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Numerous road fatalities, including one in Springfield, reported throughout the region

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The Memorial Day holiday weekend got off to a rough start in southern New England, where numerous accidents -- including several fatalities -- have been reported since Friday.

police lights.jpgPolice have responded to several fatal accidents in southern New England since Friday, including a deadly crash in Springfield that claimed the life of an elderly woman in Pine Point.

The Memorial Day weekend got off to a rocky start in Connecticut and the eastern part of the Bay State, where several fatalities were reported since the start of the long weekend. But local police said Western Massachusetts roads were looking pretty good as of Sunday morning, despite a fatal collision Friday in Springfield's Pine Point neighborhood and multiple accidents.

Among the more serious accidents was a Saturday afternoon rollover crash near the state police barracks on the Springfield rotary, but the driver in that incident luckily wasn't seriously injured, according to Springfield Police Officer Robert Kalin, a member of the city's traffic bureau.

Kalin said things have been relatively quiet since Friday, when an elderly Springfield woman was killed in a two-car collision around 1 p.m. on Tapley Street. Police have yet to identify the woman, who was with her "next of kin" at the time of the Pine Point crash, according to Kalin, who didn't know her name.

"As far as (Springfield) is concerned, we've been pretty good -- knock on wood," he said late Sunday morning.

Shortly after the officer made that remark, however, city police were called to the scene of another rollover accident on Springfield Street. The driver and passengers in the single-vehicle crash reportedly were able to free themselves from the accident, which was reported at 1 p.m. and required police to close Springfield Street at Caseland Street. Additional information wasn't immediately available.

Elsewhere in the state, a fatal I-95 crash in Burlington forced the closure of a northbound stretch of highway for several hours Sunday morning. The crash was reported around 1:43 a.m. and northbound lanes were reopened shortly before 5 a.m., police said.

The 46-year-old victim wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from his 2000 Land Rover Discovery, which rolled over during the crash, police said. A preliminary investigation indicates he may have been speeding, said David Procopio, a state police spokesman.

The man's identity is being withheld pending notification of his family, Procopio said.

State police also were investigating another fatal crash early Sunday morning on Interstate-195 East in Swansea, where a 40-year-old pedestrian from Fall River was killed around 3:12 a.m. by a Cadillac Deville driven by 48-year-old Julian Juan of New Bedford.

Police are investigating whey the pedestrian was on the highway.

Connecticut, meanwhile, has had several serious driving accidents since the start of the holiday weekend, including three separate fatal crashes early Saturday morning; a Saturday night collision involving a Windsor Locks police cruiser and a motorcycle; and a motorcycle accident in Meriden reported shortly before 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

The Saturday evening accident was reported around 9:27, when a cruiser driven by Windsor Locks Police Officer Officer Andrew Dzierzgowski collided with a motorcycle ridden by Donald MacPherson.

The officer was treated at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, while MacPherson, of Windsor Locks, was treated at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. Both men were later released.


Deerfield Academy celebrates 212th commencement; Northfield Mount Hermon School holds 128th

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Almost 200 students received diplomas at Deerfield Academy’s 212th commencement Sunday, including a girl who was killed in an accident last summer. Northfield Mount Hermon School gave out 203 diplomas.

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DEERFIELD – Almost 200 students received diplomas at Deerfield Academy’s 212th commencement Sunday, including a girl who was killed in an accident last summer.

Head of school Dr. Margarita O’Byrne Curtis asked for a moment of silence from the 191 graduates and the crowd when Vittoria Isabelle Marley’s mother, Leiza Marie Blakely, accepted her diploma. When the moment came, hundreds of people rose to give a standing ovation.

Marley died of a head injury on a golf course in Jamaica on September 3 and Curtis said her presence could be felt at the ceremony if everyone gave her their thoughts and prayers.

This year’s commencement speaker was Deerfield Academy alumnus Matthew H. King, deputy director of Homeland Security Investigations. King spoke of the importance of resilience, decision-making skills and a slow pace in life.

While discussing a drug bust in San Francisco that was almost botched, King said everyone must know how to “adapt, overcome and improvise.”

“Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes we fail,” said King. “The question is: what do you make of it?”

The senior speakers were Kendall Leigh Carpenter and Eliot Invernissi Taft, who both graduated cum laude.

Carpenter spoke in grand literary terms about the landscape of the campus and the memories each location inspires. Taft described how the students influence each other and work together like “multiple currents flowing into one river.”

Three students won the school’s most prestigious awards for scholarship and contributions to the community. Alexander King Ward earned the Binswanger Prize, Eleanor Hillyer Parker won the Deerfield Cup and the Robert B. Crow Award went to Nap Hong Leung. All three also graduated cum laude.

“I expect nothing less from this class than that they should change the world,” said Curtis. “Believe in yourselves and the promise of all you can do.”

Also on Sunday, Northfield Mount Hermon School held its 128th commencement, at which Lorrie Byrom, history teacher and director of the school’s Center for International Education, gave the address.

Byrom greeted the assembly in 32 different languages before telling graduates of the importance of imagination in crafting human experience, including the words we use.

“Change will be a constant at every turn and the imaginative people, those who see broad ranges of options, will find the most happiness,” she said.

Valedictorian Daniel Kang told his classmates to find strength in their collective memories. Salutatorian Caitlin Duffy said she was motivated to create change against all odds.

“Life is a war. Use your memories of this place as ammunition and fight through it,” said Kang. “Let’s fight together and win this thing.”

The school gave out 203 diplomas.

Push on to recognize black Revolutionary War soldiers and sailors

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Nearly 200 communities will be asked in coming weeks to adopt resolutions sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Liberty Fund DC recognizing the role played by black soldiers and sailors battling the British in the nation’s war for independence.

062210_joseph_carvalho_mug.JPGJoseph Carvalho

SPRINGFIELD – Elected officials across Greater Springfield will get a chance to honor the 1,500 black soldiers from Massachusetts who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Nearly 200 communities will be asked in coming weeks to adopt resolutions sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Liberty Fund DC recognizing the role played by black soldiers and sailors battling the British in the nation’s war for independence.

Those communities – including Springfield, West Springfield and Westfield – had soldiers whose participation in the six-year war has been documented, according to Maurice Barboza, the Plainfield, Conn., native leading the campaign.

As part of the campaign, the group is also seeking support for a citizen-funded memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring the estimated 5,000 to 10,000 black soldiers who fought for the 13 colonies. A bill establishing the memorial was introduced this month by U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Researchers have identified 34 black soldiers from Hampden County, including 10 from Springfield, seven from West Springfield and six from Westfield, according to Barboza, who is black and got involved with the issue while researching his family history.

“Over 30 years ago, I traveled through Massachusetts piecing together my own family story. As the story unfolded, I faced my own ignorance,” he said.

