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Marijuana's march toward mainstream confounds Washington policymakers

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In just a few short years, public opinion toward marijuana has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug — for medical use and just for fun.

630marijuana.JPGThis Feb. 13, 2013 shows different strains of marijuana are displayed during the grand opening of the Seattle location of the Northwest Cannabis Market, for sales of medical marijuana products. It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of "Reefer Madness" to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of Just Say No. And now, in just a few short years, public opinion has shifted so dramatically toward pragmatic acceptance of marijuana that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug for medical use and just for fun.  

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL and NANCY BENAC

WASHINGTON — It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of "Reefer Madness" to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of "Just Say No."

The next 25 years took the nation from Bill Clinton, who famously "didn't inhale," to Barack Obama, who most emphatically did.

And now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug — for medical use and just for fun.

It is a moment in America that is rife with contradictions:

  • People are looking more kindly on marijuana even as science reveals more about the drug's potential dangers, particularly for young people.

  • States are giving the green light to the drug in direct defiance of a federal prohibition on its use.

  • Exploration of the potential medical benefit is limited by high federal hurdles to research.

    Washington policymakers seem reluctant to deal with any of it.

    Richard Bonnie, a University of Virginia law professor who worked for a national commission that recommended decriminalizing marijuana in 1972, sees the public taking a big leap from prohibition to a more laissez-faire approach without full deliberation.

    "It's a remarkable story historically," he says. "But as a matter of public policy, it's a little worrisome. It's intriguing, it's interesting, it's good that liberalization is occurring, but it is a little worrisome."

    More than a little worrisome to those in the anti-drug movement.

    "We're on this hundred-mile-an-hour freight train to legalizing a third addictive substance," says Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama administration, lumping marijuana with tobacco and alcohol.

    Legalization strategist Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, likes the direction the marijuana smoke is wafting. But he knows his side has considerable work yet to do.

    "I'm constantly reminding my allies that marijuana is not going to legalize itself," he says.

    ___

    By the numbers:

    Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes since California voters made the first move in 1996. Voters in Colorado and Washington state took the next step last year and approved pot for recreational use. Alaska is likely to vote on the same question in 2014, and a few other states are expected to put recreational use on the ballot in 2016.

    Nearly half of adults have tried marijuana, 12 percent of them in the past year, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. More teenagers now say they smoke marijuana than ordinary cigarettes.

    Fifty-two percent of adults favor legalizing marijuana, up 11 percentage points just since 2010, according to Pew. Sixty percent think Washington shouldn't enforce federal laws against marijuana in states that have approved its use. Seventy-two percent think government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they're worth.

    "By Election Day 2016, we expect to see at least seven states where marijuana is legal and being regulated like alcohol," says Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national legalization group.

    ___

    Where California led the charge on medical marijuana, the next chapter in this story is being written in Colorado and Washington state.

    Policymakers there are struggling with all sorts of sticky issues revolving around one central question: How do you legally regulate the production, distribution, sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes when federal law bans all of the above?

    How do you tax it? What quality control standards do you set? How do you protect children while giving grown-ups the go-ahead to light up? What about driving under the influence? Can growers take business tax deductions? Who can grow pot, and how much? Where can you use it? Can cities opt out? Can workers be fired for smoking marijuana when they're off duty? What about taking pot out of state? The list goes on.

    The overarching question has big national implications. How do you do all of this without inviting the wrath of the federal government, which has been largely silent so far on how it will respond to a gaping conflict between U.S. and state law?

    The Justice Department began reviewing the matter after last November's election and repeatedly has promised to respond soon. But seven months later, states still are on their own, left to parse every passing comment from the department and President Obama.

    In December, Obama said in an interview that "it does not make sense, from a prioritization point of view, for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that's legal."

    In April, Attorney General Eric Holder said to Congress, "We are certainly going to enforce federal law. ... When it comes to these marijuana initiatives, I think among the kinds of things we will have to consider is the impact on children." He also mentioned violence related to drug trafficking and organized crime.

    In May, Obama told reporters: "I honestly do not believe that legalizing drugs is the answer. But I do believe that a comprehensive approach — not just law enforcement, but prevention and education and treatment — that's what we have to do."

    Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat who favors legalization, predicts Washington will take a hands-off approach, based on Obama's comments about setting law enforcement priorities.

    "We would like to see that in writing," Polis says. "But we believe, given the verbal assurances of the president, that we are moving forward in Colorado and Washington in implementing the will of the voters."

    The federal government has taken a similar approach toward users in states that have approved marijuana for medical use. It doesn't go after pot-smoking cancer patients or grandmas with glaucoma. But it also has warned that people who are in the business of growing, selling and distributing marijuana on a large scale are subject to potential prosecution for violations of the Controlled Substances Act — even in states that have legalized medical use.

    Federal agents in recent years have raided storefront dispensaries in California and Washington, seizing cash and pot. In April, the Justice Department targeted 63 dispensaries in Santa Ana, Calif., and filed three asset forfeiture lawsuits against properties housing seven pot shops. Prosecutors also sent letters to property owners and operators of 56 other marijuana dispensaries warning that they could face similar lawsuits.

    University of Denver law professor Sam Kamin says if the administration doesn't act soon to sort out the federal-state conflict, it may be too late to do much.

    "At some point, it becomes so prevalent and so many citizens will be engaged in it that it's hard to recriminalize something that's become commonplace," he says.

    ___

    There's a political calculus for the president, or any other politician, in all of this.

    Younger people, who tend to vote more Democratic, are more supportive of legalizing marijuana, as are people in the West, where the libertarian streak runs strong. In Colorado, for example, last November more people voted for legalized pot (55 percent) than voted for Obama (51 percent), which could help explain why the president was silent on marijuana before the election.

    "We're going to get a cultural divide here pretty quickly," says Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster based in Boise, Idaho, who predicts Obama will duck the issue as long as possible.

    Despite increasing public acceptance of marijuana, and growing interest in its potential therapeutic uses, politicians know there are complications that could come with commercializing an addictive substance, some of them already evident in medical marijuana states. Opponents of pot are particularly worried that legalization will result in increased adolescent use as young people's estimations of the drug's dangers decline.

    "There's no real win on this from a political perspective," says Sabet. "Do you want to be the president that stops a popular cause, especially a cause that's popular within your own party? Or do you want to be the president that enables youth drug use that will have ramifications down the road?"

    Marijuana legalization advocates offer politicians a rosier scenario, in which legitimate pot businesses eager to keep their operating licenses make sure not to sell to minors.

    "Having a regulated system is the only way to ensure that we're not ceding control of this popular substance to the criminal market and to black marketeers," says Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group for legal pot businesses in the U.S.

    See Change Research, which analyzes the marijuana business, has estimated the national market for medical marijuana alone at $1.7 billion for 2011 and has projected it could reach $8.9 billion in five years. Overall, marijuana users spend tens of billions of dollars a year on pot, experts believe.

    Ultimately, marijuana advocates say, it's Congress that needs to budge, aligning federal laws with those of states moving to legalization. But that doesn't appear likely anytime soon.

    The administration appears uncertain how to proceed.

    "The executive branch is in a pickle," Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said at a recent news conference outside the Capitol with pot growers visiting town to lobby for changes. "Twenty-one states have a different view of the use of marijuana than the laws on the books for the federal government."

    ___

    While the federal government hunkers down, Colorado and Washington state are moving forward on their own.

    Colorado's governor in May signed a set of bills to regulate legal use of the drug, and the state's November ballot will ask voters to approve special sales and excise taxes on pot. In Washington state, the Liquor Control Board is drawing up rules covering everything from how plants will be grown to how many stores will be allowed. It expects to issue licenses for growers and processors in December, and impose 25 percent taxes three times over — when pot is grown, processed and sold to consumers.

    "What we're beginning to see is the unraveling of the criminal approach to marijuana policy," says Tim Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice. But, Lynch adds, "the next few years are going to be messy. There are going to be policy battles" as states work to bring a black market industry into the sunshine, and Washington wrestles with how to respond.

    Already, a federal judge has struck down a Colorado requirement that pot magazines such as High Times be kept behind store counters, like pornography.

    Marijuana advocates in Washington state, where officials have projected the legal pot market could bring the state a half-billion a year in revenue, are complaining that state regulators are still banning sales of hash or hash oil, a marijuana extract.

    Pot growers in medical marijuana states are chafing at federal laws that deny them access to the banking system, tax deductions and other opportunities that other businesses take for granted. Many dispensaries are forced to operate on a cash-only basis, which can be an invitation to organized crime.

    It's already legal for adults in Colorado and Washington to light up at will, as long as they do so in private.

    That creates all kinds of new challenges for law enforcement.

