Downing says, "I know that every consideration – especially financial – must be made before a race of this type is undertaken."

Democratic State Sen. Benjamin Downing, in his 4th term representing the Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire District in Massachusetts, announced on Jan 11, 2013 that he was no longer considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. John Kerry should he be confirmed as Secretary of State.  

Pittsfield State Sen. Benjamin Downing will not run for the U.S. Senate.

Downing, a Democrat, said Friday that he spoke with friends, families and colleagues about a possible run and the response was “overwhelmingly positive.” “I will be forever grateful for their words of encouragement, advice, and endorsement,” Downing said in a statement.

However, Downing continued, “I wish their faith in me was enough to sustain a campaign, but I know that every consideration – especially financial – must be made before a race of this type is undertaken. After considering every aspect of a possible campaign, I have determined that I will not be a candidate for the U.S. Senate in the upcoming special election.”

Downing said he will continue to serve in the State Senate, and he will be involved in the U.S. Senate race. “I look forward to taking an active role in the upcoming campaign to ensure that the next Senator represents the values of Massachusetts,” he said.

Downing had been considering a run for the seat that will be vacated should U.S. Sen. John Kerry be confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State. As recently as Thursday, Downing told MassLive.com that he had not yet made a decision but he was “certainly thinking about it.”

Downing does not have the name recognition or the financial resources of other potential Democratic contenders. Downing, 31, was first elected to the state Senate in 2006. Before that, he worked in Washington, D.C. as a staff member for U.S. Reps. William Delahunt, Richard Neal and John Olver.

Downing had just $76,000 in his state campaign committee as of Oct. 29, according to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. In contrast, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, the first Democrat to officially announce his intentions to run, had $3.1 million in his campaign committee account as of Nov. 26, according to Federal Election Commission filings. U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano had $491,000 in his campaign account and U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch had $740,000. Any special election fight is expected to be expensive.

The first major poll to look at possible 2013 special election contenders, commissioned by WBUR, did not even ask voters about Downing.

Some Democrats have been trying to clear the field and unite around Markey but even with Downing’s decision, it remains unclear whether there will be a Democratic primary. Neither Capuano nor Lynch has made a final decision on whether to challenge Markey. Downing, in his statement, did not endorse a candidate.

On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is seen as the most likely contender, with former Republican Gov. William Weld rumored to be considering a run should Brown decide not to get in the race.

During his 38 years in the National Football League, Bill Belichick has faced virtually every situation imaginable. Yet, he still gets nervous before every game.

FOXBOROUGH – During his 38 years in the National Football League, Bill Belichick has faced virtually every situation imaginable.

But in those moments leading up to the game, when he hops in his car to the go the stadium and when the music is blaring as players are warming up on the field, he begins to get a familiar feeling of anxiousness in his stomach that continues to build until the game starts.

If things are going well, he can simply make tweaks along the way. If he guessed wrong, he can make changes on the fly and try to regain control. Either way, Belichick's nerves never settle down until the wait is over and he can begin coaching.

"There's an anxiousness whenever you play," Belichick said. "You always have that unknown of going up against a new opponent. Who knows how the game will go?"

Belichick rarely sends his team out to the field unprepared for battle, but he's had a few failures along the way and it's doubtful that those are ever more than thought or two off his mind.

One of the more recent examples came during the 2010 playoffs when the New York Jets and Rex Ryan caught the Patriots off guard by putting their heavy blitz packages on the shelf and dropping all available bodies back into coverage.

New England was unprepared for this approach and it quickly became obvious that Ryan got the better of Belichick. Quarterback Tom Brady never got in a rhythm, had trouble finding open receivers and New York walked away with a 28-21 victory.

Performances such as that one are why Belichick's stomach will be in knots at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday when the Patriots take on the Houston Texans in an AFC divisional playoff game at Gillette Stadium.

"There's no way to predict how it's all going to happen," Belichick said. "Take it how it comes. You never know how it's going to go. There's certain elements – guessing game, playing the percentages, whatever you want to call it."

He continued, "It's like when you talk to the Navy SEALs, when they go on a mission, how they talk about, "Alright we get there, and we practice going over a 6-foot wall and the wall is 30 feet high." It's the way it is in the NFL. You think you're going to swim across a 200-yard lake, and the lake is 800 yards. You get in an NFL game and you think you're going to get this, and you get that."

Players say that they never notice a difference in Belichick this time of year. He's always focused and does everything he can to make sure his players are prepared for any and all contingencies, be it preseason or the Super Bowl.

"Belichick always really challenges us," Brady said. "He finds strengths of the other team and then really tries to emphasize it."

Still, even if Belichick is putting on a poker face for his team, he's excited. He always is this time of year.

This is why he puts in long hours on the practice field under the sweltering August heat and during cold New England winters, and then retreats to his office to put in even more hours searching for other ways to improve. All of that time comes down to this one game, at least until there's another one.

If he fails, then all of that time and effort will have gone to waste.

"The ups and downs of your season, the big wins and the disappointing loses, it all comes down to this," Belichick said. "We fought all those battles, we've gone down a long road. Now we're one of the final eight teams in the National Football League. We embrace it."

The proposal calls for a $700 million to $800 million complex including a casino and hotel on 40 acres of leased grounds at the West Springfield complex.

View full size 01.13.2013 | WEST SPRINGFIELD -- The site plan presented Friday at the announcement of the proposed Hard Rock International casino shows where it would be sited on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition. Don Treeger / The Republican  

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

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Eastern State Exposition Chief Executive Officer Gene Cassidy, announcing on Friday a proposal to build a $700 million to $800 million resort casino in partnership with Hard Rock International, called the project an "exciting once-in-a-lifetime economic opportunity."

"I have been blessed to be in this place at this moment in time," Cassidy said during a formal noon announcement at an elaborate “red carpet” luncheon at the Storrowton Carriage House.

Cassidy compared the proposal to the founding in 1915 of the agricultural organization.

"Today's announcement is an opportunity to preserve the past and ensure the future," he said.

The proposal is a late entry into the high-stakes competition for the one resort casino license available for the four Western Massachusetts counties as allowed under legislation approved in 2011. There are two resort casino proposals just across the river in Springfield – by MGM Resorts International for a project in the South End at the edge of downtown, and by Penn National Gaming for a complex at the North End of downtown – plus a longstanding proposal by the Mohegan Sun for a resort casino off Massachusetts Turnpike Exit 8 in Palmer.

"We stand at the head of the pack," Cassidy said of the Big E project.

On Friday morning, Hard Rock paid the $400,000 nonrefundable application fee with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, along with comprehensive and detailed supporting materials. The submissions will enable the commission to conduct background checks on top employees, officers and business entities.

Penn National and MGM also have filed both the $400,000 fee and supporting materials.

Two additional companies – the Suffolk Downs race track in Boston and its partner, Caesars Entertainment, plus the Plainridge Racecourse harness track in Plainville, which is bidding for a slots-only facility – have provided the $400,000 fee.

The chief executive officer of the Mohegan Sun, which was the first company to put its stake in the ground in Western Massachusetts, told MassLive and The Republican last week that the company will meet the Tuesday deadline for providing the $400,000 and package for background investigations by the commission.

Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International, said, "We are not a company that wants to put machines and tables in a box. We are a brand of entertainment."

Allen said the project would result in 1,500 to 2,000 construction jobs and thousands of permanent jobs at the complex. "There truly is a job for anybody," he said. "Very shortly we will be out in the community with job description books."

He underscored Hard Rock's history of philanthropy at its other sites.

He outlined a proposal that calls for 40 acres at the back of the 175-acres Eastern States Exposition campus to be leased to Hard Rock. The proposal includes:

• a 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art casino
• a 400- to 500-room hotel
• 100 to 125 table games
• 2,500 to 3,000 slot machines
• 150,000 square feet of dining areas
• a 25,000-square-foot convention floor
• a music museum display called "The vault"

The casino would connect to existing facilities. The outdoor concert venue would be revamped. "We would not book a show without working with Gene and his team," Allen said.

This story will be updated

Obituaries from The Republican.

Nicole Mineo  

Nicole Mineo  

Nicole C. Mineo, 31, of East Longmeadow, passed away on Tuesday. Born in Springfield, she resided in East Longmeadow, and was a graduate of MCDI and Westfield State College. She was a member of St. Michael's Church in East Longmeadow. Among her survivors are her two daughters.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Barry, Joseph Gerard
  



• 
  Bramlage, William J.
  



