Belchertown couple welcomes their son Wyatt Swiatlowski on Mothers Day.

Kelly Swiatlowski, a high school teacher from Belchertown with Wyatt John Swiatlowski. Wyatt was the first child born at Baystate Medical Center on Mother's Day. He was born at 2:10 a.m. To the left is a photo of Wyatt's sister Ava. David Molnar, The Republican 

SPRINGFIELD — Wyatt Swiatlowski made his entrance into the world a few days early to the delight of his parents, sister and extended family.

The 8 lbs. 8 oz. baby was born on Mother's Day to proud parents Kelly and Chris Swiatlowski, of Belchertown.

"We are so excited," said the mother of two. "He is the perfect Mother's Day present."

Wyatt was scheduled to be born on Tuesday, but arrived at 2:10 a.m. at Baystate Medical Center. He has a three year-old-sister named Ava.

"She was actually born on St. Patrick's Day," Swiatlowski said, of her two holiday babies. "She is excited to have him home. She calls him her baby."

The mother and son were doing well Sunday afternoon.

Swiatlowski and her husband were high school sweethearts and have been married eight years. He works at MassMutual and she is a teacher at Belchertown High School.

The couple chose Wyatt as a name because it was unique. They knew it would be a boy.

"This time around it was much easier," she said. " I knew what to expect and (the delivery) was much faster. Thankfully there were no problems."

She said she is looking forward to resting and then heading home.

"Hopefully I can bring him home tomorrow," she said, adding that there are a lot of relatives, especially two excited grandmothers, waiting for him.

A helicopter and team of dogs is being used in the search.

 

AGAWAM - State police have been called to assist local officers in a search in the city.

State Police spokeaman Lt. Dan Richard said Agawam Police Department contacted state police at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday requesting a team of dogs and a state police helicopter to assist with the search.

"I don't know what they are looking for," Richard said, referring all calls to the Agawam Police Department.

Agawam officers would not talk about the incident and said they will not release any information until Monday.

Masslive will update as more information becomes available.

Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a Mother's Day second-line parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 17 people, police said.

Bystanders comfort a shooting victim while awaiting EMS at the intersection of Frenchmen and N. Villere Streets after authorities say gunfire injured at least a dozen people, including a child, at a Mother's Day second-line parade in New Orleans on Sunday, May 12, 2013. No deaths were reported. (AP Photo/The Times-Picayune, Lauren McGaughy) 

NEW ORLEANS — Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a neighborhood Mother's Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 19 people, police said.

The FBI said the shooting appeared to be "street violence" and wasn't linked to terrorism.

Many of the victims were grazed and most of the wounds weren't life-threatening, according to authorities, though at least three people had serious wounds. No deaths were reported.

The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The children, both 10 years old, were grazed and in good condition.

» Complete coverage of the shooting from NOLA.com

Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged witnesses to come forward with information during a news conference Sunday night at a hospital where gunshot victims were taken.

"These kinds of incidents will not go unanswered. Somebody knows something. The way to stop this violence is for you all to help," he said.

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, said federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

"It's strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans," she said.

As many as 400 people joined in the second-line procession that stretched for about 3 blocks, though only half that many were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, said Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas. Officers were interspersed with the marchers, which is routine for such events.

Police saw three suspects running from the scene in the city's 7th Ward neighborhood. No arrests had been made as of early evening.

Outside the hospital on Sunday night, Leonard Temple teared up as he talked about a friend of his who was in surgery after being shot three times during the parade. Temple was told the man was hit while trying to push his own daughter out of the way.

"People were just hanging out. We were just chilling. And this happened. Bad things always happen to good people," said Temple, who was at the parade but didn't see the shootings.

In the late afternoon, the scene was taped off and police had placed bullet casing markers in at least 10 spots.

Second-line parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street, often following behind a brass band. They can be impromptu or planned and are sometimes described as moving block parties.

A social club called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday's event. The group was founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its MySpace page.

The neighborhood where the shooting happened was a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses, some boarded up. As of last year, the neighborhood's population was about 60 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.

The shootings took place about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series "Treme."

Sunday's violence comes at a time when the city is struggling to pay for tens of millions of dollars required under a federal consent decree to reform the police department and the city jail.

Shootings at parades and neighborhood celebrations have become more common in recent years as the city has struggled with street crime. Police say gang turf wars often are the root cause.

Police vowed to make swift arrests. Serpas said it wasn't clear if particular people in the second line were targeted, or if the shots were fired in a random fashion.

"We'll get them. We have good resources in this neighborhood," Serpas said.

Their approval for sainthood was decided upon by Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, in a decree read at the ceremony in February where the former pontiff announced his retirement.

Pope Francis greets the faithful at the end of a canonization mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 12, 2013. The Pontiff canonized, Antonio Primaldo and his companions, also known as the Martyrs of Otranto, Laura di Santa Caterina da Siena Montoya of Colombia, and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala of Mexico.AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia 

By FRANCES D'EMILIO

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday gave the Catholic Church new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, as he led his first canonization ceremony Sunday in a packed St. Peter's Square.

The "Martyrs of Otranto" were 813 Italians who were slain in the southern Italian city in 1480 for defying demands by Turkish invaders who overran the citadel to renounce Christianity.

Their approval for sainthood was decided upon by Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, in a decree read at the ceremony in February where the former pontiff announced his retirement.

Shortly after his election in March, Francis called for more dialogue with Muslims, and it was unclear how the granting of sainthood to the martyrs would be received. Islam is a sensitive subject for the church, and Benedict stumbled significantly in his relations with the Muslim community.

The first pontiff from South America also gave Colombia its first saint: a nun who toiled as a teacher and spiritual guide to indigenous people in the 20th century.

With Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos among the VIPS, the Argentine pope held out Laura of St. Catherine of Siena Montoya y Upegui as a potential source of inspiration to the country's peace process, attempted after decades-long conflict between rebels and government forces.

Francis prayed that "Colombia's beloved children continue to work for peace and just development of the country."

He also canonized another Latin American woman. Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, a Mexican who dedicated herself to nursing the sick, helped Catholics avoid persecution during a government crackdown on the faith in the 1920s.

Also known as Mother Lupita, she hid the Guadalajara archbishop in an eye clinic for more than a year after fearful local Catholic families refused to shelter him.

Francis prayed that the new Mexican saint's intercession could help the nation "eradicate all the violence and insecurity," an apparent reference to years of bloodshed and other crime largely linked to powerful drug trafficking clans.

Francis told the crowd that the martyrs are a source of inspiration, especially for "so many Christians, who, right in these times and in so many parts of the world, still suffer violence." He prayed that they receive "the courage of loyalty and to respond to evil with good."

