U.S. Rep. Richard Neal wrote in an email that Republicans, Democrats and independents need to work together to address gun violence.

Smith & Wesson employee Ryan McIntosh works on a Venture Rifle at the Thompson Center area of the Smith & Wesson factory last year. Mark M. Murray / The Republican file  

SPRINGFIELD – Gunmaker Smith & Wesson is asking its Facebook friends and its Twitter followers to contact elected officials and influence the ongoing debate over gun control.

“We are a strong and proud supporter of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, particularly the Second Amendment and the rights that it affords U.S. citizens,” the company wrote on it Facebook account and on its website. “We support a comprehensive approach to preventing violence in our communities and a thorough evaluation of the challenges we face. However, like you, we do not support an erosion of fundamental rights in the process.

The Facebook posting had accumulated more than 2,100 “likes” as of Monday night.

In an email sent Monday, Elizabeth A. Sharp, Smith & Wesson vice president for investor relations, declined further comment.

Smith & Wesson suffered a consumer backlash in 2000 after reaching a gun-control agreement with the Clinton administration.

@smithwessoncorp Protect and preserve our 2nd Amendment rights. www.smith-wesson/preserveyourrights.com

— Smith & Wesson Corp. (@SmithWessonCorp) February 1, 2013

Monday, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, wrote in an email that Republicans, Democrats and independents need to work together to address gun violence.

“I am pleased to see Smith & Wesson and other gun manufacturers support a comprehensive approach to preventing gun violence,” Neal wrote. “As a nation, we need to work together to find common-sense solutions that will keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. There is no reason why this issue should polarize America. A good place to start is with universal background checks and closing the gun show loopholes.”

While none of Smith & Wesson’s products were used in the Newtown, Conn., killings, the company has not been able to escape controversy.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he wants TD Bank to stop providing a $60 million line of credit to Smith Wesson and Bank of America to stop providing a $25 million line to Sturm, Ruger & Company.

Ruger, based in Southport, Conn., has posted a similar call for action on its website.

Founded in 1852, Springfield’s Smith & Wesson has more than 1,600 employees. That number includes, according to its annual report, about 1,100 engaged in manufacturing at its sprawling firearms plant on Roosevelt Avenue.

In 2010, the city of Springfield granted an local tax incentive estimated to be worth $546,067 and the state granted $6 million in refundable tax credits to Smith & Wesson. In exchange, the company consolidated its operations here moving 225 jobs from a plant in New Hampshire.

In December, Smith & Wesson announced record sales of $136.6 million for its most recent quarter, up 48 percent from the second quarter the year before.

Best known for its iconic revolves, a growing part of Smith & Wesson’s business is in its line of M& P “modern sporting rifles.” Those rifles often look more like military firearms.

Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said firearms with high-capacity magazines and other military characteristics should be sold only to military and law enforcement officials. As a mayor, he said he has to be concerned with gun violence.

“Obviously, Smith & Wesson is a great corporate citizen,” Sarno said. “Again, no one is looking to take away anybody’s Second Amendment Rights.”

Last year's show drew 54 contestants and a packed school gym of dog fans.

Marie Ruel, of Chicopee, holds "Buffy" after winning third place for prettiest eyes at the Hot Dogs On A Cold Day dog show at Holyoke High School part of the city's Winter Carnival last year.  

Excited pooches and a bleachers filled with eager dog lovers are seen at last year's dog show at Holyoke High School. David Molna / The Republican file  

HOLYOKE - Offering categories like "Walks with an Attitude," the city's second annual dog show is scheduled to be held March 2 at Holyoke High School as part of the Winter Carnival.

The "Hot Dogs on a Cold Day" show will be 1 to 3 p.m. at the school at 500 Beech St.

The Winter Carnival, which also debuted last year, will feature numerous events at various sites from March 1 to 3.

All dogs must be licensed and accompanied by people who are 14 or older, said Teresa M. Shepard, director of the the Parks and Recreation Department.

Ribbons for first, second and third place will be awarded to dogs and owners by a panel of three judges, she said.

Last year's show drew 54 canine contestants as adults and children filled the high school gym to laugh at the dogs' antics and cheer them on.

"It was one of the funnest things we've done in a long time and it brought all facets of our community together," Shepard said.

"It was fun for everybody, those of us who put it on, the volunteers, even the dogs had fun," she said.

The registration fee is $8.00 per dog, but the event is open to people for free.

Each dog can compete in up to two categories. Owners are responsible to clean up after their dogs.

The maximum number of participants is 25 per category and the deadline to register is Feb. 26.

Veterinarian and pet supply agencies are welcome to participate by setting up an informational table. For information about donating or providing donations call (413) 322-5620 or email houlec@ci.holyoke.ma.

Anyone interested in volunteering can call the same number or email sheppart@ci.holyoke.ma.us

The Winter Carnival will begin at 6 p.m. on March 1 with a plan for a 1,000-strong "luminaria," which are candles set in sand inside a paper bag, placed along the walkways leading to the skating path at Community Field off Cherry Street.

Other events, some free and others requiring admission fee, include cake decorating, a concert, a hockey game between Holyoke and Chicopee firefighters, a domino tournament and spaghetti dinner.

The Winter Carnival schedule is at holyokewintercarnival.org/schedule

The Obama doll is the latest collectible of a political figure put out by HeroBuilders.com, a Connecticut toy maker.

 

Skeeter, the Herobuilders.com action figure depicting President Obama engaging in skeet shooting, went on sale Monday. Courtesy of Herobuilders.com  

That was fast.

Two days after the White House released photos of President Obama skeet shooting at Camp David, a Connecticut company is selling an action figure of a shotgun-toting president.

The action figure, or doll, depicts President Obama wearing tan slacks and a white T-shirt that bears the words “Clay pigeons.”

The doll, named “Skeeter,” went on sale Monday. The company says the first 1,000 of the dolls are on sale for $19.95.

The doll, named “Skeeter,” is the latest political collectable put out by Herobuilders.com, a company based in Oxford, Conn. Since 2002, the company has specialized in making custom-made dolls for customers interested in having dolls that look, dress and even talk like the buyer does. But the company also dabbles humor.
Over the years it has put out Dick Cheney dolls, Joe Biden dolls and Sarah Palin dolls. OK, several different Sarah Palin dolls.

For the last president race alone, there was $49.95 Mitt Romney doll, complete with minature Etch-a-Sketch, and a $69.95 talking Rick Perry doll that still can’t remember the 3rd federal agency he wanted to abolish. For the hardest of the hard-core political junkies, the company during the election offered boxing robots game only the robots standing toe to toe were fitted with the heads of Obama and Romney. That has a list price of $99.99

Skeeter the doll came about following a miniature tempest that arose when the president, who in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting has been an outspoken advocate for tougher gun laws, disclosed that he enjoys skeet shooting.

The top photo, released by the White House shows President Obama shooting a shotgun while skeet shooting at Camp David on Aug. 24, 2012. The bottom photo is Skeeter, the Obama action figure being put on by HeroBuilders.com, to commemorate Obama's hobby. Top: White House photo; Bottom: Herobuilders.com  

President Obama in a recent interview with The New Republic revealed for the first time that since he has been president, he has really gotten into shooting skeet while at Camp David. The presidential retreat has a range that for years has allowed presidents and their guests to blast away to their heart’s content at clay pigeons – and Obama is no exception.

Asked if he had ever fired a gun before, Obama replied “Yes, in fact up at Camp David we do skeet shooting all the time.”

It was the first mention anyone can recall of his fondness for shooting going into his 5th year in the White House, and immediately was met with the same sort of skepticism from those who doubt his birth certificate is genuine and who are still demanding his college transcripts.
The White House released a photo of Obama firing shotgun on the skeet range, but instead of stilling the storm waters, it only churned them up some more.

A spokesman for the NRA, Andrew Arulanandam said "One picture does not erase a lifetime of supporting every gun ban and every gun-control scheme imaginable."

The French plan to leave the city of Timbuktu on Thursday, Feb. 7, a spokeswoman for the armed forces in the city said Monday. French soldiers took the city last week after Islamic extremists withdrew.

A convoy of Malian troops makes a stop to test some of their weapons near Hambori, northern Mali, on the road to Gao, Monday Feb. 4, 2013. French troops launched airstrikes on Islamic militant training camps and arms depots around Kidal and Tessalit in Mali's far north, defense officials said Sunday, as the first supply convoy of food, fuel and parts to eastern Mali headed across the country. Associated Press  

By BABA AHMED

TIMBUKTU, Mali — In a new phase of the Mali conflict, French airstrikes targeted the fuel depots and desert hideouts of Islamic extremists in northern Mali overnight Monday, as French forces planned to hand control of Timbuktu to the Malian army this week.

After taking control of the key cities of northern Mali, forcing the Islamic rebels to retreat into the desert, the French military intervention is turning away from the cities and targeting the fighters' remote outposts to prevent them from being used as Saharan launch pads for international terrorism.

