The studies were released as part of the Host Community Agreement process.

PALMER — Having a casino in town is not expected to affect the local housing market or create a population boom, according to a socioeconomic impact summary from Communities Opportunities Group, a consultant for Mohegan Sun, which wants to build a resort casino in the area of the Massachusetts Turnpike interchange.

The town’s consultant, RKG Associates of New Hampshire, which reviewed the report from Mohegan, generally agrees, saying most people will continue to live where they already reside and commute to the property.

The studies in their entirety can be found at the conclusion of this article.

Though the casino will require the town to hire more employees, the two consultants were not always in agreement as to how many. These additional costs will be addressed during host community agreement negotiations, and are expected to be borne by Mohegan Sun.

The Building Department, which presently has one employee, will need five additional contracted personnel, according to Mohegan's group, while RKG stated that even with contracted personnel, it needs at least one more full-time building inspector and a part-time clerk.

Though Mohegan's group said the project is expected to have little impact on the Palmer Fire Department, RKG said the department will need to become full-time with at least 15 employees. It presently is an on-call department with three full-timers.

Regarding the police, Mohegan's group said there could be a need for one additional officer per shift, for a total of five new officers. RKG stated that 14 new officers are needed, plus four additional dispatchers. The Police Department has 20 officers now.

Both consultants agreed that there is a need for another health inspector, but Mohegan's said it should be part-time, while RKG said it should be full-time. RKG also said the Public Works Department should have four additional employees. It also notes the "terrible condition" of the existing Public Works Department on Bridge Street and puts a new facility's cost at $6.4 million. The highway division has seven employees, including the public works superintendent.

The town manager’s office has released several impact studies that are being conducted as part of the host community agreement negotiation process.

The agreement is expected to be completed within a few weeks, according to Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard, and must be finalized before a referendum can be held in order for voters to weigh in on the project proposed for Thorndike Street (Route 32). It's possible a referendum may be held in September.

RKG concludes: "The Mohegan Sun Massachusetts resort will be a positive for the town of Palmer. However, with such a major project will come increased burdens on municipal government and on the infrastructure that serves residents.

"The (Host Community Agreement) provides the opportunity to mitigate negative impacts and to create a solid foundation for future growth. The social and economic impact analysis undertaken by (Communities Opportunities Group) for (Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority) identifies several potential areas of concern, but underestimates many of the true impacts that the project will have on the town."

The traffic analysis, by Vanasse & Associates of Andover, will be discussed at Monday’s Town Council meeting at 7 p.m. at the Town Building by Mohegan’s development coordinator, Paul I. Brody.

At-large Town Councilor Paul E. Burns said he has read all the studies and found them “reasonably comprehensive.”

“The big thing to keep in mind is that the casino will bring an awful lot of enhancement to public safety and public services,” Burns said.

While some residents have criticized how long the process is taking for the host community agreement to be released, Burns said, “We’re actually doing the due diligence and trying to assess the impacts to ensure we understand the full impact.” That information will only help the voters when it comes time for a vote, he said.

“Other communities haven’t done this. I think it’s important for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to recognize Palmer has taken its time, and done overwhelming amounts of research,” Burns said. “This will bring revenues and jobs to the region and I think the water park does bring that ‘wow factor’ that Commissioner Crosby is looking at.”

In addition to a casino, the project proposal includes retail shops and an aqua adventure water park. Mohegan is competing with MGM Resorts International in Springfield and Hard Rock International in West Springfield for the sole Western Massachusetts casino license.

Blanchard said some concerns have been voiced by officials regarding the statement that housing will not be affected given the large number of rental units in town.

RKG also noted that Mohegan’s consultant provides “limited information on the existing social conditions of the town and does not acknowledge any social impacts on the town as a result of the project.” RKG stated “the sudden development of a resort casino with thousands of employees and bringing in millions of visitors a year to the town will have a real, if undefined and unquantifiable, impact on the ‘social fabric’ of the community."

RKG notes the project is expected to create 3,156 full-time jobs between the $1 billion casino, water park and retail complex, and agrees with Mohegan that there is sufficient capacity within the labor market regionally to fill the positions.

RKG said Mohegan's report underestimates the total taxable revenue of the casino, and instead believes that it could pay $10 million to the town and $750,000 to the fire district annually. It also suggests having the town go from a single tax rate to a split tax rate to capture more revenue. That would increase tax revenue to $15 million.

District 4 Town Councilor Donald Blais Jr. said he spent hours reading the studies.

“I’m glad they put it together. It was long overdue. We needed the information,” Blais said.

Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority Palmer Socioeconomic Analysis by masslive

Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority Palmer Socioeconomic Analysis Executive Summary by masslive

RKG Associates Review of MTGA Palmer Socioeconomic Analysis by masslive

A northern New Jersey man was convicted Friday of sexually abusing a woman on a cross-country flight who said she woke up to find his hands reaching around from behind to molest her.

NEWARK, N.J - A northern New Jersey man was convicted Friday of sexually abusing a woman on a cross-country flight who said she woke up to find his hands reaching around from behind to molest her.

Bawer Aksal, 49, Turkish-born American citizen, was convicted of sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact for his actions on a United Airlines flight last August from Phoenix to Newark.

The woman testified that she awoke from sleeping to find Aksal reaching around from behind her to fondle her breasts with one hand and sticking his other hand down her underpants and penetrating her with his fingers. She testified she immediately pushed him away and got up to notify flight attendants.

The 50-year-old victim, who testified under an alias because of the nature of the charges, attended Friday's proceeding and sat in the gallery behind the prosecution table.

"I'm relieved that justice has been served," she told The Record of Woodland Park afterward. "I am glad that I can move forward knowing that I made the right decision by speaking up. I hope that others won't let the humiliation of a trial hold them back from keeping sexual molesters off the street."

Aksal, of North Bergen, didn't testify but told authorities after his arrest that the woman made unwanted sexual advances toward him and forced his hands to touch her.

A flight attendant testified that the woman was shaking and crying after the encounter, and a man who sat next to Aksal testified that he saw Aksal in a "spooning" position with the woman with one hand under a sweater on her lap and the other around her shoulders.

DNA samples were taken from Aksal and the woman, but tests at an FBI lab weren't conclusive, an expert testified during the trial.

Aksal faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in October.

The trial was held in federal court because crimes that occur on flights fall under federal jurisdiction.

Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/bawer-aksal-convicted-of-sexually-abusing-woman-on-flight#ixzz2ZXSGpnbC

Initial reports from police indicate it is not clear how long the body has been in the bag.

SUFFIELD - Suffield police have confirmed officers are on the scene of a wooded area near the Southwick line where a body on Friday afternoon was found stuffed into duffel bag.

No other information was available and a police dispatcher said officers would be on the scene for a while.

Several Connecticut media outlets are reporting the body was found by two hikers at the base of a cliff in the woods near a section of the Farmington Valley Greenway Trail.

Suffield Police Chief Michael Manzi told the Hartford Courant that the teens called police at around 2 p.m. after detecting a foul odor in the area.

The bag with the body appears to have been dumped at the scene and looks to be that of a white male, but no other physical characteristics were disclosed Friday evening.

WVIT-TV in Hartford is reporting a the Connecticut State Police major crimes unit is assisting the Suffield police at the scene and a forensics unit was expected on sight shortly.

There has been no determination on a cause of death. It is also unclear how long the bag was there before it was found.

Manzi told WFSB-TVin Hartford that the body appears to have been wrapped in plastic trash bag before it was put in the duffel bag.

