Edwards is seeking re-election to a third term in Ward 3, saying he has worked well to raise the profile of his neighborhoods.

SPRINGFIELD — Ward 3 Springfield City Councilor Melvin A. Edwards has announced his candidacy for re-election to a third term on the City Council.

Edwards, a retired state employee and long-time community activist, said he was honored when first elected to the council in 2009, under a new system of ward representation. Ward 3 consists of Maple High/Six Corners, the South End, and parts of Forest Park.

“I have worked hard to raise the profile of our neighborhoods and the recognition of our value and contribution to the overall success of Springfield,” Edwards said.

Edwards said he has provided steady leadership.

“I have never jumped to a conclusion,” Edwards said. “I take my job representing my constituents seriously, and I believe that due diligence is the most important aspect of my role on the City Council. Every issue that comes before me deserves the proper attention and investigation. I have never voted one way or the other simply to make a point, I do not pontificate simply to hear myself speak, my votes represent what I believe to be in the best interests of my entire ward and the City of Springfield.”

His vote to revoke a special permit for a proposed biomass project in East Springfield, that was granted by a prior council, “was one of the most important votes I ever took,” Edwards said.

“It was an issue I gave a lot of thought to,” Edwards said. “I met with the experts, both scientific and economic. I weighed the pros and the cons and in the end I realized that this proposal posed a very serious danger to the health of our citizens and had very few redeeming qualities. I was proud to spearhead the cause on the City Council to revoke the special permit.”

He said he has worked collaboratively with city councilors and department heads.

Edwards is president of Keep Springfield Beautiful, a local environmental group that has conducted events including citywide cleanups and recycling. He is also vice-chairman of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

Cytosport will no longer associate with Hernandez.

Aaron Hernandez is yet to be charged with a crime, but those associated with the Patriots tight end feel that his image has already been tarnished.

One of the companies Hernandez had an endorsement contract with, CytoSport, announced Friday morning that it was ending its relationship with Hernandez “effective immediately.”

When media swarmed Hernandez Thursday afternoon at a Foxborough gas station, Hernandez was wearing a winter hat with a Muscle Milk logo on it, one of the products produced by the company.

One of the other companies associated with Hernandez, Puma, has not responded to messages asking about its relationship with the tight end.

Hernandez is currently being investigated by police for his part in the homicide of a 27-year-old Dorchester man.

The pond has been closed since the tornado ripped through the town in June 2011.

Children fish at Dean Pond in Brimfield in this 2007 file photo.File photo 

BRIMFIELD — State Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said that Dean Pond will open this summer, starting next week.

This marks the first time the park will be open since the June 1, 2011 tornado tore through the town on its 39-mile path from Westfield to Charlton.

“Dean Pond is a valued recreation area for residents of Brimfield,” Brewer said in a statement. “Opening this park will give residents of Brimfield and the surrounding towns access to swimming, hiking, picnicking and other outdoor resources. By making sure these resources are available we are aiding in the well-being of those who utilize these parks for exercise and for enjoying some of the beautiful natural resources that are the pride of this state.”

Brewer, chairman of the Senate's chief budget writing committee, has been an advocate for keeping parks across the commonwealth open over the past three years.

The Dean Pond Recreation Area is in the western end of the Brimfield State Forest.

A bobcat that attacked a Holden man on Monday tested positive for rabies, the state Department of Health confirmed Friday.

A bobcat that attacked a Holden man on Monday tested positive for rabies, the state Department of Health confirmed Friday.

When Michael Votruba, 24, of Holden arrived home from work, the animal jumped on his leg and chest, reports the Associated Press. Votruba was able to grab the animal by the neck, throw it to the ground and shoot it to death.

According to the Associated Press, Votruba drew a handgun he was carrying as the bobcat approached him growling. The animal pounced on his leg as he fell backwards, but he was able to shake it off and run a few steps before the animal jumped on his chest. He was able to grab the animal by the neck, throw it to the ground and shoot it twice. The bobcat then attacked him again and he was able to to shoot it two more times.

His girlfriend brought his rifle out from his home, which the Associated Press reports had been locked inside, and Votruba shot the animal several more times to make sure it was dead.

Votruba went to a hospital and received rabies shots and an updated tetanus shot as a precaution.

Tom O'Shea, assistant director of wildlife at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, told the Associated Press the estimated statewide bobcat population is about 1,200 to 1,300. The animals usually only show aggression when they are rabid, he said, and that there is no need for alarm.

According to the Department of Health,there have been 19 confirmed cases of rabies in the state through the first quarter of 2013. Skunks and raccoons have had the most confirmed cases with five and 12. This is the second confirmed case of rabies in a bobcat this year.

With a little more than two weeks to go before their wedding, Emily Dreyfuss' fiance ordered a tie and pocket square from Gap chain Banana Republic's website to go with his Navy blue suit.

In this Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, file photo, a shopper walks down the steps at a Gap store in Los Angeles.AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With a little more than two weeks to go before their wedding, Emily Dreyfuss' fiance ordered a tie and pocket square from Gap chain Banana Republic's website to go with his Navy blue suit.

What the couple got in the mail instead on Thursday would make an identify thief giddy: the confidential files of about 20 former employees, including Social Security numbers and W4 tax forms.

"We totally laughed," Dreyfuss, 29, said on Friday from her home in Cambridge, Mass.

She had misgivings about the package as soon as it arrived. It was really heavy and didn't say Banana Republic, but Gap Inc.

She and her fiancee have been buying each other presents, and she thought it may have been a really heavy piece of clothing with catalogs, said Dreyfuss, the daughter of actor Richard Dreyfuss.

When he opened the package, inside were three folders sealed with tape and labeled "HR Administration." They contained tax and Social Security information as well as handwritten resignation letters, doctors' notes and salary information — seemingly the employees' entire record at the company. The employees were sales support associates and at least one made $9 an hour, Dreyfuss said.

The resignation letters were mostly from March and addressed formally to "Ms." and then the person's first name. They were polite and positive, expressing thanks for the chance to work for the company and learning so much. Some ended by saying, "God Bless."