The French plan to leave the city of Timbuktu on Thursday, Feb. 7, a spokeswoman for the armed forces in the city said Monday. French soldiers took the city last week after Islamic extremists withdrew. Now the French military said it intends to move out of Timbuktu in order to push farther northeast to the strategic city of Gao.

"The 600 soldiers currently based in Timbuktu will be heading toward Gao in order to pursue their mission," said Capt. Nadia, the spokeswoman, who only provided her first name in keeping with French military protocol. She said that the force in Timbuktu will be replaced by a small contingent of French soldiers, though she declined to say when they would arrive.

On Monday, French troops in armored personnel carriers were still patrolling Timbuktu. In the city's military camps, newly arrived Malian troops were cleaning their weapons Monday and holding meetings to prepare to take over the security of the city once the French leave.

There are signs that the Islamic rebels are beginning a guerrilla-type of conflict from their desert retreats as land mine explosions have killed four Malian soldiers and two civilians throughout the northern region in recent days.

The two civilians died in an explosion from a land mine, or an improvised explosive device, on the road in northeastern Mali that links Kidal, Anefis and North Darane, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement Monday.

Four soldiers were killed last week by a land mine explosion in the northeast area near Gossi. The French reported that two other land mines have been found in that vicinity, and early Monday they detonated one of the mines.

French airstrikes targeted the Islamic extremists' desert bases and fuel depots in northern Mali overnight.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France-Inter radio Monday that the strikes hit the Kidal region, near the border with Algeria, for the second night in a row. The extremists "cannot stay there a long time unless they have ways to get new supplies," he said.

French Mirage and Rafale planes also pounded extremist training camps as well as arms and fuel depots from Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday, north of the town of Kidal and in the Tessalit region. France's Defense Ministry said Monday night that 25 depots and training centers had been targeted by fighter jets and attack helicopters.

The French intervened in Mali on Jan. 11 to stem the advance of the al-Qaida-linked fighters, who had taken over the country's north, enforced harsh rules on the population and plotted a terrorist attack in neighboring Algeria. The French troops arrived when the Islamic extremists threatened to move farther south.

After pushing extremists out of key northern cities, France is now pushing to hand over control of those sites to African forces from a United Nations-authorized force made up of thousands of troops from nearby countries.

"In the cities that we are holding we want to be quickly replaced by the African forces," Fabius said Monday.

Asked whether the French could pull out of the fabled city of Timbuktu and hand it to African forces as soon as Tuesday, Fabius responded, "Yes, it could happen very fast. We are working on it because our vocation is not to stay in the long term."

But it is far from clear that the African forces — much less the weak Malian army —are ready for the withdrawal of thousands of French troops, fighter planes and helicopters which would give the Africans full responsibility against the Islamic extremists, who may strike the cities from their desert hideouts.

In Paris, U. S. Vice President Joe Biden praised the French intervention in Mali while meeting with French President Francois Hollande.

"We applaud your decisiveness and, I might add, the capability of France's military forces," said Biden. "Your decisive action was not only in the interest of France but of the United States and everyone. We agreed on the need to, quickly as possible, establish an African-led mission to Mali and as quickly as prudent transition that mission to the UN."

Also in Paris, the Malian foreign minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly told The Associated Press that the Malian army will be fighting with French and African troops against the Islamic radicals.

"We must continue pushing them (the extremists) north and then over there, there is a real need for a strong military force, air force, to destroy all the implementations around the mountains," said Coulibaly. "So ultimately, the real objective is to destroy all terrorist presence in northern Mali."

The French have ramped up their troop level to nearly 4,000 — the number France once deployed in Afghanistan — and nearly 3,800 African soldiers were in Mali as of Monday, the French Defense Ministry said. Some 1,800 Chadian soldiers were holding the northern town of Kidal while French troops held the airport.

In northern Mali, the price of food and fuel is rocketing up as a result of the conflict, the international aid organization Oxfam warned Monday.

Many market traders of Arab or Tuareg descent fled the area when French troops pushed out the Islamic extremists last week and the traders have not returned for fear of reprisals, said Oxfam, in a statement.

"If traders do not come back soon and flows of food into northern Mali remain as limited as they are now, then it is likely that markets will not be properly stocked and prices will stay high — making it very difficult for people to get enough food to feed their families," said Philippe Conraud, Oxfam's country director in Mali.

"This phase of the war may almost be over, but the battle to build peace and stability has only just begun," said Conraud. "If people feel that their lives are at risk and that their families are not safe, they will not return to Mali. It's as simple as that."
_

The region has also seen a boost in diplomatic activity since last month, when North Korea announced it would conduct a nuclear test to protest U.N. Security Council sanctions toughened after a satellite launch in December that the U.S. and others say was a disguised test of banned missile technology.

In this Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 photo, the USS San Francisco, a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, is docked before South Korea and U.S. joint military exercises, at Jinhae naval base, South Korea. South Korean and U.S. troops began naval drills Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, in a show of force partly directed at North Korea amid signs that Pyongyang will soon carry out a threat to conduct its third atomic test. Associated Press  

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean and U.S. troops began naval drills Monday in a show of force partly directed at North Korea amid signs that Pyongyang will soon follow through on a threat to conduct its third atomic test.

The region has also seen a boost in diplomatic activity since last month, when North Korea announced it would conduct a nuclear test to protest U.N. Security Council sanctions toughened after a satellite launch in December that the U.S. and others say was a disguised test of banned missile technology.

Pyongyang's two previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, both occurred after it was slapped with increased sanctions for similar rocket launches. As it issued its most recent punishment, the Security Council ordered North Korea to refrain from a nuclear test or face "significant action."

North Korea's state media said Sunday that at a high-level Workers' Party meeting, leader Kim Jong Un issued "important" guidelines meant to bolster the army and protect national sovereignty. North Korea didn't elaborate, but Kim's guidelines likely refer to a nuclear test and suggest that Pyongyang appears to have completed formal procedural steps and is preparing to conduct a nuclear test soon, according to South Korean analyst Hong Hyun-ik.

"We assess that North Korea has almost finished preparations for conducting a nuclear test anytime and all that's left is North Korea making a political decision" to do so, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters Monday.

The spokesman said he couldn't disclose further details because they would involve confidential intelligence affairs. Recent satellite photos showed North Korea may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device could be exploded.

A North Korean nuclear test "seems to be imminent," South Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Sook said Monday at a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York.

He said there are "very busy activities" taking place at North Korea's nuclear test site "and everybody's watching." The ambassador said he expects the Security Council to respond with "firm and strong measures" in the event of a nuclear test.

On Monday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries kicked off three days of exercises off the Korean Peninsula's east coast that involve live-fire exercises, naval maneuvers and submarine detection drills.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the maneuvers are part of regular joint military training that the allies had scheduled before the latest nuclear tensions began. But the training, which involves a nuclear-powered American submarine, could still send a warning against possible North Korean provocation, a South Korean military official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.

Later Monday, Pyongyang's state media said the drills showed that the U.S. and South Korea have been plotting to attack North Korea and increased the danger of a war on the divided peninsula.

"The dark cloud of war is approaching to the Korean Peninsula," North Korea's official Uriminzokkiri website said in a commentary. "Our patience has the limit."

North Korea said similar things when South Korea and the U.S. conducted previous drills; the allies have repeatedly said they have no intention of attacking the North.

North Korea says U.S. hostility and the threat of American troops in South Korea are important reasons behind its nuclear drive. The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

North Korea also has denounced sanctions over its rocket launches, saying it has the sovereign right to launch rockets to send satellites into orbit under a space development program.

North Korea's two previous nuclear tests are believed to have been explosions of plutonium devices, but experts say the North may use highly enriched uranium for its upcoming test. That is a worry to Washington and others because North Korea has plenty of uranium ore, and because uranium enrichment facilities are easier to hide than plutonium facilities are.

Diplomats are meeting to find ways to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear test plans. New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-hwan held a telephone conversation Sunday night and agreed to sternly deal with any possible nuclear provocation by North Korea, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China met in Beijing on Monday and agreed that they would closely coordinate on ways to stop North Korea from conducting a nuclear test, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry. China is North Korea's main ally and aid benefactor.

China has refused to say whether it was sending an envoy to North Korea or whether Pyongyang has informed Beijing about its plans for a nuclear test. China's Foreign Ministry on Monday reiterated Beijing's opposition to a test, though it did not mention North Korea by name.

"We call on all sides, under the current circumstances, to avoid taking measures which will heighten regional tensions. We hope all parties concerned can focus their efforts more on helping to ease tensions on the peninsula and throughout the region and jointly maintain peace and stability on the peninsula," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily media briefing in Beijing.

Calls to scrap the process and redo the superintendent search were defeated, but persistent.

 

HOLYOKE - The School Committee Monday learned the names of the three finalists for superintendent in a meeting heavy with criticism that the search process lacked community involvement and should be redone.

The finalists to lead the School Department are Kimberly A. Wells, assistant Holyoke superintendent; Natalie B. Dunning, senior administrator of Common Core standards in the Springfield School Department; and Sergio Paez, manager of supplemental support services for the Worcester public schools.