Springfield author and historian Joseph Carvahlo III, former president of the Springfield Museums, said the role of blacks in the Revolutionary War, and colonial Massachusetts in general, is not well known.

But blacks – both free and slaves – not only fought the British, they fought alongside white soldiers, a practice that became uncommon after the war, Carvahlo said.

Some slaves were able to gain freedom by joining the Continental Army, sometimes taking a white man’s place and fighting under his name, Carvahlo said.

Several soldiers – including Lemuel Haynes, of Granville, and Archelaus Fletcher, of West Springfield – achieved a certain prominence after the war, with Haynes becoming a Presbyterian minister and Wallace moving his large family to a farm in western New York state, where he lived to be 113 years old, he said.

Carvahlo, who is writing a book about black families in Hampden County between 1650 and 1865, said recognition for black soldiers is long overdue.

“All veterans who served, no matter what color, should be recognized, and they (black soldiers) were never recognized before,” he said.

“It’s time to recognize them in a special way,” he added.



Companies look for power way, way up in the sky

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Cristina Archer, an atmospheric scientist at the California State University in Chico, said there's "not a doubt anymore" that high-altitude winds will be tapped for power.

Wind Power 2.jpgView full sizeThis November 2010 photo provided by Altaeros Energies shows Adam Rein holding a prototype airborne power turbine shroud at Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury, Mass. Several companies are pursuing designs that can capture power from some of the most powerful winds on earth, blowing thousands of feet above the world's tallest turbines. (AP Photo/Altaeros Energies, Ben Glass)

By Jay Lindsay

BOSTON (AP) — The world's strongest winds race high in the sky, but that doesn't mean they're out of reach as a potentially potent energy source.

Flying, swooping and floating turbines are being developed to turn high-altitude winds into electricity.

The challenges are huge, but the potential is immense. Scientists estimate the energy in the jet streams is 100 times the amount of power used worldwide annually.

Cristina Archer, an atmospheric scientist at the California State University in Chico, said there's "not a doubt anymore" that high-altitude winds will be tapped for power.

"This can be done, it can work," she said.

The question is, when? Some companies project their technology will hit the market by the middle of the decade, but Fort Felker at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says the industry is 10 years away from making a meaningful contribution to the nation's electricity demands.

No company, for instance, has met the basic requirement of demonstrating its turbine can safely fly unsupervised for prolonged periods of time.

High-altitude wind power is similar to ground wind in the 1970s — facing questions but soon to prove its viability, said PJ Shepard of Oroville, Calif.-based Sky WindPower, which is developing a "flying electric generator."

"It's kind of like the adjustment folks had to make when the Wright brothers started flying airplanes," she said.

The lure of high-altitude wind is simple: Wind speed generally increases with its height above the ground as surface friction diminishes. Each time wind speed doubles, the amount of energy it theoretically holds multiplies by eight times.

The world's most powerful winds circulate in the jet streams, which are found four to 10 miles off the ground and carry winds that regularly break 100 miles per hour.

The dream is to eventually tap the jet streams, but high-altitude wind companies are focusing for now below a 2,000-foot ceiling, above which complex federal air-space restrictions kick in. Adam Rein, co-founder of the Boston company Altaeros Energies, said his company calculates winds at the 2,000 foot level are up to 2½ times stronger than winds that can be reached by a typical 350-foot land turbine.

Wind Power 1.jpgView full sizeIn this May 24, 2011 photo provided by Makani Power, flight team engineers Kenneth Jensen, left, Damon Vander Lind, center, and Matthew Peddie prepare for the first crosswind test of their 20kW Wing 7 airborne wind turbine prototype in Alameda, Calif. Several companies are pursuing designs that can capture power from some of the most powerful winds on earth, blowing thousands of feet above the world's tallest turbines. (AP Photo/Makani Power, Andrea Dunlap)

High-altitude wind advocates say their smaller, lightweight turbines will be far cheaper to build and deploy than windmills with huge blades and towers that must be drilled into land or the sea floor.

Those savings would mean inexpensive energy. With wide-scale use, advocates see a range of prices, from something comparable to land wind's current 9 or 10 cents per kilowatt hour down to an astonishingly low 2 cents per kilowatt hour.

"They are projecting crazy numbers," Archer said. "I'm not saying that it's true. ... But it's really the lowest, the cheapest energy source, possibly."

As the turbines eventually aim higher, advocates say there are plenty of remote and offshore no-fly areas where they won't interfere with aircraft and have minimal interaction with people.

Still, any nearby residents must be convinced there's no danger from falling turbines while accepting a view that includes flying objects attached to long tethers that carry the energy to the ground. High-altitude turbines also won't escape the various environmental concerns that face conventional turbines, such as their effect on bird flight.

And each turbine concept awaits extensive testing on its reliability, durability and effectiveness, said Felker, director of NREL's National Wind Technology Center.

Keeping the turbines operating autonomously over long periods in changing weather may be the biggest obstacle, Felker said.

"You have powerful reasons to stay aloft as much as possible," he said. "What do you do when a thunderstorm comes by? Do you recover (the device)? Do you land? ... How do you operate in the real world?"

Different companies have proposed answering that question in different ways.

A "kite" being developed by Makani Power of Alameda, Calif., looks like a glider with four high-speed rotors that launch it into flight, then switch modes to generate electricity that's carried down the tether.

An onboard computer steers the kite in a wide circle, mimicking the path of the tip of a giant wind turbine blade. That allows the device to interact with a larger wind area, increasing the amount of energy it can capture in the same way increasing the size of a sail increases the potential speed of a sailboat, said Damon Vander Lind, Makani's chief engineer.

The kite can also stay up in high winds, and power itself to land in low winds, Lind said.

"It lets us make a very reliable system, something operators can just plug in and use," he said.

Sky WindPower's generator has four rotors, each 35 feet in diameter, that transmit power down the tether. It's built to hover, rather than swoop or circle, Shepard said. While moving turbines can actually fly faster than the wind by flying crosswind, they can't fly as high, she said.

"We can get up a little higher than they can. We can get to higher velocity winds and make up for it," Shepard said.

Altaeros is developing a stationary turbine that sits inside a 60-foot tall, helium-filled shroud that acts like a wind funnel. Similar blimp-like devices, called aerostats, have long been used to keep heavy equipment aloft, such as government surveillance radar tethered up to 15,000 feet above U.S. borders.

"Our view is that our approach is less risky, because we're using a technology that's been out there for decades," Rein said.

Altaeros has big aims — no less than "making an impact on the global energy crisis," Rein said — but it's starting small. Its 10 full and part-time employees share a building with seven other start-up companies in a former wool manufacturing factory in South Boston.

Rein notes that before it tries to bring the untapped power of high-altitude wind to thousands, his company is first developing a system that could bring power to about 40 homes in remote areas.

"You start smaller... and then you scale up over time," Rein said. "We think that approach makes a lot of sense."

