The accident occurred in the vicinity of 184 Main St. in the downtown.
WEST SPRINGFIELD - Police say a 6-year-old boy died today after being struck by a car around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Few details were available about the circumstance of the accident. Sgt. Michael Reed said the driver faces no charges at this time.
The child was a resident of West Springfield, Reed said. The accident occurred in the vicinity of 184 Main St. in the downtown.
More details will come as they are made available.
The jurors sent the judge a note asking for clarification on the charge after deliberating for about eight hours.
AP update at 9:50 p.m. Eastern: SANFORD, Fla. — Jurors reach verdict in murder trial of George Zimmerman.
SANFORD, Fla. — Jurors deciding whether George Zimmerman committed a crime when he fatally shot Trayvon Martin asked Saturday for clarification on the charge of manslaughter — a possible indication they were considering the lesser charge instead of second-degree murder.
They also asked for dinner, an apparent sign they planned to deliberate for at least an hour or more beyond the eight hours they already had put in during their second day.
"May we please have clarification on the instructions regarding manslaughter," Judge Debra Nelson read from the six-member, all-woman jury's note before a courtroom that had rapidly filled up with lawyers, reporters and members of the families of Martin and Zimmerman.
As jurors awaited an answer, Nelson talked to lawyers at the bench and after a half-hour recess, they agreed to send a note back asking the jurors to elaborate.
"The court can't engage in general discussion but may be able to address a specific question regarding clarification of the instructions regarding manslaughter," the note said. "If you have a specific question, please submit it."
Zimmerman, 29, is charged with second-degree murder but jurors also have the options of finding him guilty of manslaughter or not guilty. He has pleaded not guilty, claiming he shot the 17-year-old Martin in self-defense.
To win a manslaughter conviction, prosecutors must show only that Zimmerman killed without lawful justification. To win a second-degree murder conviction, prosecutors must convince jurors Zimmerman acted with ill will, hatred or spite toward Martin.
Zimmerman faces a maximum prison sentence of life for second-degree murder and 30 years if convicted of manslaughter, due to extra sentencing guidelines for committing a crime with a gun.
Outside lawyers with no connection to the case said the jury's question could be an indication that it has taken second-degree murder off the table.
"It does sound like at this point, they're considering between manslaughter and not guilty," said Blaine McChesney, an Orlando defense attorney and former prosecutor with no connection to the case.
Added Orlando defense attorney David Hill: "Why would they bother to ask for clarification unless they were thinking about manslaughter?"
To convict Zimmermann of manslaughter, jurors must believe Zimmerman intentionally committed an act that caused Martin's death, according to the judge's instructions. He can't be guilty of manslaughter merely by committing a negligent act or if the killing was excusable, the instructions say.
The jury started deliberating Friday afternoon. At the time jurors asked their question about manslaughter Saturday, they had been deliberating for a total of 11 ½ hours over two days. On Friday, they asked their first question: a request for a list of all the evidence.
Jurors were being sequestered, and their identities are kept anonymous — they are identified only by number.
As jurors deliberated for a second day, there was little understanding between two camps assembled to support Martin and Zimmerman outside the Seminole County Courthouse.
"He deserves some respect and appreciation," Casey David Kole Sr., 66, shouted about the former neighborhood watch leader. "It's a tragedy."
Patricia Dalton, 60, yelled back: "It's a tragedy that could have been avoided!"
Dalton, like most of the 100 or so people at the suburban Orlando courthouse, says she's there in support of the family of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old black teen from Miami who Zimmerman fatally shot last year.
The supporters stayed peaceful for most of the day until in the afternoon when sheriff's deputies had to separate a Zimmerman supporter from a pro-Martin demonstrator after a heated exchange. There was no physical contact made and no one was arrested.
The atmosphere quickly cooled down. Two Orlando sisters, dressed in colorful African-print clothing and walking on stilts, sang "Lean on Me" with the crowd as a man strummed a banjo and people waved signs.
"We're just here for peace and love," said stilt walker Bambi Loketo.
Prosecutors and Trayvon Martin's family say Zimmerman profiled Martin because of the teen's race. Those allegations, and a 44-day delay before police arrested Zimmerman, sparked nationwide protests involving leading national civil rights leaders and spurred emotional debates about gun control, self-defense laws, race, and equal justice under the law.
In Saturday's strong Florida sun, some people at the courthouse wore hoodies, as Martin had when he died. One woman lay in the grass, her arms spread, in a re-creation of Martin's death. Those in the smaller pro-Zimmerman camp held small signs, saying things like "We love you George" and "George got hit you must acquit."
Joseph Uy of Longwood was among an even smaller group: the few who said they had no opinion on whether Zimmerman was guilty. He said he came because he was "just curious."
"I'm neutral," he said, while cradling his three tiny Chihuahuas in his arms.
By mid-afternoon, people rallied in the heat and chanted slogans as a looming thundercloud threatened a downpour.
"Justice for Trayvon," some shouted. Others yelled, "Convict George Zimmerman."
Police and civic leaders have pleaded for calm in Sanford and across the country after the verdict.
"There is no party in this case who wants to see any violence," Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said. "We have an expectation upon this announcement that our community will continue to act peacefully."
In New York on Saturday, the Rev. Al Sharpton said that no matter the verdict, any demonstrations that follow it must be peaceful.
"We do not want to smear Trayvon Martin's name with violence," the civil rights leader said. "He is a victim of violence."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson had a similar message. He tweeted that people should "avoid violence because it only leads to more tragedies."
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Martin's family, said the parents are emotional but doing as well as expected as they await a verdict.
"(Jurors) staying out longer and considering the evidence and testimony is a good thing for us arriving at a just verdict," Crump said.
On Saturday morning, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, shared on Twitter what she called her favorite Bible verse: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
The Charles W. Morgan, the world's last surviving wooden whaling ship and America's oldest merchant ship, is hitting the water again after a nearly $7 million, 5-year restoration project at Mystic Seaport.
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It survived countless storms and Confederate raids during the Civil War while taking crews across unchartered oceans in search of whales whose oil lit the world.
The Charles W. Morgan, the world's last surviving wooden whaling ship and America's oldest merchant ship, is hitting the water again after a nearly $7 million, 5-year restoration project at Mystic Seaport.
"She is, if you will, an authentic way to enter the past," said Matthew Stackpole, the ship's historian. "The Morgan makes 200 years of American maritime history come alive. It reflects really so much about the way this country developed. It's absolutely thrilling to watch this ship come to life again."
The 380-ton, 106-foot-long ship will be lowered into the Mystic River on July 21, the 172nd anniversary of the vessel's original launch in New Bedford, Mass. Work will continue on the ship, which is expected to visit historic ports in New England next year, including those in Boston; New Bedford, Mass.; New London, Conn.; Newport, R.I.; Provincetown, Mass.; and Vineyard Haven, Mass.
The ship, a National Historic Landmark, made 37 voyages over 80 years starting in 1841 across every ocean in the world from the heyday to the waning days of whaling. It developed a reputation early on as a lucky ship, escaping the fate of other ships destroyed by storms and Confederate raids.
One of its crews was stranded in Russia after their boat was dragged by a whale and they lost the Morgan. By the time they got back to San Francisco, the crew members — who were presumed dead — got to read their own obituaries, Stackpole said.
The Morgan was among some 2,700 ships that hunted for whales for 200 years. Oil from whales played a crucial role in the early American economy and helped fuel the Industrial Revolution, both as a lubricant and as profits from the industry were plowed into newly emerging manufacturing.
The ship offers modern-day lessons, Stackpole said.
