OUI arrests Friday night and Saturday net five drunk drivers

Mass. State Police




 

Oliveras, 46, of 1721 Riverdale St. in West Springfield, was arrested shortly before 4 a.m. Saturday on Route 91 in Holyoke after he failed to yield to an emergency vehicle. He failed a field sobriety test at the scene of the stop and was taken into custody. He is being held pending arraignment in Holyoke District Court Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a State Police sobriety check point on Union Street in Springfield netted four OUI arrests. WWLP quotes Lt. John Healy as saying some 186 cars were checked throughout the evening, and four drivers were tested and found to be operating under the influence. They will be arraigned in Springfield District Court Tuesday.

When selectman set a public hearing on Robert Anastas' request for go-go dancing, the bar owner was upset, saying he did not need the permission.

Robert Anastas and Gary Plamondon Jim Russell  

WARE — Robert Anastas, former owner of Robbie’s Place that selectmen ordered closed in 2009 after police found license violations – including nude dancers, lap dancing and “intimate” contact between dancers and patrons – now wants to allow go-go dancing, belly dancing and “bikini attire” at the VIP Lounge.

He attended Tuesday’s meeting asking for permission to allow the various forms of dancing.

When selectman set a public hearing on Anastas’ request for June 4 at 7:15 p.m., the bar owner was upset, saying he did not need the permission.

“They can’t stop me with bikinis,” he told a reporter following the meeting.

But during the meeting, former selectman Gerald Matta stood up and asked: “Isn’t it the same owner that owned Robbie’s Place?”

“Yes,” selectmen chairman Greg Harder said.

When Anastas asked why he needed to have a hearing, Harder said: “We have to discuss denying it.”

In an interview, Town Manager Stuart Beckley said provisions for live dancing by performers are not part of the VIP Lounge's current license to operate. He also said a special permit is required for adult entertainment.

The VIP Lounge owner said a pile of rubble directly behind the building has sat there for months.

“I think if it was anybody else, it would have been removed. What is up with that?” Anastas said.

Beckley said the pile would be gone in a matter of weeks.

“Why are my taxes so high?” Anastas then asked. He attended the selectmen’s meeting with his property manager, Robert Plamondon and Mike Braica, a disc jockey.

The School Committee currently bans all use of cell phones in school.

Chicopee students are trying to persuade the School Committee to allow cell phone use in hallways and in the cafeteria. Republican file photo / Dave Roback  

CHICOPEE — Praising students for the extensive research they did to write a new cell phone policy, the School Committee said they will consider adopting it.

The Committee last week voted 10-0 to review the proposal in subcommittee.

The Student Advisory Council, which is made up of students from Chicopee High, Comprehensive High and Chicopee Academy, had previously proposed changing the policy which bans all cell phones from the schools. A hesitant School Committee recommended the students return with more information.

Last week students returned with a proposed policy. They also shared information about cell phone policies in a variety of other schools, which are similar to their proposal. They also surveyed Chicopee teachers about the issue.

Instead of banning the phones completely, the new policy students are proposing allow students to use their cell phones in the cafeteria and only during their designated lunch periods.

“If you can use it at lunch hopefully it will dissuade students from using it in class. It will be less of a temptation,” said Andre Remillard, a Comprehensive High senior and member of the council.

If a student is found using a phone during class, the student’s cell phone will be confiscated and they will be allowed to pick it up at the end of the day. If a second violation is discovered, the cell phone will only be returned to a parent. A student found violating the police a third time will face suspension and will have his phone confiscated until a parent picks it up.

“We are proposing a trial period from September to the Christmas break,” said Brianna Gardiner, a Comprehensive High senior and member of the advisory committee.

Students have been arguing the existing policy does not work and there would be fewer violations if teenagers had an opportunity during the day to send text messages and make phone calls. Several said they often had to contact their parents to arrange for rides if they were staying after school.

“We are trying to write a policy that is effective and can be enforced,” Gardiner said. “If it is something that works in other schools why not try it.”

Superintendent Richard W. Rege Jr., said he would support the trial period that would allow students to use cell phones during lunch. He had previously opposed a plan that would also allow them to use them in the hallways.

“I have to commend all of you. This is the most thoughtful and thorough survey I have seen,” he told the council.

While School Committee members had questions about noise in the cafeteria and other issues, most said they will at least discuss the trial period.

“You worked so hard on this I’m willing to support it,” School Committee member Adam D. Lamontagne said.

Agri-Mark's $10.2 million profit for 2012 works out to an average of about $7,500 in earnings per farmer.

SPRINGFIELD - Agri-Mark, the farmer-owned cooperative best known for its Cabot brands of cheese and butter, returned a $10.2 million profit in 2012, but management knows that just isn't enough.