Thousands rally in Serbia to protest arrest of genocide suspect Ratko Mladic

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Nationalists are furious that the pro-Western government apprehended Mladic on Thursday after nearly 16 years on the run.

Ratko Mladic Protests 1.jpgView full sizeSupporters of genocide suspect Ratko Mladic wave flags with him picture and reading in Serbian: "Serbian Hero" during a rally organized by the ultra nationalist Serbian Radical Party in front of the Parliament building, in Belgrade, Serbia, on Sunday, May 29, 2011. Thousands of demonstrators sang nationalist songs and carried banners honoring jailed former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic on Sunday as they poured into the street outside Serbia's parliament to demand the release of the war-crimes suspect, whom they consider a hero. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

By Jovana Gec

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators sang nationalist songs and carried banners honoring jailed former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic on Sunday as they poured into the street outside Serbia's parliament to demand the release of the war-crimes suspect, whom they consider a hero.

More than 3,000 riot police took positions around government buildings and Western embassies, fearing the demonstration could turn violent, as similar rallies have in the past. Riot police blocked small groups of extremists from reaching the rally.

Some protesters near the Turkish Embassy, which is close to the parliament building, hurled stones at the police, who pushed the crowd back. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Some of the least 7,000 protesters at the rally chanted right-wing slogans. A few gave Nazi salutes. Demonstrators said Serbia should not hand Mladic over to the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands.

"Cooperation with The Hague tribunal represents treason," Serbian Radical Party official Lidija Vukicevic told the crowd. "This is a protest against the shameful arrest of the Serbian hero."

Demonstrators demanded the ouster of Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic, who ordered Mladic's arrest. A sign on the stage read, "Tadic is not Serbia."

Supporters of the extreme nationalist Radical Party were bused in to attend the rally. Right-wing extremists and hooligan groups have also urged followers to appear in large numbers.

Nationalists are furious that the pro-Western government apprehended Mladic on Thursday after nearly 16 years on the run. The 69-year-old former general was caught at a relative's home in a northern Serbian village.

The U.N. tribunal charged Mladic with genocide in 1995, accusing him of orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and other war crimes of Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Mladic's arrest is considered critical to Serbia's efforts to join the European Union, and to reconciliation in the region after a series of ethnic wars of the 1990s.

Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, said Sunday that despite the indictment, his father insists he was not responsible for the mass executions committed by his troops after they overran the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

"Whatever was done behind his back, he has nothing to do with that," Darko Mladic said.

The massacre in Srebrenica is considered to be Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. Bosnian Serb troops under Mladic's command rounded up boys and men and executed them over several days, burying the remains in mass graves in the area. Prosecutors say they have compelling evidence that Mladic personally ordered and oversaw the executions in and around Srebrenica.

Ratko Mladic Protests 2.jpgView full sizeA Bosnian member of the International Commission for Missing Persons inspects bags with body remains, exhumed from mass graves, as he prepares body remains for the process of DNA identification of the victims from the Bosnian war, in Tuzla, 140 kms north of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, May 27, 2011. The ICMP keeps finding Mladic's victims in numerous mass graves, spread around Srebrenica. The bodies are then exhumed, identified through DNA analysis and returned to the families. Almost all Srebrenica victims get buried then in a memorial center near Srebrenica. This year, another 500 will be laid to rest there. (AP Photo/Darko Zabus)

But Serb nationalists in Serbia and parts of Bosnia still consider Mladic a hero — the general who against all odds tried to defend Serbs in the Bosnian conflict. Among his men, Mladic commanded fierce devotion — many Bosnian Serb soldiers pledged to follow him to the death.

Some 3,000 supporters arrived Sunday by bus from other parts of Bosnia to a rally at Kalinovik, the area where Mladic grew up. Many wore black T-shirts with Mladic's picture and the words "Serbia in my heart."

The crowd called Tadic a "betrayer" for ordering the arrest of "the Serb hero" and urged him to "kill himself." Many said they would fight under Mladic again.

Many of the Kalinovik protesters headed afterward to the shack Mladic was born in at the end of a steep, muddy road in the village of Bozanici, turning the shabby house into a pilgrimage site. Mladic's aunt and cousins spoke to them, telling stories about Mladic's childhood.

Mladic's family and lawyers have been fighting his extradition, arguing that the former general is too ill to face charges. The family plans to appeal the extradition on Monday and to demand an independent medical checkup — moves described by the authorities as a delaying tactics.

"He's a man who has not taken care of his health for a while, but not to the point that he cannot stand trial," Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric told The Associated Press. "According to doctors, he doesn't need hospitalization."

Mladic has suffered at least two, and possibly three, strokes, the latest in 2008, his son said. The suspect's right arm is only semi-functional, and his family says he is not lucid.

Lawyer Milos Saljic says that Mladic above all keeps demanding that he be allowed to visit the grave of his daughter, who committed suicide in 1994.

"He says if he can't go there, he wants his daughter's coffin brought in here," the lawyer added. "His condition is alarming."

Saljic said the family does not believe that Mladic would receive proper medical attention in The Hague. He noted that several high-profile Serbs had died there, including former President Slobodan Milosevic, who suffered a heart attack.

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Dusan Stojanovic and Danica Kirka contributed.

War's toll honored by new generation

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Long before serving as the backdrop for opening and closing scenes in Saving Private Ryan, the 1998 D-Day movie, Normandy was the best-known of the 14 U.S. military cemeteries on foreign soil.

normandy franceCathedral High School students Jennifer Callahan, of Ludlow, and Emily Pin, of Wilbraham, stand near the grave marker for David Callahan, a soldier killed in 1944 during World War II. The teenagers are standing in the U.S. cemetary in Normandy, France.


Name by name, gravestone by gravestone, Emily Pin searched for a Northampton soldier’s resting place at the Normandy American Cemetery.

On a bluff above Omaha Beach, the Cathedral High School junior walked along row after row of white crosses and stars of David, burial sites for 9,387 soldiers killed in the June 6, 1944 D-Day landing and weeks of ensuing combat.

Each marker summed up a young life lost – name, rank, unit, home state, date of death.

Each row stretched to the horizon.

“Our tour guide told us there was over 9,000 men buried there,” recalled Pin, of Wilbraham, who visited the cemetery last month with six Cathedral students, French teacher Nancy Gadbois and several others.

“I started to realize just how many men that was,” she added.

Two generations removed from World War II, the students arrived in Normandy with a textbook knowledge of D-Day, with its staggering toll – 2,000 soldiers cut down at Omaha Beach alone – and pivotal role in liberating France and ending the war in Europe.

The enormity of sacrifices made six decades ago took on fresh significance once the students reached the cemetery, 172 acres of manicured lawns and precisely-aligned gravestones built on a cliff above the English Channel.