• 
  Burrell, Coleman
  



• 
  Clifford, Mary E.
  



• 
  Cormier, Claire P.
  



• 
  Fairbanks, William
  



• 
  Fontana, Raymond J.
  



• 
  Forrish, Elizabeth H.
  



• 
  Gold, Sadie
  



• 
  Goodniss, Patricia
  



• 
  Jeffers, Winona E.
  



• 
  Jegelewicz, Julia A.
  



• 
  Kovalchick, Edward
  



• 
  LaFlamme, Donald G.
  



• 
  Larro, William R.
  



• 
  LeClair, Mary A.
  



• 
  Lovett, Eileen F.
  



• 
  Mineo, Nicole C.
  



• 
  Miner, Angela E.
  



• 
  Moquin, Ronald E.
  



• 
  Murphy, Carol S.
  



• 
  O'Connor, Ann
  



• 
  Perreault, Joanne H.
  



• 
  Purcell, Donald R.
  



• 
  Salois, Constance A.
  



• 
  Sowers, Vittoria E.
  



• 
  Terrell, Karen A.
  



• 
  Vancini, Diana F.
  

Paul Emsley's portrait of the former Kate Middleton shows the 31-year-old royal against a dark background, her lips pursed into a wry smile.

A newly-commissioned portrait of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, by artist Paul Emsley, left; and a recent photograph of the duchess. AP  

LONDON (AP) — The Duchess of Cambridge seems to like her first official portrait, which is lucky for the artist. Many critics don't.

Paul Emsley's portrait of the former Kate Middleton shows the 31-year-old royal against a dark background, her lips pursed into a wry smile, with an ethereal light against her face and hair. Her pale complexion brings out the fine lines under the eyes, and the light adds a hint of silver to her rich brown hair.

Shortly after the portrait was unveiled Friday at the National Portrait Gallery in London, critics began grousing.

"It's a great, great opportunity missed," British Art Journal editor Robin Simon said. "The best thing you can say about it is that she doesn't actually look like that."

In a telephone interview, Simon said that Kate's nose was too large and that the painting drained the duchess of her sparkle.

Kate "transmits a sense of joie-de-vivre," he said. "This is dead, dead, dead."

Guardian arts writer Charlotte Higgins picked up on that theme, saying the portrait had a "sepulchral gloom" about it.

"Kate Middleton is — whatever you think of the monarchy and all its inane surrounding pomp — a pretty young woman with an infectious smile, a cascade of chestnut hair and a healthy bloom," she wrote in a post to her newspaper's website. "So how is it that she has been transformed into something unpleasant from the `Twilight' franchise?"

Emsley told reporters at the opening that it was always going to be tough painting Kate, who sat for the portrait last year, before she became pregnant.

"A person whose image is so pervasive, for an artist it is really difficult to go beyond that and find something which is original," he said. "You have to rely on your technique and your artistic instincts to do that and I hope I've succeeded."

Royal portraits tend to veer between the staid and the controversial. Lucian Freud's 2001 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II remains a particularly notorious example, with some describing the heavy, severe painting of the monarch as deeply unflattering and others calling it groundbreaking.

In fairness to Emsley, some artists had praise for his work.

"I liked it, very much so," said Richard Stone, who has frequently painted members of the royal family. "So often with official portraits they can be rather stiff and starchy, but this has a lovely informality about it, and a warmth to it."

In any case, Emsley appeared to have won over his most important audience. Kate, who was with her husband, Prince William, at the gallery earlier Friday, called the portrait "just amazing." William liked it too, saying it was "absolutely beautiful."

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.

THURSDAY, JAN. 10

Boys Basketball:

West Springfield rallies to beat Cathedral
The Terriers outscored the Panthers 19-6 in the fourth quarter to overcome a three-point deficit and remain undefeated on the year. West Springfield trailed 36-33 entering the final eight minutes of play. Read more »
• Box score



Northampton defeats Agawam 68-59
Tyler Desrosiers led all scorers with 24 points, but a 34-24 halftime deficit was too much for host Agawam to overcome. Jake Ross scored 16 points as Northampton improved to 7-2. Read more »
• Box score

Central clips Chicopee, 68-43
Kamari Robinson led all scorers with 22 points. Khalil Walker added 14. George Dean scored 20 points for the Pacers. Read more »
• Box score

Putnam remains unbeaten with 70-58 win over Commerce
The Putnam Vocational High School boys basketball team picked up the intensity in the second half, especially in the third quarter, to keep its unbeaten season going on Thursday. Read more »
• Box score

Palmer downs Belchertown, 77-55
Kamil Stasiowski of Palmer knocked down seven three's en route to 23 points as Palmer beat Belechertown Thursday night. Tim Siddle led Palmer with 25. Read more »
• Box score

Westfield nips New Leadership in overtime
Connor Sas scored 17 points, including a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to send the game to overtime for Westfield in a 67-64 win over New Leadership. Read more »
• Box score

Girls Basketball:

South Hadley tops Ware 49-40
Kelly Pouliot scored 13 points and Tess Gauthier added 10 for host South Hadley. Ware's Opaul Morris tallied a game-high 17 points, while Sam Simons had 13. Read more »
• Box score

Girls Swimming:

Cathedral beats Sci-Tech, 62-56
Jennifer Callahan's swim of 1:12.56 in the 100 back qualified her for the Western Mass championships and shes also took first in the 50 freestyle in a time of 29.44. Read more »
• Box score

Boys Swimming:

Sci-Tech beats Cathedral, 92-24
John Nguyen placed first in the 100 backstroke (1:17.66), 200 IM (2:55.05) Thursday afternoon over Cathedral. Read more »
• Box score

Browse complete HS Sports scoreboards for:

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

Craig Biggio, who is arguably the greatest second baseman in modern baseball history, has a legitimate gripe with Wednesday's Hall of Fame voting results.

In spite of historically great numbers Craig Biggio was not voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday.  

It seems like everyone has an opinion on this year's Hall of Fame balloting.

Some approve of the complete shutout of every player named on the ballot,including The Republican's Ron Chimelis, who said the "outcome is the correct one, and was also just and moral."

Some most certainly do not.

Craig Biggio was on the ballot, and just like every other player he was not voted into the Hall of Fame. Biggio managed to get 68.2 percent of the votes, which was the highest of any player on this year's ballot. A player needs to get a minimum of 75 percent to be inducted.

Biggio finished his career with 3,060 hits. A total that puts him into the elite 3,000-hit club. There have been 28 players in all of major league history who have amassed 3,000 or more hits. Of those 28 all but three are in the Hall of Fame.

Pete Rose was banned for life from baseball for betting on games while managing and playing the sport.

Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for Steroids after testifying before congress that he never touched drugs, and after Major League Baseball had reformed their testing methods and made clear that use of performance enhancing drugs would not be tolerated.

Regardless of how one feels about the exclusion of either Palmeiro or Rose from the Hall of Fame there are clearly reasons for their exclusions.

What is the reason for Biggio's?

Are the writers really lumping everyone who just happened to be born with great baseball talent, and who played in the 1990s, into one homogeneous group?

Craig Biggio has never been linked to performance enhancing drug use. He never tested positive, he was not among those named in the Mitchell Report. Biggio's name hasn't even surfaced in alleged rumors of use.

Biggio seems to think he was unfairly punished for playing alongside players who used performance enhancing drugs, and quite frankly he's got a strong case.

Biggio has become only the second member of the 3,000 hit club since 1962 to not be elected on the first ballot, and the other is the aforementioned Palmeiro. Biggio also amassed more hits as a second baseman than all but one other player to field the position. Eddie Collins. Collins played from 1906 to 1930.

That makes Biggio arguably the greatest second baseman in modern baseball.

Detractors might point out that when you compare Biggio's numbers to the numbers being produced during his era they look less impressive. Of course in order to validate that train of thought, one would have to subscribe to the notion that the other numbers were being produced without the aid of performance enhancing drugs.

Biggio is being excluded from the Hall with a complete lack of evidence that he has ever been guilty of anything more than playing alongside players who might have at one time or another taken performance enhancing drugs.

That's an unfair standard to hold anyone to.