"It doesn't begin to keep up with a farmer's expenses," said Douglas J. Di Mento, director of communications for Agri-Mark. "We know we have to do better."

Agri-Mark's $10.2 million profit for 2012 works out to an average of about $7,500 in earnings per farmer, Di Mento said. That's in addition to the $21 million total that Agri-Mark paid out to farmers for their milk in 2012.

The year 2012 was Agri-Mark's sixth consecutive year earning more than $10 million in profits, Di Mento said.

Agri-Mark did better in 2011 earning $15 million in profits. Profits were $11.3 million in 2010.

Di Mento said Agri-Mark saw its margins squeezed in 2012. Its premium moneymaker brands, Cabot cheese and butter and McCadam cheese, cost more than store brands.

"But when food prices go up, more people look to store brands and we have to compete," Di Mento said. "Our sales volume for those products has never been higher. We just got squeezed on our profit margin."

Agri-Mark has plans to add sales people in the Midwest and West, particularly California, so it can get Cabot cheese and butter sold in those markets. It's already in Walmart grocery stores coast to coast.

"But there are a lot of supermarkets that we are not in," Di Mento said.

More than 450 of Agri-Mark's 1,250 farmer-members gathered at the Springfield Sheraton Hotel Monarch Place Thursday and Friday for the cooperative's annual meeting. Besides getting a detailed rundown of Agri-Mark's finances, members also got an opportunity to ask sharp questions about the business.

04.11.2013 | SPRINGFIELD -- From left at the Agri-Mark resolutions committee meeting at the 33rd annual meeting this week at the Sheraton Hotel, Susan Ferguson, an executive assistant at Agri-Mark in Methuen, Mike Barnes, a member of the Agri-Mark board of directors, and Doug LaGrange, dairy farmer from Feura Bush, N.Y. The committee helps to set policy for the dairy co-operative for the coming year. Photo by Michael S. Gordon / The Republican  

There are only 160 or so dairy farmers left in Massachusetts, Di Mento said. Of those, 75 are Agri-Mark members.

"Our only job is to market those farmer's milk as profitably as possible," Di Mento said.

They also discussed federal farm policy and advocated for the pending Dairy Security Act which could help balance dairy supply with demand, Di Mento said.

The company has more than 1,000 employees, including 74 at a plant and laboratory on Riverdale Street in West Springfield. The West Springfield plant makes skim milk, butter, nonfat dry milk, powered whey, condensed milk and milk-and-cream blends.

It is Agri-Mark's only butter plant.

The milk-cream blends from the Riverdale plant go to the Hood ice cream plant in Suffield, Conn., and Friendly's ice cream plant in Wilbraham.

Greek yogurt producers including Fage USA in Johnstown , N.Y., buy large quantities of skim milk from Agri-Mark in West Springfield, Di Mento said.

Bulk products like whey protein and powdered milk make good use of milk before it spoils, but the real money is from Cabot-brand butter and cheese.

Agri-Mark member Steve Barstow II of Barstow's Longview Farm on Route 47 in Hadley said being part of a member-owned cooperative gives him and his family the best deal possible.

But even with Agri-Mark, it isn't easy.

"Our biggest worry is the availability of farmland," he said.

Some crop land has to be rented from other owners, owners who are just as apt to cash in and sell that land for development even in a bad real estate market.

"It seems like every year we lose a few acres to home sites," Barstow said.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Albert Rogers  

Albert P. "Sonny" Bisienere Rogers, 84, of West Springfield, died on Tuesday. Born and raised in West Springfield, he served in the U.S. Navy for six years, which included an expedition to Antarctica with Admiral Byrd. He worked for the the U.S. Postal Service for 30 years and, upon retirement, moved to Florida.

Obituaries from The Republican:

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  Almeida, Sophie V.
  



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  Aycock, Charles W.
  



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  Belden Sr., Richard D.
  



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  Bock, June L.
  



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  Boyce, Kevin J.
  



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  Danek, Dolores R.
  



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  Daunheimer, James R.
  



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  Dowling, John F.
  



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  Dwinell, Kenneth C.
  



• 
  Goodrow, Rose M.
  



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  Jablonski, Stella M.
  



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  Marchese, Frank L.
  



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  McManamy, Walter C.
  



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  Nadeau, Patricia A.
  



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  Polom, Diane C.
  



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  Poulos Sr., Emanuel
  



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  Quigley, Diana M.
  



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  Roberge, Albert Joseph
  



• 
  Rogers, Albert P.
  



• 
  Sullivan, Benjamin J.
  



• 
  Swayger, Ruth L.
  



