The shooting was outside the police headquarters in a walled compound which houses the governor's office, courts and a prison in the heart of the capital.

Afghan policemen watching down from top of the Kabul police headquarters, following the killing of an American advisor in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 24, 2012. An Afghan policewoman killed an American adviser at the Kabul police headquarters on Monday, a senior Afghan police official said. Associated Press  

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan policewoman walked into a high-security compound in Kabul Monday and killed an American contractor with a single bullet to the chest, the first such shooting by a woman in a spate of insider attacks by Afghans against their foreign allies.

Afghan officials who provided details identified the attacker as police Sgt. Nargas, a mother of four with a clean record. The shooting was outside the police headquarters in a walled compound which houses the governor's office, courts and a prison in the heart of the capital.

A police official said she was able to enter the compound armed because she was licensed to carry a weapon as a police officer.

The American, whose identity was not released, was a civilian adviser who worked with the NATO command. He was shot as he came out of a small shop, Kabul Governor Abdul Jabar Taqwa told The Associated Press. The woman refused to explain her motive for her attack, he said.

The fact that a woman was behind the assault shocked some Afghans.

"I was very shaken when I heard the news," said Nasrullah Sadeqizada, an independent member of Parliament. "This is the first female to carry out such an attack. It is very surprising and sad," he added, calling for more careful screening of all candidates, male and female, for the police force.

According to NATO, some 1,400 women were serving in the Afghan police force mid-year with 350 in the army -- still a very small proportion of the 350,000 in both services. Such professions are still generally frowned upon in this conservative society but women have made significant gains in recent years, with most jobs and education opportunities open to them, at least by law if not always in practice.

This is in stark contrast to the repression they suffered under the former Taliban regime, which forced women to be virtual prisoners in their homes, and severely punished them for even small infractions of the draconian codes.

The NATO command said that while the investigation continued, there might be "some temporary, prudent measures put into place to reduce the exposure of our people." But a NATO spokesman, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Lester T. Carroll, said the vital mission of training the Afghan police "remained unchanged."

There have been more than 60 insider attacks this year against foreign military and civilian personnel. They represent another looming security issue as President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai prepare to meet early next year to discuss the pullout of NATO troops from Afghanistan by 2014 and the size and nature of a residual force the United States will keep in the country.

Insider attacks by Afghan soldiers or police have accelerated this year as NATO forces, due to mostly withdraw from the country by 2014, have speeded up efforts to train and advise Afghan security before the pullout.

The surge in such attacks is throwing doubt on the capability of the Afghan security forces to take over from international troops and has further undermined public support for the war in NATO countries.

It has also stoked suspicion among some NATO units of their Afghan counterparts, although others enjoy close working relations with Afghan military and police.

As such attacks mounted this year, U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington insisted they were "isolated incidents" and withheld details.

An AP investigation earlier this month showed that at least 63 coalition troops — mostly Americans — had been killed and more than 85 wounded in at least 46 insider attacks. That's an average of nearly one attack a week. In 2011, 21 insider attacks killed 35 coalition troops.

There have also been incidents of Taliban and other militants dressing in Afghan army and police uniforms to infiltrate NATO installations and attack foreigners.

In February, two U.S. soldiers died from an attack by an Afghan policeman at the Interior Ministry in Kabul. The incident forced NATO to temporarily pull out their advisers from a number of ministries and police units and revise procedures in dealing with Afghan counterparts.

More than 50 Afghan members of the government's security forces also have died this year in attacks by their own colleagues. Taliban militants claim such attacks reflect a growing popular opposition to both foreign military presence and the Kabul government.

In the latest attack, the governor said Nargas, who like many Afghans goes by one name, had asked bystanders where the governor's office was located before confronting the American.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said she fired only one shot that struck the American in the chest. He died either on the way or just upon arrival at a hospital, the spokesman added, describing her act as a "huge crime." He said the woman attempted to run away, pistol still in hand, after the shooting. But she was subdued by police.

She was taken into Afghan custody and Sediqi said she refused to answer questions after hours of interrogation aimed at determining her motives.

Nargas had worked with a human rights department of the police for two years and had earlier been a refugee in Pakistan and Iran, Kabul Deputy Police Chief Mohammad Daoud Amin said.

She could enter the compound armed because as a police officer, she was licensed to carry a pistol, Amin said. He said he did not know whether the killer and victim were acquainted.

"Her background is very clean. We don't see that she had any connection with armed insurgent groups," Sediqi said. He added that she aroused no suspicion because she frequently went back and forth on business between the compound and the Interior Ministry where she worked.

Canadian Brig. Gen. John C. Madower, another NATO command spokesman in Kabul, called the incident "a very sad occasion" and said his "prayers are with the loved ones of the deceased."

The killing came just hours after an Afghan policeman shot five of his colleagues at a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan late Monday. The attacker then stole his colleague's weapons and fled to join the Taliban, said deputy provincial governor in Jawzjan province, Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani.

Separately, U.S. military officials were investigating the apparent suicide of a Navy SEAL commander in Afghanistan. A U.S. military official in Washington said Cmdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pa., died Saturday of a noncombat-related injury in Uruzgan province. The official said the death "appears to be the result of a suicide."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the death is still being investigated.

About one inch of accumulation for Springfield; nor'easter for Thursday.

Light snow is looking likely for Christmas morning. A small low pressure system coming from the Ohio Valley will be moving into New England, bringing light snow showers to western Massachusetts shortly after midnight. Precipitation is expected to be heaviest right around dawn, so it should be a very scenic snowfall for Christmas morning. This activity wraps up for the afternoon, which should help any traveling you may be doing later in the day.

Snow accumulations are looking minor, generally in the 1 to 2 inch range for Springfield, with about a coating to an inch for Greenfield. Slightly higher amounts may be in the Berkshires and Worcester hills, with lesser amounts expected if traveling to Connecticut or towards the Cape (where it will mix with more rain and ice in these locations).

A greater probability for a heavy dose of wintry weather will hit the region late Wednesday night and Thursday as a nor'easter will be effecting much of the Northeast. While major snowfall throughout the Pioneer Valley is not likely, this system is looking more like a mess of rain/sleet/snow/freezing rain instead of just an all-out heavy snow everywhere.

A Winter Storm Watch has been posted for the Berkshires for this storm Wednesday night through Thursday night. A scenario regarding several inches of accumulating snow can't be ruled out for the higher elevations just yet.

Christmas Eve: Light snow after midnight, low 27.

Christmas Day: Light morning snow, 1 to 2 inches of accumulation, late-day clearing, high 36.

Wednesday: Partly sunny, nor'easter approaching, high 35.

Thursday: Moderate rain/snow/ice, windy, high 38.

Holyoke's elderly felt like kings and queens for a night thanks to police and volunteers.

HOLYOKE - Police escorted them through traffic. Volunteers served them dinner.

The appeal to senior citizens of the annual holiday night out provided by the Police Department was clear, said Diana Bergeron, 67.

"They love it. They feel special because they're on a bus and traffic is stopped for them.They feel like like they're kings and queens," Bergeron said.

The trip on Dec. 12 featured five buses bringing 325 seniors to the Bright Nights holiday lighting display at Forest Park in Springfield.

Then the Peter Pan carriages brought the seniors to the new Senior Center at Beech and Sargeant streets for a dinner of hot turkey sandwiches, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce and peas, with chocolate cake for dessert.

"It's great, really great," said Eddie Martin, 75, of Northampton Street, a still-practicing accountant.

As they ate in the dining room of the gleaming new center, the seniors were treated to a rendition of Clement Clarke Moore's poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas" that police chief Jame M. Neiswanger, in red and white Santa Claus hat, said he reworked (see below) with his wife Carla to include Holyoke reference points.

"Without all these volunteers, it wouldn't have happened," Neiswanger said later, of the police, Senior Center staff and others who helped out.

Also in a Santa cap and serving meals was Mayor Alex B. Morse.

"I was putting the gravy on the potatoes, making sure the plates looked nice," Morse said.

