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Bill Johnson of Granby to be inducted into International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame

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BIll Johnson calls it the highest honor someone in the towing industry can receive from his peers.

When most people think of halls of fame, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield are usually some of the first ones to come to mind. However, for Bill Johnson of Granby, that isn’t the case.

On Sept. 21, the owner of Pleasant Street Auto Body in South Hadley will be inducted into the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame in Chattanooga, Tenn. Johnson said that being a part of this year’s class is an honor. It includes inductees from seven states, Sweden and Belgium.

“It’s kind of humbling because it’s the highest honor somebody in the towing industry can receive from their peers, he said. “It’s very well-known within the industry.”

Johnson has had a long and productive career in the towing and recovery industry. He started working on cars part-time at body shops during high school and opened Pleasant Street Auto Body in 1981.

At first, the humble and hard-working business owner was hesitant about accepting the nomination after receiving the call, saying he had been nominated this past winter.

“I told them I had to think about it,” Johnson said. “To me, what I’ve done, I don’t feel like it’s been extraordinary. I just always worked. I just felt I did what I was supposed to do for the industry.”

However, Johnson’s nominator, Peter Aspesi, felt that he was well-deserving of the accolades.

“He’s made some great contributions to the towing industry. His heart is with the industry,” said Aspesi.

Aspesi works for the towing company Ted’s of Fayville in Southborough, Mass. and has known Johnson for 15 years.

After being nominated, Johnson was required to put together a compilation of career accomplishments, letters of recommendation, and community involvement for the Hall of Fame committee. With the assistance of Executive Director of the Statewide Towing Agency Cynthia Martineau, Johnson put together an impressive Hall of Fame resume. Again, he was taken aback by how many of his peers supported the nomination.

“Part of the process is to send out letters of recommendation from people you’ve known over the years. I got letters back from every person I asked - back to my first employer,” Johnson said.

Johnson has served as the president of the Massachusetts Statewide Towing Agency for the past 11 years, the longest-tenured president in its history. He was chairman of the National Towing and Recovery Association for four years, wrote for American Towman magazine, and ran for state representative in 2000.

Johnson has seen it all during his 30-plus years in the towing and recovery business. Calls to accident scenes include pulling a car out of an in-ground pool, but the strangest incident dealt with a large woodland animal near Belchertown.

“The strangest one we had was the customer hit a moose and the moose actually flipped over, went into the back seat – it broke the back window and we had to winch the moose out of the car.”

Johnson says that the public image of someone in the towing industry is not always a positive one, but he works hard to change those misconceptions.

“Most people do not think of a tower as being a professional person. We have these stupid shows that really do not depict the towing industry. The vast majority of towers, they’re family-owned businesses, they’re hard-working, and they work 24/7. It really is a bunch of good people,” he said.

Johnson will travel to Tennessee for the Hall of Fame ceremonies on Sept. 19. The International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame first opened in 1995.



Pittsfield fire heavily damages duplex

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Fire heavily damaged a two-family house in Pittsfield.

PITTSFIELD— A two-alarm fire sent flames racing through a two-and-a-half story duplex at 268 Francis Ave. in Pittsfield early Friday morning, leaving two people homeless and the building heavily damaged.

Pittsfield Fire Department Deputy Chief Michael Polidoro said firefighters found heavy fire involvement across the rear of the house as they arrived on scene shortly after the 1:16 a.m. 911 call reporting the blaze. Polidoro said flames spread to involve the first, second and attic floors of the balloon-framed house.

Apparently two people lived in the building, each occupying one of the duplex units, Polidoro said. They were forced from their homes by the fire, but neither was injured. A firefighter was treated for minor injuries sustained while at the scene.

The double-alarm fire brought six engines, a ladder company and command vehicles to the scene, and took firefighters approximately two hours to put down. Polidoro said an engine company remains on scene into the daylight hours to cool any hotspots that may erupt.

Fire units from Lanesboro, Lenox and Dalton arrived in the city to provide coverage as Pittsfield units battled the blaze.

Polidoro said he estimates the damage to the structure at approximately $80,000 with an additional $30,000 to $40,000 for the personal belongings and contents of the homes.


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Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Branch Rickey signatures turn up on testimonial program discovered by Springfield man

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The discovery of the program came just a few weeks after Grant saw the new movie, “42,” about Jackie Robinson. Watch video

SPRINGFIELD — Some people are reluctant to attach divine intervention to events that shape their lives, but Reggie Grant is not one of those people.

Grant has no other explanation for his fluke discovery of an autographed program of a testimonial dinner that was held in 1950. Bearing the authentic signatures of baseball greats Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Branch Rickey, it was lost and forgotten until Grant came across it this spring.

“I never even knew it was here,” said Grant, a former social counselor and postal worker, who discovered the program in reasonably good shape as he was cleaning out an old desk drawer at his home in Springfield.

“I was about to throw it away and put some paint down there. I thought it was an old report card or something,” he said.

The 66-year-old Grant has had the document appraised. Value is difficult to assign, but it would easily fetch more than $1,000, and an avid Brooklyn Dodgers fan might pay much more.

Grant’s 22-year-old son has asked if he would sell it. Grant said the signatures are not formally authenticated, a practice rarely considered in 1950, but the appraisers say there is no doubt they are real.

“Nobody would have been faking (signatures) back then, anyway,” Grant said.

ROBINSONPROGRAM.JPGProgram for the Jan. 26, 1950 testimonial of the Queens County Youth Athletic Center banquet in New York at which Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella were honored.  


He is not selling. The program bearing the signatures of Robinson (who became Major League Baseball’s first African-American player in 1947), teammate Campanella and Brooklyn Dodgers executive Rickey also includes the name of his grandfather, J.A. Grant, a minister who gave the benediction at the Jan. 26, 1950 testimonial of the Queens County Youth Athletic Center banquet in New York.

Grant’s father, William, died in 1994. Grant said the keepsake’s existence was never mentioned, which leaves unanswered the question of how it wound up in his home.


Grant’s theory is when his father heard his grandfather was involved in the testimonial, he jumped at the chance to take a road trip to New York. Making the discovery even more remarkable was that Grant had seen “42,” the new movie about Robinson, just a couple of weeks before uncovering the program.

“It had just been sitting there for all this time. I happened to have the curiosity to look at it, but it just as easily could have been thrown away,” Grant said.

If discovering the program was an accident, its message serves as a epiphany for Grant, a graduate of Springfield Technical High School who played baseball as a youth but was not a big fan.

“I knew about Jackie and Roy, because everybody did, but I have always rooted for Boston (Red Sox) purely out of Massachusetts loyalty,” he said.
 

His loyalty is notable because while Grant was growing up in Springfield, the Red Sox were ignominiously becoming the last team in Major League Baseball to integrate. His awareness grew as he became an adult, but he did not give up on his team.

“I don’t blame the players. It was the politics involved. They deserved to be cursed,” he said.

Grant’s house has been an appropriate place for Robinson’s memory to be harbored, however unknowingly. Its owner is a compelling storyteller who speaks eloquently on the issues Robinson represented more than 60 years ago, and still does.

Grant suspects racism is making a comeback and fears where it will lead. As evidence, he points to the defacing of the Robinson monument in Brooklyn, N.Y., last week with swastikas and slurs.

Grant puts his faith in younger people, which he calls “our salvation.” He hopes they retain the racially tolerant attitudes he feels his generation has lost.

“I thought it would happen with the baby boomers, but we sold out,” said Grant, assigning blame to white exclusionists but also to blacks who did not accelerate the progress of the civil rights movement.

Grant even has thoughtful questions about the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He asks how the sport can immortalize the statistics of men who played before the color line was broken, which meant they were not competing against all of the best players.

For all his concerns – or perhaps because of them – Grant is as American as they come. One of the first blacks to work at Springfield’s First National Store, he volunteered to join the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

As he showed the program to a visitor, he wore a shirt respectfully adorned with an American flag. He is prone to reflect on the greatness of American values, balanced against its checkered history of executing them in relation to slavery, Native American rights and modern trends that disturb him.

“America has had great moments, but it has not had a great history,” he said.

Grant once served on a jury where, in a sequence he describes as similar to that in the iconic movie “12 Angry Men,” he convinced the other jurors not to convict a man on insufficient evidence.

He contracted multiple sclerosis, but it has been in remission for 23 years. He lived with the mother of his son for 17 years, but she passed away from breast cancer a decade ago.

Grant once owned a collection of first-edition comic books that would be worth serious money today. When he left home, his parents threw them out, a common practice of the time.

His grandfather corresponded with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Those letters have passed out of the family as well.

The Robinson program endures.

Grant liked “42,” but he remains partial to the 1950 movie, “The Jackie Robinson Story,” in which the baseball great starred as himself.

He finds messages in most of what has happened in his varied life, including the discovery of the precious testimonial program.