• 
  Watts, Cathy Elaine
  

Tensions had been high for months in Camp 6 and the adjacent Camp 5, where all the prisoners are held in solid-walled, single cells. Lawyers for prisoners said a hunger strike broke out Feb. 6 in protest their indefinite confinement and what the men believed were tighter restrictions and intrusive searches of their Qurans for contraband.

The confrontation occurred after the commander decided to move prisoners into single, solid-walled cells so that prison authorities could monitor them more closely during the hunger strike, the military said. Associated Press, file  

MIAMI — Guards clashed Saturday with prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison as the military sought to move hunger strikers out of a communal section of the detention center on the U.S. base in Cuba, officials said.

The confrontation occurred after the commander decided to move prisoners into single, solid-walled cells so that prison authorities could monitor them more closely during the hunger strike, the military said.

When guards arrived in the communal to move the men, the prisoners fought back with makeshift weapons, prompting troops to fire four "less-than-lethal rounds" to quell the disturbance, according to a statement issued by Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the prison. There were no major injuries, military officials said.

"I know for sure that one detainee was hit but the injuries were minor, just some bruises," said Army Col. Greg Julian, a Southern Command spokesman.

Guards used a modified shotgun shell that fires small rubber pellets as well as type of bean-bag projectile, Julian said.

The clash occurred in Camp 6, which the military converted to a mostly communal section for well-behaved prisoners, giving them access to satellite television, language and other classes and round-the-clock recreation time to make Guantanamo conform to international standards for a prisoner-of-war camp.

"This is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing," said Carlos Warner, a federal public defender in Ohio who represents several prisoners held at Guantanamo. "The military is escalating the conflict."

Tensions had been high for months in Camp 6 and the adjacent Camp 5, where all the prisoners are held in solid-walled, single cells. Lawyers for prisoners said a hunger strike broke out Feb. 6 in protest their indefinite confinement and what the men believed were tighter restrictions and intrusive searches of their Qurans for contraband. Prisoners had offered to give up the Muslim holy book that each one is issued by the government but prison officials refused to accept them, which they considered a tacit admission of wrongdoing.

The prison at the U.S. base in Cuba holds 166 detainees. The military said that as of Friday 43 prisoners were classified as hunger strikers, including nearly a dozen being force fed to prevent them from starving to death. Lawyers for prisoners have insisted the strike is much more widespread and that almost all of the men are refusing to eat.

For several weeks, prisoners in the communal section had been covering up security cameras and windows used by the guards to monitor them, one of the reasons the commander decided to move them into single cells.

Officials were also concerned that some men were surreptitiously starving themselves to avoid being classified as a hunger striker and force fed. The military said it was conducting individual assessments of all the

Cardinal Sean O'Malley is among members of the advisory panel announced by the Vatican on Saturday.

U.S. Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley celebrates Mass in his titular church of Santa Maria alla Vittoria in Rome, Sunday, March 10, 2013. Associated Press, file  

Cardinal Sean O'Malley is among members of the advisory panel announced by the Vatican on Saturday. The group includes only one current Vatican official, with the rest being cardinals from Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. They will hold their first meeting Oct. 1-3.

The Vatican says Pope Francis appointed the advisers following suggestions that emerged during meetings in the run-up to the conclave that elected him.

A reform of the Vatican bureaucracy was a constant drumbeat ahead of Pope Francis' election, as well as calls for making the Vatican more responsive to the needs of bishops around the world.

The Easthampton School budget would still be short about $309,000 in funding.

Michael A. Tautznik Republican file photo  

EASTHAMPTON – With the House of Representatives releasing its budget this week, Mayor Michael A, Tautznik said he is getting closer to putting together a city budget.

He told the City Council last week he wouldn’t be presenting a budget before the council’s first meeting in May because he only had the governor’s budget to work from. Usually he is able to present a budget in April.

He said he still won’t be able to provide a budget before the May 1 meeting, but based on the House budget numbers, he expects to deliver a $36.2 million budget to the council, up about $1 million from the budget he delivered last year.

He said with the expected state funding he is comfortable increasing the school’s share by about $300,000 over last year’s $15 million budget.

The House budget is $1 billion less than the $34.8 billion version released by Gov. Deval L. Patrick in January. Patrick had used $943 million in new taxes to balance his budget. Tautznik last week said he did not expect the governor’s budget to be approved.

The School Committee late last month approved a $17.3 million budget plan, including $15.6 million from the city, up 3 percent from current levels. The mayor said based on the formula that apportions 67 percent of the city budget to the school department, he expects to be able provide $15.3 million, which would still leave the department about $309,000 short of what’s need to provide the same level of services.

In an email, Superintendent Nancy Follansbee wrote, “It will still mean that we will need to make cuts. I will have to take the Mayor’s number back to my leadership team to make final decisions about what those cuts will be.”