Sen. John Kerry has held up Syria as a country that could bring peace and stability to the region. He predicted the now-disgraced regime of President Bashar Assad would pursue a legitimate relationship with the United States.

By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry has held up Syria as a country that could bring peace and stability to the region. He predicted the now-disgraced regime of President Bashar Assad would pursue a legitimate relationship with the United States.

Those words are certain to draw scrutiny at his confirmation hearing for secretary of state as the Mideast ruler's brutal crackdown has plunged the country into months of civil war.

Conservative websites have mocked the relationship as a Kerry-Assad bromance, seizing on the comments.

But the politically tinged criticism of President Barack Obama's nominee fails to capture the context of Kerry's words, his more recent statements and what has been a complicated outreach to a mercurial and defiant leader. Republicans and Democrats alike have struggled to fathom the Assad family over the years.

According to Det. Sgt. Tom Foye, police believe there are enough similarities between the case of missing 24-year-old Glenn LaRace Jr. and the man who jumped off the Putts Bridge to raise the eyebrows of investigators.

LUDLOW -- Although the effort to recover the body of a man who witnesses saw jump into the Chicopee River earlier this week were suspended Friday, Ludlow police are looking into similarities between the incident and a missing person reported around the same time.

Det. Sgt. Tom Foye said investigators are looking into similarities between the case of missing 24-year-old Glenn LaRace Jr. and the man who jumped off the Putts Bridge.

"There are certain coincidences and similarities between what we know about the two cases to believe that he may have been the person who jumped off the bridge," Foye said. "But until we have recovered a body and it is positively identified by the family, we won't draw that conclusion."

Foye said that a day before being reported missing, LaRace was transported to a local hospital with reported mental health distress. The detective also said that before LaRace left his home, he left a note indicating how he wanted family members to handle his body when it was found.

"We've taken statements from witnesses and people who tired to rescue him from the water but were unable to do so," Foye said. "The physical descriptions are quite similar."

Around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, at least four citizens reported seeing a man leap from the east side of the Putts Bridge that connects Indian Orchard to Ludlow. A short time later, considering the water temperature and the ferocity of the water flow, officials said the rescue operation turned into a recovery effort.

Each day since the initial report, rescue agencies including the Massachusetts State Police using sonar equipment and divers have searched for the man to no avail. The ice on the river has complicated the search as well, according to police.

The Ludlow Fire Department is now heading the recovery effort, according to Foye, who said that his department will continue to investigate the missing person case along with state troopers.

While a ranking officer in the fire department didn't return a call as of this story's publication, Foye said there are plans for future rescue operations involving a significant number of divers.

Anyone with information about LaRace's disappearance, or who may have witnessed the incident on the bridge, is asked to call police with details at 413-583-8305. Callers should ask to speak to a detective or shift commander.

The Patriots aren't taking ball security for granted.

New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley loosens up during practice at the team's NFL football facility in Foxborough, Mass., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. The Patriots host the Houston Texans in an AFC divisional playoff game on Sunday. AP  

FOXBOROUGH -- The Patriots aren't taking ball security for granted this week.

Coach Bill Belichick has apparently ramped things up this week by loading the ball up with vaseline, grease, baby powder and water to help his running backs get ready for the Houston Texans, who caused two fumbles in a Dec. 10 meeting with the Patriots.

"I seen a little bit of it, but the beauty of my job is that I don't have to touch the ball," offensive lineman Nate Solder said.

Running back Stevan Ridley spoke in depth about the need to protect the ball this week. Ridley fumbled in back-to-back weeks against Houston and the San Francisco 49ers, and learned the cost of not holding onto the ball last year when Belichick shut him down for the AFC title game and Super Bowl after dropping the ball in the divisional round.

He's determined to avoid a similar letdown this year.

"Can't have it. It's crunch time, man. Turnovers, however they come -- fumbles, interceptions, drops -- we can't have that," Ridley said. " It's all up there. Everything is front of us right now. So what we do with it form here, I don't want to be the guy they're pointing the finger at."

Letter writer: With our current emphasis on entitlements, we have abandoned the need for discipline and self-reliance.

Markey has an edge over Scott Brown

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, and U.S. Rep. Edward Markey face Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley after Coakley conceded her loss in the special election held to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy in 2010. Now Markey wants to run for the seat Kerry holds, assuming Kerry wins confirmation as Secretary of State. Associated Press / Michael Dwyer  

Massachusetts is facing another high-profile senate election, and it may be a contest between Scott Brown and Congressman Ed Markey. This choice presents a sharp contrast on one of the most important issues facing the state and the nation: climate change.

Western Massachusetts has already felt the effects of a changing climate. From a record-breaking warm winter that impacted the ski and sugaring industries, to the floods of Hurricane Irene that inundated houses and roads, we’ve witnessed the social and economic costs of climate change.

We can’t afford a future of increasing climate disasters. We can’t reduce our national debt if we are repeatedly forced to spend tens of billions of dollars recovering from increasingly intense storms, droughts and wildfires. To avoid this future we need leadership that will push for reductions in carbon emissions, take on the fossil fuel industries and support the clean energy economy.

During his tenure in the House, Markey has emerged as this leader. In contrast, in his short stint in the Senate, Scott Brown made himself a stubborn obstacle to action on climate change. He opposed efforts to reduce carbon emissions, and voted to veto a scientific finding by EPA scientists on the risks of greenhouse gases. This latter action is especially egregious, as it asserts his nonexistent scientific expertise over that of trained climate scientists to reject their conclusion simply because it was politically inconvenient.

In the one debate with Elizabeth Warren where Brown was asked how to tackle climate change, he spent his answer almost exclusively discussing the need to further develop fossil fuels. And while Markey has repeatedly stood up to the oil industry, the most well-funded and powerful special interest around, Scott Brown voted to continue giving billions in unnecessary taxpayer subsidies to the industry. If the race is Markey vs. Brown, Massachusetts has a clear choice; will we confront the challenge of climate change by electing a climate champion or a climate coward?

– EVAN R. ROSS, Amherst

Middle-class label an unwelcome tag

This message is directed to all local, state and nationally elected officials selected to represent their constituents. As a professional educator for 48 years, currently in human services, I have developed a keen sense of the feelings of people about how they are viewed by others. In particular, people do not like to be categorized, labeled or pigeonholed.

During the most recent political campaigns and as late as the newspapers of Jan. 1, various people seeking or that who have been elected to public office have used the words “middle class” to refer to a selected portion of the population. If, as an elected official, you wish to use the word “class” to define a group of people, then you should go to another country, one that recognizes different “classes” of people.

To use “middle class” as a designation of certain people is a rank form of discrimination. Elected officials would be in a much better position to represent us if they spent spend more attention and time working on things like budgets, human rights, education reform, protection of children and economic improvement rather than practicing partisan politics and labeling the people that elected them to office.

The term that I propose using to define the particular portion of the population is “middle income” people, not “middle class.” Maybe as an alternative, the public should refer to elected officials as “biased leaders.”

– JAMES MUNDY, ED.D, East Longmeadow

Americans losing their self-reliance

When I go to a class at the Agawam Senior Center I am near a framed embroidery on the wall with a quote attributed to the late President John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

With our current emphasis on entitlements we have abandoned the need for discipline and self-reliance. Our forefathers didn’t come to America expecting to be coddled.

We need to get back to basics.

– PAUL W. JUDSON, West Springfield

Martinez took the stand after a battle between prosecution and defense over whether he should be allowed to testify in the retrial of Wilhite for the 2008 murder of Alberto Rodriguez outside the Pine Street Market.

Charles Wilhite Don Treeger / The Republican  

SPRINGFIELD — Anthony Martinez testified Friday he heard Angel Hernandez tell Charles L. Wilhite he would pay him to kill someone.

At Wilhite's retrial for the Oct. 14, 2008 murder of Alberto Rodriguez outside the Pine Street Market, Martinez said he heard Wilhite say "OK" and saw Hernandez give Wilhite a gun. Martinez said he turned around and walked to his Pine Street apartment building and then heard shots.

Martinez took the stand after a battle between prosecution and defense over whether he should be allowed to testify.

Defense lawyer William J. O'Neil accused prosecutors of intimidating Martinez to testify by indicting him Wednesday on a charge of misleading police on the day after the 2008 murder. The new charge alleges Martinez told police he knew nothing about the killing.

