Italian is the house style at Emma's; the menu features pasta variations sauced with favorites such as Pomodoro, Puttanesca, and Matriciana.

Emma's Everday Gourmet in Westfield The Republican/ Michael S. Gordon  

Emma's Everyday Gourmet is one of the Westfield area's newest and most appealing eateries.

Located on Washington Street at the corner of Arnold, the restaurant's "from-the-road" presence is decidedly utilitarian. Inside, however, is a different story, with adjectives like "stylish" and "upscale" appropriate choices to describe the layout.

Natural earth colors and deep blues define the decorative palette, while large posters add visual interest. A map of Italy cleverly assembled from wine corks serves as a focal point of the dining room, while a handsomely appointed little bar offers a spot for patrons to socialize a bit before dinner.

Italian is the house style at Emma's; the menu features pasta variations sauced with favorites such as Pomodoro, Puttanesca, and Matriciana (all $14).

Specialty pasta creations include a house variation on "Crazy Alfredo" ($15), a dish that brings together chicken, sausage, and spicy Alfredo cream.

Entree choices range from Eggplant Parmigiana ($16) and Chicken Gorgonzola ($16) to Veal Francese ($19), Grilled Rib Eye Steak ($19) and Scallops Piccata ($19).

As is the case with any self-respecting trattoria, Emma's offers seafood options -- Grilled Salmon ($18), Clams in White Wine-Garlic Sauce ($18), and Shrimp Scampi ($19).

Relatively few in number, appetizer selections are limited to the likes of Bruschetta Al Pomodoro ($5), Eggplant Rollatini ($6), and Fried Mozzarella "Blocko" ($6).

Wings, that most ubiquitous of restaurant finger-food offerings, are available sauced four different ways.

Since entrees at Emma's come with a salad or soup, we passed on ordering appetizers and got right down to business.

A cup of the restaurant's Pasta Fagioli was the hearty sort of tummy-warmer that's ideal for banishing a January chill. Thick with white beans, chickpeas, and pasta, the soup featured a tomato broth subtly infused with smoky ham and herb flavors.

Salads, the other with-entrees option, are generously garnished compositions based on iceberg lettuce.

Bread and butter are also included with most meals.

Emma's Chicken Marsala ($16) isn't the most tricked out version of this dish we've ever encountered. Sliced button mushrooms, minced parsley, and a few grinds of black pepper are all that enhance a sauce compounded from broth, butter, and Marsala wine, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Pounded-thin chicken cutlets were more than adequate in their role as the composition's marquee ingredient.

Potato and vegetable accompany all non-pasta entrees. We enjoyed the restaurant's crispy fried potatoes with our dinner; an order of fresh asparagus also hit the spot.

Emma's Homemade Manicotti ($15), generously topped with mozzarella and parmesan, featured a mild, ketchup-red marinara. The two pasta tubes had been stuffed with plenty of creamy ricotta, making for a dish that was a classic rendition of the genre.

Emma's Everyday Gourmet is fully licensed, offering a serviceable selection of wines, beer, and mixed drinks.

The dessert selection at the restaurant, which combines "made there" with "brought in," includes a luscious-sounding Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake ($6.50) as well as several other possibilities.

Tiramisu ($6), which the menu proclaims to be a house specialty, is put together in authentic fashion, with espresso-dipped ladyfingers enveloped in sweetened, Marsala-flavored mascarpone. At Emma's Everyday creaminess dominates the tiramisu, resulting in a light yet decadently rich dessert experience.

A simple filling of sweetened ricotta and chocolate morsels filled the crisp-shelled Cannoli ($3.50) we enjoyed.

Emma's Everyday Gourmet supplements its dinner-style presentations with pizza, grinders, and burgers.

Twelve-inch pies are all priced at $13, with a variety of topping combinations suggested. Sub sandwiches, which come with crispy fried potatoes, range in filling selections from ham and cheese to a "mezzaluna" that features eggplant, tomato sauce, and mozzarella.

Luncheon portions of most menu items are also available.

The restaurant's menu emphasizes the operation's commitment to take-out, listing "tray" prices for most every item on the bill of fare. These feed-a-family options come in two sizes, with a small that serves ten diners and a large designed to satisfy 15.

Name: Emma's Everyday Gourmet
Address: 45 Washington Street, Westfield
Phone (413) 642-3221
Hours: Dinner served Monday through Thursday 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Lunch served Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Entree Prices: $14-$19
Credit Cards: Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Handicapped Access: Accessible, with rest rooms equipped for wheelchairs
Reservations: Not normally taken

Currently the FDA launches an investigation only after there's been a problem.

/Instructional video recipe for Frank's easy, healthy, flavorful sauerkraut salad. http://www.sauerkrautrecipes.com/recipe/dr- oz-raw-food-sauerkraut-salad-master-chef-re cipe/ (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)/  

Unsafe food has a constituency.

There are those in Washington who support policies that would put more potentially contaminated foods on store shelves and into people’s kitchens. And there are folks across the land who back these officials.

Not that anyone says this, of course. No one campaigns for office talking up salmonella. But the anti-government set, the free-market zealots who believe, and repeatedly argue, that the federal government should do almost nothing save operate the Pentagon, are effectively gunning for more bad food.

Thankfully, the Food and Drug Administration has been hard at work for the past two years crafting new rules to protect the nation’s food supply.

Currently, the FDA launches an investigation only after there’s a problem, after people have been sickened – or worse – because of something that’s gone wrong. This, of course, makes little sense.

The FDA, which oversees roughly 80 percent of the nation’s food – the rest is the purview of the Agriculture Department – needs to be working to ensure that the peanut butter and fruit and all the other items in your shopping cart are as safe as is humanly possible.