Follansbee had offered a possible savings of $282,245 in her budget, with one staff member cut at the high school and a half a position cut at the White Brook Middle School.
But she said she believes the cuts “would adversely impact the quality of education we provide.”

Tautznik said all departments are feeling constrained. “We’re trying to be as fair as we can.

Last year, the mayor submitted a $35.2 million budget, up $1.2 million over fiscal 2012, or 3.7 percent. The budget was $1.4 million less than departments requested. This year, the budget at this point is $1.2 million less than requested.

Chaloux was traveling south when the 2011 Honda Civic he was driving veered off the roadway and into a wooded area, state police said.

DANVERS — Timothy Chaloux, 18, of North Reading was killed when his car veered off Route 128 at Exit 23 on Saturday morning, Massachusetts State Police said.

Chaloux was traveling south when the 2011 Honda Civic he was driving veered off the roadway and into a wooded area at approximately 6:55 a.m., state police said. Chaloux sustained fatal injuries in the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Troopers assigned to the state police Danvers Barracks responded to the single vehicle crash. No further details were available.

A man was injured after falling about 60 to 100 feet while hiking at the Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation.

A hiker fell approximately 60 to 100 feet while hiking a section of Mount Sugarloaf in South Deerfield Saturday afternoon. His condition was not immediately available. Wikimedia Commons  

DEERFIELD — A man was injured after falling during a hike at Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation in South Deerfield late Saturday afternoon, according to authorities.

Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Steven Jankowski said troopers from the Shelburne Falls barracks were notified at about 4:45 p.m. Jankowski didn't have any information about the victim, identified in a news report as a 20-year-old man.

Rescue personnel were off the mountain by 7 p.m., according to FireGround360's Twitter account. Officials said the man, whom authorities have yet to publicly identify, fell from a height of 60 to 100 feet.

William J. Swasey, chief of the South Deerfield Fire Department, could not immediately be reached for comment. Another Deerfield fire official had no update on the man's condition, but he said Swasey or other rescue officials were expected to release more information later Saturday night.

The man reportedly fell while hiking on the east side of the range, but it was not immediately clear if he was on the higher northern ridge, which tops out at nearly 800 feet, or the more popular southern ridge, which is just over 650 feet.

Multiple fire and rescue crews from Franklin and Hampshire counties responded to the call, with staging for the operation taking place along Beaver Drive, two streets west of River Road.

Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. A DCR spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.

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The measure, calling for about $500 million in new taxes, was approved Monday by the House in the face of a veto threat from Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, who criticized the bill as insufficient to deal with the state's long-term transportation needs.

Gov. Deval Patrick speaks at a press conference at the Statehouse in this file photo. The Senate, in a rare Saturday session, approved a transportation financing overhaul bill by a vote of 30-5. AP, file  

BOSTON — The state Senate, meeting in a rare Saturday session, approved a transportation financing overhaul bill that would pump more dollars into the state's aging and debt-ridden transportation system.

Senators voted 30-5 to pass the bill, which calls for about $500 million in new taxes, after considering dozens of amendments during nearly 10 hours of debate. The bill likely will now go to a conference committee to resolve differences with a House version approved earlier in the week.

The measure was approved Monday by the House in the face of a veto threat from Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, who criticized it as insufficient to deal with the state's long-term transportation needs.

But Patrick has called the Senate version a step in the right direction because it dedicates more revenue to transportation.

Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Stephen Brewer urged colleagues at the outset of the debate to ignore the sometimes harsh rhetoric surrounding the bill.

"There has been a lot of emotion and a serious case of hardball politics over the last couple of weeks in this regard," said Brewer, D-Barre. "I am very proud that during that time this body did not get caught up in emotion but instead worked collaboratively to make a good piece of legislation even better."

Senators considered more than 100 proposed amendments to the bill. Among those that failed was a move by the tiny Republican caucus to strip out the $500 million in proposed new taxes and increase funds available for transportation through administrative reforms and other revenue sources, including future casino licenses.

The state should not "tax first, ask questions later," Senate Republican Leader Bruce Tarr said.

But Brewer said eliminating taxes would be tantamount to putting the entire transportation plan "into the shredder."

Senate President Therese Murray asked court officers to clear the Senate gallery of spectators after the debate was briefly disrupted by about two dozen protesters opposed to new taxes. Many in the group went to the Statehouse after attending a Boston Common tea party rally featuring anti-tax activist Grover Nordquist.

"I don't understand why there isn't tremendous outrage" over the new taxes, said Ed Purtz, of Salem, who was among those evicted from the gallery.

Senators approved an amendment that would prod the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority into selling naming rights for subway and commuter rail stations, a move that backers said could generate another $20 million in revenue for the cash-strapped agency.

Opponents objected to the notion of attaching corporate names to iconic downtown subway stations such as Park Street or Copley.