    Pat Slack, a commander with the Snohomish County Regional Drug Taskforce in Washington state, said local police are receiving calls about smokers flouting regulations against lighting up in public. In at least one instance, Slack said, that included a complaint about a smoker whose haze was wafting over a backyard fence and into the middle of a child's birthday party. But with many other problems confronting local officers, scofflaws are largely being ignored.

    "There's not much we can do to help," Slack says. "A lot of people have to get accustomed to what the change is."

    In Colorado, Tom Gorman, director of the federal Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Taskforce, takes a tougher stance on his state's decision to legalize pot.

    "This is against the law, I don't care what Colorado says," Gorman said. "It puts us in a position, where you book a guy or gal and they have marijuana, do you give it back? Do you destroy it? What in effect I am doing by giving it back is I am committing a felony. If the court orders me to return it, the court is giving me an illegal order."

    More than 30 pot growers and distributors, going all-out to present a buttoned-down image in suits and sensible pumps rather than ponytails and weed T-shirts, spent two days on Capitol Hill in June lobbying for equal treatment under tax and banking laws and seeking an end to federal property seizures.

    "It's truly unfortunate that the Justice Department can't find a way to respect the will of the people," says Sean Luse of the 13-year-old Berkeley Patients Group in California, a multimillion-dollar pot collective whose landlord is facing the threat of property forfeiture.

    ___

    As Colorado and Washington state press on, California's experience with medical marijuana offers a window into potential pitfalls that can come with wider availability of pot.

    Dispensaries for medical marijuana have proliferated in the state. Regulation has been lax, leading some overwhelmed communities to complain about too-easy access from illegal storefront pot shops and related problems such as loitering and unsavory characters. That prompted cities around the state to say enough already and ban dispensaries. Pot advocates sued.

    In May, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that cities and counties can ban medical marijuana dispensaries. A few weeks later, Los Angeles voters approved a ballot measure that limits the number of pot shops in the city to 135, down from an estimated high of about 1,000. By contrast, whitepages.com lists 112 Starbucks in the city.

    This isn't full-scale buyer's remorse, but more a course correction before the inevitable next push to full-on legalization in the state.

    Baker Montgomery, a member of the Eagle Rock neighborhood council in Los Angeles, where pot shops were prevalent, said May's vote to limit the number of shops was all about ridding the city of illicit dispensaries.

    "They're just not following what small amounts of rules there are on the books," Montgomery said.

    In 2010, California voters opted against legalizing marijuana for recreational use, drawing the line at medical use.

    But Jeffrey Dunn, a Southern California attorney who represented cities in the Supreme Court case, says that in reality the state's dispensaries have been operating so loosely that already "it's really all-access."

    At the Venice Beach Care Center, one of the dispensaries that will be allowed to stay open in Los Angeles, founding director Brennan Thicke believes there still is widespread support for medical marijuana in California. But he says the state isn't ready for more just yet.

    "We have to get (medical) right first," Thicke said.

    Dunn doubts that's possible.

    "What we've learned is, it is very difficult if not impossible to regulate these facilities," he said.

    ___

    Other states, Colorado among them, have had their own bumps in the road with medical marijuana.

    A Denver-area hospital, for example, saw children getting sick after eating treats and other foods made with marijuana in the two years after a 2009 federal policy change led to a surge in medical marijuana use, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics in May. In the preceding four years, the hospital had no such cases.

    The Colorado Education Department reported a sharp rise in drug-related suspensions and expulsions after medical marijuana took off. An audit of the state's medical marijuana system found the state had failed to adequately track the growth and distribution of pot or to fully check out the backgrounds of pot dealers.

    "What we're doing is not working," says Dr. Christian Thurstone, a psychiatrist whose Denver youth substance abuse treatment center has seen referrals for marijuana double since September. In addition, he sees young people becoming increasingly reluctant to be treated, arguing that it can't be bad for them if it's legal.

    Yet Daniel Rees, a researcher at the University of Colorado Denver, analyzed data from 16 states that have approved medical marijuana and found no evidence that legalization had increased pot use among high school students.

    In looking at young people, Rees concludes: "Should we be worried that marijuana use nationally is going up? Yes. Is legalization of medical marijuana the culprit? No."

    ___

    Growing support for legalization doesn't mean everybody wants to light up: Barely one in 10 Americans used pot in the past year.

    Those who do want to see marijuana legalized range from libertarians who oppose much government intervention to people who want to see an activist government aggressively regulate marijuana production and sales.

    Safer-than-alcohol was "the message that won the day" with voters in Colorado, says Tvert.

    For others, money talks: Why let drug cartels rake in untaxed profits when a cut of that money could go into government coffers?

    There are other threads in the growing acceptance of pot.

    People think it's not as dangerous as once believed; some reflect back on what they see as their own harmless experience in their youth. They worry about high school kids getting an arrest record that will haunt them for life. They see racial inequity in the way marijuana laws are enforced. They're weary of the "war on drugs," and want law enforcement to focus on other areas.

    "I don't plan to use marijuana, but it just seemed we waste a lot of time and energy trying to enforce something when there are other things we should be focused on," says Sherri Georges, who works at a Colorado Springs, Colo., saddle shop. "I think that alcohol is a way bigger problem than marijuana, especially for kids."

    Opponents have retorts at the ready.

    They point to a 2012 study finding that regular use of marijuana during teen years can lead to a long-term drop in IQ, and a different study indicating marijuana use can induce and exacerbate psychotic illness in susceptible people. They question the idea that regulating pot will bring in big money, saying revenue estimates are grossly exaggerated.

    They counter the claim that prisons are bulging with people convicted of simple possession by citing federal statistics showing only a small percentage of federal and state inmates are behind bars for that alone. Slack said the vast majority of people jailed for marijuana possession were originally charged with dealing drugs and accepted plea bargains for possession. The average possession charge for those in jail is 115 pounds, Slack says, which he calls enough for "personal use for a small city."

    Over and over, marijuana opponents warn that baby boomers who are drawing on their own innocuous experiences with pot are overlooking the much higher potency of the marijuana now in circulation.

    In 2009, concentrations of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot, averaged close to 10 percent in marijuana, compared with about 4 percent in the 1980s, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. An estimated 9 percent of people who try marijuana eventually become addicted, and the numbers are higher for those who start using pot when they are young. That's less than the addiction rates for nicotine or alcohol, but still significant.

    "If marijuana legalization was about my old buddies at Berkeley smoking in People's Park once a week I don't think many of us would care that much," says Sabet, who helped to found Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization. "But it's not about that. It's really about creating a new industry that's going to target kids and target minorities and our vulnerable populations just like our legal industries do today."

    ___

    So how bad, or good, is pot?

    There are studies that set off medical alarm bells but also studies that support the safer-than-alcohol crowd and suggest promising therapeutic uses.

    J. Michael Bostwick, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic, set out to sort through more than 100 sometimes conflicting studies after his teenage son became addicted to pot. In a 22-page article for Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2012, he laid out the contradictions in U.S. policy and declared that "little about cannabis is straightforward."

    "Anybody can find data to support almost any position," Bostwick says now.

    For all of the talk that smoking pot is no big deal, Bostwick says, he determined that "it was a very big deal. There were addiction issues. There were psychosis issues. But there was also this very large body of literature suggesting that it could potentially have very valuable pharmaceutical applications but the research was stymied" by federal barriers.

    Marijuana is a Schedule I drug under 1970 law, meaning the government deems it to have "no currently accepted medical use" and a "high potential for abuse." The only federally authorized source of marijuana for research is grown at the University of Mississippi, and the government tightly regulates its use. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says plenty of work with cannabis is ongoing, but Bostwick says federal restrictions have caused a "near-cessation of scientific research."

    The American Medical Association opposes legalizing pot, calling it a "dangerous drug" and a public health concern. But it also is urging the government to review marijuana's status as a Schedule 1 drug in the interest of promoting more research.

    "The evidence is pretty clear that in 1970 the decision to make the drug illegal, or put it on Schedule I, was a political decision," says Bostwick. "And it seems pretty obvious in 2013 that states, making their decisions the way they are, are making political decisions. Science is not present in either situation to the degree that it needs to be."

    The National Institute on Drug Abuse's director, Dr. Nora Volkow, says that for all the potential dangers of marijuana, "cannabinoids are just amazing compounds, and understanding how to use them properly could be actually very beneficial therapeutically." But she worries that legalizing pot will result in increased use of marijuana by young people, and impair their brain development.

    "You cannot mess around with the cognitive capacity of your young people because you are going to rely on them," she says. "Think about it: Do you want a nation where your young people are stoned?"

    ___

    As state after state moves toward a more liberal approach to marijuana, the turnaround is drawing comparisons to shifting attitudes on gay marriage, for which polls find rapidly growing acceptance, especially among younger voters. That could point toward durable majority support as this population ages. Gay marriage is now legal in 12 states and Washington, D.C.

    On marijuana, "we're having a hard time almost believing how fast public opinion is changing in our direction," says Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance.