“Strange things have happened. I found the program just as the movie came out,” Grant said. “I think a religious fiber runs through all of this, just as it did with Jackie. For what he did, he was the right man who came up at the right time.”


Obituaries today: Velma Bass had 30-year career at Raytheon Corporation

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Obituaries from The Republican.

 
081713-velma-bass.jpgVelma Bass 

Velma M. (Norman) Bass, 62, of Worcester and formerly of Springfield, passed away on Sunday. Born in Springfield, she lived in the Worcester and Marlborough area for the past 40 years. She retired after 30 years from the Raytheon Corporation.

Obituaries from The Republican:


1,600 homes evacuated as Idaho wildfire burns

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More than 600 state and federal firefighters were working to get the blaze under control and protect property in the affluent resort region that's a second home to celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A wind-driven wildfire burned its way through sage and pine trees near the Idaho mountain resort community of Sun Valley as sheriff's deputies expanded evacuation orders to 1,600 homes

The evacuation orders for the 100-square-mile Beaver Creek Fire included homes in drainages and foothills west of the towns of Hailey and extending to north of Ketchum in central Idaho.

More than 600 state and federal firefighters were working to get the blaze under control and protect property in the affluent resort region that's a second home to celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis.

Another 1,000 firefighters were expected to report to the scene later Friday night, said Shawna Hartman, spokeswoman for the Beaver Creek Fire.

Fire managers say the fire grew rapidly Friday thanks to wind gusts topping out at 30 mph, low humidity and tinder-dry ground fuels.

"It's safe to say we've got a lot of structures at risk," Hartman said.

Managers at the Sun Valley Ski Resort turned on water cannons that are normally used for wintertime snowmaking.

One home in an outlying valley was destroyed Thursday night, said Bronwyn Nickel, a spokeswoman for Blaine County, where the fire is burning.

In addition, some private insurers have sent in their own crews to provide structural protection for homes with values that can stretch into the millions of dollars, Nickel said.

"There are private engines that insurance companies have sent in," she said. "They're on site, they're working with our local firefighters and law enforcement."

Fire officials said crews spent the day building fire lines and trying to funnel the fire into areas burned during another blaze in 2007. A huge DC-10 tanker, capable of carrying 12,000 gallons of retardant, was among aircraft making drops on the blaze.

Jack Sibbach, a Sun Valley Resort spokesman, had to leave his home south of Ketchum on Friday. He said he watched as airplanes and helicopters made runs in roughly 3-minute intervals, dropping water and red retardant to create a barrier against flames west of U.S. Highway 75.

The resort turned on snow cannons on Bald Mountain, he said, largely to protect lodges atop the mountain, should the fire advance that far.

"The fire's not that close to Baldy, but with the wind, you're worrying about things sparking," Sibbach said. "Things could jump ahead."

Flying in separate aircraft, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell took an aerial tour of the fire.

The towns of Ketchum, with a population of 2,700, and Sun Valley, with 1,400 people, were under pre-evacuation orders, with residents advised to prepare their belongings in case they were required to leave on a moment's notice.

Fire managers "are just adding an extra layer of caution to the plan that they started last night," said Rudy Evenson, a spokesman for the federal team overseeing the blaze. "We have a forecast for 30 mph winds at the ridge tops."

Southbound traffic on U.S. Highway 75 was backed up, as many residents and vacationers opted to flee the smoke. Traffic was "bumper to bumper," Hailey resident Jane McCann told The Associated Press by phone Friday.

"The smoke is unbearable," said McCann, who was in her car. "Today in Hailey, you couldn't see the mountains from Main Street."

Elsewhere in the western United States, shifting winds in Utah's Skull Valley pushed another wildfire across Utah Highway 99 toward the community of Terra, about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, forcing the evacuation of several homes and a campground.

Exactly how many homes were evacuated wasn't known Friday, fire official Joanna Wilson said. The fire was 20 percent contained.

Calmer winds to the northwest allowed some evacuation orders to be lifted near a Utah mountain ski resort town, where a wildfire was about half-contained after burning seven homes earlier in the week.

However, about 110 homes located about 10 miles from the 2002 Olympic venue of Park City remained off-limits to their residents, as crews mopped up hot spots.

Hard Rock International Chairman James Allen built global entertainment giant, next challenge is casino for Western Massachusetts

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In a business with grueling competition, James Allen said he never lets up on the throttle.

BOSTON -- Through an aggressive acquisition, a tenacious work ethic and brand building, James F. Allen, the chairman of Hard Rock International and chief executive officer of Seminole Gaming, has helped create a global gaming and entertainment powerhouse.

Allen, 52, a veteran in the casino and hotel industry, was the leader in the Florida-based Seminole Tribe's 2006 purchase of Hard Rock International, which was a chain of novelty restaurants with seven or eight hotels and a couple of casino hotels. Today, the company has about $4 billion in annual gross revenues with 138 branded cafes, as well as hotels, casinos and concert venues in 54 countries. About 32,000 people either work directly for the company or its franchises.

jimallen.JPGJames F. Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International and CEO of Seminole Gaming, makes a point during a meeting in April in West Springfield. 

Allen, who lives in Fort Lauderdale with his wife, Isabel, has been in charge of gaming operations for the Seminole Tribe since 2001.

In a business with grueling competition and no shortage of critics, Allen said he never lets up on the throttle.

He said he has no hobbies or outside interests. On any given day, he is focusing on the company's finances, development opportunities or integrity.

"There's truly no time," Allen said. "That's not an exaggeration. It is a 24-7 responsibility."

He never obtained a college degree, but he often took courses designed to advance his career such as gaming classes at the University of Nevada at Reno and hotel management and creative writing at the Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey.

The writing course came in handy. Allen said he reads and revises, when needed, every press release issued by the company.

jimallen2.JPG In January, James Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International and CEO of Seminole Gaming, announces the company's casino plans for the Eastern States Exposition during an event at the fairgrounds.  

Despite his achievements in the gaming and resort business, Allen said one of his biggest challenges lies ahead: winning the lone casino license for Western Massachusetts.

Hard Rock is proposing an estimated $800 million casino resort on 38 acres on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition, which holds the yearly 17-day "Big E" fair.

West Springfield voters are set to vote on Sept. 10 on whether to approve the casino. Approval is needed to allow Hard Rock to continue to compete for the Western Massachusetts license, which will be awarded by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

The proposal includes 100,000 square feet of gaming space, 2,500 slot machines and 100 table games, a tropical pool, meeting space, retail, restaurants such as a Hard Rock Cafe and 7,000 parking spaces including some 2,500 inside a parking structure.

Hard Rock is also planning to spend $35 million in traffic improvements including a new interchange on Route 5 to provide a new entrance and exit from the site and major upgrades to Memorial Avenue, the main access to the fairgrounds.

hard.JPGJames Allen 

Allen's accomplishments did not come easy. He wasn't born into wealth or privilege.

When Allen's father died suddenly of cancer in 1979, he left the family with no money in the bank, no life insurance and no assets -- only bills from his failed gas station.

The father, Robert C. Allen, who lacked health insurance, didn't see a doctor until he passed out one day and couldn't work any more. The doctor sent him to a hospital, where a week or two later, the 48-year-old father died of cancer of the esophagus.

The family lost their home in Northfield outside Atlantic City, N.J. To help support his mother, Kathryn, and sister, Kathleen, Allen, then only 14, worked as a dishwasher and chef at three restaurants.

Allen was scared -- and motivated -- by his father's death and the near poverty of his family.

"That's why I work so much," said Allen, "I will never be in that boat."

In one of his early jobs, he earned $6.18 an hour as a cook at Bally's Park Place restaurant in Atlantic City after he was hired by the executive chef who was aware of the family's struggles.

Allen showed his worth when Bally's bought a package of software to track and manage data on inventory, purchasing and other aspects of the food and beverage business.

No one could get it to work. Allen tinkered with it for five or six months and finally got it to function. The software still is used by 80 percent of the casinos in the nation.

Allen went on to learn about casinos, entertainment and hotels from some of the best in the business including famed real estate developer Donald Trump.

He worked for the Trump organization for eight years in the 1980s, rising to vice president of operations and says it was a very positive experience.

Allen says he regularly talked with Trump, but he declined to provide details.

After he left Trump, Allen went to work with Christopher Hemmeter, a visionary in real estate development who died in 2003. Allen was a general manager for four of Hemmeter's casinos in Colorado and assisted with the opening of the New Orleans location.

He said he learned the most from Sol Kerzner, a giant in the hotel and resort industry who started the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. in 1995 and led completion of a second part of the casino in 2000.

"It was an amazingly successful project," Allen said. "In its early days, it was one of the greatest projects in the history of gaming."