The plan is for the School Committee to interview the finalists the week of March 4 and vote to appoint one the night of the last interview.

A 13-member search committee that the School Committee appointed screened the field of 12 applicants from which the finalists were chosen.

But the process seemed on the brink of unraveling. A move to scrap the process and begin the search again failed as the School Committee voted 6-3 against it.

The committee also defeated a bid to have the search committee deliberate more and submit names of two more finalists.

Mayor Alex B. Morse, chairman of the School Committee, supported the proposal to do another search and made the motion to add two finalists.

Morse criticized the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the Boston-based consultant the committee hired for the superintendent search, because he said the consultant did too little to involve parents and the community in the search.

"I haven't been very impressed with the MASC....Depending on the integrity of this process, I think we may want to consider beginning this process again," Morse said.

Joshua A. Garcia 

Also, Morse, Ward 1 committee member Joshua A. Garcia and others questioned whether the integrity of the search was tainted. Identities of the finalists were being discussed here in some quarters over the weekend but the names were supposed to be confidential until revealed at Monday's School Committee meeting, Garcia and others said.

"Before any of them were announced, I already knew who the three candidates were," said Joshua Garcia, who made the motion to redo the search.

But other School Committee members defended the process. The search committee was asked to screen applicants and submit three to finalists to the School Committee, they said.

"We asked for three to five candidates, so we got what we asked for, and we selected the members of the screening committee. I don't know what we're arguing about," Ward 7 member Margaret M. Boulais said.

Officials hope to have a new chief in place when Superintendent David L. Dupont retires after this school year in June.

Doing another search would make it impossible to have a new superintendent on board when Dupont leaves, committee member at large Michael J. Moriarty said.

"We don't get the perfect superintendent out of any process. We get the best applicant. That's all we can do," Moriarty said.

Pat Correira, field director with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said meetings for people in the community were held to get views about the superintendent search and an online survey was offered.

"We did the best we could," Correira said.

Search committee members said they worked hard, including about eight, multiple hour meetings in filtering the candidates, and followed the School Committee's instructions.

"As far as I'm concerned, it was a fair and well-run process," said Kelly Przekopowski, chairwoman of the screening committee and a former city teacher.

"I think everything was run the way it should have been," said search committee member Kathy Dunn, Level 4 liaison to the schools, former city teacher and former teachers union president.

"We had some really in-depth discussions and they weren't easy discussions," said search committee member Elizabeth Lafond, School Department administrative assistant.

The next school superintendent will be paid $140,000 to $170,000 a year and face a residency requirement

The Town Council has requested a variety of financial information from the city, including how much work on the mayor's office cost.

West Springfield Town Council President Kathleen Bourque is seen with Mayor Gregory Neffinger  

WEST SPRINGFIELD – Town Councilors Monday agreed to formally request budget information from the mayor and wait 10 days to see if he responds before taking any further action in their conflict with him in the matter.

Councilors took that course after seeking guidance from the state attorney general over Mayor Gregory C. Neffinger's contention he does not have to provide budget information unless the board requests it by a formal vote.

Town Council President Kathleen A. Bourque told councilors that she learned from the attorney general’s office that the council has the option of appealing to the state Secretary of State, hiring special legal counsel or getting help from an organization at the University of Massachusetts that works with municipalities.

State freedom of information laws allow government bodies to take 10 days to respond to public records requests, after which petitioners may then appeal to the state secretary of state.

Town Councilor George D. Condon III said there is no violation of the law until 10 days elapse.

Bourque said that the council has also not gotten responses from the mayor to letters requesting information it sent him earlier.

Condon commented that the “clock” just started ticking and that if the council complains before 10 days, the secretary of state would probably just refer the matter to the council.

“If we do not get a response within 10 days we have a legitimate argument,” Town Councilor John R. Sweeney said.

Town Councilor George R. Kelly, who made a motion with Bourque, to complain to the secretary of state, said he was troubled that the mayor rebuffed the requests of the town’s budget analyst for information.

Kelly and Bourque ended up withdrawing their motion.

“They would say the time period has not elapsed,” Town Attorney Simon J. Brighenti Jr. said of what he believes would happen if the council were not to wait for the 10 days to run out.

Kelly, who persuaded the council to complain to the attorney general about the situation, expressed dismay about the situation.

“We are going to grind town government to a halt if this continues the way it is now,” Kelly said.

He said the council needs financial information prior to deliberating over what will be the city’s next budget.

The council voted to ask that requests for information from the budget analyst be responded to within 10 days, that the city provide information about work on the mayor’s office and other parts of the municipal building, that the city provide information about intra- and inter-departmental budget transfers and that the city provide financial reporting information for most of the months in 2012.

Seven people were killed and about three dozen injured Sunday night when a tour bus crashed 80 miles east of Los Angeles.

An official takes notes Monday Feb. 4, 2013, at the scene of a tour bus crash near San Bernardino, Calif. The tour bus carrying dozens of men, women and children from Tijuana, Mexico, crashed in the mountains of Southern California killing at least eight people, authorities said.  

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and TAMI ABDOLLAH

YUCAIPA, Calif. — The bus full of tired tourists returning to Tijuana, Mexico, was slowly winding down a mountain road from the ski resort town of Big Bear when it suddenly picked up speed. The driver shouted to call 911 — the brakes had failed.

As passengers frantically tried to get a cellphone signal, a group of teenage girls shrieked and prayed aloud as others cried and shielded their heads as they careened downhill.

The bus rear-ended a Saturn sedan, swerved, flipped and slid on its side. A Ford pickup in the oncoming lane plowed into it, righting the bus and tossing passengers out shattered windows before it came to a halt.

"Everything happened so fast. When the bus spun everything flew, even the people," said Gerardo Barrientos, who was next to his girlfriend one minute and then scrambling out of the wreckage the next trying to find her and a friend in the highway. Both were injured but alive.

Seven people were killed and about three dozen injured Sunday night in the accident 80 miles east of Los Angeles. The dead included 13-year-old Victor Cabrera-Garcia; Elvira Garcia Jimenez, 40; and Guadalupe Olivas, 61, all of San Diego; along with Aleida Adriana Arce Hernandez, 38, and Rubicelia Escobedo Flores, 34, both of Tijuana, San Bernardino County coroner's supervisor Tony Campisi said.

Coroner's officials are trying to confirm the identity of one man and a woman remains unidentified.

On Monday, while families of the tourists descended on area hospitals looking for loved ones, investigators searched for evidence and scrutinized the bus company's safety history.

Government records showed the bus, operated by Scapadas Magicas LLC of National City, Calif., recorded 22 safety violations in inspections in the year ending last October — including brake, windshield and tire problems. Though the company retained an overall "satisfactory" rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration it had been targeted for a higher rate of inspections linked to bus maintenance, the agency said.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to the scene to help in the investigation, which will determine if mechanical failure or driver error was to blame. The driver, Norberto B. Perez, approximately 52, of San Ysidro, was injured but before going to the hospital told authorities the vehicle had brake problems.

The bus was returning to Tijuana on State Route 38, a two-lane highway that meanders through San Bernardino National Forest, when the accident occurred around 6:30 p.m.

A person involved in the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe was ongoing said the bus was going slowly down the hill and was being passed by other vehicles, including the Saturn, when it suddenly sped up.

The bus traveled about a mile from the point it struck the Saturn until it came to a stop, California Highway Patrol Officer Leon Lopez said.

Maria Salazar's daughter, 28-year-old Diana Maldonado of San Diego, was among those injured. Salazar said her daughter described the terror of the bus flipping and her head smashing through a window as she was propelled out of the vehicle. She lost consciousness and awoke as paramedics tended to her.

Maldonado hurt her back and shoulder but remarkably did not break any bones, according to her mother, who said her two other daughters had planned to make the trip but did not.

"I just thank God they did not go," Salazar said in Spanish as she choked back tears.

The crash littered Route 38 with body parts, winter clothing and debris. The bus stood across both lanes with its windows blown out, front end crushed and part of the roof peeled back like a tin can.

"I saw many people dead. There are very, very horrendous images in my head, things I don't want to think about," Barrientos said as he and girlfriend Lluvia Ramirez, who both work at a government hospital in Tijuana, waited outside the Loma Linda University Medical Center emergency room for word on a friend who broke her neck.

Barrientos, who was uninjured, quickly sprang into action following the crash, moving his friends to safety and then tried to help the bus driver, whose hand was pinned between rocks. Ramirez, who had a bloody ear, dark bruises and a scratch on her neck, suffered a hairline vertebra fracture.

"I was overwhelmed," she said. "I'm a surgical resident and I usually know how to react, but I was so in shock I didn't know what to do. I just stayed with my friend."

The gruesomeness of the injuries made it difficult for authorities to determine just how many had died. They initially said eight but then reduced the number to seven after determining no additional bodies were in the wrecked bus.