The famous poem delivered with a Holyoke flavor by Neiswanger:

"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a cop could be found, for they were at the doughnut house. All the work had been done at the new senior center with care, In hopes that everyone could join us and be here.

"The seniors were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of warmer weather danced in their heads. The Mayor and City Council had just passed their plan, And could now settle down with each of their clan.

"When out in the city there arose such a clatter, The police responded to see what was the matter. Away to the scene they drove in a dash,They leaped from their vehicles and were there in a flash.

"Their blue lights on the breast of the new fallen snow, Gave the lustre of mid day to the city below. But what to the wondering eyes should appear Several brave officers, their Chief and their gear.

"With a little old driver so lively and quick, We new in a moment it must be the Chief in his Crown Vic. More rapid than eagles his officers came, And he whistled and shouted and called them by name!

"Now Katie! now, Gary! Now, Fred and Denises!On John, On Mikes, on Dan, on Don, on Dennis, on Heather, on Ann, on De, on Marys, on Trina, on Lindas, on Helen, on Penny, on Trudy, on Susan and Jean and Ron.To the top of the new senior center, from the top of city hall, Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!

"As we came down from Mount Tom passed the new computing center, We all knew things were improving and only getting better. So down to Forest Park they all flew, With a bus full of seniors and the Chief too.

"Then we arrived at Bright Lights, and we saw, The amazing sights and we were in awe. As we drew in our heads and were turning around, Down the road came the chief in a bound.

"He was dressed all in blue, from his head to his toe, And his uniform was pressed as if he was ready to go. A bundle of treats he had flung on his back, And we were ready to see what he had in his pack.

"His eyes how they twinkled! His smile how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the stubble on his chin was as white as the snow.

"His glasses dangled from the tip of his nose, As he did his best to recite this prose. He had a broad face and a little round belly, From eating too many donuts that were filled with jelly.

"He was chubby and plump, and wearing a hat like an elf, And we laughed when we saw him in spite ourselves. A flash of a badge and a nod of his head, Soon we all new we had nothing to dread.

"He spoke throughout the city, and went straight to his work, Finding out citizens concerns, and what really would work. He sent his officers out on their police beats, To keep things safe, on our city streets.

"He sprang to his cruiser, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like a missile. But we heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight, Happy holidays to all and to all a good night!"

An ex-con gunned down two firefighters after luring them to his neighborhood by setting a car and a house ablaze early Monday, then took shots at police and committed suicide while several homes burned.

WEBSTER, N.Y. — An ex-con gunned down two firefighters after luring them to his neighborhood by setting a car and a house ablaze early Monday, then took shots at police and committed suicide while several homes burned.

Authorities used an armored vehicle to help residents flee dozens of homes on the shore of Lake Ontario a day before Christmas. Police restricted access to the neighborhood, and officials said it was not clear whether there were other bodies in the seven houses left to burn.

The sister of the gunman, who lived with him, was unaccounted for. The gunman's motive was unknown.

The gunman fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze in Webster, a suburb of Rochester, town Police Chief Gerald Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the suspect and exchanged gunfire.

He lay in wait outdoors for the firefighters' arrival, then opened fire probably with a rifle and from atop an earthen berm, Pickering said.

"It does appear it was a trap," he said.

The gunman, William Spengler, had served more than 17 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980 at the house next to where Monday's attack happened, Pickering said at afternoon news conference. Spengler, 62, was paroled in 1998 and had led a quiet life since, authorities said. Convicted felons are not allowed to possess weapons.

Two firefighters, one of whom was also a town police lieutenant, died at the scene, and two others were hospitalized. An off-duty officer who was passing by was also injured.

Another police officer, the one who exchanged gunfire with Spengler, "in all likelihood saved many lives," Pickering said.

Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as Spengler carried out his ambush. The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun — high powered ... semi or fully auto."

Spengler lived in the house with his sister and mother, Arline, who died in October. He had originally been charged with second-degree murder in connection with grandmother Rose Spengler's death but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire early Monday after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.

The fire appeared from a distance as a pulsating ball of flame glowing against the early morning sky, flames licking into treetops and reflecting on the water, with huge bursts of smoke billowing away in a brisk wind.

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one of the wounded men managed to flee, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.

A police armored vehicle was used to recover two men, and eventually it evacuated 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said. The gunfire initially kept firefighters from battling the blazes.

The dead men were identified as Police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer; and Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher, whose age was not released.

Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years in the department, and called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."

The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were in guarded condition in the intensive care unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, authorities said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.

Hofstetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.

At West Webster Fire Station 1, there were at least 20 bouquets on a bench in front and a bouquet of roses with three gold-and-white ribbons saying, "May they rest in peace," ''In the line of duty" and "In memory of our fallen brothers."

A handwritten sign says, "Thanks for protecting us, RIP." Two candles were lit to honor the dead.

Grieving firefighters declined to talk to reporters. A memorial vigil was planned for early Monday evening.

The shooting and fires were in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.

"We have very few calls for service in that location," Pickering said. "Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous."

O'Flynn lamented the violence, which comes on the heels of other shootings including the massacre of 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"It's sad to see that that this is becoming more commonplace in communities across the nation," O'Flynn said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Police and Office of Emergency Management were working with local authorities.

"Volunteer firefighters and police officers were injured and two were taken from us as they once again answered the call of duty," Cuomo said in a statement. "We as the community of New York mourn their loss as now two more families must spend the holidays without their loved ones."

Webster, a middle-class suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.

Last Dec. 7, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

Quieting down for tomorrow, but a nor'easter moves in for Thursday.

After a light Christmas morning snow, that activity is done and the skies are getting ready to clear out. If traveling this evening, there will not be any new snowfall, but there could be a few slick spots out there from any snow still on the roadways this morning. Any substantially melted snow could also refreeze as temperatures fall into the upper-teens overnight.

Some sunshine will start off the day tomorrow, but clouds will reemerge throughout the afternoon ahead of an approaching winter storm. Just like today, high temperatures tomorrow will be in the mid-30s.

A greater probability for a heavy dose of wintry weather will hit the region late Wednesday night and Thursday as a nor'easter will be effecting much of the Northeast. While major snowfall throughout the Pioneer Valley is not likely, this system is looking more like a mess of rain/sleet/snow/freezing rain instead of just an all-out heavy snow everywhere.

A Winter Storm Watch has been posted for all of western Massachusetts for Wednesday night through Thursday. A scenario regarding several inches of accumulating snow can't be ruled out just yet, especially for the hilltowns. The immediate Springfield area will likely see more rain mix in during the second-half of this storm, limiting the total snowfall amounts.

Christmas Night: Mostly cloudy evening, decreasing clouds overnight, chilly, low 18.

Wednesday: Increasing afternoon clouds, nor'easter approaching, high 35.

Thursday: Moderate morning snow, mixing with rain/ice, windy, high 38.

Friday: Partly sunny, windy and cold, high 34.

The tradition started 26 years ago. Watch video

HOLYOKE - With flashing lights and sirens, police descended upon neighborhoods Christmas morning not to investigate crimes or arrest but to spread holiday cheer to hundreds of kids in need.

Retired detective Dennis Egan returned in his role of Santa, plus police from the narcotics bureau who organized the delivery and others, including Chief James M. Neiswanger dispensed just about any toy, game or doll imaginable from the back of a U-Haul blasting Christmas songs.

It was the 26th such time police provided delivered to children in low-income families at a homeless shelter, and in city neighborhoods.

“They like to give back,” said Neiswanger who was making his second trip as chief. “It’s a phenomenal effort. It’s the right thing to do.” But he said, “it’s not about us, it’s more about the children.”

The tradition began with Lt. Harold M. Valentine and John Dinapoli and Egan, Egan said. Both Valentine and Dinapoli have died - Dinapoli was murdered Dec. 22, 1999.

 
Police stopped on the corner of Walnut Street where Dinapoli was shot to hand out toys there. Egan placed a basketball on the corner.

“We wanted to show them the human part of us,” he said about the start of the tradition.

