A little known militant group, Ansar Jerusalem, said its men were the target of the drone strike in Egyptian territory that killed the four militants preparing to fire rockets into Israel. Meanwhile, Egypt's military claimed that one of its helicopters carried out the strike, seeking to limit public criticism about allowing Israel to carry out strikes on its soil.

An Israeli army Heron TP drone, also known as the Eitan, flies during a display at the Palmahim Air Force Base in Palmahim, Israel. Egyptian security officials said Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, an Israeli drone fired a missile in the northern Sinai peninsula, killing several suspected Islamic militants and destroying a rocket launcher.Associated Press 

MAAMOUN YOUSSEF
Associated Press

CAIRO — Dozens of suspected militants openly joined a mass funeral procession Saturday for four slain Egyptian insurgents killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Sinai Peninsula, as Egyptian security forces watched them pass by.

A little known militant group, Ansar Jerusalem, said its men were the target of the drone strike in Egyptian territory that killed the four militants preparing to fire rockets into Israel. Meanwhile, Egypt's military claimed that one of its helicopters carried out the strike, seeking to limit public criticism about allowing Israel to carry out strikes on its soil.

By nightfall, security officials told The Associated Press that two Egyptian helicopters fired at a gathering of militants near the desert town of Sheik Zuweyid in the northern part of the peninsula. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said that four militants were killed and at least seven wounded.

The AP could not immediately reach area residents because it appeared that mobile phone service was disrupted temporarily, a security tactic used in past military operations in Sinai.

The attack a day earlier by the Israeli drone was a rare operation that could indicate increased cooperation between Egypt and Israel against militants in northern Sinai after a coup ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last month. It also is likely to increase tensions in a border region that has seen other rocket attacks in the past.

Hundreds of people, including armed jihadis, tribesmen carrying weapons and family members of the dead took part in the funeral. The bodies of the dead were displayed in the back of pickup trucks draped by black flags inscribed with Islamic verses. The flags are often used by al-Qaida militants, but also by Islamists. Some in the procession chanted slogans against Israel and Egypt's army.

The procession passed through checkpoints peacefully, even though many who were present likely are the same fighters carrying out near-daily attacks on security forces in Sinai. Security officials said the nature of the attack made it difficult to stop the procession out for fear of inflaming an already volatile situation. They also said checkpoints in the area were manned by just a handful of personnel ill-equipped to take on such a large group, which also included a number of locals.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.

In its statement, Ansar Jerusalem denounced the Egyptian military for having allowed the Israeli attack.

"What is greater treason than the Egyptian army allowing the Zionist drones to violate Egyptian airspace now and then?" it said.

The statement's authenticity could not be confirmed, but it was posted on a website commonly used by militant groups.

Egyptian security officials told the AP on Friday that a drone firing from the Israeli side of the border had killed five suspected militants. The site of the strike was about three miles inside Egypt. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief journalists.

Israel has maintained official silence about the strike, perhaps out of concerns about exposing Egypt's military to domestic public backlash. Egypt's government celebrates its battles fought against Israel over Sinai.

On Saturday, Egypt's state media quoted an anonymous senior security official saying the strike against the militants had been carried out by Egyptian helicopters. The reports also claimed the militants had been preparing to fire on Egyptian targets rather than Israel, possibly so as to not be seen defending Israeli interests. The military spokesman also released statements denying that Israel carried out any attacks.

Insurgents, who have close ties to Palestinian militants in the neighboring Gaza Strip, have stepped up attacks on police and military targets in the northern part of Sinai since the July 3 coup that toppled Morsi. Some residents of Sinai have alleged that Morsi did not clamp down hard enough on militants during his year in office out of concerns it would anger some of his supporters.

Egypt's military and security forces have long been engaged in a battle against militants in the northern half of the peninsula. Militants and tribesmen have been engaged in smuggling and other criminal activity in the area for years. Militants have fired rockets into Israel and staged other cross-border attacks there on previous occasions.

Ansar Jerusalem has claimed Israel attacked them in Egypt in the past. Late last year, the group released a video about a militant who was killed in August in a strike that Egyptian officials said may have been carried out by Israel. In the video, a Bedouin confesses to working as a spy for Israel for $3,000 a month and to placing an electronic chip on the man's motorcycle. He also said that Israeli intelligence officers crossed into Sinai several times and planted a bomb on the road leading to the man's home.

The video then showed images of the Bedouin's severed head.

The pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, was presumed killed along with his son, Maxwell, and two children who were inside a house struck by the small propeller-driven plane on Friday. Four bodies were recovered from the wreckage and sent to the Connecticut medical examiner's office on Saturday for identification, officials said.

n this Friday, Aug. 9, 2013 photo, first responders work the scene of a small plane crash, in East Haven, Conn. A former Microsoft executive and his teenage son are presumed dead after their small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood a few blocks from an airport while trying to land, setting fire to two houses and killing as many as four other people, the man's brother and authorities said. Associated Press 

MICHAEL MELIA
Associated Press

HARTFORD — The plane accident that killed four people in a Connecticut neighborhood was not the first crash for the pilot, a former Microsoft executive who was taking his teenage son on a tour of East Coast colleges.

The pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, was presumed killed along with his son, Maxwell, and two children who were inside a house struck by the small propeller-driven plane on Friday. Four bodies were recovered from the wreckage and sent to the Connecticut medical examiner's office on Saturday for identification, officials said.

Henningsgaard, a highly regarded philanthropist, was flying a small plane to Seattle in 2009 with his mother when the engine quit. He crash-landed on Washington's Columbia River.

"I forced myself to confront that fact that the situation any pilot fears — a mid-air emergency, was happening right then, with my mother in the plane," he wrote in a blog post days later.

In the Connecticut crash, Henningsgaard was coming in for a landing at Tweed New Haven Airport in rainy weather just before noon when the plane struck two small homes, engulfing them in flames. The aircraft's left wing lodged in one house and its right wing in the other.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Patrick Murray said Saturday that the plane was upside down when it struck a house at about a 60 degree angle. He said the pilot was making his first approach to the airport and did not declare an emergency before the crash.

In removing the wreckage and before analyzing any data, he said at a news conference in New Haven, "We don't have any indication there was anything wrong with the plane."

A preliminary NTSB report on the crash is expected within 10 business days. A more in-depth report could take up to nine months.

Two children, ages 1 and 13, have been missing since the plane crashed into their home. As their mother yelled for help from the front lawn, several people in the working-class neighborhood raced to rescue the children, but they were forced to turn back by the fire.

Authorities said previously that as many as six people could have died in the crash, but East Haven Deputy Fire Chief Anthony Moscato said the four recovered late Friday are believed to be the only victims. On Saturday, crews removed charred sections of the plane as National Transportation Safety Board investigators worked to determine the cause of the crash.

The pilot's family learned it was Bill Henningsgaard's plane through the tail number, said his brother, Blair Henninsgaard, the city attorney in Astoria, Ore.

In 2009, Bill Henningsgaard was flying from Astoria, Ore. with his 84-year-old mother to watch his daughter in a high school play when he crashed into the river as he tried to glide back to the airport. He and his mother, a former Astoria mayor, climbed out on a wing and were rescued.

Henningsgaard was a member of Seattle-based Social Venture Partners, a foundation that helps build up communities. The foundation extended its condolences to his wife and two daughters.

"There are hundreds of people that have a story about Bill — when he went the extra mile, when he knew just the right thing to say, how he would never give up. He was truly all-in for this community, heart, mind and soul," the foundation wrote Friday in a post on its website.

Paul Shoemaker of Social Venture Partners told the Seattle Times that Henningsgaard was "an incredibly good, real, honest man, for the community, for his family, for this world."

"The guy has already done so much for the world. And he was going to do so much more," he said.

