, under normal times, keeping interest rates low is a good thing since it stimulates investments and eases debt burden. But these are far from normal times. Interest rates on savings have been artificially suppressed, actually squashed down, for over 3 years now to levels typically well under 1 percent.

This has a tremendous negative impact on seniors who place a good amount of their life savings into conservative investments such as savings and CD accounts, but get practically nothing in return. It also affects the middle class and the poor since they are unable to improve their financial state through savings.

Further, with interest rates artificially so low, much less money goes into the economy through spending. Even worse, money that is in savings and CD accounts is worth less and less since real inflation is quite high and the value of the dollar is decreasing.

The final nail in the coffin comes from the Federal Reserve printing paper money, flooding the economy with nothing to back it up, to the tune of $40 billion per month, or $480 billion per year! The result of this is that the dollar is worth less and less. The result of real inflation being already high plus interest rates squashed artificially low plus the value of the dollar being lowered by printing an enormous amount of paper money equals an economic disaster for America. The inflation bubble will burst, causing inflation to skyrocket. Prices of food and needed goods to live by will be staggeringly high.

Millions upon millions of Americans will be driven into a state of poverty and dependency. It will become a seemingly different America almost overnight. It seems that all the economists and the “financial experts” have their head in the sand on this. We are headed toward a very major economic crisis in America that will overshadow anything that has happened so far. It will hit us in 2013, or at the latest in the first quarter of 2014. This is a forewarning.

– AL DILASCIA, Chicopee

The results come at a time when state legislators are considering allowing up to 10 online schools for as many as 19,000 students to operate across the Bay State.

RELATED: Massachusetts Virtual Academy sparks disagreement in Greenfield Bob Rich | The Republican  

By JON MARCUS
New England Center for Investigative Reporting

Students at a privately-operated, online school that is costing Massachusetts taxpayers almost $2.5 million a year are falling far behind other students in the state based on their assessment-test scores, and half of them are quitting during the academic year or failing to return the next year.

State and municipal records reviewed by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting show that the Massachusetts Virtual Academy ranked second lowest statewide in its students’ progress in math and English based on a measure called the student growth percentile, which compares a given student’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System scores over time with those of similar students.

Twenty-five percent dropped out last year, and, each fall, another 20 to 30 percent of the virtual academy’s students do not return.

The results come at a time when state legislators are considering allowing up to 10 online schools for as many as 19,000 students to operate across the Bay State.

A spin-off of the Greenfield Public Schools, the Massachusetts Virtual Academy accepts students from 148 other Massachusetts school districts, including Lowell, Lawrence, Attleboro, Worcester, Boston, Fall River, Springfield, New Bedford and districts on Cape Cod.

Each district pays Greenfield $5,000 per year, per student. Greenfield, in turn, contracts with a Virginia-based company called K12 to provide instruction and other services.

MCAS math scores for students at the virtual academy, now in its third year of operation, are lower than those at all but four other schools or districts in the state, including a charter school for the arts in Gloucester, which is facing revocation of its license by the state, and the New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, which was placed on academic probation by the state.

Thirty percent of the virtual academy’s students received the lowest rating of “warning-failing” on the MCAS in math and 20 percent in science, numbers which are double and almost double, respectively, of the state average.

“This is an atrocious change in the direction of public education,” said Maryelen Calderwood, a former Greenfield School Committee member who has been an outspoken critic of the online school. “And, they’re using my money and your money to make money on less-than-mediocre instruction. If it were up to me, I’d close it tomorrow.”

The next evolution in the school-choice movement, online schools in America are growing at a rate of 30 percent a year, according to the Center for Digital Education.

Virtual schools like the one in Greenfield, their advocates say, are designed primarily for students who have medical conditions which interfere with attendance at traditional schools, have been bullied or have other problems that make them hesitant to go to brick-and-mortar schools, are pregnant or parenting or who are gifted.

“I still have deep regret we did not have this option in place in Massachusetts when a student opted to take her life rather than return to her school,” said Greenfield Public Schools superintendent Susan Hollins, referring to the 2010 suicide of South Hadley student Phoebe Prince after she was bullied by classmates. “My first priority would have been a safe place to continue education, not the score on the state test,” added Hollins, who formerly worked as a charter-school consultant in New Hampshire.

Hollins questions whether MCAS results are a fair measure of progress by all students.

“We do not have students for years over time where we can be responsible for what they have learned before or how to take the test for best result, which many teachers go over with their students for months or in some cases all year,” Hollins said.

K12’s director of academic analytics, Kerri Pickett-Hoffman, maintains that students at the Massachusetts Virtual Academy are doing better than national norms on another standardized test, the Scantron Performance Series, which the company uses to track students’ progress.

Those results, which the company made available, show the academy’s students made gains between October and May of 2011 that were slightly higher than the national norm in math and much higher than the national norm in reading.

And, while the students’ growth as measured by their MCAS scores is among the lowest in the state, it improved last year over 2010 results, according to Jennifer Sims, K12’s regional vice president. “They are not as low as they were,” Sims said.

Still, between 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, the number of students at Massachusetts Virtual Academy who scored proficient in Grade 8 English and Grade 6 math on the MCAS test did not increase. The numbers of students failing both math and science in Grade 8 increased, state records show. So, too, did the number of students rated as “needing improvement” in Grade 5 math and science and Grade 7 math and English language skills.

K12 has started a “national math lab” to help provide remedial math to students who need it, according to Sims. “We do have students who enter further behind in math, and we have to close that gap,” she said.

She and other school officials say it is misleading to compare the school’s test scores with those of entire districts. The results reflect the caliber of students who choose the virtual school, more than half of whom, Hollins said, arrive performing below grade level in math and nearly 40 percent below grade level in reading.

“Most kids who are shopping for an educational alternative may not be the top-performing students,” said Picket-Hoffman. “They’re coming in behind.”

By several measures, however, those incoming students do not appear significantly different than the broader population.

Although K12, under its contract with the Greenfield Public Schools, is required to provide regular reports about its students, Hollins responded to a public-records request by saying that no document exists which provides specific information about the characteristics of entering students, enrollment or the number of students who have withdrawn.

A report obtained independently by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, entitled “Report to Superintendent Susan D. Hollins,” shows that just under 45 percent of the students were from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, higher than the statewide average of 35 percent.

But the proportion who required special education – 4 percent – was much lower than the statewide average of 17 percent. Fewer than one in five was enrolled because of a medical condition, fear of bullying or other safety issues; one student was enrolled because she was pregnant or parenting, and 28 percent because they were taking advanced courses, not because they were behind in academic performance.

Although the report does not specify what percentage of students arrived at the school below their grade level in math or reading, 44 percent were characterized as “unique learners.”

“The argument that these schools are enrolling a higher percentage of at-risk students, which is one of the things they claim, isn’t actually true,” said Michael Barbour, a professor of education at Wayne State University in Detroit, who studies online learning. “They’re working with roughly the same kids as our regular schools, and they’re producing results that aren’t as good.”

The virtual school recruits its students by word of mouth and online outreach, where K12 often shows up at the top of search-engine responses. Parents who make inquiries through the website are contacted within minutes by K12 representatives. Any Massachusetts student can enroll.

Legislation recently passed by the state Senate and awaiting a final vote in the House would vastly expand the number of online schools that could operate in Massachusetts. Any future virtual schools, however, would be placed under state jurisdiction if they draw enrollment from more than one district, said one of the bill’s principal backers, state Rep. Martha “Marty” Walz, D-Boston.

“We drafted it in part based on the experience with (the Massachusetts Virtual Academy) and in part on the experience in other states,” Walz said. “Somebody’s got to oversee the movement of kids from one district to another, and the transfer of money from one district to another.”

Walz said she believes it is also important for state education leaders to determine why so many students are leaving the Greenfield academy.