Anthony Brach was a little concerned a few days ago they wouldn’t have enough toys but last minute, hundreds of toys came.

Those waiting wore bathrobes and pajamas, some were in shorts and flip-flops and others bundled against the winter chill. They all had eyes on Santa and police.

When police carried in an over flowing carton with toys into a shelter, children oohed as if they were watching fireworks.

Jason Flathers, waited with his three children and wife near the shelter where they were staying He bought his children some things but he said “they’ve been waiting all morning” for the police. “It’s very nice of them (to come.)”

As the van arrived near Walnut, people in apartment buildings yelled “thank you” behind open windows.

Wearing a hooded red sweatshirt Jonathan Catalan watched police work. “It’s good, it’s so cool,” he said.

He had just moved to Holyoke from New York and neighbors told him about the tradition. His wife was in line with their one-year-old daughter waiting for a toy. He said he had never seen anything like it.

While the kids were happy with their toys, Brach said giving out the gifts and helping the kids “makes me feel good.”

A winter storm is being predicted for Wednesday night into Thursday.

After a slow start to winter, skiers and snowboarders are finally seeing some snow fall on the slopes and colder temperatures blow in to improve snowmaking.

Since the weekend, snow has been falling off-and-on in the mountains, especially in northern New England. Christmas Day, which kicks off one of the biggest business weeks of the year for ski areas, started with an inch or two falling.

State police reported that the light snow created no problems on roadways in Western Massachusetts. Most of the snow had melted and the roadways were dry by early afternoon.

But the bigger news, especially for ski areas, is a the possibility of a winter story for Wednesday night into Thursday.

The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm watch for Western Massachusetts for Wednesday night into Thursday. A strong storm system sliding along the south coast of New England will bring snow and then a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain into the region Thursday morning.

Precipitation is expected to change to all rain by mid-day. There will, however, be a chance of icing, of up to a quarter-inch, for areas around the Massachusetts Turnpike.

But at Okemo Mountain, in Ludlow Vt., the predictions are for up to 11 inches of snow and no rain, which is perfect timing for the busy Christmas week, said Bonnie MacPherson, public relations director for the mountain.

“We have been getting snow on and off. There is snow on the ground and snow in the woods,” she said.

Now Okemo has about 60 trails open, which is half of the total terrain. The snowmakers have been working around-the-clock every time the temperatures drop into the 20s but they have been thwarted by warm temperatures and some rain earlier this month.

“Natural snow this week would really help,” MacPherson said. “People for the most part are here for the week and it is great for people coming for the weekend because roads will be clear by then.”

Executive Director of the Cancer Connection, Betsy Neisner, said she has participants at her center who found the recording sessions moving, and even joyous.

Ralph Lowen, of Amherst, has started a business called "I Wish I Had Asked," designed to record living histories of terminally ill patients. He is shown here in his Amherst home office. The Republican / Stephanie Barry  

AMHERST - When Ralph Lowen and his first cousin stood before his uncle’s casket at a wake three years ago, his cousin murmured something he had heard before from people in mourning.

“She said: I wish I had asked ...” said Lowen, a painter and former psychotherapist. “And I realized I had heard that countless times before. Loved ones die and those left behind are often left with so many questions, or so many things we wish we had said.”

The comment gave birth to a very fledgling project Lowen launched recently by the same name designed to give terminally ill patients a chance to record their personal history.

“I Wish I Had Asked” appeals to Lowen’s affinity for oral history traditions and history in general, plus as a scholar of emotional complexities in his former job as a therapist in New York City.

Lowen’s own father died when he was just 3, and his mother, a mathematician, shut down emotionally, he said; not an entirely unusual response to grief.

“Everything sort of went downhill from there ... I have huge gaps in my memory. There are so many things I wish I had asked her,” Lowen said.

“I Wish I Had Asked” has thus far been a self-financed venture, with Lowen buying his own equipment to conduct weekly audio recordings of cancer patients with varying prognoses. He records weekly discussion groups through The Cancer Connection, a support center across from Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.

Executive Director Betsy Neisner said she has participants at her center who found the recording sessions moving, and even joyous.

"One of the women told me that she can't remember the sound of her mother's voice. Now, her family will always have that. And when you're dying, you start physically looking terrible but you still have your voice," Neisner said. "She has the recording now and her family will always have it. She still finds it difficult to listen to, though, because it was a good-bye."

Neisner said that Lowen has exactly the kind of easy way to make his subjects feel comfortable.

"One woman said Ralph is facilitator, therapist and artist. He made it really easy for her to talk," she said.

Lowen has a standard list of questions he can use as a starting point, or to spur on the dialogue if it begins to drift away. Some include easy ones like: "What are you most proud of?" and "What is your best memory of childhood?" Others are more difficult, like "Do your think about dying?" and "Are you scared?" or "How do you imagine your death?"

Lowen hopes that the project will become widespread enough for him to seek grants and donations so he can train others to do the sessions and buy more equipment.

"Right now it's more important for me to be doing it than to make any money at doing it," he said, but noting that he is aware of his own mortality. "But, I'm getting older. I won't be able to do it forever and I'd like for it not to end with me."

The current practice is doors in all schools are locked and visitors must identify themselves to be allowed to enter.

Comprehensive High School Republican file photo  

CHICOPEE – In the wake of the Dec. 14 shootings in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. where 20 children and six adults were killed, the School Committee has voted to review its school safety policies.

The current practice calls for doors in all schools to be locked during the day while children are in class. Visitors to the schools must ring a bell and identify themselves to be allowed into the school. They are required to immediately report to the school office.

One of the ideas that will be reviewed is adding more video cameras inside and outside schools. Currently a number of schools do have them and they are mainly used to deter vandals from damaging the schools.

The problem is the technology for video cameras is expensive. It recently and cost more than $100,000 to install cameras at the public library, said Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette, who also serves as School Committee chairman.

For all its success, though, the Spirit of Springfield still operates on a financial tightrope, bringing in millions from the Bright Nights festival, but often reporting year-end losses

Santa gives out a mighty "ho-ho-ho" after opening the 2012 Bright Nights season at Forest Park in November. The Republican file / Dave Roback  

SPRINGFIELD – After 15 years of staging parties, parades and pancake breakfasts, the Spirit of Springfield Inc. needed some cheering up itself in 2004.

Already mired in debt, the agency best known for the Bright Nights holiday festival lost city funding for executive director Judith A. Matt’s $84,000 salary in January 2004, then received a bill for $188,000 in city services in March.

By October, three board members had quit, citing differences with Matt’s vision.

“We will not only survive,” said Matt amid speculation the non-profit agency – with the fitting acronym SOS – had served its last pancake. “We will thrive.”

Eight years later, the Spirit of Springfield has not only survived, but is thriving. Matt’s salary has nearly doubled to $160,500, thanks to a state bailout, corporate donations and the enduring popularity of the Bright Nights holiday festival.

Beginning its 18th year, Bright Nights returned to Forest Park on Nov. 21 with its second largest opening-night crowd and more than twice as many lighting displays than in 2004. Bright Nights will continue nightly through Jan. 1.

Coinciding with this year's opening, the Yahoo! Travel website ranked the 3-mile trail through Forest Park among the top 10 holiday lighting attractions, along with Rockefeller Center in New York City, Disney World in Orlando, and the Miracle Mile in Chicago.

Judith A. Matt  

“We’re in the best place we’ve ever been now,” said Matt, so closely identified with Bright Nights that the license plate on her red Mercedes-Benz sedan reads “BRT-NTS.”

For all its success, though, the Spirit of Springfield still operates on a financial tightrope, bringing in millions from the Bright Nights festival, but often reporting year-end losses in filings with the state attorney general’s Division of Public Charity and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Despite its precarious finances, Matt’s salary has climbed steadily since 2004, with large increases between 2008 to 2011, a period when many non-profits were forced to cut back on spending.