Dreyfuss, who runs the home page and also writes for technology website, CNET, said she didn't look through everything.

"I got a queasy feeling and felt like I should stop looking at this," she said.

Edie Kissko, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Gap Inc., said Friday the company would release a statement.

Dreyfuss said a Banana Republic representative has since responded to a tweet about the mix-up and apologized for what he called a "horrible mistake."

He said clothing and confidential information is sent out in the same gray bag, and the employee information appears to have been mislabeled. The representative said the store would look into what went wrong and informing the former employees, Dreyfuss said. They will send her a self-addressed, stamped envelope to return the information in.

Ironically, Dreyfuss said her fiancee recently received someone else's welcome packet from his new employer, with that employee's salary and Social Security number.

Dreyfuss said the episode with Banana Republic raises concerns about how well the company is safeguarding customer information if even its employees' information can be compromised.

"People should know about this because it's crazy and scary," she said.

She was offered a free tie and pocket handkerchief — a $61 value, but said she declined.

While a location-based social network such as Foursquare helps you discover all the cool spots where your friends hang out, Hell Is Other People — a self-proclaimed “experiment in anti-social media” — maps where your friends are so that you can stay away from them.

• Michael Jackson went 60 days without real sleep before his death, sleep expert says [CNN.com]
  
• Prescription-free Plan B approved for all ages by the FDA [WBUR-FM, Boston]
  
• 'Hell Is Other People,' the opposite of Four Square is the new anti-social network [Time.com]
  
• Device rules on planes may become more relaxed [WWLP-TV, 22News, Chicopee]
  
• 'Take Your Dog to Work Day,' is today [Hartford Courant]
  

• Monkey surprises police officer on routine traffic stop [NECN]
  
• Yarmouth kicks off the summer with sand sculptures [Cape Cod Times]
  
• Dalton man struggles with effects of Lyme disease [Berkshire Eagle]
  
• Massachusetts State Police review Quabbin reservoir trespassing case [New England Public Radio]
  
• Twitter posts tagged #westernma in Western Mass. [Masslive.com]
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The carving has become a kind of touchstone of sorts for police officers as they hit the streets.

SPRINGFIELD - A wood carving project by Amherst-Pelham Regional High School graduate Jose Cabrera has fast become a touchstone of sorts for police officers here as they hit the streets at the start of their shifts.

Kevin Ambrose 

It all started this past winter when teacher Stewart Olson asked the students in his wood carving class to create something of meaning to them.

Cabrera, whose father is a retired state trooper, opted to carve a larger-than-life-size replica of fallen Springfield police officer Kevin Ambrose’s badge No. 7.

“What better way to give thanks to the guys that do this every day.” the 18-year-old Amherst resident said.

The elder Cabrera, whose first name is also Jose, knew Ambrose and worked with him a number of times during his years as a trooper in the Springfield barracks.

Ambrose, a 36-year veteran with the department, was shot to death on June 4, 2012 when he responded to 90 Lawton St. for what initially seemed a routine domestic call.

Police have no doubt that Ambrose saved the lives of Charlene Mitchell and her 1-year-old daughter during the incident at the Sixteen Acres apartment complex. Ambrose was responding to a 911 call from Mitchell who feared for her life when her estranged boyfriend, Shawn Bryan of Hempstead, N.Y., showed up.

Olson, acting on behalf of Cabrera, who graduated this year and hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps, presented the carving to Springfield police several weeks ago.

Cabrera and his mother, Luisa Cabrera, paid a visit to the police station on Pearl Street Friday morning to meet with some of the officers and see where the carving has been installed.

Sgt. John M. Delaney took the pair to the squad room where the carving now hangs next to the door. Roll-call for all three shifts is read here every day and the officers receive their assignments and learn of other pertinent information before they hit the streets.

The dangers that police officers face the world over at the close of such sessions has been immortalized in popular culture thanks the 1980s television show "Hill Street Blues" and Sgt. Sergeant Phil Esterhaus’ exhortation of “Hey, let’s be careful out there,” at the start of each episode.

The carving has fast become the department’s own answer to that poignant moment, Delaney said “When the guys come out (after roll call) they just hit it as they come out,” he said. “It’s kind of cool.”

Cabrera said the news his carving is being used in such a manner is “mind-boggling....I am glad it can be part of a tradition for the department.”

Olson described Cabrera as a “very sincere and heart-felt person” and said he wasn’t surprised when he first proposed the idea. Olson said, however, he was surprised and moved by the department’s reaction to Cabrera’s gift.

“It blew me away when I heard that, it’s pretty amazing,” he said.

Police Commissioner William Fitchet said the carving is “very touching and very meaningful” to the officers. “It’s really important to the officers here and they genuinely appreciate the hard work and sentiment that went into it.”

Cabrera wll take a first step towards his goal of a becoming a state trooper when he starts classes at Holyoke Community College this fall.

The railroad has undertaken a complete review of its operating and safety programs since the fatality and a train derailment on May 17 in Bridgeport that injured more than 70 people.

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Metro-North Railroad will implement a pilot program to install devices urgently recommended by a national safety board to provide extra protection to workers after a track foreman was fatally struck by a train, officials said Friday.

Metro-North said it will install shunts on portions of its New Haven line within the next four weeks that can be attached to rails in a work zone to alert controllers and gives approaching trains a stop signal.

Robert Luden, a 52-year-old track foreman, was struck and killed May 28 by a train at a station under construction.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the devices cost only about $200 each and likely could have prevented Luden’s death.

“This step will help save lives,” Blumenthal said. “This pilot shunt system, hopefully leading to a full roll-out, is commendably part of a major refocus on rail safety.”

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is still investigating the accident, urgently recommended this week that Metro-North provide backup protection such as shunts for track maintenance crews who now depend on train dispatchers.

