The plant's workers, the need to clean a contaminated site and redevelopment are among concerns if the coal plant closes.

Mount Tom Power Station along the Connecticut River in Holyoke. John Suchocki, The Republican  

HOLYOKE — The presence of about 50 people Wednesday at a discussion about the future of the coal-burning Mount Tom Power Station was a good sign, officials said.

It shows recognition that resident involvement will be key to ensuring that help is given to plant workers and that clean-up and redevelopment of the site are done properly when the plant inevitably closes, they said.

"That is our primary goal as we sit here tonight," Conservation Law Foundation lawyer Shanna Cleveland said.

Cleveland was among the panelists in the discussion at Holyoke Heritage State Park Visitors' Center on Appleton Street organized by the Action for a Healthy Holyoke Coalition.

The coalition consists of residents and the local advocacy groups Neighbor to Neighbor, Holyoke Food and Fitness and Nuestras Raices, as well as the Conservation Law Foundation, Toxics Action Center and Sierra Club.

The discussion comes as the plant, which has slowed operations in recent years, has announced it will be taken off line for one year in 2016.

ISO New England accepted a proposal known as a “dynamic de-list bid” from the plant’s owner, GDF Suez, meaning the plant will not be expected to run or to receive any payments from the Forward Capacity Market.

The Forward Capacity Market is the annual process under which ISO New England projects how much electricity will be needed to power the region three years in advance and then conducts an auction to purchase resources that will meet that demand. Electrical suppliers that are selected in the auction are then required to provide power or curtail demand when called upon by ISO New England.

Built in 1960 as a coal burning electric power generating plant, Mount Tom Station was converted to oil burning in 1970 and converted back to coal burning in 1981.

It has been criticized as a polluter and blamed for worsening asthma rates in Holyoke, but plant officials have said it abides by state and federal emission laws.

A spokesman for the plant owner couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday and Drew Grande of the Sierra Club said no one from the coal plant was expected to attend the discussion.

Panelist Lara Shepard-Blue, a Neighbor to Neighbor organizer, said the goal of such planning like the panel discussion goes beyond just highlighting the breathing and other problems caused by coal burning.

The goal includes helping the plant's 25 employees, possibly by ensuring they remain employed to clean up what could be a contaminated site of the plant on Route 5 near the Connecticut River in the northern-most part of the city, panelists said.

Also, redeveloping the site once the plant leaves will be important to avoid having what is now a functioning area sit vacant, they said.

In additional, officials have warned of the economic hit to the city with the closure of the plant, which provides $615,131 in taxes each year.

Panelists included state Sen. Michael R. Knapik, R-Westfield, Rory Casey, aide to state Rep. Aaron M. Vega, D-Holyoke, and Neighbor to Neighbor members Virgenmina Perez and Carmen Concepcion.

Knapik said he is on a task force writing a report due in December about how the state should handle decommissioning of such plants.

"We need to keep fighting together," said Perez, in Spanish, in remarks translated by Neighbor to Neighbor's Lena Entin.

The assault has left the entire section of the neighborhood between Forest Park Avenue and Belmont Avenue shaken up and very scared, residents said.

SPRINGFIELD – Close to 70 residents of Forest Park packed into the First Park Baptist to hear from city and law enforcement officials about what they can do to protect themselves from crime following the vicious attack earlier this month on an elderly couple in their home just doors away on Garfield Street.

The meeting was called in response to the March 17 incident where an elderly couple was attacked in their home. The elderly man, an 84-year-old retired minister, was stabbed multiple times in the abdomen and an arm as he fought with his attacker, and his wife was hit and knocked to the ground.

The suspect, Roberto Hill Jr., 19, of 14 Arbutus St., was arrested in the neighborhood as he fled the scene. He is being held without bail as he awaits trial on several charges including two counts of home invasion, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60, and mayhem.

The assault has left the entire section of the neighborhood between Forest Park Avenue and Belmont Avenue shaken up and very scared, residents said.

Residents expressed concerns about their neighborhood changing, and about the inability of the police and the city to do anything about it.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno spoke at length about his desires to combat crime in the city in an age of limited resources. He pledged there would be increased regular patrols and specialized details, particularly in the summer months. He also said he is devoting money in the budget to hire 25 new police officers, although he said the new positions would mostly fill vacancies within the department.

In the meantime, residents need to do some things to protect themselves, like never leaving doors or windows unlocked, or taking the time to watch out for their neighbors and to take note of anything suspicious.

Most neighborhood crime are crimes of opportunity, and residents should do what they can to minimize those opportunities.

Sarno said that as upsetting as the attack on Garfield Street was, he was infuriated to learn that Hill had previously been arrested by police for a breaking into cars and had been released on $1,500 bail following his district court arraignment.

Weeks later he broke into the Garfield Street home, Sarno said.

“I went berzerk when I read that,” Sarno said.

Another suspect in an shooting had been picked up on a weapons charge weeks prior but had been released on $5,000, Sarno said.

Sarno said he is used to be criticized for the amount of crime in the city and the effectiveness of the police department in dealing with it. But in each of these cases, the police made an arrest and the courts released two suspects who went out to commit new crimes.

Anthony Gullini, a prosecutor with the Hampden District Attorney’s Office, said Hill had been picked up for breaking into cars. He had a limited criminal history and nothing that indicated he was violent. The DA’s office recommended a low bail on the car break-ins and he was released on $1,500 bail

A short time later he was arrested in Palmer on another break-in and the DA’s office moved to have his bail revoked, which would result in Hill being held at the county jail until trial. When Hill learned this he failed to appear at his Palmer arraignment and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Weeks later he was arrested for the Garfield Street assault.

Gullini said the attack on Garfield Street was not just another notation on the court docket for him. “I live just down the street and I feel like any of you do. Frustrated and enraged.”

He promised Hill would see a vigorous prosecution. “Our interest is that he doesn’t commit any crimes in the future,” he said.

Sharon Marshall, a member of the Maplewood, Forest Park Avenue and Riverview Neighborhood Watch, said the primary purpose for such meetings was to allow people to vent at city officials. The most important thing that can result from the meeting will be is if those present decide to take action in their community.

“My experience is not a lot comes out of (meetings) without community action,” she said.