Long before appearing in the opening and closing scenes in Saving Private Ryan, the 1998 D-Day movie, Normandy was the best-known of the 14 U.S. military cemeteries on foreign soil, a battle shrine as serene as it is unsettling.

Buried side-by-side are 33 sets of twins and a father and son; another 307 soldiers, never identified, rest beneath gravestones reading: “Known but to God.

“I thought I knew just about everything there was to know about the war,” said senior Danielle A. Dube, 17, who grew up listening to her grandfather’s tales about fighting Germans and being taken a prisoner of war.

“When you get to the cemetery, it really hits you. You get a greater appreciation for the soldiers,” said Dube, of Easthampton.

normandy franceCathedral High students back from their trip to Normandy along with their teacher Nancy Gadbois, left and students left to right, front Emily Pin, Alexa Cecchetelli, Jennifer Callahan, behind them left to right, Alyssa Goehlert, Linnea Carroll, Robert Patrie and Danielle Dube.

Indeed, knowing that thousands of Americans were killed at Normandy is one thing; seeing 9,387 graves, each facing west toward America, is something else, explained senior Linnea F. Carroll, 17, of South Hadley.

“I went from marker to marker seeing ages from 18 (to) 23. All of those men who died were the same age as me, if not a little older,” Carroll said.

With miles of white marble headstones set against the emerald green lawn, the cemetery is striking on purely aesthetic terms.

At the east end, a reflecting pool borders a semi-circular memorial listing 1,557 missing soldiers; a 22-foot bronze sculpture, the Spirit of American Youth Rising, stands at the center, looking out toward the vast burial ground.

Operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission on land donated by the French, the cemetery and memorial was formally opened in 1956 at the site a temporary cemetery established two days after the invasion.

About 1 million people visit each year, finding peace and hushed tranquillity at the site of history’s greatest amphibious assault.

“It’s surreal – knowing what happened there, and seeing how it is now,” said senior Robert M. Patrie, 18, of Springfield.

Adding to the incongruity, the students found Omaha Beach – a killing zone for the first Americans ashore – serene and dotted with sunbathers taking advantage of the 70-degree temperatures and cloudless skies on the April afternoon they visited.

“It was very hard to reconcile the beach with the battle,” Carroll said.

As the trip’s organizer, Gadbois wanted students to get a deeper understanding of France and the role America played in reclaiming it from fours years of Nazi occupation.

In researching the trip, she found that 500 soldiers from Hampden County were killed in the Normandy campaign, including several from Greater Springfield.

“That shows you the size of the Normandy landing,” said Gadbois, who has made three visits to the battlefield.

In 1975, as a teacher at Holyoke High School, she escorted 30 students to France, including one, Marcel Biela, whose uncle quit high school to enlist in the Army and was killed in Normandy.

He was 16.

Responding to pleas from Biela’s mother, the teacher reluctantly took her class to the cemetery, where – to everyone’s surprise – a retired French soldier in full military uniform greeted their bus with a sprig of flowers, and escorted Biela to his uncle’s grave.

The group eventually joined them, saying prayers and reflecting at the graveside.

“That was one of those days I’ll never forget,” said Gadbois, winner of multiple teaching awards in Holyoke and at Central High School and Cathedral in Springfield.

“Sadly, that’s before anyone ever though of calling internationally to report back, and until we landed at Bradley a week later, she never knew whether we located her brother’s grave,” Gadbois said.

For this trip, Gadbois wanted to pay tribute to any Cathedral student buried at the cemetery.

The mission proved tricky; the American Battle Monument Commission, which oversees the cemetery, could not identify soldiers by hometown or high school. Eventually, a list of Hampden County casualties was produced, then cross-checked with Cathedral graduates from 1937 to 1941.

The only soldier turning up, Robert J. Shea, Class of 1940, was buried at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Springfield.

Instead, the students received names of soldiers from Springfield, Westfield and Northampton, with instructions to visit their graves.

After arriving in France, the group – including several parents and grandparents, plus a student from Minnechaug Regional High School – spent a few days in Paris and Brittany before taking a charter bus to Normandy.

At the visitor’s center in Arromanches, they watched the documentary “The Price of Freedom” in a circular theater with nine screens.

Mixing newsreel footage and modern-day pictures, the film recounts D-Day with no narration, using only the sound and fury of the battle itself. To enhance the 360 degree effect, there are no chairs - everyone stands while the film unfolds around them.

Two hours later, the students were fanning out across the battleground-turned-cemetery, tracking down the names of fallen soldiers.

Senior Alyssa C. Goehlert stopped at five graves, paying tribute to each soldier’s selflessness and courage.

It took about five minutes for Pin to find the grave of Northampton’s Pvt. Joseph J. Okolo, killed June 15, 1944, while securing the Normandy beachhead. His parents decided he should be buried with his comrades, according to “Touched by Fire,” a book by Northampton historian Allison M. Lockwood.

Kneeling, Pin said a prayer, and wondered what Okolo’s life would have been without the war.

“I was trying to quantify the loss of his life, and then realized that I could do the same for the other 9,000 men” Pin said.

“It was pretty overwhelming,” she added. 


Policy stymies Columbus Day Fair on South Hadley Town Common

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In 2009, it adopted a policy that the common can’t be used for money-making purposes. “We don’t allow profit-making on the Town Common,” said Robert Judge, chair of the Selectboard.

10-1397_Columbus_Day_Fair.JPGAnne M. Messier, of Holyoke, shops for childrens shirts on the South Hadley Town Common during the Columbus Day Fair in this file photo.

SOUTH HADLEY – For the past three years the Selectboard has come up against a sticky wicket concerning the Town Common.

In 2009, it adopted a policy that the common can’t be used for money-making purposes. “We don’t allow profit-making on the Town Common,” said Robert Judge, chair of the Selectboard.

Here’s the problem. One of the most beloved traditions of the town, the Columbus Day Fair, relies increasingly on for-profit vendors – usually small-scale, often one-person, businesses.

The fair is the annual fund-raiser for United Methodist Church in South Hadley. The church charges for-profit vendors more than what it charges nonprofits like the Historical Society or the Boy Scouts. So it’s to the church’s benefit to include as many for-profit vendors as qualify.

“Some people,” said Judge, “say the private businesses are squeezing out the nonprofits.”

Carol Brunelle of United Methodist, who organizes the fair, said the event would not exist if not for private vendors.

“We have to have for-profit vendors, or we can’t have the fair,” said Brunelle.

Not that United Methodist makes a big profit. Though it’s famous for its apple dumplings, proceeds from its booth and from the rental of nonprofit booths would not cover the cost of putting on the fair.

It’s the for-profit vendors who pay for advertising, Department of Public Works fees, portable rest rooms, off-duty police officers and all the other things the fair requires, said Brunelle.

She said her team of about a dozen volunteers begins planning in winter.

So far her request to hold this fall’s fair has gone unanswered by the Selectboard, and Brunelle said it’s hindering her operation.