The pope didn't single out any country. But Christian churches have been attacked in Nigeria and Iraq, and Catholics in China loyal to the Vatican have been subject to harassment and sometimes jail over the last decades.

Christians in Saudi Arabia must worship out of the public eye because the ultraconservative kingdom does not officially permit churches and non-Muslim religious sites.

Francis, the first pope from the Jesuit order, which is known for its missionary zeal, praised the Colombian saint for "instilling hope" in the indigenous people. He said she taught them in a way that "respected their culture."

Many Catholic missionaries over the centuries have been criticized for demanding natives renounce local traditions the outsiders viewed as primitive.

The pope also hailed the Mexican saint for renouncing a comfortable life to work with the sick and poor, even kneeling on the bare floor of the hospital before the patients to serve them with "tenderness and compassion."

Mother Lupita's example, said Francis, should encourage people not to "get wrapped up in themselves, their own problems, their own ideas, their own interests, but to go out and meet those who need attention, comprehension, help" and other assistance.

After shaking hands with the prelates and VIPS in the front rows at the end of the Mass, Francis shed his ceremonial vestments. Wearing a plain white cassock, he climbed into an open white popemobile to ride up and down the security paths surrounding the crowd of more than 60,000.

He stopped to pat children on the head, kiss babies and bantered in his native Spanish with some at the edge of the crowd.

Francis noted that the crowd included participants in an anti-abortion march of several thousand people, who walked a few kilometers (miles) from the Colosseum, crossing a bridge over the Tiber river to end near the Vatican while Mass was being celebrated in St. Peter's Square.

He drew attention to a signature-gathering drive in many Italian churches to push for a European initiative to "guarantee legal protection for embryos, protecting every human being from the first instant of existence."

Vatican teaching forbids abortion.

The three women thanked law enforcement and thanked family and the community for their support.

a "Welcome Home" sign is posted at a restaurant near a crime scene where three women were held captive for a decade in Cleveland. For Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, who were freed from captivity inside a Cleveland house May 6, 2013, the ordeal is not over. Next comes recovery from sexual abuse and their sudden, jarring reentry into a world much different than the one they were snatched from a decade ago.File photo / Associated Press 

By JOHN COYNE

CLEVELAND — The three women allegedly imprisoned and sexually abused for years inside a padlocked Cleveland house asked for privacy Sunday, saying through an attorney that while they are grateful for overwhelming support, they also need time to heal.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight remain in seclusion, releasing their first statements since they were found May 6 when Berry escaped and told a 911 dispatcher, "I'm free now."

They thanked law enforcement and said they were grateful for the support of family and the community.

"I am so happy to be home, and I want to thank everybody for all your prayers," DeJesus said in a statement read by an attorney. "I just want time now to be with my family."

The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

Investigators say they spent the last nine years or more inside the home of Ariel Castro where they were repeatedly raped and only allowed outside a handful of times. Castro, 52, is being held on $8 million bond. The former school bus driver was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

Prosecutors said last week they may seek aggravated murder charges — punishable by death — for allegedly impregnating one of his captives at least five times and forcing her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the belly.

The allegations were contained in a police report that also said Berry was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool inside the home. A DNA test confirmed that Castro fathered the 6-year-old girl, who escaped the house with Berry.

After nearly a decade of being away, the three women need time to reconnect with their families, said attorney Jim Wooley.

Knight, who was the first to disappear and the last of the three released from the hospital, thanked everyone for their support and good wishes in her statement.

"I am healthy, happy and safe and will reach out to family, friends and supporters in good time."

Berry added: "Thank you so much for everything you're doing and continue to do. I am so happy to be home with my family."

The attorney said none of the women will do any media interviews until the criminal case against Castro is over. He also asked that they be given privacy.

"Give them the time, the space, and the privacy so that they can continue to get stronger," Wooley said.

The Associated Press does not usually identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but the women's names were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearances and after they were found.

Donations are pouring into funds set up for the women. City Councilman Brian Cummins said $50,000 has been raised with the goal of creating a trust fund for each in hopes of making them financially independent.

Castro was represented at his first court appearance Thursday by public defender Kathleen Demetz, who said she can't speak to his guilt or innocence and advised him not to give any media interviews that might jeopardize his case.

Castro's two brothers, who were initially taken into custody but released Thursday after investigators said there was no evidence against them, told CNN that they fear people still believe they had something to do with the three missing women.

Onil and Pedro Castro said they've been getting death threats even after police decided to release them. Pedro Castro said he would have turned in his brother if he had known he was involved in the women's disappearance.

"Brother or no brother," he told CNN

The seasoned diplomat who penned a highly critical report on security at a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, defended his scathing assessment but absolved then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In this Sept. 14, 2012 file photo, Libyan military guards check one of the U.S. Consulate's burnt out buildings during a visit by Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif, not shown, to the U.S. Consulate to express sympathy for the death of the American ambassador, Chris Stevens and his colleagues in the deadly attack on the Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Senior State Department officials pressed for changes in the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used after the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya last September, expressing concerns that Congress might criticize the Obama administration for ignoring warnings of a growing threat in Benghazi. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)Mohammad Hannon, Associated Press 

PHILIP ELLIOTT

WASHINGTON — The seasoned diplomat who penned a highly critical report on security at a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, defended his scathing assessment but absolved then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "We knew where the responsibility rested," Thomas Pickering said Sunday.

"They've tried to point a finger at people more senior than where we found the decisions were made," Pickering, whose career spans four decades, said of Clinton's critics.

The Accountability Review Board, which Pickering headed with retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not question Clinton at length about the attacks but concluded last December that the decisions about the consulate were made well below the secretary's level.

Pickering and Mullen's blistering report found that "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" of the State Department meant that security was "inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."

Pickering's defense of his panel's conclusions, however, failed to placate Republicans who have called for creation of a special select congressional committee to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said he wants sworn depositions from Pickering and Mullen, and promised to make that request on Monday.

"This is a failure, it needs to be investigated. Our committee can investigate. Now, Ambassador Pickering, his people and he refused to come before our committee," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the panel's chairman.

Pickering, sitting next to Issa during an appearance on one Sunday show, said the chairman was lying and that he was willing to testify before the committee.

"That is not true," said the former top diplomat who has served in Republican as well as Democratic administrations.

In a separate interview, Pickering said he asked, via the White House, to appear at Wednesday's session. He said he could have answered many of the questions lawmakers raised, such as whether U.S. military forces could have saved Americans had they dispatched F-16 jet fighters to the consulate, some 1,600 miles away from the nearest likely launching point.

"Mike Mullen, who was part of this report and indeed worked very closely with all of us and shared many of the responsibilities directly with me, made it very clear that his view as a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that there were nothing within range that could have made a difference," Pickering said.