"The quest for energy is a relevant story today as it was in her lifetime," he said. "Her cargo today is history; it's not oil anymore in all its multifaceted complicated aspects."
Mystic acquired the ship in 1941 and since then, 20 million museum visitors have stepped foot on it. It has been restored before but nothing as extensive as the latest project, which involved 34 full-time workers and others.
The ship was hauled out of the water in 2008 and stabilized. Like many wooden ships, the Morgan had become misshapen with the center bending upward and the bow and stern dropping down.
Thousands of digital images were taken along with careful measurements to document the ship's condition, and high-tech laser scanning created a 3-D model of the vessel. X-ray technology also was used to examine nail and spike fastenings to avoid any unnecessary intrusions.
One of the biggest challenges was finding wood for such an old ship that would replicate the material it was built with in 1841. Restorers were able to get large old oaks destroyed from hurricanes, including Katrina.
The Morgan's tradition of luck was revived a few years ago when workers excavating the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston for a hospital discovered a stockpile of wood.
"This was old growth timber that was selected by master shipbuilders in the age of wooden ships. It just doesn't get much better," said Quentin Snediker, the Mystic Seaport Shipyard director overseeing the project. "We've had some great strokes of luck. I think at the time I described it as manna from heaven."
The restoration included replacing 80 percent of the framing below the water line, an inner ceiling with 70 planks as long as 42 feet and 174 planks on the outside and rebuilding the stern.
The restoration was able to keep 15 to 18 percent of the original wood. The rest is from the latest restoration and earlier efforts.
Snediker hailed the level of cooperation that made the project possible, noting that property owners along the Gulf Coast provided the wood despite coping with the devastation from the storm.
"There's nothing I'd rather be doing with my time on the planet than working in this environment," Snediker said.
The name of a girl who died of injuries suffered in the crash-landing of an Asiana Airlines flight in San Francisco emerged on Saturday.
By MARTHA MENDOZA and TERRY COLLINS
SAN FRANCISCO — The name of a girl who died of injuries suffered in the crash-landing of an Asiana Airlines flight in San Francisco emerged on Saturday.
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault confirmed 15-year-old Liu Yipeng's identity and said the girl was still in her seat when she was rescued last week. Chinese state media said she went to school with the other two victims killed in last week's accident, a pair of 16-year-old girls.
Foucrault said Liu Yipeng was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with head injuries after the July 6 crash. She died Friday morning at San Francisco General Hospital where she had been in critical condition. An autopsy was being conducted on Saturday, the coroner said.
Liu Yipeng's identification comes a day after her death was announced amid the official confirmation that one of the other girls who died in the disaster had been covered on the runway in flame-retardant foam and hit by a fire truck speeding to the crash site, a disclosure that raised the tragic possibility she could have survived the crash only to die in its chaotic aftermath.
Police and fire officials confirmed Friday that Ye Meng Yuan was hit by a fire truck racing to extinguish the blazing Boeing 777.
"The fire truck did go over the victim at least one time. Now the other question is, 'What was the cause of death?'" San Francisco police spokesman Albie Esparza said. "That's what we are trying to determine right now."
All three girls killed were from China.
Ye Meng Yuan's close friend Wang Linjia was among a group of injured passengers who did not get immediate medical help. Rescuers did not spot her until 14 minutes after the crash. Wang Linjia's body was found along with three flight attendants who were flung onto the tarmac.
Moments after the crash, while rescuers tried to help passengers near the burning fuselage, Wang Linjia and some flight attendants lay in the rubble almost 2,000 feet away. A group of survivors called 911 and tried to help them.
Survivors said that after escaping the plane, they sat with at least four victims who appeared to be seriously hurt. They believe one of them was one of the girls who died.
Cindy Stone, who was in that group, was recorded by California Highway Patrol dispatchers calling in for help: "There are no ambulances here. We've been on the ground 20 minutes. There are people lying on the tarmac with critical injuries, head injuries. We're almost losing a woman here. We're trying to keep her alive."
San Francisco fire spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said Friday that when airport personnel reached the group near the seawall, Linjia was dead. She did not know when the girl had died.
Several flight attendants remain hospitalized.
Talmadge also confirmed that an Associated Press photograph of a body under a yellow tarp near the burned-out jet was Ye Meng Yuan.
The photo, taken from above, shows firefighters looking down at the tarp, and there are truck track marks leading up to it.
Police said the teenager was covered in foam that rescuers had sprayed on the burning wreckage. When the truck moved while battling the flames, rescuers discovered her body, Esparza said.
"The driver may not have seen the young lady in the blanket of foam," said Ken Willette of the National Firefighter Protection Agency, which sets national standards for training airfield firefighters. "These could be factors contributing to this tragic event."
He said fire trucks that responded to the Asiana crash would have started shooting foam while approaching the fuselage from 80 or 100 feet away. The foam was sprayed from a cannon on the top of the truck across the ground to clear a safe path for evacuees. That was supposed to create a layer of foam on the ground that is several inches high before the truck gets to the plane.
The victims were close friends and top students, looking forward to spending a few weeks at a Christian summer camp in California, where they planned to practice English and boosting their chances of attending a U.S. college.
Their parents were flown to San Francisco after their deaths where the Chinese consulate was caring for them.
The crash-landing occurred after the airliner collided with a rocky seawall just short the runway. Dozens of passengers were hurt. There were 182 survivors taken to hospitals, though most suffered only minor injuries.
So far, an investigation indicates the pilots, a trainee and his instructor, failed to realize until too late that the aircraft was dangerously low and flying too slow.
Nothing disclosed so far by the National Transportation Safety Board investigators indicates any problems with the Boeing 777's engines, computers or automated systems.
Also, San Francisco airport officials said that the runway where the jet crashed was reopened Friday evening, and all airlines would resume normal schedules immediately.
Associated Press writers Jason Dearen in San Francisco and Didi Tang in Beijing contributed to this report.
A powerful crane on Saturday lifted the carcass of the most damaged of four train cars that derailed, killing six people and injuring nearly 200 south of Paris in what investigators believe may have been a case of equipment failure on a line some claim is neglected.
By BASTIEN INZAURRALDE and ELAINE GANLEY
BRETIGNY-SUR-ORGE, France — A powerful crane on Saturday lifted the carcass of the most damaged of four train cars that derailed, killing six people and injuring nearly 200 south of Paris in what investigators believe may have been a case of equipment failure on a line some claim is neglected.
Authorities had feared more victims would be found under the wreckage but none was discovered, said the governor of the Essonne region, Michel Fuzeau.
"We are now assured that there are no more victims," Fuzeau said after the start of the delicate operation by the 700-ton crane. The machine is to remove the cars damaged from the tracks at the small Bretigny-Sur-Orge station. On Friday, four cars slid off the tracks there as the train sped through town, which was not a stop on its journey to central France.
Human error has been ruled out by France's transport minister and the focus of the investigation is on a detached piece of metal in a switching joint on the tracks. The national rail company, SNCF, has already taken blame for Friday evening's crash, which occurred at the start of a busy holiday weekend.
"The SNCF considers itself responsible," rail company chief Guillaume Pepy said. "It is responsible for the lives of its clients."
The packed train, carrying around 385 passengers, was traveling below the speed limit at 137 kph (85 mph) when it derailed, skidded and slammed into the station platform in the small town outside the capital. It was 20 minutes into a scheduled three-hour trip to Limoges in central France.
The crane, sent from northern France, towered over the small buildings that surround the railway station. A smaller crane initially removed benches, street lamps and other urban furnishings to make place for the larger crane outside the station.