    But William Galston and E.J. Dionne, who co-wrote a paper on the new politics of marijuana for the Brookings Institution, believe marijuana legalization hasn't achieved a deep enough level of support to suggest a tipping point, with attitudes toward legalization marked by ambivalence and uncertainty.

    "Compared with attitudes toward same-sex marriage, support for marijuana legalization is much less driven by moral conviction and much more by the belief that it is not a moral issue at all," they wrote.

    No one expects Congress to change federal law anytime soon.

    Partisans on both sides think people in other states will keep a close eye on the precedent-setting experiment underway in Colorado and Washington as they decide whether to give the green light to marijuana elsewhere.

    "It will happen very suddenly," predicts the Cato Institute's Lynch. "In 10-15 years, it will be hard to find a politician who will say they were ever against legalization."

    Sabet worries that things will move so fast that the negative effects of legalization won't yet be fully apparent when other states start giving the go-ahead to pot. He's hoping for a different outcome.

    "I actually think that this is going to wake a lot of people up who might have looked the other way during the medical marijuana debate," he says. "In many ways, it actually might be the catalyst to turn things around."

    Past predictions on pot have been wildly off-base, in both directions.

    The 1972 commission that recommended decriminalizing marijuana speculated pot might be nothing more than a fad.

    Then there's "Reefer Madness," the 1936 propaganda movie that pot fans rediscovered and turned into a cult classic in the 1970s. It labeled pot "The Real Public Enemy Number One!"

    The movie spins a tale of dire consequences "leading finally to acts of shocking violence ... ending often in incurable insanity."

    Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt in Denver, Gene Johnson in Seattle, Lauran Neergaard in Washington and AP researcher Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report.


  • Traffic cameras bring tiny Ohio village to a stop

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    Many small business owners in Elmwood Place, Ohio, worry that scores of traffic camera tickets have given the village a speed-trap stigma.

    630camera.JPGThis Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 file photo shows a pair of traffic cameras aimed on Vine Street, in Elmwood Place, Ohio. The village was on pace to assess $2 million in traffic fines in six months until a lawsuit brought a ruling from a judge forcing the village to stop using the cameras. The village is appealing the ruling.  

    By DAN SEWELL

    ELMWOOD PLACE, Ohio — This little village had a big problem.

    Each day, thousands of cars — sometimes as many as 18,000 — rolled along Elmwood Place's streets, crossing the third-of-a-mile town to get to neighboring Cincinnati or major employers in bustling suburbs or heavily traveled Interstate 75. Many zipped by Elmwood Place's modest homes and small businesses at speeds well above the 25 mph limit.

    Bedeviled by tight budgets, the police force was undermanned. The situation, villagers feared, was dangerous.

    Then the cameras were turned on, and all hell broke loose.

    Like hundreds of other U.S. communities big and small, Elmwood Place hired an outside company to install cameras to record traffic violations and mail out citations.

    In the first month after the cameras began operating, late last year, 6,600 tickets went out — more than triple the village's population. Before some unsuspecting drivers realized it, they had racked up multiple $105 citations they would learn about when their mail arrived weeks later. Some 70 parishioners, or more than half the congregation at Our Lady of Lavang Catholic Community Church, were ticketed on one Sunday last September.

    Soon, there was a Facebook page promoting a boycott of the village, a petition drive against cameras, and a lawsuit against the village that threatened to wreck Elmwood Place financially. Four council members resigned. And an atmosphere of distrust and uneasiness hung over a village that traced its roots back to the 19th century, before traffic cameras or even automotive traffic.

    "I think Elmwood Place tried to do something, but maybe not in the right way," said Catherine Jones, who brought a chair and small table out of her namesake Southern-style restaurant on a recent afternoon and sat in the sun as she read her Bible and wrote out notes about the verses.

    Just last year, she recalled, a pedestrian was hit and killed a couple blocks from her restaurant, near an elementary school. So she understood that something had to be done. But now she is among many small business owners worried that the cameras have given the village a speed-trap stigma.

    Few things will rile citizens quicker than getting tickets in the mail, along with photos of their vehicles under a red light. The letters usually inform them they will not be assessed traffic violation "points"; nor will their insurance company be contacted. But they must pay up, or face a collection agency and damage to their credit ratings.

    Supporters of camera enforcement say they stretch law enforcement resources, and they usually result in safer driving and thus save lives. Opponents see cameras giving governments a way to grab more money from taxpayer pockets, putting local policing in the hands of remote, for-profit companies, and taking society another step toward an Orwellian state of constant surveillance for misbehavior.

    In Arizona, where two large photo enforcement companies are based, red-light and speed enforcement cameras have been a matter of contention for years. Gov. Jan Brewer scuttled a state program that put speed-enforcement cameras on freeways and interstates in 2010 when a contract expired; efforts to ban the devices used by many cities and towns are a yearly fixture in the Legislature.

    In February, San Diego followed Los Angeles and Pasadena in dropping traffic camera citations; the mayor said they bred disrespect for the law because residents believed they were meant to make money, not reduce accidents. Legislation to require communities to get state permits before installing traffic cameras stalled this year in Iowa, while a group called Stop Big Brother has been trying to head off cameras in Iowa City.

    There are 12 states that ban speed cameras, and nine prohibit red-light cameras.

    Yet despite the critics and complaints, camera use is growing overall. The New York state legislature this month approved installing speed cameras in New York City school zones. Communities with traffic cameras, or automated enforcement, have increased more than fivefold across the country in less than a decade, with red-light cameras in 530 municipalities and speeding cameras in 125, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

    "There is Zeitgeist in the country right now on privacy concerns, concerns about intrusion; we understand that," said Jonathan Adkins of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which promotes safety nationally through state-level efforts. That group and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit organization funded by auto insurers, say studies show cameras result in a reduction of fatal crashes caused by red light-running, and in reduced speeding in pedestrian-sensitive areas such as school zones.

    "What we've seen from the field is red light cameras and safety cameras are both important tools in the safety tool box," Adkins said, adding that they should complement, not replace, law enforcement and should be focused on safety, not boosting budgets.

    Holly Calhoun doesn't believe they were about safety in her hardscrabble village.

    "Elmwood was just doing it because they needed money," said the manager of Elmwood Quick Mart, which offers phone cards, lottery tickets and Mexican food, and advertises its willingness to accept food stamps.

    "People couldn't afford those tickets," Calhoun said. "They can barely afford to pay their bills. It was pretty sad."

    Settled by German farmers and laborers who came up from Appalachian Kentucky, Elmwood Place was incorporated in 1890. Like many "inner-ring" American suburbs, it hit its peak many decades ago. Older residents recall bucolic times of moonlit concerts and tire swings hanging from backyard trees.

    But outsourcing of blue-collar work made life tougher for many residents, and the village's incomes and housing values fell well below statewide averages. Housing stock deteriorated to the point where you can buy a two-bedroom fixer-upper for less than $60,000.

    When William Peskin joined the police force in 1998, there were nine officers. Now the police chief is the only full-time law enforcement officer left. He said concerns grew after accidents around the elementary school; village officials looked into traffic cameras and became convinced that they were the most practical way to make the village safer.

    Cameras at the village limits and in the school zone dramatically curtailed speeding once citations started going out, Peskin said. From 20,000 speeders clocked in a two-week trial period last summer, the number soon dropped to a quarter of that.

    Former county prosecutor Mike Allen filed a lawsuit against the town. Among the plaintiffs: the Rev. Chau Pham, who said church attendance dropped by a third after that Sunday when so many congregants — including him — were ticketed; David Downs, owner of St. Bernard Polishing for 25 years, who said long-time customers had vowed to shop elsewhere because they had been ticketed; and a Habitat for Humanity worker who was cited four times.

    "Elmwood Place is engaging in nothing more than a high-tech game of three-card monte," Judge Robert P. Ruehlman wrote March 7 in a colorful opinion that has heartened camera foes across the country. "It is a scam that the motorists can't win."

    The judge said the village was on pace to assess $2 million in six months (the village's annual budget is $1.3 million). Maryland-based Optotraffic, owner and operator of the photo enforcement system in return for 40 percent of revenue, had already reaped $500,000 in about four months.

    Used words such as "scheme," ''sham," ''stacked," and "total disregard for due process," Ruehlman declared the village's photo-enforcement ordinance invalid and unenforceable.

    Elmwood Place is appealing, and believes it has the law on its side.

    "It's unfortunate that the judge doesn't see it as a safety issue," Peskin said.

    Ohio courts have upheld camera enforcement in some of the state's biggest cities as a legitimate exercise of local government power; the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments in 2008 on the city of Akron's speeding cameras and approved them.