A report this summer by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado urged that no additional full-time virtual-education programs be approved until authorities understand why online schools’ performance is lower than those of other schools, and how it can be improved.

Mitchell Chester, state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said he believes Massachusetts should allow more online schools, although he believes the performance of the Greenfield academy “absolutely” demonstrates a need for state oversight.

The method by which the Greenfield academy received approval leaves “no provision for the state to exercise either consumer protection or quality assurance with a school that effectively is a statewide institution,” Chester said.

The Massachusetts Virtual Academy had three teachers, one for every 73 students enrolled in 2010-2011, the last school year for which the figure is available. That compares to one teacher for every 14 students at schools statewide.

The staff has since grown to seven full-time and six part-time instructors, according to Hollins. She said the average teacher salary is $40,000, far less than the state average of $70,340.

Students enrolled in the virtual school interact “a minimum average” of four times a week online with a teacher, Hollins said. Each is otherwise supervised by a “learning coach,” usually a parent.

“Honestly, I did 99 percent of the work,” said Christina Refford, who enrolled two of her three children at the virtual academy but withdrew them eight weeks later; they’re now home-schooled. “We might go a whole week and never really hear from the teacher,” Refford said.

Refford said she supports the concept of online schools. “But, do I really want to see 10 more virtual schools opening up in the state? I don’t think so,” she said. “If there were kids clamoring to get in, I would want to see more of it, but there aren’t.”

A Greenfield Public Schools internal report prepared in March shows that 112 of the 472 students at the virtual academy last year, or about 25 percent, withdrew during the 2011-12 school year. The proportion of students statewide who withdraw from conventional schools is less than one in 20, or about 5 per cent. Another 20 to 30 percent do not return to the virtual school each fall, Hollins said.

It’s not clear what happens to the students who leave. Based on the experience of virtual schools in other states, experts say some students probably drop out of school altogether, while some return to their home districts, putting the burden on those schools to bring them up to speed.

Legislative audits and other reviews in the states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Colorado, and Minnesota have shown that students tend to be further behind when they leave online schools than when they arrived, said Barbour.

Massachusetts school districts that have sent students to the virtual school are largely mute about what happens to them when they come back.

Springfield Public Schools, for example, which sends the largest number of students to Massachusetts Virtual Academy, had 56 students enrolled last year; the number fell to 45 this year. Springfield Public Schools spokeswoman Azell Cavaan said the district would not comment on what happened to the students who withdrew.

Enrollment in online schools nationwide has been exploding, and many are privately run. K12, based in Herndon, Va., is the biggest provider.

The results in Massachusetts mirror K12’s performance elsewhere, according to Gary Miron, a professor at Western Michigan University’s College of Education and Human Development and co-author of the National Education Policy Center report.

Students at K12-operated virtual schools lag behind other students in their states on assessment tests, Miron found, by between 2 and 11 percentage points in reading and 14 and 36 percentage points in math,

K12 last year made $522.4 million in revenues, up 36 percent over the year before, according to documents on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Enrollment in its schools rose nearly 46 percent, to 98,890 students.

Under the three-year contract approved by the Greenfield School Committee, which renews automatically, K12 ends up with 97 percent of the revenue from Massachusetts Virtual Academy. The Greenfield Public Schools get the rest, and the two split any unspent money at the end of each year. That brings Greenfield’s annual revenues from the virtual academy to about $69,000.

“They saw dollar signs,” said Gary Aubin, who was chairman of Greenfield School Committee before the contract was signed, of the committee members who succeeded him. “But, if you read the contract, the dollars go to K12, not to us.”

Massachusetts Virtual Academy became a reality largely because of Rep. Walz, who added a provision to the 2010 education-reform law allowing Greenfield to open the school even though the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had at first objected. The department also blocked a subsequent proposal from the town of Hadley.

K12 paid $45,000 last year to the Boston-based lobbying firm of Pierce Haley, and company executives have contributed at least $2,850 to Walz’s reelection campaigns since 2008, according to documents filed with the secretary of state’s office.

Asked about the campaign contributions, Walz said the legislation she helped to draft has provisions that K12 both supports and opposes, including one that would ban for-profit companies from receiving future virtual-school contracts in the Bay State. (For-profit companies, under the legislation, would still be able to provide instructional services as subcontractors.)

“My focus is on educational opportunities that virtual schools offer and the approval and accountability measures that strengthen the state’s oversight of virtual schools,” Walz said. 

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (www.necir-bu.org) is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at Boston University.

Don't believe what you read in the record books - Hank Aaron is still baseball's all-time home run king.

When I was a kid giving my heart and soul to the Boston Red Sox, my father bought me a book to treasure.

Yes, for this wide-eyed baseball fan of the late ‘40s, “The Little Red Book of Baseball Records’’ brought the history of the game into full focus.

From those pages, I learned numbers that would stay with me for a lifetime:

714 – Babe Ruth’s career home run total.

60 – The Babe’s single-season output in 1927.

4,191 – Ty Cobb’s career hit total.

2,130 – Consecutive games played by “The Iron Horse,’’ Lou Gehrig.

511 – Cy Young’s career total of pitching victories.

56 – Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak in 1941.

The true-blue baseball fan of that time cherished those numbers. Some of them remain in place today. One of those records was broken by Pete Rose, a player banned from baseball because of his gambling problems. Three were broken by players we can trust – Hank Aaron, Roger Maris and Cal Ripken Jr. Some others were broken by players we have doubts about because of performance-enhancing drugs.

Sad to say, baseball fans no longer can trust the record book. They feel deep in their hearts that Hammerin’ Hank and Maris are still the home run champions, despite what Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire did to their records.

The “Steroid Era’’ not only stains the record book, it raises questions at Baseball Hall of Fame election time – like this month, with Bonds and Roger Clemens as first-time eligibles.

As a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (now emeritus), I have taken part in Hall of Fame elections since 1986. By far, this is the toughest one.

In recent years, I have refused to vote for McGwire. Under normal conditions, a 500-homer player makes the Hall of Fame. But as we learned later, much to our chagrin, there was a steroid cloud over McGwire’s charge to 70 homers in 1998 – breaking Maris’s single-season record of 61. And again in 1999, when he mashed 65, leading to a career total of 583. That’s a Hall of Fame number, but McGwire tarnished his credibility when he “refused to talk about the past’’ before a Congressional panel investigating steroid use in baseball.

I have felt comfortable about bypassing McGwire, but it’s not so easy with Clemens and Bonds. One could say that both had Hall of Fame careers going even before their later years were stained by allegations of steroid use. That’s a good point, but if they did cheat in those later years, how can we believe in their final numbers - Bonds’ 762 homers (73 in one season), and Clemens’ seven Cy Young Awards?

I have the same problem with Rafael Palmeiro, who was one of my favorite players until he had to leave the game under another steroid cloud. Palmeiro belongs to the 3,000-hits club – a benchmark number that usually would mean automatic election to the Hall of Fame.

Sammy Sosa, the slugger who chased McGwire in 1998, also has had questions raised about his career numbers.

By the way, baseball owners share blame here because for years they did not want to admit their game had a problem. OK, but that doesn’t excuse the cheaters.

Hmm. Maybe I should listen to my wife, who boldly suggests that the Hall of Fame add a section reserved for “the steroid guys.’’

Meanwhile, what’s an embattled Hall of Fame voter supposed to do? Spurn the alleged cheaters by throwing the ballot in the wastebasket? Can’t bring myself to do that, so I went about the task of carefully considering all 37 of this year’s eligibles.

I started by passing on Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Sosa and Palmeiro. Oh, they’ll probably make it in some future election, but not this one.