“We have to send applications to hundreds of vendors,” she said, “and they are seeking other places to sell on Columbus Day.”

Brunelle said the fair helps the whole town. Piggy-backing on its success, dozens of tag sales spring up along Route 116 on Columbus Day, and churches near the common sell books and baked goods.

Besides, said Brunelle, what money the church does make goes back into the community, in the form of giving to the Food Pantry, adopting a low-income family at Christmas, and other missions.

Judge is asking residents what they think about the situation. The Selectboard has mixed feelings. As vice-chair Francis DeToma has said, “Perhaps the policy ought to reflect certain realities about the cost of mounting the Columbus Day Fair.”

The board is considering whether the policy on the Town Common should be changed, or whether would that set a precedent that would commercialize the common.

South Hadley residents are invited to send comments to Selectboard@SouthHadley.org or to go to http://southhadley.localocracy.com/issues.

The Farmers’ Market on the Town Common is governed by special rules, namely state laws passed to encourage the spread of farmers’ markets.



Obituaries today: Edith Marino worked for W.F. Young, was Ludlow CC board member

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Update: Arrests, injuries reported at Serbian rallies in support of genocide suspect Ratko Mladic

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This updates a story posted at 3:07 p.m. By Jovana Gec BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Protesters throwing stones and bottles clashed with baton-wielding riot police Sunday in Belgrade after several thousand Serbian nationalist supporters of jailed war-crimes suspect Ratko Mladic rallied outside the parliament building to demand his release. By the time the crowds broke up by late evening,...

Ratko Mladic 3.jpgView full sizeSupporters of genocide suspect Ratko Mladic gather during a rally organized by the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party in front of the Parliament building, in Belgrade, Serbia, on Sunday, May 29, 2011. Mladic was arrested on Thursday in a village in Serbia after 16 years on the run. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

This updates a story posted at 3:07 p.m.

By Jovana Gec

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Protesters throwing stones and bottles clashed with baton-wielding riot police Sunday in Belgrade after several thousand Serbian nationalist supporters of jailed war-crimes suspect Ratko Mladic rallied outside the parliament building to demand his release.

By the time the crowds broke up by late evening, about 100 people were arrested and 16 minor injuries were reported. That amounted to a victory for the pro-Western government, which arrested Mladic on Thursday, risking the wrath of the nationalist old guard in a country with a history of much larger and more virulent protests.

Rioters overturned garbage containers, broke traffic lights and set off firecrackers as they rampaged through downtown. Cordons of riot police blocked their advances, and skirmishes took place in several locations in the center of the capital.

Doctors said six police officers were among the 16 people brought to a hospital with minor injuries. Police remained on the streets as the crowds broke up.

Chicopee School Department and Polish National Credit Union to open a branch bank in Comprehensive High School

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Students will learn banking by running the branch.

comp.high.building.jpgChicopee Comprehensive High School

CHICOPEE – Finding it nearly impossible to secure an internship for a high school student at a bank, teachers at Comprehensive High School decided to open their own.

The School Department is working with the Polish National Credit Union to develop a small bank branch where students would work, said Kenneth R. Widelo, director of the career technical department for the schools.

As the internship program at the two high schools expanded, Widelo said he and Kara M. Blanchard, community student work force developer, were getting requests from students interested in working in banking and finance.

“I think it is easier for us to get a kid on the space shuttle than to get a kid working in a bank,” Widelo said.

Already other high schools, including Roger L. Putnam Technical in Springfield, have opened banks and educators at Chicopee Comprehensive thought they would try it.

The project is to start this summer with two high school students working at the Polish Credit Union in a paid internship that will train them in all the banking rules and regulations, Widelo said.

The will study 18 different banking compliance regulations and the Bank Secrecy Act. Students will, in part, take online courses and at the end will take exams, said James P. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Polish National Credit Union.

“One of the nice things is when they graduate they have options that will make them marketable,” Widelo said.

They still must work out some details such as getting permission from the state Commissioner of Banking. The branch is likely to open in January, Kelly said.

The school has a location for the bank and plans to open it for limited hours three days a week. Students from both Chicopee and Comprehensive high schools will work in the branch, Widelo said.

Operations will be limited to opening savings and checking accounts and making withdrawals and deposits. It will not have an automatic teller machine or offer loans, Kelly said.

While Polish Credit Union will likely lose some money in the project, Kelly said he believes it will gain in other ways.

He said he hopes to put together a youth advisory group and work with educators to teach financial literacy so students will know how to budget, balance a checkbook and other basic skills.

“We are in the midst of launching a new website and who better to get input from than some of the high school kids,” Kelly said.

He also plans to consult with students about their Facebook page and other ways to use social networking.

“We are very community oriented and this is the right thing to do,” Kelly said, adding a lot of the bank employees graduated from one of the Chicopee high schools.

Western Massachusetts communities list meetings for the week

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Here is a list of major municipal meetings for the coming week: Amherst Tues.-Amherst Housing Authority, 4:30 p.m., 33 Kellogg Ave. Amherst Redevelopment Authority, 5 p.m., Town Hall. Wed.-Committee on Homelessness, 10 a.m., Jones Library. Select Board, 4 p.m., Town Hall. Planning Board, 7 p.m., Town Hall. Thu.-Recycling and Refuse Management Committee, 4:30 p.m., Public Works. Chicopee Tues.-School Committee,...

springfieldold.jpgThe old City Hall in Springfield, shown for Springfield's 375th anniversary.

Here is a list of major municipal meetings for the coming week:

Amherst
Tues.-Amherst Housing Authority, 4:30 p.m., 33 Kellogg Ave.

Amherst Redevelopment Authority, 5 p.m., Town Hall.

Wed.-Committee on Homelessness, 10 a.m., Jones Library.

Select Board, 4 p.m., Town Hall.

Planning Board, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Thu.-Recycling and Refuse Management Committee, 4:30 p.m., Public Works.

Chicopee
Tues.-School Committee, 7 p.m. 180 Broadway.

Wed.-Redistricting Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall.

School Committee, 7 p.m., 180 Broadway.

Zoning Committee, 6:30 p.m., City Hall.

Thu.-Planning Board, 7 p.m., City Hall.

Easthampton
Wed.-Assessors, 5:30 p.m., 50 Payson Ave.

Rules and Government Regulations Committee, 5:30 p.m., White Brook Middle School.

License Commission, 5:30 p.m., 50 Payson Ave.

Planning Board, 6 p.m., 50 Payson Ave.

Thu.-Highway Business Review Committee, 6 p.m., 50 Payson Ave.

Granby
Tues.-Board of Health, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall Annex.

Charter Day, 7 p.m., Public Safety Building.

Wed.-Library Trustees, 6 p.m., Public Library.

Thu.-West Street School Council, 3:15 p.m., Learning Center.