    Akron began its program in 2005 after a 5-year-old child was killed. Some 3,000 citations in the first few weeks elicited public outcry, and then a lawsuit filed by attorney Warner Mendenhall after his wife Kelly was ticketed. Mendenhall said he found in his research that camera enforcement is often inconsistently carried out, the cameras aren't always accurate, and that in many places, they are clearly used as a revenue booster.

    Steve Fallis, the city's assistant law director, said Akron uses the cameras only in school zones, and motorists have visual warnings they are in use. Any net income from the $100 citations goes into a city safety fund, not for the general budget. And there is no fee for an administrative hearing to challenge a citation. Elmwood Place charged $25

    Mendenhall, whose wife's ticket was tossed out by the city when she appealed a lack of signage at the time, isn't convinced the legality has been settled. Maybe, he said, Elmwood Place will be the launching pad for the challenge that gets the matter to a higher authority.

    "To have this patchwork quilt of laws ... I really would hope that someone would take this on up to (U.S). Supreme Court," Mendenhall said.

    Recently, passions in Elmwood Place have cooled a bit. At a June council meeting, fewer than a dozen people turned out.

    Taking a cigarette break out back, Mayor Stephanie Morgan talked briefly and reluctantly about the controversy, which she described as "challenging."

    She defended the cameras. "The speeding was just horrible," Morgan said. But asked whether her constituents agree that cameras were the best solution, the 39-year-old lifelong resident repeated the question aloud and said: "You'll have to ask them."

    Bill Wilson, 43, is running for village council in the fall election. He returned to Elmwood Place after living in southwest Florida for 20 years; there, he said, red-light cameras, speeding cameras, accident cameras and crime security cameras are commonplace.

    "You get accustomed to it," Wilson said.

    In Elmwood Place, the cameras didn't last long enough for anyone to grow accustomed to them. But apparently, they lasted longer than folks realized: On Thursday, Judge Ruehlman found that the camera company had continued to mail out citations for weeks after he ordered that it stop. He ruled Elmwood Village in contempt and said the cameras and equipment must be seized and stored until the case is resolved.

    On a recent evening just before the contempt order, Holly Calhoun left her store, crossed the street and gazed up into a camera, wondering what, if anything, it was recording. Two men in a car stopped and asked what was going on. She told them she is opposed to cameras; they each gave her a thumb's up and drove off.

    Business, Calhoun said, has been slow to rebound; most people don't seem to believe the cameras aren't in full operation.

    Elmwood Place is caught in a speed trap of its own making. On the one hand, the village faces a crippling financial blow if litigation succeeds in forcing it to pay back all the fines already collected plus legal costs; on the other, Calhoun and others think if the village wins its case and brings back the cameras, the effects on business could be catastrophic.

    "I think it's going to become a ghost town," she said.

    Boston Marathon bombing amputee Roseann Sdoia now strides forward

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    More than two months after the Boston Marathon bombing, Roseann Sdoia is learning how to walk on the artificial limb that has replaced part of her right leg after an above-the-knee amputation.


    By BRIDGET MURPHY

    BOSTON — Roseann Sdoia still thinks about how all the shrapnel flew. How some people were hit and some weren't, all just inches away from one another. She would love to understand it, because not a day has gone by since the Boston Marathon bombings when she hasn't had to cope with the aftermath.

    More than two months later, the 45-year-old amputee is learning how to walk on the artificial limb that has replaced part of her right leg after an above-the-knee amputation.

    The physical therapy is something that other marathon amputees have either already undergone or will experience in the future. While some bombing survivors have had their artificial limbs for a while, others have yet to get to the stage Sdoia has reached.

    "In all honesty, do I wish I had it? Of course, no," Sdoia said on a recent afternoon after physical therapy. "But I think I like it better with the leg on than without the leg. Looking in the mirror, yeah, it's difficult. And if anybody says it isn't, they're lying."

    On April 15, she saw a flash of light at her feet while watching for a friend to pass her on Boylston Street on the way to the race's finish line. Then she heard a popping noise and realized it was too late to run away.

    Since then, Sdoia has battled against indulging her disability. She didn't want to have someone pushing her around in a wheelchair or to think too much about the suspects who changed her life and ended three others. As time passed, she found her emotions weren't as raw as in the beginning. But being up on two legs again has brought some strong feelings bubbling to the surface.

    The resident of Boston's North End spent about a week at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital recently for therapy aimed at getting her accustomed to her new prosthetic. Part of that meant time looking in the mirror, studying her gait and trying to accept a new image that can bring a few tears when she talks about it.

    During a recent workout, Sdoia watched her reflection as she paced back and forth on crutches and her prosthetic in a hospital gym. Her physical therapist, Dara Casparian, had her focus on how to kick out her prosthetic for a natural stride forward. Sdoia worked to balance herself by putting weight on the side of her body she hadn't been leaning on for months.

    "Your brain now thinks your center of mass is here on your left side," Casparian said. "It's just going to take time and comfort and trusting that leg."

    "We have a lot of work to do," Sdoia told her.

    Sdoia previously spent time at Spaulding for therapy after surgeries at Massachusetts General Hospital following the attack. In mid-May, she left Spaulding on crutches and returned home for the first time, vowing to move forward and take one day of her recovery at a time.

    But now she has to wake up in the morning and put on her new right leg, while accepting this is something she'll have to do the rest of her life. She said she is determined not to complain, and laughed while saying she's nicknamed the artificial limb "this sucker" — not yet sure whether it's her friend or enemy.

    "It definitely is something I need to get around and to live a regular life, and I think it's too soon to say exactly what I feel," she said.

    Sdoia is an athlete who ran more than a few road races before that day she went to Boylston Street to be a marathon spectator. And the petite, peppy blonde who works in property management plans to go back to recreational running again.

    Sabrina Dellorusso, who was with her at the marathon but barely suffered a scratch, called Sdoia the kind of friend who would call early on a weekend morning to make sure you got up to run a 5K with her.

    She showed the same kind of grit at Spaulding recently, where she stuck to a three-hour-a-day exercise schedule. Sdoia said her suction-type prosthetic wasn't painful, but it added an extra 10 pounds to her body, and the fit still felt awkward.

    But she seemed to forget that when Dellorusso stopped by for a hospital visit and she reached out to her. The two hugged as Sdoia stood up on her own, with no crutches necessary.

    "Physically, she's a little different. But she's going to be the same," Dellorusso said.

    Sdoia said her short-term goals are to walk and climb stairs with confidence. In the longer term, she wants to return to her normal routine of running, driving and going to work. While she still has questions about what happened that day, she thinks of herself as the same person who is just starting another chapter of life.

    "I don't think it's changed me in any fashion. I just continue to be who I am," Sdoia said. "Some people think it's inspiring. I think that's kind of funny."

    Worcester police investigate shooting

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    The victim was found a short distance away from the scene of the shooting.

    WORCESTER — A 19-year-old Worcester youth who was shot multiple times early Saturday morning is expected to survive authorities say, but is not cooperating with a police investigation.

    According to the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, the unidentified victim was shot several times in the parking lot of the Mekong Market at 747 Main Street shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday. Police found him a short distance away on Ethan Allen Street, and he was transported to a local hospital.

    Worcester Police tried to question the victim at the scene and later in the hospital, but were rebuffed each time, they say. Detectives continue to investigate.

    Worcester man dies of injuries from Friday pedestrian accident

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    The victim died of his injuries after being struck by a car Friday evening.

    WORCESTER — A 67-year-old man, struck by a car as he crossed Heywood Street Friday evening, died of his injuries Saturday, Worcester Police announced.

    The victim's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. According to the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, a witness said the victim was struck as he crossed Heywood Street near its intersection with Jones Street at approximately 10 p.m.

    The driver of the car involved, a 63-year-old woman, told police she was driving east on Heywood Street when she struck the man. The name of the driver is being withheld pending completion of an investigation. Police did say she has not been cited in connection with the accident.

    Three more arrested in June 15 North Adams street brawl

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    Thre people were injured, one seriously, in an after-hours brawl in the middle of Union Street.

    NORTH ADAMS —North Adams Police have arrested three more men in connection with a brawl in front of the Artery Lounge in the early morning hours of June 15. Police have so far arrested six people in connection with the incident which injured three people, one man suffering serious stab wounds. An arrest warrant for a seventh suspect has been issued.

    According to the North Adams Transcript, investigators interviewed many of those involved, including suspects, the victim and several witnesses. Police were also able to use video tape from a surveillance camera at a nearby bar to help identify several of the assailants they say attacked 41-year-old Derrick Borum. Borum was stabbed a total of eight times by one person, and was kicked and punched by several others. He was initially taken to the North Adams Regional Hospital but was transferred to the trauma center at the Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.