The 10-seater plane, a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, flew out of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and crashed at 11:25 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said. Neighbors reported they did not near any engine noise immediately before the crash.

A neighbor, David Esposito, was among those who raced to help the children's mother. He said he ran into the upstairs of the house, where the woman believed her children were, but he couldn't find them after frantically searching a crib and closets. He returned downstairs to search some more, but he dragged the woman out when the flames became too strong.

Henningsgaard spent 14 years at Microsoft in various marketing and sales positions, according to his biography on Social Venture Partners website. He was a longtime board member at Youth Eastside Services, a Bellevue, Wash.-based agency that provides counseling and substance-abuse treatment, and led the organization's $10.7 million fundraising campaign for its new headquarters, which opened in 2008.

A vigil for the victims of the crash was planned for Saturday night in an East Haven park.

Associated Press writers Steven DuBois in Portland, Ore., Gene Johnson in Seattle and John Christoffersen in East Haven, Conn., contributed to this report.

Caro Quintero walked free Friday after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena's kidnapping, torture and murder. The three-judge appeals court in the western state of Jalisco ordered Caro Quintero's immediate release on procedural grounds after 28 years behind bars, saying he should have originally been prosecuted in state instead of federal court.

An undated file photo of Enrique "€œKiki"€ Camarena, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, agent, murdered in Mexico in 1985. In the U.S., outrage grew over the surprise decision to overturn Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero’s conviction for the 1985 slaying. Caro Quintero walked free Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in Camarena'€™s kidnapping, torture and murder.Associated Press 

MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Defense attorneys believe freedom is imminent for a second member of the trio of Mexican drug kingpins responsible for the 1985 slaying of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, one of the capo's attorneys said Saturday. In the U.S., outrage grew over this week's surprise decision to overturn Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero's conviction in the notorious killing.

Caro Quintero walked free Friday after a federal court overturned his 40-year sentence in agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena's kidnapping, torture and murder. The three-judge appeals court in the western state of Jalisco ordered Caro Quintero's immediate release on procedural grounds after 28 years behind bars, saying he should have originally been prosecuted in state instead of federal court.

Also imprisoned in the Camarena case are Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, two of the founding fathers of modern Mexican drug trafficking, whose cartel based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa later split into some of Mexico's largest drug organizations.

Fonseca Carrillo's attorney, Jose Luis Guizar, said his team had filed an appeal based on the same procedural grounds used by Caro Quintero, and expected him to be freed within 15 days by a different court in Jalisco.

"The appeal is about to be resolved. We believe that the judges will stick to the law," Guizar said. "Fonseca Carrillo should already be on the street. He should be at home. At its base, the issue is the same as Rafael's. "

He said he had not spoken to Felix Gallardo's attorneys about their expectations for that case. Mexican officials did not respond to calls seeking comment Saturday.

Camarena's murder escalated tensions between Mexico and the U.S. to perhaps their highest level in recent decades, with the Reagan administration nearly closing the border to exert pressure on a government with deep ties to the drug lords whose cartel operated with near impunity throughout Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it found the Mexican court's decision to free Caro Quintero "deeply troubling," but former DEA agents said they were pessimistic that the Obama administration would bring similar pressure to bear.

Nearly 20 years after the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S.-Mexico trade exceeds $1 billion a day. The two countries have worked closely against drug cartels over the last seven years, with the U.S. sending billions in equipment and training in exchange for wide access to Mexican law-enforcement agencies and intelligence.

The U.S. said little last year after Mexican federal police opened fire on a U.S. embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers in one of the most serious attacks on U.S. personnel since the Camarena slaying. Twelve police officers were detained in the case but there is no public evidence that the U.S. or Mexico pursued suspicions that the shooting was a deliberate attack by corrupt police working on behalf of organized crime.

"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of complaints about it but do we have a Department of Justice that's going to stand up for this right now? I don't think so," said Edward Heath, who ran the DEA's Mexico office during the Camarena killing. "Everybody's happy, businesswise. Trade is fine, everybody is content."

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December, has been restricting U.S. access as part of a broader shift in Mexican law-enforcement strategy from taking down cartel chiefs to reducing daily violence, particularly extortion, kidnapping and homicide. That shift has raised doubts in Washington about Mexico's ongoing commitment to fighting drug trafficking, doubts that grew stronger Saturday after Caro Quintero marked his second full day as a free man, with no public sign of his whereabouts.

The U.S. alleged as recently as June that Caro Quintero continued to run an extensive drug ring from behind bars, working with the Sinaloa cartel to move drugs and launder the proceeds through a string of front businesses.

Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat who closely follows Mexican politics, said Pena Nieto's government appeared to have been caught off guard by the decision to free Caro Quintero, but the capo's liberation was nonetheless a blow to relations with Washington.

"We've been asking Mexico to follow the rule of law and I don't know if this exactly the rule of law that they're following," he said. "There should have been some sort of heads up notice that this was going to happen.

"I hope this is not a foreshadowing of what might be coming in from this administration," Cuellar said. "I don't think so but the appearance doesn't look very good right now for U.S.-Mexico relations."

Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former member of Mexico's domestic intelligence service, said he had met Friday with members of the Mexico's Interior Department, which oversees most law-enforcement issues.

"They claimed to have been surprised, to have been blindsided by the judicial decision," he said.

Either way, Caro Quintero's release pales in importance next to the detention last month of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, head of the ruthless Zetas cartel, Hope said. The arrest of the man known as Z-40 was publicly praised by President Barack Obama as a sign of Mexico's seriousness about fighting drug cartels.

"Caro Quintero is the past," Hope said. "Z-40 was the clear and present danger."

The Wednesday ruling for Caro Quintero remained secret for two days, the Department of Justice said, with the U.S. learning about it Friday morning about the same time as the news media, hours after Caro Quintero left prison.

"The retired agents that I have spoken to are extremely upset," said Joe Gutensohn, president of the U.S. Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents. "They consider this just another slap in the face for our efforts to stem the drug trade in Mexico."

Mexico's attorney-general said the Jalisco court had "completely ignored" Supreme Court precedent in dismissing the case instead of referring it back to the state courts. Attorney-General Jesus Murillo Karam said he would get involved in the case but offered no specifics.

Young Patric used to sometimes visit Oswald's grave with his mother. He recalled that she told him: "Never forget that you got to see Kennedy the night before he died."

In this Aug. 6, 2013 photo, a headstone marking the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963, lies next to a marker inscribed with Nick Beef, at Shannon Rose Hill Cemetery in Ft. Worth, Texas. For years, curiosity seekers visiting the cemetery have wondered about the simple headstone next door. The New York Times reports that man who calls himself Nick Beef is alive and living in New York.Associated Press 

NEW YORK — For years, curiosity seekers visiting the Fort Worth, Texas, grave of Lee Harvey Oswald have wondered about the simple headstone next door, marked Nick Beef.

It turns out Nick Beef is alive and living in New York.

The New York Times reports that the 56-year-old man who uses that name purchased the cemetery plot next to Oswald's in 1975 and had the granite marker placed there in 1997.

Beef, born Patric Abedin, now lives in Manhattan and calls himself a nonperforming performance artist.

On Nov. 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, landed at the former Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth as part of a two-day Texas tour.

Beef, then 6 years old, was sitting on the shoulders of a military police officer in the crowd when the first couple passed just a few feet away.

Oswald shot Kennedy the next day.

Young Patric used to sometimes visit Oswald's grave with his mother. He recalled that she told him: "Never forget that you got to see Kennedy the night before he died."

When he was 18, Beef read that the burial plot next to Oswald's was available. He bought it for $17.50 down and 16 monthly payments of $10.

Beef said he has often asked himself why he wanted it. "It meant something to me in life," is the only answer he can come up with.