Some other candidates give a voter pause - excellent players like Dale Murphy, Fred McGriff, Alan Trammell, Larry Walker, Don Mattingly, Mike Piazza, Kenny Lofton, Lee Smith and Bernie Williams. Sorry, but they just don’t make my cut.

Republican graphic  

In the end, I mailed a ballot marked with votes for five of the 37 – Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Edgar Martinez, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. By the way, that’s two members of the same team (Houston Astros). Unusual at Hall of Fame time, but OK.

Why Morris? Because he went 254-186 over 18 seasons, and was the dominant American League starter of the 1980s and early ‘90s. He almost made it last year, when he got 67 per cent of the vote (75 is needed). This time, I think he makes it.

Why Raines? Because he’s one of those overlooked guys, a player whose 23-year career included 2,605 hits and 808 stolen bases. One of his problems – he played 12 of his seasons in Montreal, away from the baseball mainstream.

Why Martinez? Because it might be time for Hall of Fame voters to admit that designated hitters are ballplayers, too. Edgar hit .312 over 18 seasons, was very big on doubles (514) and always seemed to be on base. He came to play – in 12 of his seasons, 130 or more games.

Why Bagwell? Because he was a rookie of the year, a Most Valuable Player, a .297 hitter with 449 homers and 1,529 RBI over a 15-year career. I know about the steroid talk about him, but that’s all it seemed to be in his case.

Why Biggio? Well, try 3,060 hits over a 20-year career. And add this – he’s the only player in baseball history with more than 3,000 hits, 600 doubles, 400 stolen bases and 250 home runs. The Astros could always count on him, and Bagwell. They were the “Killer B’s,’’ remember?

Well that’s it, folks. I wish I could vote for the all-time home run leader and the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, but because of that steroid cloud, I just can’t bring myself to do it.

Maybe next time? Not likely.

Garry Brown can be reached at geeman1918@yahoo.com

Based on the strong reaction to the MassLive.com poll, readers feel passionately and split on whether suspected or admitted PED users should be allowed into the Hall of Fame.

With the steroids argument ignited again, The Republican and MassLive.com collaborated on a poll to judge how readers view the Baseball Hall of Fame candidacy of alleged performance enhancing drug (PED) users.

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens are Hall of Fame eligible for the first time, prompting the latest wave of discussion of the steroids era. Members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) will cast their votes through the end of December, with candidates needing 75 percent of the vote for induction. The results of the vote will be announced Jan. 9.

Based on the strong reaction to the MassLive.com poll, readers feel passionately and split on whether suspected or admitted PED users should be allowed into the Hall of Fame.

The results of the poll show that 42.5 percent of the 640 voters believe PED users should never be allowed into the Hall of Fame; 31.4 percent believe so many players used PEDs, usage of them should not keep a candidate from induction; 10.9 percent believe a player's candidacy should be based on the amount of PED evidence against him; 10.7 percent believe a PED user's candidacy should be determined by his level of accomplishment; and 3.4 percent wrote in their own responses.

BBWAA members have the option of casting 10 Hall of Fame votes out of the 37 candidates eligibler. Based on the poll's results, The Republican and MassLive.com readers determined their 10 votes would be cast for:

Republican graphic  

"Again, our readers have proven to be passionate baseball fans," said Vern Hill, The Republican's sports editor. "Several of them used this opportunity to mention the candidacy of Pete Rose.

"I also suspect, looking at the ballot results, that the Yankee fans among our readers spoke loud and clear by voting in Don Mattingly and Bernie Williams."

Players who have tarnished the game should not be honored by it as well.

Contrary to popular opinion, few among us in media like playing God.

Some of us who love baseball would much prefer Hall of Fame choices based on statistics and treasured contributions to the sport. We have not been afforded that luxury.

That is why, as I cast my official ballot this week, I will take on the the admittedly unscientific task of casting moral judgments by separating the Steroid Guys from the rest, leaving out the first group and attempting to be objective with the others.

Why? Because there were “others,” an entire group of players who spurned the temptation to use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and competed against players they knew were using them.

I cannot look at those players (albeit from afar) and cast a vote that essentially tells them, “your mistake.”

I am not torn by the question of whether to consider the steroid matter. I am offended as a voter and a baseball fan that I must.

So, sorry, Roger Clemens, no go. You, too, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa.

The evidence in their cases is strong. Whether it would hold up in a court of law is not my assignment.

My assignment as one of hundreds of voters is to examine where all these candidates stand in relation to baseball history, and vote with respect to fairness and objectivity. It’s not easy.

I have heard that the Steroid Era is a part of history, and that baseball’s museum should therefore not turn a blind eye to it. I agree.

Put up an exhibit in Cooperstown, or a full wing if you’d like, that documents the era and the PED influence. You will hear no dispute from me.

Documenting history can be done without making a special point to honor those who tarnished it.

As a colleague told me, these guys made choices, and with choices are supposed to come consequences. I think we are losing that in this country, or at least compromising it to a sad degree.

That may be why Cooperstown is one of the very last American institutions still treated with reverence.

I don’t consider that antiquated or old-fashioned. I think it is worth defending and protecting, as best we can.

This year’s ballot has its share of dicey choices that don’t even involve steroids.

Take Craig Biggio. The argument against him is that hanging around long enough to collect 3,000 hits should not be a pass to immortality.

Maybe, but look at those who have done it. Every name is special, and I have no urge to declare Biggio the first exception, so I am voting for him.

Republican graphic  

I also consider what I call the Grimace Test. If a player’s legacy allows true baseball fans to smile at the contributions he left the sport, that does not win a spot for an undeserving player but does work on his behalf.

If the reaction to a great player is a wince or a grimace, as it is with several of the biggest names, why are we compelled to honor that?

The Grimace Test is not my bottom line. It is my way or explaining my attempt to measure a player in relation to the annals of his sport, which is much of what Cooperstown is all about.

A plaque is an honor based on achievement, but it is an honor, nonetheless. It is earned, not owed, a salute and not a right.

If the Hall of Fame is nothing more than a catalogue of great stats, plug all the numbers into a computer and don’t waste the voters’ time.

Until then, the voters should be allowed some human opinion, with the caveat that they apply it as objectively and consistently as possible.

How subjective is it? I am voting for Jeff Bagwell, whose name has been constantly linked with steroids.

Bagwell’s name has never shown up on any list, from the Mitchell Report on down, to give substance to the rumors. Pure rumor isn’t enough, but I think the suspicions against players like Bonds and Clemens are built on more substantial grounds.

The hardest choice of all is Mike Piazza. He has worthy numbers for any player, but especially for a catcher.

The steroid evidence against him is flimsier than against the Bonds-Clemens-Sosa troika, but there is more here than in Bagwell’s case.

The case includes quotes from unnamed sources attributed to Piazza, which were deemed “off the record,” that he admitted using steroids. But he never failed a test or showed up on a report.

I just don’t feel right about it. If Piazza falls short, I will have 14 years to change my mind, and I reserve the right.

The easy solution is to ignore the PED issue altogether. I can’t reconcile doing that.

I am well aware that some of those already enshrined in Cooperstown have been outed as scumbags. One argument for admitting steroid users is this: “The behavioral bar was always low. We just didn’t know it.”

My answer is this: “Now that we are more aware, why not try to raise the bar? Why is that so wrong?”

Besides, I didn’t vote for the scoundrels, cheats and racists who got in during the not-so-good-old-days.

But I vote now, I factor in PED’s, and I will until I am told I must turn a blind eye to it. If that happens, I will respectfully and voluntarily forfeit my privilege to vote.

That’s not the case now, so here goes:

YES: Fred McGriff (yes, I’m serious), Jack Morris, Tim Raines, Bagwell and Biggio.

McGriff had 493 home runs – tied with Lou Gehrig.