At least 17 people were still hospitalized Monday, including at least five in critical condition. The pickup driver was in extremely serious condition, said Peter Brierty, assistant county fire chief.

No one answered the door at the Scapadas Magicas office in a sprawling complex that houses more than 1,300 storage lockers and about 30 small offices.

Jordi Garcia, marketing director of Interbus Tours, said his company rented the bus from Scapadas Magicas, which supplied the driver.

Interbus offers near-daily bus tours to the western U.S. from Tijuana. Its office in a Tijuana strip mall displays photographs of some of its destinations, including Hollywood, the Las Vegas Strip and the San Diego Zoo.

There were 38 people aboard the bus that crashed, including the driver and a tour guide, Garcia said. The bus left Tijuana at 5 a.m. Sunday, with the itinerary calling for a return late that night.

He said he spoke briefly with his tour guide, who suffered bruises. She told him she heard a loud pop before the crash.

Associated Press reporters contributing to this report included Raquel Maria Dillon in San Bernardino County and Michael R. Blood, Andrew Dalton and Bob Jablon in Los Angeles

A Catholic hospital argued in a Colorado court that twin fetuses that died in its care were not, under state law, human beings.

Heather Surovik, who lost her 8 1/2-month-old unborn son when her car was struck by drunken driver Gary Sheats in 2012, speaks at a news conference promoting a political drive to grant "personhood" status to unborn fetuses at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. At center is Surovik's mother, Terry Koester, holding a photographic rendering of Surovik's fetus following the miscarriage. Prosecutors could not file vehicular manslaughter charges because her unborn son was not legally a person. When a Catholic hospital in Colorado used the same argument to avoid a wrongful death lawsuit over twin fetuses that died in its care, it triggered an avalanche of criticism.  

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI

DENVER — It was a startling assertion that seemed an about-face from church doctrine: A Catholic hospital arguing in a Colorado court that twin fetuses that died in its care were not, under state law, human beings.

When the two-year-old court filing surfaced last month, it triggered an avalanche of criticism — because the legal argument seemed to plainly clash with the church's centuries-old stance that life begins at conception.

But it is also now fueling an already raging debate in Colorado and beyond about whether fetuses should have legal rights and, if so, what kind.

On Monday, the hospital and the state's bishops released a statement acknowledging it was "morally wrong" to make the legal argument.

News of the wrongful death lawsuit came as Colorado lawmakers weigh how far they should go in penalizing acts that harm a fetus, and some worry that the case could diminish the Catholic Church's credibility in advocating more rights for the unborn.

Miguel De La Torre, a professor at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, noted that the church often argues for laws recognizing a fetus as a human being.

"If that legislation was to come up again, how could the Catholic Church argue we should protect the rights of a fetus?" he said.

Indeed, last week Colorado's bishops met with executives at Catholic Healthcare Initiatives, a branch of the church that operates the hospital at the center of the case, to review how the lawsuit was handled. The two released separate statements Monday saying CHI executives had been unaware of the legal arguments and pledging to "work for comprehensive change in Colorado's law, so that the unborn may enjoy the same legal protections as other persons."

Spurred on by advancing medical technology that makes fetuses more viable and more visible, states have been expanding some rights to fetuses, sometimes in conjunction with anti-abortion groups and the Catholic Church.

State laws vary widely. It's difficult to quantify how many states allow wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of unborn children because each state has different case law and judicial interpretation. A report from the anti-abortion Americans United for Life estimates that 38 permit such lawsuits.

According to The Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health issues, 37 states allow some form of prosecution for killing a fetus. A federal law also makes it a crime to harm a fetus while committing other federal crimes.

The debate over such measures has been especially heated in Colorado, which has long battled over the legal status of unborn children. For example, Colorado has been ground zero for the "personhood" movement, which pushes laws that give fertilized eggs all the legal rights of human beings. Opponents warn that such laws would outlaw all forms of abortion and some types of birth control. Voters here so far have overwhelmingly rejected such proposals.

In 1986, a federal court ruled that fetuses are indeed people for purposes of wrongful death lawsuits in Colorado, but state courts have offered conflicting views. This latest case further calls the matter into question.

The case centers on St. Thomas More Medical Center in Canon City, a few hours south of Denver, and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a husband who lost his pregnant wife.

Lori Stodghill was 28 weeks into her pregnancy when, on New Year's Day 2006, she began vomiting and feeling short of breath, according to court papers. Her husband, Jeremy, took her to the emergency room of St. Thomas More, where Stodghill collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.

Doctors and nurses tried to revive her, but she was declared dead from a pulmonary embolism. No one tried to remove the fetuses via an emergency cesarean section, and they perished, too, court papers said.

Jeremy Stodghill sued the hospital, some doctors and Catholic Healthcare Initiatives, which owns the company that operates Thomas More. Attorneys for CHI in 2010 filed court papers asking a judge to dismiss the case because the plaintiffs couldn't prove negligent care killed Lori Stodghill and her fetuses. They also argued that "under Colorado law, a fetus is not a 'person,' and Plaintiff's claims for wrongful death must therefore be dismissed."

The trial judge agreed, finding that previous state cases required a fetus to be "born alive" to have a legal claim. An appellate court upheld the dismissal on other grounds. Stodghill's attorneys are now asking the state Supreme Court to hear the case.

The arguments were first reported on Jan. 23 by The Colorado Independent and Westword and set off a firestorm because of Catholic health groups' past stances on such issues. The trade group representing Catholic Hospitals opposed a provision of the federal health care law mandating that birth control be covered by insurance.

In their Monday statement, Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila, Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan and Pueblo Bishop Fernando Isern said: "Catholic healthcare institutions are, and should, be held to the high standard of Jesus Christ himself."

They and CHI pledged not to argue against fetal personhood further in the case. They also said they and CHI sympathize with the Stodghill family.

Attorney Timms Fowler, who wrote a brief on behalf of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association in the case, doesn't believe that allowing lawsuits over wrongfully killed fetuses leads to giving them the same rights as human beings. He said there is a difference between "the duty owed by a stranger to the mother and the unborn child" and the mother's own decisions about the fetus' future.

"To die by the wrongful conduct of a stranger, you don't have to be a walking, talking, full person," Timms said, stressing he was speaking for himself and not the association.

Last Monday, no church representatives testified as a state legislative committee considered a proposal to make it a crime to kill a fetus. Republican Rep. Janak Joshi said his measure was not meant to wade into abortion politics but rather enable prosecutors to file additional charges in cases like the Aurora movie theater shooting. One victim was so severely wounded during the July massacre that she miscarried, but prosecutors could not file murder charges on her unborn child's behalf.

Witness Heather Surovik told the committee about how a drunken driver injured her last year and killed her 8 1/2-month-old unborn son, Brady. At the hospital, the emergency staff removed him from her body and dressed his corpse in infant clothes. Prosecutors could not file vehicular manslaughter charges because Brady was not legally a person.

Democrats and an attorney for Planned Parenthood argued that Joshi's measure, as written, could enshrine legal rights for fetuses in state law and lead to an abortion ban. The committee voted it down, but Democrats later unveiled their own bill that would make it a crime to kill a fetus during a criminal act committed against a pregnant woman. That measure specifically states that the intent is to neither outlaw abortions nor give unborn children additional rights.

A hearing on that proposal is scheduled later this month.

The United States expressed doubt on Monday about Iran's claim that it safely returned a monkey from space, saying it is questionable that the monkey survived — or if the flight happened at all.

An Iranian technician holds a monkey which has been prepared for riding an Iranian rocket into space, in an undisclosed location in Iran. One of two official package of photos of Iran's famed simian space traveler depicted the wrong monkey, but that the primate really did fly up into orbit and return safely, a senior Iranian space confirmed Saturday Feb. 2, 2013.  

By BRADLEY KLAPPER

WASHINGTON — The United States expressed doubt on Monday about Iran's claim that it safely returned a monkey from space, saying it is questionable that the monkey survived — or if the flight happened at all.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said a lot of questions remained "about whether the monkey that they reportedly sent up into space and reportedly came down was actually the same monkey, whether he survived."

"The Iranians said they sent a monkey, but the monkey that they showed later seemed to have different facial features," Nuland told reporters. "He was missing a little wart."

Tehran blames the confusion on Iranian media for initially using a photo of a backup monkey. It says the monkey orbited and returned safely, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added Monday that he would consider being Iran's first astronaut in space.

Nuland described Ahmadinejad's proclamation as an "interesting choice," but was more diplomatic than Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who joked about Ahmadinejad's ruminations earlier Monday.

"Wasn't he just there last week?" McCain said in a tweet and linked to a story about the space-orbiting monkey.

Faced with criticism, McCain said in another tweet, "lighten up folks, can't everyone take a joke." But it wasn't funny to Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican, who tweeted, "Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes."

Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity, backed up Iran's claim that monkey space flight was real. However, he had a slightly different explanation for the photo mix-up, saying the simian with the mole died during a failed space mission in 2011.

Iran has never confirmed that a monkey died in 2011, or that there was a failed mission that year.