"Naming rights is a place where I draw the line," said Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston. "I don't honestly know what is the price tag we can appropriately put on our history."

Backers, however, said they believed the T could sell naming rights creatively while respecting tradition and pointed to the many newer stations that have no historical significance.

The Democratic leaders' plan calls for raising the state's gasoline tax by 3 cents, to 24 cents a gallon, and indexing future increases in the tax to inflation. It also increases the cigarette tax by $1 per pack, to $3.51, and boosts the excise tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.

The bill also expands the sales tax to computer design services and software modifications and changes the way utilities are classified for tax purposes.

Lawmakers rejected a much larger, $1.9 billion tax plan proposed by Patrick that included an increase in the state income tax to generate new revenue for transportation and education.

Patrick slammed the initial bill offered by lawmakers as a "fiscal shell game" that only pretended to upgrade a transportation system that continues to sag under the weight of debt from the massive Big Dig highway project. The governor said the legislators' proposal did not provide enough revenue to fix crumbling infrastructure or embark on new projects, such as extending commuter rail to New Bedford or expanding Boston's South Station.

The governor's plan and the legislative leaders' one sought to erase the MBTA's annual operating deficit and avoid, at least temporarily, the need for further fare hikes or service cuts on the Boston-area transit system. Both plans also called for ending the practice of paying the salaries of state transportation employees with borrowed funds.

And while both plans would dedicate roughly the same amount of revenue to transportation in the next fiscal year starting July 1, the numbers would diverge sharply in future years.

The Patrick administration estimates its plan would provide, on average, $1.1 billion in additional annual transportation funding over the next 10 years, much of it going to capital improvements.

Brewer on Saturday said the five-year Senate plan would reach an estimated $805 million by 2018 and create a "reliable, convenient and affordable transportation system." The bill would generate additional revenue by dedicating an existing 2.5 cents per gallon gasoline surtax to transportation and requiring utilities with equipment on state highways to negotiate right-of-way agreements with the state. Neither measure was in the House-passed version.

But critics of the legislative plan say it relies far too heavily on future revenue generated directly by the MBTA or the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, dooming residents to ever-increasing transit fares, turnpike tolls and Registry of Motor Vehicles fees.

The innovative show features a variety of multimedia artists at nine locations throughout Easthampton and Holyoke.

A woman looks at Amy Johnquest's "Was Is" exhibit at REACH Fest at Eastworks in Easthampton on Saturday. (Conor Berry, The Republican)

EASTHAMPTON — Fascinating. Emotional. Bizarre.

These are just a few of the words people used to describe "REACH: a multi-city exhibition of contemporary practitioners," which opened last week in Easthampton and Holyoke and runs through May.

For Bostonians David Miller and Jane Wiley, Saturday's trip to Western Massachusetts for REACH Fest Day – the official opening of the two-city arts festival featuring 30 contemporary artists at nine locations – was well worth the trip.

"There's nothing we haven't enjoyed," Miller said.

Both he and Wiley know some of the artists whose eclectic, multimedia works are on display at Eastworks in Easthampton and the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke, as well as several other locations in the two cities.

But what most appealed to Miller was artist Gil Scullion's "Night After Night" installation at Eastworks, a mediation on sleep – or a lack thereof. Miller said he found the exhibit both soothing and disturbing, with its cutouts of sheep, words projected on a screen, and a stark bedroom setting at the end of the walk-through exhibit.

Janette Shelly, of Holyoke, looks at the piece called "Tower of Babel" by Peter Waite of Glastonbury at REACH Fest at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke on Saturday. (Dave Roback, The Republican)

"Scullion's work stood out. It's just beautifully made," Miller said.

Elsewhere in Eastworks, people gathered in groups to talk about the art they experienced, whether it was Amy Johnquest's "Was Is" – a riot of color and texture composed of the self-described pack rat's "creations and accumulations" over the span of her 53 years – or Derek Hoffend's totally trippy, totally novel "Sonotron" sound sculpture and light installation.

People were invited to enter the skeletal, geometric structure, which is imbedded with 10 speakers, for an audio immersion session in which they are "bathed in frequencies," according to Hoffend. A low drone note, with underlying, undulating frequencies, seemed to lull people into a state of true serenity, with some stretching and yawning after exiting the installation.

Back in the middle of Eastworks, The Suitcase Junket, a Greenfield-based musical experiment, delivered some foot-stomping acoustic roots music, with trace elements of bluegrass, The Band and even Wilco.

Nancy Dickinson, of Northampton, was enjoying the multimedia show, but she confessed to being a bit biased. "I'm here because of my son," she said, referring to Jay Dickinson, a so-called sound sculptor whose work was on display at Eastworks.