McGriff will never make it, but remove all the steroid guys, and 493 (which is 111 more than Jim Rice) is easily a Hall of Fame number.

Morris won 254 games. He was terrific under pressure, and that should matter.

I voted for McGriff and Morris last year. I can’t logically endorse them in 2011 but reject them now.

Many of Raines’ numbers (though not batting average) compare favorably with Tony Gwynn, and Raines had more power.

Raines stole 808 bases, fourth best in the sport since 1900. Had he enjoyed the same career in New York or Boston, he’d be in already.

OUT ON PED QUESTIONS: Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Mark McGwire, Piazza (though I feel uneasy about this one), and Palmeiro.

MAYBE NEXT YEAR: Curt Schilling’s 216 wins are low for the Hall, but he was great in the clutch. A definite maybe next year.

Lee Smith is third all-time in saves. Maybe that should impact me more than it does, but “all time” for this statistic really means post-1980.

Edgar Martinez was a master batsman, and I’m past whatever anti-DH sentiment I might have once had. Martinez’ case grows with the use of modern sabermetrics, notably on-base percentage and OPS (on base plus slugging). I’m still thinking about it.

NOT QUITE: Dale Murphy played 18 years, but was great for only a stretch in the 1980s and hit .265 lifetime.

Larry Walker, Alan Trammell, Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly have their backers. David Wells won more games than Schilling (239-216).

There are 38 players on the ballot. We’ll skip past Aaron Sele, Todd Walker, Jeff Cirillo and the like.

It’s a hard ballot, made harder by the steroid issue. You have my vote and my reasons, and if you feel otherwise, I respect that.

Just remember that it wasn’t the voters who created this controversy, but players who made choices and now face the consequences.

Mayor William Martin is among those who would like to see the program continue.

RELATED: Massachusetts Virtual Academy gets low marks for student progress in math and English Bob Rich | The Republican  

GREENFIELD -- The School Department’s affiliation with the Massachusetts Virtual Academy has created a heated rift, with School Committee member Maryelen Calderwood among the program’s chief critics. Calderwood voted against contracting with K12, the company that runs the virtual academy, and she has been opposed to the venture ever since.

“It all comes down to being a business plan and not an educational plan,” Calderwood said this week. “How much money should this company be making off public money?”

As Calderwood sees it, Greenfield has little or no supervision of the program or the quality of education it offers. While it takes in some money, K12 gets the lion’s share.

“These kids are in relative isolation,” Calderwood said. “We don’t really know how it enriches their educational experience.”

Susan Hollins Greenfield Recorder  

School superintendent Susan D. Hollins, who floated the idea of the Massachusetts Virtual Academy when she took the job, brands Calderwood a “negative” person who is not open to new ideas in education.

“She’s been against anything regarding choice or privatization from the beginning,” Hollins said.

Hollins dismisses the low test scores coming from virtual academy students, attributing them to growing pains suffered by all new schools.

“Nobody looks at test scores from the first few years of a school,” the superintendent said.

The virtual academy, to Hollins’ mind, is an ideal alternative for students who have been bullied or are sick. The first student admitted to the virtual academy, she said, had a life-threatening illness. There are currently 474 students enrolled in the Massachusetts Virtual Academy, according to Hollins.

School Committee member Doris Doyle sides with the superintendent on this.

“Many of the (Massachusetts Virtual Academy) students have not been to school for the previous two or three years,” Doyle said. “They’re ill, bullied or scared. They’re doing marvelously well for where they came from. I think this was a population that basically nobody wanted.”

With other school systems paying $5,000 per student attending the online school, the venture could be costly to communities like Springfield, which has 45 students enrolled at the Massachusetts Virtual Academy, the most of any school district across the state. Springfield superintendent Daniel Warwick said he is reserving judgment, however.

"At this point, I haven't seen enough data to draw any concrete conclusions about the efficacy of virtual academies," Warwick said. "I will say that like charter schools, they represent an option for parents. Our goal and focus as a district is to create the best schools we can at all levels for all students."

Greenfield Mayor William Martin is among those who would like to see the program continue.

“I have confidence in online learning, and I’d like to see Greenfield be involved in it,” Martin said.

But with the School Committee preparing to vote on a contract extension with K12 and the state coming up with new laws to oversee and regulate such programs, Calderwood thinks Greenfield is being played for a sucker.

“We’re being used as a guinea pig,” she said. “(K12) will use our data and come up with a plan like a charter school. This corporation is pocketing millions of dollars.”

Rainy afternoons today and Tuesday..

A mix of rain and snow will be coming in today. It will be changing over to rain later this afternoon. Snow accumulations will be minor in the Springfield area, with about two inches possible for parts of the hilltowns. A brief of period of freezing rain is also possible during the transition from snow to rain.

Light rain/flurries linger into Monday. A larger storm system will impact New England for Tuesday. Most of this will be rain for the Springfield area as well, but a couple inches of accumulating snow and ice are once again expected for the hilltowns.

Today: Rain and snow, high 38.

Monday: Light drizzle/flurries, high 43.

Tuesday: Rain and snow, high 47.

Radar | 5 Day Forecast

The piles of dirt are connected to the reconstruction of bridges over the Deerfield River, a state official said.

Construction is seen last month on Interstate 91 in the area of the Deerfield River. This view is looking north. The Republican / John Suchocki  

Question: I drive down Interstate 91 frequently, and recently there have been growing piles of dirt in the median in Deerfield. They are digging up the median and looks like moving the dirt around.

What is going on?

– Anonymous

Answer: The piles of dirt are connected to the reconstruction of bridges on Interstate 91 over the Deerfield River, said Michael Verseckes, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The first bridge to be done will serve northbound drivers. A new bridge will be reconstructed slightly to the old bridge’s left.

Once built, the southbound direction of travel will be diverted onto the new bridge, and the old southbound bridge will be demolished and rebuilt, he said. Once that is complete, traffic headed south will be shifted over to the new southbound bridge. Subsequently, northbound traffic will be relocated to the first bridge, and the alignment will remain that way.

When the entire job is complete, Verseckes said, the crossovers will be removed and the median area will be regraded and landscaped.

The job began early this summer and is expected to be completed by the spring of 2016 at a cost of $36.2 million.

New England is relatively wealthy and educated, and overall, its population is shrinking and aging. That's why some Christians see New England as "hard soil" - and desperate for re-evangelizing.

Anne-Gerard Flynn, The Republican  

By RUTH GRAHAM
Slate

The pastor of a small church in rural Vermont is not the kind of guy you'd expect to speak with a slow North Carolina drawl. But Lyandon Warren felt a calling to New England ever since he heard a speaker in his college Christian studies program explain that less than 3 percent of the region's population is evangelical Christians. By his denomination's definition, those numbers indicate an "unreached people group" -- a whole population without a viable Christian community.

"My heart was opened," he says. "To be a foot soldier on that battleground is a joy and a privilege."

In 2006, Warren moved to Vermont to open a new Baptist church in a town whose last church had closed its doors the year before due to lack of attendance. His congregation, which meets in the closed church's old white clapboard building, grew slowly but steadily, and in early September, Warren opened a second new church in a nearby town. Similar churches have sprung up throughout the region: New England has become a mission field, and there are seeds of a revival sprouting.

The Northeast is the historic cradle of American Christianity, and just about every postcard-ready town here boasts a white church with a steeple. But sometime between the Second Great Awakening and today, the region evolved into the most secular part of the country.

In the words of one regional missions group, "pulpits that once boasted gospel preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield now proclaim universalism, liberalism and postmodernism." A Gallup poll this year found that the four least religious states in America are in New England.

For evangelicals, the issue is more pointed: Evangelical researcher J.D. Payne has found that of the five U.S. metro areas with the lowest percentage of evangelicals, New England cities are beat only by Mormon-dominated Provo, Utah. New England is relatively wealthy and educated, and overall, its population is shrinking and aging. That's why some Christians see New England as "hard soil" -- and desperate for re-evangelizing.