Martinez, who is serving a prison sentence for a Hampshire County armed robbery, testified Friday he didn't tell police what he knew in 2008 because he was afraid.

He said he told police what he knew when they visited him in jail in September 2009.

O'Neil, who asked Hampden Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney to bar the prosecution from calling Martinez to the stand, said it was not until Thursday night when he was given copies of the new indictment against Martinez and the cooperation agreement Martinez signed late Thursday afternoon with Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni's office.

After speaking with Martinez and his lawyer with the jury out of the room, Sweeney allowed Martinez to testify.

Hernandez and Wilhite were both convicted of first degree murder in 2010 in Rodriguez's killing.

In 2012 a judge granted Wilhite a new trial, in part because prosecution witness Nathan Perez recanted his identification of Wilhite, saying police coerced him to identify Wilhite.

Sweeney said O'Neil, when he cross-examines Martinez, can bring out the information about the new indictment of Martinez and the cooperation agreement between Martinez and prosecutors.

Martinez was on the witness list for the 2010 trial, but the prosecution declined to call him then.

Martinez testified he did not know Wilhite on the night of the killing, but had seen him several times in the neighborhood. He said he picked Wilhite's photo out of an array of eight photos shown him by police.

The trial resumed at 2 p.m.

There are more than 50 supporters of Wilhite watching the trial.

Here are six things to watch – three for each of Saturday's NFL divisional playoff matchups – as four teams battle to get one step closer to the Super Bowl.

Here are six things to watch – three for each of Saturday's NFL divisional playoff matchups – as four teams battle to get one step closer to the Super Bowl:

Baltimore Ravens at Denver Broncos, 4:30 p.m. EST

1. Flacco vs. the rush

Denver's pass rush hounded Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco into a pair of turnovers in the Broncos' 34-17 victory in Baltimore on December 16. Flacco was sacked three times in that meeting, lost a fumble and tossed an interception that was returned 98 yards for a touchdown by Denver cornerback Chris Harris.

Will the Broncos' pass rush shake him again? Flacco is coming off a strong outing in last week's Wild Card win over the Colts, showing what he can do when afforded the luxury of stellar pass protection. With the Ravens offensive line limiting Indianapolis to just a single sack, Flacco threw for 282 yards and two scores while posting a 125.6 passer rating.

Keeping Flacco upright again this week in Denver will be key, but that's easier said than done against a Broncos defense that tied for the league lead in sacks this season with 52 and boasts vicious sack artists Von Miller (18.5 sacks) and Elvis Dumervil (11).

2. Super Manning

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) reacts after throwing a touchdown pass against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, in Denver. (AP File Photo/Joe Mahoney)





 

Though the Broncos dominated the Ravens in their December meeting, Peyton Manning put up only pedestrian numbers: 204 yards passing and one touchdown. But don't make the mistake of thinking that Baltimore contained him. With the defense and running game staking him to a 17-0 halftime lead, Manning hardly need to break a sweat and threw just 28 passes – his lowest total since Week 1.

Even with All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis bringing some swagger back to Baltimore after his return from injury last week, Manning is more than the injury-depleted Ravens defense can handle. In his first season in Denver, Manning has thrown for 4,659 yards and 37 touchdowns, and he brings the Broncos into the playoffs riding an 11-game winning streak.

A Ravens defense that ranked 17th against the pass this season and finished 19th in the NFL with only 13 interceptions isn't equipped to stop Manning … if the Broncos even need him to exert himself.

3. Emergence of Bernard Pierce

After the first 14 games of the season, Baltimore running back Bernard Pierce had rushed for only 320 yards as the primary backup to perennial Pro Bowler Ray Rice and had never carried the ball more than 10 times in a game. Since then, the rookie from Temple has 49 carries for 315 yards. Pierce has recorded two 100-yard performances in that three-game span, including 103 yards in the playoff win over the Colts, while averaging 6.4 yards per tote.

Pierce's rise, which coincided with the team's decision to jettison offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, gives the Ravens a legitimate two-back attack. Baltimore looked like the smashmouth Ravens of old against the Colts, eating up yardage on the ground with Rice and Pierce basically splitting carries.

A dominant running game has long been recognized as one of the few ways to neutralize a Peyton Manning-led offense. Even Manning can't do any damage from the sideline. If Pierce and Rice can find success on the ground, allowing the Ravens to control the ball and the clock, then Baltimore will have a real shot in this game.

• Watch Huffington Post sports columnist Jordan Schultz explain why he expects Manning and the Broncos to get the better of Lewis and the Ravens:

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Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers, 8 p.m. EST

1. The Kaepernick Factor

A strong running game and stout defense carried the 49ers to within an overtime period of the Super Bowl last season with much-maligned quarterback Alex Smith at the controls. When head coach Jim Harbaugh made the decision to replace Smith with Colin Kaepernick midway through the season, it was with the hope that Kaepernick's athleticism and big-play ability would help San Francisco get over the hump come playoff time. This is the game where we find out of Harbaugh's move pays off.

While Kaepernick's passing numbers this season are remarkably similar to those posted by Smith before he was benched, his five touchdowns and 415 yards rushing have given the 49ers offense the added dimension that Harbaugh envisioned. If Kaepernick can use his legs to escape Clay Matthews and the Green Bay pass rush long enough to make some big plays downfield, the 49ers may have found the final ingredient for their Super Bowl recipe.

2. Putting it all on Rodgers

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) rolls out during the first half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, in Minneapolis. (AP File Photo/Jim Mone)





 

When these teams met way back in Week 1, Green Bay scratched out just 45 yards rushing in a 30-22 49ers victory at Lambeau Field. And that was with starting running back Cedric Benson, long since lost for the season due to injury, in the lineup.

While much has changed since the season opener, the Packers' meager rushing totals have persisted. The Green Bay offense begins and ends with Aaron Rodgers and the passing game. Lucky for Green Bay, Rodgers comes into this game as hot as any quarterback in the NFL, having thrown 11 touchdowns and no interceptions in his last four games. But can the Packers afford to pin all their hopes on Rodgers against a 49ers defense that ranked fourth in the NFL against the pass in the regular season?

That approach certainly didn't work in Week 1, when the Pack lost to San Francisco despite Rodgers' 303-yard, two-touchdown day.

3. Shaky Akers

David Akers will remain the kicker for the 49ers this week despite his struggles this season, coach Jim Harbaugh announced Thursday. San Francisco brought in former Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff to compete with Akers during the bye week, but the decision was made to stick with the incumbent. Cundiff will remain on the roster, but is not expected to be active for Saturday's game.

Akers, elected to the Pro Bowl last season after one of the finest seasons of his career, started this season with a bang, making all three of his field goal attempts and tying the NFL record with a 63-yard kick in San Francisco's season-opening win over Green Bay. But things got bumpy from there, and Akers has connected on just 26 of 39 attempts since.

Two years ago, Akers missed field goals attempts of 34 and 41 yards that proved to be the deciding points in the Eagles' 21-16 playoff loss to the Packers. Those misfires ended his 11-year career in Philadelphia. If Akers turns in a repeat performance Saturday and costs the 49ers a shot at a championship, he can expect to get the boot again.

• Watch as Peter Schrager of Fox Sports makes his picks for the Packers-49ers tilt and the rest of this weekend's playoff pairings:

Suher's proposed investments as part of a casino deal including rehabilitation of the Holyoke Die Cut Card building and money for programs at Holyoke Community College and Dean Technical High School.

HOLYOKE — Mayor Alex B. Morse's initial reaction in mid-September to a casino proposal floated by entertainment and real estate mogul Eric Suher was terse: "I don't like it."

The response, sent on Sept. 13, came just over a half hour after the city’s planning and economic development director, Marcos A. Marrero, forwarded an email to the mayor in which Suher outlined a list of potential benefits to the city.

Suher -- who grew up in the Paper City, launched his business career here, and is still a resident -- promised significant investment for the city's downtown. He also offered funding for programs at Holyoke Community College and William J. Dean Technical High School to accompany his proposed casino at Mountain Park.

The emails are included in nearly 500 pages of documents obtained by The Republican and MassLive.com in a Nov. 28 request to the city for release of public records. The request was filed in the days after Morse announced he would consider proposals from would-be casino developers, a change of heart from the strong anti-casino position he took in his 2011 campaign for mayor. Within three weeks, Morse changed his mind yet again, announcing on Dec. 13 that he would not negotiate with casino developers after all.