The NTSB said Luden, of East Haven, had requested the track section be taken out of service for maintenance. That was done, but the NTSB said that the section was placed back into service by a student rail traffic controller, who didn’t have the required approval of a qualified controller or the foreman.

“If the shunt had been in place on that track, there would have been a warning light until it was released by the workers themselves,” Blumenthal said. “They have control over whether trains are warned away from that track and they become the judges of whether the train should be permitted on the track. My view is, this kind of system should have been in place.”

In a letter Friday to Blumenthal, Metro-North President Howard Permut said the devices must be carefully implemented. The pilot program will be done on a part of the line that does not have third rail, he wrote, citing safety risks.

“There is an inherent danger that power from the third rail would inadvertently be routed through the shunting device, creating a different danger to the roadway worker,” he wrote. “There is also a significant concern that revolves around applying and removing the shunt; if the employee does not follow correct procedures, the potential risk of catastrophic injury from electrical burns is extremely high.”

Shunting devices in isolation are not fully effective in preventing a train from traveling into an area turned over to maintenance workers, Permut said, writing that it’s best to combine them with a physical barricade.

Metro-North has undertaken a complete review of its operating and safety programs since the fatality and a train derailment on May 17 in Bridgeport that injured more than 70 people, Permut said. He said the railroad has taken several steps, including retaining the research affiliate of the American Association of Railroads to assess track maintenance and inspection programs, inspected all rail joints that were similar to the one in the area of the derailment and increased inspections using specialized equipment borrowed from other railroads.

Metro-North said it also has implemented more checks and balances at its operations control center after the foreman was killed.

Associated Press writer Susan Haigh contributed to this report.

Gomez has raised far less money than Democrat Edward Markey, but the Gomez campaign said the candidate's fundraising did pick up post-debate, allowing Gomez to make an additional ad buy.

Massachusetts Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez has raised more than $300,000 since Tuesday evening’s debate, his campaign said.

Gomez is facing Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey in Tuesday’s special election.

Gomez campaign spokesman Lenny Alcivar said the campaign has made a new $300,000 ad buy, which it had not previously budgeted for, using only money raised since the debate.

The ad is one the Gomez campaign released Thursday highlighting Gomez’s critique of Markey during the debate for Markey's long tenure in Congress.

Alcivar said in addition to the ad buy, the campaign is using some money raised post-debate for get out the vote efforts and online advertising.

Gomez overall has raised far less money than Markey. Filings with the Federal Election Commission show that Gomez’s campaign raised $2.3 million, as of June 5. He also loaned himself $900,000. Markey, in contrast, raised $7.8 million. Two weeks before the end of the campaign, Markey reported having $2.2 million in the bank – while Gomez had less than $1 million.

A political action committee run by former 2012 Republican presidential candidate and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman also endorsed Gomez on Friday. "Gabriel will be an independent voice in Washington focused on long-term problem solving – not his next election," Huntsman wrote in an email sent out by his PAC. "His opponent is part of the problem: he's been in Congress for 37 years and votes with his party leadership 99 percent of the time."

The Gomez campaign is trying to generate some momentum after two polls released in the last two days show Gomez trailing Markey by 20 points.

A plane carrying a wing walker crashed Saturday at an air show and exploded into flames, killing the pilot and stunt walker instantly, authorities said.

View full sizeThis photo provided provided WHIO TV shows a plane after it crashed Saturday, June 22, 2013, at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton, Ohio. There was no immediate word on the fate of the pilot, wing walker or anyone else aboard the plane. No one on the ground was hurt. (AP Photo/WHIO-TV) 

DAYTON, Ohio — A plane carrying a wing walker crashed Saturday at an air show and exploded into flames, killing the pilot and stunt walker instantly, authorities said.

Dayton International Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes and Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston confirmed the deaths to The Associated Press.

The crash happened at around 12:45 p.m. at the Vectren Air Show at the Dayton airport. No spectators were injured.

The show has been canceled for the remainder of the day, but organizers said events would resume Sunday. The names of those killed weren't immediately released, but a video posted on WHIO-TV showing the flight and crash identified the performer as wing walker Jane Wicker. A schedule posted on the event's website also had Wicker scheduled to perform.

The video shows the plane turn upside-down as Wicker sits on top of the wing. The plane then tilts and crashes to the ground, exploding into flames as spectators scream.

"All of a sudden I heard screaming and looked up and there was a fireball," spectator Stan Thayer of Wilmington, Ohio, told WHIO.

Another spectator, Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, told the Dayton Daily News that he was watching the flight through binoculars.

"I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground. She was sitting on the bottom of the plane," he said. "I saw it just go right into the ground and explode."

Wicker's website says she responded to a classified ad from the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, Va., in 1990, for a wing-walking position, thinking it would be fun. Her full-time job was as a budget analyst for the Federal Aviation Administration, according to her website.

She told WDTN-TV in an interview this week that her signature move was hanging underneath the plane's wing by her feet and sitting on the bottom of the airplane while it's upside-down.

"I'm never nervous or scared because I know if I do everything as I usually do, everything's going to be just fine," she told the station.

Wicker wrote on her website that she had never had any close calls.

"What you see us do out there is after an enormous amount of practice and fine tuning, not to mention the airplane goes through microscopic care. It is a managed risk and that is what keeps us alive," she wrote.

In 2007, veteran stunt pilot Jim LeRoy was killed at the Dayton show when his biplane slammed into the runway while performing loop-to-loops and caught fire.

Organizers were presenting a trimmed-down show and expected smaller crowds at Dayton after the Air Force Thunderbirds and other military participants pulled out this year because of federal budget cuts.

The air show, one of the country's oldest, usually draws around 70,000 people and has a $3.2 million impact on the local economy. Without military aircraft and support, the show expected attendance to be off 30 percent or more.

Voters in Everett headed to the polls Saturday in the state's first binding referendum on a casino plan since the expanded gambling law was enacted.

EVERETT, Mass. — Voters in Everett headed to the polls Saturday in the state's first binding referendum on a casino plan since the expanded gambling law was enacted.