Tehran says its goal is a manned space flight.

Washington and its allies worry the program may be cover for ballistic missile technology development.

A former state chemist accused of faking test results at the Department of Public Health drug lab pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six counts of obstruction of justice, in a scandal that could jeopardize thousands of drug cases.

Former state chemist Annie Dookhan, who is accused of faking test results at the Department of Public Health drug lab, pleaded not guilty in Brockton Superior Court on Wednesday to six counts of obstruction of justice, in a scandal that could jeopardize thousands of drug cases.  

By DENISE LAVOIE

BROCKTON — A former state chemist accused of faking test results at the Department of Public Health drug lab pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six counts of obstruction of justice, in a scandal that could jeopardize thousands of drug cases.

Annie Dookhan was indicted last month on a total of 27 charges accusing her of fabricating test ­results and tampering with drug evidence while testing substances in criminal cases.

Dookhan, 35, of Franklin, was arraigned Wednesday morning on five obstruction counts in ­Brockton Superior Court. She was arraigned later Wednesday on one obstruction count in Fall River Superior Court.

An estimated 200 convicted defendants have been released from jail and had their cases put on hold while their legal challenges are pending.

Authorities shut down the lab in August after Dookhan, while being questioned by State Police, ­allegedly said she sometimes would take 15 to 25 samples, test only five of them, but then list them all as positive. She also allegedly acknowledged that if a sample tested negative, she would sometimes take known cocaine from another sample and add it to the negative sample to make it test positive.

Neither Dookhan nor her lawyer, Nicolas Gordon, commented following the two arraignments. She is accused in both counties of obstructing justice by falsely claiming she held a master’s degree in chemistry while testifying as an expert witness.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said prosecutors are reviewing every case handled by Dookhan to ‘‘make sure justice is done.’’

But he said it is frustrating when convicted drug dealers are released because of Dookhan’s alleged misconduct.

‘‘People have been let out, and some individuals have reoffended,’’ Cruz said. ‘‘It’s frustrating not just for prosecutors, but for hard-working police officers. . . . Drug dealers, by nature, deal in the world of violence, so when these individuals are released back into the community, it poses difficult challenges for the police officers on the street.’’

Dookhan resigned in March during an internal investigation by the Department of Public Health. State Police closed the lab last summer after taking over its operation and discovering the extent of Dookhan’s alleged misconduct.

She has pleaded not guilty in five counties to charges that include obstruction, evidence tampering, and perjury. She faces another arraignment next week in Essex County.

Supersonic skydiver Felix Baumgartner reached 843.6 mph during his record-setting jump last October from 24 miles up, according to official numbers released Monday.

Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria jumps out of the capsule Oct. 14, 2012, during the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos. According to the official numbers released Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, the Austrian parachutist known as "Fearless Felix" reached 843.6 mph. That's equivalent to Mach 1.25, or 1.25 times the speed of sound. His top speed initially was estimated last October at 834 mph, or Mach 1.24.  

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Supersonic skydiver Felix Baumgartner was faster than he or anyone else thought during his record-setting jump last October from 24 miles up.

The Austrian parachutist known as "Fearless Felix" reached 843.6 mph, according to official numbers released Monday. That's equivalent to Mach 1.25, or 1.25 times the speed of sound.

His top speed initially was estimated at 10 mph slower at 834 mph, or Mach 1.24.

Either way, he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurized suit and hopped from a capsule hoisted by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.

Baumgartner was supersonic for a half-minute — "quite remarkable," according to Brian Utley, the record-keeping official who was present for the Oct. 14 feat.

The 43-year-old's heart rate remained below 185 beats a minute, and his breathing was fairly steady.

The leap was from an altitude of 127,852 feet. That's 248 feet lower than original estimates, but still stratospheric.

"He jumped from a little bit lower, but he actually went a little bit faster, which was pretty exciting," said Art Thompson, technical project director for the Red Bull-sponsored project.

"It's fun for us to see reaching Mach speeds and proving out a lot of the safety systems," Thompson said in a phone interview from his aerospace company in Lancaster, Calif.

Thompson said everything pretty much unfolded as anticipated, with no big surprises in the final report. The updated records were provided by Utley, official observer for the National Aeronautic Association's contest and records board. Utley was in Roswell, N.M., for Baumgartner's grand finale following two test jumps.

Based on all the data collected from sensors on Baumgartner's suit, Utley determined that Baumgartner was 34 seconds into his jump when he reached Mach 1. The speed for breaking the sound barrier depends on the temperature at a given altitude; for Baumgartner, that came together just shy of 110,000 feet.

He reached peak speed by the time he was at 91,300 feet, 50 seconds into the jump, and was back to subsonic by 75,300 feet, give or take, 64 seconds into his free fall.

His entire free fall lasted four minutes, 20 seconds. He used a parachute to cover the final 5,000 feet, landing on his feet in the desert outside Roswell.

Not everything went well.

Baumgartner went into a dreaded flat spin while still supersonic. He spun for 13 seconds at approximately 60 revolutions per minute, making 14 to 16 spins before using his body to regain control, Thompson said. The skydiver was well within safety limits the entire time, he noted. Baumgartner's brain remained under 2G, or two times the force of gravity, during the spin.

If the flat spin had lasted longer and been more severe — exceeding six continuous seconds at 3.5 G — Baumgartner's drogue, or stabilizing, parachute would have deployed automatically. Doctors worried about him blacking out and suffering a stroke or, in the case of a suit tear, his blood boiling at such an extreme altitude. The outside temperature registered as low as minus 96 Fahrenheit.

In the foreword of the 71-page report, Baumgartner said he never imagined how many people would share in his dream to make a supersonic free fall from so high.

Some 52 million people watched YouTube's live stream of the exploit.

The scientific and engineering experts who helped bring him back alive "broke boundaries in their own fields just as surely as I broke the sound barrier," Baumgartner wrote.

Baumgartner shattered the previous record set by Joe Kittinger, an Air Force officer, in 1960. Kittinger did not quite reach supersonic speed during his jump from 19.5 miles up.

Kittinger noted in the Red Bull Stratos report (Stratos for stratosphere) that future work is needed to test a stabilizing parachute for use at extreme altitudes.

The private project was aimed, from the start, at helping future space crews — whether NASA or commercial — survive high-altitude accidents.

If a highly trained jumper like Baumgartner with 2,500 jumps couldn't prevent a flat spin, "an astronaut, pilot or space tourist could not overcome this spinning probability," Kittinger wrote.

Thompson agreed, noting that given the right safety gear and the right conditions, there's "a remote possibility" a space crew could survive even under such harsh circumstances as were faced by the space shuttle Columbia astronauts.

All seven astronauts perished as Columbia returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003. One of the crew, Laurel Clark, was married to the former NASA flight surgeon who led Baumgartner's medical team, Dr. Jonathan Clark.

"You never know what the possibilities are ... that's the direction we need to look at," Thompson said.

Law enforcement officers stormed an underground bunker Monday in southeastern Alabama, freeing a 5-year-old boy and shooting his captor to death after they became convinced the child was in imminent danger, officials said.

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP) — Law enforcement officers stormed an underground bunker Monday in southeastern Alabama, freeing a 5-year-old boy and shooting his captor to death after they became convinced the child was in imminent danger, officials said.

Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, of Midland City had taken the child off a school bus after fatally shooting the driver on Jan 29. He had remained holed up in the bunker with the child ever since, communicating with authorities through a ventilation pipe into the shelter.

Dykes had been seen with a gun, and officers concluded the boy was in imminent danger after nearly a week of negotiations, said Steve Richardson of the FBI's office in Mobile.

Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said late Monday that Dykes was armed when officers entered the bunker to rescue the child. He said the boy was threatened but declined to elaborate.

"That's why we went inside — to save the child," he said.

Olson and others declined to say how Dykes died. But an official in Midland City, citing information from law enforcement, said police had shot Dykes.

The official requested anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

Dykes was known by neighbors for his anti-government rants and for patrolling his property with a gun, ready to shoot trespassers. He had stayed for several days in the tiny bunker on his property before.

"He always said he'd never be taken alive. I knew he'd never come out of there," said an acquaintance, Roger Arnold.

Monday evening, officers were sweeping the property to make sure Dykes had not set up any bombs that could detonate. Full details of the bunker raid had not yet emerged. However, neighbors described hearing what sounded like gunshots around the time officials said they entered the shelter.

At a late Monday news conference, authorities declined to comment on how they had observed Dykes or on how he died, citing the pending investigation.

Asked about the official's statement that Dykes had been killed by law enforcement officers, FBI spokesman Jason Pack said in an email early Tuesday: "The facts surrounding the incident will be established by a shooting review team from Washington, DC in the coming days."

The boy has been reunited with his mother and appears to be OK, authorities said.

Richardson said he had been to the hospital to see the boy and he was laughing, joking, eating and "doing the things you'd expect a normal 5- or 6-year-old to do."

