A suspected U.S. drone carried out a rare missile strike in northwest Pakistan outside the country's remote tribal region on Thursday, killing five people, including three senior Afghan militants, Pakistani police and intelligence officials said.

HUSSAIN AFZAL, Associated Press
RASOOL DAWAR, Associated Press

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suspected U.S. drone carried out a rare missile strike in northwest Pakistan outside the country's remote tribal region on Thursday, killing five people, including three senior Afghan militants, Pakistani police and intelligence officials said.

The missiles hit an Islamic seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Hangu district that was known to be visited by senior members of the Afghan Haqqani network, one of the most feared militant groups battling U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan, the officials said. One of the militants killed was a deputy of the Haqqani network's leader.

It was only the second drone attack outside Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border since the strikes began in the country in 2004 and could increase tension between Islamabad and Washington. There was a strike in Khyber Pakhtunkwa's Bannu district in 2008. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is considered a "settled area" of Pakistan, meaning it is generally more populated and developed than the tribal region.

"Now no place is safe. The drones are now firing missiles outside the tribal areas," said Shaukat Yousufzai, health minister for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, which has spoken out strongly against drone attacks.

"It is Hangu today. Tomorrow it can be Karachi, Lahore or any other place," Yousufzai told Pakistan's Dunya TV.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry also protested the strike in a statement sent to reporters, saying the attacks violate the country's sovereignty.

Thursday's strike was the first since the U.S. killed former Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Nov. 1 in a missile attack in the North Waziristan tribal area. Pakistani officials were outraged by the attack because they said it came a day before they planned to invite Mehsud to hold peace talks.

The Islamic seminary that was hit was located in the Tall area of Hangu, said district police officer Iftikhar Ahmad. Five people were killed in the attack. No one was seriously wounded, he said.

Pakistani intelligence officials provided the names of five people killed in the strike. One, Ahmad Jan, was a deputy of the Haqqani network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, they said. Two others were Gul Sher, leader of the Afghan Taliban in Paktia province, and Maulvi Hamidullah, leader of the Afghan Taliban in Khost province, they said. It was unclear whether the other two were militants.

An Afghan intelligence official also confirmed Jan was killed in the attack. A member of the Haqqani network, which is allied with al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban, confirmed that Jan was one of Sirajuddin Haqqani's deputies.

The Pakistani and Afghan officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

A local TV station showed video footage of the destroyed seminary, which had walls made out of mud and straw. The walls of the room that was targeted were caved in and pockmarked with shrapnel. The rest of the seminary appeared to be intact. The ground outside was littered with shoes and pools of blood. One person held up a piece of metal that appeared to be part of one of the missiles.

Maulvi Noorullah, a teacher at the seminary, said there were nearly 100 students present when the attack occurred. Sixteen students were in the room next to the one that was targeted, but they all survived, he said.

The covert CIA drone program in Pakistan has been a constant source of tension between Islamabad and Washington. Pakistani officials regularly denounce the strikes in public as a violation of the country's sovereignty. But the government is known to have supported at least some of the attacks in the past. It is generally understood that Pakistan's secret agreement with the U.S. on drone strikes in the past was confined to the tribal region and did not include the country's so-called "settled areas."

The Pakistani government has stepped up its opposition to drone attacks since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took office in June. Sharif met with President Barack Obama in Washington in October and pressed him to end the strikes. But the U.S. has shown no sign that it intends to stop using what it considers a vital tool to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Imran Khan, the former cricket star who now leads the party that runs the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, has called for Pakistan to block trucks carrying supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan in response to continued drone strikes. The federal government has shown little interest in doing so, but Khan plans to hold a strike on Nov. 23 and block the road through the province that some of the trucks take.

Most drone strikes have occurred in North Waziristan, the headquarters of the Haqqani network in Pakistan. The U.S. has repeatedly urged Pakistan to conduct an operation in North Waziristan, but the government has refused. Many analysts believe Pakistan doesn't want to cross the Haqqani network, a group with which it has historical ties and could be an ally in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

___

Dawar reported from Peshawar. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.

The five stories you need to read this morning.