The operation is an "extraordinarily difficult technique given that we are in a train station," Pepy said. "For the moment, we don't know how long it could take." He said the operation could last through Sunday, which is the July 14 Bastille Day holiday, and into Monday, stressing the crane's operators will be careful and slow in lifting the cars.
It was not immediately clear whether the damaged cars would be lifted over buildings onto trucks as authorities had indicated — or whether the debris would be taken away by rail. There was no immediate sign that the damaged car that was lifted to check for victims had left the tracks.
Pepy, the train authority chief, said investigators found that a 10-kilogram (22-pound) piece of metal he compared to a staple between two rails in a switching system, which guides trains from one track to another, seems to have "detached itself from the rails, lifted and constituted the initial cause of the derailment."
Investigators were looking into how this happened since another train had traveled safely through the station about 30 minutes before. In addition, they were trying to determine why the train's third car was the first to derail.
Pierre Izard, another SNCF official, said the metal piece "moved into the center of the switch and in this position it prevented the normal passage of the train's wheels and it may have caused the derailment."
Although for now it appears track failure was the cause of the crash, Pepy added: "There can be no (definitive) answer in a few minutes, in a few days." He also said that all of the approximately 5,000 metal pieces on switching systems around France will be checked.
The train was about 12 miles (20 kilometers) into its 250-mile (400-kilometer) journey to Limoges.
Passengers and officials in train stations throughout France held a minute of silence at noon to commemorate the accident. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to take trains this weekend to the coast and mountains and to see family. Summer weekends are always busy on France's extensive rail network, but this one is typically one of the busiest because of Bastille Day.
Fuzeau gave the latest casualty figures, saying that in addition to the dead, 22 people remained hospitalized, two of them in a life-threatening state. Nearly 200 people had initially been treated for injuries, either at the scene or at hospitals.
The crash was the country's deadliest in years, but Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier said it could have been worse and praised the driver who sent out an alert quickly, preventing a pileup. However, Cuvillier acknowledged that there was some criticism that France hasn't invested enough in maintaining infrastructure.
Willy Colin of the Rail Users Association was among those who claimed the Paris-Limoges inter-city line was neglected in favor of more high-profile fast-train lines. He said on BFM-TV that trains on the line were among the oldest, calling them "garbage trains."
The transport minister said no link can immediately be made between the state of the line and the accident.
"For the moment we have no information that allows us to confirm that the dilapidation of the network was the cause of this derailment," he said on French television.
Ganley reported from Paris. Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo also contributed to this report from the French capital.
Islamist lawmakers in Egypt's disbanded upper house of parliament demanded Saturday the army reinstate ousted President Mohammed Morsi, and called on other legislatures around the world not to recognize the country's new military-backed leadership.
By MAGGIE MICHAEL
CAIRO — Islamist lawmakers in Egypt's disbanded upper house of parliament demanded Saturday the army reinstate ousted President Mohammed Morsi, and called on other legislatures around the world not to recognize the country's new military-backed leadership.
Morsi's supporters, including his Islamist allies, remain steadfast in their rejection of the military coup that toppled the president nearly two weeks ago after millions took to the street to demand his ouster. They have staged a series of mass protests in Cairo to push their demands, and are vowing to stay in the streets until he is returned to office.
Speaking at a mass rally staged by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, the two dozen former parliamentarians, all Islamist members of the Shura Council that was dissolved by court order after the coup, accused the military of attempting to restore a "corrupt and dictatorial" regime.
The Brotherhood's website published a statement by the former lawmakers, in which they said the Shura Council's dissolution was invalid and claimed to have held a session at the rally.
Morsi was Egypt's first freely elected president, succeeding longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak who himself was toppled in 2011.
The military has brushed aside the Brotherhood's demands, while the new army-backed administration of interim President Adly Mansour has forged ahead with a swift timetable to amend the now suspended constitution, drafted under Morsi, and to hold parliamentary and presidential elections by early next year.
Local media have reported that a new Cabinet could be named next week. On Saturday, Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr submitted his resignation ahead of the expected shake-up.
While the presidency has floated offers of reconciliation with the Brotherhood, authorities are simultaneously clamping down on the group. So far, five of its top leaders have been arrested, and arrest warrants have been issued against the group's top leader and nine other Islamists. Islamist TV networks, meanwhile, have been shuttered.
Prosecutors on Saturday said they are looking into new complaints against Morsi, a number of Brotherhood leaders, including the group's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, and a number of their supporters. Spokesman for the prosecutor's office Adel al-Saeed said the complaints filed include collaborating with foreign bodies to harm national interests, the killing of peaceful protesters, possession of weapons and explosives, assaults on military barracks and damaging the state of the economy.
It was not immediately known who filed the complaints. State prosecutors investigate numerous complaints daily, and many do not result in charges being brought to court.
Prosecutors also continue to investigate allegations that Morsi and 30 other Brotherhood leaders escaped from prison in 2011 with help from the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Jailbreaks occurred amid the uprising that toppled Mubarak and led to the release of thousands of inmates.
Street violence has largely ceased since Monday's deadly clashes that left more than 50 Muslim Brotherhood supporters dead and hundreds wounded after they were holding a sit-in in front of Republican Guard forces club. The Brotherhood accuses the military of opening fire on protesters, while the army says Morsi supporters instigated the violence.
The Brotherhood has remained adamant in its opposition to the new political landscape, and shows no sign of backing down in its showdown with the military-backed interim leadership.
Mohammed el-Beltagy, a leading Brotherhood member and among those wanted by police, told thousands of the group's supporters overnight Friday that "for those who want reconciliation, our arms are open ... but those who want reconciliation do not fire bullets."
Morsi's supporters have pledged to keep protesting until the military meets their demands — the reinstatement of Morsi, the Islamist-drafted constitution and the Islamist-dominated legislature — and leading Brotherhood member Essam el-Arian called for another mass rally on Monday.
The deposed president's supporters have been holding a sit-in in front of the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in eastern Cairo for two weeks. The rally has taken on a more permanent air, with tents going up as well as bathrooms being constructed behind brick walls to provide some privacy. Army soldiers stand guard from a relative distance, staking out positions about a kilometer (half-mile) away to try to avoid any direct confrontation.
On Friday, tens of thousands of Morsi supporters, many of them from provinces outside Cairo, turned out for a mass protest in front of the mosque, filling up the large intersection and spilling some ways down the boulevards. Witnesses said that military helicopters dropped leaflets on the crowd just before dawn encouraging them to leave the sit-in.
"The measures which have been taken were not targeting you and were not meant to belittle your role and your status," the leaflets said. "We assure to you that there will be no manhunt for those who want to end the sit-in and return to his home."
It also warned them not to approach nearby military buildings.
The Brotherhood responded to the flyers, saying that "the leaders of the coup are not keen on the stability of Egypt" and questioned the military's promise not to go after protesters.
"Egyptian people are not naive and cannot be bitten twice," the group said in a statement.
The penultimate bull run of Spain's San Fermin festival left at least 23 people injured Saturday, when thrill-seekers fleeing the beasts were crushed at the narrow entrance to the bullring, officials said.
By CARLOTA CORTES
PAMPLONA, Spain — The penultimate bull run of Spain's San Fermin festival left at least 23 people injured Saturday, when thrill-seekers fleeing the beasts were crushed at the narrow entrance to the bullring, officials said. An American citizen from Ohio was one of two runners gored.
As the huge animals thundered into the entrance of the tunnel, they were blocked by a mound of dozens of people who had fallen and were piled on top of one other.