Michael Senn, pastor of a church near where reporters had been camped out since the standoff began, said he was relieved the child had been taken to safety. However, he also recalled the bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., who has been hailed as a hero for protecting nearly two dozen other children on the bus before being shot by Dykes.

"As we rejoice tonight for (the boy) and his family, we still have a great emptiness in our community because a great man was lost in this whole ordeal," Senn said.

The rescue capped a long drama that drew national attention to this town of 2,400 people nestled amid peanut farms and cotton fields that has long relied on a strong Christian faith, a policy of "love thy neighbor" and the power of group prayer. The child's plight prompted nightly candlelight vigils. Midland City is located about 100 miles southeast of the state capital, Montgomery.

Throughout the ordeal, authorities had been speaking with Dykes though a plastic pipe that went into the shelter. They also sent food, medicine and other items into the bunker, which apparently had running water, heat and cable television but no toilet. It was about 4 feet underground, with about 50 square feet of floor space.

It was not immediately clear how authorities determined the man had a gun.

At the request of law enforcement authorities, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had approved the provision of certain forms of equipment that could be employed to assist in the hostage situation, according to a U.S. official who requested anonymity in order to discuss a pending law enforcement matter. It is not clear whether the equipment was actually used.

Authorities said the kindergartner appeared unharmed. He was taken to a hospital in nearby Dothan. Officials have said he has Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Melissa Knighton, city clerk in Midland City, said a woman had been praying in the town center Monday afternoon. Not long after, the mayor called with news that Dykes was dead and that the boy was safe.

"She must have had a direct line to God because shortly after she left, they heard the news," Knighton said.

Neighbors described Dykes as a menacing, unpredictable man who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe. Government records indicate he served in the Navy from 1964 to 1969, earning several awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

He had some scrapes with the law in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanor was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.

He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbors.

Arnold recalled that, for a time, Dykes lived in his pickup truck in the parking lot of the apartment complex where Dykes' sister lived. He would stay warm by building a fire in a can on the floorboard and kept boxes of letters he wrote to the president and the unspecified head of the Mafia, Arnold said.

Dykes believed the government had control of many things, including a dog track he frequented in the Florida Panhandle. Arnold said that Dykes believed if a dog was getting too far ahead and wasn't supposed to win, the government would shock it.

Ronda Wilbur, a neighbor of Dykes who said the man beat her dog to death last year with a pipe, said she was relieved to be done with the stress of knowing Dykes was patrolling his yard and willing to shoot at anyone or anything that trespassed.

"The nightmare is over," she said. "It's been a long couple of years of having constant stress."

Read more on the Midland City hostage situation at AL.com.

The Iraq War veteran charged with gunning down two men on a Texas shooting range — including a highly decorated former Navy SEAL sniper — had been taken to a mental hospital twice in recent months and told authorities he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to police records.

Eddie Ray Routh has been charged with killing former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at a shooting range southwest of Fort Worth, Texas, on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant says Routh, 25, was shocked with a stun gun and restrained in his jail cell Sunday night after becoming aggressive.  

By ANGELA K. BROWN and JAMIE STENGLE

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Iraq War veteran charged with gunning down two men on a Texas shooting range — including a highly decorated former Navy SEAL sniper — had been taken to a mental hospital twice in recent months and told authorities he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to police records.

After the shootings, Eddie Ray Routh, 25, also told his sister and brother-in-law he had "traded his soul for a new truck," according to an Erath County arrest warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA-TV. Police said Routh was driving the truck of victim and ex-Navy SEAL author Chris Kyle at the time of his arrest.

Routh is charged with one count of capital murder and two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Kyle, author of the best-selling book "American Sniper," and his friend Chad Littlefield at a shooting range Saturday in Glen Rose. He is on suicide watch in the Erath County Jail, where he's being held on $3 million bail, Sheriff Tommy Bryant said.

Routh, a member of the Marines Corps Reserve, was first taken to a mental hospital Sept. 2 after he threatened to kill his family and himself, according to police records in Lancaster, where Routh lives. Authorities found Routh walking nearby with no shirt and no shoes, and smelling of alcohol. Routh told authorities he was a Marine veteran who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Eddie stated he was hurting and that his family does not understand what he has been through," the report says.

Routh's mother told police her son had been drinking and became upset when his father said he was going to sell his gun. She said Routh began arguing with them and said he was going to "blow his brains out."

Police took Routh to Green Oaks Hospital for psychiatric care.

Dallas police records show Routh was taken back to the same mental hospital in mid-January after a woman called police and said she feared for Routh's safety.

Green Oaks will not release patient information, citing privacy laws. Most people brought by police to the hospital are required to stay at least 48 hours.

In another brush with authorities, Lancaster police in May responded to a burglary reported by Routh's mother that included nine pill bottles. Police say Routh was involved but no other details were available.

Authorities say Routh, Kyle and Littlefield arrived at the sprawling Rough Creek Lodge about 3:15 p.m. Saturday, and a hunting guide called 911 about two hours later after discovering the bodies. Kyle and Littlefield were shot multiple times, and numerous guns were at the scene, according to the affidavit.

Routh drove to his sister's house, and told her he had killed two people and that he planned to drive to Oklahoma to evade Texas authorities, the affidavit said. Routh's sister then called police, and he was arrested after a short police pursuit in Lancaster.

Jailers used a stun gun on Routh on Sunday night after he appeared ready to assault them when they entered his cell after he refused to return his food tray, the sheriff said. Then they put Routh in a chair that restrains his arms and legs in his solitary confinement cell, Bryant said.

Bryant said Routh has an attorney but hasn't met with him at the jail in Stephenville, about 75 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Routh's mother and sister were unsuccessful Monday.

Sundae Hughes, an aunt of Routh's, said she watched him grow up but hasn't seen him since his high school graduation in 2006. Hughes was in disbelief that her nephew could be involved in such an incident.

"He has a kind heart (and was) someone willing to jump in and help, no matter what it was," she said.

Routh joined the Marines in 2006 and rose to the rank of corporal in 2010. His military specialty was small-arms technician, commonly known as an armorer. He had been stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and served in Iraq from 2007-08 and in the Haiti disaster relief mission in 2010.

He is now in the individual ready reserve. He could be called to duty, but it's uncommon unless he volunteers, 1st Lt. Dominic Pitrone of the Marine Forces Services public affairs office said.

Travis Cox, director of FITCO Cares — the nonprofit that Kyle set up to give in-home fitness equipment to physically and emotionally wounded veterans — said he believes that Kyle and Littlefield were helping Routh work through PTSD.

Cox didn't know how Routh and Kyle knew each other. He said the shooting range event was not a FITCO session.

Kyle, 38, left the Navy in 2009 after four tours of duty in Iraq, where he earned a reputation as one of the military's most lethal snipers. "American Sniper" was the No. 3 seller of paperbacks and hardcovers on Amazon as of Monday, and the hardcover was out of stock.

Littlefield, 35, was Kyle's friend, neighbor and "workout buddy," and also volunteered his time to work with veterans, Cox said.

Stengle reported from Midlothian, Texas. Associated Press writers Juan Carlos Llorca in El Paso, Texas; Christopher Sherman in McAllen, Texas; Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C.; and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

The U.S. government is readying civil charges against Standard & Poor's Ratings Services for improperly giving high ratings to toxic mortgage bonds before the financial crisis, the company says.

This file photo from October 2011 shows 55 Water Street, home of Standard & Poor's, in New York. S&P said Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, the U.S. government is expected to file civil charges against Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, alleging that it improperly gave high ratings to mortgage debt that later plunged in value and helped fuel the 2008 financial crisis. The charges would mark the first enforcement action the government has taken against a major rating agency involving the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  

By DANIEL WAGNER

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is readying civil charges against Standard & Poor's Ratings Services for improperly giving high ratings to toxic mortgage bonds before the financial crisis, the company says.

It would be the government's first big enforcement action related to a credit rating agency's actions in the lead-up to the 2008 crisis. S&P on Monday denied any wrongdoing and said any lawsuit would be without merit.

So what's the big deal? And what did the bond-analysis shops have to do with the financial crisis?

Here are some questions and answers about the expected charges against Standard & Poor's:

Q: The government brings civil charges against financial companies all the time. What's so important about this case?

A: They would be the first federal charges against one of the credit rating agencies that are widely blamed for contributing to the financial crisis that brought about the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The crisis crested when a bubble in U.S. home prices popped, making it more difficult for people to refinance their mortgages and setting off a wave of defaults and foreclosures.

Wall Street banks had created trillions of dollars' worth of investments whose value was based on the value of those mortgages. The investments were spread through the financial system. Without rating agencies, none of that would have been possible.

Q: If they didn't create or sell the investments, why are credit rating agencies blamed for their proliferation?

A: Agencies like Standard & Poor's gave high ratings to complex pools of mortgages and other debt. That gave even risk-averse buyers the confidence to buy them. Some investors, including pension funds, can only buy securities that carry a high rating. In short, credit ratings provided by S&P greased the assembly line that allowed banks to push risky mortgage bonds out the door.