Beef moved to New York, married, had two children and divorced. He did some freelance comedy writing using the name Nick Beef, a moniker he came up with while joking around with a friend.

His mother died in late 1996 and he returned to Texas to arrange her funeral.

He told the Times that during his stay, he visited his burial plot and decided to buy a gravestone with the exact dimensions as Oswald's.

He told the cemetery official to inscribe it Nick Beef.

He has no plans to ever be buried there. He said he would prefer to be cremated.

These findings echo a December 2012 Javelin Strategy & Research report that ranked Citizens Bank #1 for mobile-banking customer satisfaction.

A Citizens Bank branchphoto provided 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Citizens Bank’s Mobile Banking apps for Android and iPhone are generating the most-positive customer feedback in the industry, according to a new report issued by Xtreme Labs.

In announcing its findings of the Top Three mobile banking apps, Xtreme Labs noted that “Citizens Bank is the only bank with the highest rated apps on both Android (4.5 stars) and iOS (4.5 stars) platforms.”

Citizens Bank’s iPhone app was recognized for having both the highest star rating and the highest percentage of positive customer comments in the industry. The Citizens Bank Android app has the highest percentage of positive customer comments and the second-highest star rating, according to the report. USAA posted a slightly higher star rating for Android, with 4.6 stars, but a lower percentage of positive customer comments. No other bank received Top Three honors for both iPhone and Android.

Xtreme Labs’ review of comments found that comments for Citizens Bank’s Android app were 97 percent favorable, while comments for the bank’s iPhone app were 93 percent favorable.

These findings echo a December 2012 Javelin Strategy & Research report that ranked Citizens Bank #1 for mobile-banking customer satisfaction.

Gorme, who also had a huge solo hit in 1963 with "Blame it on the Bossa Nova," died Saturday at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas following a brief, undisclosed illness, said her publicist, Howard Bragman.

In this May 30,1998 file photo, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme arrive at the black-tie gala called "Thanks Frank" honoring Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas. Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer as a solo act and as a team with husband Steve Lawrence, has died. She was 84. Her publicist, Howard Bragman, says she died at a Las Vegas hospital Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013 following an undisclosed illness.Associated Press 

BOB THOMAS
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Eydie Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer as a solo act and as a team with her husband, Steve Lawrence, has died. She was 84.

Gorme, who also had a huge solo hit in 1963 with "Blame it on the Bossa Nova," died Saturday at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas following a brief, undisclosed illness, said her publicist, Howard Bragman.

Gorme was a successful band singer and nightclub entertainer when she was invited to join the cast of Steve Allen's local New York television show in 1953.

She sang solos and also did duets and comedy skits with Lawrence, a rising young singer who had joined the show a year earlier. When the program became NBC's "Tonight Show" in 1954, the young couple went with it.

They married in Las Vegas in 1957 and later performed for audiences there. Lawrence, the couple's son David and other loved ones were by her side when she died, Bragman said.

"Eydie has been my partner on stage and in life for more than 55 years," Lawrence said in a statement. "I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time."

Although usually recognized for her musical partnership with Lawrence, Gorme broke through on her own with the Grammy-nominated "Blame it on the Bossa Nova." The bouncy tune about a dance craze of the time was written by the Tin Pan Alley songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Her husband had had an equally huge solo hit in 1962 with "Go Away Little Girl," written by the songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

Gorme would score another solo hit in 1964, but this time for a Spanish-language recording.

Gorme, who was born in New York City to Sephardic Jewish parents, grew up speaking both English and Spanish. When she and her husband were at the height of their career as a team in 1964, Columbia Records President Goddard Lieberson suggested she put that Spanish to use in the recording studio.

The result was "Amor," recorded with the Mexican combo Trio Los Panchos.

The song became a hit throughout Latin America, which resulted in more recordings for the Latino market, and Lawrence and Gorme performed as a duo throughout Latin America.

"Our Spanish stuff outsells our English recordings," Lawrence said in 2004. "She's like a diva to the Spanish world."

Gorme and Lawrence, meanwhile, had an impressive, long-lasting career in English-language music as well, encompassing recordings and appearances on TV, in nightclubs and in concert halls.

Throughout it, they stuck for the most part with the music of classic composers like Berlin, Kern, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and other giants of Broadway and Hollywood musicals. They eschewed rock 'n' roll and made no apologies for it.

"People come with a general idea of what they're going to get," Lawrence said of their show in a 1989 interview. "They buy a certain cereal, and they know what to expect from that package."

Soon after their marriage, the pair had landed their own TV program, "The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Show," which was a summer replacement for Allen.

Not long after that, however, Lawrence entered the Army, and Gorme went on the nightclub circuit as a soloist until his return to civilian life two years later.

After his discharge, Lawrence and Gorme quickly reteamed, and their careers took off.

They appeared at leading nightclubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Las Vegas, combining music with the comedy bits they had learned during their apprenticeship on Allen's show.

With nightclubs dwindling in popularity in the 1980s, they moved their act to large theaters and auditoriums, drawing not only older audiences but also the Baby Boomers who had grown up on rock 'n' roll.

Gorme, who was born Aug. 16, 1928, began to seriously consider a music career while still a student at William Taft High School in New York City's borough of the Bronx, where she had been voted the "Prettiest, Peppiest Cheerleader."

After graduation, she worked as a Spanish interpreter for a time but also sang on weekends with the band of Ken Greenglass, who encouraged her and eventually became her manager.

Her first big break came when she landed a tour with the Tommy Tucker band, and she followed that up with gigs with Tex Beneke, Ray Eberle and on radio and television. Among her radio appearances was one on a Spanish language show, "Cita Con Eydie ("A Date with Eydie"), which was beamed to Latin America by Voice of America.

Early in her career, Gorme considered changing her name, but her mother protested.

"It's bad enough that you're in show business. How will the neighbors know if you're ever a success?" she told her, so Gorme decided to keep the family name but changed her given name from Edith to Edie.

Later, having grown tired of people mistaking it for Eddie, she changed the spelling to Eydie.

She is survived by Lawrence, her son David and a granddaughter. Her other son with Lawrence, Michael, died of heart failure in 1986 at age 23.

DiMaggio's car was found Friday morning about 40 miles east of the tiny town of Cascade, parked where the dirt road ends and the Sand Creek trailhead enters the wilderness area.

This combination of undated file photos provided by the San Diego Sheriff's Department shows James Lee DiMaggio, 40, and Hannah Anderson, 16. A massive search entered a seventh day Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, for DiMaggio, suspected of abducting 16-year-old family friend Hannah. Police said DiMaggio has been killed and Hannah's been found safe. Associated Press 

REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press

CASCADE, Idaho — San Diego County Sheriff's officials say the man suspected of abducting 16-year-old Hannah Anderson has been killed in Idaho and the teen has been found safe.

San Diego Sheriff William D. Gore said Hannah's father was "elated" his daughter was found alive.

Federal and local law enforcement spent Saturday combing through Idaho's rugged Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in search of Hannah and her suspected kidnapper, 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio.

DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother, 44-year-old Christina Anderson, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.

DiMaggio's car was found Friday morning about 40 miles east of the tiny town of Cascade, parked where the dirt road ends and the Sand Creek trailhead enters the wilderness area.

Federal and local law enforcement agents say they're focused on getting feet on the ground in the search for 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her suspected abductor, 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio in central Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.

Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft have been flying FBI agents and other law enforcement officers into the roadless wilderness area throughout the day Saturday.

"We are going to continue searching for as long as we believe this is the area most likely where this pair would be," Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said. "We're going to put every resource possible here, every person possible that we can."

Detectives with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department finished searching DiMaggio's car Saturday afternoon at the remote trailhead where it was found about 40 miles east of the tiny town of Cascade. They had the vehicle towed to a garage in Cascade for further processing.

DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.

The steep and mountainous terrain makes it impossible to do a traditional grid search — and the search area itself spans more than 300 miles, Dearden said. Though search dogs have been brought in from out of state and horses have been identified for possible use, the animals aren't currently helping in the search, Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said Saturday afternoon.

Time is a critical concern. Dearden said investigators believe both Hannah and DiMaggio are alive, but they are worried about whether the 16-year-old has the right clothing and footwear for the mountainous conditions and whether she has the stamina to handle days of hiking through steep terrain.

Instead, search coordinators are trying to choose the most strategic locations to place the searchers, whether it be along trailheads, at the few airstrips within the wilderness borders, or along drainage paths and river shores.

It's Idaho's wildfire season, and though no blazes threaten the search area, smoke from big fires to the south has reduced visibility and ash is falling on the town of Cascade.

Though Dearden said the smoke hasn't yet hindered the search, nightfall is a problem.

"Simply for safety reasons it isn't practical to have people out there at night," she said.

Ray Arnold, a backcountry pilot and the owner of charter flight service Arnold Aviation in Cascade, said he flew local crews into the wilderness area to help with the search on Friday.

On Saturday, he was helping law enforcement out at the Cascade Airport, fueling aircraft and offering other support, he said.

"There's quite a bit of smoke but you know, if you get down a little lower, it's fine. It's not anything different than any other summer around here," Arnold said.

Though there's not a ton of tree canopy cover in the high alpine area where Anderson and DiMaggio are believed to be, it would still likely be difficult to spot the pair from a plane, Arnold said.

"If a person stands beside a tree or something and his clothes are similar to surroundings, it's hard to see a person, especially if they're not moving," Arnold said. "The people on the ground are probably using spotting scopes and they have a better chance of finding them in some ways. A person gets pretty small when you're up in the air."

Law enforcement officials in San Diego have noted that DiMaggio bought camping gear a few weeks ago.

A 17-year-old driver lost control of her car on the Chicopee Curve, leaving 5 people injured

 

State Police Sgt. Richard Gawron of the Springfield Barracks, said the Honda CRV SUV left the roadway on the north side of the highway and rolled down a banking and landed in a rain culvert between the I-391 entrance and the bridge over the Connecticut River. The State Police received notification of the crash at 9:09 p.m.

Gawron said the 17-year old Springfield driver and her family were removed from the demolished car and taken to the hospital. Gawron said the condition of the injured is not currently available.

The accident remains under investigation.

The Center for Human Development runs about 70 umbrella programs, some at a surplus and others at a deficit. President and CEO James Goodwin said one of his roles is to keep it all on an even keel.

SPRINGFIELD – Walk through the doors of the Hawthorn Adult Day Health center on State Street and there is evidence of youthful pleasures: karaoke, art projects, Wii bowling and balloon volleyball.

Astlene Nelson, 42 - hardly a senior, but blind, and physically and mentally disabled - belts out a rendition of “You Light up My Life” in one room. It’s a crowd favorite and a reminder of her childhood.

“I remember when I was small, I used to sing in the choir,” said Nelson, who lost her vision when she was 10, has been diagnosed as mildly mentally retarded and walks with a cane. She is among nearly 50 (mostly elderly) disabled local residents who visit the center daily. They arrive by the van load.

Nelson and the center are central to the mission of the Center for Human Development, according to leaders at the agency, whose mission is “good people, good work.” The Springfield-based human services conglomerate offers programs targeting the gamut of social ills and vulnerable populations: needy families, abandoned children and the mentally ill and disabled.

It has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception in 1972, now with1,500 employees and dozens of sites across Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. They include outpatient clinics, tidy group homes for those with Down syndrome, foster care sites and a large alternative high school.

With consistent mergers, new state and federal contracts and steady budget growth, according to figures provided by President and CEO James Goodwin, the agency is the picture of fiscal health in a dreary fiscal climate. It is among the top 10 employers in the Pioneer Valley, according to Jeffrey Ciuffreda, president of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield.

But, Goodwin notes, keeping such an organization solvent and growing is at times a fragile exercise. It requires sacrifices of sentimental favorite programs for the greater good, and frequently gambling on projected health care trends that may or may not pan out.

One case in point: Riverbend Furniture, a so-called “social enterprise” that employed developmentally mentally ill workers in Holyoke, recently closed its doors after 30 years in business. At its peak, the company employed 100 and turned a small profit crafting and selling furniture – chiefly to colleges. However, in 2009 the state cut its annual earmark of $650,000 to help sustain the program. Simultaneously, the cost of materials soared.

“We were importing parts and wood from Malaysia. It took $2.6 million in sales to break even; we couldn’t handle it,” said Goodwin, who founded the company himself in 1982 with a single machine purchased from Sears. “I was trying everything we could. It ripped my guts out to close it.”

James Goodwin is President and CEO of the Center for Human Development. Staff photo by Mark Murray 

So, too, went two other social enterprises: A New Leaf, a flower shop, and Advanced Office Cleaning, both of which also employed the mentally disabled and lost state funding. Goodwin said the agency reduced staff and carried the ventures for as long as it could – diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from its general budget and scant fund-raising dollars.

“At some point, we’re not serving enough people to warrant the expense,” Goodwin said. “What we are is a corporation, but everyone views their program as the most critical.”

Chairman of the CHD Board of Directors, Evan C. Plotkin, said he is interested in exploring new social enterprise ventures with more manageable business models.

“Social enterprise, as far as I’m concerned, is a very important part of their mission and what they should be doing,” Plotkin said, adding that he has explored downtown gardening and upholstering businesses as alternatives.

All three businesses were shuttered over the past two or three months, Goodwin said.

Another program that closed its doors abruptly was the Institute for Dynamic Living, on Birnie Avenue in Springfield. It was once a labyrinth of tunnels, tubes and gadgets designed in large part for autistic children and those with “sensory issues.” Goodwin said onetime manager Tina Champagne was a renowned expert in mental health occupational therapy and provided progressive services in a narrow clinical field.

The agency kept it afloat as a third-party payer program, unlike many of their programs which rely on federal and state contracts. Goodwin said they were banking on the recently revised DSM-5 clinical criteria to include specific types of autism, triggering favorable insurance coverage. Instead, the revised standards excluded certain diagnoses, including “sensory integration disorder,” prompting Champagne to leave and the program to fold, according to Goodwin.

“We lost our shirts on occupational therapy,” he said. “I thought sensory integration disorder would be a diagnosis,” included in the new criteria. It was another program CHD subsidized for some time in the hopes insurance coverage was imminent.

Nearly simultaneously, however, Goodwin said he was able to hire two additional occupational therapists under a state contract for children covered by the state Department of Children and Families, which cares for abused and neglected children and adolescents. Such is the world of funding for nonprofit organizations that are clinical/social service hybrids and do little in the way of private fund-raising.

In addition, he plans to open in the institute’s place a new “Acceptance & Commitment Therapy” (ACT) clinic for sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder. This is an intensive model of psychotherapy for trauma victims Goodwin anticipates will draw military veterans suffering from post-battlefield stress, as well as victims of abuse.

Goodwin said the organization needs to focus more on fund-raising.

CHD raised $700,000 in private donations last year – a small fraction of its $63 million in operating revenues last year. According to private audits conducted annually, that number has climbed steadily since 2008, when it was approximately $43 million.

“I would be thrilled to raise about $750,000 in the coming year,” Goodwin said.

Nonprofits are restricted by a “not-for-profit contractor surplus revenue retention policy fund pool disclosure,” a mouthful that essentially means they are not permitted to accumulate a surplus in excess of 5 percent of its state contracts for the year. Additional revenues must be returned to the state.