Anyone who would suggest otherwise, who’d facilely suggest that the feds ought to keep their hands off our food, could be quickly disabused of that dangerous notion with a few sobering statistics:

Each year, 130,000 people are hospitalized after eating tainted food. Some 3,000 of them die. An astonishing one out of six people will be sickened from bad food annually.

Those who offer up only the same old platitudes about government inefficiencies, about the marvels of the free market, would do well to take a close look at those numbers.

Visit MassLive.com's HS Sports page for results from all the region's games.

Visit MassLive.com's HS Sports page for results from all the region's games.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 9

Girls Ice Hockey:

Cathedral loses to Hingham, 5-1, at MassMutual Center
Although the result wasn't favorable, the Cathedral High School girls hockey team's first foray onto the MassMutual Center ice was certainly memorable. Read more »
• Box score

Boys Ice Hockey:

Mike Grise nets game-winner as Easthampton upsets Chicopee
Mike Grise's goal with 7:05 left in the game lifted Easthampton to a 4-3 victory over Chicopee. Grise tallied two goals and an assist. Read more »
• Box score

Boys Basketball:

Granby tops Southwick 63-49
Corey Baker led all scorers with 28 points as visiting Granby used a 21-6 first quarter to build its lead. Jesse Molin added 21 points. Mark O'Neill tossed in 24 for Southwick. Read more »
• Box score

Wrestling:

Putnam edges Chicopee 39-28
Stephen Almonte's pinfall victory over Josh Ortiz at 1:23 of their 170-pound bout was crucial to the victory for visiting Putnam. Read more »
• Box score

Sabis and East Longmeadow wrestle to 39-39 tie
Andrew Wilkinson took a forfeit at 285 pounds as visiting Sabis earned a tie. In the previous bout, East Longmeadow's Brendan Logan won by major decision (10-1) over Xavier Hines-Coombs. Read more »
• Box score

Central wrestling beats Agawam, 47-17
Central came away with five of seven decisions helping the Golden Eagles beat Agawam Wednesday night. Central's Jonathan Viruet pinned James Karl-Morin after a long 5:42 battle. Read more »
• Box score



Northampton beats Westfield, 46-33
Kyle O'Connell of Northampton pinned Trevor Lucia at 106 pounds to start the night for the Blue Devils. Read more »
• Box score

Browse complete HS Sports scoreboards for:

• Boys Basketball
• Girls Basketball
• Ice Hockey
• Wrestling
• Girls Swimming
• Boys Swimming
• All sports

Eli Lilly and Co. has settled a lawsuit brought by four sisters who contended their breast cancer was caused by a drug their mother took during pregnancy in the 1950s, a move some believe could trigger financial settlements in scores of other claims brought by women around the country.

By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Eli Lilly and Co. has settled a lawsuit brought by four sisters who contended their breast cancer was caused by a drug their mother took during pregnancy in the 1950s, a move some believe could trigger financial settlements in scores of other claims brought by women around the country.

A total of 51 women, including the Melnick sisters, filed lawsuits in Boston against more than a dozen companies that made or marketed a synthetic estrogen known as DES.

The Melnick sisters' case was the first to go to trial. The settlement was announced Wednesday on the second day of testimony.

DES, or diethylstilbestrol, was prescribed to millions of pregnant women over three decades to prevent miscarriages, premature births and other problems. It was taken off the market in the early 1970s after it was linked to a rare vaginal cancer in women whose mothers used it. Studies later showed the drug didn't prevent miscarriages.

Attorney Aaron Levine, representing the Melnick sisters, told the jury during opening statements that Eli Lilly failed to test the drug's effect on fetuses before promoting it as a way to prevent miscarriages.

Lawyer James Dillon, for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly, told the jury that there was no evidence the drug causes breast cancer in the daughters of women who took it.

Dillon also said that no medical records show that the mother of the Melnick sisters took DES or that, if she did take it, it was made by Eli Lilly. Leading researchers at the time recommended that DES be used for pregnant women who had consecutive miscarriages, he said.

DES was not patented and was made by many companies.

Boston attorney Andrew Meyer, who's handled numerous medical malpractice cases, said the settlement in this case could signal settlements in other cases.

"When one settles a case, they recognize they can lose it," he said. "The reason they can lose it is because there's enough evidence for the plaintiffs to be able to win it. So it's not just optics, it isn't."

Columbus, Ohio, resident Irene Sawyer also is suing Eli Lilly, alleging that her prenatal exposure to DES caused her breast cancer. She called the settlement "a huge victory" for DES daughters.

"The bottom line is that this company put out a drug without testing, without knowing the consequences of this drug," she said.

It's wonderful, she said, that drug companies "are starting to realize this is not right, that there are consequences."

The Melnick sisters, who grew up in Tresckow, Pa., said they all developed breast cancer in their 40s.

Levine told the jury that their mother did not take DES while pregnant with a fifth sister and that sister has not developed breast cancer.

The four Melnick sisters also had miscarriages, fertility problems or other reproductive tract problems long suspected of being caused by prenatal exposure to DES. They were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1997 and 2003 and had treatments ranging from lump-removal surgery to a full mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy.

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed alleging links between DES and vaginal cancer, cervical cancer and fertility problems. Many of those cases were settled.

___

Associated Press writer Jay Lindsay contributed to this report.

A Fitchburg man charged with giving his girlfriend's 2-year-old son a serious brain injury by throwing him to the floor has been ordered held on $75,000 bail.

WORCESTER, mass. (AP) — A Fitchburg man charged with giving his girlfriend's 2-year-old son a serious brain injury by throwing him to the floor has been ordered held on $75,000 bail.

Steven Stuart pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday in Worcester Superior Court in connection with the alleged assault in August.