In 2011, Matt earned $142,452 in salary and $18,048 in benefits, more than Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and top executives at Springfield Symphony Orchestra, CityStage and the Springfield Museums Association, according to tax filings reviewed by The Republican.

The agency’s vice president, Amy Barron-Burke, was paid $83,077 in salary and $11,768 in benefits for that same period, while office assistant Kristen Anderson earned $44,964.

For 2010, Matt’s total compensation was $153,303, while Barron-Burke received $86,924 and Anderson, who has since resigned, earned $38,351.

Between 2008 and 2011, Matt’s earnings increased by $35,517 – or 28 percent – while the agency’s overall revenues declined $67,956, the agency’s records show.

To her many supporters, Matt’s salary is hardly excessive, given her role in producing so many of the city’s signature events.

“Without Judy, there would be no Spirit of Springfield, no balloon parade, no pancake breakfast and no Bright Nights,” said Stuart Hurwitz, a past board member and director of the Springfield Civic Center who now owns two restaurants in Springfield.

“She literally works around the clock to make these things happen,” he said.

Between Bright Nights, the July 4th fireworks, the Parade of Big Balloons, the World’s Largest Pancake Breakfast and other events, an estimated 10 million people have been entertained in SOS-sponsored event since 1989, making it the city’s unofficial, non-profit cheerleader.

Equally important, the events bring in millions of dollars annually for the regional economy while boosting Springfield’s national profile.

In 2011, for example, the festival was named one of the top 100 events in North America, joining New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration, the Cherry Blossom Festival, in Washington, D.C., the NCAA basketball championship and other events honored by the American Bus Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group,

In 2003, a study by the International Events and Festivals Association estimated Bright Nights alone contributed $7.3 million to the regional economy – a figure now estimated at $10 million.

With less fanfare, the agency organizes and hosts city events, from mayoral inaugurations and police and fire cadet graduations to the anniversary of the June 1, 2011 tornado.

In June, following the burial of slain Springfield police officer Kevin Ambrose, the Spirit of Springfield hosted a private outdoor reception at Court Square for many of the 8,000 officers who attended the funeral from across New England.

For its services, including rounding up donations from dozen of corporate sponsors, the Spirit of Springfield charged its standard fee: Nothing.

“It was an honor to do the reception” after Ambrose’s funeral," Matt said. As for more routine city events, “if the city asks us, we say yes; the goodwill is priceless,” she added.

The benefits of Matt’s productions go beyond Springfield’s borders, too, said Michele Goldberg, director of marketing for the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.

As a winter attraction, Bright Nights has developed into a seasonal counterpart for the Eastern States Exposition in September, Six Flags New England and autumn foliage tours, Goldberg said.

“They’ve been able to build a great following around Bright Nights and maintain it while providing a hallmark winter event,” Goldberg said.

“It really fills a niche for us,” she added.

Still, Matt’s compensation is more than earned by executives at some well-known area institutions with comparable or larger budgets.

In 2011 – the most recent year in which figures are available - Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s executive director Michael Jonnes was paid $59,836.

As executive director and president of the Springfield Museums Association, Joseph Carvalho III, who has since retired, was paid $129,000 for the same period.

At CityStage, former executive director Cynthia Anzalotti earned $158,946. Anzalotti has also since left her posts.

Figures for their successors are not yet available.

Daniel F. Walsh, chairman of the Spirit of Springfield’s governing board, said Matt’s performance has been remarkable, especially considering that she operates with a two-person staff and no taxpayer support.

In determining her salary, the volunteer board of directors considers the multiple roles she plays in each project, from creative director, project manager, publicist and fund-raiser.

“I know what her salary is, and the board knows what her salary is - and she’s worth it,” said Walsh, general manager of the Sheraton Springfield at Monarch Place. “When you consider everything she brings to the table, the salary is very reasonable."

The agency’s existence dates back to Springfield’s late-1980s budget crisis, when voters rejected funding for the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs, which Matt managed for four years.

At the urging of community leaders, Matt formed the non-profit Spirit of Springfield in 1989 to resume and eventually expand the activities of its city-run predecessor.

With limited public funding, the agency increasingly relied on in-kind-services and fund-raising by Matt and the board of directors, including prominent business figures like the late Peter L. Picknelly, of Peter Pan Bus Lines.

The debut of Bright Nights in 1995 changed all that.

From the opening Saturday night that drew 1,488 cars and created block-long traffic backups along Sumner Avenue, it was clear that Spirit of Springfield had a big-time money maker.

No civic event in Springfield has generated the income that Bright Nights does.

But a detailed breakdown of the festival’s expenses has never been made public; as a self-funding non-profit organization, the Spirit of Springfield must report its income in broad categories to state and federal regulators, with only its governing board and auditor getting a closer look at its balance sheet.

In 2008 and 2009, the first years in which the agency provided summaries of Bright Nights finances, the event took in a total of $1,402,666, mostly from admission fees ranging from $15 to $21 per vehicle.

Expenses, meanwhile, were $1,304,448, including lighting, exhibit maintenance, police patrols and fees paid to the city for use of Forest Park.

The total profit was $8,212 – less than 1 percent of the $1.4 million collected from two events.

Walsh, chairman of the agency’s governing board, said Bright Nights expenses are closely monitored, and the overall cost is more than justified by the event’s quality and long-running popularity.

“It has to be spectacular,” Walsh said.

The agency’s finances, however, have been a recurring concern, as a rift between Matt and board members in 2004 illustrated.

Hurwitz, the former SOS board director, said some members were worried about the mounting debt, especially the $188,000 for work performed by police and other city employees.

To collect its debt, the city began requiring monthly payments of $9,402.47 – a figure the agency struggled to meet.

At the time, Springfield itself was fending off bankruptcy, and in no position to bail out Matt’s agency, Hurwitz said.

“There was concern that the whole thing would turn into a fiasco,” said Hurwitz, who eventually left the agency’s board due to other commitments.

“But it didn’t. Judy was confident and she was right,” he said.

A $200,000 state grant arranged by state Sen. Gale Candaras, D-Wilbraham helped wipe out the deficit. Corporate donors, including Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Hasbro and Big Y Foods, increased their support. Marketing also expanded, helping to bring in bus tours from across New England and beyond. And, labor costs were scaled back.

Picknelly also stepped up, writing a $10,000 check; in the agency’s financial records, the gift is referred to as a “non-repayable loan” from a board director.

Three months later, Picknelly, 80, died of a heart attack.

“Peter was wonderful,” Matt recalls. “He helped us when we needed it the most.”

Despite the dire predictions, Bright Nights has retained its luster as a winter attraction, drawing strong crowds even during the 2008-2011 recession.

With the festival’s 20th anniversary approaching, Matt is already drawing up plans for 2014. “It’s going to be something grand,” she said.

For his part, Hurwitz also sees a bright future for the festival.

“You’ve got to give Judy credit,” he said. “I didn’t think it could go this long, but people keep coming.”

The toad originally was trapped in a cargo shipment that went from China to Cape Town.

This Asian toad, named Jack B. Nimble, was found inside a candlestick at a Cape Town South Africa store. The toad got trapped in a cargo shipment from China to Cape Town after jumping into a porcelain candlestick that was made there. South African officials reportedly planned to put down the creature, fearing it would cause harm as an invasive species if it were let go in the wild. But the toad got a last-minute reprieve when Mango Airlines, a South African airline, transported the toad on Friday to Johannesburg for delivery to an animal sanctuary. Associated Press photo  

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA,Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — They say cats have nine lives. Now a Chinese toad has joined that club of wily survivors.

South Africans are marveling at the endurance of a toad that got trapped in a cargo shipment from China to Cape Town after jumping into a porcelain candlestick that was made there. South African officials reportedly planned to put down the creature, fearing it would cause harm as an invasive species if it were let go in the wild.

But the toad got a last-minute reprieve. Mango Airlines, a South African airline, transported the toad on Friday to Johannesburg for delivery to an animal sanctuary after officials decided to find a way to let the globe-trotting toad live. The two-hour flight was a breeze compared to the trip from China, an odyssey of many weeks and thousands of kilometers (miles) across the Indian Ocean.