Kerzner hired Allen as senior vice president of operations at the Mohegan Sun. Allen was only the third employee hired by Kerzner, starting in 1995 and leaving in 2001.

After that, he was promoted to senior vice president in Kerzner's Sun International Hotel and Casino Group, which included the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas and the Desert Inn in Las Vegas.

Allen said the proposed casino in West Springfield is a huge opportunity and one that demands his personal attention.

Hard Rock is competing for the license with two other casino giants. MGM Resorts is planning a casino resort in Springfield and the Mohegan Sun is pitching a casino in Palmer.

Allen said he is optimistic based on the statements of Stephen P. Crosby, the chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which is expected to award the region's license around April.

"He seems sincere and genuine," Allen said of Crosby. "He has been very public by stating it will be a fair and equitable process. I believe him."

Allen cites the history of the fairgrounds in West Springfield, which started in 1916 as a way to boost agriculture and to help children understand the importance of agriculture. It remains one of the top fairs in the country.

Allen said the union of Hard Rock and the Eastern States Exposition would create a destination casino for all of New England. A casino resort gives an extra boost to an annual fair that is already well known in New England, he said.

"It's an amazing match," he said. "We're really excited to be partnered in this relationship."

Jerry Remy post: "We are heartbroken''

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Remy appeared to distance himself from his son, who is accused of murder.

BOSTON - Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy posted a statement on Twitter Saturday, expressing grief over the murder in which his son has been charged.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to Jenn Martel and her family. Words cannot describe my wife's and my grief,'' the post read.

"Son or not, I am at a loss for words articulating my disgust and remorse over this senseless and tragic act.

"We are heartbroken,''

Jerry Remy

Remy's son, Jared Remy, pleaded not guilty Friday to the murder of his girlfriend, who was fatally stabbed at her Waltham apartment complex. Jennifer Martel, the victim, was 27.

Remy was arrested at the scene, soaked in the victim's blood.

Jerry Remy has taken a leave of absence from NESN broadcasts. Dennis Eckersley has taken his place.

Firefighters face another tough day in Idaho

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The blaze was started by lightning Aug. 7. It expanded significantly Friday, burning through tinder-dry brush and timber in the mountains west of the towns. Efforts Saturday were focused on protecting homes and structures in the gulches and foothills just west of Hailey and Ketchum.

wildfire.jpgHelicopters battle the 64,000 acre Beaver Creek Fire on Friday, Aug., 16, 2013 north of Hailey, Idaho. A number of residential neighborhoods have been evacuated because of the blaze. 

TODD DVORAK
Associated Press

HAILEY, Idaho — Fire crews on Saturday faced another challenging day battling a rapidly growing wildfire burning closer to two posh, central Idaho resort communities, while other blazes in the West charred homes, dry grass and brush.

In northern Utah, several manufactured homes were destroyed when a wildfire raced through the community of Willow Springs late Friday, jumping a state highway and fire lines, authorities said.

As of early Saturday, the Patch Springs Fire had burned about 33,000 acres, or more than 50 square miles. It was estimated at 20 percent contained.

In Idaho, the Beaver Creek Fire grew by 15 square miles late Friday and early Saturday, to 144 square miles. Overnight, flames moved closer to homes and subdivisions in the mountains west and north of the communities of Hailey and Ketchum, and the Sun Valley Resort.

So far, authorities have issued mandatory evacuations for 1,600 residences in this smoke-shrouded valley. More homeowners, along with the growing camp of firefighters and support staff, could be asked to move Saturday depending on fire activity, fire officials said.

The blaze was started by lightning Aug. 7. It expanded significantly Friday, burning through tinder-dry brush and timber in the mountains west of the towns. Efforts Saturday were focused on protecting homes and structures in the gulches and foothills just west of Hailey and Ketchum.

Crews also planned to target erratic, wind-driven fire growth in one area north of Ketchum and two locations west of Hailey.

For now, that battle is taking place on the ground because heavy smoke has grounded air tankers capable of dumping retardant and water on the perimeters.

Fire managers and more than 700 firefighters are bracing for another dose of hot temperatures and afternoon wind gusts up to 30 mph that could move flames closer to homes. Hundreds more firefighters will be arriving Saturday as other fires die down in Idaho and some other western states.

"This fire is consuming everything," fire spokeswoman Madonna Lengerich said. "The fire is so hot it's just cremating even the biggest trees."

The tight valley that bookends these communities — and serve as vacation getaways for celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Hanks — is covered in thick smoke.

Downtown retail and dining districts, normally buzzing this time of year with tourists and summer residents, are quiet, and some merchants haven't even bothered to open for Saturday breakfast and lunch.

Ketchum, with a population of 2,700, and Sun Valley, with 1,400 people, also are under "pre-evacuation orders." Authorities have told them to be ready to leave if necessary.

On Friday, Sun Valley Ski Resort officials turned on water cannons, used for wintertime snowmaking, to protect lodges on the mountain and ski lift equipment.

In addition to the government firefighters, some private insurers have sent in their own crews to provide structural protection for homes with values that can stretch into the millions of dollars, Blaine County Sheriff Spokeswoman Bronwyn Nickel said.

"There are private engines that insurance companies have sent in," she said. "They're on site. They're working with our local firefighters and law enforcement."

In Utah, the Patch Springs Fire burning in Tooele County jumped Highway 199 as it burned through the community of Willow Springs, about 60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. That fire was sparked by lightning Aug. 10.

Meanwhile, firefighters reported progress on a fire burning near Park City, Utah.

The Rockport broke out Tuesday and has destroyed eight homes. Officials say it has burned about 1,900 acres and was 58 percent contained early Saturday.


Security forces storm protester-held mosque in Cairo, Egypt

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The arrest of the brother of al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri came in connection to the raid on the mosque. Officials said that he planned to bring in armed groups to provide support to those holed up inside the mosque.

egyptxxx.jpgEgyptians security forces escort an Islamist supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood out of the al-Fatah mosque, after hundreds of Islamist protesters barricaded themselves inside the mosque overnight, following a day of fierce street battles that left scores of people dead, near Ramses Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013. Authorities say police in Cairo are negotiating with people barricaded in a mosque and promising them safe passage if they leave. Muslim Brotherhood supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist president are vowing to defy a state of emergency with new protests today, adding to the tension. 

MAGGIE MICHAEL
and TONY G. GABRIEL
Associated Press

CAIRO — Egyptian security forces stormed a Cairo mosque Saturday after a heavy exchange of gunfire with armed men shooting down from a minaret, rounding up hundreds of supporters of the country's ousted president who had sought refuge there overnight after violent clashes killed 173 people.

The raid on the al-Fath mosque on Ramses Square was prompted by fears that deposed President Mohammed Morsi's group, the Muslim Brotherhood, again planned to set up a sit-in, security officials said, similar to those that were broken up Wednesday in assaults that killed hundreds of people.

The arrest of the brother of al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri came in connection to the raid on the mosque. Officials said that he planned to bring in armed groups to provide support to those holed up inside the mosque.

Mohammed al-Zawahri, a Morsi ally, is the leader of the ultraconservative Jihadi Salafist group which espouses al-Qaida's hardline ideology. He was detained at a checkpoint in Giza, the city across the Nile from Cairo, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to brief journalists about the arrest.

The Egyptian government meanwhile announced it had begun deliberations on whether to ban the Brotherhood, a long-outlawed organization that swept to power in the country's first democratic elections a year ago.

Such a ban — which authorities say is rooted in the group's use of violence — would be a repeat to the historic and decades-long power struggle between the state and the Brotherhood.

For more than a month since the July 3 military overthrow of Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters have attacked and torched scores of police stations and churches, in retaliation. Shops and houses of Christians have been targeted.

Such attacks spurred widespread public anger against the Brotherhood, giving the military-backed government popular backing to step up its campaign against the Islamist group. It reminded people of a decade-long Islamist insurgency against Mubarak's rule in the 1990s which only strengthened security agencies and ended up with thousands of Islamic fundamentalists in prisons.

The assault on the al-Fath Mosque began Friday, as pro-Morsi protesters and armed men fled into the worship center to avoid angry vigilantes and arrest. They piled furniture in the mosque's entrance to block authorities and enraged anti-Morsi protesters from reaching them.

The mosque served as a field hospital and an open-air morgue as a Brotherhood-called day of protests descended into violence. By daybreak Saturday, security forces and armored personnel carriers had surrounded the mosque and it appeared that military-led negotiations might defuse the standoff.

A post on the Facebook page of the army spokesman, Col. Mohammed Ali, accused gunmen of firing from the mosque at nearby buildings, located on Ramses Square in central Cairo. The upper floors of a commercial building and blood bank towering over the square caught fire during the mayhem, with flames engulfing it for hours.