Goodwin earns $210,000 annually, a far cry from the $18,000-per-year he made when he started with the organization 34 years ago as manager of four adult group homes.

Residential treatment for troubled and disabled youth, plus disabled adults, remains the backbone of the agency - though its reach has extended far beyond that.

One of its approximately 50 group homes is on Somers Road in East Longmeadow. It is home to four adults with Down syndrome – Tim, 35; Frank. 36; Lisa, 52; and Steve, 53. Before coming to the pretty home with flower boxes and a small garden out back, they hailed from a state school, a foster home and other settings, until it was determined they would benefit from a more independent environment.

The home is staffed around the clock. Lisa is the unchallenged queen bee and favors tea parties. Tim likes to swim. All four draft their own grocery lists and do their own shopping with the help of staff.

“They cook all their own meals and are very independent,” said program supervisor Kathy Walker. “They love each other like family.”

Goodwin said one of the perennial thorns in the organization’s side (and that of similar human service agencies) is resistance from neighbors when they establish new group homes or plan expansions. The Somers Road home was an exception, he said.

Most recently, however, a controversy has erupted over CHD’s Cancer House of Hope on Westfield Street in West Springfield. The agency took over the cancer education initiative in 2009, rescuing it from insolvency, Goodwin said.

Instead of keeping two separate sites in Westfield and Springfield, CHD decided earlier this year to close those and open one, centrally located house in West Springfield.

CHD became embroiled in a debate with the West Springfield building commissioner and a handful of neighbors when it announced plans to make minor modifications to the house. Some neighbors objected to additional cars parked on the street at a public meeting in late July.

The building commissioner contends the program does not have the proper permits to operate in the first place, and issued a cease and desist order.

Goodwin said the program is an educational center and is protected by the “Dover Amendment,” a zoning exemption for educational programs for the disabled and an offshoot of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He argued city officials are unfairly holding the site to commercial standards and presented a set of architectural plans for a small ramp, and some walls they intend to build for privacy.

Further, he said the program caters to very small groups of women who have been diagnosed with cancer and visit the house for free support groups, Raki and yoga one day a week. Goodwin asserts the program draws very little traffic.

“This isn’t yoga for the public. It’s generally for middle-aged women undergoing chemotherapy who find some comfort in being around other women in the same boat,” Goodwin said, adding that he believes the town is needling them in the hopes “they will just go away.”

He said the agency previously has taken similar battles to court, but the debates can become expensive. Cancer House of Hope is funded solely by donations and ran a $140,000 shortfall last year, which CHD covered to keep the program open.

With about 70 umbrella programs, some run at a surplus and others at a deficit, Goodwin said. Among his roles is to keep it all on an even keel.

Typically those that are the most fiscally consistent are state-contracted – including 80 intensive-care foster homes for abused, neglected and special needs children, from infants to teens.

Melanie Hines is one such foster parent. She has three foster sons, ages 11 to 18. Hines has cared for each of them for up to three years, but occasionally takes in short-term, emergency placements.

“I love kids,” she said. “A lot of the kids with pasts like theirs, it’s important to be able to live in a stable home with structure. I’m very close to the kids I have here; they’re like my own.”

Like the Hawthorn Adult Day Centers, foster homes such as Hines’ go directly to the mission of the agency, Goodwin said. He also relies on a staff that is devoted despite the fact that human service jobs are often low-paying and stressful.

“In the end, I want my employees to be proud of this agency. I’m proud of this agency,” he said.

The Hampden sheriff disclosed that he hired a niece and a brother-in-law, while the Barnstable sheriff hired the husband of a niece, the husband of a cousin, and two cousins of his wife.

BOSTON -- Hampden county Sheriff Michael J. Ashe and Barnstable County Sheriff James M. Cummings have disclosed that they hired relatives in special filings with the state Ethics Commission designed in state law to dispel the appearances of possible favoritism.

Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a disclosure in June that her nephew, Joseph Gentile, had applied to become a deputy chief of the criminal bureau for the attorney general and that she would abstain from the possible hire.

Hampden county Sheriff Michael J. AsheMark M. Murray/The Republican file 

Under state ethics law, dozens of elected officials and other employees in municipal and state government have filed the disclosures detailing a range of affiliations or relationships.

The submissions are made to dispel any appearance of a potential conflict of interest or possible perception that they could, for example, be improperly influenced in their official duties.

"These disclosure are important to ensure transparency in government
and are required by law to protect against a possible conflict of interest that may arise during the hiring process," said Brad Puffer, director of communications for Coakley. when asked about the filing by the attorney general involving her nephew.

Puffer said that Gentile, an assistant district attorney in Middlesex County, was highly qualified but that several weeks ago he withdrew his name from consideration because he receives more trial experience in his existing job.

Ashe in April submitted a disclosure that he hired his brother-in-law, John M. Denery, as a full-time support service assistant at the sheriff's department.

Barnstable county Sheriff James CummingsPhoto provided 

In 2011, he filed separate papers that he hired his niece, Brigid Denery, who is his sister's daughter, as a clerk.

In both cases, Ashe said, he accepted the recommendations of department managers that the family members be hired and that both Denerys were qualified. John Denery, who is married to the sheriff's sister, had worked 12 years as a per diem employee with the department, according to the filing.

Ashe said both Denerys have college degrees, were well qualified and dedicated to the work at the jail. Brigid Denery worked as a residential supervisor last year, receiving $52,000, state payroll records said.

"They bring that commitment in terms of our mission," the sheriff said.

Separately, a special sheriff with the Hampden department in 2009 submitted a disclosure that J. John Ashe, who had retired as superintendent of the jail in 2009, was appointed as a part-time consultant on inmate reentry programs and correctional operations, eliminating the need to hire a significantly more costly replacement for Ashe. J. John Ashe, who is the sheriff's brother, received $58,000 last year as a consultant, according to payroll records.

State law allows retirees such as Ashe, who has an annual $102,000 pension after working about 34 years, to receive a pension and simultaneously work for the state. State law says a retiree's state earnings and pension cannot exceed the current salary of the position from which he or she retired. The Republican in 2010 had reported his hiring as a consultant.

State law also allows officials to hire "non-immediate family members," including cousins, nephews and nieces, but requires disclosure.

Ashe also submitted a disclosure in 2009 that a son-in-law, James C. Kennedy, is one of the owners of a company that was a potential bidder for a contract to install smoke and carbon dioxide detectors at the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow. In an interview, Ashe said, that the eventual winner of the installation contract later hired the son-in-law's company as a subcontractor for a one-day job, a decision that was outside the scope of financial and purchasing officials at the jail.

Ashe also revealed in 2009 that he approved the sale to Kennedy and his daughter of a storage shed built by inmates for sale to the general public, generating revenues for the vocational training program at the jail. Under his approval, the Kennedys were to pay the same approximately $3,000 charged to others in the public for one of the sheds, Ashe said.

In his disclosure, Cummings said Matthew Smith, who is married to his niece, was hired as a crime scene investigator; Paul Coyle, who is married to his cousin, was hired as the print shop manager; Rebecca Varney, who is his wife's cousin, was hired as a finance clerk; and John Varao, who is also his wife's cousin, was hired as a correction officer.

In an interview, Cummings said he had previously disclosed the hires in 2007 to the Barnstable County Superior Court clerk, but filed the disclosures again with the state in November 2011, after the state took over the department and some other county sheriff's departments.

"They have worked out very good," Cummings said of the hires.

Smith earned $91,000 last year; Coyle, $62,000; Varney, $68,000, and Varao, $70,000, payroll records said.

The filings are made for various reasons to dispel the appearances of potential conflicts.

State legislators often make the filings if they receive free or discounted travel or lodging expenses that serve a legitimate public purpose.