One bull that had fallen before the entrance got up and charged into the clogged passageway. Two steers jumped over the pile of people as they began to get up and flee.
"I felt anguish and helplessness for the people trapped there, not knowing how to get out," said Jesus Lecumberri, 20, a student with several years' experience running at Pamplona and other bull-running festivals.
Lecumberri said he had charged in to the entrance alongside the first bull, but saw the pileup and quickly dived into a ground-level hatch built into the passage specifically to provide an escape route from situations like this.
A gate normally used to let regional police into ringside positions had been accidentally pushed wide open by a flood of runners, causing an obstruction for others trying to enter the main arena, Interior Ministry regional spokesman Javier Morras said.
"We all know that alley is a funnel and a critically dangerous point at the entrance to the ring," Morras said. "Pileups there are one of the biggest risks that can occur in the running of the bulls," he said.
The blockage ended after attendants managed to let the beasts escape through a side door normally reserved for matadors.
Javier Sesma, a health spokesman for Navarra province, said two of the 23 injured people were gored by bulls and that the others were hurt in the stampede.
Sesma said one runner, a 19-year-old Spaniard from Vitoria city, was seriously injured when his thorax was crushed, causing him to stop breathing at the bull ring entrance. An Irish citizen also had problems breathing because of the weight of people on top of him.
"His situation remains very grave, but he appears to be evolving favorably," Sesma said of the Spaniard. "We are hopeful. His life was at risk, but he is now more stable."
The American gored Saturday is a 35-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio, who is being identified only by the initials I.L., hospital officials said. A 19-year-old Spaniard from the city of Azpeitia was gored in an armpit during the 928-yard (850-meter) dash through Pamplona's narrow streets, a statement said.
The American was undergoing surgery Saturday afternoon after suffering a "rectal perforation," the Navarra government, which organizes the annual festivities, said in a statement.
One of those gored had received treatment in one of the two operating rooms at the bullring, Sesma said. The rest of the injured sustained cuts and bruises.
Sesma said one spectator had a heart attack while watching the stampede. By late afternoon, 16 of the injured had been discharged from hospitalization, Sesma said.
On Friday, the festival drew widespread attention when an American college student and two Spaniards were gored, and videos and photos of the attacks were seen around the world.
The American patient, 20-year-old Patrick Eccles, a student at the University of Utah, was said to be improving in a hospital Saturday. "He is evolving favorably but, logically, has had a severe goring and is still weak," hospital spokeswoman Marta Borruel said.
Javier Solano, a San Fermin expert working for national broadcaster TVE, said the first recorded pileup happened in 1878, and that two such blockages — in 1975 and 1977 — had led to several deaths.
The number of revelers attending the festival tends to swell at weekends, causing the narrow streets of Pamplona to be thronged with runners, increasing the risk of pileups and injuries.
The festival in this northern city dates back to the late 16th century and also is known for its all-night street parties.
The runs, eight in all, are the highlight of a nine-day street festival to honor Pamplona's patron saint, San Fermin.
Each morning, six fighting bulls and six bell-tinkling steers that try to keep the beasts together head from stables to the ring where matadors will star in late afternoon bullfights.
The festivities, which end Sunday, were made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises."
The fiesta attracts tens of thousands of young people, many from abroad, eager to mix alcohol with the adrenaline of running alongside the massive bulls at 8 o'clock every morning.
Dozens of people are injured each year, with gorings often producing the most dramatic injuries.
The last fatal goring happened in 2009.
AP writer Harold Heckle contributed from Madrid.
Jurors had been given the chance to convict Zimmerman of manslaughter but did not do so, despite asking for a clarification of the charge earlier in the evening.
SANFORD, Fla. — Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was cleared of all charges Saturday in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager whose killing unleashed furious debate across the U.S. over racial profiling, self-defense and equal justice.
Zimmerman, 29, blinked and barely smiled when the verdict was announced. He could have been convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter. But the jury of six women, all but one of them white, reached a verdict of not guilty after deliberating well into the night. Their names have not been made public, and they declined to speak to the media.
Martin's mother and father were not in the courtroom when the verdict was read; supporters of his family who had gathered outside yelled "No! No!" upon learning of the not guilty verdict.
The teen's father, Tracy, reacted on Twitter: "Even though I am broken hearted my faith is unshattered I WILL ALWAYS LOVE MY BABY TRAY."
His mother also said on Twitter that she appreciated the prayers from supporters.
"Lord during my darkest hour I lean on you. You are all that I have," she wrote.
The jurors considered nearly three weeks of often wildly conflicting testimony over who was the aggressor on the rainy night the 17-year-old was shot while walking through the gated townhouse community where he was staying.
Defense attorneys said the case was classic self-defense, claiming Martin knocked Zimmerman down and was slamming the older man's head against the concrete sidewalk when Zimmerman fired his gun.
"We're ecstatic with the results," defense attorney Mark O'Mara after the verdict. "George Zimmerman was never guilty of anything except protecting himself in self-defense."
Another member of his defense team, Don West, said he was pleased the jury "kept this tragedy from becoming a travesty."
Prosecutors called Zimmerman a liar and portrayed him was a "wannabe cop" vigilante who had grown frustrated by break-ins in his neighborhood committed primarily by young black men. Zimmerman assumed Martin was up to no good and took the law into his own hands, prosecutors said.
State Attorney Angela Corey said after the verdict that she believed second-degree murder was the appropriate charge because Zimmerman's mindset "fit the bill of second-degree murder."
"We charged what we believed we could prove," Corey said.
As the verdict drew near, police and city leaders in the Orlando suburb of Sanford and other parts of Florida said they were taking precautions against the possibility of mass protests or unrest in the event of an acquittal.
"There is no party in this case who wants to see any violence," Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said immediately after jurors began deliberating. "We have an expectation upon this announcement that our community will continue to act peacefully."
O'Mara, Zimmerman's attorney, said his client is aware he has to be cautious and protective of his safety.
"There still is a fringe element that wants revenge," O'Mara said. "They won't listen to a verdict of not guilty."
The verdict came a year and a half after civil rights protesters angrily demanded Zimmerman be prosecuted. That anger appeared to return Saturday night outside the courthouse, at least for some who had been following the case.
Rosie Barron, 50, and Andrew Perkins, 55, both black residents of Sanford, stood in the parking lot of the courthouse and wept.
"I at least thought he was going to get something, something," Barron said.
Added her brother: "How the hell did they find him not guilty?"
Perkins was so upset he was shaking. "He killed somebody and got away with murder," Perkins shouted, looking in the direction of the courthouse. "He ain't getting no probation or nothing."
Several Zimmerman supporters also were outside the courthouse, including a brother and sister quietly rejoicing that Zimmerman was acquitted. Both thought the jury made the right decision in finding Zimmerman not guilty — they felt that Zimmerman killed Martin in self-defense.
Cindy Lenzen, 50, of Casslebury, and her brother, 52-year-old Chris Bay, stood watching the protesters chant slogans such as, "the whole system's guilty."
Lenzen and Bay — who are white — called the entire case "a tragedy," especially for Zimmerman.
"It's a tragedy that he's going to suffer for the rest of his life," Bay said. "No one wins either way. This is going to be a recurring nightmare in his mind every night."
Meanwhile, authorities in Martin's hometown of Miami said the streets were quiet, with no indication of problems. The neighborhood where Martin's father lives in Miami Gardens was equally quiet.
Zimmerman wasn't arrested for 44 days after the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting as police in Sanford insisted that Florida's Stand Your Ground law on self-defense prohibited them from bringing charges. Florida gives people wide latitude to use deadly force if they fear death or bodily harm.