Earlier in 2012, Morse had virtually shut another would-be casino developer, Paper City Development, out of the game when its principals pitched a casino plan for Wyckoff Country Club. The mayor also penned an anti-casino editorial, "No Dice," in CommonWealth magazine's October issue in which he outlined the city's non-casino strategies for economic development.

With Morse's announcement on Nov. 26 that the city would enter the casino process, Suher's Mountain Park plan emerged as the apparent frontrunner. The gaming resort was proposed for land Suher acquired in 2006 and 2007, including one property bought by a corporation he named Dadgayadoh MA, a Seneca Indian word that means "gambling men."

Paper City Development also got back in the action, resurrecting its Wyckoff proposal. A third possible site surfaced with Charles J. Petitti pitching a downtown “nonprofit” casino that he called “Good Sam’s,” a play on “good Samaritan.”

Now, with the state Gaming Commission’s Jan. 15 deadline looming for developers to submit a $400,000 fee and application materials, it is unclear if the casino debate for Holyoke will resume or die.

A partner in Paper City Development says the group will file the nonrefundable fee to the state Gaming Commission by Tuesday.

"We are still in, working it every day, through Christmas and New Year's with lawyers and others," partner Anthony L. Cignoli wrote in an email to The Republican on Jan. 3. (See related story.)

Suher declined to say if will submit the fee and application. He said renewed discussion of casino meetings he had with city officials amounted to "trying to beat a dead horse."

Holyoke's casino supporters have vowed to gather signatures needed to place a non-binding referendum on the November municipal election ballot, asking if voters want a casino. Holyoke voters approved casino questions in 2002 and 1995.

The documents obtained by The Republican outline the rise and fall of Morse’s willingness to engage with casino developers. They also document the role Marrero took in bringing Suher's proposal to the mayor and ultimately offering cautionary notes about the process after the pair visited a Bethlehem, Pa., casino in late November.

The documents also reveal the extensive, but short-lived, role that consultant David B. Panagore, once chief development officer for the city of Springfield, played in the early stages of Holyoke’s casino process.

The Suher bet
Marrero, who previously worked as a land-use and environmental planner with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, took his post as Holyoke’s director of planning and economic development on May 14. He was appointed by Morse in April.

11.26.2012 | HOLYOKE -- Eric Suher, right, attends the press conference in November at which Mayor Alex B. Morse announced that he would consider casino proposals. Greg Saulmon | The Republican  

Emails show that Marrero contacted Suher on Aug. 31 to ask for a meeting the week of Sept. 10. The agenda which Marrero proposed included discussion of a number of Suher’s properties in the city -- "particularly the Die Cut Card building” at 439 Dwight St., he wrote.

Marrero's meeting with Suher took place on Sept. 12 and lasted two hours, according to one of the emails obtained by The Republican.

Suher wrote to Marrero in a Sept. 13 email, “I appreciate you taking the time yesterday. I do understand the mayor’s issue, but I feel strongly that this project is SO different from the previous Wyckoff plan, we need to seriously look at this, rather than just say no.”

Suher then outlined benefits to the city that his Mountain Park proposal would bring. He noted he had “taken care to make certain that Ward 7 would not be affected by traffic, noise, etc.” Much of the Ward 7 neighborhood, which runs along the Route 5 corridor on the northern side of the city, lies within close proximity to the Mountain Park site.

Suher's plan, according to the email, placed a “huge emphasis on downtown investment and economic sustainability.”

That investment would include locating the casino's management offices downtown, “with further investment in (the) 439 Dwight St. mill building for restaurant and cafe along the canal.”

Suher also proposed investing in market-rate residential housing downtown and offered money to complete the CanalWalk, including adding “canal laser light fountains.” Renderings submitted by Suher show a nightscape of the city, with the fountains in a stretch of the first-level canal that runs along Heritage State Park.

Suher also proposed building “an indoor / outdoor downtown mercado” and linking the casino to downtown by offering transportation between Mountain Park and the recently built Holyoke Transportation Center on Maple Street.

Other proposed investments included an endowment for a culinary school at Holyoke Community College, a culinary program at Dean Tech and other unspecified programs.

As for the casino itself, Suher said, the project would mean “two thousand plus jobs for Holyoke residents” and that the proposed resort would include a convention center and 300-room hotel, a “music amphitheater with covered seating that would attract world class entertainers” and a “recreation facility that would attract people from all over the region”

There was no price tag attached to all of Suher's proposed projects. Suher said the footprint for the project, including access ramps from Interstate 91, would fit within the parcels he already owns around the Mountain Park property.

Fountains equipped with laser lights, seen here in a rendering submitted as part of a package of documents relating to casino proposals in Holyoke, were part of Eric Suher's plan to marry downtown investment with a Mountain Park casino.  

“This would send a huge message to the Holyoke (and surrounding) business community, enabling the city to attract additional business investment,” Suher wrote. “I am a lifelong city resident, and I have been investing in Holyoke since I was 18. I would never propose a project that I feel would be detrimental to the city or its residents.”

In interviews about the project, Suher has said he was negotiating with Len and Mark Wolman, principals in the Waterford Group, of Waterford, Conn., to operate the casino. The Wolmans have been in partnerships on casino projects, including the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., which is proposing a resort casino in Palmer.

Marrero’s meeting with Suher came at the same time Morse sought the planning director's input for his anti-casino editorial. Morse first asked Marrero to review the editorial on Sept. 11, emails show. One of the emails from the morning of Sept. 12 shows Marrero responded to the mayor that he had been in a meeting with Suher and hadn’t yet reviewed the piece. “We need to talk,” he added.

Suher’s email outlining the casino details arrived on the afternoon of Sept. 13, and Marrero fowarded it to Morse at 2:55 p.m. Morse’s response, “I don’t like it,” came just over a half hour later.

Morse’s initial resistance, though, appears to fade over the course of the next few weeks, the municipal documents show.

Copies of Morse’s calendar obtained by The Republican show he met with Marrero, city solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross and treasurer Jon Lumbra on Sept. 25 “re: Eric Suher.” Morse said the meeting was to discuss the details Suher had sent on Sept. 13, and that this was the first time he met with other city officials to discuss Suher’s proposal.

Morse met with Suher at 3 p.m. on Nov. 13, his calendar shows, and the mayor confirmed that casinos were on the agenda for that meeting.

Both Marrero and Morse said they had no knowledge of Suher approaching any other city officials regarding a casino prior to Marrero’s Sept. 12 meeting. Marrero said he met with Suher on earlier occasions to discuss Suher’s “Pleasant Crossing” site at the corner of Hampden and Pleasant streets. The topic of casinos did not arise during those meetings, Marrero said.

“There really is no further story to be told about meetings with Morse and Marrero that hasn't already been told,” Suher said in an email response for comment for this story. “Someone's trying to beat a dead horse.”

The mayor says Suher's proposal never amounted to any firm plans: “There was never a complete ‘plan’ shown to the City, merely a concept that Mr. Suher presented us.”

Morse added this week, “Even today, I haven't seen a plan from Suher other than what the public knows about, which was a general concept for a casino resort on Mt. Tom with a few Downtown components.”

Asked what happened between the Sept. 13 email in which he dismissed Suher’s proposal and his Nov. 26 announcement that he would consider casino proposals, Morse said only, “I felt that my job as mayor required me to give it more thought, and in an effort to be transparent, I thought it was necessary to deliberate publicly.”

A house of (Die Cut) cards
Suher, through his company ES Development Corp., bought the four-story Holyoke Die Cut Card building in November 2001 for $157,500. The vacant building, located at 439 Dwight St., sits across Front Street from a municipal parking garage and across Dwight from the Volleyball Hall of Fame and Heritage State Park. The building and land are currently assessed at $258,900, according to city records.

It is one of several Suher-owned properties in Holyoke that figure in the city’s economic development and downtown revitalization efforts, some of which have vexed Paper City officials for years.

In October 2010, Suher sought a zoning change to build a parking lot at Mountain Park, which aroused suspicions among neighbors that he was gearing up for a possible gaming facility. A meeting to discuss the zoning change drew questions from city councilors about his plans for his Pleasant Crossing property, which had been sitting idle since he purchased it in 2005. At the time, Suher faced a November 2010 deadline to determine a use for the lot or see it revert to city ownership for $1. He had already received six previous extensions.