Republicans and Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, have questioned why the military couldn't move faster to stop the two nighttime attacks over several hours. Hicks, who testified before the House Oversight panel this past week, said a show of U.S. military force might have prevented the second attack on the CIA annex that killed security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

Mullen's successor as Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a Senate panel on Feb. 7 that they didn't have enough intelligence about what was happening, did not know where the ambassador was and F-16s would have been the wrong aircraft.

"You can't just willy-nilly send F-16s there and blow the hell out of a place without knowing what's taking place," Panetta had told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 7.

At the hearing last Wednesday, Hicks and two other State Department witnesses criticized Pickering and Mullen's review. Their complaints centered on a report they consider incomplete, with individuals who weren't interviewed and a focus on the assistant secretary level and lower.

"I was surprised today that they did not probe Secretary Clinton in detail," Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said, of the review board.

The hourslong hearing produced no major revelation but renewed interest in the attacks that happened during the lead-up to the November 2012 presidential election.

Even so, Republicans showed little interest in dropping their investigation into what happened at the consulate, what might be done to prevent future such attacks and what political calculations went into rewriting talking points the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, used on news shows.

A series of emails that circulated between the State Department and the CIA led to weakened — and, in some cases, erroneous — language that Rice used to describe the assault during a series of five television interviews the Sunday after the attacks.

"I'd call it a cover-up," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,who renewed his call for a select committee to investigate. "I would call it a cover-up in the extent that there was willful removal of information, which was obvious."

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence committee, said he expects more State Department officials to step forward and testify.

One Republican eyeing a White House run, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, told an audience in Iowa that he thinks the Benghazi attack "precludes Hillary Clinton from ever holding office."

Democrats said Republicans were looking to weaken her ahead of a potential 2016 campaign.

"This has been caught up in the 2016 presidential campaign, this effort to go after Hillary Clinton," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "They want to bring her in because they think it's a good political show and I think that's unfortunate."

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said the congressional probe "has just become a very, very partisan-focused, scandal-focused attack by the Republicans investigating this."

Pickering declined repeated opportunities to criticize Rice's now-debunked talking points that suggested the attacks were not terrorism.

"That was not in our mandate," Pickering said. "We were looking at the security, security warnings, security capacity, those kinds of things."

Democrats similarly did little to defend the mistaken talking points.

"This is one instance where you know it was what it was," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"There was no question this was a terrorist attack," Smith said.

Pickering spoke with CNN's "State of the Union," NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS' "Face the Nation." Issa and Feinstein spoke with NBC. McCain spoke to ABC's "This Week." Ayotte and Durbin were on CBS. Smith spoke to "Fox News Sunday."

Leila Fowler's killing last month set off an intense manhunt after her brother told police he saw a man run from the scene.

In a Sunday April 28, 2013 photo, Calaveras County Sheriff's Department Captain Jim Macedo gives details about the case involving 8-year-old Leila Fowler, who was found dead Saturday evening in Valley Springs. The attacker, only described as wearing a black shirt and blue pants, was the subject of a broad search Sunday by the sheriff's departments of Calaveras and surrounding counties, the California Highway Patrol and the state Department of Justice.File photo / Associated Press 

VALLEY SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — A day before a 12-year-old boy was arrested for the stabbing death of his 8-year-old sister, his mother described him as "protective" of his younger sibling.

Leila Fowler's killing last month shook the quiet community of Valley Springs, southeast of Sacramento, and set off an intense manhunt. Her brother was in the home at the time and told police he saw a man run from the scene.

Days later, the boy appeared with his father and stepmother at a vigil for his sister. On Friday, as speculation in the community built that perhaps the boy was involved, his biological mother told Sacramento television station KOVR her son "could never hurt his sister."

"I've never seen him be mean to her," said Priscilla Rodriquez.

Less than a day later, police delivered the stunning news: The 12-year-old boy had been arrested and will be charged with homicide.

For a community still reeling from the killing, the news was another blow.

"It's bad enough to lose a child. I can't imagine losing a child by one of my own children," Patti Campbell, a longtime area resident and owner of Campbell's Country Kitchen, told The Associated Press.

Campbell, a resident of the area for 33 years and the operator of the Valley Springs restaurant for 15 of them, said she had served Leila and her family in her restaurant.

"It's just shocking. I don't know what else to say," Campbell said.

Other residents in the community of about 7,400 people expressed similar feelings of disbelief.

"I did not want to believe it. You kind of thought so, but it's not something you want to believe," resident Tammy Ainsworth told Sacramento's KCRA-TV.

Aaron Plunk, a neighbor of Fowler's, said the arrest was staggering but he could rest easier now. He said he and his family had been extra vigilant about locking windows and doors, even though the street was being closely guarded by deputies.

"I think we were the safest house in the county," Plunk told the Modesto Bee.

Plunk's mother, Carla Plunk, said she had been scared enough to arm herself.

"It the first time I ever held a gun," she said.

Calaveras Unified School District Superintendent Mark Campbell said counselors will be available Monday at all schools.

The district "stands ready to provide whatever level of support and assistance is necessary to the Fowler family" and the community at large, he said Sunday.

Police released no information about what led them to arrest the unidentified 12-year-old for the April 27 attack. Following the crime, investigators did a door-to-door sweep of homes, storage sheds and horse stables scattered across the oak-studded hills foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Divers also searched two nearby reservoirs in search of clues.

Leila's brother told police he found his sister's body and encountered an intruder in the home while their parents were at a Little League game. He described the man as tall with long gray hair. A neighbor told detectives she saw a man flee the home, but she later recanted the story.

Police said there was no sign of a burglary or robbery. As part of the investigation, authorities seized several knives from the Fowler home, where Leila lived with her father, stepmother and siblings.

Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz said authorities spent more than 2,000 hours on the investigation before they arrested the boy at 5:10 p.m. Saturday.

In a stump speech that married music with politics and activism, award-winning singer/songwriter Carole King told a room full of Ed Markey supporters in Springfield Sunday that the longtime Massachusetts congressman's stance on environmental issues is, in her eyes, another reason to support his bid to become the state's news U.S. senator.

SPRINGFIELD - In a stump speech that married music with politics and activism, award-winning singer/songwriter Carole King told a room full of Ed Markey supporters in Springfield Sunday that the longtime Massachusetts congressman's stance on environmental issues is, in her eyes, another reason to support his bid to become the state's next U.S. senator.

"I've known Ed for a very long time. I first started coming to Capitol Hill to work on a bill to protect the northern Rockies, where I live, and there were very few people who knew what an ecosystem was. Ed was one of them," King said, while also giving kudos to the environmental prowess of for U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield. "I've watched Ed's work and tireless successes to help the people of Massachusetts and protect the environment by accepting science. What a concept."