Martin's parents, along with civil rights leaders such as the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, argued that Zimmerman — whose father is white and whose mother is Hispanic — had racially profiled their son. And they accused investigators of dragging their feet because Martin was a black teenager.
Before a special prosecutor assigned to the case ordered Zimmerman's arrest, thousands of protesters gathered in Sanford, Miami, New York and elsewhere, many wearing hoodies like the one Martin had on the night he died. They also carried Skittles and a can of iced tea, items Martin had in his pocket. President Barack Obama weighed in, saying that if he had a son, "he'd look like Trayvon."
Despite the racially charged nature of the case, race was barely mentioned at the trial. Even after the verdict, prosecutors said the case was not about race.
"This case has never been about race or the right to bear arms," Corey said. "We believe this case all along was about boundaries, and George Zimmerman exceeded those boundaries."
One of the few mentions of race came from witness Rachel Jeantel, the Miami teen who was talking to Martin by phone moments before he was shot. She testified that he described being followed by a "creepy-ass cracker" as he walked through the neighborhood.
Jeantel gave some of the trial's most riveting testimony. She said she overheard Martin demand, "What are you following me for?" and then yell, "Get off! Get off!" before his cellphone went dead.
The jurors had to sort out clashing testimony from 56 witnesses in all, including police, neighbors, friends and family members.
For example, witnesses who got fleeting glimpses of the fight in the darkness gave differing accounts of who was on top. And Martin's parents and Zimmerman's parents both claimed that the person heard screaming for help in the background of a neighbor's 911 call was their son. Numerous other relatives and friends weighed in, too, as the recording was played over and over in court. Zimmerman had cuts and scrapes on his face and the back of his head, but prosecutors suggested the injuries were not serious.
To secure a second-degree murder conviction, prosecutors had to convince the jury that Zimmerman acted with a "depraved" state of mind — that is, with ill will, hatred or spite. Prosecutors said he demonstrated that when he muttered, "F------ punks. These a-------. They always get away" during a call to police as he watched Martin walk through his neighborhood.
To win a manslaughter conviction, prosecutors had to convince the jury only that Zimmerman killed without lawful justification.
The Oakland police dispatch office said about 100 people protested there and police were dealing with acts of vandalism. The office had no word of any arrests.
SAN FRANCISCO — Demonstrators took to the streets of four California cities to denounce the acquittal of George Zimmerman, and there were reports of protesters breaking windows and damaging cars in Oakland, officials said early Sunday.
Dozens of people turned out Saturday night in each city to protest the verdict in the Florida courtroom over the death of Trayvon Martin, and police said some of the demonstrations continued into the early hours Sunday.
The Oakland police dispatch office said about 100 people protested and police were forced to deal with acts of vandalism. The office said it had no word of any arrests.
Local media reports said some Oakland marchers vandalized a police squad car and police formed a line to block the protesters' path.
The Oakland Tribune said some windows on the newspaper's downtown offices were broken, and footage from a television helicopter show people attempting to start fires in the street and spray painting anti-police graffiti.
Protesters also reportedly burned an American and a California state flag and spray painted Alameda County's Davidson courthouse.
The Oakland demonstration followed a raucous but largely peaceful one in San Francisco. Police say officers escorted demonstrators as they marched on the city's Mission District. The group was dispersed by 10 p.m.
The verdict also sparked protests in Los Angeles, where demonstrators gathered in Leimert Park, the city's historically black neighborhood.
City News Service reported that hundreds of protesters — including some affiliated with Occupy LA — gathered for what police termed a peaceful vigil.
At one point a smaller group stopped an Expo Line train as police urged them to return to the nearby park. Service on a section of the line was temporarily suspended.
Officials said police called in officers from around the city to keep a watch on demonstrators.
More than 40 people gathered at Sacramento City Hall, and the Sacramento Bee reported that protesters chanted: "What do we want? Justice. When do you we want it? Now. For who? Trayvon."
A banner behind speakers read, "No justice, no peace!"
Educators often debate the funding formula that takes money of city public schools and gives it to charter schools.
Several years ago, a group of scientists first complained about public schools’ lack of focus on math, science and technology. Then they opened their own public school.
Four years later, those educators watched as the first senior class from the Hampden Charter School of Science graduated. Now the majority of the 22 graduates plan to study engineering or science in college, said Harun Celik, principal of the school.
The Chicopee school is one of the growing number of charter schools in the state.
Miles Hyman, of Springfield, applied to the Hampden Charter School of Science when it opened because of its math and science classes and because he did not want to attend Springfield schools.
“I really like the environment ... I think they really make it easier to learn,” said Hyman, 18. “I like the focus on math and science and the teachers provide a lot of extra help.”
He took advanced placement physics and calculus, was a member of the science club and participated in a statewide Science Olympics. On June 12, he served as valedictorian of his graduating class, and plans to attend Harvard University in the fall.
Charter schools are public schools funded through tax money and subject to state regulations but run by a private organization. They were permitted in Massachusetts through the Education Reform Law of 1993 and the first opened in 1995. Eighteen years later, 76 schools are operating in the state, from Martha’s Vineyard to Adams, with the majority concentrated in cities.
In Western Massachusetts, there are three in Springfield with a fourth to open in September 2013 and a fifth the following fall. Holyoke has one with a second scheduled to open in September, and Chicopee, Williamsburg, Hadley, South Hadley, Adams and Greenfield each have one.
The schools vary widely. The Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School of Excellence of Springfield teaches 388 elementary school students while the SABIS International Charter School has 1,574 Springfield children from kindergarten through grade 12. The Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley, teaches many classes in Chinese and the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley incorporates the arts in most subjects.
Their degrees of success also vary. SABIS, one of the first charter schools in the state, has a 93 percent graduation rate and students’ proficiency rate in math and English is near state average, but the Holyoke Community Charter School, also run by the SABIS company, has proficiency rates in English, math and science well below state averages.
At least six charter schools, including two in Springfield, have been closed by the state. In 2010, the state revoked the charter of the Robert M. Hughes Academy in Springfield following a cheating scandal on Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests. Springfield’s New Leadership Charter School closed in June after failing to improve its academic, financial and management performance and being told that a charter renewal was unlikely.
Despite long waiting lists for some and the strong support from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, charter schools are controversial.
One of the biggest complaints is over the funding, which uses a complicated formula to figure the amount a school district spends on each child and adds another $893 per child for facilities of maintenance and transfers it to the charter school the child attends. During this fiscal year, Chicopee sent an average of $10,860 per student to charter schools, Holyoke sent an average of $12,589 per child and Springfield was assessed $11,094 per student. In comparison, a student under the School Choice program only brings $5,000 to the school attended outside his or her hometown, according to state statistics.
“I am trying to end the war with charter schools but we need to have a discussion. They are running on a different set of rules,” said Paul Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
For example, charter schools can mandate summer classes and longer school days. They have higher suspension, expulsion and attrition rates, he said.
In a recent study on charter schools, the Teachers Association looked at the 10 best charter schools and found the attrition rate was about 40 percent from the time children started to graduation. When those children leave, they typically end up back at their local public school, he said.
“I try not to villainize charter schools ... but it is not a fair playing field,” he said.
A major complaint is that charter schools, which are required to select their student body by lottery, enroll far fewer children who are low-income, have learning disabilities and do not speak English proficiently – those who are the most expensive to teach and often score lower on MCAS exams.