Greenfield
Tues.-Ways and Means Committee, 6 p.m., 393 Main St.

Board of License Commissions, 6 p.m., 14 Court Square.

Wed.-Youth Commission, 6:30 p.m., 20 Sanderson St.

Thu.-Planning Board, 7 p.m., 114 Main St.

Hadley
Tues.-Board of Health, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Wed.-Select Board, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Hatfield
Tues.-Rescue/Pumper Committee, 7 p.m., Memorial Town Hall.

Selectmen, 9 a.m., Memorial Town Hall.

Wed.-Trustees, 6 p.m., Hatfield Public Library.

Holyoke
Tues.-Holyoke Geriatric Authority, board of directors, 5 p.m., 45 Lower Westfield Road.

School Committee Finance-Budget Subcommittee, 5 p.m., Dean Technical High School, 1045 Main St., Fifield Community Room.

City Council Redevelopment Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall, City Council Chambers.

Holyoke Housing Authority, board of directors, 6 p.m., Falcetti Towers, community room, 475 Maple St.

Wed.-School Committee Finance-Budget Subcommittee, 5 p.m., Fifield Community Room, Dean Technical High School, 1045 Main St.

Historic Commission, 6:30 p.m., Wistariahurst Museum, carriage house, 238 Cabot St.

Cable television committee, 7 p.m., City Hall, City Council Chambers.

Thu.-City Council Redevelopment Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall, City Council Chambers.

Huntington
Wed.-Board of Selectmen, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Monson
Tues.-Board of Selectmen, 7 p.m., Town Office Building.

Wed.-Board of Health, 6 p.m., Town Office Building.

Thu.-Cemetery Commissioners, 6 p.m., Cemetery Dept., 32 Wilbraham Road.

Northampton
Wed.-License Commission, 4 p.m., Council Chambers.

State Hospital Citizens Advisory Committee, 5 p.m., Haskell Building.

Thu.-City Council, 7:15 p.m., Council Chambers.

South Hadley
Tues.-School Building Committee, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Wed.-Board of Health, 4:30 p.m., Town Hall.

School Building Committee, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Agricultural Commission, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Conservation Commission, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Thu.-Hampshire County Retirement System. 9 a.m., 99 Industrial Drive, Northampton

Fire District 1 Water Commissioners, 6:30 p.m., Water Department Office, 438 Granby Road.

Southwick
Tues.-Planning Board, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Thu.-Historical Commission, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Water Commission, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Board of Health, 7 p.m., Town Hall.

Springfield
Tues.-Commission on Disability, 3 p.m., 70 Tapley St.

Tues.-City Council Committee of a Whole, 4:30-7:30 p.m., budget hearings, Greenleaf Community Center, 1188 Parker St.

Wed.-City Council Government Committee, 5 p.m., Room 200, City Hall.

Wed.-Library Commission, 5:30 p.m., community room, Central Library.

Warren
Wed.-West Warren Water District, 6 p.m., Warren Community Elementary School.

Westfield

Wed.-Arts Council, 7 p.m., City Hall.

Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m., City Hall

Municipal Light Board, 7 p.m., 100 Elm St.

Thu.-City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall.

Western Mass people have a gloomy economic outlook, impact according to survey

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Survey respondents said they are pessimistic about where the economy will be in six months.

May 27, 2011 - Springfield - Staff photo by Michael S. Gordon - Joseph P. Flanagan of Glastonbury, Ct. fills his gas tank at the Pride Gas station of East Columbus Ave.

SPRINGFIELD – People in Western Massachusetts have a gloomier view of the economy than their counterparts across the state according to poll results released last week by Mass Insight, a Boston-based consulting firm.

And how people feel about the economy can in turn, impact the economy, said William H. Guenther, president of Mass Insight.

“It’s a feedback loop. Bad news makes people think twice about spending money. Poor sales result in poor economic news,” Guenther said in a phone interview. When asked by pollsters if the economy would be better or worse six months from now, 34 percent of Western Massachusetts residents, defined here as the 413 area code, said “worse”. That’s the highest percentage saying “Worse” of any region in the state.

Also, 37 percent said “the same” and 28 percent said “better”. That’s compared to statewide averages of 21 percent “worse”, 45 percent “the same” and 32 percent “better”.

Ironically, people in Western Massachusetts were more willing to spend on a big-ticket item. When asked if now is a good time to make a big-ticket purchase like a refrigerator or furniture, 51 percent of the people in Western Massachusetts said it is a “good time” to buy and 46 percent said it is a “bad time”. The statewide averages were 42 percent “good time” and 51 percent “bad time”.



Guenther said the percentage of people willing to spend on a big-ticket item will have to get much further north of 50 percent before the economy can be called healthy.

“If you go into a store today to buy a television, I bet you get a pretty good deal,” he said.

The statewide samples are have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent and are based on a telephone survey of 500 adults. Western Massachusetts’ results are less accurate, instead based on a 108-person subset of that 500-person sample.

Percentages also reflect rounding and some people questioned invariably answer “do not know”.

The same poll yields Mass Insight’s consumer confidence index which fell to 67 points on a scale where 100 is considered “normal” sentiment. The index was just two points higher than the 65-point national average figured by the Washington-based Conference Board. The Conference Board’s New England Average was 57 points.

In January, the last time Mass Insight did its index, the confidence level was at 74 points compared with 65 nationally and 79 across New England.

“For the whole decade of the 2000s we only broke 100 three times,” he said.

Guenther also pointed out that the overall consumer confidence is the result of divergent views where the economy is versus where it is headed. The Current conditions index for Massachusetts went up from 17 in January to 24 points in April. But the Future Expectations Index fell from 112 in January to 96 points in April.

When asked what the economy is like now: 52 percent of Western Massachusetts residents said “bad”, 43 percent said normal and just 2 percent said good. The statewide averages were 47 percent “bad” 41 percent “normal and 10 percent “good”.

When asked about the availability of jobs, 59 percent of respondents in Western Massachusetts said jobs in this area are “hard-to-get” 35 percent said “not so many jobs” and 3 percent said “plenty of jobs”. The statewide averages were 50 percent hard-to-get, 36 percent “not so many” and 6 percent “plenty of jobs”.

“That’s what people are seeing every day, jobs, gas prices and a stalled housing market,” Guenther said.

Unemployment for the Springfield federal statistical area, which includes most of Hampden County, fell to 8.5 percent in April from 9.4 percent a month earlier and 9.1 percent a year ago, according to statistics released last week.

Gas averaged $3.84 a gallon in the Springfield area Friday, according to AAA. One year ago it averaged more than a dollar less at $2.80 a gallon.

The median price of a single family home in the pioneer valley nudged up 0.6 percent from $181,000 in April 2010 to $182,000 in April of 2011, the most recent figures available.