Airline spokesman Hein Kaiser said the toad got "first-class treatment," sitting in the cockpit in a transparent plastic container with escort Brett Glasby, an animal welfare inspector. There was even a mock ceremony in which the toad's boarding pass was handed to Glasby.

"He was the star of the show on the flight," Kaiser said of the amphibious passenger. "I think every passenger stopped to have a look."

On landing in Johannesburg, the toad, dubbed Jack B Nimble, was brought out of his container for a celebrity-style photo call.

Observers said the mottled brown toad seemed like a cool customer. "Pretty chilled," as Kaiser put it.

It belongs to the Asian Gold Toad species, which breeds during monsoon season. It is believed to have survived the trip from China by hardening its skin to prevent it drying out and also slowing its breathing and heart rate, methods that help the species survive in times of drought.

"We've had snakes in the imported timber, scorpions in fruit. We were called because it was right inside the candlestick and we had to break it to get it out," Glasby, the inspector, told The Star, a South African newspaper. "It was manufactured in China and the box was not opened between China and the store here, so we can deduce it has come all the way from China."

A startled customer at a store spotted a toad leg sticking out of the candle holder, according to the Cape Town region's animal protection agency, the SPCA.

Conservationists fed the toad worms and crickets after its rescue. By all accounts, the toad ate like a horse.

Its new home is the Montecasino entertainment complex in Johannesburg. The toad will be in quarantine for a couple of weeks and is slated for display next month.

The toad's adventures got rave reviews on the SPCA's Facebook site.

"What a special Christmas story!!" one posting said. Said another: "Most famous Toad in the world."

Sales in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected holiday sales to grow 3 to 4 percent.

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 photo, people walk through the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, Calif. U.S. holiday retail sales this year are the weakest since 2008, after a shopping season disrupted by storms and rising uncertainty among consumers. A report out Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, that tracks spending, called MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, says holiday sales increased 0.7 percent. Analysts had expected sales to grow 3 to 4 percent. Associated Press  

DANIEL WAGNER

WASHINGTON — U.S. holiday retail sales this year grew at the weakest pace since 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession. In 2012, the shopping season was disrupted by bad weather and consumers' rising uncertainty about the economy.

A report that tracks spending on popular holiday goods, the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, said Tuesday that sales in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected holiday sales to grow 3 to 4 percent.

In 2008, sales declined by between 2 percent and 4 percent as the financial crisis that crested that fall dragged the economy into recession. Last year, by contrast, retail sales in November and December rose between 4 percent and 5 percent, according to ShopperTrak, a separate market research firm. A 4 percent increase is considered a healthy season.

Shoppers were buffeted this year by a string of events that made them less likely to spend: Superstorm Sandy and other bad weather, the distraction of the presidential election and grief about the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. The numbers also show how Washington's current budget impasse is trickling down to Main Street and unsettling consumers. If Americans remain reluctant to spend, analysts say, economic growth could falter next year.

In the end, even steep last-minute discounts weren't enough to get people into stores, said Marshal Cohen, chief research analyst at the market research firm NPD Inc.

"A lot of the Christmas spirit was left behind way back in Black Friday weekend," Cohen said, referring to the traditional retail rush the day after Thanksgiving. "We had one reason after another for consumers to say, 'I'm going to stick to my list and not go beyond it.'"

Holiday sales are a crucial indicator of the economy's strength. November and December account for up to 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers. If those sales don't materialize, stores are forced to offer steeper discounts. That's a boon for shoppers, but it cuts into stores' profits.

Last-minute shoppers like Kris Betzold, of Carmel, Ind., embraced discounts that were available before Christmas.

"We went out yesterday, and I noticed that the sales were even better now than they were at Thanksgiving," said Betzold Monday while shopping at an upscale mall in Indianapolis. Betzold, who said the sluggish economy prompted her and her husband to be more frugal this year, noted that she saved about $25 on a Kindle Fire she found at Best Buy.

Spending by consumers accounts for 70 percent of overall economic activity, so the eight-week period encompassed by the SpendingPulse data is seen as a critical time not just for retailers but for manufacturers, wholesalers and companies at every other point along the supply chain.

The SpendingPulse data include sales by retailers in key holiday spending categories such as electronics, clothing, jewelry, luxury goods, furniture and other home goods between Oct. 28 and Dec. 24. They include sales across all payment methods, including cards, cash and checks.

It's the first major snapshot of retail sales during the holiday season through Christmas Eve. A clearer picture will emerge next week as retailers like Macy's and Target report revenue from stores open for at least a year. That sales measure is widely watched in the retail industry because it excludes revenue from stores that recently opened or closed, which can be volatile.

Despite the weak numbers out Tuesday, retailers still have some time to make up lost ground. The final week of December accounts for about 15 percent of the month's sales, said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. As stores offer steeper discounts to clear some of their unsold inventory, they may be able to soften some of the grim results reflected in Tuesday's data.

Still, this season's weak sales could have repercussions for 2013, he said. Retailers will make fewer orders to restock their shelves, and discounts will hurt their profitability. Wholesalers, in turn, will buy fewer goods, and orders to factories for consumer goods will likely drop in the coming months.

In the run-up to Christmas, analysts blamed the weather and worries about the "fiscal cliff" for putting a damper on shopping. Superstorm Sandy battered the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states in late October. Many in the New York region were left without power, and people farther inland were buried under feet of snow. According to McNamara, the Northeast and mid-Atlantic account for 24 percent of U.S. retail sales.

Buying picked up in the second half of November as retailers offered more discounts and shoppers waylaid by the storm finally made it into malls, he said.

But as the weather calmed, the threat of the "fiscal cliff" picked up. In December, lawmakers remained unable to reach a deal that would prevent tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of 2013. If the cuts and tax hikes kick in and stay in place for months, many economists expect the nation could fall back into recession.

The news media discussed this possibility more intensely as December wore on, making Americans increasingly aware of the economic troubles they might face if Washington is unable to resolve the impasse. Sales never fully recovered, Cohen said.

The results were weakest in areas affected by Sandy and a more recent winter storm in the Midwest. Sales declined by 3.9 percent in the mid-Atlantic and 1.4 percent in the Northeast compared with last year. They rose 0.9 percent in the north central part of the country.

The West and South posted gains of between 2 percent and 3 percent, still weaker than the 3 percent to 4 percent increases expected by many retail analysts.

Online sales, typically a bright spot, grew only 8.4 percent from Oct. 28 through Saturday, according to SpendingPulse. That's a dramatic slowdown from the online sales growth of 15 to 17 percent seen in the prior 18-month period, according to the data service.

Online sales did enjoy a modest boost after the recent snowstorm that hit the Midwest, McNamara said. Online sales make up about 10 percent of total holiday business.

In a clear sign of anxiety over the economy, the turbulence of the past month and expected austerity measures ahead have some Egyptians hoarding dollars for fear the currency is about to take a significant turn for the weaker.

Egyptian election workers count ballots at the end of the second round of a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of president Mohammed Morsi at a polling station in Giza, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. Egypt's Islamist-backed constitution headed toward likely approval in a final round of voting on Saturday, but the deep divisions it has opened up threaten to fuel continued turmoil. Associated Press  

SARAH EL DEEB

CAIRO — The official approval of Egypt's disputed, Islamist-backed constitution Tuesday held out little hope of stabilizing the country after two years of turmoil and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi may now face a more immediate crisis with the economy falling deeper into distress.

In a clear sign of anxiety over the economy, the turbulence of the past month and expected austerity measures ahead have some Egyptians hoarding dollars for fear the currency is about to take a significant turn for the weaker.

The battle over the constitution left Egypt deeply polarized at a time when the government is increasingly cash-strapped. Supporters of the charter campaigned for it on the grounds that it will lead to stability, improve the grip of Morsi and his allies on state institutions, restore investor confidence and bring back tourists.

"In times of change, politics are the driver of the economy and not the other way around," said Mourad Aly, a media adviser for the political arm of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, the backbone of Morsi's presidency and the main group that backed the constitution.