When they realized the bonds were worth far less than previously thought, in late 2007, Standard & Poor's and other agencies lowered the ratings on nearly $2 trillion in mortgage securities. The downgrades helped spread panic because holders of the bonds and any potential buyers of them no longer knew their value.

Q: Why would they give ultra-safe ratings to risky mortgages?

A: Critics have long argued that the agencies suffer from a fundamental conflict of interest: They are paid by the same companies whose bonds they rate.

According to various investigations of the crisis, rating agencies competed with each other for the business of the banks and brokerages that were packaging the mortgage-backed bonds. In some cases, critics say, rating-agency analysts were pressured to give unrealistically high ratings to curry favor with Wall Street.

Q: So who's going to jail?

A: No one. The charges are civil, so the harshest penalties would be fines and limits on how the company does business.

In general, law enforcement officials have had a tough time making criminal cases against high-profile people involved in the 2008 financial crisis. Justice Department officials have argued that they simply don't have the evidence to prosecute criminal cases, which would carry a higher burden of proof than civil charges.

As a result, most of the cases related to the crisis have been actions by regulators or lawsuits against small-time mortgage industry workers who committed on-the-ground fraud. No major Wall Street executive has faced the threat of jail time in relation to the crisis.

Q: Have lawmakers fixed the credit rating system?

A: There have been some reforms, but critics say they don't go far enough.

Under the 2010 overhaul of financial rules known as the Dodd-Frank Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission gained stronger powers to oversee rating agencies. Safeguards were put in place to prevent banks from shopping around for the best rating.

Some proposals went farther. One would have randomly assigned a rating agency to each investment. It did not make the final bill.

A spokeswoman for Ameristar said it has the right to fight an unreasonable tax bill.

This is the rendering of a casino project that was planned on Page Boulevard in Springfield by Ameristar Casinos prior to plans being withdrawn two months ago. 

SPRINGFIELD – Ameristar Casinos, two months after dropping its proposal for a $910 million casino project on Page Boulevard, has applied for an abatement from the city, challenging its $617,718 annual property tax bill.

A company spokeswoman said Ameristar is contesting the taxes as too high.

“As a taxpayer, we have the right to appeal an assessment we believe to be unreasonable,” said Roxann M. Kinkade, a spokeswoman for Ameristar, based in Las Vegas, Nev.

She declined further comment on the appeal.

Ameristar had purchased the approximate 40-acre property at 655 Page Blvd., in January 2012, spending $16 million.

The $617,718 tax bill for fiscal year 2013 is based on its assessed value of $15.8 million, according to assessors’ records. Fiscal year 2013 property values were approved by the city and state Department of Revenue, and are based on fair market values as of Jan. 1, 2012.

Ameristar is current with its tax payments, making its most recent payment last week on time, according to tax collection records. The company has paid $348,186 in property taxes this fiscal year, as billed, and has a final payment of $269,532 due May 1.

City Assessor Richard Allen confirmed that an abatement application was filed by Ameristar in advance of the Feb. 1 deadline. He declined further comment, due to it being a pending abatement matter.

The East Springfield property, formerly the Westinghouse plant, was purchased from an affiliate of the O’Connell Development Group Inc. of Holyoke, and was cleared and cleaned as part of the sale.

Ameristar, in announcing its dropped plans for a casino in late November, said that various requirements, costs and the local selection process were factors in its decision to not move forward.

Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. has announced plans to purchase Ameristar Casinos, and with the Page Boulevard property will become part of the assets, Kinkade said. Asked about the future of the property, Kinkade said that will be a question for Pinnacle to answer.

Two other companies have filed competing casino proposals in Springfield. MGM Resorts is proposing a casino in the South End and Penn National is proposing a casino in the North End of the downtown district.

Casino projects are also being proposed in Palmer off the Massachusetts Turnpike and in West Springfield on the grounds of Eastern States Exposition.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission will consider granting three casino licenses in Massachusetts, including one designated for Western Massachusetts. A casino first needs approval from the local community, including voters, before the commission considers granting the lone license for the region.

MGM Resorts has purchased two church properties in the South End, and will be paying taxes on those sites and any others purchased in Springfield, according to company and city officials.

MGM, through Red Tarp Redevelopment, its development arm, purchased the former St. Joseph’s Rectory at 82 Howard St., for $1 million, as of Sept. 28, and will be receiving a tax bill for the current fiscal year, officials said.

In addition, it bought the First Spiritualist Church of Springfield property at 33-37 Bliss St., last month, and will also be billed for taxes.

Those properties were tax-exempt.

Penn National does not yet own property in Springfield for its casino project, but has options to buy properties and will be taxed, a spokesman said.

Peter Picknelly, a key partner, does own the Peter Pan Bus Lines property at 1780 Main St., part of the project site, and is current on his taxes, according to city collection records.

The land at the Eastern States Exposition fairgrounds in West Springfield, where Hard Rock International wants to build a $700 million to $800 million resort casino complex, is on the tax rolls. The fairgrounds is current in its property tax bills for the site, according to West Springfield officials.

The casino project has been proposed for fairgrounds land off Circuit Avenue between the Mallory Building and gate 9.

Assessors records show one parcel of 14.9 acres, which includes wetlands, as being assessed at $82,600 because it has limited uses, according to Principal Assessor Hans Doup. It adjoins a parcel of 18.2 acres that is used for parking and is assessed at $1,239,900.

The annual taxes are approximately $43,500.

Doup said any buildings erected at the site for a casino project or related uses would be taxable.

In addition, casino developers have talked to nearby property owners about using their properties and acquiring options to purchase them.

Staff writer Sandra Constantine contributed to this report.

For all of his liberal positions on the environment, taxes and health care, President Barack Obama is a hawk when it comes to the war on terror.

By LARA JAKES, AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For all of his liberal positions on the environment, taxes and health care, President Barack Obama is a hawk when it comes to the war on terror.

From deadly drones to secret interrogations to withholding evidence in terror lawsuits, Obama's Democratic White House has followed the path of his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush. The U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remains open, despite Obama's pledge to close it, and his administration has pursued leaks of classified information to reporters even more aggressively than Bush's.

"They have maintained momentum in a lot of important areas that we were focused on, and they've continued to build in those areas," said Ken Wainstein, the White House homeland security adviser and a top Justice Department lawyer under Bush. "You can see an appreciation for the severity of the threat, the need to stand up to it, and the need to go on offense at times."

John Brennan's confirmation hearing this week to be CIA director showed just how much Washington — and especially Democrats — has come to accept the same counterterrorism policies that drew such furor in the first years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Brennan refused to call waterboarding a form of torture but called it "reprehensible" and, if CIA director, said he would not allow it. He also said he didn't know whether any valuable information was gleaned as a result. His more than three hours of testimony was received by a mostly friendly panel of senators, and his confirmation is expected to move forward soon.

In October 2007, by contrast, Bush's attorney general nominee, Judge Michael Mukasey, called waterboarding "repugnant" but also refused to say whether it was torture. His confirmation was delayed for three weeks and nearly derailed. No one expects Brennan not to be confirmed.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama has stopped or softened a number of Bush's security tactics, including ending harsh interrogations, closing secret prisons and, overall, trying to be more transparent about counterterror policy. But he noted that Obama has delivered on his campaign promises to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, take the battle to al-Qaida in Pakistan and Yemen before its members can attack the U.S., and to end the war in Iraq.

"Yes, we're still fighting al-Qaida, but I think there are very few people who would take issue with that," Vietor said Friday. "This president does what he says he's going to do, and I think that's noticed around the world."

Obama's embrace of many of Bush's counterterror policies did not hurt him in his re-election bid last year. In one key rejection of Bush's legacy, Obama repeatedly has said he believes waterboarding — the interrogation tactic that simulates drowning — is torture and illegal and that it will not be used under his watch.

But Brennan, a career CIA officer who has served as Obama's top counterterrorism official since 2009, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that because he was not a lawyer he could not answer whether he personally believes waterboarding is torture. The CIA waterboarded at least three al-Qaida detainees before the tactic was banned in 2006.

The parallels between Obama's and Bush's security policies were on sharp display in the run-up to Brennan's hearing over the use of deadly drones to kill suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens, overseas.

A newly surfaced Justice Department memo from 2012 outlined the Obama administration's decision to kill al-Qaida suspects without evidence that specific and imminent plots were being planned against the United States. At Thursday's hearing, Brennan defended the missile strikes by the unmanned drones, saying they are used only against people who are considered active threats to the U.S. — and never as retribution for earlier attacks.

In a way that Bush did not, Obama has sought congressional approval of laws that he then uses as the basis of many of the counterterror policies he has carried over from his Republican predecessor. He successfully lobbied Congress three times to renew the controversial USA Patriot Act, the 2001 law that lets the government put roving wiretaps on U.S. citizens' phones with a secret court order and obtain other personal and financial records with no judicial approval at all.