Only two casinos have made it through the regulatory gauntlet
The Wynn project in Everett and the MGM project in Springfield are the only two casino projects that have survived up or down votes in their host cities. Palmer is currently awaiting its recount for a billion-dollar project which will be held on Tuesday, November 26 at the Palmer Library but time is running out to file all the appropriate paperwork for a casino project in the Commonwealth. So is it possible that with such a strong wave of rejection of casinos across the state that
Bulger's attorney, J.W. Carney filed a one sentence appeal of his multi-count conviction before the close of business yesterday. This filing by Bulger does not come as a surprise as his attorneys said he would appeal moments after he was sentenced last week.

Boston Mayor-elect Marty Walsh says farewell to the State House
Walsh deliverd an off-the-cuff that lasted just over fifteen minutes last night, thanking friends, family, staffers, and colleagues. Walsh was greeted by a minute-long standing ovation from the chamber. Walsh is slated to move into Boston City Hall on January 6, 2014.

Speaker DeLeo, like Governor Patrick, would vote against a casino in his hometown
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said in an interview that he would vote against the construction of a casino in his hometown of Winthrop because of a lack of space for such a project. DeLeo added that he would back a casino in Winthrop if the city had the available land but right now they cannot find space for some school projects. DeLeo joins Governor Deval Patrick as the latest high profile Massachusetts pol to oppose construction of a casino in their backyard.

Enrico Ponzo convicted after sixteen years on the run
Former Mafia associate Enrico Ponzo was convicted in federal court yesterday on racketeering charges that included the attempted murder of gangster Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme in 1989. Ponzo fled the Greater Boston area in 1994 for an isolated ranch in a rural area of Idaho under the name of of Jeffrey Shaw. He worked as rancher.

Two more convicted sex offenders, Robert Smith and George Smith (no relation), have been taken into police custody on outstanding warrants.

 

Massachusetts State Police investigators have hunted down two more sexual predators on the state's Most Wanted Sex Offenders list.

Wednesday's arrests are the latest in a crackdown on fugitive sex offenders, bringing the total number of suspects taken into custody since Monday to seven, with three more to go, state police officials said.

The Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section tracked Robert C. Smith, 53, to an address in the Roxbury section of Boston after a joint investigation with city police detectives and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Smith was wanted on a Suffolk Superior Court warrant for cocaine distribution and other charges including failure to register as Level 3 sex offender — the class of convicted sex offenders deemed most likely to commit new crimes. Authorities said Smith had twice failed to register with local police, a requirement for all Level 3 offenders.

Smith has two past Suffolk County convictions for indecent assault and battery, police said.

The second arrest on Wednesday was made by New Jersey State Police on behalf of Massachusetts authorities, who learned that George A. Smith would be traveling to the Garden State. New Jersey State Police and U.S. Marshals stopped the bus and took Smith into custody without incident.

Smith, whose age was unavailable, had outstanding warrants in courts in Fall River and Boston for failing to register as sex offender, police said.

Smith has a 1978 conviction for assaulting and forcibly raping a 15-year-old girl on the roof of a housing project, police said, adding that he served a 12-year state prison sentence for the attack.

"Will it eventually work? Yes, because they have to make it work," says Bill Curtis, senior vice president and chief scientist at CAST, a French software analysis company with offices in the U.S. "But it'll be very expensive."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Technology experts say healing what ails the Healthcare.gov website will be a tougher task than the Obama administration acknowledges.

"It's going to cost a lot of tax dollars to get this done," says Bill Curtis, senior vice president and chief scientist at CAST, a French software analysis company with offices in the U.S.

Curtis says programmers and systems analysts start fixing troubled websites by addressing the glitches they can see. But based on his analysis of the site, he believes the ongoing repairs are likely to reveal even deeper problems, making it tough to predict when all the site's issues will be resolved.

"Will it eventually work? Yes, because they have to make it work," he says. "But it'll be very expensive."

Curtis and other technology executives say the site's problems are the result of poor management of its many working parts. They also believe, as Congressional testimony has revealed, the site suffered from a lack of testing once all its systems were in place.