Just showing up at a meeting is not enough, she said. If people are concerned about protecting their neighborhood, they have to do something about it, she said. People need to look out for their neighbors, watch for anything suspicious and then contact the police, she said.

Some city councilors would prefer Agawam upgrade the high school rather than build a new structure.

AGAWAM – The City Council has authorized keeping Agawam in the pipeline for state funding with regard to a new or refurbished early childhood center and high school.

The council voted unanimously to take that approach Monday with some councilors saying they voted in favor of submitting a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for funding for the third year in a row because they are more interested in upgrading the high school than building a new one.

“The high school is structurally sound,” City Councilor Robert E. Rossi said Tuesday. “We don’t need a new high school. We need some cosmetic work.”

The School Building Authority evaluates a community’s building needs and decides whether it should renovate or build a new structure, reimbursing it for a large part of the cost. In West Springfield, the School Building Authority is reimbursing that city for more than $68 million of the approximately $107 million cost of building a new a high school.

Rossi said the building that houses Agawam High School on Cooper Street needs upgrading with regard to its track and locker rooms.

City Councilor Robert A. Magovern is of a similar frame of mind.

“The most important thing we need to do is redo is our track,” Magovern said of the track at the high school.

He noted that its condition is so bad that the high school cannot schedule track meets at it.

As far as a new childhood center is concerned, Magovern said he backs that but thinks one should be built near one of the city’s elementary schools rather than at the high school. The School Department has proposed moving the center from its quarters on Perry Lane to the high school to allow for the collaboration with Westfield State University.

After the city submits its statement of interest, the next step will be for the School Building Authority to evaluate the conditions of the buildings in which the high school and the Early Childhood Center are housed. Submitting a statement of interest in no way obligates a community to undertake a project.

The resolution, already approved by the School Committee, describes the high school, which was built in 1955, as having athletic facilities, a track and bleachers needing repair and renovation. The high school was added to in 1961, 1980, 1997 and 2001.

The statement of interest describes the high school’s locker rooms and rest rooms as in need of repair and renovation. It also reports that work would prevent the possible loss of accreditation. It further states that the school needs to upgrade its facilities housing science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs to be able to offer state-of-the-art courses of study.

The crippled cruise ship whose sewage-filled breakdown in the Gulf of Mexico subjected thousands to horrendous conditions tore loose Wednesday from the dock where it's being repaired, lumbered downriver and crunched into a cargo ship.

Tug boats maneuver around the Carnival cruise ship Triumph as she rests against a dock on the east side of the Mobile River after becoming dislodged from its mooring at BAE Shipyard during high winds Wednesday, April 3, 2013 in Mobile, Ala. Triumph was disabled Feb. 10 by an engine fire that stranded thousands of passengers onboard for days in the Gulf. It was towed into port in Mobile.  

By MELISSA NELSON-GABRIEL and PHILLIP LUCAS

MOBILE, Ala. — The crippled cruise ship whose sewage-filled breakdown in the Gulf of Mexico subjected thousands to horrendous conditions tore loose Wednesday from the dock where it's being repaired, lumbered downriver and crunched into a cargo ship.

Wind gusts near hurricane strength shoved the 900-foot Carnival Triumph free from its mooring in downtown Mobile, Ala., where the ship was brought in a five-day ordeal that began when an engine fire stranded it off of Mexico in February. Hours later, four tug boats used several mooring lines to secure the ship to the cruise terminal.

A 20-foot gash about 2 to 3 feet wide was visible about halfway up the hull from the water and it wrapped partway around the stern. Underneath the gashed area, two levels of railing were dangling and broken. Electric cables that had been plugged in on shore were dangling from the port — or left — side of the ship. Carnival said damage, though, was limited.

The violent weather Wednesday also blew a nearby guard shack into the water. One shipyard worker was rescued and crews were searching for another, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said, but the cruise ship's mishap was unrelated.

Some crew members and workers had been staying on the ship while it was being repaired and people could be seen looking out the windows and on the deck of the ship Wednesday. Carnival said all 800 of its crew members and contractors who were working aboard were safe.

An engine fire disabled the Triumph on Feb. 10 and thousands of passengers were disabled for days. Passengers say they endured terrible conditions on board, including food shortages, raw sewage running in corridors and tent cities for sleeping on deck.

Tugs slowly towed the ship into port in Mobile, Ala., where it has remained under repair.

After the ship escaped, it rested against a cargo vessel. It drifted for a couple of hours before being secured as of 5 p.m., and moved to the Mobile Cruise Terminal, Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said.

Coast Guard officials said they saw no sign late Wednesday of the missing BAE Systems employee who was knocked into the water with a co-worker when near hurricane-strength winds blew their guard shack over. The other man was rescued.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Bill Colclough said the missing man worked for BAE Systems that runs the shipyard. Authorities are unsure of how deep the water is where the men fell in, but the company's website mentions its ship-repairing operation is adjacent to a 42-foot deep ship channel.

Lucas reported from Atlanta.

The president of the Town Council has called the board's move to get in the state funding pipeline regarding school "proactive."

WEST SPRINGFIELD – The Town Council has authorized the School Department to submit a letter of interest in getting financial help from the state to either repair, renovate or construct a new building to house Philip G. Coburn Elementary School.

The council voted 9-0 Monday to give the go-ahead regarding the circa 1927 building, in a move that its president, Kathleen A. Bourque, has called proactive rather than reactive.

She noted Tuesday that the move to file papers with the Massachusetts School Building Authority does not commit the city in any way. It does enable the School Department to get into the funding pipeline should state money become available and should it want to undertake a project, she said.

Bourque said if the city were not to act, it could lose out on getting grant money.

“They are certainly overcrowded,” Bourque said of classrooms at the school. “They have classrooms in areas that used to be locker rooms.”

She said the 115 Southworth St. building used to be a junior high school, a fact school officials have pointed out in arguing that it is not appropriate for use by younger children.

The school, which has about 450 students, has a shortage of classroom space that has resulted in kindergarten classes and reading programs being conducted in former locker rooms. In addition, the statement of interest drafted by the School Department reports that the building is not conducive to programs for students in grades kindergarten through five, especially students who are in the English Language Learners programs or in special education programs for youngsters on the autism spectrum.