White House spokesman Jay Carney defended the deadly strikes as legal under a 2001 law authorizing the use of military force against al-Qaida. CIA drones also have been used in attacks, including the 2011 killing in Yemen of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric with suspected ties to at least three attacks planned or carried out on U.S. soil: the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting that claimed 13 lives in 2009, a failed attempt to down a Detroit-bound airliner the same year and a thwarted plot to bomb cargo planes in 2010.

But Congress has grown increasingly uneasy with at least some of the authorities. Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California, a staunch Obama supporter, calls the military force law "overly broad" and has been seeking to overturn it for years.

"He's got to end that," Lee said. She described a "huge difference in policies" between Obama and Bush but added: "I respectfully disagree on some, including the use of that (use of force) resolution, and that would not matter who was president. That resolution is there until we repeal it, and I want it repealed if we're going to end this state of perpetual war."

Lee is among the dovish Democrats who also are displeased with Obama's decisions to surge U.S. troops to Afghanistan in 2009 and lead NATO military airstrikes at the height of the Libyan crisis in 2011. But, in a testament to his case-by-case deliberations on foreign policy and national security, Obama refused to similarly intervene or arm rebels in Syria and opposes a near-term military strike on Iran. He also ended the U.S. war in Iraq by withdrawing all Americans troops by the end of 2011 as promised.

Still, Obama's hawkish counterterror bona fides are undeniable.

Determined to not bring any terror detainees to Guantanamo Bay, the government has begun interrogating suspects on Navy warships before they are given a chance to speak to a lawyer. The information gleaned from those interrogations, including in the case of al-Shabab operative Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, is not allowed to be used in court but it can be used to pursue others. And the FBI can later question the terror suspects. Al-Shabab is a Somali-based terror group that has been linked to al-Qaida.

The Obama administration also has fought for, and won, the right to withhold evidence in terror lawsuits that it says could threaten U.S. security. The use of the so-called state secrets privilege gives the president limitless power to keep information from becoming public and hampers court oversight in cases that could be embarrassing to the government.

Critics say Obama's use of the state secrets privilege represents a surprising reversal by the constitutional lawyer-turned-president and threatens American civil liberties. Last month, a federal judge in New York chided the Obama administration for refusing to turn over documents in a case relating to al-Alwaki's killing but said she had no authority to order them disclosed.

More than any other president in U.S. history, Obama has invoked the Espionage Act to prosecute government officials accused of leaking classified information to reporters. His administration has used the law six times in leak investigations since 2009 — compared with three since it was enacted in 1917.

"There has been a disturbing amount of continuity between this administration and the former one," said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Center Justice's Liberty and National Security Program. The center is a civil liberties program at the New York University law school.

"There's been way more continuity than I think anyone expected, and certainly than candidate Obama had led anyone to expect," Goitein said. "I just think he put his tail between his legs — the national security establishment has become so huge and powerful that he's probably gotten somewhat co-opted despite himself and despite his better judgments and inclinations."

She noted that some of the most powerful players in Obama's national security circle were holdovers from Bush's administration, including Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller and Brennan, who was a top CIA official until he retired in 2005.

In his closing remarks at Thursday's hearing, Brennan somewhat emotionally described himself as someone who is neither Republican nor Democrat — but "who really understands that the value of intelligence, the importance of this intelligence, is not to tell the president what he wants to hear, not to tell this committee what it wants to hear, but to tell the policymakers, the congressional overseers what they need to hear."

"It would be my intention to make sure I did everything possible to live up to the trust, confidence that this Congress, this Senate and this president might place in me," Brennan said.

There was tragedy everywhere but people still showed a great joy and love of life.

Lt. Col. James Bishop talks to two students in a trip to a school in the area of Pestel, Haiti  

Lt. Col. James G. Bishop developed a fascination with Haiti years ago and his interest grew when his nephew, a physician, formed an agency to help residents of the poverty-stricken country.

In October, he got a first-hand look at the country he has been studying and reading about for years when he volunteered to accompany his nephew, Dr. N. Benjamin Fredrick on a trip to Haiti.

“It was a place of horrific poverty combined with the joy of living,” he said. “It really resets your normal.”

Bishop, chief of public affairs for Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, said he became interested in Haiti after reading local author Tracy Kidder’s book “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” which chronicles the work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti. He started donating to causes for Haiti and then got more involved when Fredrick started working as a director for the Global Health Center at Penn State, Hershey and created the nonprofit Thriving Villages International to help the people of the rural area of Pestel.

The agency, which is working to provide clean water, education and medical services, pays 19 local health care workers to visit the about 60,000 people spread throughout 240 villages, to test for and treat a variety of illnesses including malnutrition and anemia, give vaccinations and provide other needed care.

Bishop’s interest increased again after learning Westover had its own connection with Haiti, having flown in donated emergency goods for the country after the 2010 earthquake, before he had been assigned there. Because the C-5B jets were too large to land in the damaged Haitian airport, the Westover crews flew water, food, tents and other supplies to Florida where they were loaded onto smaller planes.

Bishop took this photo of a village in the Pestel area of Haiti  

Bishop said his first eye-opening experience was getting on the plane with his nephew who handed him several suitcases of medical supplies to check as luggage.

“I knew there were going to be heartbreaking situations,” Bishop said. “What I did not expect was the happiness.”

He said people from the village taught them how to play dominoes. “It was a lot of fun. They sat around and told us Haitian stories.”

Bishop talked about visiting a mother with five children who were living in a tiny hut. The woman could only scrape together the tuition money, about $6.50 a year American, so just two or three of her children could attend school. But he talked about the humor she showed with her children.

Education, even in the youngest grades is not free in Haiti. They visited one school and there were a lot of children in the first, second and third grades but that number dropped drastically as children grew older, he said.

But it wasn’t easy. He met children who had been orphaned in the earthquake, people who lost limbs in the disaster and college graduates desperate for jobs. In one situation, Bishop said his nephew pointed out a boy whose hair was orange, explaining it was a sign of malnutrition.

But Bishop said many who lived in the village said things have improved slightly after the earthquake, even though there is still a lot of rubble in the capital, the dirt roads to Pestel are primitive and most of the limited electricity is generated through solar panels installed by non-governmental agencies.

Before he arrived, Bishop was warned not to drink the water - even in tiny amounts - because it contains a microorganism that residents are immune to but outsiders are not and cholera is also a problem. Despite the care they took, Bishop and Frederick ended up with an intestinal illness.

Still there were plenty of positives. In one case Bishop said he and Fredrick visited one of the Thriving Villages workers, who proudly showed off the home he built with his small salary. He even invited them to dinner, sharing his family’s meager food.

Bishop took this photo of a father rowing his children to school in a handmade canoe in Pestel, Haiti  

One of the goals of Thriving Villages is to create more jobs and small industries so more residents can become independent, he said.

“They cobble things together and make do and they make do really well,” he said.

He showed photographs of a father who rows his children to school on a handmade canoe.

But Bishop said the need is still so great, starting from getting clean water to people in all the villages, since many have to carry water long distances from streams, some of which are polluted. One of the efforts of Thriving Villages is to dig wells to provide water to every village.

“They need things from the ground up, food, jobs, consistent electricity, clean water, medical care,” he said.

The postal service is also asking customers to make sure to clear snow from their walks and around the mailboxes before Monday, when service is scheduled to resume.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service has suspended mail delivery and will keep post offices closed in all six New England states because of the blizzard that has dumped more than 2 feet of snow throughout the region.

Postal Service spokeswoman Christine Dugas says post offices in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island will remain closed Saturday.

She says it's an unusual move, but roads across much of New England have been closed or are impassable.

Dugas says safety is the primary concern.

The postal service is also asking customers to make sure to clear snow from their walks and around the mailboxes before Monday, when service is scheduled to resume.

The postal service announced this week that it would stop Saturday mail delivery for good later this year.

The National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y., reported a measurement of 30.3 inches outside its offices. St. James and Commack both topped the 2-foot mark.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City has suffered surprisingly few power outages during the snowstorm that raged overnight, but eastern Long Island is a different story.

Wendy Lang of National Grid says there are about 10,000 customers without electricity this morning on the island, most in hard-hit eastern Suffolk County.

She says they can get most customers back on line within 24 hours if crews can get to them.

In New York City, the snow total in Central Park was 8.1 inches by 3 a.m.

Con Edison spokesman Mike Clendenin says the city has just 317 customers out, 206 of them in Brooklyn. No outages were reported in Westchester County.

Many communities across eastern Long Island, which received the heaviest snow according to the National Weather Service, are digging out from more than two feet of snow.

The National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y., reported a measurement of 30.3 inches outside its offices. St. James and Commack both topped the 2-foot mark.

It appears Suffolk County was slammed harder that Nassau County. That was somewhat good news for south shore communities that were flooded out during last October's Superstorm Sandy. The Weather Service says coastal flooding did not create major problems this time.

In Suffolk, hundreds of drivers were on the Long Island Expressway. Police used snowmobiles to get to some of the stranded.

The LIE and other major roadways remain closed to traffic in Suffolk.

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano says firefighters were at the scene of a blaze in Hempstead. No injuries were immediately reported.