The outcome will determine whether Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn's proposal to develop a $1.2 billion resort casino on a site along the Mystic River that once housed a chemical plant can move forward and eventually be submitted to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

Voters are deciding whether to approve a host community agreement Wynn signed with city officials that called for his company to make $30 million in advance payments to Everett and more than $25 million in annual payments if and when the casino opens for business.

In the agreement, Wynn also promised to mitigate traffic impacts in the city and complete a multimillion-dollar cleanup of pollution at the site.

He also promised to give hiring preference to Everett residents for the estimated 8,000 temporary and permanent jobs that would be created by the project and to make a "good faith effort" to use contractors and suppliers for the city.

Wynn turned his focus to Everett, a city of about 42,000 residents just north of Boston, after an earlier proposal to build a casino in Foxborough ran into opposition from many residents and officials.

In Everett, Mayor Carlo DeMaria and other top city officials have embraced the proposal.

Sandy Guliano, president of the pro-casino group Everett United, said that the host community agreement is "fair and generous" to Everett and that she was encouraged by Wynn's commitment to clean up the former Monsanto Chemical Co. site.

"It's highly polluted," she said. "We don't know how else this will be cleaned up if it wasn't for a project like this."

No organized group formed to oppose the plan, but some residents are wary that a casino will lead to traffic gridlock.

"The traffic is a nightmare already," said Evmorphia Stratis, who also worries about the potential for increased crime and residents falling victim to gambling addiction.

The 2011 casino law that allows for up to three regional resort casinos in Massachusetts requires that voters approve a host community agreement in a binding referendum before a casino developer can apply for a license from the gaming commission.

Wynn's plan could be in competition for the sole eastern Massachusetts casino license with proposals from Suffolk Downs and Foxwoods Resorts, which is backing a proposed casino in Milford.

Polls in Everett close at 8 p.m.

"This is the first step in the development of the artificial pancreas," said Dr. Richard Bergenstal, diabetes chief at Park Nicollet, a large clinic in St. Louis Park, Minn. "Before we said it's a dream. We have the first part of it now, and I really think it will be developed."

This October 2012 image provided by Medtronic shows the MiniMed Integrated System device, which doctors are reporting as a major step toward an "artificial pancreas," a device that would constantly monitor blood sugar in people with diabetes and automatically supply insulin as needed. According to the company-sponsored study announced Saturday, June 22, 2013 at an American Diabetes Association conference in Chicago, the device worked as intended in a three-month study of 247 patients. Associated Press 

MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Associated Press
Chief Medical Writer

Doctors are reporting a major step toward an "artificial pancreas," a device that would constantly monitor blood sugar in people with diabetes and automatically supply insulin as needed.

A key component of such a system - an insulin pump programmed to shut down if blood-sugar dips too low while people are sleeping - worked as intended in a three-month study of 247 patients.

This "smart pump," made by Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., is already sold in Europe, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing it now. Whether it also can be programmed to mimic a real pancreas and constantly adjust insulin based on continuous readings from a blood-sugar monitor requires more testing, but doctors say the new study suggests that's a realistic goal.

"This is the first step in the development of the artificial pancreas," said Dr. Richard Bergenstal, diabetes chief at Park Nicollet, a large clinic in St. Louis Park, Minn. "Before we said it's a dream. We have the first part of it now, and I really think it will be developed."

He led the company-sponsored study and gave results Saturday at an American Diabetes Association conference in Chicago. They also were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study involved people with Type 1 diabetes, the kind usually diagnosed during childhood. About 5 percent of the 26 million Americans with diabetes have this type. Their bodies don't make insulin, a hormone needed to turn food into energy. That causes high blood-sugar levels and raises the risk for heart disease and many other health problems.

Some people with the more common Type 2 diabetes, the kind linked to obesity, also need insulin and might also benefit from a device like an artificial pancreas. For now, though, it's aimed at people with Type 1 diabetes who must inject insulin several times a day or get it through a pump with a narrow tube that goes under the skin. The pump is about the size of a cellphone and can be worn on a belt or kept in a pocket.

The pumps give a steady amount of insulin, and patients must monitor their sugar levels and give themselves more insulin at meals or whenever needed to keep blood sugar from getting too high.

A big danger is having too much insulin in the body overnight, when blood-sugar levels naturally fall. People can go into comas, suffer seizures and even die. Parents of children with diabetes often worry so much about this that they sneak into their bedrooms at night to check their child's blood-sugar monitor.

In the study, all patients had sensors that continuously monitored their blood sugar. Half of them had ordinary insulin pumps and the others had pumps programmed to stop supplying insulin for two hours when blood-sugar fell to a certain threshold.

Over three months, low-sugar episodes were reduced by about one-third in people using the pump with the shut-off feature. Importantly, these people had no cases of severely low blood sugar — the most dangerous kind that require medical aid or help from another person. There were four cases in the group using the standard pump.

"As a first step, I think we should all be very excited that it works," an independent expert, Dr. Irl Hirsch of the University of Washington in Seattle, said of the programmable pump.

The next step is to test having it turn off sooner, before sugar falls so much, and to have it automatically supply insulin to prevent high blood sugar, too.

Dr. Anne Peters, a diabetes specialist at the University of Southern California, said the study "represents a major step forward" for an artificial pancreas.

One participant, Spears Mallis, 34, a manager for a cancer center in Gainesville, Ga., wishes these devices were available now. He typically gets low-sugar about 8 to 10 times a week, at least once a week while he's asleep.

"I would set an alarm in the middle of the night just to be sure I was OK. That will cause you to not get a good night of rest," he said.

His "smart pump" stopped giving insulin several times during the study when his sugar fell low, and he wasn't always aware of it. That's a well-known problem for people with Type 1 diabetes — over time, "you become less and less sensitive to feeling the low blood sugars" and don't recognize symptoms in time to drink juice or do something else to raise sugar a bit, he said.

Besides Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson and several other research groups are working on artificial pancreas devices

An official church dedication service will be held on June 30.