A Muslim cleric, Sheik Abdel-Hafiz el-Maslami, told The Associated Press that people were afraid to leave the mosque out of fear of detention or being assaulted by the crowd outside. He said there were armed men inside the mosque at one point but protesters had forced them out.

"We lost control over things," the cleric said. "There were men with arms in the mosque who were forced out of the mosque but we can't control things here."

He said there were ongoing negotiations with the military to enable the protesters to safely leave. State television showed small groups emerging from the mosque by late Saturday morning.

However, local journalist Shaimaa Awad who was trapped in the mosque with the Islamists said the talks failed after three women were detained by the military after agreeing to get out early Saturday morning.

An AP reporter said that thousands of anti-Islamist protesters rallied outside the mosque, chanting: "God take revenge on Morsi and those standing behind him!"

Army tanks and soldiers closed off the main entrances to Ramses Square as soldiers sealed off the area with barbed wire.

By midday Saturday, gunmen took over a mosque minaret and opened fire on the security forces below, the state-run MENA news agency said. The crowd around the mosque panicked as soldiers opened fire with assault rifles, the chaos broadcast live on local television channels.

Several security officials told The Associated Press that ending the standoff at the mosque was essential after receiving information that the group planned to turn it into a new sit-in protest camp. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

On Wednesday, riot police, military helicopters, snipers and bulldozers broke up two sit-in protests in Cairo by Morsi supporters, leaving more than 600 people dead and thousands injured. That sparked days of violence that killed 173 people and injured 1,330 people on Friday alone, when the Brotherhood called for protests during a "Day of Rage," Cabinet spokesman Sherif Shawki said.

Among those who died Friday was Ammar Badie, a son of the Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, the group's political arm said in a statement.

Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, who leads the military-backed government, later told journalists that authorities had no choice but to use force in the wake of recent violence.

"I feel sorry for valuable blood shed," el-Beblawi said. However, he cautioned that there will be no "reconciliation with those whose hands are stained with blood or those who hold weapons against the country's institutions."

Signaling the Brotherhood's precarious political position, Shawki said the government was considering ordering that the group be disbanded. The spokesman said the prime minister had assigned the Ministry of Social Solidarity to study the legal possibilities of dissolving the group. He didn't elaborate.

Mustafa Hegazy, a political adviser to interim President Adly Mansour, told a press conference Saturday that the current Egyptian leadership is not in a "political dispute or difference" with the Brotherhood, instead, "we are in a war against treason and some sort of terrorism."

He added that Egyptians took to the streets on June 30 — the day that led to Morsi's ouster — to revolt against "religious fascism."

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, came to power a year ago when Morsi was elected in the country's first free presidential elections. The election came after the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising in 2011.

The fundamentalist group has been banned for most of its 85-year history and repeatedly subjected to crackdowns under Mubarak's rule. While sometimes tolerated with its leaders allowed to be part of the political process, members regularly faced long bouts of imprisonment and arbitrary detentions.

Disbanding the group, experts say, would mean allowing security forces to have a zero-tolerance policy in dealing with the group's street protests, as well as going after its funding sources. That could cripple the Brotherhood, though it likely wouldn't mean an end to a group that existed underground for decades

The possible banning comes amid calls by pro-military political forces to brand the Brotherhood a "terrorist organization."

"We are calling for declaring the Brotherhood as a terrorist group," said Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, one of the leaders of the Tamarod youth movement that had organized mass rallies calling for Morsi's ouster.

The military-backed government has declared a state of emergency and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew since Wednesday, empowering army troops to act as a law enforcement force. Top Brotherhood leaders, including Morsi, remain held on a variety of charges, including inciting violence.

Since Morsi was deposed in the popularly backed military coup, the Brotherhood has stepped up its confrontation with the new leadership, rallying thousands of supporters in sit-ins and vowing not to leave until Morsi is reinstated.

After security forces broke up the protest camps, Islamist supporters stormed and torched churches and police stations. In response, authorities authorized Egypt's security forces to use deadly force against those attacking vital government institutions.

On Saturday, Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement that a total of 1,004 Brotherhood members had been detained in raids across the country and that weapons, bombs and ammunition were confiscated from the detainees.

Several foreigners were also rounded up including Sudanese, Pakistanis and Syrians, the Internior Ministry said.

Morsi himself has been held incommunicado since his ouster. Top Brotherhood leaders including General Guide Deputy Khairat el-Shater were detained last month.

Georgia man faces trial in killing of baby in stroller

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The teenager charged as the shooter is scheduled to stand trial next week in a courthouse far from the scene of the crime. Because of public outrage and news coverage, a judge has moved 18-year-old De'Marquise Elkins' trial 325 miles away, to the suburbs outside Atlanta. Jury selection starts Monday at the Cobb County courthouse in Marietta. Superior Court Judge Stephen Kelley has set aside two weeks for the trial.

baby.jpgThis photo provided by Sherry West shows her son, Antonio Santiago, on his first Christmas in December 2012 in Brunswick, Ga. Antonio was killed March 21, six weeks after his first birthday. He was strapped in his stroller, out for a walk with his mother a few blocks from their apartment near the Georgia coast, when someone shot the boy. A teenager charged as the shooter is scheduled to stand trial later this month. 

RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — It was a tiny bullet that took the short life of Antonio Santiago.

He had learned to walk, but not yet talk, when he was killed March 21, six weeks after his first birthday. He was strapped in his stroller, out for a walk with his mother a few blocks from their apartment near the Georgia coast, when someone shot the boy between the eyes with a .22-caliber bullet the size of a garden pea.

The teenager charged as the shooter is scheduled to stand trial next week in a courthouse far from the scene of the crime. Because of public outrage and news coverage, a judge has moved 18-year-old De'Marquise Elkins' trial 325 miles away, to the suburbs outside Atlanta. Jury selection starts Monday at the Cobb County courthouse in Marietta. Superior Court Judge Stephen Kelley has set aside two weeks for the trial.

Elkins faces life in prison if convicted of murder. His youth spared him a possible death sentence. At the time of the shooting he was 17, too young to face capital charges in Georgia.

Police say the motive was as banal as the slaying of a toddler was shocking. Investigators concluded that Antonio was killed during an attempted street robbery as his mother, Sherry West, was strolling home with the child from the post office. West said a gunman demanding cash shot her baby in the face after she told him she had no money.

"He kept asking, and I just said 'I don't have it,'" West told The Associated Press the day after the slaying. "And he said, 'Do you want me to kill your baby?' And I said, 'No, don't kill my baby!'"

West was shot in the leg, and another bullet grazed her ear. Witnesses called 911 and rushed to her aid. None saw the shooting, but they watched as West tried to revive her son using CPR. "No, the baby's not breathing," one caller told a 911 operator.

Police say Elkins had an accomplice, 15-year-old Dominique Lang, who has told investigators Elkins fired the gun. Lang also is charged with murder but will be tried later. He's expected to be a key witness against Elkins.

Both prosecutors and Elkins' defense attorneys declined to comment before the trial, citing a gag order by the judge. The boy's mother also declined to talk.

Kevin Gough, a public defender who is Elkins' lead attorney, has strongly suggested in pretrial motions that the real killers are the child's own parents.

"Other evidence of record suggests Sherry West is mentally unstable, gave several inconsistent accounts of how the crime transpired, and had a financial interest in the death of her son in the form of an insurance policy," Gough said in a court motion filed Aug. 5.

Defense attorneys have said in court filings they have audio recordings and documents showing the child's mother had dealings with Gerber Life Insurance Co. According to its website, Gerber Life sells life insurance policies for children starting as early as infancy. Coverage runs from $5,000 to $50,000.

Ashley Glassey, West's 21-year-old daughter, told television station WTLV of Jacksonville, Fla., soon after the shooting that her mother called her after Antonio was killed and asked, "How soon do you think the life insurance policy will send me a check?"

One of Elkins' lawyers interviewed Glassey on July 30 in Woodstown, N.J., where she was in jail for failing to appear in court in an unrelated case. According to a transcript, Glassey declined to confirm the story. "I don't want to incriminate anyone," she said.

Defense attorneys also point to lab tests by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that found traces of gunshot residue on swabs taken from the hands of West and the boy's father, Louis Santiago. Reports filed in court say the GBI found a single microscopic particle of gunshot residue swabbed from the father's hands, while more than five particles showed up in swabs from West's hands.

The GBI report cautioned that gunshot victims can end up with residue on them. During a preliminary court hearing, Santiago said he touched the bullet wound on West's leg before his hands were swabbed.

In a court filing Wednesday, District Attorney Jackie Johnson argued that Elkins' defense lawyers have made "false, inflammatory and misleading statements" about the case.

While the toddler's mother identified Elkins as the shooter in a photo lineup, police say much of their evidence against the teenager came from his own family and the younger teen charged as his accomplice.