There's a palpable sense of momentum growing among evangelicals in New England, who say this hard soil may soon bear fruit thanks to institutional efforts, individual leaders and an intangible sense of energy often credited to the Holy Spirit. But do they have any hope of success in the most proudly and profoundly secular region in America?

The movement to convert New Englanders looks something like the recent evangelical focus on Western Europe, another traditionally Christian region that is now broadly unchurched. One popular approach is "church planting," in which a pastor moves to a new location to found a new church that he hopes will eventually spawn several others, and so on.

Because the method eventually produces indigenous churches, it's considered a more reliable and organic path to growth than traditional "outsider" evangelism.

To generalize broadly, church-planters tend to be young and Web-savvy, are almost always male (with a supportive wife), and often share a conviction that orthodox theology needn't be burdened by the trappings of traditional worship. Think overhead projectors, not organs.

Many of New England's church-planters are sent by denominations based in (or at least biggest in) the South. The North American Mission Board, the Southern Baptist church planting organization that sent Lyandon Warren to Vermont, helps plant about 20

new churches in the Northeast each year, according to Jeff Christopherson, who heads the group's efforts in Canada and the Northeast.

And that's just one organization. The Northeast has sprouted a remarkable crop of church-planting organizations and conferences, college campus ministries and public events such as Christian music festivals. Collin Hansen, editorial director of the Gospel Coalition, an influential national church network, recently called these "the best of times for Christians in New England."

Stephen Um is pastor at Boston's Citylife Presbyterian Church and a leader in the movement to re-evangelize the region. Born in Seoul but raised and educated mostly in Massachusetts, Um founded his church a little more than 10 years ago with a base group of 12 people.

Citylife now meets in two locations in Boston, including a hotel conference center on Boston Common, and attracts between 700 and 800 people -- a highly educated congregation that's about one-half white and one-half Asian -- every Sunday.
Um calls what's happening in New England a "quiet revival."

He speculates that since the drivers of the revival are small churches spread throughout a largely rural area, it doesn't get the kind of media attention that megachurches attract.
Um is also the founder of the Center for Gospel Culture, which he calls a "catalyzing center" for mobilizing and recruiting Christian leaders in the region.

The group hosted a regional conference in October with the Gospel Coalition. The event was designed "to encourage the development of this organic gospel movement." The 1,200-person-capacity event space he reserved sold out by mid-September. The event drew representatives of about 270 different churches' representatives from about 40 networks and denominations.

Um's rapid success in expanding his own congregation is unusual here. In New England, he estimates, it usually takes a talented pastor 10 years to build a new church of 100 people. By contrast, he says, even an average pastor can plop down in South Carolina or Tennessee and grow from 50 to 300 attendees a year.

"But that's a Christendom culture," Um says. "You set up shop and people come." Up north, it's a "post-church, post-Christian" environment. "You come to Boston and you see all the beautiful historic churches, but from my perspective they don't preach the Gospel."

Though many pastors are encouraged by the changes they observe, they acknowledge that it's more difficult to attract people to church in New England than in other parts of the country. Brandon Levering moved to the Boston suburbs from the Midwest to lead an established Evangelical Free Church last year.

Levering wrote in a recent blog post for the Gospel Alliance New England ("Promoting Gospel Renewal in New England"): "Many of us came to New England specifically to see the gospel take root in what has become one of the least-reached regions in North America."

He's happy in his church and says the people here are friendlier than he and his wife had been warned, but overall, "people just don't seem as interested in the things of faith here."

Still, some evangelicals are now convinced they have a real chance of long-term success in the most proudly and profoundly secular region of America. Jeffrey Bass, executive director of the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston, gave a talk in December to a group of church leaders in which he, like Um, described a "quiet revival" taking place in Boston.

Though the population has dipped slightly below its level in 1970, the number of churches has almost doubled, and the number of people attending church has more than tripled in that same period.

As evangelist Tom Miyashiro, who leads a youth outreach program that he says reaches up to 4,000 Connecticut school-age kids a year, told me,

"I don't think there'll be a megachuch in New England anytime soon, like a Joel Osteen-type church. But a lot of leaders are attracted here because of the challenge, and a lot of young people who understand New England will grow up into Christian service. In 20 years, we'll be dealing with a whole different beast."

Not all Christians in New England welcome the movement with open arms. Emily Heath is pastor of West Dover Congregational Church in Vermont, which she describes as progressive and egalitarian - just the kind of place that some fear is insufficiently orthodox.

Heath says she sees "a growing undercurrent of fundamentalism in New England," and it bothers her to see her own thriving church characterized as lifeless by local conservatives. "I've read that on their websites, and it's like, Huh, my church feels pretty alive. We're growing."

On Easter Sunday this year, an evangelical church-planting team from Atlanta opened a new church the next town over.

But confronting wary locals comes with the territory of missionary work. The pastors who have come to New England say they come with a calling of love, service, and, yes, transformation.

"This movement is not a political movement," Um says. "This is happening on an organic, grassroots level from people with a burden for pursuing the common good and loving their neighbor, but still holding onto an orthodox doctrine."

And after all, the work of spreading the gospel is not new here. The royal charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, drafted in 1691, states that this was the very purpose of the colony: "to win and incite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind, and the Christian faith."

As some new New Englanders see it, that's even more true today. The question is how the natives will respond.

The purpose of the Clearstory Collective is to recover the lost intimacy and unqualified commitment that was fostered amongst Jesus's followers, and in the process, to be part of a movement that continues to change the course of history.

The Rev. Christopher Carlisle, shown here in front of St. John's Episcopal Church in Northampton, has helped knit together communities within the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts in a technology-based ministry called Clearstory Collective. Republican photo by JOHN SUCHOCKI  

A new ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts is described as "an eclectic expression of church that is as cutting edge as the moment and as ancient as first-century Palestine."

The ministry, Clearstory Collective, says it seeks to reach out to college students and other young adults, homeless and otherwise marginalized people of faith who have become disaffected by the institutional church and who seek informal and often spontaneous faith communities. It is doing so through technology.

However, the collective is conceived to be more than email communication. Containing blogs, descriptions of the various communities comprised of photographs, video clips and radio interviews as well as key people and community contacts, the churched and unchurched alike can become and remain connected to these communities and their members.

Participation in the various communities varies.

For example, at the Northampton street community, Cathedral in the Night, numbers about 40 to 70 on any given Sunday night throughout the year.

The Midnight Breakfast at Smith College in Northampton and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley each semester during finals week draws about 500 in each location.

The servant leadership classes number between about eight and 15, while scores of people, young and old, are involved in the Gideon's Garden farm project as the community harvests crops, provides fresh produce for the hungry and stocks food pantries in the Berkshires.

"In all these communities, involvement is not about 'filling the pews' but filling the need," said the Rev. Christopher A.E. Carlisle, who, as director of ministry to higher education for the diocese, is responsible for Episcopal ministry on college and university campuses.

"As Jesus testified, this happens whenever two or three are gathered together in his name."

In the spirit of the first century "Jesus Movement," the ministry is described as a loose confederation of communities.

"Rather than being embodied by institutional structures, these communities strive to incarnate the life and spirit of Jesus in the world - in the streets, in bars, in cafes, on farms - wherever two or three are gathered together by the unqualified love of the Christ," Carlisle said.

Rather than attempting to contain what he call "this miraculous abundance," the collective strives to minimize institutional control and maximize the spiritual.

"From outdoor communities, to pub churches, to farms, to educational experiences about money, the collective is an eclectic expression of church that is as cutting edge as the moment, and as ancient as first century Palestine," he said.