Markey talked about his support for environmental protections while referencing a report released on Friday which concluded the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now higher than any time in the past three million years on Earth.

"We have crossed another dubious threshold in terms of dangerous global warming. We've gone from 280 parts per million at the beginning of the industrial age to 400 parts per million now meaning we've put up a blanket up there to hold in these greenhouse gases," Markey said. "They warm the planet, melt the Arctic ice, warm up the ocean which creates a concoction that results in storms like Superstorm Sandy. Had that hit Massachusetts from Provincetown up to Plum Island, we'd be digging out for a generation in terms of the harm that would have been done. It's a warning."

Markey said the way forward should center on supporting renewable energy on a legislative level to create a new job sector that can also lower the level of carbon dioxide and pollution in the air.

"We have to create a new industrial revolution. A new job-creating, Massachusetts-centric revolution. Wind technologies, solar technologies, geothermal, biomass- these are the jobs that we should be creating for the next generation," Markey said. "This is how we say to the next generation, the green generation, 'We know you want to save the planet and we know you want a job as well.'"

In an interview following his speech to supporters, Markey said that he thinks the report issued at the end of last week has the potential to change the conversation in Washington as he thinks it may make things more diccicult for people to "deny science."

Markey is facing political newcomer, Republican Gabriel Gomez, in the second U.S. Senate race Massachusetts voters have endured in as many years. King said that when John Kerry was confirmed as secretary of state, vacating the U.S. Senate seat he held since 1985, she called Markey and told him "I'm in."

And that allegiance took the musician on a Western Massachusetts swing Sunday that brought her and Markey to Greenfield, Northampton, Amherst and Springfield to not only boost Markey's campaign, but to thank the volunteers working to get him elected.

Some of the 660 active volunteers in Western Massachusetts knocked on more than 500 doors in Springfield this past Saturday to get Markey's message out to the streets. The same strong ground that helped land Democrat Elizabeth Warren the title of U.S. senator in November's election with record voter turnout is now being employed to do the same for Markey.

And in Western Massachusetts, some of the same people are working for Markey as they did for Warren just months ago. Among them is Springfield resident Margaret Boyle, the local field organizer for Markey's Senate bid.

According to Boyle, the enthusiasm for the race is growing every passing day with a growing number of volunteers brought into the fold.

"We've got phone-banking going on every day and canvassing every weekend. We're kind of riding the high off of Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Neal's campaigns," Boyle said from the Island Pond Road office that serves as the hub of operations in the region. "These people we have are some of the best campaigners out there. They are die-hard Democrats who want to make sure we get the right people into power."

Recent polls have shown Markey leading over Gomez although by varying margins. A Suffolk University/7 News poll released this week concluded Markey was leading over Gomez among likely voters by a hefty 17 point margin, 52-35 percent.

But two other recent polls concluded that Markey's lead wasn't as significant. He led by only four points, 44-40 percent, in a Public Policy Polling survey and by six points, 42-36 percent, in a student organized Emerson College Polling Society poll.

Additionally, an internal poll paid for by the Gomez campaign and obtained by MassLive.com Sunday evening concluded that Markey is leading over Gomez by three points, 46-43 percent, with 11 percent of those surveyed remaining undecided in the race. Markey's advantage in this poll is within its 3.4 percent margin of error.

An internal poll paid for by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez’s campaign is showing that the race against Democrat Edward Markey may be closer than the latest nonpartisan poll suggests.

An internal poll paid for by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez’s campaign is showing that the race against Democrat Edward Markey may be closer than the latest nonpartisan poll suggests.

"The results of our statewide survey are in and the race is razor thin," said pollster Wes Anderson in a message to the Gomez campaign. "The data is clear; Gabriel Gomez stands a very good chance of defeating Congressman Ed Markey this June."

The poll was conducted May 5-7 by OnMessage Inc., a Republican campaign research and strategy firm previously employed by former Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.

The poll shows Markey leading over Gomez by three points, 46-43 percent, with 11 percent of those surveyed remaining undecided in the race. In this internal poll, the lead is close to the 3.4 percent margin of error.

The Gomez campaign will release a memo outlining the poll results on Monday, but gave an advance copy to MassLive.com.

A previous internal poll for the campaign indicated Gomez was a serious contender for the Republican Party's nomination at a time when other polls concluded that former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan was the clear frontrunner.

Recent polls have shown Markey leading over Gomez although by varying margins. A Suffolk University/7 News poll released this week concluded Markey was leading over Gomez among likely voters by a hefty 17 point margin, 52-35 percent.

But two other recent polls concluded that Markey's lead wasn't as significant. He led by only four points, 44-40 percent, in a Public Policy Polling survey and by six points, 42-36 percent, in a student organized Emerson College Polling Society poll.

The Gomez campaign's poll surveyed 800 likely special election voters stratified by county based upon previous election results in telephone interviews.

The internal poll concluded that while Markey leads overall, Gomez has opened up a lead among independent, unenrolled voters who constitute 52 percent of the registered voters in the commonwealth.

According to the Gomez campaign's numbers, the former Navy SEAL is significantly more popular than Markey among the coveted group of voters, besting the longtime congressman 50-36 percent with 14 percent of independents saying they are still undecided.

And while the "horse race" numbers are often the most talked about, campaigns typically focus to a greater degree on a candidate's favorability numbers as a window into the perceptions of the voters.

According to the internal poll, Gomez holds a 28-point positive image among likely voters with 43 percent of voters viewing him in a favorable light and 15 percent in an unfavorable light. The poll also concluded that Markey holds a 10-point positive image with 45 percent of likely voters seeing him favorabily and 35 percent, more than double the amount for Gomez, viewing him in a negative light.

Among independents, Gomez was more popular with 43 percent of those surveyed seeing him in a positive light and ten percent holding a negative view. For Markey, the poll concluded that while 40 percent of unenrolled voters see the congressman positively, 44 percent say the opposite.

According to Anderson, this finding leads the Gomez campaign to believe that "Markey and his surrogates will quickly turn to decidedly negative attacks in an attempt to redefine Gomez."

The general election between Markey and Gomez is scheduled for June 25.

The old saying that "what goes up must come down" doesn't apply to carbon dioxide pollution in the air, which just hit an unnerving milestone.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The old saying that "what goes up must come down" doesn't apply to carbon dioxide pollution in the air, which just hit an unnerving milestone.

The chief greenhouse gas was measured Thursday at 400 parts per million in Hawaii, a monitoring site that sets the world's benchmark. It's a symbolic mark that scientists and environmentalists have been anticipating for years.