Investigators have testified that Lang told police he and Elkins were trying to rob a woman pushing a baby in a stroller when Elkins pulled a gun and shot them both.

Lang's aunt, Debra Obey, told police her nephew and Elkins came to her for a ride the day of the slaying. She said Elkins ducked down in the back seat of her car, as if he was hiding.

Four days after the shooting, police said information from Elkins' mother and sister helped lead investigators to a pond where they found a .22-caliber revolver. Both women were charged with evidence tampering. Elkins' mother, Karimah Elkins, also was charged with lying to police. Prosecutors say Elkins' mother and an aunt gave police conflicting alibis for his whereabouts at the time of the shooting. Karimah Elkins is scheduled to stand trial alongside her son.

Meanwhile, prosecutors say Elkins shot somebody else 10 days before the toddler was killed. Wilfredo Calix Flores has identified Elkins as the man who shot him in the arm during an attempted street robbery March 11. Police say Flores was shot with a .22-caliber bullet.

The judge has ruled that jurors can hear about a statement police say Elkins made the day after the killing. Police investigator Roderic Nohilly testified at a pretrial hearing that he and officer Cody Blades were escorting a handcuffed Elkins when the suspect said, "Y'all ain't got no gun. Y'all ain't got no fingerprints." He then referenced an acquittal.

The investigator said Blades just smiled at Elkins, who responded: "Oh, y'all got the gun?"

5 decades later, some JFK probe files still sealed

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It turns out that several hundred of the still-classified pages concern a deceased CIA agent, George Joannides, whose activities just before the assassination and, fascinatingly, during a government investigation years later, have tantalized researchers for years.

jfk.jpgIn this Nov. 22, 1963 file photo, President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy ride in the backseat of an open limousine on Main Street at Ervay Street in Dallas as the presidential motorcade approaches Dealey Plaza. Texas Gov. John Connally, and his wife Nellie are seated in the limousine's jump seats. Five decades after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot and long after official inquiries ended, thousands of pages of investigative documents remain withheld from public view. The contents of these files are partially known and conspiracy buffs are not the only ones seeking to open them for a closer look.  

DAVID PORTER
Associated Press

Five decades after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot and long after official inquiries ended, thousands of pages of investigative documents remain withheld from public view. The contents of these files are partially known — and intriguing — and conspiracy buffs are not the only ones seeking to open them for a closer look.

Some serious researchers believe the off-limits files could shed valuable new light on nagging mysteries of the assassination — including what U.S. intelligence agencies knew about accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald before Nov. 22, 1963.

It turns out that several hundred of the still-classified pages concern a deceased CIA agent, George Joannides, whose activities just before the assassination and, fascinatingly, during a government investigation years later, have tantalized researchers for years.

"This is not about conspiracy, this is about transparency," said Jefferson Morley, a former Washington Post reporter and author embroiled in a decade-long lawsuit against the CIA, seeking release of the closed documents. "I think the CIA should obey the law. I don't think most people think that's a crazy idea."

Morley's effort has been joined by others, including G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel for a House investigation into the JFK assassination in the 1970s. But so far, the Joannides files and thousands more pages primarily from the CIA remain off-limits at a National Archives center in College Park, Md.

Others say the continued sealing of 50-year-old documents raises needless questions in the public's mind and encourages conspiracy theories.

"There is no question that in various ways the CIA obfuscated, but it may be they were covering up operations that were justifiable, benign CIA operations that had absolutely nothing to do with the Kennedy assassination," said Anthony Summers, a British author whose sequel to his JFK book "Not In Your Lifetime" will be released this year.

"But after 50 years, there is no reason that I can think of why such operations should still be concealed," Summers said. "By withholding Joannides material, the agency continues to encourage the public to believe they're covering up something more sinister."

To understand the attention to the Joannides files, it's necessary to go back to 1963 and to review what's known about Oswald that put him on the CIA's radar.

It's also important to recall the differing conclusions of the two official investigations of the JFK killing — one denying any conspiracy, the other suspecting one — and how much or how little cooperation investigators received from CIA officials, including Joannides himself.

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Oswald was a loner and an enigma even to those closest to him. He was "as difficult to understand as anyone I've studied in 35 years as a professional historian," said David Kaiser, whose 2008 book, "The Road To Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy," drew on tens of thousands of documents released in the 1990s.

Still, plenty was learned about Oswald after the shooting in Dallas. And, it's now clear, he was not unknown to the U.S. government before that.

Assassination investigators learned that Oswald had formed a group in New Orleans in the summer of 1963 that ostensibly supported Cuban leader Fidel Castro (Oswald was the only local member) and had been involved in a street altercation with anti-Castro demonstrators that was captured by a local television station.

Pamphlets Oswald had in his possession bore an address of a local anti-Castro operation connected to a former FBI agent with ties to organized crime, investigators discovered. That and other information has led researchers to believe that Oswald may have been part of a counterintelligence operation to discredit the group he had joined, the Fair Play For Cuba Committee, and that the street scene was a setup.

If so, who would have overseen such an operation?

Declassified documents show that Joannides, while based in Miami, was the CIA case officer for the anti-Castro Student Revolutionary Directorate (DRE), the group involved in the street fracas with Oswald.

What did this all add up to, if anything? Official investigations of the Kennedy assassination were not able to provide complete answers.

The Warren Commission, which concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone and was not part of a conspiracy, was never told about the CIA's possibly relevant anti-Castro activities, despite the fact that former CIA director Allen Dulles was a Warren Commission member.

Warren Commission staff counsel Burt Griffin, now a retired judge, calls it "an act of bad faith" by the CIA.

"I think they had an obligation to tell the chief justice (Earl Warren, commission chairman) about that, and then that decision would have been his and the commission's to make," Griffin said.

In separate interviews with The Associated Press, Griffin and fellow staff counsel David Slawson stood by the Warren Commission's conclusions.

Each pointed to a series of personal rejections behind Oswald's deadly action: Weeks after he made an unsuccessful attempt in Mexico City to get a visa to Cuba, his wife Marina rejected his attempts to reconcile their rocky marriage. It was during Oswald's visit, the night before the shooting, to the suburban Dallas home where his wife and two young daughters were staying that he packed up his disassembled Mannlicher-Carcano rifle to take to work the next day, the Warren Commission determined. That next morning, he removed his wedding ring, left his money with his wife, and departed to carry out the assassination.

"If she had taken him back," Slawson said, "he wouldn't have done it."

More complex and sinister theories about his motivation have been offered, of course, some flowing from the release in the 1990s of previously classified documents.

Kaiser, the historian, has postulated that Oswald, long seen as a devout leftist, was in fact being manipulated by right-wing and mob elements in his final months and that his visit to the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City in the fall of 1963 was part of an attempt to reach Cuba and kill Castro. Release of documents held by those governments could be revealing, Kaiser said.

By the time the House Select Committee on Assassinations convened in the mid-1970s to probe the Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. killings, other congressional investigations had exposed the CIA's activities in the early 1960s, including plots to assassinate Castro.

Those revelations would be overshadowed, however, by the House committee's JFK conclusion: That sound impulses recorded on the microphone of a Dallas police officer amounted to evidence of a shot from the infamous "grassy knoll" in Dealey Plaza, and thus of an additional gunman besides Oswald firing from a building window.

Kennedy, the committee's final report said in carefully tempered language, was "probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy. The committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy."

Subsequent analyses have cast doubt on the acoustic evidence, and the issue is considered unresolved.

That evidence was, of course, only part of the mountains of material considered by the committee, some of it from the CIA. And the CIA's liaison to the committee was none other than George Joannides, by then retired from the agency.

Blakey, the committee's chief counsel, recalled how the CIA brought in Joannides to act as a middleman to help fill requests for documents made by committee researchers. "He was put in a position to edit everything we were given before it was given to us," Blakey said.

But Blakey didn't learn about Joannides' past until Morley unearthed it in files declassified years later.

"If I'd known Joannides was the case officer for the DRE, he couldn't have been liaison; he would have been a witness," Blakey told The Associated Press.

Blakey added: "Do I think I was snookered, precisely like the Warren Commission was? Yes."

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Which brings us back to the still-secret investigative files — about 300 pages of which relate to Joannides.

First, some background:

Certain files held by the Warren Commission and House Select Committee were originally ordered sealed, for privacy, security and other considerations, well into the 21st century.

Decades passed before public pressure spurred by Oliver Stone's 1991 film "JFK" changed that.

Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which established the Assassination Records Review Board, or ARRB, to carry out release of records related to the assassination. As a result, about five million pages of documents have been released and are available for review at the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland.

But the review board agreed to withhold about 1,100 records — each record comprises 1-20 pages — that are considered to contain information about confidential sources or methods or have national security implications.

The JFK Act required all records to be released by 2017, but it left some wiggle room for agencies to petition to have records withheld if disclosure would compromise "military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations."