He added it is the time for such ministry.

"Unencumbered by institutional structures that don't work anymore, ministers of the Gospel have been given the gift of unprecedented freedom to live into the radical possibilities of God," he said, adding,

"How can we lament a return to the excitement and passion of that first century Palestine experience?" Carlisle was the Episcopal chaplain to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst for 25 years.

From contemplative worship to poetry readings, from art exhibits to an undergraduate course titled, "Belief," to the God and science project from which he wrote "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design," he said he has long been aware that the church needs to change if it is to remain relevant.

As Carlisle was struggling to figure out how he could move from being a single-campus chaplain in a free-standing building to being the director of higher education ministry for his diocese throughout Western Massachusetts, he decided to use technology.

"It was then I realized that a network comprised of intentionally small, authentic, passionate communities of faith mapped onto my own long-standing vision for the church as a counter-conventional body that subverted the existing order for the sake of divine justice and human fulfillment," he said.

The purpose of collective is to recover the lost intimacy and unqualified commitment that was fostered amongst Jesus's followers, and in the process, to be part of a movement that continues to change the course of history.

Carlisle earned an undergraduate degree from New York's Columbia University in political science and economics, a master's in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School and a master of divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in New Haven.

He was an associate rector at St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Longmeadow before serving as Episcopal chaplain to the University of Massachusetts.

"Insofar as we, as Christians, have been disestablished from a once-established 'religious' culture into the secular world, we are living in such a circumstance," he said.

"What is intriguing about this time however, is that the fracturing between communities and people that necessarily took place when the Jews were physically scattered from Jerusalem and the Temple, can be mitigated by electronic forms of relationship - specifically, the Internet."

Other communities include Taize at Smith College; Church Without Walls, Springfield; The Empty Bell on-line community; and Beyond Belief at Smith College.

"There are spare few settings in our deeply segregated American culture that bring people together across the often gaping demographic divides Clearstory Collective is one of these," Carlisle said.

"If there is a single commonality however, it is the spirit of those who want an alternative experience of 'church' - many of whom are young people."

The collective is not ecumenical in the sense of separate denominations working with one another, Carlisle noted, but is post-denominational, that is, people come together from all denominational and non-denominational walks of life to be a unified people of God.

"I find the fruits of this Clearstory Collective initiative abundant, everywhere, and long from being fully realized. Exploring one's faith out in the world - on the street, in living rooms, on farms, in pubs - offers an exciting adventure that I believe many people long for in their lives."

The main challenge to the ministry is dissimilar to that which confronts those who aspire to maintain the traditional institutional church.

"Recent attempts to stem the decline in church attendance has often been to convince people to do something they really don't want to do: to go to church on Sunday morning," Carlisle said.

"While for many, the Sunday morning experience will continue to be the preferred expression of 'church'-- and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that -- for most in the coming decade, I suspect it will not."

Thus, he said the greatest challenge of all may be for the church to find the courage to "leave old institutional forms that no longer work on our demographic landscape and to boldly re-imagine new forms of community in the spontaneous and ancient Judaic spirit of Jesus."

For more information email christopheraecarlisle@gmail.com.

All of the children killed in Connecticut shooting on Friday were between the ages of 6 and 7.

Matt Sedensky

In this undated photo provided by Mark Sherlach, Mark Sherlach and his wife, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, pose for a photo. Mary Sherlach was killed Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 children and adults at the school. AP Photo/Courtesy of Mark Sherlach  

Newtown, Conn. - Most died at the very start of their young lives, tiny victims taken in a way not fit for anyone regardless of age. Others found their life's work in sheltering little ones, teaching them, caring for them, treating them as their own. After the gunfire ended Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the trail of loss was more than many could bear: 20 students and six adults at the school, the gunman's mother at home, and the gunman himself.

A glimpse of some of those who died:

___

Charlotte Bacon, 6

They were supposed to be for the holidays, but finally on Friday, after hearing much begging, Charlotte Bacon's mother relented and let her wear the new pink dress and boots to school.

It was the last outfit the outgoing redhead would ever pick out. Charlotte's older brother, Guy, was also in the school but was not shot.

Her parents, JoAnn and Joel, had lived in Newtown for four or five years, JoAnn's brother John Hagen, of Nisswa, Minn., told Newsday.

"She was going to go some places in this world," Hagen told the newspaper. "This little girl could light up the room for anyone."

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This Nov. 18, 2012 photo provided by John Engel shows Olivia Engel, 6, in Danbury, Conn. Olivia Engel. Olivia Engel, was killed Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 children and adults at the school. AP Photo/Engel Family, Tim Nosezo  

Olivia Engel, 6

The images of Olivia Engel will live far beyond her short lifetime. There she is, visiting with Santa Claus, or feasting on a slice of birthday cake. There's the one of her swinging a pink baseball bat, and another posing on a boat. In some, she models a pretty white dress; in others, she makes a silly face.

Dan Merton, a longtime friend of the girl's family, says he could never forget the child, and he has much to say when he thinks of her.

"She loved attention," he said. "She had perfect manners, perfect table manners. She was the teacher's pet, the line leader."

On Friday, Merton said, she was simply excited to go to school and then return home and make a gingerbread house.

"Her only crime," he said, "is being a wiggly, smiley 6-year-old."

___

Dawn Hochsprung, 47, principal

Dawn Hochsprung's pride in Sandy Hook Elementary was clear. She regularly tweeted photos from her time as principal there, giving indelible glimpses of life at a place now known for tragedy. Just this week, it was an image of fourth-graders rehearsing for their winter concert; days before that, the tiny hands of kindergartners exchanging play money at their makeshift grocery store.

She viewed her school as a model, telling The Newtown Bee in 2010 that "I don't think you could find a more positive place to bring students to every day." She had worked to make Sandy Hook a place of safety, too, and in October, the 47-year-old Hochsprung shared a picture of the school's evacuation drill with the message "safety first." When the unthinkable came, she was ready to defend.

Officials said she died while lunging at the gunman in an attempt to overtake him.

"She had an extremely likable style about her," said Gerald Stomski, first selectman of Woodbury, where Hochsprung lived and had taught. "She was an extremely charismatic principal while she was here."

___

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Dr. Matthew Velsmid was at Madeleine's house on Saturday, tending to her stricken family. He said the family did not want to comment.

Velsmid said that after hearing of the shooting, he went to the triage area to provide medical assistance but there were no injuries to treat.

"We were waiting for casualties to come out, and there was nothing. There was no need, unfortunately," he said. "This is the darkest thing I've ever walked into, by far."

Velsmid's daughter, who attends another school, lost three of her friends.

___

Catherine Hubbard, 6

A family friend turned reporters away from the house, but Catherine's parents released a statement expressing gratitude to emergency responders and for the support of the community.

"We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy," Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard said. "We ask that you continue to pray for us and the other families who have experienced loss in this tragedy."

___

Chase Kowalski, 7

Chase Kowalski was always outside, playing in the backyard, riding his bicycle. Just last week, he was visiting neighbor Kevin Grimes, telling him about completing — and winning — his first mini-triathlon.

"You couldn't think of a better child," Grimes said.

Grimes' own five children all attended Sandy Hook, too. Cars lined up outside the Kowalskis' ranch home Saturday, and a state trooper's car idled in the driveway. Grimes spoke of the boy only in the present tense.

___

Nancy Lanza, 52, gunman's mother

She once was known simply for the game nights she hosted and the holiday decorations she put up at her house. Now Nancy Lanza is known as her son's first victim.

Authorities say her 20-year-old son Adam gunned her down before killing 26 others at Sandy Hook. The two shared a home in a well-to-do Newtown neighborhood, but details were slow to emerge of who she was and what might have led her son to carry out such horror.