Saturday featured live performances in both Easthampton and Holyoke by contemporary movement and sound artists, as well as the "One-Minute Vidfest," a film festival at Popcorn Noir in Easthampton featuring one-minute short films submitted by over 80 artists from Easthampton to Serbia.

REACH Fest Day on Saturday in Easthampton and Holyoke drew crowds in both cities. Here, people enjoy some of the art on display at Eastworks in Easthampton.(Conor Berry, The Republican)

In Easthampton, locations include Eastworks, ECA+ Gallery, Nash Gallery and Popcorn Noir. In Holyoke, spaces include City Hall, City Hall Annex, the Steiger’s Building, the new Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center and Wistariahurst.

The official closing for REACH’s Easthampton exhibits will be celebrated with a performance on May 4 by pianist and composer Melissa St. Pierre at the Apollo Grill from 9 to 10:30 p.m.

"Sound" is the official closing for Holyoke REACH exhibits at the Wistariahurst Museum on May 16 at 6p.m. Percussionist Matt Weston will open the concert, followed by Arthur Brooks and Ensemble V, a group that blends traditional jazz with more contemporary schemes of formal music. The performances will be followed by a light reception and a question-and-answer session with the musicians.

One of the vehicles involved in the crash rolled over, but the occupant was not seriously injured, according to Massachusetts State Police.

 

WARREN — A two-car collision in the westbound lane of the Massachusetts Turnpike just after 3 p.m. Saturday caused traffic delays after one car rolled over and a lane was temporarily closed.

Despite the high-speed collision, no one was seriously injured. However, one motorist was taken to Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, said Massachusetts State Police Trooper Jonathan Brown, who is stationed at the Charlton barracks. The other driver did not require hospitalization, Brown said.

The right side of the westbound lane was closed for about an hour so crews could right the overturned vehicle, the trooper said. Traffic was flowing again by about 4:30 p.m.

It was unclear what led to the crash, which did not result in any charges.

Police are investigating an incident in which a Suffield woman assaulted in her home.

 

Police said they received a 911 call from a woman at the address at 12:09 a.m. Saturday, reporting that a masked man armed with a handgun broke into her home and sexually assaulted her.

Police responded to find the wounded and terrified woman lying on the floor of the home. The woman was unable to open the door for police, forcing them to break into the home to attend to the victim. She was transported to a local hospital for treatment.

According to reports from the Hartford Courant, the assailant is described as a 6-foot-tall white male, between 25 and 40 years old, with a muscular build. Police say the assailant was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, work boots, a ski mask and black gloves.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at (860) 668-3870.

The conference – independently organized by UMass students to the form of the successful global non-profit, TED – invited innovative thinkers and pioneering entrepreneurs to share "ideas worth spreading" on the state university's flagship campus. The theme of the event was innovation.

AMHERST — Business practices that better suit the millennial generation, how hip-hop culture can inform civic dialogue at town meetings and on the international stage and the importance of looking inward to conquer personal demons to save the people we love were but three of the topics to grace the stage at TEDxUMassAmherst Saturday.

The conference – independently organized by UMass students to the form of the successful global non-profit, TED – invited innovative thinkers and pioneering entrepreneurs to share "ideas worth spreading" on the state university's flagship campus. The theme of the event was innovation.

"Today we will hear about ideas from 10 distinct regions of the human brain," event host and UMass alumnus Scott Nielsen said at the event's outset, referencing the 10 speakers who would take the microphone over the course of the morning and afternoon to speak on topics cultural, personal and professional.

U.S. hip-hop ambassador Toni Blackman

Toni Blackman, a musical ambassador with the U.S. State Department who has traveled to countries throughout Africa, opened the morning segment with a speech on the sanctity of the cypher – a circle – and its relevance throughout the course of human history, whether while eating, dancing or even rap-battling.

AMHERST - Speaker Toni Blackman, left, freestyles to a guest beatboxer (Photo by Brian Canova).  

While Blackman lamented certain aspects of mainstream hip-hop culture, and pointed out the controversy in rap-battle's sometimes adversarial nature, she said that when approached with the mindset of self-growth rap battles offer a tool to connect, an opportunity to learn about the self and a venue for unabated personal expression seldom seen elsewhere in society.

"Imagine the civic dialogue at a town meeting if everyone expressed themselves exactly as they felt?" Blackman said.

Before the speech Blackman paced nervously in the atrium outside the auditorium, culling her mind to condense a lifetime's experience in the world of hip-hop into a 15-minute presentation. According to TED guidelines, presentations must not exceed 18 minutes in length.

"I don't usually do talks for this short period of time," Blackman said ahead her presentation.