The area where the body was found is about a quarter mile south of the Southwick town line.

View Larger Map

This screenshot of video taken by WFSB-TV in Connecticut shows the scene where a body was found in a dufflebag on Friday, July 19, 2013.  

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith's attorneys said in papers in Manhattan federal court that their client is charged in a flawed document that fails to adequately explain how he was part of a conspiracy to kill Americans.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Osama bin Laden's son-in-law claimed in court papers Friday that he was tortured by the U.S. and asked a judge to dismiss the terrorism case against him.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith's attorneys said in papers in Manhattan federal court that their client is charged in a flawed document that fails to adequately explain how he was part of a conspiracy to kill Americans. They said the statute of limitations had expired and that he was denied due process.

They also said he was interrogated at length during a 14-hour flight to the United States earlier this year during which "he was subjected to a variety of deprivation techniques and harsh treatment which constitute torture."

Abu Ghaith, 47, has been held without bail since he was brought to the United States in March to face charges that he conspired against Americans in his role as al-Qaida's spokesman after the Sept. 11 attacks. Authorities say he had appeared in propaganda videos that warned of further assaults against the United States as devastating as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people. Abu Ghaith, who has pleaded not guilty, would be the highest-ranking al-Qaida figure to stand trial on U.S. soil since 9/11.

In an affidavit filed to support a request to suppress a 22-page statement he made to authorities, the Kuwaiti-born Abu Ghaith said he left Afghanistan in 2002 and entered Iran, where he was arrested in mid-year and held by elements of the Republican Guard before he was detained in prisons and interrogated extensively. He said he was told by Iranian government officials that the U.S. government was aware he was being held in jail in Iran and that Iran had turned over a number of prisoners to the United States already.

Abu Ghaith said he was released from Iranian custody on Jan. 11, when he entered Turkey, where he was detained and interrogated before he was released on Feb. 28. He said he was heading home to Kuwait on a plane to see family when the flight landed instead in Amman, Jordan, where he was handcuffed and turned over to American authorities.

He said he had learned through other detainees and news sources over the years that the U.S. had engaged in waterboarding, beatings, freezing rooms, sleep deprivation, electrical shocking, the use of dogs and noise torture, humiliation while naked and other practices.

"I believed that I was now in American custody, and I anticipated increasing degrees of physical and psychological torture, which terrified me," he wrote.

He said he was kept naked on the plane for several minutes as a man in military clothing photographed his body.

"I was terrified, and I saw that there were several men on board, and at least one woman present, who observed me while I was naked from her location behind a partially-drawn curtain at the front of the plane," Abu Ghaith said.

He said he was interrogated over the next 13 hours with a few breaks in a cold plane. He said he was only given a small bottle of water and one orange to eat. He said he soiled his clothing and feet and urinated on the floor when he tried to relieve himself in the plane's restroom while handcuffed as a soldier watched.

"The soldier shouted and cursed at me in English and made threatening gestures, and I was made to kneel and clean up the urine from the floor using bits of paper, while my hands were shackled at my waist. It was terrifying to be confined in a small airplane toilet cleaning the floor while the soldier yelled at me and threatened me," he said.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the defense motion.

The man apparently lost control of his motorcycle, went off the road and hit a pole, police said.

Republican photo 

LUDLOW - A 60-year-old Ludlow man suffered serious injuries Friday evening when he lost control of his motorcycle on West Street and struck a telephone pole, police said.

After hitting the pole, the man struck a mailbox and then skidded out into the road, according to Ludlow police Sgt. Michael Brennan.

The accident happened just before 7 p.m. near the Keystone Commons, a retirement community at 460 West St., Brennan said.

The operator, whose name was not released Friday night, was taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center. Word on his condition was not immediately available.

Brennan said the man appeared to have sustained head injuries and possible fractures.

The accident closed West Street for about an hour as the scene was cleared.

The accident remains under investigation.

View Larger Map

Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, of Plymouth, Mass., walked out of the brig at the Marine Corps Miramar Air Station in San Diego after having served more than half of his 11-year sentence.

By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. Marine Corps released a sergeant Friday whose murder conviction was overturned in a major blow to the military's prosecution of Iraq war crimes.

Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, of Plymouth, Mass., walked out of the brig at the Marine Corps Miramar Air Station in San Diego after having served more than half of his 11-year sentence.

"The emotions I am feeling right now are hard to describe," Hutchins said in a statement issued through his attorney. "I am overcome. This is all I ever wanted."

Once his release paperwork was processed, Hutchins was to be transported by Marine Corps officials to Camp Pendleton, where he would check in to his new unit at the base's headquarters, said Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Kloppel.

Hutchins led an eight-man squad accused of kidnapping an Iraqi man from his home in April 2006, marching him to a ditch and shooting him to death in the village of Hamdania.

Hutchins has said he thought the man — who turned out to be a retired policeman — was an insurgent leader.

None of the other seven squad members served more than 18 months.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces overturned Hutchins' conviction on June 26, supporting his claims that his rights were violated when he was held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer for seven days during his 2006 interrogation in Iraq.

The move was the latest in a series of twists for Hutchins, whose case was overturned once by a lower court three years ago only to be reinstated in 2011 by the same court that agreed with his latest petition.

Under the military justice system, Hutchins could not be freed until the court ruled on a Navy motion in response to the June 26 decision.

Prosecutors asked the court to reconsider its decision to toss out the conviction, saying Hutchins waived his right to counsel at the time and willfully told his side of the story without coercion.

The court Thursday denied that request and issued a mandate that he be released.

The case, however, is not closed.

The Navy can order the case be retried or prosecutors can appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Navy issued a statement Friday saying it was exploring those options and a decision is expected next month.

Kloppel said the Camp Pendleton unit Hutchins will be assigned to will determine his job assignment.

Hutchins' military attorney, Maj. Babu Kaza, said Hutchins will live off base in nearby Oceanside with his wife and two children.

The body was found not far from the Massachusetts-Connecticut border.

 

SUFFIELD, Conn. — Police in two states are trying to determine the identity of a body found wrapped in garbage bags and stuffed into a blue duffel bag. Two teens found the bag Friday afternoon in a wooded area near the state line.

Suffield Police Chief Michael Manzi told CBS 3 Springfield that he is not sure how the man died or exactly how long the body had been in the woods near a hiking trail off Quarry and Phelps roads. The two boys called police at about 2 p.m. Friday and reported a bad odor near that site. Police investigated and found the duffel bag.

Manzi said the deceased appears to be a white man between the ages of 25 and 30. The body was removed from the scene Friday evening and taken to the medical examiner's office for autopsy.

"I couldn't elaborate on the injuries," Manzi said. "It's hard to tell."

Because the body was found within on-quarter mile of the Massachusetts-Connecticut border, police in both states are trying to identify the dead man. CBS 3 is reporting that Manzi said his department has no missing-person reports matching the descriptions of the person who was found.

The Connecticut State Police major crimes unit is also working with Suffield police.

The hiking trail where the body was found runs very near the Farmington Valley Greenway Trail bicycle path, which connects with the Southwick Bike Trail at the state line. The interconnected trail now runs from New Haven, Conn., into Westfield.

View Larger Map

The Senate adds $150 million for the comercial fishing industry help

NOAA 

The move is another step toward securing emergency funds for fishermen in the Northeast, Alaska and the Gulf Coast after federal disaster declarations for struggling fisheries there last year.

The money must be approved by the full Senate before being considered in the House.