SPRINGFIELD - The fellowship center at the new St. John’s Congregational Church is named after the late Rev. Charles E. Cobb, a leader in the civil rights movement throughout the region, and his daughter said her father would have been heartened to see how far the church has come in 40 years.

“I think he would have been thrilled beyond belief to see how this church is so much a part of the community. He had thought about expanding . . . This would be a dream come true for him,” Cobb’s daughter Adrienne Brooks, of Washington, D.C., said. “He cared so much about the community.”

A formal dedication of the Rev. Dr. Charles E. Cobb Fellowship Center was held Saturday. Cobb was pastor of the church for 15 years, from 1951 to 1966. On Sunday morning, a ribbon cutting will be held at the new $5 million church, which is next to the old one at Hancock and Union streets in the Old Hill neighborhood. An official church dedication service will be held on June 30.

During the fellowship center dedication, speakers shared stories about Cobb, including how activist Malcolm X visited him, and about their own experiences with the church. A portrait of Cobb also was unveiled.

Rev. Dr. Calvin J. McFadden said the church has had many pastors, but Cobb “made a special difference in the life of St. John’s and this community,” noting his history of social and community activism. A poster filled with newspaper clippings and old photographs featuring Cobb was on display. There was a photograph of Cobb when he ran for mayor in 1965; he was the first African-American mayoral candidate and his platform was racial equality.

One photograph showed him and other civil rights leaders protesting alleged police brutality during the 1960s. Another showed him at a City Hall civil rights demonstration with state Rep. Benjamin Swan, D-Springfield, in August 1965. City Councilor E. Henry Twiggs looked at the photograph after the ceremony, noting he was with them at that demonstration.

“This is wonderful, truly wonderful. I knew him so well . . . I grew up in his tutelage,” Twiggs said of Cobb. “He did an awful lot for this city.”

Cobb, who died in 1998, was appointed executive director for the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ in 1965, and while in Springfield, also served on the Governor’s Advisory Commission of Civil Rights in Massachusetts.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno pronounced Saturday “Charles Cobb Day” and Swan brought a resolution honoring him from the House of Representatives. Brooks said she was “so honored, pleased and thankful” that her father was remembered through the fellowship center dedication.

“Nothing would have pleased him more than a fellowship room,” she said. “This is his kind of event. This is his kind of place. He would have been so proud of what we’re calling the St. John’s campus.”

Brooks said she was moved that her father’s portrait will forever be a part of St. John’s.

Tours of the new church were given after the fellowship center dedication, revealing a spacious church with the capacity to seat up to 850 people. With the carport, the new building is 22,0000-square-feet, Patricia P. Smith, project manager for the building project, said. The old church next door, built in 1911, may be used as a combination museum and food pantry, church officials said. The new church also has plenty of parking, something the old one lacked, she said.

The new church is for the future, for generations to come, Smith said.

As she walked inside the new church, parishioner Patricia A. Tucker couldn’t believe her eyes. The back wall was bathed in a blue-purple light. Large video screens graced the walls. There’s also a state-of-the-art sound system.

“It’s gorgeous. We’ve been planning and praying for this for years,” Tucker said.

The church’s presence in the city dates from 1844. It is one of the oldest black churches in New England.

Police have returned to New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez's home to execute a second search of his home.

NORTH ATTLEBORO – Law enforcement officials executed a second search warrant on New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez's home Saturday afternoon as part of an ongoing homicide investigation.

The officers arrived at home just before 2 p.m. and remained inside for nearly four hours. They took nearly 10 brown paper bags full of evidence and a cardboard box out of the house. Two K-9 units and a locksmith were also on the scene.

State police and other unconfirmed officers were on the scene. No comment was given when asked what they were looking for and why a second search of the home was necessary.

Along with the interior, the backyard, a large playhouse and two vehicles parked in the driveway, including a white Audi SUV driven by Hernandez, was searched.

Hernandez was believed to be inside the house as the search was executed. He did not leave with police.

Police are investigating the death of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old Dorchester man, who was found dead in an industrial park less a mile from Hernandez's mini-mansion. Reports suggest that Hernandez was with him the night he was killed.

Lloyd's uncle, Ishmael Andrew, told the Associated Press that Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez's girlfriend.

A first search of Hernandez's home was executed Tuesday evening. Police only removed a single box of evidence on the first trip. It is believed that his video surveillance system and cellphone were damaged before being handed over to investigators.

Nearly 12 police cars arrived at Hernandez's home around 1:40 p.m. to conduct the search. A crime scene vehicle arrived three hours later. At one point, a local locksmith was called to the scene after police entered the house with a crowbar. The locksmith left about 10 minutes later.

Hernandez's lawyer, Michael Fee, arrived to the home around 3:45.

Gerard DiSanto, owner of Club Desire in Providence, told the Boston Herald that homicide detectives searched his club as part of the investigation Friday night.

DiSanto told the paper he did not know if Hernandez was a regular at the club or what police were looking for. Richard Shappy, owner of Providence's Cadillac Lounge, however, told the paper that Hernandez and several other Patriots are regulars at other clubs around the area.

Earlier Friday, two police officers arrived at Hernandez's home and appeared to drop off some papers before leaving. Hernandez arrived home later that evening with his lawyer.

The Herald reports that two a third warrant was issued to investigators, though it is not known for what.

An Attleboro District Court clerk told MassLive that no warrant has been issued for Hernandez's arrest as of close of business Friday.

The protests in Turkey erupted three weeks ago after riot police brutally cracked down on peaceful environmental activists who opposed plans to develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Taksim. The demonstrations soon turned into expressions of discontent with what critics say is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian and meddlesome ways.

A police water cannon sprays protesters during clashes near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, June 22, 2013.Associated Press 

AMER COHADZIC
and SUZAN FRASER
Associated Press

ISTANBUL — Turkish police used water cannon to disperse thousands gathered in Istanbul's Taksim Square on Saturday to observe a memorial for four people killed during recent anti-government protests. The officers later fired tear gas and rubber bullets, and in some cases beat people with batons, to scatter demonstrators who regrouped in side streets.