Prosecutors say the 21-year-old Stuart became frustrated with the boy and threw him to the floor. Emergency responders found the boy unresponsive with bruises on his forehead and above his left ear. He was taken to a hospital where doctors determined he had fractured ribs and a serious brain injury.

Authorities say the child remains under 24-hour care and is not expected to ever fully recover from the brain injury.

Stuart's lawyer said there's "more to this story than first appeared."

A prominent Boston-area defense attorney could face charges in connection with an alcohol-fueled New Year's Eve party at her suburban home hosted by her teenage daughter.

SCITUATE, Mass. (AP) — A prominent Boston-area defense attorney could face charges in connection with an alcohol-fueled New Year's Eve party at her suburban home hosted by her teenage daughter.

Tracy Miner, known for her successes in white-collar crime cases, will be summoned to court to determine whether there is enough evidence to charge her with furnishing alcohol to minors under the state's social host law.

Police and firefighters responded to her Scituate home early Jan. 1 to reports of an unconscious male. Police say they saw teens scatter from the home. Upon entering, police say they saw beer cans, liquor bottles and pizza boxes and smelled marijuana.

Police say the 54-year-old Miner came downstairs, said she had been sleeping, and asked what was going on.

A spokeswoman for her law firm refused comment.

Junior Seau, one of the NFL's best and fiercest players for nearly two decades, had a degenerative brain disease when he committed suicide last May, the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press on Thursday.

By BARRY WILNER, AP Pro Football Writer

Junior Seau, one of the NFL's best and fiercest players for nearly two decades, had a degenerative brain disease when he committed suicide last May, the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Results of an NIH study of Seau's brain revealed abnormalities consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The NIH, based in Bethesda, Md., conducted a study of three unidentified brains, one of which was Seau's. It said the findings on Seau were similar to autopsies of people "with exposure to repetitive head injuries."

Seau's family requested the analysis of his brain, which was overseen by Dr. Russell Lonser.

Seau was a star linebacker for 20 NFL seasons with San Diego, Miami and New England before retiring in 2009. He died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound.

He joins a list of several dozen football players who had CTE. Boston University's center for study of the disease reported last month that 34 former pro players and nine who played only college football suffered from CTE.

"I was not surprised after learning a little about CTE that he had it," Seau's 23-year-old son Tyler said. "He did play so many years at that level. I was more just kind of angry I didn't do something more and have the awareness to help him more, and now it is too late.

"I don't think any of us were aware of the side effects that could be going on with head trauma until he passed away. We didn't know his behavior was from head trauma."

That behavior, according to Tyler Seau and Junior's ex-wife Gina, included wild mood swings, irrationality, forgetfulness, insomnia and depression.

"He emotionally detached himself and would kind of 'go away' for a little bit," Tyler Seau said. "And then the depression and things like that. It started to progressively get worse."

He hid it well in public, they said. But not when he was with family or close friends.

The NFL faces lawsuits by thousands of former players who say the league withheld information on the harmful effects concussions can have on their health.

Seau is not the first former NFL player who killed himself, then was found to have CTE. Dave Duerson and Ray Easterling are others.

Duerson, a former Chicago Bears defensive back, left a note asking for his brain to be studied for signs of trauma before shooting himself. His family filed a wrongful death suit against the NFL, claiming the league didn't do enough to prevent or treat the concussions that severely damaged his brain.

Easterling played safety for the Falcons in the 1970s. After his career, he suffered from dementia, depression and insomnia, according to his wife, Mary Ann. He committed suicide last April.

Mary Ann Easterling is among the plaintiffs who have sued the NFL.

"It was important to us to get to the bottom of this, the truth," Gina Seau said, "and now that it has been conclusively determined from every expert that he had obviously had it, CTE, we just hope it is taken more seriously.

"You can't deny it exists, and it is hard to deny there is a link between head trauma and CTE. There's such strong evidence correlating head trauma and collisions and CTE."

Tyler Seau played football through high school and for two years in college. He says he has no symptoms of any brain trauma.

Gina Seau's son, Jake, now a high school junior, played football for two seasons, but has switched to lacrosse and has been recruited to play at Duke.

"Lacrosse is really his sport and what he is passionate about," she said. "He is a good football player and probably could continue. But especially now watching what his dad went through, he says, 'Why would I risk lacrosse for football?'

"I didn't have to have a discussion with him after we saw what Junior went through."

Her 12-year-old son, Hunter, has shown no interest in playing football.

"That's fine with me," she said.

Mendez and another police officer reportedly used a shovel to damage a woman's car

 

SPRINGFIELD -- A Springfield police officer was reportedly arrested in Connecticut Wednesday night after she and another family member allegedly used a shovel to damage a car during a domestic disturbance at their home.

Abc40, citing Connecticut State Police, identified the officer as 32-year-old Eleni Mendez of Somers, Conn.

The news station reported that Connecticut State Police were summoned to the home about 9:45 p.m.

A woman named Nataliya Smirnova had unexpectedly visited the home and was causing a disturbance and throwing objects in the driveway, according to abc40.

Connecticut State Police told the television station that Mendez, along with a family member, Pedro Mendez, caused extensive damage to Smirnova's Mercedes Benz.

All three were arrested at the scene. No injuries were reported.

Mendez is facing multiple charges including criminal mischief, breach of peace, threatening, and reckless endangerment. She was released shortly after her arrest on $9,000 bond.

Springfield police and Connecticut State Police could not be immediately reached for comment.

In November, Mendez suffered a severe concussion while responding to a melee outside a bar on Worthington Street in Springfield.

Jack Lew, President Barack Obama's nominee for treasury secretary, is a premier federal budget expert who would take the helm of the government's main agency for economic and fiscal policy just as the administration girds itself for a new confrontation with congressional Republicans over the nation's debt and deficits.