But some see evidence of the slow economic recovery economists keep talking about. John Klimas, vice president for lending at STCU Credit Union in Springfield said people are borrowing money, maybe not mortgages, but car loans and home-improvement loans.

“I see some stirring out there,” Klimas said. “It’s not at the level it should be. But business is getting better.”

Holyoke police investigate shooting of city resident

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Bullet casings found on North East Street are believed to have been related to the shooting.

HOLYOKE – Police are continuing to investigate Saturday's shooting of a 23-year-old city man.

Heriberto Gonzalez checked into the Holyoke Hospital emergency room at about noon with a gunshot wound to the elbow. He was treated for wounds which are not serious. Police were notified and interviewed him but Gonzalez gave them little information, Sgt. Manuel Reyes said.

Later police found five or six bullet shell casings in the area of North East Street. The casings are believed to be related to the shooting, Reyes said.

Defense bill passed by House would benefit Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky and other Connecticut industries

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The bill funds Pratt's F-35 jet engine and spends billions on Sikorsky helicopters.

By HOWARD FRENCH
Special to The Republican

Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky Aircraft and Electric Boat are among the Connecticut companies that would benefit from the National Defense Authorization Act passed on Thursday by the House of Representatives.

The bill funds East Hartford-based Pratt’s F-35 jet engine for use on the Joint Strike Fighter. It provides no funding for an alternative engine from Pratt competitor General Electric, despite efforts by GE partisans to include some money for the second Strike Fighter engine.

The bill does require the Pentagon to restart the GE program if more work is needed to improve the performance of the Pratt engine, which is being tested.

A second provision requires the Pentagon to “preserve and store” property owned by the federal government “that would allow the development of the alternate engine to be restarted,” and allow GE and partner Rolls-Royce to use the preserved equipment as long as there is no cost to the taxpayer.

Congressman Joseph D. Courtney, D-2nd District – who is on the House Armed Services Committee – says he’s concerned about those provisions and “will continue to work with the Senate and in conference to oppose them.”

The bill also includes billions for helicopters from Stratford-based Sikorsky and for submarines built by Electric Boat in Groton.

Courtney says the budget plan, which still needs to be considered by the Senate, bolsters eastern Connecticut’s industrial base.

Among the Connecticut-related programs in the House defense budget are:


  • $3.3 billion for 19 Joint Strike Fighters for the Air Force, $1.1 billion for six of the aircraft, also known as F-35s, for the Marine Corps, and $1.5 billion for seven F-35s for the Navy, all powered by Pratt engines. The bill also authorizes $2.7 billion in research and development funds for the F-35 program.

  • $850 million in development funds for the replacement of the Air Force refueling tanker plane. The new tanker, to be built by the Boeing Co., also will be powered exclusively by Pratt engines. The tankers refuel military aircraft in flight.

  • $1.3 billion for 71 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for the Army and National Guard, as the president requested.

  • $677 million to develop Sikorsky’s CH-53K Super Stallion transport helicopter for the Marine Corps.

  • $409 million for 18 of Sikorsky’s MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters for the Navy. The helicopters are used by the Navy for combat, search-and-rescue, special-warfare support, and airborne mine countermeasures.

  • $791 million for 24 Navy Seahawk helicopters, which feature advanced radar, missiles, and low frequency sonar.

  • $4.8 billion for Electric Boat’s Virginia-class attack submarine program, including $3.2 billion to build two submarines in 2012, and advanced funding to prepare to build two each in 2013 and 2014.

Your comments: Readers react to 'Westfield High School Students Tom Costello and Ryan Angco barred from graduation over fake Star Wars battle in lunchroom'

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Westfield High School seniors Ryan Angco and Tom Costello recently were suspended and barred from attending graduation after taking part in a "Star Wars"-style duel in the cafeteria. Readers of MassLive.com and The Republican react to Principal Ray Broderick's disciplinary decision.

westfield high school.jpg

WESTFIELD -- High School seniors Ryan Angco and Tom Costello recently were suspended and barred from attending graduation after taking part in a "Star Wars"-style duel in the cafeteria. This story followed other regional stories about seemingly heavy-handed punishments doled out to students for offenses such as the Connecticut teen who asked a girl to prom by spelling out his proposal with cardboard letters on an exterior school wall.

The mock duel, replete with plastic light sabers, earned Angco and Costello a standing ovation from classmates -- and a 10-day suspension from Westfield High School Principal Raymond Broderick, who claimed the boys "very easily could have hit another student."

Did Principal Broderick overreact? Should Costello and Angco get to graduate with their classmates?

Here's what online readers of MassLive.com and The Republican are saying:

01020ishome says:
Once again, a knee-jerk reaction by out-of-touch administrators. They're plastic light sabres! 'someone could have gotten hurt.' What bilge.

mishigan says:
This is what happens when lawyers scare the crap out of teachers and administrators. They have lost all common sense because someone may sue. Reinstate them NOW you cowards.

fun2rt says:
Instead of calling the school 'cowards' or a 'knee-jerk' decision, I think it takes a great deal of courage to make the tough discipline decisions. Allowing this kind of behavior to occur with the slap on the wrist will only challenge other students to push the envelope further in the future as clear limits are not set.

vert says:
Principal Raymond Broderick ... is simply afraid some parent will sue the school because their precious baby was traumatized by this. I hope the parents of these kids (Angco and Costello) sue the school for the emotional trauma of being barred from graduation. I think they have a good case.

sixdemonbag says:
School officials are really out of touch. So they crack down on this, yet shrug their shoulders when serious bullying occurs? Yeah, OK.

Do you have a comment you would like to share? Visit the most recent story here and join the conversation.


SEC violated law by purchasing $1 million in Apple computers without testing to see if they worked properly

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The SEC violated federal regulations by awarding the contract without competitive bidding and by telling Apple its budget for one of the orders.

By DAVID S. HILZENRATH
Washington Post

WASHINGTON – The SEC violated procurement law in 2008 when, without proper testing, it spent about $1 million buying computer equipment from Apple that “immediately failed” to work as intended, the agency’s inspector general said.

The agency violated federal regulations by awarding the contract without competitive bidding and by telling Apple its budget for one of the orders, the report said.

Apple used that information to tailor its offer precisely to the budgeted amount, the report said. But Apple left out “essential equipment that the SEC was subsequently forced to purchase” at additional cost, the report said.

Among other violations, the SEC bought the equipment before the written justification for the contract had been approved, the report said.

“We agree with the report’s recommendations and are taking steps to improve our policies and controls over purchases of information technology solutions,” SEC spokesman John Nester said.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet declined to comment.

The report, dated Dec. 14, was released last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Reuters.

The release of the report comes as congressional Republicans have been accusing the SEC of mismanaging several issues, including the agency’s failure to stop Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, its handling of an alleged fraud involving Allen Stanford and SEC employees’ viewing of pornography on the job.