Every 12 to 19 months the state building authority accepts statements of interest. If it acts favorably on a statement of interest, it invites a community to file an application for assistance. The Massachusetts School Building Authority evaluates a community’s building needs and decides whether the best course is for it to pay for repairs, renovations or a new building.

It will reimburse the city more than $68 million of the cost of the approximately $107 million new high school under construction and expected to open in about a year.

In a worrisome sign, a bird flu in China appears to have mutated so that it can spread to other animals, raising the potential for a bigger threat to people, scientists said Wednesday.

Workers unload chickens from a container at a wholesale market on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, in Shanghai, China. Scientists taking a first look at the genetics of the bird flu strain that recently killed two men in China said Wednesday the virus could be harder to track than its better-known cousin H5N1 because it might be able to spread silently among poultry without notice. The virus also appears to have mutated into a form that enables it to more easily infect animals such as pigs, meaning they could serve as hosts that spread the virus more widely among humans.  

By GILLIAN WONG and MALCOLM RITTER

BEIJING — In a worrisome sign, a bird flu in China appears to have mutated so that it can spread to other animals, raising the potential for a bigger threat to people, scientists said Wednesday.

So far the flu has sickened nine people in China and killed three. It's not clear how they became infected, but there's no evidence that the virus is spreading easily among people.

But the virus can evidently move through poultry without making them sick, experts said, making it difficult to track the germ in flocks.

The findings are preliminary and need further testing.

In the wake of the illnesses, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention shared the genetic sequence of the H7N9 virus with other scientists to help study how the virus might behave in different animals and situations.

One scientist said the sequence raises concern about a potential global epidemic, but that it's impossible to give a precise estimate of how likely that is.

"At this stage it's still unlikely to become a pandemic," said Richard Webby, director of a World Health Organization flu center at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

"We should be concerned (but) there's no alarm bells ringing yet," he said.

The virus has genetic markers that would help it infect people, Webby said. That makes him worry about a pandemic a bit more than he does for other bird flu viruses, such as the H5N1 virus that emerged a decade ago, he said.

"The tentative assessment of this virus is that it may cause human infection or epidemic," said Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of the WHO's influenza research center in Tokyo and one of the specialists who studied the genetic data, "It is still not yet adapted to humans completely, but important factors have already changed."

Flu viruses evolve constantly, and scientists say such changes have made H7N9 more capable of infecting pigs.

Pigs are a particular concern because bird and human flu viruses can mingle there, potentially producing a bird virus with heightened ability to spread between humans, said Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. That's what happened in 2009 with swine flu.

The scientists who inspected the genetic data also said that based on information from the genes and Chinese lab testing, the H7N9 virus appears able to infect some birds without causing any noticeable symptoms. Without obvious outbreaks of dying chickens or birds, authorities could face a challenge in trying to trace the source of the infection and stop the spread.

If there are no obvious symptoms in birds or pigs "nobody recognizes the infection in animals around them. Then the transmission from animal to human may occur," Tashiro said. "In terms of this phenomenon, it's more problematic."

This behavior is unlike the virulent H5N1 strain, which set off warnings when it began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003. H5N1 has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.

If the latest virus continues to spread in China and beyond, "it would be an even bigger problem than with H5N1, in some sense, because with H5N1 you can see evidence of poultry dying," said University of Hong Kong microbiologist Malik Peiris, who also examined the genetic information.

He urged China to widely test healthy birds for the virus in live animal markets in the parts of the country where the human infections have been reported.

Ritter reported from New York. AP Medical Writer Margie Mason in Jakarta and Associated Press researcher Flora Ji contributed to this report.

Cancer and heart disease are bigger killers, but Alzheimer's is the most expensive malady in the U.S., costing families and society $157 billion to $215 billion a year, according to a new study that looked at this in unprecedented detail.

Alexis McKenzie, executive director of The Methodist Home of the District of Columbia Forest Side, an Alzheimer's assisted-living facility, walks with resident Catherine Peake, in Washington, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012. Alzheimer's is the most expensive malady in the U.S., costing families and society $157 billion to $215 billion a year, according to a new study that looked at this in unprecedented detail.  

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

Cancer and heart disease are bigger killers, but Alzheimer's is the most expensive malady in the U.S., costing families and society $157 billion to $215 billion a year, according to a new study that looked at this in unprecedented detail.

The biggest cost of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia isn't drugs or other medical treatments, but the care that's needed just to get mentally impaired people through daily life, the nonprofit RAND Corp.'s study found.

It also gives what experts say is the most reliable estimate for how many Americans have dementia — around 4.1 million. That's less than the widely cited 5.2 million estimate from the Alzheimer's Association, which comes from a study that included people with less severe impairment.

"The bottom line here is the same: Dementia is among the most costly diseases to society, and we need to address this if we're going to come to terms with the cost to the Medicare and Medicaid system," said Matthew Baumgart, senior director of public policy at the Alzheimer's Association.

Dementia's direct costs, from medicines to nursing homes, are $109 billion a year in 2010 dollars, the new RAND report found. That compares to $102 billion for heart disease and $77 billion for cancer. Informal care by family members and others pushes dementia's total even higher, depending on how that care and lost wages are valued.

"The informal care costs are substantially higher for dementia than for cancer or heart conditions," said Michael Hurd, a RAND economist who led the study. It was sponsored by the government's National Institute on Aging and will be published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia and the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Dementia also can result from a stroke or other diseases. It is rapidly growing in prevalence as the population ages. Current treatments only temporarily ease symptoms and don't slow the disease. Patients live four to eight years on average after an Alzheimer's diagnosis, but some live 20 years. By age 80, about 75 percent of people with Alzheimer's will be in a nursing home compared with only 4 percent of the general population, the Alzheimer's group says.

"Most people have understood the enormous toll in terms of human suffering and cost," but the new comparisons to heart disease and cancer may surprise some, said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the Institute on Aging.

"Alzheimer's disease has a burden that exceeds many of these other illnesses," especially because of how long people live with it and need care, he said.

For the new study, researchers started with about 11,000 people in a long-running government health survey of a nationally representative sample of the population. They gave 856 of these people extensive tests to determine how many had dementia, and projected that to the larger group to determine a prevalence rate — nearly 15 percent of people over age 70.