Kingston, N.H., Police Chief Donald Briggs Jr. said Nancy Lanza once lived in the community and was a kind, considerate and loving person. The former stockbroker at John Hancock in Boston was well-respected, Briggs said.

Court records show Lanza and her ex-husband, Peter Lanza, filed for divorce in 2008. He lives in Stamford and is a tax director at General Electric. A neighbor, Rhonda Cullens, said she knew Nancy Lanza from get-togethers she had hosted to play Bunco, a dice game. She said her neighbor had enjoyed gardening.

"She was a very nice lady," Cullens said. "She was just like all the rest of us in the neighborhood, just a regular person."

___

Jesse Lewis, 6

Six-year-old Jesse Lewis had hot chocolate with his favorite breakfast sandwich — sausage, egg and cheese — at the neighborhood deli before going to school Friday morning.

Jesse and his parents were regulars at the Misty Vale Deli in Sandy Hook, Conn., owner Angel Salazar told The Wall Street Journal.

"He was always friendly; he always liked to talk," Salazar said.

Jesse's family has a collection of animals he enjoyed playing with, and he was learning to ride horseback.

Family friend Barbara McSperrin told the Journal that Jesse was "a typical 6-year-old little boy, full of life."

___

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

A year ago, 6-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene was reveling in holiday celebrations with her extended family on her first trip to Puerto Rico. This year will be heartbreakingly different.

The girl's grandmother, Elba Marquez, said the family moved to Connecticut just two months ago, drawn from Canada, in part, by Sandy Hook's sterling reputation. The grandmother's brother, Jorge Marquez, is mayor of a Puerto Rican town and said the child's 9-year-old brother also was at the school but escaped safely.

Elba Marquez had just visited the new home over Thanksgiving and is perplexed by what happened. "What happened does not match up with the place where they live," she said.

A video spreading across the Internet shows a confident Ana hitting every note as she sings "Come, Thou Almighty King." She flashes a big grin and waves to the camera when she's done.

Jorge Marquez confirmed the girl's father is saxophonist Jimmy Greene, who wrote on Facebook that he was trying to "work through this nightmare."

"As much as she's needed here and missed by her mother, brother and me, Ana beat us all to paradise," he wrote. "I love you sweetie girl."

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James Mattioli, 6

The upstate New York town of Sherrill is thinking of Cindy Mattioli, who grew up there and lost her son James in the school shooting in Connecticut.

"It's a terrible tragedy, and we're a tight community," Mayor William Vineall told the Utica Observer-Dispatch. "Everybody will be there for them, and our thoughts and prayers are there for them."

James' grandparents, Jack and Kathy Radley, still live in the city, the newspaper reported.

___

Anne Marie Murphy, 52, teacher

A happy soul. A good mother, wife and daughter. Artistic, fun-loving, witty and hardworking.

Remembering their daughter, Anne Marie Murphy, her parents had no shortage of adjectives to offer Newsday. When news of the shooting broke, Hugh and Alice McGowan waited for word of their daughter as hours ticked by. And then it came.

Authorities told the couple their daughter was a hero who helped shield some of her students from the rain of bullets. As the grim news arrived, the victim's mother reached for her rosary.

"You don't expect your daughter to be murdered," her father told the newspaper. "It happens on TV. It happens elsewhere."

___

Emilie Parker, 6

Quick to cheer up those in need of a smile, Emilie Parker never missed a chance to draw a picture or make a card.

Her father, Robbie Parker, fought back tears as he described the beautiful, blond, always-smiling girl who loved to try new things, except foods.

Parker, one of the first parents to publicly talk about his loss, expressed no animosity for the gunman, even as he struggled to explain the death to his other two children, ages 3 and 4. He's sustained by the fact that the world is better for having had Emilie in it.

"I'm so blessed to be her dad," he said.

___

Noah Pozner, 6

The way Noah Pozner's parents saw it, no schools in New York could compare with those in Newtown, a relative told Newsday. So they moved their family — Noah, his twin sister and his 8-year-old sister.

"At this stage, two out of three survived. ... That's sad," said Noah's uncle Arthur Pozner, of New York City's Brooklyn borough. "The reason they moved to that area is because they did not consider any school in New York state on the same level. That's one of the reasons they moved, for safety and education."

Noah's siblings were also students there but were not hurt. Noah's uncle recalled him as "extremely mature."

"When I was his age, I was not like him," Pozner told the newspaper. "Very well brought up. Extremely bright. Extremely bright."

___

Lauren Gabrielle Rousseau, 30, teacher

Lauren Rousseau had spent years working as a substitute teacher and doing other jobs. So she was thrilled when she finally realized her goal this fall to become a full-time teacher at Sandy Hook.

Her mother, Teresa Rousseau, a copy editor at the Danbury News-Times, released a statement Saturday that said state police told them just after midnight that she was among the victims.

"Lauren wanted to be a teacher from before she even went to kindergarten," she said. "We will miss her terribly and will take comfort knowing that she had achieved that dream."

Her mother said she was thrilled to get the job.

"It was the best year of her life," she told the newspaper.

Rousseau has been called gentle, spirited and active. She had planned to see "The Hobbit" with her boyfriend Friday and had baked cupcakes for a party they were to attend afterward. She was born in Danbury, and attended Danbury High, college at the University of Connecticut and graduate school at the University of Bridgeport.

She was a lover of music, dance and theater.

"I'm used to having people die who are older," her mother said, "not the person whose room is up over the kitchen."

___

Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist

When the shots rang out, Mary Sherlach threw herself into the danger.

Janet Robinson, the superintendent of Newtown Public Schools, said Sherlach and the school's principal ran toward the shooter. They lost their own lives, rushing toward him.

Even as Sherlach neared retirement, her job at Sandy Hook was one she loved. Those who knew her called her a wonderful neighbor, a beautiful person, a dedicated educator.

Her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz, told the South Jersey Times that Sherlach rooted on the Miami Dolphins, enjoyed visiting the Finger Lakes, relished helping children overcome their problems. She had planned to leave work early on Friday, he said, but never had the chance. In a news conference Saturday, he told reporters the loss was devastating, but that Sherlach was doing what she loved.

"Mary felt like she was doing God's work," he said, "working with the children."

___

Victoria Soto, 27, teacher

She beams in snapshots. Her enthusiasm and cheer was evident. She was doing, those who knew her say, what she loved.

And now, Victoria Soto is being called a hero.

Though details of the 27-year-old teacher's death remained fuzzy, her name has been invoked again and again as a portrait of selflessness and humanity among unfathomable evil. Those who knew her said they weren't surprised by reports she shielded her first-graders from danger.

"She put those children first. That's all she ever talked about," said a friend, Andrea Crowell. "She wanted to do her best for them, to teach them something new every day."

Photos of Soto show her always with a wide smile, in pictures of her at her college graduation and in mundane daily life. She looks so young, barely an adult herself. Her goal was simply to be a teacher.

"You have a teacher who cared more about her students than herself," said Mayor John Harkins of Stratford, the town Soto hailed from and where more than 300 people gathered for a memorial service Saturday night. "That speaks volumes to her character, and her commitment and dedication."

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry is President Obama's choice to be the next secretary of state, according to multiple reports.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., will reportedly be tapped by President Barack Obama to be the next secretary of state. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)  

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry is President Obama's choice to be the next secretary of state, according to multiple reports.

The official nomination could come as early as next week, a source told CNN.

Kerry, 69, has been considered the clear frontrunner for the nomination since U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice withdrew her name from consideration for the post on Thursday.

If confirmed, the Massachusetts Democrat would take over for current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A top Obama administration aide discounted the reports, saying only that no announcement was coming today, according to a report on Boston.com.

Lloyd had 10 catches for 190 yards.