While this week's number has garnered all sorts of attention, it is just a daily reading in the month when the chief greenhouse gas peaks in the Northern Hemisphere. It will be lower the rest of the year. This year will probably average around 396 ppm. But not for long — the trend is going up and at faster and faster rates.

Within a decade the world will never see days — even in the cleanest of places on days in the fall when greenhouse gases are at their lowest — when the carbon measurement falls below 400 ppm, said James Butler, director of global monitoring at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth Science Research Lab in Boulder, Colo.

"The 400 is a reminder that our emissions are not only continuing, but they're accelerating; that's a scary thing," Butler said Saturday. "We're stuck. We're going to keep going up."

Carbon dioxide stays in the air for a century, some of it into the thousands of years. And the world carbon dioxide pollution levels are accelerating yearly. Every second, the world's smokestacks and cars pump 2.4 million pounds of the heat-trapping gas into the air.

Carbon pollution levels that used to be normal for the 20th century are fast becoming history in the 21st century.

"It means we are essentially passing one in a whole series of points of no return," said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University.

Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said the momentum in carbon dioxide emissions has the world heading toward and passing 450 ppm. That is the level which would essentially mean the world warms another 2 degrees, what scientists think of as dangerous, he said. That 2-degree mark is what much of the world's nations have set as a goal to prevent.

"The direction we've seen is for blowing through the best benchmark for what's dangerous change," Oppenheimer said.

And to see what the future is, scientists look to the past.

The last time the worldwide carbon level probably hit 400 ppm was about 2 million years ago, said Pieter Tans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That was during the Pleistocene Era. "It was much warmer than it is today," Tans said. "There were forests in Greenland. Sea level was higher, between 10 and 20 meters (33 to 66 feet)."

Other scientists say it may have been 10 million years ago that Earth last encountered this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The first modern humans only appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

Environmental activists, such as former Vice President Al Gore, seized on the milestone.

"This number is a reminder that for the last 150 years — and especially over the last several decades — we have been recklessly polluting the protective sheath of atmosphere that surrounds the Earth and protects the conditions that have fostered the flourishing of our civilization," Gore said in a statement. "We are altering the composition of our atmosphere at an unprecedented rate."

Carbon dioxide traps heat just like in a greenhouse. It accounts for three-quarters of the planet's heat-trapping gases. There are others, such as methane, which has a shorter life span but traps heat more effectively. Both trigger temperatures to rise over time, scientists say, which is causing sea levels to rise and some weather patterns to change.

When measurements of carbon dioxide were first taken in 1958, it measured 315 ppm. Some scientists and environmental groups promote 350 ppm as a safe level for CO2, but scientists acknowledge they don't really know what levels would stop the effects of global warming.

The level of carbon dioxide in the air is rising faster than in the past decades, despite international efforts by developed nations to curb it. On average the amount is growing by about 2 ppm per year. That's 100 times faster than at the end of the Ice Age.

Back then, it took 7,000 years for carbon dioxide to reach 80 ppm, Tans said. Because of the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, carbon dioxide levels have gone up by that amount in just 55 years.

Before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels were around 280 ppm, and they were closer to 200 during the Ice Age, which is when sea levels shrank and polar places went from green to icy. There are natural ups and downs of this greenhouse gas, which comes from volcanoes and decomposing plants and animals. But that's not what has driven current levels so high, Tans said. He said the amount should be even higher, but the world's oceans are absorbing quite a bit, keeping it out of the air.

"What we see today is 100 percent due to human activity," said Tans, a NOAA senior scientist. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.

The world sent 38.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air in 2011, according international calculations published in a scientific journal in December. China spews 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air per year, leading all countries, and its emissions are growing about 10 percent annually. The U.S. at No. 2 is slowly cutting emissions and is down to 5.9 billion tons per year.

The speed of the change is the big worry, said Pennsylvania State's Mann. If carbon dioxide levels go up 100 ppm over thousands or millions of years, plants and animals can adapt. But that can't be done at the speed it is now happening.

"We are a society that has inadvertently chosen the double-black diamond run without having learned to ski first," NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt said. "It will be a bumpy ride."

The Ware branch will be located in the Big Y Plaza on West St. It opens for business May 28. A grand opening celebration will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on June 8.

Ware Treasurer-Collector Leigh Deveneau-Martinelli, Monson Savings Bank President Steve Lowell and Ware Town Manager Stuart Beckley inside the bank's new office at 136 West St. in Ware.Photo by Jim Russell 

WARE – In a world where bigger is assumed to be better, a small bank continues to prosper — and Monson Savings will soon open its fourth office — a branch in Ware — later this month.

In addition to its hometown headquarters and loan center, Monson Savings Bank also has locations in Hampden and Wilbraham.

The Ware branch will be located in the Big Y Plaza at 136 West St. It opens for business May 28. A grand opening celebration will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on June 8.

The bank’s entire history has involved making things easier for “the little guy.”

It was founded by a group of entrepreneurs eager to accept small deposits.

Incorporated on March 27, 1872, the first month’s work earned Monson Savings deposits of $12,994.23. They made real estate loans of $2,250 – and boasted $2,531.43 of “cash on hand,” bank President Steven Lowell said in an interview while inspecting progress being made building the new Ware branch.

The Ware facility will employ six people, he said.

Monson Savings Bank President Steve LowellJim Russell 

“We are all about relationships,” Lowell said. “We are here for the long term.”

Ware Town Manger Stuart Beckley and the Treasurer-Collector Leigh Deveneau-Martinelli accompanied Lowell during his walk-through.

“As the economy turns around and the town starts growing, it will be banks like Monson Savings that will be funding their projects,” Beckley said.

Janet Warren, a marketing consultant with the bank, recalled that the bank has sometimes had to put up its elbows to remain small, local and independent.

An idea to merge with Ludlow Savings Bank in 1967 ended when trustees blocked it.

Fallout saw the resignations of the Monson Savings president and many board members, Warren said.

The Ware branch will have a brand-new, two-bay drive-up area; inside there will be a mortgage office and a commercial loan office, in addition to the traditional services offered, Lowell said.

The Ware drive-up hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with lobby hours Monday through Wednesday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays. Saturday hours are 9 a.m. to noon.

The 8-month-old child was found unconscious inside a Putnam Circle home, according to authorities.

 

SPRINGFIELD — An 8-month-old baby that was hospitalized after being found unconscious at an East Springfield home Sunday has died, according to authorities, who do not believe the death was suspicious.

Springfield Police Lt. David Martin was off duty at the time of the incident and had no information, but his colleague, Capt. Cheryl Clapprood, told 22News that the parents rushed the infant to the hospital after finding the baby unconscious inside a Putnam Circle home early Sunday morning.