In March 2011, Auditor Suzanne M. Bump disclosed that her son, Neil McDevitt, is a private lawyer who accepts work from the state Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees the hiring of private lawyers for the poor.

"There was no plan to audit CPCS at the time, but it was clear that CPCS would be audited at some point in the auditor’s first term, so Auditor Bump avoided any appearance of a violation by assigning all CPCS matters to First Deputy Auditor Laura Marlin and filing this disclosure," Bump's press secretary said in a statement.

Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, a Barre Democrat and the current chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, filed a disclosure in 2012 that a daughter had been hired as a communications and advocacy liaison at a nonprofit private organization. Brewer said that legislators had been asked to support funding for the program and that he would not take part in advocating for the funding, though his daughter's salary did not hinge on the funding. The daughter no longer works for the organization.

Brewer also filed in 2009 saying then that his now-retired brother, Phillip Brewer, was an employee at an agency then called the state Department of Mental Retardation. Brewer said the personal relationship would not influence his votes.

"You always want to be holier than Caesar's wife in this business," Brewer said when asked about the filings.

"When in doubt, disclose. It increases transparency in government."

Sarah E. Dolven, a member of the Leverett School Committee, disclosed she is married to a teacher, William Stewart, at the Leverett Elementary School and that she does not vote or discuss on matters involving the financial interests of teachers such as a contract for teachers.

Dolven, a lawyer, said she felt fine about the disclosure."I think it is completely appropriate that public officials are held to a standard of transparency," she said.

According to the law, non-elected employees submit the filings with an appointing authority, while elected officials file with the ethics commission or a municipal or state clerk.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association released a statement calling the ballot initiative “an arcane idea that has no merit.”

SPRINGFIELD - With staffing battles ongoing at some hospitals across the state, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is turning to the public in its effort to have limits on how many hospital patients can be assigned to each nurse.

The nurses union, which is some 23,000 members strong, has been pushing for legislation that would cap the number of patients per nurse in emergency rooms, intensive care units and other hospital departments. Frustrated in those efforts, it now wants to put the matter on a ballot initiative called the Patient Safety Act.

If approved by voters, the act would require all Massachusetts hospitals to adhere to the new staffing standards and would fine those that don’t $25,000 a day. Supporters must gather 70,000 signatures to put the question on the November 2014 ballot.

The Patient Safety Act comes amid labor struggles that have arisen at hospitals in recent years. Consolidations, changes in health care laws and a trend toward out-patient care and preventive medicine have reduced the length and number of in-patient stays and caused some hospitals to reduce staff.

Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, which has been locked in contract negotiations with the Massachusetts Nurses Association for two years, announced job cuts last month that would decrease the number of medical surgical nurses from 49 to 40. In making the cuts, the hospital cited a drop in the number of in-patient stays. Nurses at Baystate Franklin say the drop-off is due to a deficit of physicians at the hospital. According to the hospital, the number of surgeons at Baystate Franklin has dropped from 15 to 13 over the past year.

Donna Stern, a nurse at Baystate Franklin and one of the 10 original signers of the ballot petition, said the Patient Safety Act goes far beyond the issues at her own hospital.

“For more than 15 years we’ve been trying to get safe staffing,” she said.

Stern said the House of Representatives has supported the bill but it has failed in the Senate. Now the union is taking the matter to the people.

“The citizens of Massachusetts recognize that when they come into a hospital they want to be taken care of and that a nurse will be able to safely take care of them,” she said. “It’s absolutely a no-brainer.”

Stern said a similar measure that passed in California in 2003 has been successful.

But hospital administrators insist they can function better without mandated staffing levels. Steven Bradley, the vice president for government and community relations at Baystate Health, the parent of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware and Baystate Franklin, said the nurses union is trying to do an end-run around the Legislature with its ballot initiative.

“This petition is a direct result of the Massachusetts Nurses Association’s failure to get the same legislation passed,” he said.

Bradley contends that lawmakers who are savvy about health care feel the bill is without merit.

“It’s scare tactics that hospitals are unsafe,” he said. “It’s patently untrue. The (state) Department of Public Health would cite a hospital if it were unsafe.”

Rather, said Bradley, the mandated staffing is an attempt to pump up nursing jobs at a time when in-patients care is decreasing.

“These are not bad changes,” he said. “Nurses have saved a lot of lives. But unions have not saved any.”

The Massachusetts Hospital Association released a statement this week calling the ballot initiative “an arcane idea that has no merit.”

“Nurses don’t treat numbers, they treat people,” the association said. “Hospital shouldn’t be required to staff by numbers, either.”

Jeff Harness, the director of integrated care and population health at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, said his facility does not support the Patient Safety Act.

“We do not need a ballot initiative to determine the staffing ratio,”
he said. “We already work in partnership with our nurses and other staff to determine safe and effective staffing levels.”

Cooley Dickinson recently finalized an affiliation with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston that administrators say will reduce its costs and help the smaller hospital navigate the complicated and evolving world of health care. Although no layoffs have resulted from the affiliation, Cooley Dickinson has reduced its staff several times over the past decade as it has tried to adjust to changes in the health care system.

Mary Blumberg, a medical surgery nurse at Cooley Dickinson and a member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, contends that the shorter in-patient stays cited as a cause for cutting staff are mostly insurance-driven. When patients do end up at Cooley Dickinson, she said, they need a lot of attention.

“Patients are sicker than they used to be,” she said. “It’s sad when you have five patients and see one for 20 minutes and the others tie up an entire shift.”

Blumberg said the ratio of patients to nurses in medical surgery at Cooley Dickinson is currently 5-1. The Patient Safety Act would reduce that to 4-1.

Mark Fulco, the senior vice president of strategy and marketing for Sisters of Providence Health System, which operates Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, is also opposed to the ballot initiative. Although there have been no major staff reductions at the hospital in recent years, Fulco said it is unfair to apply the same staffing standards to all hospitals.

“Individual patient care is too complex to be determined by fixed ratios,” he said. “Every hospital is slightly different in its model of care. Our staff levels are safe and appropriate.”

Fulco said Sisters of Providence staffing plans are transparent and can be reviewed, along with the staff plans of any Massachusetts hospital at www.patientcare.org.

Police and EMTs became the unintended targets of gunfire during an early morning shooting.

SPRINGFIELD — Police officers and an ambulance crew had to take cover during an early morning shooting on State Street as a group of street thugs began firing at a male victim they intended to rob.

Lt. Henry Gagnon confirmed a Springfield police cruiser and an American Medical Response ambulance were parked near 659 State Street near the intersection with Hancock street, for a medical call at 3:19 a.m. when a man ran toward them from the direction of nearby Stebbins Street calling out for help from officers, saying he was being robbed.

Officers said they saw two males running toward them from the direction of Stebbings Street, one firing a handgun as he ran. Officers and emergency medical personnel ducked for cover as three to four shots were fired.

While one bullet hit the ambulance, no one; police, ambulance crew or the patient on board the ambulance, was injured by the gunfire. The robbery victim however, earlier had been struck in the head with the pistol, but not shot.

Gagnon said the officers and medical personnel were not the intended targets but as the victim ran toward them the assailants fired in their direction.

Police fanned out in the area searching for two males, both wearing white T-shirts. Gagnon described one suspect as a black male, standing 5-foot,10-inches to 6-feet tall, wearing a white T-shirt and Khaki shorts, and the second suspect as a Hispanic male wearing a white T-shirt.

Members of the Detective Bureau continue to investigate the incident.

Other shootings had taken place in that area. On June 14 a man was shot several times nearby and took refuge in the vestibule of 659 State St. until police and an ambulance arrived.

When it went online in 2010, the academy was the only such school for elementary and high school students in the state, and it still is.