This Jan. 9, 2012, file photo shows then-Budget Director Jack Lew listening as President Barack Obama speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Lew, the current White House chief of staff is President Barack Obama's expected pick to lead the Treasury Department, with an announcement possible before the end of the week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) The Associated Press  

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jack Lew, President Barack Obama's nominee for treasury secretary, is a premier federal budget expert who would take the helm of the government's main agency for economic and fiscal policy just as the administration girds itself for a new confrontation with congressional Republicans over the nation's debt and deficits.

Obama will nominate Lew on Thursday afternoon, continuing to put a second-term imprint on his Cabinet by choosing yet another close ally to a key government post.

A year ago, almost to the day, Obama appointed Lew as his chief of staff, taking him from his perch as director of the Office of Management and Budget into the White House's tight inner circle.

In selecting Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Obama not only picks an insider steeped in budget matters but also a tough bargainer. Some Republicans complain that Lew has been unyielding in past fiscal negotiations.

If confirmed, Lew would assume the post in time for the administration to tangle anew with Republicans over a confluence of three looming fiscal deadlines — raising the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing limit, averting automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic programs, and the expiration of a congressional resolution that has been keeping the government operating. Those three events, if unresolved, would have a far greater negative effect on the economy than the "fiscal cliff" that Obama and Congress avoided a week ago.

Lew, 57, has often been described as a "pragmatic liberal" who understands what it takes to make a deal even as he stands by his ideological views.

"He's a political guy. He didn't get where he is today by being a shrinking violet," said Paul Light, a public policy professor at New York University and an acquaintance of Lew's. "But he's really a doer. He's the kind of guy you want at the table if you want to get something done."

One senior Republican senator, Alabama's Jeff Sessions, voiced opposition to Lew. Though Lew may face a tough confirmation in the Senate, he's not likely to encounter the type of stiff opposition that is already mounting against former Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican whom Obama has tapped to be his defense secretary.

"We need a secretary of treasury that the American people, the Congress and the world will know is up to the task of getting America on the path to prosperity not the path to decline," said Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. "Jack Lew is not that man."

White House press secretary Jay Carney praised Lew during Wednesday's press briefing. "Over the past more than quarter of a century, Jack Lew has been an integral part of some of the most important budgetary financial and fiscal agreements, bipartisan agreements in Washington," Carney said.

This Sept. 21, 2011, memo posted on the White House website shows then-Office of Management and Budget director Jack Lew's signature. Lew’s nomination for treasury secretary means a new signature could soon be coming to the dollar bill. Not that you’ll be able to read it. Lew’s signature starts off promising enough, with a soft “J.” But what follows next are seven loopy scribbles, rendering his signature completely illegible. The treasury secretary’s signature is emblazoned in the lower right corner of U.S. dollar bills of all denominations. It remains to be seen whether President Barack Obama will make Lew change up his signature or if the Senate will make it a condition of his confirmation. (AP Photo/The White House)
The Associated Press




 

Lew's nomination is the fourth major personnel change in the administration since Obama's re-election. Obama tapped Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for the State Department, Hagel to lead the Pentagon and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan for the CIA's top job.

One prominent woman in Obama's Cabinet, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, resigned her post Wednesday. No successor has been named.

Lew was a top aide in the 1980s to House Speaker Tip O'Neill, a Massachusetts Democrat, playing a role in the Social Security deal between the speaker and President Ronald Reagan in 1983.

Before becoming Obama's chief of staff, Lew was director of the Office of Management and Budget, a post he also held back in the Clinton administration, serving from 1998 to early 2001. While running OMB during the Clinton administration, Lew helped negotiate a balanced budget agreement with Congress, something that has eluded Washington ever since.

When Obama named him chief of staff one year ago, the president praised him as the "only budget director in history to preside over budget surpluses for three consecutive years."

"His resume is tailor-made for what is most important right now," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago. On Wall Street, Lew was managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Global Wealth Management and then Citi Alternative Investments. At the start of the Obama administration, he oversaw international economic issues at the State Department.

Despite his stint on Wall Street, Lew doesn't have the type of financial experience that Geithner brought to the job at the height of the financial crisis in 2009. Indeed, there's not as much of a premium on those skills now as the nation's attention has turned from bank bailouts to fiscal confrontations and brinkmanship.

Still, Lew will have to address other significant challenges, including completing implementation of the financial regulatory overhaul of 2010.

Lew will probably play a key role in deciding the fate of government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal housing agencies partly blamed for the collapse of the housing market.

Internationally, he will also be the administration's point man on issues related to China's integration into the global economy and Europe's sovereign debt and financial struggles. The issues aren't foreign to Lew. While a deputy secretary of state early in the Obama administration, Lew managed the State Department's international economic policy portfolio.

For all that, Lew faces a better landscape than Geithner did when he stepped into the post at the start of Obama's first term.

"The basic financial position and economic position of the country is much stronger today that it was four years ago," said Michael Barr, who was assistant treasury secretary for financial institutions in 2009 and 2010. "That's a significant advantage for a treasury secretary coming in."

___

Associated Press writers Julie Pace and Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

Adele is coming to the Golden Globes.

By SANDY COHEN, AP Entertainment Writer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Adele is coming to the Golden Globes.

The executive producer of the show says the 24-year-old Grammy-winning pop star is set to make her first post-baby appearance at Sunday's ceremony, where she is nominated for original song for the James Bond theme "Skyfall."

Adele welcomed her first child, with boyfriend Simon Konecki, in October. The singer has kept a low profile since announcing her pregnancy in June after sweeping the Grammy Awards last February with six wins.