A preliminary investigation by detectives did not find anything suspicious, but Clapprood said authorities would wait for the outcome of a medical examiner autopsy before they make a final determination, the TV station reported.

View Larger Map

Police have yet to reveal who they were looking for, or if that individual posed a public safety threat, but a report indicated the aerial search involved a person wanted on warrants.

The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing helicopter, shown here, is credited with finding a suicidal woman in Deerfield FridayRepublican file photo 

AGAWAM — Authorities are remaining tight-lipped about a police helicopter search near the South End bridge late Sunday afternoon into early evening, though a press report indicated law enforcement officials were hunting for a wanted man.

An Agawam Police Department official reached early Monday deferred comment to a ranking off-duty officer who was unavailable for comment. Massachusetts State Police Lt. Dan Richard said Agawam police contacted state police around 5:30 p.m. Sunday to ask for aerial and K-9 assistance with a search, but the spokesman based at Framingham headquarters had no additional information. "I don't know what they are looking for," Richard said.

However, 22News, citing an unnamed state police source, reported that the manhunt involved a person who's wanted on warrants. The effort concluded with no apparent arrest shortly before 8 p.m., according to abc40, adding that a person who contacted the TV station claimed police told her to stay inside her home.

Authorities haven't indicated who they were looking for, or if that individual poses a public safety threat.

A similar scenario played out earlier this month, when a state police helicopter helped East Longmeadow police corner a wanted suspect in that town.

More details will be posted on MassLive as they become available.

Police officers from Westfield, Springfield and other Western Massachusetts communities traveled to Washington to honor the 2 police officers who died in 2012 while on the job.

Contingents of police officers from Springfield and Westfield are in Washington, D.C., this week to honor their respective fallen officers Kevin Ambrose and Jose Torres.

The names of both officers, along with the scores of other law enforcement officers from across the United States who lost their lives in 2012, have been added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Family members from both Western Massachusetts families are also in Washington for the full slate of events, part of National Police Week.

Ambrose was shot while responding to a domestic call June 4 in Springfield, and Torres was struck by a truck July 26 while working a traffic detail on Pontoosic Road in Westfield.

Springfield Sgt. John M. Delaney said Doris Beauregard-Shecrallahis attending the ceremonies along with members of the Schiavina family.

Springfield police officers Michael Schiavina and Alain Beauregard were shot to death in November 1985 during a traffic stop, and their names are also etched on the monument. The shooter, Eduardo Ortiz, committed suicide hours afterward. His brother Juan Ortiz was convicted of two counts of second degree murder and was granted parole in January.

Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet and Westfield Police Chief John Camerota were among those who attended the ceremony.

Officers from both departments said it is a somber sight to see the names of their respective friend and colleague etched in stone.

“I know it’s a reality,” Westfield Capt. Hipolito Nunez said of Torres’s death and the experience of being in Washington for the ceremonies. “But, even seeing it (etched on the memorial) doesn’t seem real.”

Delaney said several dozen police officers – including some retired officers – have made the trip with Fitchet.

Nunez said about a dozen Westfield police officers left their city about 5 a.m. in a community police van to make the trip. Another three or four officers will fly down on their own to be part of the ceremonies, he said.

Police said photographs of both Ambrose and Torres can be seen near their names on the memorial.

“It’s pretty somber,” Nunez said. “Personally, I was amazed at how many names are in this memorial. I didn’t realize there were so many. It puts a heavy sorrow on your heart.”

Westfield Capt. Michael McCabe, who has remained in the city to help keep the department running smoothly while his fellow officers are in Washington, said he greatly misses his friend and colleague.

“He is a great guy,” McCabe said of Torres. “I wish his name wasn’t down there. But, if it is, we are well-represented.”

A number of other area police also joined the contingent. In one example, a Holyoke Police officer placed a patch from that department on the monument in a show of support, said Dave Ward, news director for CBS 3 Springfield, the media partner with The Republican and MassLive.com.

Ward said Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau, who is a graduate of Westfield State University, also joined the group to show support for local police. Watertown had its own crisis recently when officers had a shootout with the two suspects of the Boston Marathon bombings. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed and hours later his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar was arrested.

“A dozen officers from Springfield are there and they have been coming to the wall and doing pencil etchings of the names. It is very solemn and it is very quiet,” Ward said.

Many have left pictures, mementos and flowers in front of the monument.

All the officers were scheduled to participate in a candlelight vigil Monday at 8 p.m. followed by a program in which the names of all the new officers added this year to the monument will be read, Ward said.

City Hall workers had complained about finding needles on the rest room floors, drug use and other problems.

 

HOLYOKE - The City Hall basement rest rooms will be locked and the key available to the public by request in response to complaints about drug use, sex and other problems in the stalls.

“I don't know if it'll defuse it, but it’ll control it,” City Councilor Anthony Soto said last week.

The council voted unanimously the night before to lock the facilities in the lowest level at City Hall and make keys available in a designated office during 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. working hours.

When City Hall closes at 4:30 p.m., staff of the Holyoke Public Library, which is temporarily located upstairs in the auditorium, would be responsible for issuing keys to the basement restrooms to individuals who have a library card or legal identification.

That came after 13 City Hall employees filed a petition April 24 with the council’s Public Safety Committee, of which Soto is chairman, demanding action. They said they had encountered people having sex in rest room stalls, blood on the floor, needles presumably left by drug users, homeless people washing in the sinks and others passed out.

A locksmith will be hired to modify the locks so that they’re locked full time. Additional keys will be made and distributed to City Hall staff. The steps will take less than a few weeks, depending on the locksmith’s availability, and cost less than $200, said William D. Fuqua, general superintendent of the Department of Public Works.

Firefighters were called to 410 Franklin St., where the fire was limited to the garage.

 

BELCHERTOWN — A detached garage to a home on Franklin Street caught fire and seriously damaged the building early Monday night.

Firefighters were called to 410 Franklin St. shortly before 7 p.m. They remained on the scene after 8 p.m. and were being assisted by firefighters from the Bondsville section of Palmer, according to Belchertown Fire Department officials.

The fire is limited to the garage, but the extent of the damage is unknown, officials said.

The cause is being investigated. According to WGGB-abc40, the fires is believed to have been caused by a lawn mower that was recently used and put back in the garage still warm.

This is a developing story and will updated as more information becomes available

The names of Planning Board member Joseph Deedy and former Town Planner Marcus Phelps will be on the ballot, both of whom pledge to bring a sense of balance and civility to a board that has been mired in personality conflicts.

SOUTHWICK – When voters head to the polls Tuesday they will have a choice of two Board of Selectmen candidates to replace outgoing Chairman Arthur G. Pinell who is not running for reelection.