FOXBOROUGH – Brandon Lloyd has his best night as a member of the New England Patriots, catching 10 passes for 190 yards, yet his reaction to his performance was subdued.

Lloyd had to be aware of what he accomplished on the field, but when asked about his big game, all he could say, “What do you mean?”

“The 190 yards -- was it the result of your connection with Tom Brady, the routes you were running, the way they were defending you, possibly isolating other players and you were benefitting from that?”

“I don’t really know,” Lloyd replied. “I’ll have to watch the film.”

How the yards were made, or what they were a result of, doesn’t really matter. What counts is that it appears that after 14 games, Brady and Lloyd are finally starting to understand how to co-exist with one another after a rocky start to the season.

After being held to one catch for 10 yards on Dec. 2 against Miami, leading to cries that Lloyd’s role was being reduced, he responded last week with seven catches for 89 yards against Houston, and followed that up with his performance Sunday night.

Lloyd now has 67 catches for 840 yards and four touchdowns.

Perhaps the best indicator of the level of comfort is that Brady went to Lloyd in some key moments, including a 53-yard reception on New England’s last touchdown drive that helped setup the score that tied the game at 31. New England eventually lost, 41-34.

“He played a great game and made some catches when we needed it,” Brady said.
“He’s had two great weeks in a row and we’re going to need it down the stretch here. And certainly, the season isn’t over.”

The first product sold using a bar code was a 67-cent package of Wrigley's chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in 1974.

This undated family photo taken in the 1950s shows bar code co-inventor N. Joseph Woodland. Woodland, who with Bernard Silver invented the bar code that labels nearly every product in stores and has boosted productivity in nearly every sector of commerce worldwide, died last week at the age of 91. (AP Photo/Courtesy the Woodland Family) Associated Press  

We would wager that before this week few people would have heard of Norman Joseph Woodland. Yet in the impact that he had on the way the world does business a convincing case could be made that he was every bit as important as Steve Jobs.

Although Woodland didn’t give birth to a computer or rate just behind Adam and Eve in name association with the word “Apple,” he did co-invent the bar code that labels nearly every product in stores as they are scanned at a rate of more than 5 billion a day.

Woodland, who died this week at age 91, was a graduate student when he and a classmate, Bernard Silver created the technology, based on a printed series of wide and narrow lines that could then be used for optical scanning. As he tells it, he was looking for a code, like Morse Code, that could be used to transfer information to keep track of commercial purchases. He says he decided to use wide and narrow lines instead of dots and dashes after inspiration struck while he was poking his fingers into the sand at his grandparents’ home in Miami Beach. Eventually the two men sold their patent for $15,000, which is all they ever made from the invention.

Woodland would go on to IBM where he worked from 1951 until his retirement in 1987. He received the National Medal of Technology and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame but for the most part worked outside the public eye, even as his product continued to be used around the world to keep track of books, groceries, luggage and hospital patients and just about anything that could be tagged with the familiar black and white rectangle.

The first product sold using a bar code was a 67-cent package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, in 1974. In the 30 minutes it takes to read Woodland’s obit, roughly 100 more million items will have been scanned using his invention.

It may not enough to be confused with Adam and Eve, but it’s pretty darn close.

Letter-writer: Until effective gun legislation emerges each of us must face gun issues ourselves.

Nation must face up to gun violence

I write this before many details of the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School have emerged. But I felt I must write this.

Our nation will predictably rise up again with frustration related to gun control. Until effective gun legislation emerges each of us must face gun issues ourselves.

I was in uniform during virtually the entire Korean War. I’m an old guy now. I turned in my carbine when I was discharged on Dec. 12, 1953. Ironically the 59th anniversary just passed. On that day I made a resolution: I would never handle or own a firearm again for the rest of my life.

Today that resolution remains inviolate. Interestingly, for some readers perhaps, our professional work took us around the world and across our country many many times for over 35 years.

At no time or in any place did I ever feel threatened.

– CHARLES B. HAYWARD , East Longmeadow

Merry Christmas universal message

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Merry Christmas to all because Christmas belongs to all religions, atheists and agnostics too.

Christmas is the current name for the Winter Solstice which was celebrated by bringing a tree in from the outside and decorating it with holly and lights. The reason for the celebration was and is the coming of the light. The days would now be getting longer. This celebration went on for thousands of years before the birth of Jesus. In fact the birth was moved from July to December because Christianity was dying out and the birth was not being celebrated.

The crucifixion was moved to the vernal equinox and the calendar was changed for the same reason. The gift-giving part of the holiday was based on Bishop Nicholas who put treats in children’s shoes while they slept. The details of Santa Claus were later defined in the 1822 poem by Clement Moore, “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and endure to this day.

Except for the nativity scene, Christmas is a totally secular holiday and can be enjoyed by all because we are all welcoming the coming of the light. It is a time for family gathering, generosity and love which we all share. Merry Christmas is totally appropriate for all to use.

– MALITA BROWN , Wilbraham

CO detectors not necessary in schools

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Republican editorial writers ask “Why in heaven’s name aren’t CO detectors mandatory in schools, when they are required in residences?” Maybe it’s because no children have been killed or badly injured by CO in schools in the last 10 years. Maybe it’s because nobody sleeps in schools, as they do in residences. CO gives lots of warnings to people who are awake, from headaches to dizziness to mental confusion. CO is likely to kill only when people are asleep. But let’s have another expensive unfunded mandate to solve a problem that really doesn’t exist.

– R. PATRICK HENRY , East Longmeadow

Democrats keep changing the rules

Once again I see that the Democrats in office want to change the laws to suit themselves.

Sen. John Kerry may leave office for another job, and our governor wants to change the law so that he can put whomever he wants in Kerry’s place.

This was done once before by a Democrat in office. It’s time to stop and leave the law the way it is. A special election is needed if Kerry leaves office, not the governor being allowed to pick.

– GERALD DUCHARME , Springfield

Media reports show a liberal bias

I find it interesting, but not surprising, that a recent article that highlights 60 percent of those polled favoring taxing the rich more respondents omitted an even more important statistic. The Politico/George Washington Battleground Poll referred to shows that 75 percent of those respondents favored cutting government spending across the board.

Another example of the media showing their bias favoring the current administration’s grab for more money, an amount that would run the government for only eight days.

– PETER ZIMA , Ludlow

Ridley now has four fumbles this season.

FOXBOROUGH – It didn’t take Stevan Ridley long to get Bill Belichick’s message. The second-year running back may possess game-breaking ability, but he’s not going to get a chance to showcase it if he can’t hold onto the ball.

And that’s exactly what happened during Sunday night’s 43-31 loss to the San Francisco 49ers after Ridley coughed up the ball during the third quarter.

“No one is harder on myself than me,” Ridley said. “Nobody is more upset when I fumble than Stevan is. For me, I just have to keep working. … I have to do better. I have to do better in game situations holding onto the football.”

Ridley has four fumbles this season and has now coughed up the ball in consecutive games. Last year as rookie, Ridley fumbled in back-to-back games and found himself planted on the bench during the final two games of the team’s Super Bowl run.

He played just one snap after fumbling Sunday and finished with 23 yards on nine carries. Ridley has run for 1,105 yards on 252 carries this season, with 10 touchdowns.

Even though the rain fell steadily throughout the game, the running back was unable to use the conditions as an excuse. However, teammate Brandon Lloyd admitted that the weather was an issue for the wide receivers.

And that seemed to be an issue for both Ridley and fellow running back Shane Vereen, who also fumbled during the game.

“A little bit. The equipment is an issue when there is inclement weather,” Lloyd said. “Getting the ball down so you can make body catches is an issue when there’s weather like that. Securing the catch is something we really focus on.”

But Ridley wasn’t buying that excuse.

“Good players make it through that without mistakes,” Ridley said. “That’s something I didn’t do tonight.”