GREENFIELD – While the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education awaits applications for online schools that want to open their virtual doors in the 2014-2015 school year, the Massachusetts Virtual Academy at Greenfield is enrolling students for the upcoming school year.

When it went online in 2010, the academy was the only such school for elementary and high school students in the state, and it still is.

Massachusetts eventually would like to certify up to 10 virtual academies. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has set a November deadline to submit applications for the 2014 school year.

Because it is the only virtual academy in the state with a track record, the Greenfield-affiliated one was allowed to submit a proposal in April for the school year about to start, according to Susan Hollins, who is superintendent of both the virtual academy and the Greenfield Public School.

Although Mitchell Chester, the commissioner of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, deemed the proposal “not particularly strong,” Greenfield has been certified for the next three years.

“It was fabulous teamwork to get this done,” Hollins said.

Greenfield is partnering with K12, a Virginia-based company that operates virtual schools, to provide the service. Because there is no physical school building, the academy’s students can live throughout Massachusetts. Many of them suffer from illness or or have experienced bullying and don’t do well in traditional school settings.

Hollins said there are also some students trying out for the Olympics who need the time online education affords.

Last year, The Republican carried a story by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University that found student tests scores were lower than average at the virtual academy. The story also questioned the supervision of students enrolled in the school. In January, Gov. Deval Patrick signed a law that puts virtual schools under state supervision.

Hollins said the academy is paying Greenfield 7 percent of its tuition revenues for its administrative services.

The academy has generated some controversy locally, with some questioning whether Greenfield should have a role in the venture. In March, to comply with changes put in place by the new state law, the Greenfield School Committee voted to close the school. A few weeks later it reapplied to the state.

After reviewing Greenfield’s proposal this year, Commissioner Chester made a number of recommendation, including that high school enrollment at the academy be capped at 250 students and that per-student tuition be limited to $6,700. As with the school choice program, the state allows $5,000 per student for tuition, but Greenfield’s request of $7,655-$8,518 per student took into consideration non-academic expenses as well.

Chester also recommended that Greenfield be given a three-year certification instead of the five years it requested. At his request, the state received a draft of the contract between Greenfield and K12.

Lat week, the virtual academy’s five-member board of directors voted to appoint two new members, Doris Doyle and Jeffrey Hampton. Both are former Greenfield School Committee members. Doyle is also a former clerk magistrate of Franklin Superior Court. The board is awaiting word from the state on its request to expand its number from five to seven.

Paul Bassett, one of the original board members, said the virtual academy needs the extra input and expertise because it has to adjust to the state guidelines in a short time.

“It takes seven years to put a (traditional) school up and we’re putting one up in two months,” Bassett said.

Two were injured as a state trooper opens fire

 

The male driver of the vehicle and a female passenger were injured when a State Police trooper opened fire on the car the two were in as the male apparently drove toward the trooper.

State Police spokesman David Procopio said in an emailed statement that a State Trooper assigned to Troop B and working out of the Springfield Barracks had stopped a vehicle on the southbound lane of I-91 near the Chicopee exit. As the traffic stop progressed the driver of the car became agitated and combative with the trooper. The details are unclear, but according to Procopio's statement, at some point the driver returned to his car and started to drive. According to the statement, the trooper was put in fear for his safety and fired his weapon.

The male was seriously injured in the shooting while the female passenger may or may not have been injured by gunfire. Both were taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Investigators from the Troop B headquarters in Northampton, the State Police Crime Scene Service Section and the he State Police investigative unit attached to the Hampden County District Attorney's Office are conducting an investigation.

Forty-year-old James Lee DiMaggio was killed by FBI tactical agents after a campsite was spotted from the air.

This combination of undated file photos provided by the San Diego Sheriff's Department shows James Lee DiMaggio, 40, left, and Hannah Anderson, 16. A massive search entered a seventh day Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, for DiMaggio, suspected of abducting 16-year-old family friend Hannah. DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.Associated Press 

Forty-year-old James Lee DiMaggio was killed by FBI tactical agents after a campsite was spotted from the air, according to Gore. Gore declined to discuss details of DiMaggio's death, saying authorities in Idaho will release details at a news conference planned for Saturday evening.

He said San Diego sheriff's authorities have notified Hannah's father that she was rescued. "He was very relieved and very excited and looking forward to being reunited with his daughter," Gore said.

Plans are being made to reunite the two, probably by Sunday morning, according to Gore.

Federal and local law enforcement spent Saturday combing through Idaho's rugged Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in search of Hannah and DiMaggio. The wilderness is the largest roadless area in the lower 48 states, sprawling across central Idaho and reaching north to the Montana border.

DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother, 44-year-old Christina Anderson, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.

DiMaggio's car was found Friday morning about 40 miles east of the tiny town of Cascade, parked where the dirt road ends and the Sand Creek trailhead enters the wilderness area.

Detectives with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department finished searching DiMaggio's car Saturday afternoon. They had the vehicle towed to a garage in Cascade for further processing.

The discovery of the car came about two days after a horseback rider reported seeing the man and girl hiking in the area. Ada County Sheriff's department spokeswoman Andrea Dearden, who is helping the Valley County sheriff's department handle the case, said the rider didn't realize the pair were being sought until he got home and recognized them in news reports.

Former Idaho county sheriff Mark John's suspicions helped lead police to the murder suspect and the 16-year-old girl authorities believe he abducted.

BOISE, Idaho -- Almost from the moment he laid eyes on 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her abductor, James Lee DiMaggio, former Idaho county sheriff Mark John was swept with the feeling that something just didn't seem right about the pair.

Initially it was the lack of openness on the trail, a reluctance to engage in the polite exchange of banter or adventures like so many other recreationists John has encountered during his various horseback excursions into Idaho's rugged backcountry.

Then John and his partners on horseback puzzled why Anderson and DiMaggio were hiking in the opposite direction of their stated destination, the Salmon River.

But more than anything, it was their gear, or lack of it. Neither was sporting hiking boots or rain gear. The 40-year-old DiMaggio, described as an avid hiker in his home state of California, was toting only a light pack. It even appeared Anderson was wearing pajama bottoms.

"They just didn't fit," said the 71-year-old John, who retired as Gem County sheriff in 1996. "He might have been an outdoorsman in California, but he was not an outdoorsman in Idaho. ... Red flags kind of went up."

At a news conference Sunday in Boise, John and his three riding mates shared the kind of details from their encounters with Anderson and DiMaggio that helped focus the massive manhunt and rescue effort on a southwest corner of wilderness in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, a 3,600-square-mile roadless preserve in the heart of Idaho.

On Saturday, after searchers spotted the pair by air, two highly-specialized FBI hostage teams moved in on ground, ultimately rescuing Anderson and killing DiMaggio in a shootout at their encampment at a remote, alpine lake.

Anderson was immediately transported to an unidentified hospital. She was expected to be reunited with her father, Brett Anderson, earlier Sunday, but authorities did not disclose any details of their meeting.

DiMaggio is also suspected of killing Anderson's mother and brother at his home in Southern California.

On Sunday, FBI agents returned to process the scene at the camp at Morehead Lake, about 8 miles inside the wilderness border and 40 miles east of the central Idaho town of Cascade.

But authorities made clear Sunday that the rescue may have taken longer if not for the chance encounter with John and the other riders, who included John's wife Christa, 68, and Mike Young, 62, and his wife, Mary Young, 61.

The four riders had a second encounter with Anderson and DiMaggio later Wednesday, this one at the lake as they were getting ready to head back down the trail. The Youngs and Johns recalled seeing Anderson soak her feet in the lake and again avoid interaction. Still, nothing about their behavior raised suspicion that DiMaggio was wanted for murder and kidnapping.

"If she was sending us signals that she was in trouble, we didn't key in on it," said Mary Young.