Triumph and Redemption

Other speakers – like Michael Guglielmo, once convicted of multiple counts of attempted capital murder among a slew of other charges in a hostage-taking rampage that ended with his eventual surrender in Manchester, N.H., in 1985, and Chris Herren, a former Boston Celtics NBA player whose life and career unraveled after years of substance abuse escalated into heroin-addiction – offered their tales of personal triumph and redemption as caution and inspiration.

Guglielmo tested at a 7th grade level when he entered the prison system at 23. By the time he was paroled, he had earned his GED, high school diploma, paralegal degree and master's degree in politics.

"A cause is the most powerful thing in the world," said Guglielmo. "Nothing can crush it, and nothing can kill it. Prison saved my life."

AMHERST - Speaker Chris Herren (Photo by Brian Canova)  

Guglielmo would later help lead one of the most world's most prolific bone-marrow donor drives with Delete Blood Cancer DKMS, an endeavor inspired by the rare immunodeficiency disorder that claimed his young son's life. To date he's helped register over 50,000 potential donors and produce 135 life-saving matches.

Herren, since overcoming addiction, has traveled the country's gymnasiums, auditoriums and prison break rooms sharing the story of his eventual path to sobriety and the havoc his choices wreaked on those he loved along the way.

Asked why he continues such emotionally heart-wrenching work day-in and day-out, he recalled two memories. The first was a text message he received minutes after leaving a speaking appearance at a high school from a boyfriend and girlfriend, still sitting in the bleachers where he had spoken. They had a bottle of vodka, Tylenol, Xanax and two suicide notes, according to Herren, but his speech had given them the will to live, and the confidence to ask their principal for the help they needed.

The other was of four girls in purple shirts at a different school. One girl, clad in purple, stood up during the question and answer segment and said she and her friends wore the purple shirts because they were the sober students. Students around her laughed, and soon so did most in the auditorium.

"As the girl sat back down and started to cry I looked at all those students and I said, 'For real?' " Herren said. "I'd give all the jerseys I've ever owned to go back to when I was your age and feel good enough about myself to wear that purple shirt and not need to put something in my body to fit in."

In 2011 Herren founded Project Purple, an organization – named after those four girls – that aims to help individuals and families struggling with addiction.

"Every addict's story starts with the same two things," Herren said to the college age crowd. "Red solo cups and blunts (cigars that have been hollowed out and filled with marijuana)."

Millennials and the mobile web

Other speakers' presentations focused on technology and the increasing role it plays in each of our lives.

Author David Meerman Scott, an ardent NASA – specifically Apollo – fanboy, lectured on cellphones as the greatest technological advance since the United States put a man on the moon in 1969.

"Realize that you have more power in your pocket than the entire Apollo spacecraft," Meerman Scott said as he pulled out his iPhone.

Boston Globe innovation columnist Scott Kirsner offered Hollywood's longstanding reluctance to embrace new technologies at their first emergence as a prism to see today's new developments not as passing fads but the technologies of the future.

AMHERST - Sunderland-bred David Wax Museum performed during the conference (Photo by Brian Canova)  

"As soon as you had the movie industry you had Thomas Edison rejecting the marketability of the projector," said Kirsen.

He said when "The Jazz Singer" – the first blockbuster "talkie" – was released in 1927, industry executives were initially quick to reject the notion that movies like it would ever replace the silent film. He paralleled these now laughable predictions with the dawn of YouTube, the first viral video "The Evolution of Dance," and the industry's doubts about the possibility to monetize the streaming video service at its dawn.

In the night's final presentation, Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of HubSpot, one of Boston's fastest-growing tech companies, described how businesses need to tailor their in-house cultures to better suit the millennial generation, a demographic that desires inspiration, learning new and varied things, and bouncing between jobs after an average of only 18 months, a far-cry from the habits of their parents and grandparents.

Halligan described the ways businesses can relax their standards around the workplace, rethinking the office not as a place but rather an idea as many now work from home or on the go, and even suggested eliminating vacation time altogether to allow employees to travel at will in an age where thousands of miles away most still check their phones and email to stay in touch with the goings-on back home.

By students, for students

Two students in UMass' Isenberg School of Management – Nate Tepper and Kareem Agha – founded the TEDx UMass Amherst project in early December. Tepper and Agha handpicked a few fellow students and networked through them to form the 25-person team. The team raised $25,000 along with in-kind donations from a number of organizations to fund the event.

AMHERST - TEDx UMass Amherst founders Kareem Agha, right, and Nate Tepper, left (Photo by Brian Canova)  

The funds paid for the speaker’s hotel accommodations, a sponsor’s dinner and photographers and videographers for the event. All speakers waived their speaking fees to appear on Saturday.

All in all over 400 students attended the event, and no seat went unfilled throughout the nearly 8-hour conference. At lunch, attendees broke for an hour-and-a-half break, designed to spur dialogue and facilitate networking.