Last year, the same amount was approved in the Senate. But it was later stripped out by the House.

The office of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the money would come from seafood import duties generated by the 1954 Saltonstall-Kennedy Act. Warren's office said the money would be used to improve data collection, stock assessments and for cooperative research between scientists and fishermen.

It would also expand the use of fishing vessels to perform stock assessments

The 29-year-old man was pronounced dead of gunshot wounds at a New Bedford hospital.

NEW BEDFORD — A 29-year-old New Bedford man was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford early Friday morning, the victim of an apparent homicide, a representative of the Bristol County District Attorney's Office said.

The Patriot Ledger reports that police were called to the victim's Austin Street home just after 3 a.m. and found Scott Souza unconscious and suffering from gunshot wounds. He was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The district attorney's office, State Police and New Bedford Police are investigating the incident.

View Larger Map

Thomas made her name as a bulldog for United Press International in the great wire-service rivalries of old. She used her seat in the front row of history to grill nine presidents — often to their discomfort and was not shy about sharing her opinions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Helen Thomas, the irrepressible White House correspondent who used her seat in the front row of history to grill nine presidents — often to their discomfort and was not shy about sharing her opinions, died Saturday. She was 92.

Thomas, who died at her apartment in Washington, had been ill for a long time, and in and out of the hospital before coming home Thursday, according to a friend, Muriel Dobbin.

Thomas made her name as a bulldog for United Press International in the great wire-service rivalries of old, and as a pioneer for women in journalism.

She was persistent to the point of badgering. One White House press secretary described her questioning as "torture" — and he was one of her fans.

Her refusal to conceal her strong opinions, even when posing questions to a president, and her public hostility toward Israel, caused discomfort among colleagues.

In 2010, that tendency finally ended a career which had started in 1943 and made her one of the best known journalists in Washington. On a videotape circulated on the Internet, she said Israelis should "get out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany, Poland or the United States. The remark brought down widespread condemnation and she ended her career.

In January 2011, she became a columnist for a free weekly paper in a Washington suburb, months after the controversy forced her from her previous post.

In her long career, she was indelibly associated with the ritual ending White House news conferences. She was often the one to deliver the closing line: "Thank you, Mister. President" — four polite words that belied a fierce competitive streak.

Her disdain for White House secrecy and dodging spanned five decades, back to President John Kennedy. Her freedom to voice her peppery opinions as a speaker and a Hearst columnist came late in her career.

The Bush administration marginalized her, clearly peeved with a journalist who had challenged President George W. Bush to his face on the Iraq war and declared him the worst president in history.

After she quit UPI in 2000 — by then an outsized figure in a shrunken organization — her influence waned.

Thomas was accustomed to getting under the skin of presidents, if not to the cold shoulder.

"If you want to be loved," she said years earlier, "go into something else."

There was a lighter mood in August 2009, on her 89th birthday, when President Barack Obama popped into in the White House briefing room unannounced. He led the roomful of reporters in singing "Happy Birthday to You" and gave her cupcakes. As it happened, it was the president's birthday too, his 48th.

Thomas was at the forefront of women's achievements in journalism. She was one of the first female reporters to break out of the White House "women's beat" — the soft stories about presidents' kids, wives, their teas and their hairdos — and cover the hard news on an equal footing with men.

She became the first female White House bureau chief for a wire service when UPI named her to the position in 1974. She was also the first female officer at the National Press Club, where women had once been barred as members and she had to fight for admission into the 1959 luncheon speech where Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev warned: "We will bury you."

The belligerent Khrushchev was an unlikely ally in one sense. He had refused to speak at any Washington venue that excluded women, she said.

Thomas fought, too, for a more open presidency, resisting all moves by a succession of administrations to restrict press access.

"People will never know how hard it is to get information," Thomas told an interviewer, "especially if it's locked up behind official doors where, if politicians had their way, they'd stamp TOP SECRET on the color of the walls."

Born in Winchester, Ky., to Lebanese immigrants, Thomas was the seventh of nine children. It was in high school, after working on the student newspaper, that she decided she wanted to become a reporter.

After graduating from Detroit's Wayne University (now Wayne State University), Thomas headed straight for the nation's capital. She landed a $17.50-a-week position as a copy girl, with duties that included fetching coffee and doughnuts for editors at the Washington Daily News.

United Press — later United Press International — soon hired her to write local news stories for the radio wire. Her assignments were relegated at first to women's news, society items and celebrity profiles.

Her big break came after the 1960 election that sent Kennedy to the White House, and landed Thomas her first assignment related to the presidency. She was sent to Palm Beach, Fla., to cover the vacation of the president-elect and his family.

JFK's successor, Lyndon Johnson, complained that he learned of his daughter Luci's engagement from Thomas's story.

Bigger and better assignments would follow for Thomas, among them President Richard M. Nixon's breakthrough trip to China in 1972.

When the Watergate scandal began consuming Nixon's presidency, Martha Mitchell, the notoriously unguarded wife of the attorney general, would call Thomas late at night to unload her frustrations at what she saw as the betrayal of her husband John by the president's men.

It was also during the Nixon administration that the woman who scooped so many others was herself scooped — by the first lady. Pat Nixon was the one who announced to the Washington press corps that Thomas was engaged to Douglas Cornell, chief White House correspondent for UPI's archrival, AP.

They were married in 1971. Cornell died 11 years later.

Thomas stayed with UPI for 57 years, until 2000, when the company was purchased by News World Communications, which was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church.

At age 79, Thomas was soon hired as a Washington-based columnist for newspaper publisher Hearst Corp.

A self-described liberal, Thomas made no secret of her ill feelings for the final president she covered — the second President Bush. "He is the worst president in all of American history," she told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.

Thomas also was critical of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, asserting that the deaths of innocent people should hang heavily on Bush's conscience.

"We are involved in a war that is becoming more dubious every day," she said in a speech to thousands of students at Brigham Young University in September 2003. "I thought it was wrong to invade a country without any provocation."

Some students walked out of the lecture. She won over others with humorous stories from her "ringside seat" to history.

In March 2005, she confronted Bush with the proposition that "your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis" and every justification for the attack proved false.

"Why did you really want to go to war?" she demanded.

When Bush began explaining his rationale, she interjected: "They didn't do anything to you, or to our country."

"Excuse me for a second," Bush replied. "They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for al-Qaida. That's where al-Qaida trained."

"I'm talking about Iraq," she said.

Her strong opinions finally ended her career.

After a visit to the White House, David Nesenoff, a rabbi and independent filmmaker, asked Thomas on May 27, 2010, whether she had any comments on Israel. "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," she replied. "Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not Germany, it's not Poland," she continued. Asked where they should go, she answered, "They should go home." When asked where's home, Thomas replied: "Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else."

The resulting controversy brought widespread rejection of her remarks. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called them "offensive and reprehensible." Many Jews were offended by her suggestion that Israelis should "go home" to Germany, Poland and America since Israel was initially settled in 1948 by Jews who had survived or escaped Hitler's attempt to kill all the Jews in Germany, and many in neighboring conquered countries.

Within days, she retired from her job at Hearst.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Lisa-Beth Guilbeau 

Lisa-Beth M. (Majercik) Guilbeau, 45, of Chicopee, passed away on Tuesday. She was born in Southbridge and spent her early years there before moving to Chicopee in 1976. She graduated from Chicopee Comprehensive High School, received an associate's degree from Holyoke Community College and was a resident of Chicopee for the remainder of her life. She was a well-known waitress at Spiro's Restaurant, which is now Angelo's, on Grattan Street in the Aldenville section of Chicopee. She enjoyed boating, crocheting and painting.