After the meeting, then-Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said she had also frequently asked about Suher’s intentions for the Die Cut building. Suher said on multiple occasions that he hoped to convert the property into market-rate housing, but was waiting until the Holyoke Housing Authority renovated the nearby Lyman Terrace housing complex.

Suher was, to the city's benefit several years earlier, the first of several property owners along the proposed CanalWalk to sign a formal easement with the city. The easements, signed in 2007 for Suher’s property at 72 Front St. and the die-cut building, allowed the city to move forward with the first phase of the project.

The promise to include funding to complete the CanalWalk as part of his casino development would have brought the project full circle, since he helped get it off the ground nearly six years ago.

Other benefits Suher listed in his casino concept were more speculative, involving land he does not already own.

A map of Suher's proposed downtown investments shows "Future Market Rate Housing" located at Lyman Terrace, bounded by High, Lyman, Front and John streets. The low-income, 167-unit housing project managed by the Holyoke Housing Authority was slated for demolition early in 2012, but it won a reprieve when Morse called for studying other options.

View full size A map included with documents provided in response to a records request by The Republican shows areas of downtown investment, proposed with Suher's plan for a Mountain Park Casino.  

Suher's conceptual map shows the downtown “mercado” located on city-owned land at 191 Appleton St. The “restaurant and outdoor terrace” are shown on Front Street, adjacent to the Die Cut building on land currently occupied by Suher’s Canal Place building at 72 Front St., now home to offices for several state agencies, and a building at 120 Front St. owned by Edward A. Owen, of West Springfield.

Morse said Suher's focus on downtown investment helped persuade him to reconsider a casino proposal for the city.

“The preliminary commitment to downtown, including the investments mentioned above (CanalWalk, Die Cut Card Building, seed money for the Holyoke Redevelopment Authority), did play a role in my decision to consider proposals,” the mayor said. "Furthermore, given the budgetary constraints on the City, the possibility of millions of dollars in additional tax revenue would compel any Mayor to look twice. I needed to explore whether or not it would be possible to achieve those goals – a casino in the City and a revitalized Downtown.”

The upgrades Suher proposed mirrored the city's plan for downtown redevelopment, known as “Connect. Construct. Create: A Plan for the Revitalization of Center City Holyoke,” that was released in September. And, emails obtained by The Republican show that concurrent to his casino negotiations Suher was working with city officials to lure a national restaurant chain to the Pleasant Crossing site.

Cornerstones of the “Connect. Construct. Create” plan include improving downtown housing options and rehabilitating blighted properties. CanalWalk is listed as a featured project.

Both Morse and Marrero said the plan can move ahead without investment from Suher as part of a casino deal.

“The Redevelopment Authority along with many city officials and participating citizens worked hard for several years to put a comprehensive plan in place that wouldn't sit on a shelf, but could be executed with success,” Marrero said. He added: “A casino (and funding from it) was never part of that plan, so the absence of a casino will not hinder it.”

A consultant's role
Another entry in the mayor’s calendar shows Morse initially met on Sept. 7 at 10:30 a.m. with Panagore, who most recently worked as chief operating officer in Hartford.

Morse said the crux of the Sept. 7 meeting was that Panagore “wanted to discuss opportunities in Holyoke and in Western Massachusetts.” The meeting did not involve any discussion of casinos, Morse said. He had been eager to take the meeting with Panagore, he said, because, “I have great respect for David, and he brings a unique set of experiences to the table, coupled with expertise and passion, like no one else I know.”

Panagore had resigned from his post in Hartford on Aug. 20, setting his last day as Sept. 14. At the time, he told the Hartford Courant he didn’t have another job in place. “I just didn't feel it was fair to undertake a job search while on the city's payroll.”

Panagore resurfaced in Holyoke when Morse announced in late November that he would consider casino proposals. Under the plan Morse laid out, Panagore would serve as a development consultant for the city, with fees to be paid by whichever operator managed the resort's casino.

A contract proposal with Panagore, dated Dec. 4, was included in the documents obtained by The Republican.

Under the contract, Panagore would work under the direction of Marrero to “... manage the City’s available assets and resources on behalf of the Mayor in order to successfully represent the City’s interests consistent with its development strategy, facilitate all facets of the development process relative to the potential location of a casino in Holyoke.”

Panagore was expected to review casino license applications and plans, assist with media relations and facilitate community outreach. He would also “act as principal point of negotiation for any agreement with project proponents, as contemplated by the Gaming Act, including developing host community services,” the contract proposal states.

The proposed agreement carried an option for the city to renew it on Oct. 1, 2013. It set an hourly rate of $150 and a ceiling of 100 hours.

An invoice dated Dec. 3 and submitted on Dec. 6 shows Panagore billed the city for $4,640 to cover 29 hours of work at $160 an hour between Nov. 20 and Dec. 4. The itemized work list includes conducting research, meeting with Morse and other city officials and drafting a letter to potential casino developers.

Panagore played a role in the run-up to the mayor's Nov. 26 press conference, billing one hour at $160 for time on Nov. 25 to prepare for the event. On the day of the press conference, he billed for $1,360 to cover 8.5 hours of work.

On Dec. 4, a day for which he billed the city $960 for six hours of work, Panagore reportedly assisted Morse and Marrero in crafting an invitation to area mayors for a regional meeting on casinos, according to the documents.

Emails show that Panagore was also asked to participate in weekly meetings with city officials to discuss the casino issue. Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, assistant to the mayor, emailed Panagore and others on Nov. 29 to schedule the meetings. The first one was set for Dec. 3.

Panagore’s emails exchanged with city officials show he worked for Holyoke right up until Morse's Dec. 13 announcement. On Dec. 10, for instance, Morse forwarded a query from a reporter to Panagore, asking for thoughts on how to respond. The next day, Marrero asked Panagore for input on how to respond to questions from Paper City Development principals.

On the day Morse went public with his suspension of the casino proposal process, Panagore posted a link via Twitter to The Republican / MassLive.com’s coverage of the announcement. Later that night, Panagore wrote, "Mayor amazes me with his integrity & courage. Once he knew he had decided, he acted. No pretense, no wasted expense.”

Morse said this week that the city has ended its consulting relationship with Panagore.

The Bethlehem effect
What ultimately led Morse to reverse course on casinos the second time left many observers puzzled.

In interviews, Morse cited strong and vocal opposition from the community. He was jeered by a crowd outside his office when he held his Nov. 26 press conference, and casino opponents in the city quickly mobilized in the days that followed.

"At a time when our community needs unity of purpose, a year-long debate over locating a casino within our borders would only sow division and discord," Morse said when he announced his suspension of the casino process.

Bethlehem Mayor John B. Callahan gives a presentation on the process to bring the Sands Resort Casino to his city. The discussion was part of the City2City Greater Springfield's learning trip to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. Robert Rizzuto | The Republican  

Records show that a trip Morse and other city officials took to Pennsylvania in late November also influenced his decision. During that trip, part of the City2City program organized by the Federal Reserve of Boston and Philadelphia, Morse, Marrero and Lumbra joined other Western Massachusetts representatives to tour the sprawling Sands Casino Resort at the former Bethlehem Steel property.

“There are real risks when you introduce gaming or gambling to a community, and a municipality needs to be vigilant in planning to mitigate such problems," Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan told his visitors. "We spent a lot of time traveling to other cities with casinos and ended up working together as a region to make it work for everybody.”

On Dec. 10, Marrero sent an email to Morse detailing his notes from the Pennsylvania trip and expressing doubts about whether the economic success Bethlehem found hosting a casino could translate to Holyoke.

“There were a few notable economic, procedural and site-specific circumstances under which Bethlehem’s (gaming-licensed resort) was provided a successful project and model of GLR development,” Marrero wrote. “It is highly questionable whether those circumstances currently exist in Holyoke.”

Listing differences between Bethlehem and Holyoke, Marrero noted the Pennsylvania casino’s proximity to the large New Jersey and New York markets, and cited the Bethlehem mayor's description of the Sands Casino -- with its tagline of “Closer than you think,” -- as “convenience gambling on steroids.” Marrero wrote that the largest markets a Holyoke casino could draw from – Boston and New York – would ultimately have casino resorts closer to their own metropolitan regions.