But there are already multiple fights on the horizon.

The U.S. State Department bluntly told Morsi it was now time to make compromises, acknowledging deep concerns over the constitution.

"President Morsi, as the democratically elected leader of Egypt, has a special responsibility to move forward in a way that recognizes the urgent need to bridge divisions, build trust, and broaden support for the political process," said Patrick Ventrell, acting deputy spokesman. "We hope those Egyptians disappointed by the result will seek more and deeper engagement. "

He said Egypt "needs a strong, inclusive government to meet its many challenges."

After a spate of resignations of senior aides and advisers during the constitutional crisis, Morsi appeared to have lost another member of his government late Tuesday night when his communications minister posted on his Twitter account that he was resigning.

The minister Hany Mahmoud said he "couldn't cope with the culture of government work, particular in the current conditions of the country." The resignation could not be immediately verified because it came so late at night.

Morsi signed a decree Tuesday night that put the new constitution into effect after the election commission announced the official results of the referendum held over the past two weekends. It said the constitution has passed with a 63.8 percent "yes." Turnout of 32.9 percent of Egypt's nearly 52 million registered voters was lower than most other elections since the uprising nearly two years ago that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak

Morsi is expected to call for a new election of parliament's lawmaking lower house within two months.

In the meantime, the traditionally toothless upper house, the Shura Council, will hold legislative power. But the chamber is overwhelmingly Islamist-dominated so any laws it passes could spark a backlash from the opposition. Many fear a legal crackdown on independent media, highly critical of Islamists.

In a bid to reach out to opposition, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood said he hoped the charter will be a "good omen" for Egyptians.

"Let's all begin to build the renaissance of our country with free will, good intentions and strong determination, men, women, Muslims and Christians," Mohammed Badie said on his Twitter account.

But the opposition said the passing of the document is was not the end of the political dispute. Critics fear the constitution will usher in Islamic law in Egypt and restrict personal freedoms.

"This is not a constitution that will last for a long time," said Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, vowing to fight for more freedoms, social and economic rights.

In a sign that the new front for the opposition against Morsi's policies may be the economy, Dawoud said the Morsi administration was "confused" both on the political and economic fronts.

"We want stability and economic prosperity like everybody else. But we don't believe that the policies of Morsi and the Brotherhood will lead to more stability," he said.

The turmoil over the constitution sparked huge protests that turned deadly at times. For a moment, the tension looked like it was spiraling out of control and only added to an already weakened economy.

At the height of the protests, the government called off its talks with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.8 billion loan which Morsi's government viewed as a way to attract much needed foreign investors, and deal with a high budget deficit.

Major foreign currency earners, such as foreign direct investment and tourism, have dropped off because of political unrest and deterioration in security following Mubarak's ouster in February 2011.

Over the last two years, the country has lost more than half of its foreign currency reserves from $36 billion in 2010 to around $15 billion currently. The reserve level has been slightly propped up by some Qatari deposits in past months.

Economic experts say that Egypt's current foreign reserves barely cover three months of imports, which is the IMF's minimum recommended coverage.

There were signs on Tuesday that some Egyptians were starting to hoard dollars for fear that the local currency could weaken significantly.

The run on the dollar was fueled in part by a decree issued by Morsi late Monday banning people from leaving Egypt with more than $10,000 or its equivalent in other currencies.

Some currency exchanges in the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek ran out of dollars by midday and offered only euros — a rare occurrence. Some banks, too, said they had run out of cash dollars.

"I asked around in many exchange places and can't find dollars anywhere," said Cairo resident Mahmoud Kamel after unsuccessfully visiting one exchange office. "I want to exchange money because I'm afraid the Egyptian pound will not have any value soon."

The dollar rush prompted the Central Bank of Egypt to issue a statement on Monday calling on banks not to listen to rumors circulating about the fiscal health of the nation.

The bank declared its commitment to guarantee all deposits in local and foreign currencies to banks in Egypt and said banks are "financially strong enough."

There was one particularly nerve-rattling report in recent days that longtime Central Bank Governor Farouk Okdah had resigned. The report came on Saturday during the second and final round of voting on the constitutional referendum.

Official media quickly retracted the news after reporting it. The governor then turned up at a meeting of the government's economic team on Sunday in an apparent attempt to quell nervousness over the state of the economy.

Egypt's currency had been stable trading around 6 pounds to the dollar for the first half of the year. It has since slipped, especially in the past two months as political instability worsened. The dollar was selling Tuesday at 6.18.

Rumors swirling around impending tax hikes, subsidy cuts and other bread-and-butter issues have heightened the public's concern. Around 40 percent of Egyptians live just at or below the poverty line of surviving on around $2 a day.

In a sign of the worsening economy, the number of people living on under $1 a day rose to 25 percent in 2011, up from 21.6 percent in 2009, according to government statistics released last month.

Promises that the Islamist-drafted constitution would bring about the stability Egyptians crave were dismissed by economic experts who warned that without enough currency reserves, there is little to stop the pound from falling.

"The instability of the foreign exchange rate is not at all detached from the political instability. It is a reflection and clear mirror to what is happening," said Haytham Abdel Fattah, head of the Treasury and International Markets Manager at Industrial Development Bank.

In Mobile, Ala., a tornado or high winds damaged homes and knocked down power lines and large tree limbs in an area just west of downtown around nightfall.

A Lawton, Okla., police cruiser tries to navigate the snow as blizzard conditions hit southwest Oklahoma Tuesday. Associated Press  

JIM VAN ANGLEN

MOBILE, Ala. — A Christmas Day twister outbreak left damage across the Deep South while holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled sometimes treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions.

Conditions were volatile throughout the afternoon and into the night with tornado warnings in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The storms were blamed for two deaths, several injuries, and left homes from Louisiana to Alabama damaged.

In Mobile, Ala., a tornado or high winds damaged homes and knocked down power lines and large tree limbs in an area just west of downtown around nightfall, said Nancy Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Mobile County Commission. WALA-TV's tower camera captured a large funnel cloud headed toward downtown.

"We haven't verified what it was, but we have an area that we heard has damage to homes," she said.

Meanwhile, blizzard conditions were hitting the nation's midsection.

Earlier in the day, winds toppled a tree onto a pickup truck in the Houston area, killing the driver. Icy roads already were blamed for a 21-vehicle pileup in Oklahoma, and the Highway Patrol says a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy U.S. Highway near Fairview.

The snowstorm that caused numerous accidents pushed out of Oklahoma late Tuesday, carrying with it blizzard warnings for parts of northeast Arkansas, where 10 inches of snow was forecast. Freezing rain clung to trees and utility lines in Arkansas and winds gusts up to 30 mph whipped them around, causing about 71,000 customers to lose electricity.

Blizzard conditions were possible for parts of Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky with predictions of 4 to 7 inches of snow.

No injuries were confirmed immediately, but fire crews were still making door-to-door checks in the hardest hit areas of Mobile. The Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, which was providing storm updates through Twitter, said Murphy High School was damaged and that there was a gas leak at a nearby apartment building.

An apparent tornado caused damage in the west Alabama town of Grove Hill, located about 80 miles north of Mobile.

Mary Cartright said she was working at the Fast Track convenience store in the town on Christmas evening when the wind started howling and the lights flickered, knocking out the store's computerized cash registers.

"We've had some pretty heavy weather," said Cartright in a phone interview. "Our cash registers are down so our doors are closed."

Trees fell on a few houses in central Louisiana's Rapides Parish but there were no injuries reported and crews were cutting trees out of roadways to get to people in their homes, said sheriff's Lt. Tommy Carnline. Near McNeill, Miss., a likely tornado damaged a dozen homes and sent eight people to the hospital, none with life-threatening injuries, said Pearl River County emergency management agency director Danny Manley.

Fog blanketed highways, including arteries in the Atlanta area, which was expected to be dealing with the same storm system on Wednesday. In New Mexico, drivers across the eastern plains had to fight through snow, ice and low visibility.