Obituaries from The Republican:

• 
  Bramucci, Rosemary C.
  



• 
  Burns, Joseph W.
  



• 
  Fahey, John M.
  



• 
  Fortes, Henry C.
  



• 
  George, Irene
  



• 
  Geran, John J.
  



• 
  Guilbeau, Lisa-Beth M.
  



• 
  Guilmain, Homer M.
  



• 
  Guzik, Elizabeth B.
  



• 
  James, Ronald A.
  



• 
  Kelly, Garry E.
  



• 
  Lamotte, Mary L.
  



• 
  Lawson, William
  



• 
  Manzi, Alesio A.
  



• 
  Matusko, Aileen
  



• 
  McCourt, Eric M.
  



• 
  Mundt, Amanda K.
  



• 
  Mundt, Diane J.
  



• 
  Roberts, Louise F.
  



• 
  Rutkowski, Linda M.
  



• 
  Scott, Constance Verteramo
  



• 
  St. Jean, Eugene
  



• 
  Stutz, Janet Arlene
  

Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette ordered flags in the city flown at half-staff in memory of Chelte, who died on July 16 at age 81.

CHICOPEE – When people wanted something done in the city, often they would ask Raymond J. Chelte.

An educator, Korean War veteran, husband and father, Chelte, 81, died on July 16 after an illness.

In Chicopee, he was known as a consummate volunteer. He served on two high school building committees and was serving on a third, he was a planning board member, was instrumental in creating the Chicopee Friends of the Public Library and a was a long-term member of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce.

He was so well known, Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette called him a “great man and true hero” and directed all city flags to be flown at half-staff in his memory.

“He served his country well and did so much for this city. We were lucky to have him,” said Lucille T. Kolish.

Kolish said she first met Chelte about 30 years ago when she was a bank branch manager and Chelte was one of her customers. Then they started running into each other as members of committee after committee.

If she was a member of a committee, it seemed Chelte was in the next seat and they formed a close friendship. They were especially involved in the Rotary Club and Holy Name of Jesus church.

“He was so knowledgeable and fair, and Ray and I worked well together,” she said. “I will miss him as a great friend.”

The two did not always agree but respected each other’s opinions. Kolish told the story of a priest at Holy Name who wanted to get two of the stained glass windows repaired and Chelte agreed to help.

“He raised the $6,500 in one month. If you wanted something done, he always got it done,” she said.

Gail Sherman, president of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, said Chelte was passionate about the Rotary Club and was involved in many of its programs. He traveled abroad to do public service, started other programs and received multiple awards.

Not only was he a leader for the Chicopee Rotary, he also was dedicated to the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce and won its Shining Star Citizen of the Year award in 1996.

“When Ray said he would do something, he did it. You could always depend on him,” Sherman said.

Another close friend and fellow Rotary Club member, John Arthur, who most recently served as president, said he always appreciated that Chelte was never afraid to speak up and made sure he was accountable. When Arthur took over as Rotary Club president – a role Chelte had held previously – he was helpful in teaching him protocol.

“When he believed something was done wrong, he stood his ground. He told you where you stood, good, bad and ugly,” he said.

But aside his gruff exterior, Chelte was kind, generous and humble, many said.

“He had a gruff exterior and was a teddy bear inside,” Arthur said. “The VNA named a conference center after him recently and he was extremely touched.”

Along with his many activities, Chelte was a tireless volunteer and supporter of the Chicopee Visiting Nurse Association. He didn’t just serve on the board of trustees, he frequently stopped to visit staff and got to know everyone, said Judy Cote, chief executive officer of the VNA.

“He was very involved and extended himself. He didn’t talk the talk, he lived it, and it was always service above himself in everything he did,” she said.

In May, the board named its conference room the Raymond Chelte Room to recognize his many contributions.

“I wanted something that would be a legacy and I wanted him to know about it and enjoy it while he was living,” Cote said.

“Whatever the VNA needed, it appeared. He was a very learned man, a gentleman. He was a mentor, a friend and a resource to many,” she said.

Chelte held a master’s degree in business and a Certificate of Advanced Studies. He was a teacher before going on to work for the Massachusetts Teachers Association. He was married to Judy Chelte, a well-known Chicopee teacher, who also received multiple awards.

He also leaves four children, nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Thousands of young Roman Catholics from around the Americas are converging on Rio de Janeiro to take part in World Youth Day and see Pope Francis, whom they now affectionately call their "slum pope."

By DEBORA REY

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Thousands of young Roman Catholics from around the Americas are converging on Rio de Janeiro, taking dayslong bus trips or expensive plane flights that were paid for by baking cookies and holding garage sales, running raffles and bingo tournaments and even begging for coins in public plazas.

Some of the poorest traveled from so-called "misery villages" in Argentina's capital, thanks to donations from the Buenos Aires archdiocese. Their agenda at World Youth Day includes meeting with other disadvantaged youngsters in Manguinhos, a favela Pope Francis plans to visit, and sharing stories about Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the subway-riding Argentine Jesuit they now affectionately call their "slum pope."

Road trips can be fun, but many have been expressing more profound emotions, excited by the changes they see in the church since Francis was elected in March. His first months as pope have already renewed their faith, many say, by showing how church leaders can get closer to their people and relate to their real-world problems with humor and a common touch.

"Like anyone else, there have been times when I haven't had this faith at 100 percent. Now I have more faith than ever, very high. I have my heart completely with God and no one can take me away from there," said Valentina Godoy, who traveled from Santiago, Chile, and shared her feelings from Brazil on a video her local church group posted on YouTube.

Francis joked when he first emerged on the balcony over St. Peters Square that the cardinals had chosen a pope "from the end of the world." But for many Catholics on this side of the Atlantic, he's not only the first Latin American pope. With his history of community outreach, many younger Catholics are saying that he's the first pope they can relate to in a more personal way.

"We were concerned after Benedict resigned, but when a Latin American pope emerged, so close to young people, it really changed the situation and our numbers grew. A little while ago we thought that there would be 5,000 Chileans and now we see that 9,100 of us are going, more than double what we expected," said Alonso Molina, the 21-year-old coordinator of a group visiting from Chile's Vicarate of Youthful Hope.

Brazil has more Catholics than any other country in the world and its church has struggled to compete with Latin America's vigorous evangelical Christian movements, so it's a logical destination. And while many Argentines were disappointed that Francis didn't choose his native Argentina for his first papal trip outside Italy, they were making the best of it: More than 30,000 Argentines were making the pilgrimage, the largest foreign delegation.

That includes President Cristina Fernandez, who cast aside her political rivalry with the former Buenos Aires cardinal after he became pope, and plans to make more displays of affection next week. While Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff invited South American leaders to the final Mass on July 29, Fernandez also plans to attend Monday's opening ceremony, Argentina's Catholic News Agency reported.

Hundreds of young Catholics left Buenos Aires cathedral Friday night in a caravan of buses on the 40-hour, 1,500-mile (2,500-kilometer) trip to Rio. Many others left earlier from provinces around Argentina. About 9,500 signed up from the United States; 5,000 from Paraguay and 4,500 from Mexico.

In all, 350,000 young Catholics signed up, similar to previous World Youth Days that later attracted much larger crowds. In any case, Brazilian authorities prepared to receive a million or more visitors during the pope's weeklong stay.