It is unknown whether the CIA will try to keep some documents classified past 2017; if it does, that may only increase Morley's resolve.

"You have to wonder what is so important in a 50-year-old document," he said. "I've come to the conclusion that they're guarding something big, and that has stiffened my determination."

A CIA spokesman, Ned Price, said the agency has complied with the law in releasing documents and the archives center "has all of the Agency's documents and files on the Kennedy assassination. Price didn't comment on the Joannides material specifically, citing Morley's lawsuit.

"The classified information contained in the files remains subject to the declassification provisions of the Act," he said.

Meanwhile, the documents sit in metal boxes on shelves in "a big room that's temperature- and humidity-controlled," said Martha Murphy, the Archives' chief of special access and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Among those are the Joannides files. An index created by the CIA and provided to The Associated Press by Morley describes many of the files as containing information on Joannides' travel, training and personnel evaluations as well as memos pertaining to the CIA's interactions with the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Morley's interest dates to the 1990s when he covered the newly-formed ARRB. He filed suit for the Joannides documents in 2003 and has pried loose several hundred pages since then.

A federal judge dismissed the case in 2010. But in June, a federal appeals court overruled a lower court that had denied Morley's request to be reimbursed for attorneys' fees. "Records about individuals allegedly involved in President Kennedy's assassination serve a public benefit," the decision said.

Morley does not suggest the Joannides files point to agency involvement in the assassination itself, but more likely that their release would show the CIA trying to keep secret its own flawed performance before the assassination.

"The idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was some unknown quantity to CIA officers was false," Morley said. "There was this incredible high-level attention to Oswald on the eve of the assassination."

Assuming that Oswald fired the fatal shot, he said, "These top CIA case officers are guilty of negligence."

Blakey isn't optimistic about getting all of the documents from the intelligence agency.

"They held stuff back from the Warren Commission, they held stuff back from us, they held stuff back from the ARRB," he said. "That's three agencies that they were supposed to be fully candid with. And now they're taking the position that some of these documents can't be released even today.

"Why are they continuing to fight tooth and nail to avoid doing something they'd promised to do?"

Eighth annual Nostalgia Day held in Palmer

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Robert S. Haveles, president of Palmer Events Planning, which puts on Nostalgia Day, said “the day was going great.”

PALMER - The eighth annual Nostalgia Day was held under sunny skies at Legion Field on Saturday, and one Palmer couple said they enjoy attending the event every year because they know they will run into old friends.

“It’s a good place to meet friends you haven’t seen in years,” said Bill Morrison, whose wife Betty agreed.

Yvonne Carman brought her son, Jonas Cruz, 5; goddaughter Brianna Friberg, 3; and friend Liam DaCosta, 6. Right after they finished riding the mini race cars - which featured the likes of a Jeep, Mustang, Hummer and pink convertible - they visited Maggie the Clown, who made them wearable balloon creations. The boys engaged in a quick “sword fight” with their balloon swords. Carman said they were having a good time.

Pro-casino supporters also were there to spread their message, as was Mohegan Sun, one of the event’s sponsors.

Mohegan Sun wants to build a nearly $1 billion resort casino across from the Massachusetts Turnpike interchange on Thorndike Street (Route 32); citizens are expected to vote on a host community agreement in October. The agreement still is not complete, but is expected to be finished this week.

Michael J. Vito, who is working with Mohegan on the upcoming referendum, said he is finding out people’s concerns. He will be at the Palmer Senior Center on Sept. 11 to talk about the project.

Jennifer L. Baruffaldi, a Mohegan supporter, organized potato sack races for children with a pro-casino message - the sacks had the words “Vote Yes Palmer.com” written on them.

There was music, food, and informational booths featuring the Bondsville playground project and Palmer Trails Group, just to name a few.

Eric A. Raymond, Palmer Historical Commission treasurer-secretary, had old Palmer photographs on display in the Historical Commission booth.

“It’s nice that we can still have a event like this where the town can get together . . . and reminisce about days gone by,” Raymond said about Nostalgia Day.

Robert S. Haveles, president of Palmer Events Planning, which puts on Nostalgia Day, said “the day was going great.”


UK police looking at new information about 1997 car crash deaths of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed

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Scotland Yard stressed that it was not reopening the investigation into the 1997 deaths of Diana and Fayed, who were killed in a car crash in Paris.

LONDON -- British police say they are examining newly received information relating to the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, and that officers are assessing the information's "relevance and credibility."

Scotland Yard declined to provide details about the information, only saying Saturday in a statement that the assessment will be carried out by officers from its specialist crime and operations unit.

The force stressed that it was not reopening the investigation into the 1997 deaths of Diana and Fayed, who were killed in a car crash in Paris.

In 2008, a British jury ruled that Diana, the Princess of Wales, and her companion, Fayed, were unlawfully killed due to reckless speed and drinking by their driver, and by the reckless pursuit of paparazzi chasing them.

Amherst's Michael Hixon captures his second bronze medal at the AT&T Diving National Championships

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Sunday, Hixon and Schmidt will go after gold in the 3-meter synchronized final, a combination that Huber believes is part of a new wave of talented U.S. divers.

By PAUL D. BOWKER

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Positioning himself on the 3-meter board Saturday at the AT&T Diving National Championships, everything was in place for Amherst’s Michael Hixon, a 2016 Olympics hopeful.

His mom, University of Massachusetts diving coach Mandy Hixon, stood on the pool deck, holding up an electronic tablet to shoot a video of his dive. His dad, Amherst College men’s basketball coach David Hixon, and an aunt and uncle watched from the stands.

One of his best diving friends, Darian Schmidt of Indiana University, was on the pool deck below. And so was Jeff Huber, the retired Indiana University diving coach who is coaching Hixon this week.

Hixon nailed the dive, scoring 92.75 on a move that included a reverse 3½-somersault tuck. After that shining moment, which earned a rousing cheer at the University of Iowa Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, Hixon walked past the scoring table and received a celebratory fist pump from Steve Foley, USA Diving High Performance Director.

Of Hixon’s six dives in the men’s 3-meter finals, this was the one with the highest degree of difficulty (3.5). It helped Hixon win a bronze medal, which was his second of the week-long meet after winning silver in the 1-meter Tuesday.

“That’s actually probably my most inconsistent, most difficult dive,” Hixon said. “And that’s what’s funny. My first three dives are my threebest dives and I didn’t really hit any of those. Just inconsistent.”

Sunday, Hixon and Schmidt will go after gold in the 3-meter synchronized final, a combination that Huber believes is part of a new wave of talented U.S. divers.

“He and Darian both are, I think, stars of the future,” Huber said.”I’m looking forward to seeing those two guys dive synchro tomorrow.”

A third medal at the national championships would polish off a memorable summer in which Hixon teamed up with four-time Olympian Troy Dumais to finish fifth in the 3-meter synchro at the FINA WorldChampionships in Barcelona, Spain. He also placed among the top five in individual 1- and 3-meter at the USA Diving World Team Trials.

“Pretty unbelievable. Barcelona was a great experience,” Hixon said. “The best divers in the world.”

Hixon was reminded of that as he and Dumais were in the “ready” room prior to the final round at the world championships.

“I looked behind me and you have the Olympic champion, the Olympic bronze medalist, the Olympic silver medalist,” Hixon said. “The whole back row, there’s not a guy who didn’t go top 12 at the Olympics. Pretty unbelievable. It was quite an honor to be in that room.”

At the same time, Mandy and David Hixon proudly watched the action from a place you don’t often see them – above the pool deck or away from the players’ bench. Take a quick look and you may have seen Mandy Hixon wipe a tear or two from her eyes as she sat in the spectator stands atthe Piscina Muncipal de Montjic in Barcelona.

“It kind of made me a little teary-eyed because it was the first time I wasn’t coaching him,” Mandy Hixon said. “It was all good. It was really good emotions.”

Hixon’s fifth-place finish at the world championships, along with apair of medal-winning performances this week in Iowa, solidifies hisstanding as a contender for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team. He was named tothe USA Diving Olympic Performance Squad earlier this year. In twoweeks, he’ll begin his freshman year at the University of Texas.

In the 3-meter synchro, Hixon will dive with his close diving friend,Schmidt, a third-place finisher at the 2013 NCAA Swimming and DivingNational Championships. Hixon stood next to Schmidt on the podium standSaturday, having beaten him out by just 1.30 points for third place inthe the individual 3-meter.

“I just want to go out and dive well,” Hixon said. “Have a good timewith Darian.”

They placed first in the preliminaries Friday, perhaps carving a path in the same event toward the Rio de Janiero 2016 Olympic Games, depending, of course, on whether Dumais chooses to go after a fifth Olympics in 2016.

“There’s a lot of support, a lot of synergy between the two of them,but also a lot of competitiveness,” Huber said of Hixon and Schmidt. “At the end of the day, they are best friends. A good example of whatsports should be about.”