In the Springfield Schools, 87.5 percent of children are classified as low-income, 16.9 percent speak limited English and 19.2 percent have learning disabilities. At SABIS, 55.4 percent are low-income, 2.9 percent speak limited English and 12.8 percent have learning disabilities. The difference is less with the Martin Luther King Jr. School where 90.8 percent are low-income, 7.9 percent speak limited English and 11.9 percent have disabilities, according to state statistics.
“With charter schools you have very motivated parents and very motivated students,” Toner said. “First of all, you have to know about it (the school) and you have to pro-actively apply for it.”
The schools are also not required to accept the most severe special education students and rarely enroll homeless students. In Holyoke 371 of the 5,400 city’s schoolchildren and 590 of 25,000 children in Springfield are homeless.
The state Department of Education has been supportive of charter schools and agreed with a law, passed by the Legislature, that lifted the cap on the number of charters allowed in school districts that are among the 10 percent lowest performing from 9 percent of the district’s budget to no more than 18 percent.
“I think we will see more charter schools,” state Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester said. “There is room for growth and I do expect to see more and we will continue to set a high bar and be impatient with charter schools that are not doing a good job.”
There are two types of charter schools. A commonwealth charter is separate from the school district and funded through the Board of Education. Horace Mann charters have a closer relationship with the local school committee, which sets funding and some school rules. State law allows no more than 48 Horace Mann and 72 commonwealth charters. Currently there are 10 Horace Mann schools and 66 commonwealth charters.
“The idea is they provide some freedom from regulation and oversight that will allow some innovations and they have become seed beds of innovation,” Chester said.
He said it also gives parents some high-quality free options for education outside the traditional public schools.
While generally happy with the performance of charter schools, Chester acknowledged there is a problem with fewer high-risk students attending charter schools.
The state law passed in 2010 that raised the cap also requires charter schools to have a recruitment plan to target under-represented populations. Some are now recruiting in poor neighborhoods to make uneducated parents aware of their charter school.
“We think the charter school community in general has taken it to heart that they need to do a better job,” Chester said.
The funding formula was also revamped so districts do not lose as much money when a school first opens, requiring it to make drastic budget cuts. Instead it is funded at the same level the first year a charter school opens and then aid drops 25 percent for the next four years, Chester said.
Still the funding remains an issue nationwide, he said.
“It is very contentious and there are different ways to look at it,” Chester said. “I’m not aware of how to make it less contentious.”
Domenic Slowey, spokesman for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association, argued the funding formula is reasonable, especially because charter schools are not eligible for state building assistance. The state reimburses communities between 40 and 80 percent for school construction.
He said the Charter School Association supported the change in the funding formula so districts were given more of a cushion, but many still resent the schools.
“The district looks at us as an outsider. We are poaching kids and draining resources,” he said, adding that attitude makes a cooperative relationship difficult.
He argued studies show charter schools consistently outperform traditional district schools and the majority are in the high-performing category. They are popular and 45,000 children are on waiting lists across the state.
“For the most part the charter schools have a longer school day and after-school supports. Some are open until 7 and 8 p.m. and teachers are there,” he said. “The charters have a reputation of instilling more of a culture of learning and setting higher standards.”
Slowey said charters do better mainly because they offer more. Directors do the best they can to recruit children with disabilities and limited English but it is difficult because some school districts refuse to share their student lists so they can do mailings.
“The charters have become not only successful at what they were originally created to do by performing at a high level, they are also becoming an answer to the state’s desire to improve the public education,” he said.
He used the example of Lawrence Public Schools. When Lawrence officials asked to be placed in receivership, essentially asking the state to take over their school system and turn around poor performance, one of the things Department of Education officials did was to bring in four private firms that operate successful charter schools. Two have taken over management of two of the lowest-performing schools, another is providing tutoring and the fourth opened an alternative school.
Many have mixed feelings about charter schools.
Holyoke School Committee member Michael J. Moriarty embraced the idea of giving families – especially those who could not afford a private school – a choice, but has been disappointed to see little cooperation, innovation or even success with the Holyoke Community Charter School.
“As far as performance it is not an impressively better school than anything Holyoke Public Schools offers. It’s scores are in the same league ... there is not a good relationship so they cannot be a laboratory for new ideas,” he said.
Moriarty, who said his focus is ensuring every child read at grade level before fourth-grade, said he saw big improvements a few years ago in third-grade reading scores at Holyoke Charter. He hoped they had found a better way to reach the children, especially children who do not speak English well which Holyoke Public Schools have the biggest difficulty teaching.
But when researching the results, instead of finding new reading methods that city teachers could use, Moriarty found 6.7 percent of the Holyoke Charter children spoke limited English while a much larger 26.7 percent of Holyoke children are learning the language.
“It turned out they just have fewer...kids,” learning English, he said.
Springfield Superintendent Daniel Warwick said charter schools offer benefits and disadvantages for the city’s public schools.
“There are positives associated with charter schools,” he said. “The competition and the innovative models used are good for students and we can learn from them.”
Springfield administrators have a good relationship with SABIS International educators and they share ideas, Warwick said. City schools copied the SABIS model of giving more frequent assessments to students and using that data to focus instruction.
“It made significant gains in some of our schools,” Warwick said.
But he has also faced the financial challenges, since Springfield sent $26.2 million to charter schools this year, and the frustration of being compared to a school that has fewer high-needs students.
“They are the expensive and more difficult children to educate and comparing test results is not fair,” he said. “The law required them (charter schools) to have a population that reflects the district they are drawing from and that has never been followed through.”
Hampden Charter School of Science is an example of the pros and cons of charter schools.
It’s rate of students who speak limited English is 3 percent while Springfield’s, where 60 percent of the students live, is nearly six times higher. The percentage of disabled students is 10.5 while Springfield’s is 19.2.
It is also has a high attrition rate. The school opened in fall 2009 with 39 freshmen and 22 of them graduated this year. The Class of 2014 is seeing a similar reduction: In 2009, there were 50 students in the eighth grade and those numbers dropped to 32 when they hit their junior year, according to the Department of Education figures.
Some of the attrition is due to the high standards. Classes are longer and all students are required to stay after school for 45 minutes a day for a study hall, said Meagan Dion, activity director for the school.
“It is demanding at times and if you don’t want to be here you are not going to succeed here,” she said. “Our lower grades are stacked and the older grades taper off.”
Most students have left voluntarily for a variety of reasons, including academic failures, the long bus ride some face and the strict rules, she said.
The school has been seeing some solid success for those who stayed. This year its average growth on English MCAS scores was the 10th highest in the state and all 22 of this year’s graduates have been accepted to college, Celik said.
Dion attributes some success of the school to smaller classes, which average 18 students, the longer hours, the focus on college preparation and the use of technology. There is also a lot of pressure on the school to do well.
After opening the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School in 1996 Bob Brick and his partner Ljuba Marsh, who left the school several years previously, decided to start a second charter school in Holyoke this year.
The new school, the Paulo Friere Social Justice Charter School, will focus on access for all. Brick said he discovered when he opened the Pioneer Valley Arts school many students, especially those from city schools, were not prepared for college.
“We are proposing a full-service model that has counseling and adult education in the school,” he said. “We will have a dinner program with one-on-one tutoring ... For kids not up to grade level we will require summer school.”
Educators recruited in poorer neighborhoods and helped parents fill out applications.
“I still think charter schools do create an environment where things can be tried out,” he said. “It is about equal access. Everyone ought to have access to their dreams and access to a great education.”
An armed robbery took place in Ludlow at the Pride gas station on Center Street.
LUDLOW — Police in Ludlow are investigating an armed robbery at a Pride gas station Sunday morning.