Many Argentines had already planned to attend last year, "but everything got bigger after March 13, with the boom that was generated by the news that the Pope is from our land and our city," said the Rev. Marcelo Miceli, trip coordinator for the Buenos Aires archdiocese.

The diocese channeled contributions and was able to subsidize all-inclusive trips for $500 a person, Miceli said. "We've received a lot of help from the community, many donations. It has generated an incredible wave of solidarity."

But despite months of lobbying by the Vatican's top diplomat in Argentina, Emil Paul Tscherrig, the church got no reprieve from Argentina's tax agency, AFIP, which refused to loosen currency controls so that pilgrims might be able to trade their devaluing pesos for Brazilian reals at favorable official exchange rates.

Pilgrims wanting to buy Brazilian currency in Argentina were forced to turn to illegal traders, getting about half as much money in return for their pesos. Those wealthy enough to have credit cards can use those in Brazil, and later pay a 20 percent penalty to the Argentine government for each purchase.

AFIP's press office refused to comment on the controversy, which prompted an official public complaint from the church: "We made many appeals to various government agencies, but we have not received official responses about the possibility of changing money," the statement said.

Paraguay doesn't limit currency trading, but poverty is a grim reality for many members of the Catholic church in that country.

"To put together the money necessary for the trip and our stay, since we're so poor, we had to ask for help from others and organize food fairs, selling noodles with chicken sauce, hamburgers, sodas and other fast food," said Ismael Diaz, who organized a group of 300 young people traveling from the Virgin of Rosario parish in the city of Luque.

Chilean youths told similar stories of bake sales, raffles and shaking cans in the streets to raise money for the trip.

"It's something I have always wanted to do. It's important for any young Catholic person to attend and to reconfirm their faith," Ezequiel Sanchez, a 28-year-old small business owner, said before he and 18 others from his church boarded their flight from Mexico City.

Associated Press Writers Michael Warren in Buenos Aires; Luis Andres Henao in Santiago, Chile; Pedro Servin in Asuncion, Paraguay; and Ivan Pierre Aguirre in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Pope Francis will return to the embrace of Latin America to preside over the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day festival in Rio de Janeiro.

By BRADLEY BROOKS and NICOLE WINFIELD

RIO DE JANEIRO — The white sands of Copacabana beach typically draw millions of sun-worshippers, New Year's Eve revelers and fans for free concerts by the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones. In the coming week, the star of the show is infinitely less flamboyant than Mick Jagger, but he promises to stir up just as much passion among devotees.

Pope Francis, the 76-year-old Argentine who became the church's first pontiff from the Americas in March, will turn the crescent-shaped shoreline into a giant stage for his first international trip as pope, returning to the embrace of Latin America to preside over the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day festival.

The pontiff is coming to the heart of a city known for pricey real estate and sexy samba with a message of humility, simplicity and support for the poor — priorities that he has set out already in his four months as pope.

The Catholic Church in Brazil is one he knows well, aware that it is losing legions of adherents to Pentecostal churches and secularism. But Catholic youth festivals are meant to reinvigorate the faithful, and Francis, a soccer-loving native son, is expected to rally young people with his humble and unconventional ways.

More than a million young Catholics are expected to flock to Rio to celebrate their new pope. The city overseen by the giant Christ the Redeemer statue has mobilized thousands of soldiers and police to make sure the visit goes smoothly, even as violent anti-government protests continue to erupt a month after Brazil saw mass demonstrations nationwide.

Some residents have already prepared a uniquely Rio de Janeiro welcome for Francis: They've built from sand life-sized images of the pope on Copacabana, in place of the usual sculptures of bikini-clad beauties.

Rafaela Bastos, a pilgrim walking along the beach a few days before the pontiff's arrival, said the "Francis effect" was already evident. As she spoke, an army of construction workers toiled at a furious clip on the beach to finish the enormous, white altar where Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass.

"Francis has captivated me; he's absolutely won me over," said the 23-year-old from Brazil's Minas Gerais state. "He's brought the church close to the people and especially to young Catholics. He's creative, he's modern, he's not changing doctrine, but he seems far more flexible and open to discussion."

That Francis is from Latin America "just makes him even better: He understands our culture and that brings him closer to us and allows us to understand him," Bastos said.

Despite such optimism, these are worrying times for the church, and Brazil's case is emblematic.

The vast nation was 89 percent Catholic when Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit in 1980. According to the national census, that figure had dropped to 65 percent by 2010. Such declines are happening all over Latin America, which is one of the church's remaining strongholds amid growing secularism in Europe and the United States. Sex abuse and corruption scandals have further eroded trust in the church.

Francis's response to the challenges has been to help find "an entirely new way to interact with the world" by the manner in which he communicates, said Sao Paulo Cardinal Odilo Scherer, one of two Latin Americans named to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization created in 2010.

"The church, Christianity, the Catholic faith cannot be apart from the world," Scherer said. "It must be a part of the world, inside of it, and it must interact with modern society if it hopes to have repercussions and influence."

Francis has moved quickly to build a more everyman approach to his office.

He still refuses to sign his name as pope, rarely refers to himself as pontiff, and thinks of his role more as a good pastor — and a good role model for other pastors. Once a priest who rode the subway to work, he is now a pope who spurns the ornate symbols of power: He passed on the red papal shoes for his old black ones and shed the fancy papal residence and gold pectoral cross.

Recently, Francis skipped a concert held in his honor in the Vatican auditorium, something unheard of among popes. Instead, he left his white papal chair empty as the concert went on without him.

"He doesn't seem to be interested in the kind of symbolic things that hold him at the center," said the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a fellow conservative Jesuit and head of U.S. publisher Ignatius Press.

Still, he hasn't shied from flexing his papal authority.

Francis' audacious decision to canonize Pope John XXIII was evidence that he knows full well how to wield papal power. Francis bypassed Vatican rules that require confirming a second miracle to John's credit before he could be declared a saint, skipping that formality so he could canonize both the liberal "father" of the Second Vatican Council and the conservative John Paul. That was seen as a balancing act aimed at keeping the disparate wings of the church happy.

So far, Francis' changes appear to have paid off, with public opinion polls showing broad popularity, at least among Catholics.

One recent survey in Italy said 96 percent of Catholics there have "a lot" of trust in Francis, a level not seen since the apex of John Paul s papacy. A Pew Research poll in the U.S. said 84 percent of American Catholics also have a favorable view of the pontiff, compared to 67 percent for Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, in the first Pew poll taken after his election.

"I think the 'Francis effect' is real. He's captured the world's imagination. He comes across as more authentic because he practices what he preaches," said David Gibson, author of a biography on Benedict XVI. "He looks like your parish priest, he talks like your parish priest, and people connect with that.

"But people from the U.S. to Africa to Asia are watching and wondering how he'll come off. Will Pope Francis translate from Rome to Rio?"

Francis will certainly take every opportunity to show off his simpler touch in Brazil, the world's biggest Catholic country, especially after what many considered the more aloof style of Benedict, who visited Brazil in 2007.

Francis is also well known for his outreach to Jews, Muslims and even atheists, so his appeal doesn't seem limited to Catholics alone. What's unclear, however, is how he will deal with the millions of Brazilians who have left the Catholic faith for evangelical churches that the Vatican considers "sects." Francis has no official encounters planned with representatives of other faiths.