Using Medicare and other records, they tallied the cost of purchased care — nursing homes, medicines, other treatments — including out-of-pocket expenses for dementia in 2010. Next, they subtracted spending for other health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes or depression so they could isolate the true cost of dementia alone.

"This is an important difference" from other studies that could not determine how much health care cost was attributable just to dementia, said Dr. Kenneth Langa, a University of Michigan researcher who helped lead the work.

Even with that adjustment, dementia topped heart disease and cancer in cost, according to data on spending for those conditions from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Finally, researchers factored in unpaid care using two different ways to estimate its value — foregone wages for caregivers and what the care would have cost if bought from a provider such as a home health aide. That gave a total annual cost of $41,000 to $56,000 per year for each dementia case, depending on which valuation method was used.

"They did a very careful job," and the new estimate that dementia affects about 4.1 million Americans seems the most solidly based than any before, Hodes said. The government doesn't have an official estimate but more recently has been saying "up to 5 million" cases, he said.

The most worrisome part of the report is the trend it portends, with an aging population and fewer younger people "able to take on the informal caregiving role," Hodes said. "The best hope to change this apparent future is to find a way to intervene" and prevent Alzheimer's or change its course once it develops, he said.

Online:

Alzheimer's information: http://www.Alzheimers.gov

National Institute on Aging: http://www.nia.nih.gov

Interest in vocational programs is expanding across the region leaving high schools with waiting lists.

The Chicopee Comprehensive High School senior Kristin M. Lapointe is seen in a welding class last year. John Suchocki / The Repubican file  

CHICOPEE – The School Committee has given the maintenance director and career technical education department approval to research building a canopy to extend classroom space at Comprehensive High School.

The idea is to build a canopy outside the metal fabrication and joining program that will allow students to get some welding practice outside.

The proposal, which was passed 9-0, gave officials approvals to seek estimates on the cost.

“It ties in with the lack of space at Comp. They have been squeezed in welding,” Superintendent Richard W. Rege Jr. said.

Faced with a waiting list of students who want to join the department, also known as vocational, educators have been trying to find ways to expand programs and add new ones with the limited space in the school. There are concerns about budget cuts that could make it more difficult to fund new programs.

The idea of adding an outdoor welding area is also sound educationally because it would mirror the job of professional welders, Rege said.

“People in welding are not always working inside,” he said.

Kenneth R. Widelo, director of career technical education, said students can practice welding outside, but it is difficult to schedule because classes cannot be held outside in the rain or snow.

The program is getting more and more crowded mostly because students are showing a bigger interest in it, he said.

The school typically accepts about 200 students for the career technology programs, figuring there is space for about 170 in the nine programs and typically 30 children change their minds and switch to a traditional academic program.

But this year attrition has been lower and more students have wanted to attend the programs so classes are more crowded. Widelo said the canopy will give the students a little more space.

Before students enter high school, counselors explain to them that they must have good grades, high attendance and a clean discipline record to be accepted into career technology. This year, there are 35 freshmen who followed all the rules but are on a waiting list because there just isn’t space for them, he said.

“We can’t accommodate all the students we would like to,” he said.

The options for the welding department were to build an addition, which would be expensive; re-locate the custodians and tear down walls to expand the classroom space which would also be expensive and complicated because there are some load-bearing walls, or build the canopy, which is the least expensive option.

The School Committee has also voted to add a new program in design and visual communications. If funding is available it will it will begin in the fall and take about 20 students the first year.

From Colorado to Connecticut, a handful of very different states have advanced new gun control laws over opposition that has made such legislation a struggle nationally and a non-starter in most legislatures.

Pro-gun supporters protest outside the Denver Police Academy, where President Barack Obama was speaking on gun control Wednesday, April 3, 2013 in Denver. Both sides gathered outside of the complex to share their respective views.  

By ADAM GELLER

From Colorado to Connecticut, a handful of very different states have advanced new gun control laws over opposition that has made such legislation a struggle nationally and a non-starter in most legislatures.

How did they do it?

Culture and attitudes regarding guns vary widely from state to state and within their borders, but the limited victories by gun control advocates in the three months since the Newtown school massacre show three factors at work: governors willing to spend significant political capital on the issue; Democratic legislative strength; and heightened public concern raised by proximity to mass shootings.

All three helped drive new gun control measures in New York, Colorado and in Connecticut, where Gov. Dannel P. Malloy pushed for an agreement between majority Democratic lawmakers and Republican counterparts on a series of new laws that were headed for a vote Wednesday. In Maryland, which also has a Democratic governor and legislature, a gun control bill was proceeding through the House of Delegates.

"What makes the difference ... is the willingness of the legislators and the governors to take the lead and also, you know, the experience of gun violence in that state, whether it be through a mass shooting or the day-to-day shootings," said Lindsay Nichols, staff attorney for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy group based in San Francisco.

But in Illinois, where Chicago gang shootings have driven demands for a response, a standoff between legislators representing rural and urban voters with very different views — and the uncertainty raised by a court ruling on the state's concealed carry law — show that concerns about such backyard gun violence alone is not enough.

"More so than any other issue I can think of, this is an issue that is based on regional culture," said Charles Wheeler III, director of the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois-Springfield. "For the typical person who lives in downstate Illinois, the more rural areas, when you think of firearms you think of deer hunting, duck hunting, shooting squirrels. In the Chicago area ... when people think of firearms they think of the kind of horrific cases in the news of late, where a gang banger kills a little girl."

While the importance of culture and attitudes can't be denied, politics has played a deciding role in the few states passing gun control laws.

After New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed through tougher firearms restrictions citing the Newtown killings, one poll showed his approval ratings, which had soared to 75 percent before the vote, down 20 percentage points.

In Colorado, the mass shooting at a suburban Denver movie theater last summer had lawmakers and the governor considering new gun legislation even before the massacre in Connecticut. Two days earlier, Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, told The Associated Press that "the time is right" to talk about gun control.

Still, in his January State of the State address, Hickenlooper only specifically called for universal background checks on gun purchases, and he appeared ambivalent about a measure limiting high-capacity magazines. But he ultimately followed through on a promise to legislators that he would sign such a measure, expending political capital in a state with a long tradition of gun ownership and libertarian leanings.