According to scanner reports police responded to the gas station on Center Street at about 4:30 a.m. after a masked male male entered the store and showed a knife.
The man took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot.
Police are investigating.
New information will be posted on www.MassLive.com as it becomes available.
More than 880 voters have asked for absentee ballots in Springfield, one clue there could be a good voter turnout on Tuesday, according to Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola.
SPRINGFIELD — Election Commissioner Gladys Oyola said Friday that she is optimistic that voter turnout could approach 25 percent Tuesday when Springfield voters decide if they support or reject a casino project proposed by MGM Resorts International.
Oyola said there seems to be great interest in the casino referendum in a city that has had very low turnout in many local and state elections over the years.
There are factors, however, such as potentially very hot weather on Tuesday that could keep some voters away from the polls, Oyola said.
Meanwhile, representatives of groups that are lobbying for passage or defeat of the casino referendum were planning efforts right up through Election Day to get out the vote for their side through literature drops, mailings, telephone calls, door knocking and stand-outs at key intersections.
If the proposed $800 million casino project is approved by voters, it will be forwarded for consideration by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. The state commission will consider approving up to three casino projects in Massachusetts including one for Western Massachusetts.
Casinos are also being proposed by Mohegan Sun in Palmer and by Hard Rock International in West Springfield. The state will also consider approving one slots parlor in Massachusetts.
Oyola said there has been strong advance voting by absentee ballot, one factor in causing her to be optimistic about turnout on Tuesday.
There were more than 880 requests for absentee ballots by Friday afternoon.
“From looking at the amount of people that have come in and requested an absentee ballot, a lot of people are going on vacation next week or we are going to have a good turnout,” Oyola said. “I think it will be the latter.”
While there were votes in the 1990s on casino gambling, this is the first time that a specific project is being considered that could become reality if approved by the voters and the state Gaming Commission, Oyola said. That has added to the voter interest, she said.
She hopes the voter turnout will beat 30 percent.
Michael Mathis, MGM’s Vice President of Global Gaming Development, said MGM’s supporters will be door knocking and making phone calls among their efforts citywide through Tuesday.
“We are continuing to conduct a major get out the vote effort,” Mathis said.
There are pro-casino door hangars being placed during the canvassing effort “and we will have hundreds of folks on the streets between now and Tuesday,” he said.
While MGM will continue advertising in the media in the final days, Citizens Against Casino Gaming will continue a grassroots effort without advertising, said Michael Kogut, chairman of the anti-casino group.
Kogut said he could not estimate what the turnout will be on Tuesday.
He does expect to have 70 percent of the polls covered by his volunteers on Tuesday.
Kogut’s group was planning a rally and standouts leading up to Election Day, and was also planning to make 35,000 automated calls in the final days, he said.
Casinos are also being proposed by Mohegan Sun in Palmer and by Hard Rock International in West Springfield.
A 23-year-old Lancaster man was arrested Friday and charged with breaking and entering a motor vehicle in a Walmart parking lot, police said.
WORCESTER - A 23-year-old Lancaster man was arrested Friday and charged with breaking and entering a motor vehicle in a Walmart parking lot, police said.
A Worcester officer, working a private detail at the store located at 25 Tobias Boland Way, was notified by employees monitoring security cameras that a male wearing a white shirt and black sweatpants was in the parking lot checking numerous car doors, police said. The officer searched the area and found a male matching that description, going through a wallet with a woman's purse by his feet.
The suspect was identified as Nicholas White, of 14 Highfield Drive, Lancaster. The officer searched White and found personal belongings, cash and credit cards belonging to another person. White didn't have an explanation for his possession of these items, police said.
White was arrested and charged with breaking and entering a motor vehicle with the intent to commit a felony and receiving stolen property under the value of $250. He will be arraigned Monday at Worcester County District Courthouse.
The policy requires students to pass five courses and earn a minimum grade point average of 65 to play sports.
CHICOPEE — A new eligibility requirement that forced high school students to pass more classes and earn a higher grade point average to play sports has stopped almost no youth from joining teams.
After a task force researched proposed changes in athletic regulations and extensive debate, the School Committee voted to up its regulations for playing sports, requiring students to pass five instead of four courses and to maintain a minimum grade point average of 65. The regulations went into effect in September.
Showing a year’s worth of data, Athletic Director James P. Blain, reviewed the policy and other changes in the sports program that happened during the last school year with the School Committee this week.
“My thoughts and findings of this policy is it is working,” Blain said.
Part of the policy is students are allowed one waiver in their four years of high school which will allow them to play if they only pass four courses. Out of about 600 students who played on teams at Chicopee High and Comprehensive high, a total of 47 waivers were granted over three seasons of sports, Blain said.
The majority of waivers were given to freshmen while fewer than 10 percent went to senior players. Blain said it is not surprising since ninth-graders typically have the most trouble with classes as they are transitioning to high school.
“A side benefit is it tracks students at risk,” he said.
All coaches were given access to an electronic system teachers, parents and students can use to track grades. If a coach saw a player was not doing well, they talked to and worked with the student and, if all else failed, forced them to sit out of practices and games until they brought up their grades.
All students were told there would be no consequences to arriving to a practice late if they had stayed after school for extra help as long as they brought a note from their teacher, he said.
Blain said he will continue to track data from the policy to see if any changes should be made in the future.
School Committee members said they were happy to hear that students were working to meet the requirements.
“I appreciate your emphasis on academics over athletics,” School Committee member David G. Barsalou said.
Sharon M. Nawrocki, a committee member, said she was impressed that football coaches have a weekly homework night and asked if coaches in other sports do the same.
“Athletics is important but you don’t get where you are going without academics,” she said.
Blain said each coach has been told to find the best way to help his own team since each group is different and rules that work for one do not work as well for another.
State police said the grass-cutting will soon cease for the day.
NORTHAMPTON -- Grass-cutting operations on Interstate 91 backed up southbound traffic Monday morning from here to the Holyoke line.
The state Department of Transportation closed a southbound lane just south of Exit 18 -- the last exit in Northampton -- at about 7 a.m., Sgt. Adam J. Hakkarainen said.
Hakkarainen, speaking shortly before 9:30 a.m., said the grass-cutting “should be done shortly.”
A heat advisory is in effect for Hampshire and Hampden Counties; and other local, national and international headlines.
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New research boosts the "use it or lose it" theory about brainpower and staying mentally sharp. People who delay retirement have less risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, a study of nearly half a million people in France found.
MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Chief Medical Writer
BOSTON (AP) — New research boosts the "use it or lose it" theory about brainpower and staying mentally sharp. People who delay retirement have less risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, a study of nearly half a million people in France found.
It's by far the largest study to look at this, and researchers say the conclusion makes sense. Working tends to keep people physically active, socially connected and mentally challenged — all things known to help prevent mental decline.
"For each additional year of work, the risk of getting dementia is reduced by 3.2 percent," said Carole Dufouil, a scientist at INSERM, the French government's health research agency.
She led the study and gave results Monday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston.
About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's — 1 in 9 people aged 65 and over. What causes the mind-robbing disease isn't known and there is no cure or any treatments that slow its progression.
France has had some of the best Alzheimer's research in the world, partly because its former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, made it a priority. The country also has detailed health records on self-employed people who pay into a Medicare-like health system.
Researchers used these records on more than 429,000 workers, most of whom were shopkeepers or craftsmen such as bakers and woodworkers. They were 74 on average and had been retired for an average of 12 years.