    Quintin J. Sumpter, 24, of John Street in Pittsfield, was ordered held in lieu of $6,500 cash bail after he was arraigned earlier in the week in the Northern Berkshire District Court on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, while Johnny Nieves, 38, of Burbank Street in Pittsfield was charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and a single count of assault and battery. He was ordered held in lieu of $5,000 cash bail. Sumpter's brother, 19-year-old Stephen Sumpter was charged with a single count of assault and battery and held on $2,500 cash bail.Donnell McFarland of Pittsfield was arraigned on a charge of assault and released.

    An arrest warrant for 31-year-old Davon R. Fitts was issued accusing him of a single count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

    Messiah Grandson, 19, of Pittsfield, was arrested the morning of the fight as he tried to flee the area in a vehicle. He was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and armed assault with the intent to commit murder. Police alleged that Grandson was seen on the video tape stabbing Borum numerous times in the back and buttocks. Green was arrested when he went to North Adams Regional Hospital for treatment of a stab wound to the leg. He was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

    Also injured in the melee was Brittany Gresser a bar patron. She was treated for a laceration after she was struck in the face with a bottle.

    North Adams police are being assisted in their investigation by State Police Crime Scene Services.

    Ludlow fire destroys multi-family building

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    The vacant multi-family house was under rehab from a similar fire a year ago, neighbors say.

    This is an updated version of a story posted at 4:05 a.m. Sunday.

    LUDLOW — Firefighters battled a smoky, early morning fire that destroyed a vacant multi-family house under rehab.

    Ludlow fire officials said the building located at 17-21 Lower Whitney St. started inthe basement at 1:43 a.m. officials said the building was "fully involved" upon their arrival.

    Tony Tocar said he and his wife were returning to their nearby Windsor Street home when they noticed flames coming from the front windows of the three story building. They drove around the block to look at the rear of the building and flames erupted.

    "By the time we came around to the other side the fire was all the way up the side of the building," he said.

    Josie Chaves lives on East Street, within sight of the fire. She noticed the fire when it appeared to be in the basement and within minutes the entire building was in flames, she said.

    Officials said the six-family property was boarded up and vacant after a fire destroyed it about a year ago.

    No one was living in the building, but firefighters evacuated an inhabited building next to the primary fire as a precaution.

    Ludlow firefighters called for mutual aid from Springfield, Wilbraham, Chicopee and Palmer to provide additional ladder engines and fire coverage as Ludlow units were occupied, officials said.


    The fire is under investigation and is believed to be suspicious.

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    Rutland man seriously injured in glider crash

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    A helicopter took the injured man to the UMass Memorial Medical Center for treatment.

    BARRE — A glider pilot was seriously injured when his aircraft crashed at the Tanner-Hiller Airport in New Braintree late Saturday afternoon.

    Police say the unidentified 52-year-old pilot suffered a head injury when his glider crashed near the airport runway at approximately 5:40 p.m.

    The Worcester Telegram and Gazette reported that gliders are towed into the air with ultralight aircraft and released at a specific altitude. The gliders then fly using thermals and updrafts.

    Police said the pilot was unconscious when first responders arrived on the scene, but he later regained consciousness. He was taken to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester by helicopter.Emergency medical technicians from Barre and North Brookfield responded to the incident.

    The cause of the crash is being investigated. Police are conferring with the Federal Aviation Administration.


    Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts urges Springfield votes to let casino question move forward

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    The EDC is not endorsing the MGM proposal to the exclusion of proposals in West Springfield and Palmer.

    SPRINGFIELD — The Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts is urging Springfield voters to approve the July 16 referendum on the MGM Springfield casino proposal for the city’s South End.

    Allan Blair 2010.jpgAllan W. Blair 

    The EDC, a regional organization that looks at economic issues and fosters business growth, bases the assertion on a review of MGM Springfield’s proposed host community agreement with the city and a belief that the agreement could provide an economic boost to the region.

    But Allan W. Blair, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council said the MGM proposal, including the host community agreement, still needs a thorough vetting from the state Gaming Commission. A “yes” vote July 16 will allow that state review to continue, he said. The EDC organized a meeting last week between local businesses and MGM and Blair predicts future meetings with the other bidders.

    Blair also specified that the casino statement is from the EDC alone and it does not speak for affiliated organizations Westmass Area Development Corp. or the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield.

    “It’s not really an endorsement per se,” said Blair said. “It’s certainly not an exclusive endorsement. It is not an endorsement of MGM and it doesn’t compare them with the other two proposals.”

    While MGM is proposing a casino on the South End, Hard Rock International has proposed a casino for the Eastern States Exposition Grounds in West Springfield and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority is proposing to build a casino in Palmer.

    All three proposals are before the gaming commission. But only MGM and Springfield have signed a host community agreement and only Springfield has set a date for a referendum.

    Blair said the EDC will review the other agreements as they become public and may issue statements following those reviews.

    The agreement between the city and MGM requires annual payments to the city of Springfield in excess of $25 million, of which $17.6 million will be property tax payments. The casino also promises to spend $50 million a year, about half its annual budget for goods and services, with local suppliers and contractors. The agreement also calls for about 2,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent jobs of which 2,200 will be full time. MGM also promises payments to the city to mitigate negative impacts from its casino.

    “We felt a proposal of this magnitude required us to express an opinion,” Blair said.

    But casino opponent Scott Harshbarger, a former state attorney general, said casinos are really a regressive tax on those who can least afford it. Long-term economic growth needs projects like transportation improvements. Harshbarger cited the need for better connections from Boston to New Bedford and from Worcester to Springfield.

    “Casinos come in when there is a vacuum and do not attract long-term economic development,” Harshbarger said at a meeting of casino opponents in Springfield last week.

    Blair said he has questions, particularly about the promise of $50 million spent with local businesses. He fears that small companies in greater Springfield won’t be able to bid because they won’t be able to get the approvals of the state Gaming Commission. Blair said he wants to learn more about the Gaming Commission process.

    The MGM project has also been endorsed by the city police and firefighters unions as well as citizens’ councils in the South End, Old Hill, Indian Orchard, Maple High Six Corners as well as the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, National Association of Minority Contractors, Rebuilding Together and the Stone Soul Festival.


    Staff writer Suzanne McLaughlin contributed to this report.

    Obituaries today: Richard Harrison was truck driver, outdoorsman, beekeeper

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    Obituaries from The Republican.

     
    063013-richard-harrison.jpgRichard Harrison 

    Richard E. Harrison, 81, passed away on Thursday. Born in Agawam, he was a lifelong resident. He was a truck driver for Smith Transfer, Boston Buffalo and finally Lawry Freight. An avid fisherman and hunter, he was a founding member of the Agawam Fish & Game Club, and enjoyed farming and beekeeping. He was a Korean War Navy veteran, and a life member of both the American Legion Post 185 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was also a member of the Hampden County Bee Club and the Agawam United Methodist Church.

    Obituaries from The Republican:


    As Congress squabbles, student loan rates set to double

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    The doubling of the rate could be costly -- about $3,800 over the life of a certain loan.

    BOSTON -- Rates on federal student loans are set to double on July 1, alarming local college leaders and increasing pressure on Congress to find a solution.

    The 3.4 percent fixed rate on new subsidized Stafford loans doubles on Monday to 6.8 percent, affecting about 7 million low-income students across the country.

    caret.JPGRobert L. Caret, the president of the University of Massachusetts, is shown speaking at an event in Springfield in 2012. 

    "It will have a major impact on almost every school in the country," said Kathleen Chambers, director of financial aid for Western New England University in Springfield.

    The subsidized Stafford loans are for undergraduates who show financial need. The loans are popular partly because interest does not accrue until a student graduates.

    "It's a pretty steep jump -- to double," she added. "They are really kind of gouging the student population."

    The doubling of the rate could be costly -- about $3,800 over the life of a certain loan, according to data at the federal Department of Education.

    Students heavily depend on the loans.

    At the Amherst, Dartmouth, Lowell and Boston campuses of the University of Massachusetts, 28,802 students received $119.5 million in federally subsidized loans during the school year that just ended. A total of 11,455 students at the flagship Amherst campus alone received $50 million of the loans, according to statistics provided by the university.

    Robert L. Caret, president of the University of Massachusetts, said it's not clear how Congress will resolve the issue.

    "We're sitting here with our fingers crossed," Caret said. "You never know with this particular Congress."

    liz.JPGU.S. Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren, D-Mass., listens to a witness during a committee hearing in Washington in March. Warren has been a leader in attempting to prevent the doubling of interest rates on student loans. 

    Outstanding student debt in the country totals $1 trillion. Caret noted that's more than what is owed on credit cards.

    In 2012 report, the Project on Student Debt said that 65 percent of students in Massachusetts had some debt when they graduated from a public or private college in 2011. The average student debt in Massachusetts was $27,181, ranking the state No. 14 in the country.

    Student debt could hurt the economy since it means students have less money to buy a car or a home, for example.

    "It's a drag on the economy to have students so indebted," said Max Page, a professor at the Amherst campus. "It's a huge concern."