Marrero cited leaders he met in Pennsylvania who said the Sands Casino “does not play a role in spreading economic development in the region.” He also noted that Lehigh Valley region’s high rate of population growth in recent years, projected to continue in the current decade, stands in contrast to relatively flat growth in the Pioneer Valley.

Marrero also expressed concerns about the timeline of the casino process in Holyoke.

Lehigh Valley officials, he said, took a course of several years to discuss potential casino developments, visiting communities with casinos across the country and building partnerships with their own local arts, business and educational organizations.

“It is questionable whether we would have the opportunity to replicate such efforts locally by the Phase II deadline without compromising other planning efforts in the community and/or other items on the City’s economic development agenda,” Marrero wrote to the mayor.

Morse this week told The Republican and MassLive.com that the trip to Pennsylvania and Marrero’s memo played a role in his decision to return to an anti-casino stance. It became clear during the trip, Morse said, that the conditions that made a casino a successful bet for Bethlehem were not present in Holyoke: "It didn't take long to realize that any potential benefit was not worth it."

A visit to the gaming floor of the casino, Morse said, also made an impression: “(It) was nothing short of an incredibly depressing site to see. It was clear Holyoke could do better.”

While initially encouraged by Suher’s apparent commitment to downtown investment as part of a casino deal, Morse said, he concluded that a Mountain Park casino and a revitalized downtown were “incompatible visions of the city" and locating a casino on the outskirts of the city would be “incompatible with a vibrant Downtown Holyoke.”

Morse also reiterated that he would not support a casino for downtown Holyoke. “I'd rather focus on a long-term, sustainable approach to economic development,” he said.

Staff writer Mike Plaisance contributed reporting to this story.

One casino developer still plans to pursue a resort while another has declined to reveal plans.

Eric Suher, right, attends the press conference in November at which mayor Alex B. Morse announced that he would consider casino proposals, a position he has since changed. Greg Saulmon, The Republican  

HOLYOKE — Ever since the door closed again here on the casino issue on Dec. 13, Paper City Development has been noisy, and Eric Suher has been silent.

Paper City, a limited liability company, and Suher, who owns local entertainment venues, have proposed separate casino resorts for the Mount Tom range.

A partner in Paper City Development, which proposed a gaming venue at Wyckoff Country Club, said the limited liability company will stay in the casino hunt. The company will file the $400,000 nonrefundable fee to the state Gaming Commission by Tuesday's deadline, partner Anthony L. Cignoli wrote in an email on Jan. 3.

"We are still in, working it every day, through Christmas and New Year's with lawyers and others," Cignoli wrote.

Also, the owner of 15.5 acres on Water Street said Paper City officials have discussed buying that site for a downtown casino.

» See related story

CIgnoli declined to comment on remarks made to The Republican and MassLive.com by Glenn Shealey of Quantum Properties on the developer's interest in 14-26 Water St. for a gaming resort. The site was formerly the American Writing Paper Co., he said.

Paper City partners Anthony Ravosa Jr. and Joseph A. Lashinger Jr. also have talked about the issue, criticizing city treasurer Jon D. Lumbra. They say Lumbra took too long to release a report that city councilors had sought on the impact a gaming resort could have for the city, such as increased property taxes.

After Lumbra released the report, Dec. 21, Ravosa and Lashinger issued a statement that it was "not worth the paper it's written on."

Suher, who proposed a casino for the Mountain Park music venue he owns, declined to say Thursday whether he will keep his bid alive by filing the state application.

"Sorry, I don't want to comment," Suher wrote in a text message.

Mayor Alex B. Morse announced on Dec. 13 he had reverted to his previous opposition to considering casino projects. Morse stunned the region by declaring on Nov. 26 he had decided to reverse the anti-casino position he took in his 2011 campaign to be mayor.

The public outcry after he opened the gaming door, Morse said, helped convince him a casino was the wrong way for the city to pursue redevelopment, despite at least a $500 million investment and hundreds of jobs.

"At a time when our community needs unity of purpose, a year-long debate over locating a casino within our borders would only sow division and discord," Morse said at the time.

Morse said Paper City Development's interest in property on Water Street for a casino would be a waste of time and money because he has ruled out casino projects here.

"It's out of the question – and I refuse to meet with (Paper City Development) or any property owner downtown in regards to casinos. It's a dead issue," Morse said.

Lumbra said his casino-impact report was a "hypothetical snapshot of what might be, not what will be." Its estimates were based on "a very high level review with little if any factual details" about any of the city's potential casino developments, he said.

Some impacts, such as upgrades to the municipal sewer system and potential effects on real estate property values, are nearly impossible to estimate, Lumbra wrote in the report.

One positive element from a casino, he said, could hit the tax rolls by 2016. Lumbra's analysis showed the city could see the room between its tax levy limit and its levy ceiling expand from $999,226 in 2013 to $10.6 million. The additional $10 million would let the city provide better services, he said.

Lashinger contends Lumbra was underplaying the revenue benefits of a casino to curry favor with a small, but vocal, group of casino opponents here.

"For purely political reasons, Mr. Lumbra is intent on downplaying the positive tax implications and suppressing enthusiasm for what would be a transformative project for Holyoke. His half-baked response to these prior council orders is both insulting and outrageous," Lashinger said.

Lumbra said on Friday that Paper City's latest criticism is "laughable."

"If anyone is playing politics here, it is Paper City. They are criticizing me over communications with the City Council because they apparently don't like the response. However, my fiduciary responsibility is to the city of Holyoke, not private developers," Lumbra said.

A report about a casino's impact on the city from chief assessor Anthony Dulude was perhaps more positive than Lumbra's, but also was less detailed.

"The economic impact of a casino would be a boost for the city overall," Dulude said.

A $500 million project taxed at the city's commercial rate of $39.97 per $1,000 valuation, he said, would bring in an nearly $20 million in additional property taxes a year.

Still, Dulude said, "The impact of a casino however would be many years away before we started to see any revenue growth."

Subbaswamy has named Amilcar Shabazz, the former chairman of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department Afro-American Studies department, to the newly created faculty adviser for diversity and excellence. 





Amilcar Shabazz  

Amilcar Shabazz Submitted photo  

AMHERST – University of Massachusetts Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy has named the former chairman of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department Afro-American Studies department to the newly created faculty adviser for diversity and excellence. 





Amilcar Shabazz will serve on the Campus Leadership Council and be the chancellor’s representative to all campus groups, committees and councils involved in advancing diversity, according to a press release.

He will meet with various groups and members of the senior administration, staff, faculty and students, “to develop and implement appropriate academic initiatives to advance the campus’s diversity goals,” said Subbaswamy in a statement.

Shabazz said he is honored to be named to the position and will serve half time and teach one class instead of two. The appointment is for three years.

Since the announcement earlier this week, Shabazz has been answering an avalanche of emails some of which were congratulatory. “Many people are already putting me to work,” he said.
His appointment “gives (hope to) a lot of people who may have felt previously I have no where to bring my concerns.”

“The Chancellor has regularly expressed his commitment to diversity and inclusion since coming here, and he believes Dr. Shabazz can play a vitally important role given his background,” said spokesman Edward F. Blaguszewski in an email.

The chancellor is “a very good leader,” Shabazz said. “We have this tradition of excellence in diversity in terms of UMass Amherst…We still have a lot of challenges before us. I think he was a quite a visionary (in making the appointment.)”

He said talked with the chancellor over the summer and then again in November and he knows the chancellor is committed to change.

A professor at UMass since 2007, Shabazz is the author of several books including “Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas.”

Born Eric Frank, Shabazz changed his name several decades ago, his first to honor Amilcar Cabral, the founder of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde, and his surname to Shabazz, to honor Malcolm X whose religious name was Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

Those names, he said “were the expression of the evolution of my own intellectual development and the expression of my deepening cultural identity.”

In a statement, the chancellor said “Professor Shabazz has written and consulted extensively on issues of race and diversity. We will benefit greatly from his scholarship and leadership experience on this campus and in his previous appointments, and I look forward to having his invaluable perspective on our work in this critical area."





Before coming to UMass, Shabazz taught at Oklahoma State University and the University of Alabama.

He had performed with Elvis Presley more than a thousand time

An autographed photo of guitarist John Wilkinson performing with Elvis Presley in 1974. johnwilkinson.net  

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rhythm guitar player John Wilkinson, who performed with Elvis Presley more than a thousand times, has died at his home in southwest Missouri. He was 67.