Nearly 3 percent had developed dementia but the risk of this was lower for each year of age at retirement. Someone who retired at 65 had about a 15 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared to someone retiring at 60, after other factors that affect those odds were taken into account, Dufouil said.
To rule out the possibility that mental decline may have led people to retire earlier, researchers did analyses that eliminated people who developed dementia within 5 years of retirement, and within 10 years of it.
"The trend is exactly the same," suggesting that work was having an effect on cognition, not the other way around, Dufouil said.
France mandates retirement in various jobs — civil servants must retire by 65, she said. The new study suggests "people should work as long as they want" because it may have health benefits, she said.
June Springer, who just turned 90, thinks it does. She was hired as a full-time receptionist at Caffi Plumbing & Heating in Alexandria, Va., eight years ago.
"I'd like to give credit to the company for hiring me at that age," she said. "It's a joy to work, being with people and keeping up with current events. I love doing what I do. As long as God grants me the brain to use I'll take it every day."
Heather Snyder, director of medical and scientific operations for the Alzheimer's Association, said the study results don't mean everyone needs to delay retirement.
"It's more staying cognitively active, staying socially active, continue to be engaged in whatever it is that's enjoyable to you" that's important, she said.
"My parents are retired but they're busier than ever. They're taking classes at their local university, they're continuing to attend lectures and they're continuing to stay cognitively engaged and socially engaged in their lives."
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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.
A look at casino-related news making headlines across the world. Watch video
As three companies compete for the sole casino license in Western Massachusetts, similar battles are ongoing in a few other states. At the same time, casinos already in operation make a variety of headlines in the course of a news day. The following is a snapshot of casino-related news from across the United States and beyond.
The Western Massachusetts Casino Showdown
One day before the voters of Springfield hit the polls to decide whether an $800 million MGM Resorts International project in the south End is a blessing or a curse, West Springfield and Palmer, whose voters must also approve the respective casino proposals there in the coming weeks, are watching.
Over the weekend, a survey of 401 likely voters in Springfield concluded that 55 percent are for the MGM casino; 35 percent are against it and 8 percent remain undecided. Following the publication of the poll's results on Saturday, pro and anti-casino groups could be seen across the city sharing their message with time before the city-wide vote dwindling.
Meanwhile, over the river in West Springfield, officials are working to move the referendum vote on the Hard Rock International proposal ahead of The Big E, perhaps so voters aren't focusing on the already crazy traffic that the six-state fair draws to the city for two weeks each year. Hard Rock has proposed to develop an $800 million resort casino on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition.
Mohegan Sun wants to build a $1 billion resort casino project in Palmer off Thorndike Street (Route 32) near the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Each project must be approved by its respective host community before the proposal is sent to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which will ultimately choose which company gets the sole Western Massachusetts casino license.
As Massachusetts goes through its own process to bring three resort casinos to the Bay State, it's neighbor Rhode Island is ramping up it's own casino activities to prevent any bleeding of profits when the competition opens up.
On Sunday, the Taunton Gazette reported that Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, R.I. had been operating 66 table games since June 19, after voters in that state approved making the slots parlor a full-fledged casino in 2012.
“In short term, I think the table games will recapture some of the Rhode Island traffic that goes to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun,” said Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, in an interview with the newspaper. “They’ll probably intercept Massachusetts residents who would otherwise bypass Twin River on their way to Connecticut.”
Barrow also added “It gives Twin River a window of opportunity to capture some gains, but once Massachusetts facilities are up and running, I expect to see their revenues decline by as much as $150 million a year."
There is also the one-year old Oxford Casino in Oxford, Maine and although New Hampshire is yet to approve a casino proposal for Salem, it is still a possibility going forward.
The politics of U.S. companies doing business in China is typically complicated and can draw suspicion from politicos and citizens on both sides. The latest questions surrounding the world's most vibrant gaming market center around whether American companies are complying with law in regards to money laundering services in the region, which are widely believed to be operated by groups with ties to organized crime.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission met with members of a congressional panel for a hearing on the topic in late June, and the Macau Daily Times in China is now reporting on the international concerns. The Chinese news organization reports that in response to concerns from U.S. officials, the Macau government is now mulling a bill requiring visitors to declare how much money they are bringing into the city in an effort to limit money laundering.
Among the companies making Macau the most lucrative gambling market on the planet is MGM Resorts International, which operates a 600-room hotel and casino in Macau as a joint venture with Pansy Ho, the daughter of Chinese casino magnate Stanley Ho.
But MGM, like other U.S. casino companies operating in the region, has long denied any ties to the region's organized crime families.
In June, the casino companies operating in the Chinese territory collectively reported a 21.1 percent increase in revenues to $3.5 billion.
Political tensions in Egypt and increased demand during the summer driving season have driven up the cost of gas in Massachusetts by 14 cents per gallon.
BOSTON (AP) — Political tensions in Egypt and increased demand during the summer driving season have driven up the cost of gas in Massachusetts by 14 cents per gallon.
AAA Southern New England reports Monday that self-serve, regular has jumped to $3.62 per gallon in the past week and prices are likely to go even higher.
The in-state price is a penny more than the national average and 15 cents higher than at the same time last year.
AAA found self-serve, regular selling as low as $3.48 per gallon and as high as $3.85.
Lusher disappeared in November, 1992, when he was 16.
WESTFIELD — Convicted murderer Lewis S. Lent Jr. has confessed to killing missing Westfield teenager James "Jamie" Lusher, telling investigators he left the boy's body in a Becket pond, law enforcement officials announced Monday.
Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni said Lent, already serving a life sentence for the 1990 murder of a 12-year-old boy and the attempted abduction of a Pittsfield girl, will not be prosecuted for Lusher's murder.
The news conference was held at South Middle School in town, where Lusher was a student.
James Lusher, father of the boy, said he never entirely believed Lent was the killer. For a long time he suspected that his son got into a fight with other kids.
"I was never certain," Lusher said. "I now believe 99 percent that this is what happened."
Lusher was described as a boy who loved his dog, his dirt bike and his time in the woods.
Investigators on Tuesday will launch a full search of Greenwater Pond in Becket.
"It's a daunting task. It's an 88-square-acre pond that is as deep as 58 feet in places," said Timothy Alban, commander of the Massachusetts State Police. "We remain hopeful. We remain optimistic. But we also have to be realistic."
Lusher was last seen by family on Nov. 6, 1992, riding his mountain bike toward his grandmother's Russell Road home in Blandford. He was 16 and living with his father, James D. Lusher, at 148 Ridgeview Terrace at the time of his disappearance.
"She asked him why he was hiding. He said he's afraid he's in trouble," Lt. John Camerota told The Republican at the time.
An intensive search of the area followed, with police initially believing Lusher was hiding and afraid to come home. Several days after he went missing, police interviewed a girl who lived in the neighborhood, who said she'd seen and spoken to Lusher.
But, a search involving K-9 units, helicopters, psychics, and the dredging of a pond near a wooded area where investigators found Lusher's bike failed to find the missing boy.
The case was featured in a January 1993 segment on the show "America's Most Wanted", and investigators received 70 new tips in the days that followed.
Lent pleaded guilty in 1996 to the 1990 kidnapping and murder of Jimmy Bernardo, 12, of Pittsfield. He received a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole. He was later convicted in Herkimer, N.Y. for the kidnapping and murder of Sara Anne Wood, and sentenced to 25 years to life.
Investigators acknowledged Monday that Lent has often given conflicting accounts, leading investigators down a lot of blind alleys. But Mastroianni said police have been able to corroborate many of the details in Lent's recent confession. Mastroianni believes Lent's account.