    Congress establishes the interest rates for student loans. The 3.4 percent interest rate on new subsidized Stafford loans was set six years ago. The rate was scheduled to end last year, but amid an election year, Congress stretched it out through June 30 of this year.

    If a student borrows $19,000 of the subsidized loans, the total interest, assuming 120 payments over 10 years, would be $3,439 at 3.4 percent and $7,238 at 6.8 percent, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics provided by UMass.

    Congress is currently deadlocked. The Republican-led U.S. House in May voted 221 to 198 to tie the loan interest rates to yields on the 10-year Treasury bond, allowing the rates to rise and fall. It also sought to establish maximum limits on the rates.

    In the Democratic-majority U.S. Senate, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren advocated for a bill that for one year would peg the interest rate on federally subsidized Stafford loans to same minuscule overnight rate that the Federal Reserve charges for loans to banks.

    Warren also signed onto a bill that sought to extend for two years the current 3.4 percent interest rate. The U.S. Senate approved that bill in early June, but the vote was short of the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster by opponents.

    William F. Messner , president of Holyoke Community College, said the doubling of the interest rate will just add to the debt burden of students.

    "If it happens, it is going to affect students going forward," Messner said. "It's not going to be helpful for students."

    U.S. Sen. Joseph Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and several other senators unveiled a compromise last week, but it wasn't expected to advance before the July 1 deadline.

    Their proposal would link interest rates for new Stafford loans to the 10-year Treasury bond plus 1.85 percent.

    "We're obviously very, very concerned," said Ira H. Rubenzahl, president of Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield. "We really are concerned about the costs of paying loans."

    Mater Dolorosa Church supporters in Holyoke hold second remembrance of closing

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    The Friends of Mater Dolorosa held a year-long vigil at the church to attempt to keep it open.

    Mater Dolorosa 62411.jpgWladzie Sawicki and Teresa Belz, both of Holyoke, are seen at the start of a vigil that began in June 2011 to keep the Mater Dolorosa Church open. 

    HOLYOKE – The second anniversary of the closing of Mater Dolorosa Church and long efforts to keep church members together were remembered in a prayer vigil and awards dinner Sunday.

    About 100 people attended the vigil outside the church on Maple Street, and about 150 gathered later for a dinner and awards ceremony to remember the church and honor Mayor Alex Morse and Olivia Mausel, who has worked on creating a Polish Heritage district that includes the church.

    “We have been doing this (holding prayer vigils) for two years. We are at the church or someplace nearby because we want to stay united,” said Victor M. Anop, chairman of the Friends of Mater Dolorosa.

    As part of a larger plan to close churches, Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell ordered Mater Dolorosa church closed and the parish to merge with Holy Cross. The two groups came together and formed a new parish, Our Lady of the Cross, which now uses the former Holy Cross Church.

    But on the last Mass held on June 30, 2012, some Mater Dolorosa members refused to leave. That was followed by a long and sometimes bitter fight that included back-and-forth appeals filed to the Vatican and a lawsuit filed in district court by the diocese asking for a ruling to force members to leave, which was denied.

    For a year, Friends of Mater Dolorosa took turns occupying the church around the clock in protest and to protect the building. The vigil ended almost on the first anniversary of the closing after the Vatican’s highest court agreed to hear the case but asked the protesters to leave and ordered the bishop to refrain from damaging or selling the building.

    With the naming of a new pope in March, rulings on appeals have stalled, Anop said.

    “We are just concerned the maintenance of the church has not been good,” he said.

    Following the events, Anop said the Friends will ask for a tour of the church.

    “We certainly understand the continuing sense of loss of a beloved Church, but certainly in light of Pope Francis’ recent example, placing faith ahead of material goods and personal attachments we should all put our faith, not buildings, first and foremost in our lives. We continue to await the final decision on the status of the Mater Dolorosa Church, which even should the appeal prevail will not dictate any future use,” said Mark E. Dupont, spokesman for the Springfield diocese.

    He also asked Morse to accept a two-year request to speak with the diocese about the church closings.

    The awards were given to acknowledge support for the Friends. Morse was recognized for “quietly” rejecting efforts from the diocese to renew a building permit to keep scaffolding in front of the church, which the bishop argued was needed because of concerns of falling slate from the roof.

    The condition of the church has been long argued with the diocese saying the steeple is unsafe and the Friends saying it is structurally sound. Both have engineering reports to back up their arguments.

    Mausel, chairwoman of the Historical Commission, was also honored for the work she and a seven-member study committee have been doing for two years to create a historic district that includes the church and school.

    The group was initially tasked by former mayor Elaine Pluta to study the historical significance of the church, but it took the study further and identified 28 properties on Lyman Street, many across the street from the church, which are considered historically significant to Polish families, she said.

    “The area was called the patch, and it was mostly Irish. ...As the mills popped up, and as the Irish got wealthier and moved up the hill, the Polish from Chicopee and South Hadley moved in the late 1800s,” she said.

    The City Council is slated to vote on naming the area a historic district in late August. If designated, buildings will be protected from demolition or substantial change without Historical Commission approval.

    The city could face legal action if it does try to limit the Diocese’s ability to change the building. Already the Diocese is suing the city of Springfield for declaring Our Lady of Hope Church a historic district saying it infringes on their rights to change the building. The case awaiting a decision in the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Cirque du Soleil acrobatic artist dies after fall in Las Vegas show 'Ka'

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    Sarah Guyard-Guillot was pronounced dead late Saturday night at a hospital after falling about 50 feet from the show's stage.

    LAS VEGAS -- A Paris-born performer in Cirque du Soleil's "Ka" died after a fall during a show in Las Vegas.

    Sarah Guyard-Guillot was pronounced dead late Saturday night at a hospital after falling about 50 feet from the show's stage.

    Witnesses told the Las Vegas Sun that the accident occurred near the end of the production Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

    Visitor Dan Mosqueda of Colorado Springs, Colo., said the 31-year-old acrobatic performer was being hoisted up the side of the stage when it appeared that she slipped free of her safety wire and plummeted to an open pit below the stage.

    "Initially, a lot of people in the audience thought it was part of the (show)," he told the Sun. "But you could hear screaming, then groaning, and we could hear a female artist crying from the stage."

    The show momentarily continued, then stopped. Minutes after the accident, a recorded announcement informed audience members that refunds or vouchers to future shows would be offered, and the crowd was dismissed.

    Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte issued a statement Sunday praising Guyard-Guillot and saying performances of "Ka" have been canceled until further notice.

    Guyard-Guillot, a mother of two children, had been with the original cast of "Ka" since 2006, and had been an acrobatic performer for over 20 years.

    "I am heartbroken. I wish to extend my sincerest sympathies to the family. We are all completely devastated," Laliberte said. "We are reminded with great humility and respect how extraordinary our artists are each and every night. Our focus now is to support each other as a family."

    Cirque officials are working with authorities investigating the accident and have offered their full cooperation, he added.

    The Clark County Coroner's Office will rule on the cause of death.

    At Tour de France walking wounded win by soldiering on

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    By JOHN LEICESTER AJACCIO, Corsica (AP) — Behind Jan Bakelants, the Belgian who rode with guts and guile to win Stage Two at the Tour de France, there were other smaller but no less impressive victories Sunday that don't get so widely noticed — by the race's riding wounded. In other circumstances, logic would prescribe rest, recovery and TLC...

    By JOHN LEICESTER

    AJACCIO, Corsica (AP) — Behind Jan Bakelants, the Belgian who rode with guts and guile to win Stage Two at the Tour de France, there were other smaller but no less impressive victories Sunday that don't get so widely noticed — by the race's riding wounded.

    In other circumstances, logic would prescribe rest, recovery and TLC for the likes of Geraint Thomas, who was among the more badly beaten up of the dozen or so riders who slammed into the tarmac in a vicious high-speed pileup a day earlier in the frenetic end of Stage One.

    But the moving circus that is the Tour waits for no man, even those with deep cuts, evil bruises or, like Thomas, teeth-grinding pain in his left hip that made it difficult for him to walk, let alone hold his place in the world's toughest bike race.

    In other sports, players who pick up knocks generally get at least a few days to heal before the next game. But the Tour's injured are afforded no such luxury. For them, the choice is either to soldier on with their aches and pains, hoping for a better tomorrow, or be among the first to quit. Which, for many of them, isn't much of a choice at all.

    So a whopping 17 minutes and 35 seconds after Bakelants gave the chasing pack the slip and got the stage win that, for now at least, also secured him the race leader's yellow jersey, Thomas hauled himself across the finishing line.

    "It feels a bit like a win in itself," said the 27-year-old Welshman who rides for Sky, the team of Chris Froome, this year's favorite.

    At 97 miles, the stage from the east to the west coast of Corsica, from Bastia to Ajaccio, both of them ports, was one of the shortest of this 100th Tour. But for Thomas, it felt "like an eternity."