Her single, "Skyfall," will compete at the Golden Globes with Taylor Swift's song from "The Hunger Games," Jon Bon Jovi's number from "Stand Up Guys," Keith Urban's track from "Act of Valor," and "Suddenly" from "Les Miserables."

The Globes will be presented Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

By showing off a phone with a flexible screen, Samsung is hinting at a day when we might fold up our large phone or tablet screens as if they were maps.

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) — By showing off a phone with a flexible screen, Samsung is hinting at a day when we might fold up our large phone or tablet screens as if they were maps.

The Korean electronics company provided a glimpse of such a device at a keynote speech Wednesday at the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas. It's an annual showcase of the latest TVs, computers and other consumer-electronic devices.

WHAT IT IS: Brian Berkeley, head of Samsung Electronics Co.'s display lab in San Jose, Calif., demonstrated a phone that consists of a matchbox-sized hard enclosure, with a paper-thin, flexible color screen attached to one end. The screen doesn't appear flexible enough to fold in half like a piece of paper, but it could bend into a tube.

The company also showed a video of a future concept, with a phone-sized device that opens up like a book, revealing a tablet-sized screen inside.

HOW IT WORKS: The screen uses organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Only a thin layer of these chemicals is needed to produce a bright, colorful screen. They're used in many Samsung phones already, though with glass screens. For the bendable phone, Samsung laid the chemicals over thin plastic instead of glass. That's a trick you can't pull off with liquid crystals in standard displays.

WHY YOU'D WANT IT: You could pack a bigger screen in your pocket. In a more conventional application, Berkeley demonstrated a phone with a display that's rigid, but bent around the edges of the device, so it can show incoming messages even with a cover over the main screen. In short, OLEDs free designers to make gadgets with curved screens.

WHY IT MIGHT NOT WORK: It's tough to use a touch screen if it bends away from your finger. Flexible OLED screens have been demonstrated for years, but the OLED chemicals are extremely sensitive to oxygen, so they need to be completely sealed off from the air. Volume production of flexible displays that remain airtight has so far stumped engineers. Samsung's screens aren't yet flexible enough to fold, just bend.

AVAILABILITY: Samsung didn't say anything about when flexible displays might be commercialized.

"The concept of the flexible screen has been around for some time, but it finally looks as if Samsung is really going to deliver on that technology," said Stephen Bell, an analyst with Keystone Global.

Nobody was happier about the Hall of Fame shutout than the Hall of Famers themselves.

By MIKE FITZPATRICK, AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Nobody was happier about the Hall of Fame shutout than the Hall of Famers themselves.

Goose Gossage, Al Kaline, Dennis Eckersley and others are in no rush to open the door to Cooperstown for anyone linked to steroids.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa: Keep 'em all out of our club.

"If they let these guys in ever — at any point — it's a big black eye for the Hall and for baseball," Gossage said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "It's like telling our kids you can cheat, you can do whatever you want, and it's not going to matter."

For only the second time in 42 years, baseball writers failed to elect anyone to the Hall of Fame on Wednesday, sending a firm signal that stars of the Steroids Era will be held to a different standard.

All the awards and accomplishments collected over storied careers by Bonds, Clemens and Sosa — all eligible for the first time — could not offset suspicions those exploits were artificially boosted by performance-enhancing drugs.

"I'm kind of glad that nobody got in this year," Kaline said. "I feel honored to be in the Hall of Fame. And I would've felt a little uneasy sitting up there on the stage, listening to some of these new guys talk about how great they were."

Gossage went even further.

"I think the steroids guys that are under suspicion got too many votes," he said. "I don't know why they're making this such a question and why there's so much debate. To me, they cheated. Are we going to reward these guys?"

Not this year, at least.

Bonds received just 36.2 percent of the vote and Clemens 37.6 in totals announced by the Hall and the Baseball Writers' Association of America, both well short of the 75 percent needed for election — yet still too close for Gossage's taste. Sosa, eighth on the career home run list, got 12.5 percent.

"Wow! Baseball writers make a statement," Eckersley wrote on Twitter. "Feels right."

The results keep the sport's career home run leader (Bonds) and most decorated pitcher (Clemens) out of Cooperstown — for now. Bonds, Clemens and Sosa have up to 14 more years on the writers' ballot to gain baseball's highest honor.

Bonds, baseball's only seven-time MVP, hit 762 home runs — including a record 73 in 2001. He has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice for giving an evasive answer in 2003 to a grand jury investigating PEDs.

Clemens, the game's lone seven-time Cy Young Award winner, is third in career strikeouts (4,672) and ninth in wins (354). He was acquitted of perjury charges stemming from congressional testimony during which he denied using PEDs.

"If you don't think Roger Clemens cheated, you're burying your head in the sand," Gossage said.

Sosa, who finished with 609 home runs, was among those who tested positive in MLB's 2003 anonymous survey, The New York Times reported in 2009. He told a congressional committee in 2005 that he never took illegal performance-enhancing drugs. He also was caught using a corked bat during his career.

"What really gets me is seeing how some of these players associated with drugs have jumped over many of the greats in our game," Kaline said. "Numbers mean a lot in baseball, maybe more so than in any other sport. And going back to Babe Ruth, and players like Harmon Killebrew and Frank Robinson and Willie Mays, seeing people jump over them with 600, 700 home runs, I don't like to see that.

"I don't know how great some of these players up for election would've been without drugs. But to me, it's cheating," he added. "Numbers are important, but so is integrity and character. Some of these guys might get in someday. But for a year or two, I'm glad they didn't."

Gossage, noting that cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles following allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, believes baseball should go just as far. He thinks the record book should be overhauled, taking away the accomplishments of players like Bonds, Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire — who has admitted using steroids and human growth hormone during his playing days.