The inspector general gave the agency’s critics fresh ammunition this week in a separate report, which said that the SEC leased office space it did not need and could not afford, leaving it in a $94 million dispute with a private landlord.

The criticism has left the SEC on the defensive as it argues that it needs more funding to meet its expanded regulatory duties and upgrade inadequate information technology.

The Apple deal was meant to save the agency money and solve some of its information technology problems, the report said. The SEC, which still relied on tape reels to store and back up data, was experiencing problems and looking for a more reliable system.


The agency passed up a chance to try the equipment free, despite the fact that Cloverleaf “was virtually unknown and untested.”

The agency justified its use of a no-bid contract by saying Apple was the only vendor that could supply the Cloverleaf equipment, but it did not establish that Cloverleaf was the only product that would fit the bill, the report said.

About five months after a batch of equipment was purchased, but before it had even been removed from its crates, an SEC information technology specialist did a “theoretical” analysis and concluded that it would not do the job, the report said.

The SEC told Apple that its Office of Information Technology had budgeted $200,000 for the project, and that is the price Apple quoted.

After making an initial $200,000 purchase, the SEC placed an additional $773,000 order, the report said.

Cloverleaf is now owned by Dot Hill Systems, which responded to an interview request by saying that it acquired Cloverleaf after the SEC purchase.

The SEC solved its data-storage problem with a different product, the agency spokesman said. -NT>

Springfield police search for gas station break-in suspects

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Three men were seen fleeing the Valero gas station and convenience store at 668 Liberty St. shortly before 2:30 a.m. Monday.

springfield police patch.JPG

SPRINGFIELD -- City police responded to a report of three men who broke into Liberty Gas at 668 Liberty St. around 2:26 a.m. Monday.

Police reports said "three Hispanic males" were seen running from the Liberty Heights business before fleeing the area in a silver, four-door sedan. The vehicle was last seen driving south toward Armory Street, police said.

A break-in alarm sounded at the gas station, which is adjoined by a liquor store and Dunkin' Donuts shop.

Springfield Police Sgt. Dennis Prior confirmed that the men did gain entry to the store, which is located just north of the Armory Street rotary, but it wasn't immediately known if any merchandise or money was missing.

"The DB is investigating right now," Prior said around 5 a.m. Monday, referring to the detective bureau.

Detectives also were checking the store's video surveillance system to see if it captured footage of the suspects.

More details will be posted as information becomes available.


THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate location of a break-in attempt at a Liberty Heights gas station early Monday morning:


View Larger Map

Capital One restructures management team with departure of president Lynn Carter

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Carter's departure is part of a broad executive restructuring aimed at building up the bank's commercial and retail arms, an official said.

THOMAS HEATH
Washington Post

The president of Capital One Bank, the McLean, Va.-based credit card giant, is leaving her job at the end of the year and the position is being eliminated in an executive reorganization. Lynn Carter, 54, will leave the post Dec. 31, and will remain with the company until March in an advisory role.

Capital One, the largest bank headquartered in the Washington area, said Carter’s departure is part of a broad executive restructuring aimed at building up the bank’s commercial and retail arms.

In a recent internal memo to employees announcing Carter’s departure, Rich Fairbank, Capital One founder and chairman, said that starting Sept. 1, “we will re-align Capital One around four key businesses – card, financial services, retail and small business banking and commercial banking. Given these changes, Lynn Carter will leave Capital One and transition out of her role as president, Capital One Bank in December.”

Fairbank elevated two executives, Mike Slocum of its commercial banking and Jon Witter of its retail bank division, to the company’s executive committee starting Sept. 1. They will report directly to Fairbank.

A Capital One spokesman said the company had nothing to say beyond the announcement.

Carter has been president since August 2007. She arrived from Bank of America while Capital One was undergoing a major expansion, acquiring banks and aggressively moving into new markets in the South and Northeast.

The company has been digesting those acquisitions since 2005 when it first expanded from credit cards into banking, buying New Orleans-based Hibernia and its 293 locations for $5.35 billion.

It acquired North Fork Bancorp a year later for $14.6 billion, giving it 353 more branches in the Northeast. Then last fall, the company assimilated more than 200 Chevy Chase Bank locations into its growing portfolio.

Study shows more than $24 billion in federal stimulus funds awarded to organizations that owed back taxes

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One construction firm owed $400,000 in back taxes, but received a contract worth more than $1 million.

Sen. Tom Coburn.JPG Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., walks to an elevator on Capitol Hill in Washington. He said Congress needs a "€œwake-up call"€ over the awarding of stimulus money to tax cheats.

By KENT HOOVER
Boston Business Journal

A new study found that 3,700 businesses and nonprofit organizations that owed back taxes to the federal government received more than $24 billion in economic stimulus funds.

The number of tax-delinquent stimulus bill beneficiaries could be higher: The Government Accountability Office examined only 63,000 of the 80,000 recipients of stimulus contracts and grants. The 3,700 organizations it identified owed $757 million in back taxes.

Fifteen cases involve “abusive or potentially criminal activity,” said the GAO, which referred these cases to the Internal Revenue Service.

One construction firm owed $400,000 in back taxes, but received a contract worth more than $1 million. A nonprofit organization that owned more than $2 million in unpaid payroll taxes got more than $1 million in stimulus funds.

The federal government has established a program to catch tax-delinquent organizations that receive federal contracts, but many of the stimulus-funded contracts and grants were awarded by states and localities or by prime contractors.

The fact that “such a huge amount of the stimulus money went to known tax cheats should be a wake-up call for Congress,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

Kent Hoover is Washington bureau chief for American City Business Journals. He can be reached at khoover@bizjournals.com.

Springfield police are investigating Mattoon Street hammer attack

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Two men broke into a Mattoon Street apartment around 5:30 a.m. Monday and assaulted a man with a hammer, police said.

SPRINGFIELD -- Police responded to a hammer attack at 16 Mattoon St. around 5:30 a.m. Monday.

The assault victim claimed two black men kicked in a back window to his apartment, "jumped him," then one man beat him over the head with a hammer, according to police reports.

The victim, a middle-aged black man, was treated at the scene by personnel from a Baystate Health Ambulance, who wrapped a large white bandage around the man's bloodied head. Ambulance personnel were prepared to take him to the hospital, but he declined to go, according to Springfield Police Lt. James Rosso.

The injured man was seen outside his apartment wearing the bloodied bandage while talking to uniformed officers. A plainclothes detective arrived on scene minutes later.

A 5:41 a.m. BOLO (be on the lookout) was issued for the assailants, described by a police dispatcher as tall black men who were last seen walking on Pearl Street. Rosso said no arrests had been made as of 7:30 a.m.

"We're not sure what exactly happened," the lieutenant said, adding that the victim claimed he did not know his attackers.

Authorities are asking anyone with information to call the Springfield Police Department Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355 or to send a text message to CRIMES (or 274637), beginning the message with the word SOLVE.

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