The police move came as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that foreign-led conspirators he alleges are behind the anti-government movement in his country also are fomenting the recent unrest in Brazil.

The protests in Turkey erupted three weeks ago after riot police brutally cracked down on peaceful environmental activists who opposed plans to develop Gezi Park, which lies next to Taksim. The demonstrations soon turned into expressions of discontent with what critics say is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian and meddlesome ways.

Erdogan, who took power a decade ago, denies he is authoritarian and, as evidence of his popularity, points to elections in 2011 that returned his party to power with 50 percent of the vote and gave him a third term in office.

On Saturday, demonstrators converged in Taksim, where they laid down carnations in remembrance of at least three protesters and a police officer killed in the rallies. For about two hours, protesters shouted anti-government slogans and demanded that Erdogan resign before police warned them to leave the square.

Some demonstrators tried to give carnations to the security forces watching over the square, shouting: "Police, don't betray your people." But after their warnings to disperse were ignored, police pushed back protesters with water cannon, even chasing stragglers down side streets and apparently blocking entrances to the square.

An Associated Press journalist said police drove back protesters into side streets off Taksim — including the main pedestrian shopping street Istiklal — and later fired several rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets to scatter the crowds who refused to disperse. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Dogan news agency footage showed two police officers hitting protesters with batons and kicking them as they forced their way through Istiklal street. A few demonstrators threw rocks at a police water cannon, while other protesters tried to calm them down and prevent them from attacking police.

Police in the capital, Ankara, also sprayed tear gas and pressurized water to break up hundreds of protesters who gathered in two neighborhoods, wanting to march to the city's main square, Dogan reported.

Last week, police had used water cannon as well as tear gas and rubber bullets to clear Taksim and end an occupation of Gezi Park by activists. But the demonstrations had largely subsided in Istanbul in recent days, with many protesters using a new, more passive approach of airing their grievances: standing motionless.

Erdogan has faced fierce international criticism for his government's crackdown on the protests, but he has defended his administration's actions as well as the tough police tactics. He also has blamed the protests on unspecified foreign forces, bankers and foreign and Turkish media outlets he says want to harm Turkish interests.

Brazil, meanwhile, has been hit by mass rallies set off this month by a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. The protests soon moved beyond that issue to tap into widespread frustration in the South American nation over a range of issues, including high taxes and woeful public services.

During an address to tens of thousands of his backers in the Black Sea coastal city of Samsun, the latest stop in a series of rallies he has called to shore up his political support, Erdogan declared that Brazil was the target of the same conspirators he claims are trying to destabilize Turkey.

"The same game is now being played over Brazil," Erdogan said. "The symbols are the same, the posters are the same, Twitter, Facebook are the same, the international media is the same. They (the protests) are being led from the same center.

"They are doing their best to achieve in Brazil what they could not achieve in Turkey. It's the same game, the same trap, the same aim."

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

The flooding forced authorities to evacuate Calgary's entire downtown and hit some of the city's iconic structures hard. The Saddledome, home to the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames, was flooded up to the 10th row, leaving the dressing rooms submerged.

This aerial photo shows the closed Trans-Canada Highway in Canmore, Alberta, on Friday June 21, 2013. Flooding forced the western Canadian city of Calgary to order the evacuation of the entire downtown area on Friday, as the waters reached the 10th row of the city'€™s hockey arena. Communities throughout southern Alberta are dealing with overflowing rivers that have washed out roads and bridges, inundated homes and turned streets into dirt-brown tributaries. About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day.Associated Press 

CALGARY, Alberta — The two rivers that converge on the western Canadian city of Calgary are receding Saturday after floods devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate.

The flooding forced authorities to evacuate Calgary's entire downtown and hit some of the city's iconic structures hard. The Saddledome, home to the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames, was flooded up to the 10th row, leaving the dressing rooms submerged.

Water lapped at the roof of the chuckwagon barns at the grounds of the Calgary Stampede, which is scheduled to start in two weeks. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said the city will do everything it can to make sure that the world-renowned party goes ahead.

Bruce Burrell, director of the city's emergency management agency, said Saturday they are seeing improvements in the rivers. Dan Limacher, director of water services for the city, said the Elbow river is expected to recede by about 60 percent over the next two days, while the larger Bow river will recede by about 25 percent.

The improving conditions Saturday morning prompted Calgary's mayor to tweet: "It's morning in Calgary! Sunny, water levels are down, and our spirit remains strong. We're not out of this, but maybe have turned corner."

However, Nenshi said later Saturday that while the city may have turned a corner, there is still a state of emergency in effect.

"Flows on Elbow and Bow (rivers) are dropping slowly. We do believe the peak has passed on the Elbow. However, water levels are still four times higher than 2005 flood levels," he said during a press conference.

Overflowing rivers on Thursday and Friday washed out roads and bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways around southern Alberta.

High River, southwest of Calgary, was one of the hardest-hit areas and remained under a mandatory evacuation order. Police said they have recovered three bodies in the town.

It is estimated that half the people in the town of 13,000 experienced flooding in their homes. Police cut off access to most of the town and helicopters were circling overhead. Abandoned cars lay submerged in water, while backhoes worked in vain to push water back from houses.

Police asked residents who were forced to leave the High River area to register at an evacuation shelter. By Saturday morning, 485 evacuees had registered at the shelter in Nanton, south of Calgary, and 278 people were on the inquiry list.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Saturday that during rescue and evacuation efforts on Friday in the High River area, approximately 800 people were evacuated by helicopter along with 100-200 people rescued by various water craft.

Ed Mailhot, a volunteer in High River, has been working to build a database of registered evacuees and those who are looking for them. Cellphone service was not restored until late Friday.

"There are a lot of loved ones out there that people can't find, or they don't know where they are," he said. "It's still chaos."

Alberta Premier Alison Redford has warned that communities downstream of Calgary have not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters. Medicine Hat, downstream from Calgary, was under a mandatory evacuation order affecting 10,000 residents.