    Bakelants got to celebrate on the podium and share his joy.

    "It's fantastic," the RadioShack team rider said.

    Thomas just got to fight — make that suffer — for another day. From the field of 198 riders, just two finished behind Thomas. The other 195 were ahead.

    He said Saturday's pileup is a bit of a blur.

    "I remember just flipping straight over and, you know, just landing straight on my back," he said.

    Froome's most dangerous rival for overall victory, two-time former champion Alberto Contador, was another of those caught in that crash. The Spaniard said he, too, was sore on Sunday, although he rode well — staying in the main pack that finished one second behind Bakelants.

    "It was difficult to start off. There is pain in your whole body," Contador said. "You feel bad here, here and here," he said, pointing to his shoulder and elbow and hip.

    Froome and other candidates for overall victory also were in Contador's group. So going into Monday's stage, the third and last on Corsica before the Tour crosses back onto the French mainland, the main contenders remain on an equal footing.

    Froome, however, looks particularly fresh and strong. On the road into Ajaccio, the Briton made an impression and maybe scored a few psychological points by sprinting away from the pack for a while. It was a tactical move that perhaps would have impressed Ajaccio's most famous son, Napoleon Bonaparte, the wily military and political leader of France born there in 1769.

    Froome said the burst of speed was merely to keep him safe and out of any more crashes. But with a smile, he added: "It's always good to keep people on their toes."

    There were no smiles from his teammate, Thomas. He climbed gingerly off his bike. Later, sitting in a Team Sky car, he took an age to pull on fresh socks, wincing from the effort.

    "The start was just unbelievable, just so much pain round here in my hip," he said. "Toward the end, you know, it definitely felt a lot better than at the start. But it was still really sore. It hurts."

    An X-ray Saturday after the crash didn't show any break. To be sure, Thomas was taken for a scan after Sunday's stage.

    The race doctor, Florence Pommerie, said she gave Thomas some painkillers as he rode Sunday. Bakelants completed the stage in 3 hours, 43 minutes, 11 seconds. The course featured four climbs, through spiky mountains with patches of snow and past villages clinging to hillsides.

    "The wake-up the morning after a crash is tough. You have to get the carcass moving again," Pommerie said. "No one wants to fall and quit in the first few days."

    Thomas' boss, Sky manager Dave Brailsford, said their hope is that Thomas will get better on the road, over the next three weeks to Paris. With only eight riders to support Froome, Brailsford doesn't want to lose one of them so early in the race.

    "Basically you just hope that he can suffer enough in order to keep on going, which will give him time for the injury to heal. But it's a very fine line. You either aggravate it and make it worse or ... depending on the injury, it might be possible to make it better."

    "These guys," Brailsford added, "won't quit unless there is something really, really badly wrong."

    ___

    Boston Bruins select Swedish defenseman Linus Arnesson in NHL draft, eye Vincent Lecavalier

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    The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Arnesson played for Djurgarden in Stockholm and won a silver medal with Sweden at the World Junior Championship.

    BOSTON – The Boston Bruins selected Swedish defenseman Linus Arnesson with the 60th pick of Sunday's NHL draft.

    The Bruins didn't have a first-round selection, so Arnesson – 18 and listed at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds – was their first addition of the day. He played for Djurgarden in Stockholm and was projected as a third- or fourth-round pick.

    The Bruins, the Eastern Conference champions, surrendered their first-round pick in a conditional deal for forward Jaromir Jagr. The choice went from a second- to a first-round pick because Boston reached the Eastern Conference final.

    The Bruins still had five selections to make.

    Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli met with reporters after the first selection. Hit with the news that right wing Nathan Horton was heading to free agency, Chiarelli announced that the team met with forward Vincent Lecavalier, recently bought out by Tampa Bay.

    "We had a good meeting," Chiarelli said.


    July 4 travel to dip in United States, predicts AAA

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    The average price for a gallon of self-service regular in Springfield was $3.50 on Friday, down from $3.52 a week ago.

    independence.jpg 

    SPRINGFIELD — More than 40 million Americans will hit the road this Independence Day, a slight decrease from last year, according to AAA which blames the decline on July 4 falling on Thursday this year.

    July 4 was a Wednesday last year, allowing revelers to make a longer holiday of Saturday through Wednesday instead of Thursday through Sunday this year, AAA said. Forty million would be a 0.8 percent decrease from the 41.1 million people who traveled last year.

    Still, 40 million represents 12.9 percent of the U.S. population. In New England alone, about 2.06 million people plan to travel for July 4, a 1 percent decrease from last year and 14.1 percent of the population , AAA said.

    Most traveling New Englanders, about 1.76 million of them, plan to head out by car. Only 140,000 plan to fly with the remainder taking trains or traveling on buses or ships.

    AAA doesn’t think gas prices will keep people home. Prices at the pump are higher now than last year at this time but have fallen from earlier this year.

    The average price for a gallon of self-service regular in Springfield was $3.50 on Friday, down from $3.52 a week ago. That’s more or less the same price, about $3.52, recorded a month ago, according to AAA. Gas went for $3.46 a year ago this weekend.

    Speculation, not consumption, is driving up the cost of gasoline, said Steven M. Roberts, president of F.L. Roberts and Co. Actual consumption has been going down, he said.

    “I would suspect and my guess is that the price will be relatively flat over the holiday,” Roberts said. “But taxes are up and people are not traveling as much.”

    The company has 30 area gas stations.

    At Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, July 4 means the start of a busy summer vacation season now that school is out and families can travel, said airport spokesman John J. Wallace.

    The airport always reminds people to arrive at Bradley at least 90 minutes before scheduled departure time. Travelers should check in with their airline via websites and social media like Twitter and Facebook. Don’t try and contact the airport, Wallace said.

    Christopher Crean, vice president of safety and security for Peter Pan Bus Lines in Springfield said the company expects to serve 100,000 to 150,000 passengers over the Fourth of July, about a 30 percent increase in volume from a normal summer weekend. Popular destinations are festivities in Boston and New York City. Routes serving Cape Cod beaches are also busy.

    The Pioneer Valley won’t be getting a lot of beach weather, according to the National Weather Service. Wednesday night brings a chance of showers and thunderstorms and a 40 percent chance of rain. It’ll be cloudy, with a low around 67. Independence Day will be a 30 percent chance of rain with a prediction of showers and thunderstorms and a high near 84 and low around 65.

    Dismissing European criticism for allegedly eavesdropping on diplomats, President Barack Obama suggests all nations spy on their allies

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    President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting that all nations spy on each other as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats.

    By TOM RAUM, Associated Press

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting that all nations spy on each other as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. American analyst-turned-leaker Edward Snowden, believed to still be at Moscow's international airport, applied for political asylum to remain in Russia.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement he acknowledged sounded odd, told reporters in Moscow that Snowden would have to stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wanted asylum in Russia — and he added that Snowden seemed unwilling to stop publishing leaks of classified material. At the same time, Putin said that he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.

    Obama, in an African news conference with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, said the U.S. would provide allies with information about new reports that the National Security Agency had bugged EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. But he also suggested such activity by governments would hardly be unusual.

    "We should stipulate that every intelligence service —not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service — here's one thing that they're going to be doing: They're going to be trying to understand the world better, and what's going on in world capitals around the world," he said. "If that weren't the case, then there'd be no use for an intelligence service."

    The latest issue concerns allegations of U.S. spying on European officials in the German news weekly Der Spiegel. French President Francois Hollande on Monday demanded that the U.S. immediately stop any such eavesdropping and suggested the widening controversy could jeopardize next week's opening of trans-Atlantic trade talks between the United States and Europe.

    "We cannot accept this kind of behavior from partners and allies," Hollande said on French television.

    German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin, "Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable." He declared, "We're not in the Cold War anymore."

    Even before the latest disclosures, talks at the upcoming free-trade sessions were expected to be fragile, with disagreements surfacing over which items should be covered or excluded from an agreement. The United States has said there should be no exceptions. But France has called for exempting certain cultural products, and other Europeans do not appear eager to give up longtime agricultural subsidies.

    Obama said the Europeans "are some of the closest allies that we have in the world." But he added, "I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate."

    Nonetheless, Obama said he'd told his advisers to "evaluate everything that's being claimed" and promised to share the results with allies.

    Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency said a Russian consular official has confirmed that Snowden had asked for asylum in Russia.

    Interfax cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular office in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden's representative, Sarah Harrison, handed over his request on Sunday.

    Barack Obama, Vladimir PutinThis June 17, 2013 file photo shows President Barack Obama meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting all nations spy on each other, as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. American analyst-turned-leaker Edward Snowden, believed to be stranded for the past week at Moscow’s international airport, applied for political asylum to remain in Russia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) 

    Snowden, in legal limbo, is believed to have been in the airport's transit zone since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. The U.S. has annulled his passport, and Ecuador, where he has hoped to get asylum, has been giving off mixed signals about offering him shelter.