It wasn't until Thursday afternoon when the Johns returned home and saw the girl's photographs on the news that they made a connection. After confirming with the Youngs, Mark John immediately called Idaho State Police, setting off the investigation in Idaho.

On Friday, police found DiMaggio's car, hidden under brush at a trailhead on the border of the wilderness area. Details about the operation that ended in Hannah's rescue are being released slowly.

FBI spokesman Jason Pack said the rescue teams were dropped by helicopter about 2 1/2 hours away from where Anderson and DiMaggio were spotted by the lake. Pack said the team had to hike with up to 100 pounds of tactical gear along a rough trail characterized by steep switchbacks and treacherous footing.

The teams then surrounded the camp and waited until Anderson and DiMaggio were no longer near each other before moving in, and ultimately killing DiMaggio. Few other details about the shootout are being released pending an automatic investigation by FBI agents of everything that occurred before, during and after the shooting.

Valley County Coroner Nathan Hess said he hadn't yet received DiMaggio's body, but would be responsible for issuing a death certificate and determining whether an autopsy should be performed. Hess said he wasn't sure when his part in the investigation would begin.

The case began when the charred bodies of Hannah Anderson's mother, Christina Anderson, 44, and the teen's 8-year-old brother, Ethan Anderson, were found in DiMaggio's burning house outside San Diego, near the Mexico border.

DiMaggio was close to the family. Christina Anderson's husband, Brett Anderson, has described him as a best friend and said the children thought of him as an uncle.

Authorities have said DiMaggio had an "unusual infatuation" with Hannah, although the father said he never saw any strange behavior.

An Amber Alert was issued, and tips led investigators to Oregon after DiMaggio and the teen were reportedly spotted there.

Brett Anderson has not returned telephone messages left Sunday by The Associated Press. But he issued a statement to the media Saturday expressing relief his daughter is safe.

Hannah Darby, one of Hannah Anderson's closest friends, was elated by the news.

"I'm probably going to make a really big basket with all of her favorite things in it," she said. "It will have candy and things that are pink."

A New Hampshire software engineer shot his 9-year-old son to death before taking his own life during supervised visitation at a YWCA office, officials said Sunday.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A New Hampshire software engineer shot his 9-year-old son to death before taking his own life during supervised visitation at a YWCA office, officials said Sunday.

An adult supervisor was present when Muni Savyon, 54, of Manchester, took out a handgun and shot 9-year-old Joshua Savyon of Amherst before shooting himself around 10 a.m., the attorney general's office said.

The father sent an email to a friend suggesting he was suicidal before the shootings, said Rabbi Levi Krinsky of Chabad Lubavitch in Manchester. Krinsky said Savyon had been depressed after recently returning from his brother's funeral in Israel but he had seen him last week and had no concerns he would harm himself or someone else.

"What would provoke him to take his life and his son's life? I don't think anyone can figure that out," said Krinsky, who said Savyon attended synagogue occasionally. "My heart goes out to the family."

On Sundays, the YWCA is open for supervised child visitation and custody exchanges. Krinsky said the man and the boy's mother shared custody of the boy after parting ways years ago. The couple's marital status wasn't clear; Krinsky said the couple were divorced, but law enforcement officials said the two were separated.

Law enforcement officials said the relationship had been contentious at times and Muni Savyon had previously threatened to kill himself, his son's mother and their son.

But Ellen Savyon Vig, who was once married to Muni Savyon and had remained friends with him after their 1997 divorce, described him as a kind-hearted person. She said he was especially close to his brother and he loved his son, trying to give him varied experiences.

"He was nonviolent. He would try to help anyone he could. He was a really nice guy," she said from her home in North Billerica, Mass.

Savyon was active in Libertarian causes, Vig said, and was a twice-defeated candidate for the New Hampshire Legislature, most recently in February.

"Please keep the Savyon family in your thoughts and prayers as they cope with the unimaginable," Rep. Peter King, who easily beat Savyon in a special election for the New Hampshire House, said from his Twitter account.

Born in Israel, Savyon was a naturalized citizen who lived in several Western states before coming to New England, where he worked as a software engineer, Vig said.

Others were inside the YWCA building when the shots were fired partway through the one-hour visitation. The counselor who was present at the time managed to escape unarmed, officials said.

The YWCA USA offered its "thoughts and prayers" for the families and friends of the victims. CEO Dara Richardson-Heron said the tragedy reminds the national organization of how important its domestic violence services are.

"We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life that occurred at the YWCA New Hampshire today," Richardson-Heron said in a statement Sunday night.

Autopsies were scheduled for Monday.

Krinsky said he had no idea that Savyon was capable of violence, much less harming his own son. "We have to be more and more alert to mental illness and people who're depressed," he said.

The third floor office space will help the company continue to grow to meet demand.

GREENFIELD - Yes Exactly Inc., has signed a lease for an additional 3,000 square feet
of space at The Arts Block Building in downtown Greenfield, at 289 Main St.

The third floor office space will help the company continue to grow to meet demand.

Founded in 2010, Yes Exactly provides scalable custom web design
services for small businesses, hobbyists, and creative professionals
across the nation. Yes Exactly is a woman-owned company. For more
information, please visit http://www.yesexactly.com.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised more than $50 million toward finding a cure and it funds more than 200 research projects around the county.

SPRINGFIELD - All summer and into the fall, Northwestern Mutual Life's The Springfield Group is hosting a series of fund-raisers for Alex's Lemonade Stand, a cancer-fighting charity.

Last month, the office set up a lemonade stand outside its 1351 Main St., Springfield, headquarters. Most recently, the lemonade stand was at the Tower Square's farmers' market.

Upcoming locations will be Aug. 21 at 1 Financial Plaza in downtown Springfield during an outdoor lunchtime concert, and Sept. 12 at Mercy Medical Center's lunchtime farmers' market.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation emerged from the front yard of cancer patient Alexandra "Alex" Scott. In 2000, 4-year-old Alex announced she wanted to help raise money to fight cancer with a lemonade stand. To date, the foundation has raised more than $50 million toward finding a cure and it funds more than 200 research projects around the county.

In August 2004, Alex passed away at the age of 8.

Thyme Herbal of Amherst offers a wide variety of health education programs about herbs.

Brittany Wood Nickerson, herbalist, health educator and owner of Thyme Herbal in Amherst, holds a bowl of Bee Balm flowers. The Republican / John Suchocki 

Brittany Wood Nickerson, herbalist, health educator and owner of Thyme Herbal in Amherst, holds a bowl of Bee Balm flowers. The Republican / John Suchocki 

Brittany Wood Nickerson 
Owner
Thyme Herbal
Amherst 
(413) 549-1415; www.thymeherbal.com 

I would consider myself to be an herbalist and health educator. I teach people how to make lifestyle and dietary and herbal choices to support them and help them feel better.

I teach a lot courses in herbal medicine. I teach a program where people learn how to use herbs for home use. If people want to continue, they can take more advanced classes on growing and using herbs in their community. I also teach at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and I teach at conferences and I guest lecture. My classes are for personal healing, growing herbs and using food as medicine.

I also offer herbal consultations where we sit down one-on-one to help people feel better. It is very individualized; it is completely tailored to the needs of the person. They tell me about their emotional state and how they feel physically.

The other piece of it is I have educational gardens so I can teach students about their plants and their environment.

I opened in May 2008 and am the sole employee. I learned about herbs in formal classes and informally.

I think my business has been affected by the economy. I think one of the ways I have dealt with that is I have offered payment plans for my classes. It really works well; people take classes over a series of months so they can really spread out payments. I also offer a sliding scale for my consultations.

I see my future as offering more of a diversity of classes. In the last year I have started putting more energy into writing. I have been working on educational material posters and books. 