The names of Planning Board member Joseph Deedy and former Town Planner Marcus Phelps will be on the ballot, both of whom pledge to bring a sense of balance and civility to a board that has been mired in personality conflicts.

“I believe the members of the Board of Selectman should work together as a team for the good of our community,” Deedy said. “If elected, I intend to help facilitate a better partnership, more productive communication and ultimately, an effective Board of Selectmen to get Southwick working again.”

Phelps shared a similar sentiment, saying, “There’s been a lot of squabbling, and I think I can bring common sense to the board. I have a lot of experience working with various interests and finding balance.”

Deedy, running on the Republican ticket, and Phelps, seeking the seat with the three-year term as an independent, both have roots in the community with Deedy running a successful business and Phelps as part of a historic family.

Deedy, owner of Moolicious Ice Cream, said he believes town government should be managed like a business, a tactic that will lend itself to more cooperation.

“It’s important to approach the way we manage the town the way any business would manage its operations,” he asserted. “I believe that a level head, real life business experience and knowledge of how to manage multiple priorities will benefit our community, and I have those qualities. I am dedicated to being a productive and a willing member of the board and will work with all members of the Select Board for the betterment of our community.”

Phelps, a fifth generation member of the Phelps family to live in Southwick, retired in 2004 from a 33-year career with the USDA Forest Service and worked on assignments as a forester, environmental coordinator, technology transfer specialist, budget coordinator, forest resource planner and urban forestry program manager.

In addition to his time as town planner, Phelps also served the town as a member of the Conservation Commission and remains dedicated to issues related to protecting the town’s natural resources and sustaining open space and conservation land while being fiscally responsible.

“We need to be careful of how public money is being used,” he said. “The board needs to look more into how money is being spent and the implications of that.”

Deedy, raised and educated in Southwick, was appointed to the Planning Board in 2011 and successfully ran for re-election in 2012 for a five-year term. If elected to the Board of Selectmen, Deedy will resign from the Planning Board, he said.

Quiet by nature and a man of few words, Deedy said his approach to governing is to collect information, listen to all the facts, consider opinions of all involved in an issue and make fair and educated decisions. He also believes it is time for town government to abandon the issues that have divided the community and get back to business.

“I have noticed that the town has become polarized between this group and that group. Selectmen meetings have become about personalities rather than about running the town.”

The U.N. is promoting edible insects as a low-fat, high-protein food for people, pets and livestock.

This photo provided by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows a packaging containing locusts for sale in the Netherlands. The U.N. has new weapons to fight hunger, boost nutrition and reduce pollution, and they might be crawling or flying near you right now: edible insects. The Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday, May 13, 2013, hailed the likes of grasshoppers, ants and other members of the insect world as an underutilized food for people, livestock and pets. A 200-page report, released at a news conference at the U.N. agency's Rome headquarters, says 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diets with insects, which are high in protein and minerals, and have environmental benefits. 

By FRANCES D'EMILIO

ROME — The latest weapon in the U.N.'s fight against hunger, global warming and pollution might be flying by you right now.

Edible insects are being promoted as a low-fat, high-protein food for people, pets and livestock. According to the U.N., they come with appetizing side benefits: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and livestock pollution, creating jobs in developing countries and feeding the millions of hungry people in the world.

Some edible insect information in bite-sized form:

WHO EATS INSECTS NOW?

Two billion people do, largely in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday as it issued a report exploring edible insect potential.

Some insects may already be in your food (and this is no fly-in-my-soup joke). Demand for natural food coloring as opposed to artificial dyes is increasing, the agency's experts say. A red coloring produced from the cochineal, a scaled insect often exported from Peru, already puts the hue in a trendy Italian aperitif and an internationally popular brand of strawberry yogurt. Many pharmaceutical companies also use colorings from insects in their pills.

PACKED WITH PROTEIN, FULL OF FIBER

Scientists who have studied the nutritional value of edible insects have found that red ants, small grasshoppers and some water beetles pack (gram-per-gram or ounce-per-ounce) enough protein to rank with lean ground beef while having less fat per gram.

Bored with bran as a source of fiber in your diet? Edible insects can oblige, and they also contain useful minerals such as iron, magnesium, phosphorous, selenium and zinc.

WHICH TO CHOOSE?

Beetles and caterpillars are the most common meals among the more than 1,900 edible insect species that people eat. Other popular insect foods are bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, locusts and crickets. Less popular are termites and flies, according to U.N. data.

ECO-FRIENDLY

Insects on average can convert 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of feed into 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of edible meat. In comparison, cattle require 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of feed to produce a kilogram of meat. Most insects raised for food are likely to produce fewer environmentally harmful greenhouse gases than livestock, the U.N. agency says.

DON'T SWAT THE INCOME

Edible insects are a money-maker. In Africa, four big water bottles filled with grasshoppers can fetch a gatherer 15 euros ($20). Some caterpillars in southern Africa and weaver ant eggs in Southeast Asia are considered delicacies and command high prices.

Insect-farms tend to be small, serving niche markets like fish bait businesses. But since insects thrive across a wide range of locations — from deserts to mountains — and are highly adaptable, experts see big potential for the insect farming industry, especially those farming insects for animal feed. Most edible insects are now gathered in forests.

LET A BUG DO YOUR RECYLING

A 3 million euro ($4 million) European Union-funded research project is studying the common housefly to see if a lot of flies can help recycle animal waste by essentially eating it while helping to produce feed for animals such as chickens. Right now farmers can only use so much manure as fertilizer and many often pay handsome sums for someone to cart away animal waste and burn it.

A South African fly factory that rears the insects en masse to transform blood, guts, manure and discarded food into animal feed has won a $100,000 U.N.-backed innovation prize.

Details about the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's work on edible insects at www.fao.org/forestry/edibleinsects

A total of 190 people turned out for the annual Town Meeting.

Conor Berry, The Republican 

MONSON - Voters at the annual Town Meeting on Monday night approved restoring $65,279 to the School Department budget to restore a social worker position in an 88-80 vote.

May Hill Road resident Kathleen C. Norbut made the motion to amend the School Department budget to accommodate the social worker position by using so-called "free cash" to fund it. The School Department is facing a $147,000 shortfall, and while the School Committee has not yet finalized reductions, the social worker post was listed as one of several potential cuts.

Norbut passed out information explaining her stance, saying the position is "vital" and one that assists many at-risk students.

School Committee Chairman Jeffrey D. Lord said the money would be applied to the School Department budget's bottom line, but said the committee would respect the wishes of Town Meeting, calling it a "no-brainer."