UMass senior Michaela Butler will compete in the 3-meter event Sunday. She was sixth in the preliminaries. Butler, of Dennisport, finished fifth in the 1-meter on Tuesday.


Springfield city officials decry housing for refugees, ask for accountability

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In the case of 400 Franklin St., Cotter said the property was earlier this year was filled with dead mice and rat droppings, and had holes chewed in the walls.

SPRINGFIELD — From a refugee camp in a war-torn area of Africa, to a stopover in Turkey to an apartment building near downtown Springfield, 21-year-old Hiboxasan Iyai found the challenges of her birthright were not yet over.

Among hundreds of Somali Bantu refugees resettled here since 2003, Iyai – a mother of a 3- and 1-year-old, has been struggling to feed and clothe her children since she arrived two months ago – she said during an interview hobbled by communication barriers.

With her limited English, Iyai attempted to sum up her plight through what amounted to an elaborate game of charades and about a dozen words of English.

“America good,” she said with a broad smile, standing in the hallway of her apartment at 400 Franklin St, a triple-decker home that houses three families of Somali refugees run by a landlord based out of Meriden, Conn.

The property was one of several cited by the city for deplorable, “uninhabitable” living conditions earlier this year – primarily because mice and rats had infested the building so pervasively they were nibbling on a disabled child’s feeding tube on the third floor, according to city records linked to the house.

However, the owner, a member of MEG Realty LLC out of Connecticut (who would only give his first name, Eric) said he bought the vacant apartment building two years ago, gutted it, and rebuilt it with new windows, doors and appliances.

081513_carver_st._house.JPGhe house at 72 Carver St. which the City of Springfield has cited for housing code violations.  

“It’s not my fault. It’s the tenants’ fault,” he said during a telephone interview on Thursday. “If they don’t keep the place clean and leave food out, it’s going to bring mice and rats. As soon as the city called and started yelling at me about it, I fixed the problem and made visits there daily for weeks.”

David Cotter, director of code enforcement for the city, has said more than a half-dozen complaints have recently come from the refugee rental market, with properties all across the city affected. He says some landlords hide behind a labyrinth of limited liability corporations. The emerging housing problem was among factors that prompted Mayor Domenic J. Sarno to publicly state that the city is “closed for business” for any more refugees.

Refugees are defined by the U.S. State Department as a person residing outside the country who is of special humanitarian concern to the country and who has been persecuted in his or her own country for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.

Springfield and other Northeast communities began receiving hundreds of Somali Bantu refugees in 2003. Michael Sullivan, mayor of Holyoke at the time, rebuffed the Bantu resettlement for many of the reasons Sarno is citing today: overtaxed social service, schooling and housing systems.

“I know (resettlement agencies) mean well. I do care and do have a heart. I’m a first-generation kid of Italian immigrants … but where’s the follow-up?” Sarno said.

The two primary resettlement agencies for refugees in Western Massachusetts are Jewish Family Service in Springfield and Lutheran Social Services of New England.

Since 2011, U.S. State Department numbers show the agencies have helped resettle nearly 1,500 refugees in Greater Springfield – primarily from African nations and in greatest numbers in Springfield and West Springfield.

The Bantu were persecuted when civil war broke out in the early 1990s. A rash of violence targeting their ethnic group sent them fleeing to refugee camps in Kenya and elsewhere, which were often unsafe. Refugees have reported incidents of looting and rape at night. Many of those who grew up in the camps, like Iyai, never had proper homes with running water or electricity.

According to the state Office of Refugees and Immigrants, refugees receive cash assistance, “basic needs support reception” and placement services, funded through the U.S. State Department. For the first 30 days after arrival, host agencies provide assistance with housing, furnishings, food, clothing and transportation to job interviews. During the first 90 days, host agencies also provide help with applying for Social Security cards, registering children for school and tutelage on using public transportation and other public services. They also receive temporary medical coverage.

Sarno and Cotter suggested certain refugees, including many Somalis, appear to need far more support than the resettlement agencies provide and for far longer than 90 days.

Robert Marmor, president and CEO of Jewish Family Service, said in a public statement that he met with city officials in July to discuss concerns around housing and communication surrounding the placement of refugees.

“That week I personally went on 8 home visits, spoke to refugees and found that two apartments were in poor condition due to landlord negligence. The JFS staff have been advocating for these families to improve conditions,” Marmor said in the statement, which did not detail which properties he visited.

Jozefina Lantz, director for services for New Americans for Lutheran Social Services, said the local agencies prepare “very responsibly” in resettling refugees and providing support services.

There is a federal timeline for providing support, “but that is too short and we certainly serve refugees past that timeline.”

“If the refugee family runs into issues year down the road they certainly know where to come and we will always help and always have,” Lantz said. “But let’s say three years down the road — that is not something we would follow. Refugees are resettled to be free. To move freely to live freely. They are not our charge per se. We don’t do that level of control and monitoring.”

“It’s up to them to come in,” Lantz said. “Sometimes they do fall prey to landlords as do any other family. Many poor families do.”

Cotter provided documentation for several properties including Franklin Street and 72 Carver St., which still had a torn blue tarp covering the roof when a reporter recently visited the property. A small group of women dressed in traditional African garb were gathered on the front porch, but none spoke English.

A condemnation order was issued by the city in May, attached to a report with a litany of violations including the tarp, broken locks and windows, a lack of hot water and heat in certain units and a heavy infestation of bed bugs.

The owner, Almaliky Ali, whose address is listed as 74 Carver St., was not at home and could not be reached for comment. Lisa C. DeSousa, an attorney for the city, said Ali was ordered to appear in housing court on June 24. He did not appear; a civil warrant issued for his arrest, DeSousa said. City attorneys plan to file a motion to appoint a receiver for the property.

In the case of 400 Franklin St., Cotter said the property was filled with dead mice and rat droppings, and had holes chewed in the walls. Deeds records show the limited liability corporation purchased the property for $35,000 in 2008.

“We have six people in code enforcement and there have been 192 condemnations since the first of January. That’s a ridiculous amount. Now we have to turn those over to our Law Department, which is short-staffed, and what happens when the cold weather comes and they don’t have a winter coat or they can’t communicate with the oil company when that runs out? Where’s the follow-up?” Cotter said.

He also added that he believes property owners like “Eric,” who lives out-of-state, should have on-site managers rather than waiting until code violations reach crisis proportions.

Cotter conceded, however, that the owner worked to address the problems after he was informed. Iyai seemed to suggest that she was happy in her apartment, but struggled to show a reporter her budgeting challenges. She pulled a slips of paper from her wallet showing a $630 monthly cash allowance against a $540 rent payment and a $150 utility bill.

“Food, good,” she said, referring to her monthly food allowance.

She added that she had been resettled by Lutheran Social Services.

“Not good,” she said, unable to provide more detail in English.

In terms of the housing struggles for refugees, Peter Gagliardi, executive director of HAP Housing in Springfield, said the rental market in Springfield has been tightening like a noose. The city has been hard hit by the economy, foreclosures, the 2011 tornadoes and the 2012 natural gas explosion that damaged many downtown units.

He said the 2010 U.S. Census showed Springfield had a 5 percent vacancy rate which he estimates has been reduced to about 3 percent because of all those factors, plus the state’s effort to move homeless families out of shelters and hotels. All of it has sent more people into the rental market and rents creeping upward.

“At 3 percent we have a seller’s market and everyone competes for the rest,” Gagliardi said. “I think if everybody who really needed affordable rental housing got it, we probably don’t have enough.”


Obama wrapping up Martha's Vineyard vacation; week ahead includes honors for 1972 Dolphins

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The Dolphins, who went 17-0, never made it to the White House after their Super Bowl win 40 years ago in 1973.

EDGARTOWN, Mass. — President Barack Obama returned to the golf course Sunday to play his sixth and final round of a weeklong vacation on Martha's Vineyard.

Obama played at Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown, his third visit there since arriving on Aug. 10. World Bank President Jim Kim, New York lawyer and Obama fundraiser Eunu Chun and aide Mike Brush completed the foursome, the White House said. Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha are due back at the White House late Sunday.

The president has spent all or part of nine days on this picturesque Massachusetts island, mostly keeping a low profile while renting a house in Chilmark, a property valued at $7 million. He spoke publicly just once, condemning violence in Egypt.

The political upheaval in that Middle Eastern country is one of several issues Obama will contend with in the coming weeks. Also drawing his attention will be negotiations with congressional Republicans to get a new spending plan in place by the Sept. 30 end of the federal budget year or risk a government shutdown, and to increase the government's borrowing authority.