McGwire, 10th on the career home run chart, received 16.9 percent of the vote on his seventh Hall try, down from 19.5 last year.

"I don't know if baseball knows how to deal with this at all," Gossage said. "Why don't they strip these guys of all these numbers? You've got to suffer the consequences. You get caught cheating on a test, you get expelled from school."

Juan Marichal is one Hall of Famer who doesn't see it that way. The former pitcher believes Bonds, Clemens and Sosa belong in Cooperstown.

"I think that they have been unfair to guys who were never found guilty of anything," Marichal said. "Their stats define them as immortals. That's the reality and that cannot be denied."

The BBWAA election rules say "voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played."

While much of the focus this year was on Bonds, Clemens and Sosa, every other player with Cooperstown credentials was denied, too.

Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits, came the closest. He was chosen on 68.2 percent of the 569 ballots, 39 shy of election. Among other first-year eligibles, Mike Piazza received 57.8 percent and Curt Schilling 38.8. Jack Morris topped holdovers with 67.7 percent.

None of those players have been publicly linked to PED use, so it's difficult to determine whether they fell short due to suspicion, their stats — or the overall stench of the era they played in.

"What we're witnessing here is innocent people paying for the sinners," Marichal said.

Hall of Fame slugger Mike Schmidt said that comes with the territory.

"It's not news that Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Palmeiro, and McGwire didn't get in, but that they received hardly any consideration at all. The real news is that Biggio and Piazza were well under the 75 percent needed," Schmidt wrote in an email to the AP.

"Curt Schilling made a good point. Everyone was guilty. Either you used PEDs, or you did nothing to stop their use. This generation got rich. Seems there was a price to pay."

At ceremonies in Cooperstown on July 28, the only inductees will be three men who died more than 70 years ago: Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, umpire Hank O'Day and barehanded catcher Deacon White. They were chosen last month by the 16-member panel considering individuals from the era before integration in 1947.

___

AP Baseball Writer Ben Walker, AP Sports Writers Ronald Blum and Dan Gelston, and AP freelance writer Dionisio Soldevila contributed to this report.

Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" topped the list of nominees for the 85th Academy Awards revealed on Thursday morning. "Lincoln" received 12 nominations, including best picture, director, actor (Daniel Day Lewis), supporting actor ( Tommy Lee Jones) and supporting actress (Sally Field). The nominees for best picture were "Lincoln," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Argo," "Life of Pi,"...

AP  

Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" topped the list of nominees for the 85th Academy Awards revealed on Thursday morning.

"Lincoln" received 12 nominations, including best picture, director, actor (Daniel Day Lewis), supporting actor ( Tommy Lee Jones) and supporting actress (Sally Field).

The nominees for best picture were "Lincoln," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Argo," "Life of Pi," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Les Miserables," "Django Unchained," and "Amour."

Oscar host Seth MacFarlane and actress Emma Stone revealed the nominees for the 85th annual Academy Awards during a presentation shown across the globe on television and streaming video. It was the first time in 40 years the host of the Academy Awards announced the Oscar nominations. (Charlton Heston was the only other Oscar host to announce nominees).

The nominations were announced before Sunday night's Golden Globe awards, often seen by some as a bellwether of who and what Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters will choose. The Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for February 24 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.It will air on ABC.

Nominees for the 85th annul Oscars include:

BEST PICTURE

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jackie Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
John Gatins, Flight
Michael Haneke, Amour
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Ben Lewin, The Sessions
Tony Kushner, Lincoln
David Magee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Chris Terrio, Argo

During a recent meeting between Elder Affairs Secretary Ann Hartstein and William Korzenowski, director of Belchertown's Council on Aging, the secretary praised the program but stood firm against the request.

Ann L. Hartstein, secretary of Executive Office of Elder Affairs, spoke to members of the West Springfield Council on Aging while on a tour through Western Massachusetts in this 2009 photo. The Republican file / John Suchocki  

BELCHERTOWN – The state Department of Elder Affairs
says its decision rejecting the town’s request to exempt the senior center’s weekend meals program from its regulations is final.

The Belchertown Senior Center prepares 40,000 meals each year.

During a recent meeting between Elder Affairs Secretary Ann L. Hartstein and William Korzenowski, director of Belchertown's Council on Aging, the secretary praised the program but stood firm against the request.

The dispute began in 2011 when the state said the weekend meals could no longer be made at the senior kitchen from frozen leftovers, and must be bought from a state-approved company.

Town officials have been upset - saying requiring them to purchase meals from a large Florida-based frozen food supplier resulted in poor quality meals and was an example of big government heavy-handedness.

The Belchertown Senior Center previously prepared the weekend meals from the leftovers of fresh dishes cooked during the week.

But the town’s failure to go along with the state would have cost Belchertown about $90,000 in food-related subsidies for the council on aging and senior center food operations, Korzenowski said.

“I still feel that if she (Hartstein) had wanted to, she could have allowed us to do the meals” in-house, Korzenowski said in a telephone interview.

“There is not too much I can do when the boss tells me ‘no’ -- I can't just ignore it,” he added. “The funding comes through her office; I can’t afford not to receive the funding,”

According to Korzenowski, the center served 10,000 weekend meals - prepared at the center - during the three years before Hartstein's office stopped the arrangement.

The Patriots have to figure out a way to deal with Watt Sunday. But the Texans may have a bigger issue in figuring out how to defend Brady.

One of the first things that pop into most minds when discussing the Houston Texans is the long arms extending from J.J. Watt's jersey.

Almost always busy, wrapped around a quarterback or swatting a ball from the air, those arms serve as devices of havoc, and somehow are made more menacing by the black brace, a device that typically signifies weakness or some kind of defect, that slides over the left one.