Every Democratic legislative vote was crucial in a Colorado, where the party controls both chambers and the new measures failed to get support from a single Republican. As some Democratic lawmakers appeared to waver in their support of new gun legislation, Vice President Joe Biden personally called a handful of lawmakers to urge them to support the new laws. Democratic Rep. Dominick Moreno said Biden "emphasized the importance of Colorado's role in shaping national policy around this issue."

The stakes in Colorado were made clear Wednesday when President Barack Obama traveled to Denver to praise the new laws that he said strike a balance, keeping firearms away from people who should not have them while protecting the constitutional right to own a firearm.

But the bitterness engendered by the new measures was made clear by more than a dozen Colorado sheriffs, all Republicans, who gathered a mile from Obama's appearance to slam the new regulations as ineffective and unconstitutional. Some have vowed not to enforce them.

'This is about taking a world of predators, a world full of wolves, and creating more sheep,' said Terry Maketa, the sheriff of El Paso County.

The tension was just as great, but different, in Connecticut, which is home to some of the country's largest gun manufacturers.

When lawmakers gathered Wednesday in Hartford to debate the bipartisan package of measures, gun rights advocates greatly outnumbered gun control supporters. Gun owners, some holding signs questioning the constitutionality of the proposals, stood in protest outside the state capitol and many packed the hallways outside the Senate chamber, occasionally chanting "No! No! No!" and "Read the bill!"

But Malloy's outspoken support for new gun control maintained pressure for passage, even as debate ground on in legislature long after similar measures were passed by lawmakers in neighboring New York.

A push for gun control by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat with presidential aspirations, also has been key to the chances for passage in that state. In neighboring Delaware, Gov. Jack Markell's call for action has also laid the groundwork for new restrictions with two months left in the legislative session.

But the furious debate and challenges faced by gun control advocates in many states are a reminder of just how difficult it is to tighten gun laws, even after the most horrific tragedy.

Those challenges were evident in 2007, when a gunman at Virginia Tech shot and killed 32, and Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine called for closing a loophole in the law allowing for private sales at gun shows without the same background check that licensed dealers are required to obtain. However, that proposal and other gun control measures have failed repeatedly in historically gun-friendly Virginia, where Republicans control the General Assembly.

It has proved true again in the months since Newtown, as lawmakers in Oregon gave up on a push to ban military-style rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines amid a lack of support, choosing to focus instead on measures they hope have stronger backing. A Senate committee will take up their proposals for the first time Friday, including a universal background check requirement. Oregon already requires background checks at gun shows but not for other private sales.

And in Arizona, a staunchly pro-gun state where the 2011 assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson left six dead and 13 wounded, the drive for gun control following Newtown has been a non-starter. With Republicans controlling the legislature and Republican Gov. Jan Brewer supporting most gun-rights proposals, Senate Democrats introduced 18 gun-related bills in the current session and all failed.

One Republican effort related to the Giffords shooting may make it through this year. That's a measure to provide $250,000 to expand a program to train teachers, first-responders and others to recognize people having a mental health crisis and intervene. Giffords' attacker, Jared Lee Loughner, suffered from mental illness.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Ethan Orr, a Tucson Republican. He said Wednesday that although the bill, nicknamed Gabby's Law, didn't get a Senate hearing, he hopes the money to expand a program created after the shooting makes it into the state budget.

"The argument that I would make as a Republican is that if you're not going to look at gun control laws, people need to feel safer, and addressing mental health issues is a way to do that," Orr said. "I guess this is sort of our state's response."

Associated Press Writers reporters Don Babwin in Chicago, Bob Christie in Phoenix, Jonathan J. Cooper in Salem, Ore., Michael Melia in Hartford, Conn., Ivan Moreno and Nick Riccardi in Denver, Larry O'Dell in Richmond, Va. and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y. contributed to this story.

It could take four to six months to appoint a new police chief.

LUDLOW - The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday accepted a letter from Police Chief James J. McGowan informing them of his intent to retire on May 24.

McGowan said in the letter he has informed the Hampden County Retirement Board that May 24 will be his last day on the job.

James J. McGowan 

McGowan wrote that he had “many people to thank” and would write a subsequent letter to the board.

“Unfortunately, I move to accept his resignation,” Selectman Aaron Saunders said.

McGowan also wrote that the staff at the Police Department is well prepared to make the transition.

“This is sad news,” Selectman Carmina Fernandes said. “He has been a great asset to the town.”

Selectmen Chairman William Rooney said his father was in office when McGowan was hired, and it falls to him to accept his retirement notification.

Also on Tuesday, the Board of Selectmen voted to meet with a representative from Civil Service about using an assessment center process for hiring the next police chief.

Town Administrator Ellie Villano said that under the model, there are several procedures that can be followed. A committee of past and present police chiefs from the area could be used to evaluate the candidates and recommend three candidates to the Board of Selectmen. Villano said other communities such as Holyoke, West Springfield, Springfield and Chicopee have used the assessment center process in hiring new police chiefs.

The selectmen voted 5-0 to meet with a Civil Service representative about the assessment center screening and recommendation process.

Rooney said, “This is an important item.” He said the hiring of a police chief could result in other appointments having to be made in the Police Department.

Rooney said the board needs to go through “due diligence” in appointing a chief.

Villano said the process could take four to six months.

A new sheriff who was cracking down on the drug trade in southern West Virginia's coalfields was shot to death Wednesday in the spot where he usually parked his car for lunch, and State Police said the suspect was in a hospital with gunshot wounds inflicted by a deputy who chased him.

Law enforcement officers and emergency service personnel cover the vehicle at the scene of the shooting in downtown Williamson, W.Va., Wednesday, April 3, 2013, where Sheriff Eugene Crum was shot and killed at point blank range.  

By JOHN RABY and VICKI SMITH

WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum died of his wounds, but State Police Capt. David Nelson didn't say how many times he was shot or offer many other details as two dozen law enforcement officers gathered around him on the courthouse steps.

The suspect, 37-year-old Tennis Melvin Maynard, was being treated at a hospital in Huntington late Wednesday.

Nelson said Maynard was fleeing from a deputy and crashed his car into a bridge in nearby Delbarton. Maynard got out of the vehicle and pulled a gun on the deputy, who fired in self-defense, Nelson said. Authorities did not announce what charges Maynard might face.