As the sun rose in Calgary on Saturday morning it wasn't raining. Burrell said some of the 75,000 flood evacuees from more than 24 neighborhoods will be allowed back into their homes. He said the goal is to allow people from portions of six communities back into their homes on Saturday. Residents of a neighborhood in one of those communities — the high ground portion of Discovery Ridge —have already been allowed back.

About 1,500 people in Calgary went to emergency shelters during the flooding, while the rest of those evacuated found shelter with family or friends, Nenshi said. Schools and courts were closed Friday. Transit service in the city's core was shut down.

Dale McMaster, executive vice president of ENMAX, Calgary's power company, said Saturday that at least 30,000 customers remain without power.

Calgary's mayor said the downtown area remained off limits and employers will have to make arrangements to have staff work remotely until at least the middle of the week.

"It is extremely unlikely that people will be able to return to those buildings before the middle of next week," Nenshi said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Calgary resident, said he never imagined there would be a flood of this magnitude in this part of Canada.

"This is incredible. I've seen a little bit of flooding in Calgary before. I don't think any of us have seen anything like this before. The magnitude is just extraordinary," he said.

"We're all very concerned that if gets much more than this it could have real impact on infrastructure and other services longer term, so we're hoping things will subside a bit."

The Conservative Party said Saturday that it has postponed its federal policy convention which was scheduled to begin Thursday at the Telus Convention Centre in downtown Calgary because of the floods.

"There are neighborhoods under water, so there is a lot of work we have to do to rebuild," said Michelle Rempel, a member of Parliament for Calgary Center. "Postponing the convention is the right thing to do for the people of Calgary."

Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics, is the center of Canada's oil industry.

About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day. However, officials said very few people had to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.

A spokesman for Canada's defense minister said 1,300 soldiers from a base in Edmonton were being deployed to the flood zone.

The Mounties added that approximately 200 additional Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel were deployed Saturday from other parts of Alberta to assist with evacuation, rescue, traffic safety and security operations,

It had been a rainy week throughout much of Alberta, but on Thursday the Bow River Basin was battered with up to four inches of rain. Environment Canada's forecast called for more rain in the area, but in much smaller amounts.

Calgary was not alone in its weather-related woes.

Efforts were under way Saturday to move more than 2,000 people from their homes in a flood-prone part of northeastern Saskatchewan because of rising water levels.

Saskatchewan's deputy emergency management commissioner Colin King said the water is going to rise to an unprecedented level in the Cumberland House area.

The communities are downstream of where the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers meet and those rivers are swollen as floodwaters from Alberta head east.

The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency said inflows on the South Saskatchewan River into Lake Diefenbaker are expected to be the highest ever recorded.

The South Saskatchewan River is expected to rise six feet.

Associated Press writers Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto and Jeremy Hainsworth in Vancouver, British Columbia, contributed to this report.

The two people riding on the motorcycle were transported by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center following the Ludlow accident on Saturday afternoon.

 

LUDLOW – Two people were injured Saturday afternoon when a car and motorcycle collided on Miller Street at the intersection of Parker Lane.

The motorcyclist, Roger Leroux, 62, of Agawam, and his passenger, Annamaria Leroux, 58, were taken by Ludlow Fire Department ambulance to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, said Sgt. Daniel Valadas.

The injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, police said. The accident was reported at 2:38 p.m.

The car and motorcycle collided at a “dangerous curve,” Valadas said.

According to the police, the driver of the car, Nilda Flores, 26, of Ludlow, was driving south on Miller Street and the motorcycle was northbound when the car turned left to go on Parker Lane and the vehicles collided.

The donations will benefit the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial in Boston.

SPRINGFIELD - One of the dogs that got a chance to pose inside a K-9 police cruiser was Zeus, a large, fluffy mixed-breed that the late Officer Kevin Ambrose found while working his beat on the city streets.

Ambrose’s daughter Krista Ambrose brought Zeus, the dog she described as her dad’s “buddy,” and her 5-year-old daughter Victoria to the police fundraiser on Saturday at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. She said her father would have loved the event, and noted it was held on what would have been his 57th birthday.

People could bring their pets to pose inside a K-9 police cruiser, or they themselves could get behind the wheel of the No. 99 Carl Edwards Aflac NASCAR race car, all for a donation as part of the September “Ride to Remember” memorial bicycle ride in honor of Ambrose and the late Westfield Police Officer Jose Torres.

Both officers were killed in the line of duty last year - Ambrose while responding to a domestic dispute and Torres after being struck by a dump truck while on traffic duty.

“This is a great turnout . . . to honor him and Jose,” Krista Ambrose, of Wilbraham, said.

Donations will benefit the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial in Boston, according to Sgt. John Delaney.

The purpose of the charity bicycle ride also is to raise awareness about officers who lost their lives on the job. Nearly 200 riders will travel from Springfield to Boston, ending at the memorial, where an annual ceremony to honor fallen officers whose names are etched there will be held.

Brody Fitzgerald, 8, and his twin brothers Aidan and Connor, 10, of Westfield, tested out the NASCAR race car. Aidan said he felt “cramped” and claustrophobic in the car, but said it was still fun. Their father, Gary Fitzgerald, a state trooper, said he wanted to bring the boys out to support a good cause.

Mason Lemoine, 12, of Springfield, had a little trouble getting out of the low race car, but he still enjoyed the experience. Unlike a regular car, the auto's driver’s side door does not open.

“It was pretty amazing actually. I’ve been a big race car fan. This is something big for me. It was hard to get out, but I managed,” Mason said.

Mason’s father, Keith R. Lemoine, said the event was a worthwhile tribute to Ambrose. He also brought along Chloe, a bulldog-beagle mix, to take advantage of the pet part of the fundraiser.

“This is a good thing. They should do more things like this,” Lemoine said.