But with Watt, weakness doesn't seem to exist. A strong front-runner to win the defensive player of the year award, the defensive end recorded 16.5 sacks and 20 passes defensed. He hung zeros in both categories against the New England Patriots during a Dec. 10 meeting, but still managed to hit quarterback Tom Brady five times.

The performance by New England's offensive line was celebrated as a huge success, and considering Watt's typical level of destruction the reaction was justified. A repeat performance in Sunday's divisional playoff game will be necessary if the Patriots hope to cruise to another easy victory.

"He's an incredible player," Brady said. "You have to know where he's at on every single play because he's so disruptive with tackles for loss and his penetration of the backfield. He gets to the quarterback, led the league in sacks. He's as good as anyone playing the game."

New England once again brought out the tennis rackets and broomsticks to simulate Watt's arms in practice to help prepare Brady to throw over them, but the bigger key here, perhaps, is finding a way to keep him caged up. The approach last time was a simple: don't run his direction and use two blockers to contain him on deep passes.

Many of the times when Watt wasn't double teamed, Brady got rid of the ball quickly and afterward, ProFootballFocus.com reported that the New England quarterback only held the ball an average of 2.27 seconds, one of the fastest times the site clocked throughout the season.

"Obviously I didn't play well enough," Watt said. "I got quite a few hits on Brady, but obviously the ball was gone every time. Didn't bat any balls, didn't have any tackles for a loss, so I need to do more.

"I think that's understood, I think that's known, but that's why you get another shot and this is the playoffs. I'm going to bring everything I have."

Watt is going to be an issue no matter what, but the Texans and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips enter the week with an even bigger decision about what to do with the rest of the pieces of defense.

Houston sent five or more pass rushers on 56 percent of the plays in the last meeting and was eaten alive by Brady. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns against the blitz.

This wasn't something unique to Houston or the result of some defensive failure. Brady has historically excelled when teams take players out of coverage and send them after him, and that's been no different this year. He completed 105 of 163 passes when blitzed this season for 1,328 yards with 18 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Houston may stick to its guns and hope for the best, but they may be better served following the blueprint the Jets created in 2010 when they largely opted not to blitz in a divisional playoff game and instead clogged the middle of the field with defensive players.

The approach took away many of Brady's options of the middle and disrupted his timing with his receivers. The Jets walked away with a 28-21 victory after losing the New England, 45-3, a little more than a month earlier.

Houston isn't tipping its hand on how it plans to approach things this time, but Watt did admit that the Texans were surprised by how quickly Brady actually gets rid of the ball.

"Yes, he gets the ball out quick," Watt said. "He knows the scheme very well, he knows where his receivers are and he knows who's going to be open."

There's only so much Watt can do with those arms. In the end, he's going to have to get some help from the other 10 guys on the field to atone for what happened last month.

The Pentagon announced proposed cuts to six Massachusetts bases a year ago.

Col. Kerry L. Kohler, commander of the 439th Maintenance Group, Air Force Reserve Command, Westover Air Reserve Base, leads a tour of a maintenance facility on the base for a group trying to save the base from cuts last year including Lt. Gov. Timothy Murphy, center, Richard K. Sullivan Jr. Secretary, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, second from left, and U.S. rep. James McGovern, 3rd Congressional District, right. The Republican file / Don Treeger  

CHICOPEE – Area legislators and municipal leaders vow to continue to fight Department of Defense proposals for cutbacks at Westover Air Reserve and Barnes Air National Guard bases here and in Westfield in the face of what may be temporary reprieves as Congress continues to weigh federal spending.

Annual legislation that authorized military spending signed by President Obama on Jan. 2 prevents an expected 10 job cuts at the Air Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Regional Airport in Westfield, but the fate of plans to downsize the Westover Air Reserve Base is less clear.

The Pentagon last year proposed moving half of Westover’s 16 C-5B Galaxy jets to Texas in 2016; that plan is now on hold for the next two months.

“Air Force Reserve Command is reviewing the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2013 to determine how to implement the force structure actions that are authorized by the act,” said a statement from Air Force Reserve command public affairs that was released by Westover officials this week. “This process will take time, but we will announce the affected units and the timeline for making the force structure changes once the implementation plan is completed.”

The Defense Athorization Act includes a stipulation that will require congressional authorization and a study of military transportation aircraft before the C-5s are transferred from Chicopee to Lackland Air Force Base.

Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray began work last year to rally public and political support for preserving and growing jobs at the state’s six military installations. He formed a task force, now being led by retired Air National Guard Gen. Donald Quenneville.

“Murray has worked closely with leadership at all six military bases, including Westover Air Force and Barnes Air National Guard in Western Massachusetts. From his visits to each base and convening forums and meetings of the task force, the lieutenant governor has engaged all stakeholders to help protect and promote the infrastructure, jobs, and investments for Massachusetts’ military installations. Going forward, this work will continue,” said Lauren Jones, spokeswoman for Murray.

For Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette, preserving the mission at Westover is especially important since the base is the city’s largest employer and the economic spin-off for the Pioneer Valley is estimated to be billions of dollars.

Not only is he hoping the mission flown by the 439th Airlift Wing at Westover continues, Bissonnette also wants the military to upgrade the full 16-jet fleet to C-5M aircraft. The jets at Westover are currently scheduled to receive a multi-million upgrade with engine and other systems improvements and will be called a C-5M model.

“We have been forcefully making our case that Westover is the best location geographically and strategically to continue the transportation mission with 16 C-5Ms,” Bissonnette said. “We think we are making an effective argument to expand it and add additional full-time missions.”

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, who is among the legislators who have visited Westover and Barnes in the wake of the defense cutback plans, said he will continue to fight to prevent cuts at the facilities in his district.