Crum was elected last year and had just taken office in January, but he'd already helped indict dozens of suspected drug dealers through the county's new Operation Zero Tolerance.

It's unclear whether that crusade was related to his death, but residents and county officials suspect it.

County Commission President John Mark Hubbard said Crum's team has targeted people "who spread the disease of addiction among our residents."

"We were and we are proud of him and his service," he said. "To say Eugene will be missed is a vast understatement."

The county courthouse was evacuated and closed after the shooting. Streets into the city of about 3,200 were temporarily blocked off and officers held white sheets around the crime scene, Crum's body further shielded by two vehicles.

Later, a bouquet of red roses with a red ribbon was fastened to a guardrail above the parking lot.

Though there is no indication of any connection, Crum's killing comes on the heels of a Texas district attorney and his wife being shot to death in their home over the weekend, and just weeks after Colorado's corrections director also was gunned down at his home.

Delegate Harry Keith White, who campaigned with Crum last year, said his friend was killed in the same place where he parked his car most days to eat lunch, near the site of a former pharmacy known for illegally distributing pills. He wanted to be certain the "pill mill" remained closed.

"I think anybody you ask would tell you he was a great guy, always with a positive attitude, always trying to help people," White said. "It's just a sad, sad day for Mingo County and the state of West Virginia."

Operation Zero Tolerance was Crum's way to make good on a campaign pledge, White said.

State, federal and local authorities have all tried to crack down on West Virginia's drug problem, which centers on the illegal sale of prescription drugs in the southern counties. Mingo County is in the southwest corner of West Virginia, on the border with Kentucky.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says West Virginia has the second-highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the nation. And in February, federal officials said they had prosecuted more than 200 pill dealers in the past two years.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin called Crum's killing "shocking" and pledged the assistance of his office and whatever other federal agencies are needed.

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, the Democrat whose district includes Mingo County, said the sheriff, who was married with two children, was new to his job but not the cause of justice.

"Every law-abiding citizen demands justice for this tragedy that has shaken our sense of decency, but not our resolve, to maintain law and order," he said.

Kenneth Jude, 23, of Chatteroy, has known Crum all his life.

"They shouldn't scare cops into not wanting to do their jobs," he said.

"It's people like that that give this place a bad name — somebody that would do something that stupid, to kill somebody that's trying to make it a better place," Jude said. "You wouldn't think something like that would happen, especially in the middle of town."

Jerry Cline stood near the site of the slaying hours later, recalling how Crum watched the traffic and the community but "never messed with nobody unless they were violating the law."

Authorities have not said whether the shooting was related to Crum's drug crackdown, but it was on Cline's mind.

"He told them right before he got in as sheriff, 'If you're dealing drugs, I'm coming after you. I'm cleaning this town up,'" Cline said. "... He got out just to do one thing, and that's the clean this town up. That's all that man tried to do."

Cline's wife, Loretta, said the sheriff was a good friend to everyone, even those who barely knew him.

"Once you meet him one time, it's like you've known him all your life," she said. "Every time you'd see him, he was always the same. He always had a smile on his face. He was a very loving person."

Crum had been a magistrate for 12 years and had previously served as police chief in Delbarton. He won the primarily handily and ran unopposed in the general election in the fall.

Delegate Justin Marcum, D-Mingo and an assistant county prosecutor, called Crum "a true friend to the county."

Williamson sits along the Tug Fork River in a part of the state long associated with violence.

Mingo and neighboring McDowell County are home to the legendary blood feud between the Hatfield family of West Virginia and the McCoy family of Kentucky, a conflict dating to the Civil War.

Crum's county was dubbed "Bloody Mingo" during the early 20th century mine wars, when unionizing miners battled Baldwin-Felts security agents hired by the coal operators.

In May 1920, after evicting striking miners in Red Jacket, some of the Baldwin-Felts men tried to board a train in nearby Matewan but were confronted by the mayor and the chief of police, Sid Hatfield, a former miner, who had family ties to the Hatfields in the feud.

After a gun battle recreated in the 1987 John Sayles film "Matewan," the mayor, two miners, a bystander and three agents lay dead. Hatfield became a hero but was gunned down on the courthouse steps a year later in Matewan.

In the slayings of the Texas district attorney and his wife, officials suspect a white supremacist prison gang. Those killings happened a couple of months after one of the county's assistant district attorneys was killed near his courthouse office.

Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Two days later, Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout about 100 miles from Kaufman. Since the killings, worried authorities are talking about better protecting prosecutors and other law enforcers.

Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has described himself as "America's toughest sheriff" and is a national hero to conservatives on immigration issues, said he was saddened by Crum's slaying and that he is struggling to understand the recent murders of law enforcement officials.

Arpaio himself has been the target of numerous threats, prompting the need for a security detail.

"The brazenness of these acts is confounding. Inside one year, two of my deputies were shot, one killed and one nearly killed and now elected law enforcement officials across the nation seem to be being targeted," he said.

The Officer Down Memorial Page says 136 police officers in West Virginia have died in the line of duty from deliberate gunfire.

Smith contributed from Morgantown. Associated Press writer Lawrence Messina contributed from Charleston.

Firefighters from eight departments fight Franklin County farmhouse blaze

Firefighters battle a house fire on State Road in Whately that sent two people to the hospital Dave Canton  

Fire officials say the 6 State Road fire was reported by either neighbors or passersby at 11:31 p.m. Wednesday. By the time the first fire units arrived in scene, a rear attached shed and the kitchen on the back of the house were fully involved in flames.

Investigators from the State Fire Marshal's Office were on scene trying to determine the cause of the blaze.

Incident spokesman Dennis Annear from Northwest Massachusetts Incident Management said the first responding units conducted a search of the house and found the two occupants inside. One victim was found on the second floor while the second was on the first floor, he said.

"It appears that both of the victims were able to get out of the house by themselves," Annear said.

The victims were immediately bundled into ambulances and taken to the Northampton hospital.

Annear said fire completely gutted the second floor of the wood-framed farmhouse for what is known as the Golunka Farm, and destroyed most of the first floor as well. The rear additions housing the storage shed and the kitchen were nearly completely consumed by flames. Both collapsed as the morning wore on.