    "If he wants to go somewhere and there are those who would take him, he is welcome to do so," Putin said. "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his activities aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound coming from my lips."

    Obama said "there have been high-level discussions with the Russians" about Snowden's situation.

    "We don't have an extradition treaty with Russia. On the other hand, you know, Mr. Snowden, we understand, has traveled there without a valid passport, without legal papers. And you know we are hopeful that the Russian government makes decisions based on the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal procedures regarding international travel and the normal interactions that law enforcement has. So I can confirm that."

    Putin didn't mention any Snowden effort to seek asylum in Russia, and spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say what the Russian response might be. Putin insisted that Snowden wasn't a Russian agent and that Russian security agencies hadn't contacted him.

    Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the Snowden case, said Washington's efforts were focused primarily on persuading Russia to deport Snowden either directly to the United States or to a third country, possibly in eastern Europe, that would then hand him over to U.S. authorities.

    In a sign of the distrust the latest report had revealed, the German government said it had launched a review of its secure government communications network and the EU's executive, the European Commission, ordered "a comprehensive ad hoc security sweep."

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he didn't know the details of the allegations, but he still played them down, maintaining that many nations undertake various activities to protect their national interests. Kerry failed to quell the outrage from allies, including France, Germany and Italy.

    A spokesman for Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said, "The European Union has demanded and expects full and urgent clarification by the U.S. regarding the allegations."

    According to Der Spiegel's report, which it said was partly based on information leaked by Snowden, NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said.

    It also reported that NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters in Brussels to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior officials' calls and Internet traffic at a key EU office nearby.

    As for Snowden, White House national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the White House won't comment on specific asylum requests but reiterated its message to all countries that he "needs to be expelled back to the U.S. based on the fact that he doesn't have travel documents and the charges pending against him."

    Regarding possible effects on U.S. interactions with Russia, she said it remains the case "that we don't want this issue to negatively impact the bilateral relationship."



    Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris, Frank Jordans and Geir Moulson in Berlin, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Raf Casert in Brussels, Deb Riechmann in Brunei, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Julie Pace in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

    Worcester police: Four arrested on heroin charges

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    Four people were arrested on Monday on drug charges after police witnessed a drug deal, report police.

    WORCESTER - Four people were arrested on Monday on drug charges after police witnessed a drug deal, report police.

    According to police, members of the Vice Squad were working surveillance duty in the area of Massasoit Toad when they followed an Infiniti into a Chuck E. Cheese parking lot. The vehicle drove up and down the rows of the parking lot, eventually being followed by a Volvo. The two vehicles drove to Coburn Street and parked. The Vice Squad reports seeing a drug deal take place between two occupants of the vehicles before they drove off.

    According to police, officers followed the Volvo back into the Chuck E. Cheese parking lot, approached the vehicle on foot and saw the passenger in the vehicle holding bags of heroin and drug paraphernalia. The occupants, identified as Maley Edward Ryan, 23, of 5 Sunnyside Terrace, Grafton, and Evan Ross, 23, of 2 Virginia Circle, Grafton, were arrested and charged with possession of Class A substance and conspiracy to violate controlled substance laws.

    According to police, officers stopped the Infiniti on Grafton Street and removed its occupants, identified as Gregory Portorreal, 21, of 12 Lovell Street, Worcester, and Luis Franco, 27, of 12 Lovell Street, Worcester, and arrested and charged them with distribution of Class A substance and conspiracy to violate controlled substance laws.

    Busy day in Easthampton clerk's office: 4 take out papers for mayor

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    Karen Cadieux, Mayor Michael A. Tautznik's assistant, School Committee chairwoman Nancy Sykes and newcomers David Ewing and Matthew Wark took out papers.

    EASTHAMPTON — Four people took out papers for mayor on Monday, the first day in which nomination papers became available.

    Karen Cadieux, Mayor Michael A. Tautznik’s assistant, and School Committee chairwoman Nancy L. Sykes had previously said they would run for mayor.

    Tautznik said in November 2011 that this would be his last term.

    Newcomers David Ewing and Matthew Wark also took out papers, said Town Clerk Barbara L. LaBombard. Ewing, according to city records, is a candle maker, and Wark was listed as unemployed.

    Also, current city councilors Daniel C. Hagan, from Precinct 1, and at large member Joseph P. McCoy took out papers to seek reelection. Hagan announced his reelection bid last month.

    Those running for citywide office will have to collect 100 signatures. Those running for precinct seats need 50 signatures. Papers are due back Sept. 17.


    Massachusetts legislators approve $34 billion state budget that freezes tuition, fees at state colleges

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    All 29 House Republicans in attendance voted against the budget.

    This is an updated version of a story posted at 8:44 this morning.


    BOSTON - State legislators on Monday overwhelmingly approved a compromise $34 billion state budget that provides for a tuition and fee freeze at the University of Massachusetts, a raise for judges, a new assessment on motor vehicle moving violations and a significant increase in local aid.

    The state House of Representatives voted 122-29, and the Senate, 36-3, to approve the budget on the first day of the new fiscal year.

    The $34 billion budget is up by $1.5 billion, or 4.5 percent from this year.

    Gov. Deval L. Patrick, who was unavailable for comment Monday, has 10 days to review and sign the budget. He may issue vetoes or suggest amendments. Legislators can override vetoes with a two-thirds vote in each branch.

    The budget is balanced with $500 million in new taxes, including increases in the gas, cigarette taxes and software design services. It also is balanced with $723 million in one-time spending including $350 million from the rainy day fund.

    Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, a Barre Democrat, said he is proud to support a budget with important investments in areas such as human services, education and local aid.

    "We may have taken longer to complete it, but the product is indeed worth it," Brewer said.

    010711 todd smola small mug.jpgTodd Smola 

    Sen. Michael R. Knapik, a Westfield Republican, was the only GOP senator to vote in support of the budget.

    All 29 House Republicans in attendance voted against the budget.

    "I just think we are spending too much money," said Rep. Todd M. Smola, a Warren Republican. "We should have sharpened out pencils and done a little better."

    The five-campus University of Massachusetts was the big winner in the budget. The university received $478.9 million, a 9 percent increase.

    Trustees for UMass voted last month voted to authorize up to 4.9 percent increase in tuition and fees for the coming school year, but the budget means no increase will be necessary, according to Robert L. Caret, president of the university.

    Caret issued a statement thanking the state Legislature. Caret said the Legislature "has taken a major step on the university’s behalf by approving a funding increase that will allow UMass to freeze tuition and mandatory fees for in-state students, while at the same time continuing to provide the high level of academic quality that our students deserve and expect."

    The budget provides $1.1 billion for all of higher education including the 29 campuses of the University of Massachusetts, state universities and community colleges. That's up from $941.5 million last year.

    Leaders of higher education in Massachusetts cheered the budget as a major breakthrough.

    "We are proud of the legislature for sending a budget to Governor Patrick that invests both in higher education but more importantly, in our students and parents. This budget will allow us to freeze our tuition and fees with no increases in cost to attend public 2 and 4 year colleges and universities next year in Massachusetts ," said Evan S. Dobelle, president of Westfield State University and president of the State University Council of Presidents, in a prepared statement.

    In a telephone interview, Richard M. Freeland, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, said a $20 million increase in funding for the community colleges is linked to their success in meeting the goals of the "Vision Project," the department's strategic agenda aimed at achieving national leadership among state systems of public higher education.

    Freeland said distribution of part of the $20 million increase will be tied to several performance measures at the community colleges including graduation rates, students who graduate with skills in high-demand jobs and closing achievement gaps among students.

    Freeland said the additional money for higher education means that fees and tuition also will be frozen next year at community colleges and state university campuses.

    "We're thrilled by this budget," Freeland said. "We see this as a huge step forward, a major investment in higher education by legislators."

    Cities and towns also were winners in the budget. The budget includes $920 million in unrestricted local aid, up 2 percent, and a record $4.31 billion in general education aid, an increase of 3 percent.

    A six-member committee, including Brewer, who is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Brian S. Dempsey, a Haverhill Democrat and chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, resolved differences in the House and Senate versions of the budget and filed the compromise on Sunday night with the House clerk, setting it up for today's votes in the Legislature.

    The budget also includes a new $5 assessment on people convicted of moving violations such as speeding ticket, Brewer said. The money would raise $2 million and would be used for training of municipal police and state police recruits, he said.

    Judges and clerks also get a raise in three phases, starting on Jan. 1, Brewer said.

    When fully phased in on July 1 of 2015, a regular judge's salary would increase by 23 percent from $129,694 to $159,694.

    The biggest item in the budget is health care. In all, $12.1 billion is spent on Medicaid for the low income and disabled.

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