At least three tornadoes were reported in Texas, though only one building was damaged, according to the National Weather Service. Tornado watches were in effect across southern Louisiana and Mississippi.

More than 400 flights nationwide were canceled by the evening, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. More than half were canceled into and out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport that got a few inches of snow.

Christmas lights also were knocked out with more than 100,000 customers without power in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

In Louisiana, quarter-sized hail was reported early Tuesday in the western part of the state and a WDSU viewer sent a photo to the TV station of what appeared to be a waterspout around the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans. There were no reports of crashes or damage.

Some mountainous areas of Arkansas' Ozark Mountains could get up to 10 inches of snow, which would make travel "very hazardous or impossible" in the northern tier of the state from near whiteout conditions, the National Weather Service said.

The holiday may conjure visions of snow and ice, but twisters this time of year are not unheard of. Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned at least one Christmastime tornado with winds of 113 mph or more in the South, said Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman in Washington, via email.

The most lethal were the storms of Dec. 24-26, 1982, when 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32.

In Mobile, a large section of the roof on the Trinity Episcopal Church is missing and the front wall of the parish wall is gone, said Scott Rye, a senior warden at the church in the Midtown section of the city.

On Christmas Eve, the church with about 500 members, was crowded for services.

"Thank God this didn't happen last night," Rye said.

The church finished a $1 million-plus renovation campaign in June 2011, which required the closure of the historic sanctuary for more than a year.

The home owner set up the display while in a dispute with her neighbors.

Holiday lights in South Korea. File photo / Associated Press  

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN,Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana woman ran afoul of police when she gave her neighbors an unusual holiday greeting, hanging Christmas lights in the shape of a middle finger.

Sarah Childs was in a dispute with some of her neighbors in Denham Springs, just east of Baton Rouge, so she decided to send a message with her decorations. Neighbors complained and police threatened to arrest her, so she and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana sued the city.

A judge ruled in her favor Thursday.

"I imagine it will be back up before too long," ACLU of Louisiana executive director Marjorie Esman said of the display.

Childs erected the lights on her roof last month. She has removed them twice — once after a police officer told her she could be fined and again after another officer threatened to arrest her, her lawsuit said.

U.S. District Judge James Brady issued an order temporarily barring city officials from interfering with the display. The two-page order said the city's "continued efforts" to prevent Childs from displaying her holiday lights will violate her rights to free speech and due process. He scheduled a Jan. 7 hearing in Baton Rouge.

Denham Springs attorney Paeton Burkett said the city will comply with Brady's order, but she declined to comment on the lawsuit.

"We're going to sit down with everybody involved and see if there's any merit to it," she said.

Mayor Jimmy Durbin and Police Chief Scott Jones, who are named as defendants, didn't immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

The suit said the police department dispatched an officer to Childs' home after several neighbors complained directly to the mayor. The officer told Childs she would be violating the city's "obscenity statute" and could be fined if she didn't take it down, according to the lawsuit. However, Denham Springs doesn't have an obscenity statute, the suit said.

Childs removed the lights but put them back up after the ACLU defended her in an open letter to the city. That time, the display showed two hands with extended middle fingers.

After another round of complaints, the city responded with a "collateral attack," issuing her two tickets, according to the suit. One accused her of obstructing the flow of traffic as she walked down the side of a street. Another ticket accused her of disturbing the peace while singing an impromptu song about her neighborhood dispute while standing in her driveway.

"Childs' impromptu song allegedly contained some obscenities directed at her neighbors, so the city cited her for simple assault," the suit said.

The ACLU would not say exactly what the neighborhood dispute was about, and a no one answered at a telephone listing for Childs.

Winter Storm Watches for Wednesday night through Thursday.

If traveling late this evening, there will not be any new snowfall, but there could be a few slick spots out there. Any substantially melted snow could refreeze overnight as temperatures fall into the upper-teens. Overall though, it should be okay for most roads.

Some sunshine will start off the day tomorrow, but clouds will reemerge throughout the afternoon ahead of an approaching winter storm. Just like today, high temperatures tomorrow will be in the mid-30s. Both commutes on Wednesday will be fine.

A nor'easter will bring moderate-to-heavy snow to parts of western Massachusetts, along with a mixture of rain and ice for Wednesday night and Thursday. First, snow looks likely for the overnight hours into Thursday morning ... with several inches potentially accumulating for the Berkshires.

This will then mix with rain and ice for the valley throughout the day on Thursday, thus limiting the total snowfall accumulations for the Springfield area down to just under a couple inches. The factor that will throw off these snowfall totals is when the rain mixes into western Massachusetts ... too soon and snowfall totals will be reduced, barely any rain and snowfall could be much higher.

A Winter Storm Watch has been posted for all of western Massachusetts for Wednesday night through Thursday. Winter Storm Watches are posted when the potential of 6 or more inches of snow is a possibility. Updated winter storm warnings and/or winter weather advisories will likely be issued tomorrow.

Christmas Night: Mainly clear skies, chilly, low 18.

Wednesday: Increasing afternoon clouds, nor'easter approaching, high 35.

Thursday: Moderate morning snow, mixing with rain/ice, windy, high 38.

Friday: Partly sunny, windy and cold, high 34.

If Brown should decide to seek the open seat, he'll have run for the Senate three times in just over three years.

Bay State voters face another special election

From the founding of our nation until 1913, the members of the U.S. Senate were chosen by the state Legislatures. The members represented the citizens, but achieved their position only indirectly, as the voters had selected those in the state Legislatures, who then chose the senators. With a senator’s term lasting fully six years, members were further insulated from the shifting winds and whims of the moment.

At least that’s how it used to be.

The 17th Amendment changed that, providing for direct election of U.S. senators. But it kept intact the extended terms, continuing to differentiate members of the upper chamber from those in the House, whose members stood for election every two years, giving them, by design, a more direct connection to the people of their particular district.

This distinction, however, hasn’t been exactly clear in Massachusetts of late. Seems like every time we turn around, there’s another Senate race.

There was a special election in early 2010, when voters filled the Senate seat that had been left vacant with the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was first elected in 1962.

Republican Scott Brown won that contest. He ran for re-election just last month, but was defeated by Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

Now, with the Bay State’s other Senate seat about to become vacant with Democrat John Kerry’s near-certain confirmation as secretary of state, yet another special election will be scheduled, probably for some time in May.

If Scott Brown should decide to seek the open seat, he’ll have run for Senate three times in just over three years. And, were he to win the special election, he’d have to run yet again when the regular term expired in 2014.

Like some of those other states with multiple nicknames, perhaps the Bay State could also be dubbed the Senate Election State.

More civilians are armed in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.

a customer checks out a shotgun at Burdett & Son Outdoor Adventure Shop in College Station, Texas. More civilians are armed in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, with Yemen coming in a distant second, according to the Small Arms Survey in Geneva. Associated Press photo  

PAUL J. WEBER,Associated Press

BRYAN, Texas (AP) — Adam Lanza's mother was among the tens of millions of U.S. gun owners. She legally had a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle and a pair of handguns, which her 20-year-old son used to kill 20 children and six adults in 10 minutes inside a Connecticut school.

In the raw aftermath of the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history, countless gun enthusiasts much like Lanza's mother complicate a gun-owning narrative that critics, sometimes simplistically, put at the feet of a powerful lobby and caricatured zealots. More civilians are armed in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, with Yemen coming in a distant second, according to the independent Small Arms Survey in Geneva.

Take Blake Smith, a mechanical engineer who lives near Houston and uses an AR-15 style rifle in shooting competitions.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who famously claimed to have shot a coyote while jogging with a pistol holstered to his running shorts, has signed a half-dozen certificates applauding Smith as one of the state's top marksmen. "But I won't call myself a fanatic," said Smith, 54, whose father first let him handle a gun around age 6.