Whately Fire Department officials put out a call for Mutual Aid and firefighting units from eight different surrounding towns contributed men and equipment. Annear said all told, 68 fighters responded to the call for help, including units from nearby Hatfield, South Deerfield, Sunderland Greenfield and the Hampshire County Fire Defense Association.

This is a developing story and new information will be added.

High winds fanned flames as firefighters tried to save an Orchard Street home

Northampton fire fighters battled a Wednesday afternoon fire in an Orchard Street two-family house.  

Northampton Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief John Davine said the 2 p.m. fire started on the outside of the house and traveled up the side of the wood-framed building into the upper floors. Davine said when firefighters arrived on scene, they found heavy flames on the outside of the rear of the home, traveling up a wooden deck. Davine said high winds fanned the flames.

Mutual aid was called for as the two-alarm blaze consumed the second floor and attic of the home. Fire units from Easthampton, Amherst, Hatfield and Willliamsburg aided Northampton firefighters in battling the blaze, while units from Greenfield and Hadley provided backup coverage of the city's fire stations.

Davine said the three renters in the two-unit house were helped by the local Red Cross.

Riverdale Road could be closed until 7:30 or 8:00 a.m., police said

Republican file photo  

A West Springfield Police spokesman said the 1:51 a.m. crash injured the two occupants of a vehicle when it veered right and left Riverdale Road as it traveled southbound near Bradford Drive, then sheared a utility pole.Several hundred >Western Massachusetts Electric Company customers were left without power for several hours as live wires stretched across the road. Power was restored by 4:30 a.m. police said.

The two people in the car were transported to the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield with what Sgt. Nolan Ryan called "non life-threatening injuries."

Ryan said WMECO has notified West Springfield police that due to debris and wires from the accident, the southbound lane of Riverdale Road could be closed until 7:30 or 8:00 a.m.

Springfield has scheduled an auction of 22 tax-title houses and six vacant lots, aimed at restoring the properties to the tax rolls and reducing blight.

These were the most read stories on MassLive.com yesterday. If you missed any of them, click on the links below to read them now. The most viewed item overall was the "12 Pioneer Valley homes for sale with water views" photo gallery, above.

1) YouTube video captures Northampton police pepper-spraying suspect, bystander accusations of racism during Pearl Street arrest [Patrick Johnson]

2) State police probe crash that took life of driver who allegedly fled following stop on Interstate 391 in Chicopee [George Graham]

3) Upcoming Springfield tax-title properties auction includes 22 houses, 6 lots [Peter Goonan]

4) Hampden Superior Court assistant clerk William Eason placed on paid leave pending investigation [Jack Flynn]

5) JetBlue to begin flights out of Worcester Regional Airport [Kevin Koczwara]

The fire to the single-family home caused as much as $170,000 in damage, Westfield Fire Chief Mary Regan said.

Updates a story posted Wednesday at 8:20 p.m.

WESTFIELD — A two-alarm fire Wednesday night at a single-family home at 45 Pleasant St. caused as much as $170,000 in damage, Westfield Fire Chief Mary Regan said.

No one was injured in the blaze, which was reported at 7:12 p.m. Two residents who were home when the fire erupted safely got out of the house. The Red Cross was called, but no one needed assistance.

It was the second house fire the Westfield Fire Department responded to Wednesday. Firefighters fought a fire at a two-family home around 5 p.m. at 72-74 Notre Dame St. There was no report of injuries in that fire, but Red Cross officials said they are helping four adults with food and clothing. The four adults had a place to stay, Red Cross spokesman Dawn Leaks said.

Regan said when firefighters first arrived at Pleasant Street, they tried to gain entry, but couldn’t. “We went into defensive attack,” Regan said. She said strong winds made it very difficult to keep the fire under control.

Just before 10 p.m., the fire was out except for scattered hot spots, and firefighters remained at the scene. Regan said firefighters will stay overnight to monitor the situation.

State fire marshal’s office investigators were on the scene to attempt to determine the cause of the blaze.

Westfield received mutual aid from Holyoke and West Springfield to cover the Westfield station.

Pleasant Street remained closed at 10 p.m., and police had no estimate for when it would reopen.

Catherine G. Oleksak, of Day Avenue, whose home is directly behind 45 Pleasant St., said she saw flames coming out of the windows and chimney. “It made me nervous. I immediately hoped no one was hurt.”

According to the City of Westfield Assessors Online Database, the owners of record of 45 Pleasant St. are John D. and Danny W. Eaton of Longmeadow. The eight-room, 2,210-square-foot home, built in 1880, is assessed at $199,500.

The map below shows the approximate location of 45 Pleasant St.:

Police charge that Kristine Kostopulos drove through downtown Holyoke at speeds of up to 75 mph, went the wrong way down one-way streets and even drove on the sidewalk.

Kristine Kostopulos  

Kristine Kostopulos 

HOLYOKE - A 41-year-old West Springfield woman who made an illegal U-turn in front of city detective on Pine Street Wednesday evening compounded things by failing to pull over, and then leading police on a chase through the city and into West Springfield where she was finally apprehended in a hotel parking lot, police said.

During the pursuit, Kristine Kostopulos of 387 Riverdale St., Apt. 32B, is alleged to have driven her Mercedes through downtown Holyoke at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour as she tried to evade police by heading the wrong way down one way streets and at times on sidewalks, said Lt. Matthew Moriarity, head of the police criminal investigations bureau.

She is alleged to have struck two vehicles on Lyman Street, leaving one person injured, as she fled, Moriarty said.

Pedestrians on Lyman Street helped police determine which way the Mercedes went by pointing and yelling "That way," Moriarity said.

Holyoke and West Springfield caught up to the Mercedes at the Bel Air Inn, 375 Riverdale St., he said.

She was taken into custody by Holyoke narcotics detectives Jared Hamel and Brian Duke and West Springfield police.

Kostopulos was charged with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, two counts of leaving the scene of a property damage accident, driving with a suspended license, operating to endanger, failure to stop for police, driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and making an illegal U-turn.

A passenger in her car, Nicole Ann Seymour, no address available, was taken into custody by West Springfield police when it was found there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest.