The addition of the social worker changed the School Department fiscal 2014 budget to $11.5 million over fiscal 2013's $11.36 million. That increased the overall town budget for fiscal 2014 to $21,357,874 compared to $20,866,279 last year.

The budget also includes a new town planner position at $43,414 for four days a week. Voters approved reducing the building inspector's hours from five days to four days, and decreasing the salary from approximately $55,000 to $43,676.

Town Administrator Gretchen E. Neggers said the town planner could help with the continuing revitalization of downtown, as well as assist with future uses of the now-vacant Monson Developmental Center complex.

While resident John Rahkonen called the planner position a "waste of money," it was overwhelmingly approved. Neggers said most communities have town planners and this person could assist the Planning Boad and Conservation Commission, making their jobs easier to do. She said the environmental issues involving the Monson Developmental Center are staggering, and downtown has several abandoned mills that the planner could help address. The planner could pursue cleanup grants and help plan for Monson's future, Neggers said.

"Our community is changing and we need professional assistance to guide us with that change," Neggers said..

She also explained that the building inspector's hours before the June 2011 tornado were only 20 hours a week. The position was then made full-time due to rebuilding efforts. Now, she said, the number of new home permits have dropped back to pre-2011 levels, and she is confident that having the building inspector four days a week will meet the needs of the community.

Early in the meeting, Neggers explained that the budget was created with no reserve funds used for recurring expenses. Neggers also said final state aid numbers have not been provided, contract negotiations are under way with police and municipal unions, and a new school superintendent will be hired, meaning the budget still could change.

An article proposing to change the way Finance Committee vacancies are handled was rejected 98 to 12. There was a proposal to have the moderator and Board of Selectmen vote on vacancies, instead of having the Finance Committee handle them, as it does now. Proponents of the change said it would bring accountability to the process, but others said the current method has been working well for years.

"I don't know why we need to fix something that doesn't seem to be broken," resident Erin Grassetti said.

"I urge you to reject this bylaw," Finance Committee Chairman James Pennington said. "Accountability? Or is it control?"

Another resident, Valerie Bogacz-Beaudoin, suggested the "hot issue" be brought back to the bylaw committee for review before any changes are made.

At the end of the meeting, Moderrtor Richard E. Guertin re-appointed Finance Committee members William Dominguez and Gerald Brayton, but he did not reappoint Pennington.

Amtrak has unveiled at a plant in California the first of 70 new locomotives, marking what the national passenger railroad service said it hopes will be a new era of better reliability, streamlined maintenance and more energy efficiency.

The new Amtrak Cities Sprinter Locomotive passes a red ribbon as it is moved for viewing during unveiling ceremonies at the Siemens Rails Systems factory in Sacramento, Calif. Monday, May 13, 2013. Three of the new electric locomotives have been completed and will be turned over to Amtrak for testing before they began operating on the Northeast intercity rail lines to replace Amtrak locomotives that have been in service for 20 to 30 years.  

By DAVID PORTER

NEWARK, N.J. — Amtrak has unveiled at a plant in California the first of 70 new locomotives, marking what the national passenger railroad service said it hopes will be a new era of better reliability, streamlined maintenance and more energy efficiency.

On a broader scale, the new engines displayed Monday could well be viewed as emblematic of the improving financial health of Amtrak, which has long been dependent on subsidies from an often reluctant Congress.

More than 31 million passengers rode Amtrak in the 2012 fiscal year, generating a record $2.02 billion in ticket revenue. Amtrak said it will be able to pay back a $466 million federal loan for the locomotives over 25 years using net profits from the Northeast Corridor line, where ridership hit a record high last year for the ninth time in 10 years.

"The new Amtrak locomotives will help power the economic future of the Northeast region, provide more reliable and efficient service for passengers and support the rebirth of rail manufacturing in America," Amtrak President Joseph Boardman said in a statement. "Built on the West Coast for service in the Northeast with suppliers from many states, businesses and workers from across the country are helping to modernize the locomotive fleet of America's Railroad."

Robert Puentes, a senior fellow in the Brooking Institution's metropolitan policy program, said Amtrak isn't the same organization it was a few years ago, relying on federal handouts.

"Even though Washington is mired in debt and dysfunction, Amtrak is reinventing itself," Puentes said.

The new engines will be used on the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston and on Keystone Corridor trains that run between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa. Three were unveiled Monday before being sent out for testing. The first is due to go into service by this fall, and all 70 are expected to be in service by 2016.

Amtrak awarded the contract in 2010 to Munich-based Siemens AG, which has made a big investment in the American rail industry over the last decade. The company makes about one of every three light-rail vehicles in North America and is building light-rail vehicles for Minneapolis, Houston and San Diego at the Sacramento plant where Amtrak's locomotives are being produced.

Among the improvements in the new locomotives are computers that can diagnose problems in real time and take corrective action and a braking system capable of generating 100 percent of the energy it uses back to the electric grid, similar to the way a hybrid automobile's motor acts as a generator when braking, according to Michael Cahill, CEO for Siemens Rail Systems. That could produce energy savings of up to $300 million over 20 years, the company estimates.

The locomotives also feature crumple zones, which are basically cages built onto the front end of the train that can absorb impact from a collision. The new models will be the first in North America to use them, in compliance with new federal safety guidelines, Cahill said.

The locomotives, called Amtrak Cities Sprinters, are based on Siemens' latest European electric locomotive and will replace Amtrak equipment that has been in service for 20 to 30 years and has logged an average of 3.5 million miles.

Simply having the same type of locomotive in operation should cut costs, Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said. Amtrak now uses three locomotive models, requiring slightly different maintenance, parts and training.

"Now, we will have one model, one inventory and one training program, and all that will help efficiency," Kulm said.

About 750 people are employed at Siemens' Sacramento plant. The locomotive project also involves Siemens plants in Columbus, Ohio, Richland, Miss., and Alpharetta, Ga.

The ripple effect spreads farther. As a condition of the Department of Transportation loan, the majority of the products and materials used to build the locomotives must be made in the U.S. As a result, some lighting parts are coming from Connecticut, the driver's seat from Wisconsin, insulation from Indiana, electronics from Texas and hydraulic parts from California. In all, 70 suppliers in 23 states are providing components, Siemens said.

Amtrak must still seek federal funding for a long list of planned and ongoing improvements, including replacing sections of pre-World War II electrical systems on the Northeast Corridor that cause regular disruptions. The fact that Amtrak has reduced its debt by 60 percent over the last 10 years and its federal operating subsidy to 12 percent could make it an easier sell.

"Ten years ago we were in a tougher spot," Boardman, the Amtrak president, said last week. "Now Amtrak on the Northeast Corridor is in a much healthier position. We're trying to maximize that, to the extent we can, to pay for what we should pay for on the Northeast Corridor."