After meeting with President Dilma Rousseff shortly after his arrival Monday, Francis will take a day off on Tuesday. On Wednesday he will begin his public activities in the rolling hills of rural Sao Paulo state, visiting a huge shrine built around a small clay statue of the Virgin Mary that is a figure of worship for millions of Brazilians. In Rio, he'll walk the Stations of the Cross surrounded by more than a million young devotees on Copacabana beach as part of World Youth Day festivities.

In one of the key events of his trip, the church's first Jesuit leader will venture into a rough slum that sits along a violence-soaked road known by locals as the Gaza Strip. For many Brazilians, images of that visit will conjure memories of the still beloved John Paul II, who made his own visits to Rio's slums in 1980 and 1997. Since then, evangelical groups have made deep inroads into Brazil's slums with their hands-on ministry of personal improvement and self-discipline.

Through much of the trip, Francis will forego the bullet-proof popemobile used by his two predecessors and instead wade through crowds in an open vehicle, a move strongly opposed by Brazilian security officials.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis chose to leave the popemobile home because he likes being able to get on and off the open-topped car to greet the faithful — something that's not possible from the bulletproof cage of the more secure vehicle.

Such moves are being closely watched by Brazilians such as Fernanda Neves, a 24-year-old lapsed Catholic in Brazil's biggest city, Sao Paulo, who this month attended her first blessing rite in more than a decade.

In a tiny chapel tucked behind the Sao Judas sanctuary in a working-class neighborhood, Neves looked startled when beads of holy water hit her forehead and dripped down onto her hot pink shirt as a young priest moved around the room, blessing the two dozen faithful gathered.

"I was raised in the church, my family is strongly Catholic, but by age 14 I felt emptiness in Mass. The messages were irrelevant to me," said Neves. "But this new pope, he speaks my language, he seems like a man of the people. It's easier to understand what he wants from us and I think he'll help bring Brazilians back to the church."

Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks reported this story in Rio de Janeiro and Nicole Winfield reported from Rome.

The suspect is a registered sex offender and has served prison time, the mayor said.

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Three bodies have been found wrapped in plastic bags in a Cleveland suburb and police will continue a search for possibly more victims Sunday, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said.

The bodies were found about 100 to 200 yards apart and a 35-year-old man was arrested and is a suspect in all three deaths, although he has not yet been charged, Norton said late Saturday.

The suspect is a registered sex offender and has served prison time, the mayor said. In police interviews, the man led them to believe he might have been influenced by convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, Norton said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence," the mayor said.

Sowell was found guilty in 2011 of killing 11 women and hiding their remains around his Cleveland home. He was sentenced to death and is in an Ohio prison.

Asked if the suspect has a fascination with the Sowell case, the mayor said: "We believe so."

Police Commander Mike Cardilli said a woman's body was found Friday in a garage and two other bodies were found Saturday -- one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house.

All three people are believed to have been killed in the last six to 10 days.

Police did not know the gender of the two bodies found Saturday and did not know the identities of any of the three victims. They were sent to the coroner's office.

Norton said the bodies were each in the fetal position, wrapped in several layers of trash bags. He said detectives continue to interview the suspect, who used his mother's address in Cleveland, the mayor said, in registering as a sex offender.

Cardilli said the man was arrested after a standoff with police Friday. Police did not immediately release the suspect's name. He was jailed in East Cleveland, the mayor said.

"The person in custody, some of the things he said to investigators made us go back today," the mayor said.

Police searched vacant houses over about three blocks in the neighborhood Saturday and planned to expand their search Sunday, Norton said.

The Plain Dealer reported that police, the FBI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department went through yards and abandoned houses and used dogs trained to find cadavers.

The neighborhood in East Cleveland, of some 17,000 residents, has many abandoned houses and authorities want to be thorough, the mayor said.

"Hopefully, we pray to God, this is it," he said.

Follow details of the case at Cleveland.com.

The base's new name better reflects the multifaceted use of the 22,000 acre facility.

 

Patrick issued an executive order renaming the 22,000 acre facility "Joint Base Cape Cod."

The governor said the new name more accurately describes the use of the state's largest base. The facility incorporates large parts of Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee and Sandwich.

Joint Base Cape Cod includes Otis Air National Guard base, a U.S. Air Force radar surveillance facility, a U.S. Coast Guard air station and the Camp Edwards training facility for military and civilian law enforcement. According to a Massachusetts National Guard press release there are close to 30 other tenants on the base with affiliation to Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and other federal, state and county entities.

According to state sources, nearly 4,000 military and civilian employees work at the base.

Parents and groups working with students say the promise to address bullying, prompted by the suicides of Carl Walker-Hoover of Springfield and Phoebe Prince of South Hadley, has gone unfulfilled.

By DANIEL ADAMS and SARAH BLACK, New England Center for Investigative Reporting

The Massachusetts anti-bullying law, hailed in 2010 as model legislation, is toothless and often ineffective, underfunded, hobbled by a lack of oversight and lacking requirements for tracking the number of bullying incidents, an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

While some school districts responded with strong anti-bullying initiatives after passage of the legislation, many other schools, with no money for programs and no enforcement of the law’s mandates, have done little more than file a plan and hold occasional school assemblies, parents and groups working with students say. They say the promise to address bullying, prompted by the suicides of two Massachusetts youths, has gone unfulfilled.

“So we have the law in place, but there’s no monitoring going on by the state or by anyone that can say, ‘Let’s see the data. Let’s see what’s going on,’” said Sirdeaner Walker, of Springfield, an advocate for anti-bullying programs who was at Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s side in 2010 when he signed the much-ballyhooed legislation.

Carl Walker-HooverSubmitted photo 

She is the mother of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, who killed himself at age 11 in 2009. Walker says her son told her other students “were threatening to beat him up, threatening to kill him.”

“He couldn’t even eat lunch in the cafeteria; he had to eat lunch with the guidance counselor. He loved school. He was very, very smart. And I think that, in the right setting, he would have excelled and done very well,” she said.

His death spurred her to take action. But there is “resistance from superintendents to actually have an anti-bullying law in place,” she said. “I think it kind of ties into the fact that people did not want to track the incidents of bullying in their schools because for some schools, they see it as reflecting negatively.”

One rough measure of the law’s effectiveness can be gleaned from responses to two questions on a confidential “risk behaviors” survey of youth taken at random schools in odd years. The questions – have you been bullied at school in the last year, and have you been cyber-bullied – show 18 percent of high school students and 36 percent of middle school students report having been bullied in 2011. That is almost identical to results in 2009 – a year before the law was passed. (The question on cyber-bullying was not asked in 2009.)

While data can be interpreted in different ways – many experts suggest reporting of bullying would rise with an increased awareness – some who work with youth feel the problem is growing, not diminishing.

“Personally, I think bullying is up. Look at the technology – there’s a lot more cyber-bullying than there ever was before,” said Jodie Elgee, director of “Saturdays for Success,” a program run by the Boston Public Schools in Roslindale for bullies, victims and bystanders. “Reporting is up. Awareness is up. But we don’t have a baseline to say.”

Boston’s innovative efforts are mirrored elsewhere. Newton’s anti-bullying program also has been praised. Some individual schools have incorporated anti-bullying efforts in their curriculum, in regular teacher and guidance counselor activities, and in energetic student-led programs.

A student at the M. Marcus Kiley Middle School in Springfield works on an anti-bullying poster.Photo by Dave Roback / The Republican [file] 

But the law does not require schools to gather statistics on bullying incidents and report them to the state. School staff must report individual bullying incidents to a principal, but school districts rarely compile, tabulate or analyze bullying data, making it impossible to determine the success of their programs.