Delaney said Ambrose was a good friend of his, and said he always remembers the way Ambrose treated him when he was rookie - with respect. Delaney said he has tried to emulate Ambrose, whom he described as everyone’s friend.

“That’s why we’re working so hard to raise money for him and all the fallen officers,” Delaney said.

Also at the fundraiser was Doris Beauregard-Shecrallah, widow of Officer Alain Beauregard who, along with Officer Michael Schiavina, was killed in 1985 during a routine traffic stop. She said the ride will help bring awareness to the job that police officers do and its dangers. There are so many names on the memorial in Boston, she said, adding the fundraiser “brings an awareness to the public about what these officers are doing for us.”

She was there with her son, Eric Beauregard, his wife Kristina, and their son, Logan, 8 months. Beauregard-Shecrallah said her grandson, who was wearing a National Police Week Heroes Live Forever T-shirt, inherited his late grandfather’s blue eyes.

Also on hand was Mayor Domenic J. Sarno. Raffle tickets for upcoming concerts from Kid Rock, Blake Shelton and Toby Keith were raffled off, and “Ride to Remember” T-shirts were available.

Bowe Bergdahl, 27, was taken prisoner in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. First Jani Bergdahl, then his father, Bob Bergdahl, who accompanied the motorcycle procession on his son's 1978 dirt bike, spoke for a combined 15 minutes about rejuvenated hopes that their son's now-four-year ordeal will soon come to a joyful close.

POW-MIA flags are installed at a park in support of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who is currently being held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan, in Hailey, Idaho, Friday, June 21, 2013. The Afghan war, and the taking of Bergdahl, may have long faded from the minds of most Americans. But for this community in the shadow of Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains, Bowe Bergdahl and his family's fight to free him are "omnipresent," said local Wesley Deklotz. "It's a whole community of people that are keeping him in their thoughts."Associated Press 

JOHN MILLER
Associated Press

HAILEY, Idaho — The tearful mother of the only known U.S. prisoner of war said Saturday she's feeling "very optimistic" about his eventual release after his Taliban captors offered last week to exchange him for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's mother, Jani Bergdahl, spoke to about 2,000 people gathered in Hailey, his hometown, in a city park where he played as a toddler and little boy.

About 400 in the crowd arrived astride motorcycles, adorned in leather and patches commemorating America's military missing in action.

Bowe Bergdahl, 27, was taken prisoner in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. First Jani Bergdahl, then his father, Bob Bergdahl, who accompanied the motorcycle procession on his son's 1978 dirt bike, spoke for a combined 15 minutes about rejuvenated hopes that their son's now-four-year ordeal will soon come to a joyful close.

"We are feeling very optimistic this week," his mother, before addressing her son directly. "Bowe, we love you, we support you, and are eagerly awaiting your return home. I love you my son, as I have, from the first moment I heard of you, the never-ending, unconditional love a mother has for her child."

Buses also brought POW-MIA activists to the event from as far as Elko, Nev.

Though yellow ribbons on Main Street trees and "Bring Bowe Home" placards in Hailey shop windows are a constant reminder of the 27-year-old Bergdahl's captivity, organizers of the event said the Taliban offer has lent an addition element of urgency — and hope — to Saturday's gathering.

Many in the crowd said they were Vietnam veterans; some of them supported the proposed prisoner exchange without reservation.

"Give them their guys and get our guy home," said David Blunt, of Elko, Nev., who said he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as a medic. "Bring our guy home. He's suffered enough."

Bergdahl is believed held somewhere in Pakistan, but the Taliban said they would free him in exchange for five of their most senior operatives at Guantanamo Bay, the American installation on the southeastern tip of Cuba that's housed suspected terrorists following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The militant group's exchange proposition came just days ahead of possible talks between a U.S. delegation and Taliban members.

Bergdahl's father, Bob Bergdahl, urged those gathered at Hailey's Hop Porter Park to remember everyone, regardless of nationality, who had suffered during the 12-year conflict in Afghanistan that began following the Sept. 11 attacks.

He described his son as "part of the peace process."

"I wish she was the only mother that was suffering in that way," Bob Bergdahl said of his wife. "Mothers all over the world are suffering because of this war, and I don't forget that for even one day."

He addressed his son's captors in Pashto, the Afghan language he's learned since Bowe Bergdahl went missing.

Bob Bergdahl, who has grown a beard and wore all black at Saturday's event, said that while he is physically in Idaho, he's living vicariously through his son, having set his cell phone to Afghan time, in a bid to share as much as he can his son's experience in exile.

Both mother and father talked of Bergdahl as an adventurer, a young man who once helped crew a sailboat through the Panama Canal, disembarked in San Francisco and then rode a bicycle south along the Pacific Ocean to meet family in Santa Barbara, Calif., 350 miles away.

He joined the military at 22 because "he honestly thought he could help the people of Afghanistan," Bob Bergdahl said.

On June 6, the family said it received its first letter from their son in his handwriting in four years, ferried through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The circumstances of his capture aren't completely clear, though U.S. officials on July 2, 2009, told The Associated Press a soldier had been taken after walking off his base following his duty shift. For some of the motorcycle riders who participated Saturday, those details are something to be sifted through later, after Bergdahl is safely in the arms of his family.

"He didn't go over there on his own," said Randy Danner, a former U.S. Air Force member from Mountain Home, who rode his motorbike to Hailey with a group called the Green Knights. "No matter the circumstances, for our men and women over there who have put themselves in harm's way, we have a duty to support them in any way we can."

One person was killed when a car and motorcycle collided on Route 9 in Ware at Fisherdick Road.

 

WARE – A motorcycle driver was killed Saturday in a collision with a car on Route 9, according to the Fire Department.

The accident occurred at approximately 4 p.m., at the intersection of Route 9 and Fisherdick Road.

The identify of the driver was not immediately available. The accident remained under investigation by Ware police.

That area of Route 9 was closed for the accident investigation, and reopened at approximately 7:15 p.m., a Fire Department official said.

The motorcycle driver had been taken to Mary Lane Hospital by Fire Department ambulance.