View Holyoke chase April 3, 2013 in a larger map

Prosecutors say a fellow first-class passenger saw Grant Smith viewing pornographic computer images of young girls during a November 2011 flight.

BOSTON — A Utah man charged with viewing child pornography on a Boston-bound commercial flight won't have to serve his jail sentence if he sticks to the terms of his probation.

Prosecutors say 50-year-old Salt Lake City resident Grant Smith pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing child pornography.

A Boston judge suspended Smith's 2½-year sentence and placed him on five years' probation.

Smith must continue sex offender treatment, comply with Utah sex offender registry requirements and follow restrictions on contact with children and Internet use.

Prosecutors say a fellow first-class passenger saw Smith viewing pornographic computer images of young girls during a November 2011 flight. The passenger took a cellphone photo of the images and alerted a flight attendant.

Smith was arrested in Boston and initially pleaded not guilty. He resigned his job as a University of Utah engineering professor.

Elsie Sanchez, a member of Neighbor to Neighbor, a grassroots advocacy group, said lack of transportation leads effects everything from food shopping and entertainment to recreation.

SPRINGFIELD – The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority has begun a year-long review of routes and services in the 24 communities it serves in response to population shifts and other changes.

Speaking at a forum on mass transportation, John P. Musante, Amherst town manager and chairman of the transit authority’s board, said the analysis will include reviews of every route as well as meetings with passengers and officials in the member communities.

Mary L. MacInnes said the California-based firm of Nelson and Niegard has been hired to conduct the study and complete if by February, 2013.

The firm specializes in mass transit route analysis, MacInnes said, adding “This isn’t going to be a bunch of people sitting in a room.”

Speakers at the forum sponsored by MassInc and Transportation for Massachusetts stressed the need for expanded mass transit services for quality of life and economic development.

Several, including Peter Bryanton, Enfield’s director of community development, said reliable transpiration is a crucial for employees and their employers.

He urged communities to consider more flexible alternatives to big buses, including mini-buses, Zipcars and bicycles.

Elsie Sanchez, a member of Neighbor to Neighbor, a grassroots advocacy group, said lack of transportation leads effects everything from food shopping and entertainment to recreation.

“This isn’t about getting form point A to Point B, it’s about quality of life,” Sanchez said.

MassInc, a nonpartisan Boston think tank, called for expanded mass transit in a February report that found the average bus trip to work is 36 minutes compared with 21 by car in Springfield.

Looking at the Pioneer Valley as a whole, the average trip to work is just 23 minutes by car but 32 minutes by bus, the group found, citing U.S. Census data from 2011.

A battle over mass transportation is unfolding in Boston where Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 calls $800 million in new investments in transportation.

Legislative leaders have proposed $500 million a year for the same purpose - a proposal that Patrick threatened to veto Thursday.

The forum’s moderator, Robert Rizzuto, political reporter for The Republican and Masslive, said the outcome of the budget showdown will have major consequences for mass transportation.

He said the discussion at Thursday’s forum reflected the larger debate about the future of mass transit statewide.

“Everyone agrees that something must be done, but what do we do?,” he said.

“Your concerns are being echoed across the state,” Rizzuto added.

Ken Burns studied under the later Jerome Liebling, whose photo exhibit he introduced in Holyoke.

HOLYOKE — Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said here Thursday that outside of his parents, no one influenced him more than the late photographer Jerome Liebling.

"There is no person more central to who I am,” said Burns, introducing an exhibit of Liebling’s work.

The Liebling exhibit – "A Walk Through Holyoke - 1982" – consists of nearly 40 photographs including images such as the old red-brick mill buildings that dominate downtown and shots of Hispanic men, women and children.

The exhibit is part of this year’s first Holyoke: Points of View cultural celebration. Proceeds from the exhibit's opening gala event will benefit the Holyoke Public Library Capital Campaign.

The exhibit opened at Open Square on Lyman Street and will run there through April 7. After that it will be split into two sections for display at the Holyoke Public Library at City Hall at High and Dwight streets and at Wistariahurst Museum, 238 Cabot St., from April 8 to 28.

Burns, who has won acclaim for decades, studied under Liebling at Hampshire College in Amherst. Liebling instilled a respect for the still image and the truth such images could convey, he said. Liebling died in 2011 at 87.

"I think he made obsolete the idea that there are ordinary people," Burns said.

Studying and working with Liebling guided his career, said Burns, because the man now praised for documentaries once sought the silver screen.

"I wanted to go to Hollywood. I wanted to be Alfred Hitchcock, I wanted to be John Ford," Burns said.

Liebling helped to foster in him an appreciation for using images to tell stories about people and events, he said.

Ken Burns gestures during remarks at the opening of Jerome Liebling's photo exhibit "A Walk through Holyoke - 1982" at Open Square in Holyoke on Thursday. Dave Roback, The Republican  

"He was extremely supportive as a teacher but also very, very tough as a teacher, challenging us constantly," Burns said, introducing an exhibit of Liebling's work.

Burns' work is a tour of American history. He has made documentaries that have been hugely popular on public television, such as "The Dust Bowl," "Baseball," "The Civil War," "Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery," "Jazz," "Mark Twain," "The National Parks," "The Statue of Liberty," "Thomas Jefferson" and "The Brooklyn Bridge," his first, in 1982.

In the pipeline, Burns said, he has documentaries about "The Central Park Five," about black and Latino teenagers from Harlem wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in 1989, "The Roosevelts," and one on country music titled "I Can't Stop Loving You."

Before his prepared remarks, Burns told reporters of a meeting he had in 2002 with Apple computers' Steve Jobs. Apple wanted permission to use "The Ken Burns Effect" as a name for a video panning and zooming effect that would be available on the iconic computers, mirroring a Burns technique.

"I said, 'I'm really sorry but I don't do commercial endorsements,'" Burns said.

Nevertheless, he said, he secured a commitment from Apple to use thousands of dollars gained from sales of computers that had the effect to buy computer equipment for donation to nonprofit groups, said Burns, "which helped me maintain a plausible deniability."

Also, Burns said, documentaries show reality but “reality TV” is something else entirely.

“What we call ‘reality TV’ is not. Nobody eats bugs. Nobody proposes (marriage) in front of 150 million people,” Burns said.

Greg Saulmon, assistant online editor at The Republican, contributed to this story.