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting filed formal requests of eight school districts asking for the number of students who were disciplined for bullying or the number of bullying incidents since September 2010.

NECIR submitted the requests under the state’s public records law to the Attleboro, Lawrence, Lowell, Nauset Regional, New Bedford, Pittsfield, Springfield and Worcester school districts. Of the eight, only Attleboro and Nauset provided the data.

Attleboro reported a decrease of 50 bullying incidents – to 240 from 290 – between the 2010-2011 school year and 2011-2012. Nauset reported 5, 3, and 11 bullying incidents respectively in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 school years in elementary and middle schools. The district did not break down high school incidents by year.

New Bedford did not respond. Lawrence and Springfield said they could try to compile the information, but for a fee. The remaining districts said that, because the law imposes no such requirement, they do not compile such statistics.

“We don’t keep data like that,” said Ann Marie Carpenter. She is the head of school psychologists and counselors for Pittsfield Public Schools and the bullying program coordinator for the district.

“We keep the number of people who were disciplined for teasing and taunting, those kind of things, but we don’t have a central place for bullying. The only way to do that would be to ask each individual building for their records. But the bullying law does not require us to keep records like that,” Carpenter added.

Some argue such statistics are not necessary.

“The school districts are asked to compile an awful lot of statistics. Adding one more is not, maybe, going to change the approach and how we’re dealing with it,” said Mary Lou Bergeron, assistant superintendent of the Lawrence Public Schools.

But a state attorney general’s commission set up in 2010 to review the law’s effectiveness has suggested that the absence of reporting requirements be corrected. It proposed legislation now before the state Senate and House to require that schools compile and file bullying incident statistics with the state, and conduct an anonymous survey among students every three years.

“The combination of school-reported and student-reported data will help us better understand the prevalence and nature of bullying in our schools,” Attorney General Martha M. Coakley told the Legislature’s joint education committee in May.

Phoebe PrinceSubmitted photo 

When the 2010 law was passed, Massachusetts was one of the last states to enact such legislation. The suicides of Walker-Hoover in Springfield and Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old who was hounded by peers after she entered South Hadley High School, spurred an outcry that propelled the bill through the Legislature. Proponents hailed it as “landmark” and “model” legislation.

Former state Sen. Martha M. Walz, a sponsor of the bill, said she initially thought the law was unnecessary.

“Schools should be taking action because it’s the right thing to do,” she said recently. “In many ways it’s a commentary that we had to pass a law that said school districts should prevent bullying in schools. We got to the point in Massachusetts that it became clear that at least in some school districts the actions were inconsistent.”

The law required the state education department to publish a model program, with sample teaching curricula and resources, which it has done online. But school districts were not required to adopt the model program. While some districts have taken the model and modified or expanded it in their schools, others have offered up homegrown programs of uncertain value.

“My real question is do they know this works?” asked the mother of a Lexington 12-year-old, after her son’s school showed a video about the Columbine High School massacre. She asked not to be identified so her son would not be singled out.

“It was a kind of shock and awe campaign,” she said. “Do they know that when you introduce kids to this kind of scary but true picture of life that you’re tenderizing them and sensitizing them in the right ways to messages of being nicer, kinder? It didn’t work for us.”

“Schools need more support to make better decisions. I think the current system, where they’re sort of left at the mercy of the marketplace, is not a good system,” said Elizabeth Englander, who runs the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University. “The issue isn’t just that they’re choosing more homegrown things, though that’s definitely a problem. But even when they pick evidence-based programs, they may not use them the way the authors intended.”

All 403 Massachusetts school districts were required to file an anti-bullying program with the state, and with much publicity the state pressed the districts to meet deadlines for those filings. Since then, the plans have largely sat in a file cabinet or electronic queue. There is no requirement for state enforcement.

12.23.2011 | WESTFIELD -- An actor portraying Ronald McDonald teaches kids at the Highland Elementary School a lesson in friendship during an anti-bullying program.The Republican [file] 

“We actually did not even have a requirement to review the plans,” said Jonathan C. Considine, a spokesman for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “We took it upon ourselves to sort of do a cursory review of the plans to make sure all the required elements were included in the plans. It was a courtesy we did for the districts.”

Considine said the state agency’s staff has helped conduct regional, professional and parent workshops and conferences with prosecutors. But mostly the issue of how vigorously the schools implement the programs is left to the schools themselves.

“Obviously, folks who know the students best, who can respond to any kind of incidents, are on the ground,” Considine said. “Whether it’s providing math curriculum or some sort of program for school safety, the experts are the ones in the building.”

The Legislature, wary of costs, also did not provide money to the school districts to carry out the anti-bullying law. Some critics say that omission doomed the effort; others say it prompted administrators to work creatively within the schools or to seek outside grants.

“This is an unfunded mandate. If you’re not giving (schools) money, you know they’re not going to do anything,” said Nan Stein, a school violence and bullying researcher at Wellesley College, who testified against the passage of the law. “They passed the law because two kids committed suicide. You could drive a truck through the holes in this bill.”

Stein still questions whether it was politics, not concern for the children, that produced the law. “I think it’s intended to placate the public. I think all these laws across the country are intended to placate the public as if this is the way to deal with school violence, which is a sham,” she said.

According to state officials, 20 Massachusetts school districts were able to use some part of grants intended for safety and anti-drug programs to develop anti-bullying programs. And some of the nine Massachusetts school districts that received $19.4 million in federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students grants in the last decade may have had leftover money they applied to bullying programs. But most school districts had to meet the requirements of the law with their own resources.

“There is a lot of money that is being used under the name of bullying that isn’t being spent the best way,” said Robin D’Antona, a Falmouth education consultant whose own son took his life in 1993 because of bullying. She said schools “will hire someone to come in and do a program with the kids – say, a juggler who is going to come in and juggle and talk about bullying. They will pay him and have an assembly. But that’s not prevention.”

The law “was a good first step, but it did not go far enough,” Deborah Peeples, president of the Greater Boston Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, told the legislative committee. She and others want those who are at high risk – such as immigrants, gays, and the handicapped – to be a focus of attention in school anti-bullying programs. Lesbian, gay and bisexual youths are too often the target of bullying and are seven times more likely to have attempted suicide, she said.

The 2011 risk survey found no improvement in their vulnerability to bullying, Peeples noted. When her own son was cornered in a locker room by teammates, “there was no way to report that bullying, certainly without repercussions,” she said. She said the law is not specific enough. We can’t address bullying if we are afraid to ask the questions to learn what it looks like.”

“Although we have an anti-bullying law there is no one making sure it’s actually happening and happening effectively,” agreed Kim Storey, a consultant with the Education Development Center in Waltham. “It’s hard to require something without putting the funding behind it.”

Bergeron, the assistant superintendent of Lawrence schools, believes the law has helped to change attitudes. “It’s really heightened everyone’s awareness of watching for and monitoring issues that might be bullying,” she said. “In the past if you saw something happen you might go, ‘Oh, they’re just fooling around.’ Now you’re going to say, ‘Wait a second, that’s not acceptable.’ ”

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (www.necir-bu.org) is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at Boston University. Reporters Rory McCann, Ruby Scalera, Sarina Tracy, Doug Struck and researcher Madelyn Powell contributed to this story.

Related:

» Bullying still in collective consciousness of Western Massachusetts school districts

Springfield Public Schools officials said bullying incidents have dropped from 443 in 2010 – a year after 11-year-old Carl Walker Hoover hanged himself after being bullied at the now-closed New Leadership Charter School – to 167 in 2013.