Obama also is considering whom to pick as his next chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The president devoted many vacation hours to his golf game, but also had a few date-night dinners out with the first lady before their daughters arrived late in the week. The entire family went for a bike ride, hit the beach and ate a couple of dinners away, including an evening spent at the Oak Bluffs rental home of White House senior adviser and family friend Valerie Jarrett.

Obama's week ahead includes a White House recognition ceremony Tuesday for the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only NFL team to achieve a perfect season.

The Dolphins, who went 17-0, never made it to the White House after their Super Bowl win 40 years ago in 1973. President Richard Nixon was immersed in the Watergate scandal at the time and, back then, White House visits by victorious professional and collegiate sports teams were not as common as they are today.

Many Dolphins team members are expected to attend, including fullback Larry Csonka and Hall of Fame coach Don Shula.

Obama also hits the road again at the end of this week, this time on official business. He's scheduled a bus trip through upstate New York and Pennsylvania to talk about making a college education more affordable. Thursday's stops include the State University of New York at Buffalo and Henninger High School in Syracuse.

On Friday, Obama planned to answer questions at a town hall-style event at SUNY-Binghamton before a stop at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa. He is to be joined there by Vice President Joe Biden, a native of the northeastern Pennsylvania city.

The stops are the latest on Obama's summertime tour to highlight his economic proposals for the middle class.

Idaho wildfire more contained Sunday, officials state

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More than 1,200 people and 19 aircraft were battling the lightning-caused Beaver Creek Fire, which started Aug. 7 and was 9 percent contained.


BOISE, Idaho — Fire managers expressed optimism Sunday in their battle against a wildfire that has scorched nearly 160 square miles and forced the evacuation of 2,300 homes near the central Idaho resort communities of Ketchum and Sun Valley.

Officials said the blaze had grown by only about 12 square miles because of cloud cover the day before and the arrival of additional crews and equipment. Many firefighters worked Sunday to create protective firebreaks, or gaps in vegetation.

‘‘Today they’re very optimistic that we will reinforce those lines in case the fire does flare up as we saw on Thursday and Friday,’’ fire spokeswoman Shawna Hartman said.

More than 1,200 people and 19 aircraft were battling the lightning-caused Beaver Creek Fire, which started Aug. 7 and was 9 percent contained. Nearly 90 fire engines also were in the region, many protecting homes in the affluent area where celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis own pricey getaways.

Hartman said Sunday retardant was being dropped on the flank of Bald Mountain — the Sun Valley Resort’s primary ski hill — to reinforce a fire line. That meant the famed ski mountain known as ‘‘Baldy’’ and often used in publicity photos would have a red line of retardant visible from Ketchum.

Hartman said the drop was part of a plan by fire managers to bolster protection for the tony resort town, but he noted the fire had not yet spread to the mountain.

Meanwhile, crews continued battling other wildfires across the West, including a group of fires near the Oregon city of The Dalles, on the Columbia River.

Those fires were threatening about 70 homes Sunday, and some residents in the area were told to be ready to evacuate. The Oregon State Fire Marshal’s office said there is fire about a mile and a half from some structures.

Three wildfires were burning in the area, with the largest covering about 700 acres in The Dalles watershed. The lightning-caused fires were detected Friday. About 200 people were assigned to help combat them.

In Idaho, fire managers said both of the nation’s DC-10 retardant bombers have been used to battle the Beaver Creek Fire, but one experienced an engine malfunction after a drop Thursday. The jet made it back safely to Pocatello in southeastern Idaho but remains unavailable.

Hartman said most of the fire’s containment was on the south and west sides. The more populated areas are on its eastern side and are where the mandatory evacuations were in place.

Blaine County spokeswoman Bronwyn Nickel said Idaho National Guard soldiers were manning checkpoints at evacuated neighborhoods and helping relieve local law enforcement officers. The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office was warning evacuated residents not to return until notified it was safe to do so.

No structures have been destroyed since a house and outbuildings burned Thursday, officials said. On the fire line, a few minor injuries were reported.

Authorities have told Ketchum and Sun Valley residents to be ready to evacuate if necessary. About 2,700 people live in Ketchum, 1,400 in Sun Valley.

In Utah, the last evacuation orders were scheduled to be lifted Monday after a series of mountain fires burned more than a dozen homes last week.

More than 100 residents who were forced to leave Rockport Estates and Rockport Ranches, about 45 miles east of Salt Lake City, will be allowed to return in the morning, officials said.

Among them are family members of a couple who got married over the weekend in a backup ceremony at a century-old church after they had to flee their original venue with the bride’s wedding dress.

Tawni Sprouce and Travis Mann planned to exchange their vows at her parents’ home overlooking Rockport Reservoir. But the residence was among the scores evacuated after the lightning-sparked Rockport fire burned nearly 2,000 acres.

First, the couple moved the wedding to a campsite at Rockport State Park near the community of Waneship. But rain pushed the ceremony inside the park’s Old Church.

Mann said that given the circumstances, the couple welcomed the precipitation. He said Saturday’s ceremony eventually went off without a hitch.

Fire officials said Sunday the Rockport fire was 70 percent contained.

Utah’s biggest blaze, the Patch Springs Fire, was estimated at 50 square miles and 25 percent contained Sunday. Evacuation orders were lifted for that fire, which burned 10 homes near Willow Springs, but a portion of State Highway 199 remained closed.

Palmer, Quaboag region gets $500,000 from state for microloan fund, technical assistance program

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The funds awarded will provide business technical assistance for 50 low- and moderate-income owned area microenterprises, provide four loans to small businesses and eight loans to low- and moderate-income owners of commercial enterprises that have five or fewer employees.

 

PALMER - The Department of Housing and Community Development has announced the award of more than $500,000 to Palmer and 12 towns in the Quaboag region. The funds will be used to re-capitalize an established business revolving loan fund and to fund a technical assistance program creating eight full time jobs. The program will increase local business activity and employment opportunities for residents who are unemployed, underemployed or lacking transportation.

The funds awarded will provide business technical assistance for 50 low- and moderate-income owned area microenterprises, provide four loans to small businesses and eight loans to low- and moderate-income owners of commercial enterprises that have five or fewer employees.

“This funding will provide critical support for the Palmer and the Quaboag region. The new jobs it will create will provide a great benefit to the area and the investment is essential to the economic sustainability of this part of the state as we all continue to recover from the recession,” state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre, said in a news release.

The Economic Development Fund is a component of the Massachusetts Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. It provides funding for projects that create and/or retain jobs, improve the local and/or regional tax base, or otherwise enhance the quality of life in the community. The Economic Development Fund has funded a range of economic and community development projects.

Work continues on $10.6 million West Springfield water main replacement project

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The previous 1930s pipeline was undersized and was costing too much to maintain . The line is 3.5 milies long cutting through Westfield on its way to well fields in Southwick. The city of West Springfield approved the project back in 2011.

WESTFIELD - Route 187 and Feeding Hills Road were closed recently to the Agawam town line as contractors for West Springfield finish up a $10.6 million water line-improvement project.

The previous 1930s pipeline was undersized and was costing too much to maintain, officials have said. The line is 3.5 milies long, cutting through Westfield on its way to well fields in Southwick. The city of West Springfield approved the project in 2011.

Replacing the old 16-inch pipe with a 24-inch diameter pipe will allow 7 million gallons of water a day.

The city typically uses 4 million gallons of water a day, with demand rising to as much as 7 million gallons a day during peak periods in the summer, officials say.

In July 2012, officer Jose Torres, a 27-year veteran of the Westfield police force, was killed in an accident at a construction site for this project.

Sunderland package store robbery foiled after knife-wielding man confronted by gun-wielding clerk

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The would-be thief fled the store empty handed after a clerk produced a handgun, according to a published report.

SUNDERLAND — A rock-paper-scissors scenario reportedly played out during an attempted robbery Friday at the Spirit Shoppe, where a suspect with a knife was bested by a package store clerk with gun, according to a published report.

The would-be thief entered the liquor store at 295 Amherst Road with a large knife and demanded money. But when the female clerk pulled out a handgun, the male suspect fled the store without any cash, Sunderland Police Chief Jeffrey Gilbert told CBS 3 News, media partner of MassLive.com/The Republican.

That information could not immediately be verified with Gilbert, who was not expected to be back on duty until about 7 a.m. Monday, according to a Sunderland police dispatcher.

There were no reported injuries in the 2 p.m. Friday incident, which prompted authorities to launch a K-9 search for the suspect, who apparently still remains at large.

The suspect was described as a dark-haired, heavyset white man, about 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10 inches tall, who was wearing a white knit mask, black Adidas windbreaker, gray or white pants, and black sneakers, according to The Recorder.

Sunderland police are asking anyone with information to call the department at (413) 665-7036. A 24-hour police emergency dispatch line may also be reached at (413) 625-8200.


MAP showing location of an attempted robbery at The Spirit Shoppe in Sunderland:


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