“While some cuts in the defense budget are inevitable, maintaining federal funding for Westover and Barnes remains one of my top priorities. Both bases employ thousands of people in Western Massachusetts and contribute greatly to the local economy. These military installations have a long history in the region, are invaluable strategic defense assets, and should be preserved and protected,” he said.

Westover currently has nearly 4,000 employees and paid $391 million in salaries during the last federal fiscal year which ended in September. The 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes has more than 1,100 employees, both military and civilian.

Gun rights groups say Georgia home invasion proves their point for civilians to have the right to arm themselves along with more news updates.

President Barack Obama talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White in Washington, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)  

Former AC Milan striker Alexandre Pato poses wearing a Corinthians jersey during his presentation as Corinthians' new soccer player in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. Brazilian player Pato signed a four year contract with the club. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

 

NOTE: Users of modern browsers can open each link in a new tab by holding 'control' ('command' on a Mac) and clicking each link.

Musician Bret Michaels of the band Poison was scheduled to perform at today's announcement.

01.11.2013 | WEST SPRINGFIELD -- Guitars adorn a stage at the Big E for the announcement of a proposed Hard Rock Cafe casino at the site. Don Treeger | The Republican  

Big E CEO: Hard Rock casino proposal 'once-in-lifetime economic opportunity'
» An updated story has been posted

WEST SPRINGFIELD -- Hard Rock Cafe was confirmed Friday morning as the backer behind the proposal to build a resort casino on the grounds of the Eastern States Exhibition.

The formal announcement was scheduled for noon at an elaborate “red carpet” luncheon.

"This will be wonderful for agriculture," said Don Chase, chairman of the board of the Eastern States Exposition. "It will give us the lifeblood to keep going 50, 100 years."

Speakers will include Hard Rock representatives Jim Allen and John Galloway, as well as West Springfield mayor Gregory Neffinger.

Asked what questions he would like today's presentation to answer, Chicopee mayor Michael Bissonnette said, "How are they going to get traffic in and out?"

Neffinger said "lots of studies" would be involved in the process of figuring out how to deal with the increase in traffic a casino would generate.

On the issue of whether West Springfield voters would approve a casino in their community, Neffinger said "It is a process. A lot will depend on the presentation today. If it is across the river we have no control. Here, we can have control."

01.11.2013 | WEST SPRINGFIELD -- Musician Bret Michaels performs during the casino announcement event. Don Treeger | The Republican  

Musician Bret Michaels of the band Poison was scheduled to perform at today's announcement.

"Backstage and ready to perform at the announcement event for Hard Rock Hotel & Casino New England at the Eastern States Exposition in Western Mass. Hope New England is ready to rock with the world’s best entertainment brand," Michaels wrote in a post to his Twitter and Tumblr accounts shortly before 11 a.m. Friday.

Michaels took the stage around noon, opening with Poison's 1988 cover of the 1972 Loggins and Messina hit "Your Mama Don't Dance."

"You've got to have a wow factor, man," Gene Cassidy, chief executive officer of the Eastern States Exposition, said prior to the performance.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Friday that her office has hired Bruno Freitas as the new economic development director and a senior advisor to serve in Washington D.C.

01/08/13 Springfield- Republican Photo by Mark M.Murray - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, shares a light moment with the people gathered at announcement for the opening of her new office at 1550 Main Street . At left is State Senator James T.Welch, State Rep. Michael Finn, State Rep.Donald F. Humason Jr., , and State Senator Gail D. Candaras, right.  

BOSTON – Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Friday that her office has hired Bruno Freitas as the new economic development director and a senior advisor to serve in Washington D.C.

Freitas joins the Warren team from the office of another Massachusetts politician, former U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, who retired from Congress this year following the state legislature's redistricting process.

Freitas, a New Bedford native, most recently worked as Frank's chief of staff and legislative director, although he has worked with the congressman in some capacity since 1994, when he helped design Frank's first website. Warren's office said that his previous work experience also includes a stint as a staffer with the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, where he focused on Massachusetts’ business and consumer legislative priorities.

"Bruno is an expert on the key economic issues affecting the Commonwealth's businesses and families," Warren said in a statement. "He will bring extensive knowledge of Massachusetts' issues to this position."

Freitas hiring comes as Warren recently opened her Western Massachusetts office with two full-time staffers in the the same space occupied by the staff of former Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, whom she defeated in November's election. Warren is also in the process of moving into her new office in the nation's capital, which was reportedly once occupied by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who represented Massachusetts from 1962 until his death in 2009.

Frank, although retired from Congress, has expressed interest in landing an appointment by Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick to fill Sen. John Kerry's Senate seat, should Kerry be confirmed as the next secretary of state as expected. Frank also made headlines this week when he joined Kerry and others in endorsing the candidacy of U.S. Rep. Ed Markey in the anticipated special election to fill Kerry's seat for the remainder of his term.

An undercover marijuana operation involving New Hampshire and Massachusetts police has resulted in the arrest of two men and the seizure of 16 pounds of the drug.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — An undercover marijuana operation involving New Hampshire and Massachusetts police has resulted in the arrest of two men and the seizure of 16 pounds of the drug.

Manchester police said they developed information that indicated a large source of marijuana was coming from a location in Northampton, Mass. Undercover officers presented themselves as prospective buyers Thursday to coordinate delivery of 10 pounds of marijuana to Manchester.

The transaction led to the arrests at a motel of Rodney Sinclair and Henry Pacheco, both 47 and from Northampton. Police recovered additional marijuana in one of the men's duffel bags and in the motel.

It has an estimated street value of $56,000.

The men were being arraigned Friday on a charge of possession of a controlled drug with intent to distribute.