Two local school districts saddened by bullying-related suicides have reported that the issue remains firmly in the collective consciousness of administrators, teachers, parents and students although the headlines have faded.

Springfield Public Schools officials said bullying incidents have dropped from 443 in 2010 – a year after 11-year-old Carl Walker Hoover hanged himself after being bullied at the now-closed New Leadership Charter School – to 167 in 2013. The school’s closure this year was not linked to the tragedy.

Springfield has seen significant gains in the bullying realm despite receiving just $1,500 in state funding since 2010. Azell Murphy-Cavaan, communications director for the school system, said there were 250 bullying incidents in 2011 and 275 in 2012. These were defined as skirmishes that were investigated, deemed as bullying and prompted the offenders to be disciplined.

“An allegation of bullying is not recorded as a bullying incident until after an investigation has taken place at the school level and proven to, in fact, rise to the level of bullying. Once that occurs, the school reports it to the district, which then captures and records the data,” Murphy-Cavaan said.

Springfield’s public schools system encompasses about 26,000 students.

Walker-Hoover’s death in 2009 and 15-year-old Phoebe Prince’s suicide in South Hadley, also in the throes of being bullied by her classmates, sparked an international furor over the issue, popularizing the term “bullycide.”

Following the incidents, the state passed landmark anti-bullying legislation that required school districts to develop bullying prevention plans, placed new emphasis on cyber bullying and required teachers be trained to spot and intervene in bullying cases.

Critics of the law argue that the mandate was unfunded by the state and the reporting requirements were lacking. There has been a movement among state lawmakers to tighten up the law by requiring schools to collect data and report it to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which would then issue an annual report.

Bullying experts said they saw a groundswell of activity and policy-making by school officials in the immediate wake of the Prince and Walker-Hoover suicides that fell off as time went on and there were no further advances in the law.

“I did see this move for everyone to get their plans in place, then the energy around that stopped,” said Elizabeth Stassinos, a professor of criminal justice and ethnic and gender studies at Westfield State University.

She said, however, that there remains a cultural movement against bullying that has had more staying power than she expected. She pointed to Springfield’s numbers as an example.

“It’s hard to know if there is less bullying going on or whether schools are just punishing less,” Stassinos said. “But it could be a matter of schools stepping in more and parents paying more attention. No parent wants their child involved in a Phoebe Prince (incident). The cautionary and fatal tales of those two horrible and fatal cases could have put a chilling on bullying themselves.”

Stassinos said many of her students pursuing teaching degrees are eager to be trained in the dynamics of bullying, and that is a positive sign.

Superintendent of Springfield Public Schools Daniel J. Warwick said a combination of more acute attention to the issue and training has sent that district’s numbers trending down.

“I think some of the factors behind the rates of improvement we have seen can largely be credited to the heightened awareness of school staff around this issue and the increased expectations around their responses to such incidents. We have invested a great deal of time and resources into providing our educators and administrators with training and support to better monitor and supervise school culture and climate,” Warwick said in a statement.

In South Hadley, where six students were criminally prosecuted in connection with Prince’s suicide, there were eight incidents of bullying reported since 2012.

“We’re very blessed to have a school resource officer and a strong relationship with the Police Department,” said Nicholas Young, new superintendent of schools. “This community is especially sensitive to bullying. (The Prince case) is a pretty constant reminder of the need to keep hyper-vigilant.”

Even as the state was preparing to pass its law mandating that each school district in Massachusetts have measures in place to deal with bullying, South Hadley was mobilizing. Some 350 people turned out for a meeting to form an Anti-Bullying Task Force following Prince’s death. Dozens participated in formulating a plan for the school system.

Young, who became superintendent last year, said the district is working hard to address new allegations of bullying as they arise.

The Rev. Talbert Swan II, Springfield NAACP president, offers his viewpoint on the aftermath of the George Zimmerman trial in relation to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

By Rev. TALBERT W. SWAN II, Springfield NAACP president

Today, many of our hearts are still raw from the tragic verdict that set a killer free. An unarmed child only two years out of puberty: a son, a friend, a nephew and a brother by the name of Trayvon Benjamin Martin was murdered for being young, hooded and black.

Our minds are not able to conceive the weight of grief that is upon the shoulders of the Martin family. However, despite the unbearable grief and justifiable anger, which they may feel, Trayvon’s family members have carried themselves with the utmost dignity throughout this entire ordeal.

Parents should never outlive their children. They should never have to endure the pain deposited by the doubly cruel specter of perpetuity. Never in their darkest musings did Trayvon’s parents dream that their son would be gunned down for carrying a lethal bag of candy.

Today we are shocked, dazed and confused by the implausible verdict of the jury, the poor performance of the prosecutor and the misdirection tactics of the defense.

Rev. Talbert W. Swan II, president of the Springfield NAACP The Republican / Don Treeger 

The unfortunate reality is that Trayvon was murdered twice. Once on that fateful night in February 2012, and then again across the airwaves as this young man was assassinated by media outlets, pundits, bloggers and right-wing activists seeking to ignite the latent fires of America’s racialized imagination and past.

The trial was about murder, gun violence and Stand Your Ground, however, as much as the privileged want to deny it, it was also about race.

What we witnessed were the results of a black boy encountering a person whose mind was infected with racial sensibilities, which defined a black child walking in his neighborhood as a threat, a thug, a deviant and a miscreant who was up to no good.

Of course all of this will be excavated by social critics for years to come. In the meantime, while we continue to talk about the sad reality of this verdict, we need to talk about some other things as well.

 

We need to talk about how to be better practitioners of love and justice. We need to talk about how to use our artistic skills to inspire the world to change, even as Marvin Gaye, through the art of song, raised the question “What’s going on?”

We need to talk about Martin Luther King's quest to fight for justice in the face of injustice. We need to talk about the ministry of Jesus, who spent his life being an advocate for those who had no advocates. We need to talk about the fact that in 2013, 110 years after W.E.B. Dubois eloquently stated it in his book, “The Souls of Black Folk,” the problem of the 21st century remains “the problem of the color line.”

Sadly, we have been here before. Yet we must take this moment and continue to march on. We must march until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

In the words of the late Unitarian minister and abolitionist, Theodore Parker, we must march on because while we may not understand the moral universe, “the arc is a long one. . . . I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.

During fiscal year 2012, MassDevelopment financed or managed 280 projects generating investment of more than $2.3 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create more than 12,000 jobs and build or rehabilitate 900 residential units.

WILLIAMSTOWN - MassDevelopment has issued $126.1 million in tax-exempt bonds on behalf of Williams College.

Williams will use bond proceeds to finish construction of a new library and media center, renovate an outdoor athletic complex, and relocate and renovate Kellogg House, the site of the school’s Center for Environmental Studies and Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives.

The library project is expected to be completed in 2014.Consigli Construction Co., Inc. of Milford is the general contractor.

MassDevelopment said bond proceeds will also finance an addition to Kellogg House on campus, a natural gas-fired engine generator for electricity and steam heat for the, and other upgrades and capital improvements to the Williams physical plant. Bond proceeds will also refund previous debt.

In 2011, MassDevelopment issued $89.21 million in tax-exempt bonds on behalf of Williams, including the renovation of Chapin Hall, a historic performance space, and the completion of other repair and renewal projects.

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth, according to a news release. During FY2012, MassDevelopment financed or managed 280 projects generating investment of more than $2.3 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create more than 12,000 jobs and build or rehabilitate 900 residential units.