“It’s about the conversation,” said Tepper. “It’s all about inspiring these students to go out and take action on their own ambitions. If anyone leaves this conference unenchanted, we have failed.”

Throughout the conference Tepper, Agha and Nielsen were quick to credit Director of Events Skylar Ritwo, also an Isenberg student, for orchestrating the day’s events.

In the night's closing remarks, as Nielsen prepared to usher the attendees to a networking open-house with the event's speakers next door, he surprised the audience with a challenge.

"After this there will be a test," said Nielsen. "It's called life."

Interspersed between speakers, musical performances reset the mental palettes of the event's attendees. David Wax Musuem, a self-described Mexo-Americana folk and roots rock band from Sunderland, dazzled the crowd with a lively performance that extended off the stage and into the crowd. Other performances included a freestyle rap from crowd-suggested topics by Blackman, an experimental drum and bass performance by Zach Danziger and former member of The Roots Owen Biddle and a cadre of smaller performances from the UMass Marching Band and the UMass Association for Musical Performance.

Automatic federal cuts to effect Mass. long term unemployed

BOSTON (AP) -- Tens of thousands of out-of-work Massachusetts residents who have been collecting unemployment benefits for more than 26 weeks will see their federal unemployment insurance assistance cut by nearly 13 percent as the automatic federal budget cuts bite deeper into the economy, state officials announced Saturday.

The Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance said it is notifying residents who receive federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation that their benefits will start being cut the week ending May 4. The cuts will run through the rest of the financial year that ends in September.

The Emergency Unemployment Compensation program benefits workers who had exhausted their state benefits.

The cuts will hit about 45,000 Massachusetts residents who currently receive the benefits. Each beneficiary now receives an average of $402 a week, but those payments will be trimmed to $351. The benefit amount for each person is calculated on individual circumstances, said Kevin Franck of the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

"These benefit reductions will only affect long-term unemployed workers who have been collecting unemployment insurance benefits for more than 26 weeks," said Department of Unemployment Assistance Director Michelle Amante. "Claimants who are still in their first 26 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits will not be affected."

The U.S. Department of Labor mandated the cuts under a federal law that requires across-the-board cuts to all discretionary federal programs.

The cuts will effectively hit people who need the most help after spending months without a job.

Each Massachusetts resident claiming long-term unemployment insurance benefits will receive a written notice of these changes, together with information on social safety net programs that could help reduce the impact on their health or welfare caused by the federal cuts, state officials said.

Garage burns, car destroyed

Firefighters wet down the interior of a three-car garage that burned Sunday morning. Arson investigators were called to the scene. Dave Canton, Republican  

Fire units responded to the 2:55 a.m. alarm at 35 Coomes St., to find the structure heavily involved in flames, and threatening the multi-family home standing approximately four feet away.

Fire fighters were able to knock the blaze down and contain the fire to the garage itself.

The arson squad was called in to investigate the cause of the blaze.

Leete Street garage fire endangers two houses

Fire fighters wetdown the interior of a three-car garage at 35 Leete Street early Sunday Morning. The fire destroyed a vehicle parked inside and threatened two nearby houses. Dave Canton, Republican  

Dennis Leger, spokesman for the Springfield Fire Department, said while the garage belonged to the two-family home at 35 Leete Street, it fronted onto Coomes Street. The Leete Street house and another at 12 Coomes Street were evacuated as firefighters battled the 2:35 a.m. blaze.

Firefighters were able to knock the flames down quickly and contain the fire to the garage, but not before a vehicle parked in the center bay was destroyed.

Fire officials estimate damages to be approximately $20,000.

Leger said the fire is termed suspicious and the department arson squad has been called in to investigate.

A man was injured in a Liberty Street shooting.

A Springfield police cruiser at night. (Republican file photo by Robert Rizzuto)  

Springfield Police Lt. David Martin said the 12:39 a.m. incident was first detected by the city's ShotSpotter system, then police received calls from area residents.

Martin said the victim was outside the Liberty Street residence when police arrived. However, Martin said the victim is not cooperating with police in their investigation and offered no information about who may have shot him, or the circumstances of the shooting. He was transported to the Baystate Medical Center for treatment of what Martin called, "a non-life threatening wound to the left lower leg."

The incident remains under investigation.

A Longmeadow man crashed his car into the Williams Street store after he mistakenly put his car in drive instead of reverse.

File photo | The Republican  

LONGMEADOW — An elderly man mistakenly put his car in drive instead of reverse and crashed into the UPS Store on Williams Street Saturday, officials said.

CBS 3, media partner of The Republican and MassLive.com, reports that Longmeadow police responded to a crash at the store and found the man in his vehicle.

There were no injuries, but police said the crash caused more than $1,000 in damage.