Wilkinson passed away Friday at his home in Springfield after a fight with cancer, according to a family spokesman and the Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home. Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley offered their "deepest sympathy" to his family, saying in a statement that "John and the beautiful music he made with Elvis will live forever in our hearts."

Wilkinson first met Elvis Presley when he was 10 years old after sneaking into his dressing room before a show at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield. He amused Presley when he told him, "You can't play guitar worth a damn."

Family friend and spokesman Gary Ellison said a Springfield history museum recalled the pair's meeting in an exhibit that ran until about three weeks ago.

"John loved to tell that story," Ellison, a fellow musician, said Friday.

After the chance meeting, Wilkinson developed a name for himself as a singer and guitarist, performing with such groups as The New Christy Minstrels.

He was 23 when Presley saw him perform on a television show in Los Angeles in 1968, and asked him to join the TCB Band — not knowing he was the youngster who insulted his playing a decade earlier, Ellison recalled.

Wilkinson went on to play 1,200 shows as Presley's rhythm guitar player until the legendary singer's death in 1977.

"John considered Elvis more as a friend than as a boss," Ellison said.

Even after suffering a stroke in 1989 that left him unable to play the guitar, Wilkinson continued singing with fellow musicians, including the old TCB Band (the acronym stood for Taking Care of Business), and also made a living in retail and airline services management.

 

"He was honestly one of the best acoustic guitar players I'd ever heard," Ellison recalled, adding that Wilkinson kept in touch with many of the performers from the folk music era in the late 1960s and early `70s.

A statement from the family, released through Ellison, said Wilkinson also was proud of the fact that he never turned down a request for an autograph.

"It didn't matter if he was meeting adoring fans, joking with Chuck Berry about keeping his B-string in tune, or if he was talking to a neighbor about her dog, people were people to him," the statement said.

"Folks were folks. John would look you square in the eye and accept you, just as you were. There was nothing phony about him."

He is survived by his wife, Terry. A private graveside service is planned.

The gaming industry says that violent crime, particularly among the young, has fallen since the early 1990s while video games have increased in popularity.

This video game image released by Activision shows a scene from "Call of Duty: Black Ops II." AP  

WASHINGTON (AP) — The video game industry, blamed by some for fostering a culture of violence, defended its practices Friday at a White House meeting exploring how to prevent horrific shootings like the recent Connecticut elementary school massacre.

Vice President Joe Biden, wrapping up three days of wide-ranging talks on gun violence prevention, said the meeting was an effort to understand whether the U.S. was undergoing a "coarsening of our culture."

"I come to this meeting with no judgment. You all know the judgments other people have made," Biden said at the opening of a two-hour discussion. "We're looking for help."

Afterward, the Entertainment Software Association said in a statement that it had told Biden that "independent, scientific research conducted to date has found no causal connection between video games and real-life violence."

"We also recognized that gun violence is a serious problem in our country," the group said, adding that "as an industry integral to the social and cultural fabric of America" it wanted to work toward "meaningful solutions." It didn't say what those might be.

The gaming industry says that violent crime, particularly among the young, has fallen since the early 1990s while video games have increased in popularity.

There are conflicting studies on the impact of video games and other screen violence. Some conclude that video games can desensitize people to real-world violence or temporarily quiet part of the brain that governs impulse control. Other studies have concluded there is no lasting effect.

Cheryl Olson, a participant in Biden's meeting and a researcher of the effect of violent video games, said there was concern among industry representatives that they would be made into a scapegoat in the wake of the Connecticut shooting.

"The vice president made clear that he did not want to do that," Olson said.

Biden is expected to suggest ways to address violence in video games, movies and on television when he sends President Barack Obama a package of recommendations for curbing gun violence Tuesday. The proposals are expected to include calls for universal background checks and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Obama appointed Biden to lead a gun violence task force after last month's shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school that left 20 children and six educators dead.

Gun-safety activists were coalescing around expanded background checks as a key goal for the vice president's task force. Some advocates said it may be more politically realistic — and even more effective as policy — than reinstating a ban on assault weapons.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said some 40 percent of gun sales happen with no background checks, such as at gun shows and by private sellers over the Internet or through classified ads.

"Our top policy priority is closing the massive hole in the background check system," the group said Friday.

While not backing off support for an assault weapons ban, some advocates said there could be broader political support for increasing background checks, in part because that could actually increase business for retailers and licensed gun dealers who have access to the federal background check system.

"The truth is that an assault weapons ban is a very important part of the solution — and it is also much tougher to pass," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines are also seen by some as an easier lift politically than banning assault weapons.

The National Rifle Association adamantly opposes universal background checks, as well as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — all measures that would require congressional approval. The NRA and other pro-gun groups contend that a culture that glamorizes violence bears more responsibility for mass shootings than access to a wide range of weapons and ammunition.

In a 2009 report, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared, "The evidence is now clear and convincing: Media violence is one of the causal factors of real-life violence and aggression."

The report focused on all types of media violence. But for video games in particular, the pediatricians cited studies that found high exposure to violent ones increased physical aggression at least in the short term, and warned that they allow people to rehearse violent acts. On the other hand, it said friendly video games could promote good behavior.

A wide spectrum of the video game industry was represented at the meeting with the vice president, including the makers of violent war video games like "Call of Duty" and "Medal of Honor" and a representative from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, which sets age ratings that on every video game package released in the United States.

The vice president met Thursday with representatives from the entertainment industry, including Motion Picture Association of America and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. In a joint statement after the meeting, a half-dozen said they "look forward to doing our part to seek meaningful solutions" but offered no specifics.

Biden, hinting at other possible recommendations to the president, said he is interested in technology that would keep a gun from being fired by anyone other than the person who bought it. He said such technology may have curtailed what happened last month in Connecticut, where the shooter used guns purchased by his mother.

The vice president has also discussed making gun trafficking a felony, a step Obama can take through executive action. And he is expected to make recommendations for improving mental health care and school safety.

"We know this is a complex problem," Biden said. "We know there's no single answer."

The president plans to push for the new measures in his State of the Union address, scheduled for Feb. 12.

School Committee Chairman John McCarthy asked whether it would make sense to close the school for two full weeks for Christmas vacation to save on energy costs since Christmas and New Year’s Day will fall on Wednesdays.

WILBRAHAM - The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee will be asked to approve a calendar for the 2013-14 school year at its Jan. 22 meeting.

School Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea proposed a calendar in which students would begin the 2013-14 school year on Aug. 28.

M. Martin O'Shea  

The last day of school would be June 17, 2014, not including snow days.

Christmas vacation for the 2013-14 school year is proposed to begin Dec. 23. Students would return to school on Jan. 2, 2014.

The calendar proposed by the superintendent also includes a February and an April school vacation.

School Committee Chairman D. John McCarthy asked whether it would make sense to close the school for two full weeks for Christmas vacation to save on energy costs since Christmas and New Year’s Day will fall on Wednesdays.

School officials said the proposal could be studied, but they do not want to dismiss students too late in June in the event of snow days. The school calendar also includes five in-service days for teachers and four early release days.

O’Shea said the in-service days are needed for teachers to implement a new math series, for teacher evaluations and to complete the accreditation process.

School Committee member Lena Buteau asked whether instead of having a February and an April school vacation, it would be possible to have one school vacation in March.

O’Shea said that could be researched. He said school systems that have tried that calendar have abandoned it.

School Committee member Marianne Desmond said that having only one school vacation can lead to too much fatigue and sickness among students and staff.

Changing the school vacations would be subject to collective bargaining, O’Shea said.

School Committee members will be asked to approve the 2013-14 school calendar at the Jan. 22 meeting so parents can make plans for next year, based on when school is in session.

Point guards Chaz Williams and Branden Frazier will bring a distinctly Brooklyn flavor to Sunday's game in the Bronx.

 

Let's take a look at UMass basketball's next opponent, the Fordham Rams.

Fordham | 5-11 (1-0)

Game Quick Facts

Opponent's Last Five Games

Projected lineup

Player to watch

Not only that, Frazier and UMass point guard Chaz Williams both hail from Brooklyn, and attended catholic high schools that were just over two miles away from each other. With Williams wanting to step it up in his native New York City, this matchup could be fascinating when the teams take the floor Sunday afternoon.