"I sit at a desk all day. And when I get out to the range, I don't hear any gunfire going on," said Smith, who likens his emotional detachment to his guns to the way he would feel about a car or any other machine. "I'm so intent on my sight alignment, my trigger pull, my position. I don't worry about anything. I don't think about anything. It's relieving. It's therapeutic. Everybody has to have their Zen."

Since the school shooting, President Barack Obama has asked for proposals on reducing gun violence that he can take to Congress in January, and he called on the National Rifle Association, the country's most powerful gun-rights organization, to join the effort.

Gun laws in the U.S. vary from state to state — for instance, as of last month it is now legal to carry a gun in public view in Oklahoma — and are defended by the firearms industry and the NRA. On Friday, the NRA broke a weeklong silence since the Connecticut massacre by calling for armed volunteers at public schools, prompting criticism from many quarters.

But in the U.S., gun-control advocates are up against a sizeable bloc of mainstream Americans for whom guns are central to their lives, whether for patriotism or personal sense of safety, or simply to occupy their spare time.

Dave Burdett, who owns an outdoors and adventure shop across the street from the sprawling Texas A&M University campus in College Station, says his affinity for guns is rooted in history, not sport.

"It isn't about hunting. Everyone says, 'Well, I can understand having a sporting rifle, but not an AR-15," Burdett said. "But wait a second — the idea of the Second Amendment was to preserve and protect the rights of individuals to have those guns."

"Remember that the (American) revolution was fought by citizen soldiers," he added. "To this day, that's one of the cornerstones of our military defense. We have an all-volunteer military."

An NRA poster picturing a bald eagle is taped to the glass door of his office. He started as a lawyer, dabbling in everything from commercial land to trying to block the deportation of an illegal immigrant, before seguing into selling guns.

When his daughter graduated with a business degree from Texas A&M, Burdett figured she would move somewhere cosmopolitan like Dallas and work in a downtown high-rise. She instead went to work in the store, built her own AR-15 out of spare parts and used it to join what her father described as the "let's-go-pig-hunting-tonight circuit." Those feral hog hunts often include high-powered rifles as well as night-vision goggles.

"The other thing is, shooting is fun. It really is," Burdett said.

Many think so. Smith, the mechanical engineer, said that includes teenage girls. At national shooting competitions, Smith has run into a group of girls around 13 or 14 years old who call themselves "The Pink Ladies," firing high-powered rifles at targets. He also recalls meeting Australians, whose country bans guns, who told him, "I love to shoot, so I'm going to the U.S."

Others add safety to the list of reasons for allowing people easy access to guns.

"To me it's obvious — the more people that have guns, or at least in their homes, it's more of a criminal deterrent," said Bill Moos, a local taxidermist in the small town of Bryan, near College Station. Moos, who owns more than 30 guns, can be spotted any given morning, prowling his roughly 40-acre (16-hectare) ranch with his dogs and a shotgun slung over his shoulder.

He tells a story of standing in the post office one day and hearing about a suspect driving around, wanted by the police. He thought of the woman behind the counter near him.

"My first thought was, 'How are you going to protect yourself?' Does she have a gun, in case someone tries to rob her?" he said. "It's the first thing you think of: How are you going to defend yourself?"

On the television in the corner of his workshop, above a stuffed gray fox and a clutch of animal jawbones dangling on a ring like a set of keys, Obama is holding his first press conference since the Connecticut tragedy. He's promising to send Congress legislation tightening gun laws and urging them to reinstate a ban on military-style assault weapons, like the one used by Lanza.

Moos turns down the volume.

"I guess it's something you get used to," he said of guns. "That you grow up around, and you enjoy them, and you accept the fact that you can own. It's a privilege. It's a whole different way of life. I guess I don't need three pick-ups and a Corvette. But I have them."

Funeral services for the 2 fallen officers drew thousands from across the region

As 2012 winds down, The Republican continues its recap of the top 10 news stories of 2012 leading up to Dec. 30 when the complete list will appear in The Sunday Republican. Today, No. 4:

Fallen Springfield police officer Kevin Ambrose, left, is seen with fallen Westfield officer Jose Torres.  

SPRINGFIELD - A “routine” domestic call for a police officer that was anything but and a roadside construction detail that turned tragic took the lives of two of Western Massachusetts’ finest in 2012.

Police Officer Kevin Ambrose, responding to that domestic call on June 4, was shot to death while attempting to save the lives of a woman and child in the third floor hallway of a Lawton Street apartment.

Less than two months later, on July 26, Westfield police officer Jose Torres, another veteran police officer, was struck by a dump truck while on traffic duty assignment at a construction project on Pontoosic Road.

The deaths of the two officers, both beloved and well-respected within their departments and communities, left Western Massachusetts reeling.

 

Their funeral services drew thousands of law enforcement personnel from throughout New England and beyond. Ambrose, 55, was recalled during his funeral Mass as being both courageous and compassionate, a hero, devoted cop and family man.

Torres, 53, was decorated at least twice for heroism over the course of his 27-year career. Capt. Hipolito Nunez said Torres “only saw the good in everybody, he disliked conflict and he saw incidents as opportunities for people to find a better way of life.”

Shawn Bryan, a New York City corrections officer, shot Ambrose multiple times in the hallway of the third floor of an apartment building. He then shot Charlene Mitchell, his estranged girlfriend and mother of his daughter, critically injuring her. Bryan then left the apartment and went into his parked car, where he killed himself.

Sgt. John M. Delaney said an internal investigation into the death of Ambrose showed he acted “by the book” when he responded to that call.

“Kevin was a great cop, he was athletic, he was at the top of his game,” Delaney said, adding he believes that the outcome would have been the same no matter who responded to the call. “I guess there is no such thing as a routine call...”

The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm watch for Western Massachusetts.

An American Bison stands amid the Christmas morning snow flurries at the Seven Sisters Market Bistro / Longhollow Bison Farm in Hadley. The Republican / Michael Beswick  

The Christmas Day dusting of snow may have been a preview of bigger things to come.

Meteorologists are predicting the first noticeable snowfall of the season will start late Wednesday and continue through most of Thursday. It could dump anywhere between three and five inches in the Springfield area before switching to a mix of ice and rain. The Berkshires and Hilltowns could see as much as 10 inches of snow.

“There is potential for heavy snow, especially in to the hills,” said Mike Skurko, meteorologist with CBS 3, media partner of The Republican and MassLive.com.

The National Weather Service has posted a winter storm watch for Western Massachusetts for Wednesday night into Thursday. A strong storm system sliding along the south coast of New England will bring snow and then a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain into the region.

The latest data shows the storm will start very late Wednesday night or around midnight Thursday and snow will be increasingly heavy up in the overnight hours. Thursday morning’s commute could be messy and eventually the snow is expected to change over to sleet and finally rain by Thursday afternoon, Skurko said.

Snow accumulations will depend on when the temperatures start to climb and the snow switches to rain. The latest model is showing between 3 and 5 inches will fall in Springfield before a change to sleet and rain.

But little to no rain is expected in northern counties and in higher elevations. Skurko said he expects the Berkshires to see between 6 and 10 inches of snow.

That is good news for ski areas such as Berkshire East in Charlemont and Blandford Ski Area in the hilltowns. So far the areas have been struggling to open trails while temperatures have barely hit freezing, and there has been little natural snow.

Since the weekend, snow has been falling off and on in the mountains, especially in northern New England. Christmas Day, which kicks off one of the busiest weeks of the year for ski areas, started with an inch or two of snow.

At Okemo Mountain, in Ludlow, Vt., predictions call for up to 11 inches of snow on Thursday and no rain, said Bonnie MacPherson, public relations director for the mountain.

“We have been getting snow on and off. There is snow on the ground and snow in the woods,” she said.

Because of aggressive snowmaking, Okemo has about 60 trails open, which is half of the total terrain. The snowmakers have been working around-the-clock every time the temperatures drop into the 20s, but they have been thwarted by warm temperatures and some rain earlier this month.

“Natural snow this week would really help,” MacPherson said. “People for the most part are here for the week, and it is great for people coming for the weekend, because roads will be clear by then.”