The federal health insurance exchange website --which cost taxpayers more than $600 million to build, according to the Government Accountability Office-- has been crippled by technical problems since its Oct. 1 launch. Since then, everyone from top White House officials to the contractors who worked on the site have been called before congressional committees to determine what went wrong and who is to blame.

The White House originally promised to have the site running smoothly by the end of November. But at a news conference last week, President Obama said he couldn't guarantee that the site will be completely bug free by then.

The HealthCare.gov site is supposed to serve as a marketplace where people can enter their personal information, search and sign up for required health care coverage. But the site is a patchwork quilt of sorts. It pulls together a slew of contributions from various government contractors and attempts to join the structure with the systems of participating insurance companies.

Experts say the amount of information coursing through HealthCare.gov dwarfs that of any other government website, making it more similar to a high-traffic e-commerce operation such as Amazon.com or eBay. They contend the government didn't design the site with the kind of retail-like infrastructure it needs to keep up with demand and failed to knit its pieces together in an efficient way.

Curtis says visible parts of the website's programming code reveal a host of analytic and data coordination failures -- a red flag that the site wasn't designed by people with a lot of experience building high-traffic websites. He notes that government projects are typically awarded to the lowest bid, a factor that limits the amount of money a contractor can make. As a result, bid-winners don't always assign their top people to those jobs.

Himanshu Sareen, CEO of Icreon Tech, a New York-based web and mobile design and development firm, says the government has made some progress fixing the site in recent weeks, but there are still big problems. He worries that the website is operating at half the capacity that it needs to.

Indeed, fewer than 27,000 people signed up for insurance through the federal website during the first month of open enrollment in the 36 states, according to federal health officials. Nearly 1 million more applied for coverage and were waiting to finalize decisions.

Sareen says he's shocked that so few people have been able to sign up. He says the government should focus on fixing the website's telephone support centers, the place where many frustrated insurance seekers are looking for help.

Michael Smith, a vice president of product development and operations for Compuware Corp., says the site's operations have improved significantly. Recent testing of HealthCare.gov's visible parts done by Compuware APM show seven states with unacceptable response times, down from 26 states on Oct. 25.

Even so, Smith says the government needs to inform the public that it takes time and patience to fix problem websites.

"They're building something that's never been built before, so there's no prescription for how to do it," Smith says.

And there's no better way to improve public opinion than to fix the site as quickly as possible, says Wally Krantz, creative director for The Brand Union, a global brand strategy consultancy that works with clients ranging from Time Warner Cable to The Coca-Cola Co.

Krantz says people will forget about its technical problems once they get their insurance coverage.

"If they ultimately get the website working, it'll just be another thing that people who want it to fail will bring up," Krantz says. "I don't think this story has legs beyond that."

Ten Chicopee residents are homeless after a fire broke out at their duplex on Charles Street.

CHICOPEE— An early Friday morning fire at a duplex house at 5-7 Charles St. left 10 people homeless as Chicopee firefighters battled a stubborn attic blaze at the 3-story structure. But residents of the house say they were awakened by neighbors, not by smoke detectors or fire alarms.

Firefighters were called to the scene around 12:20 a.m. after area residents saw flames coming from the building's roof and an upper window.

Neighbors came to the rescue of the occupants by banging on doors and windows, trying to wake those inside the home. Apparently, none of the alarms in the building activated despite a smoky fire.

"The whole house was engulfed in smoke," neighbor Joseph Martins said. "I don't understand why there were no alarms."

Martins, of 3 Charles St., awoke to the sounds of another neighbor from nearby Harvard Street screaming and banging on doors, trying to get people out of the home. Martins got dressed and joined the effort. He said not one alarm sounded while he and others roused residents of the burning building.

Jessica and Roy Soule, who live at 5 Charles St., huddled with their two small children on the porch of a neighboring building as firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze. Jessica Soule said her family had just moved into the apartment two weeks ago. Roy Soule said the house was equipped with smoke detectors, but in his apartment the smoke was not nearly as dense as outside or in the adjoining apartment.

Mark Jones, who lives in the adjoining duplex apartment at 7 Charles St. with his girlfriend and some of his family members, said everyone was sleeping when neighbors woke the family. He said no internal alarms sounded.

Fire officials have not declared a cause for the fire, but Jones said he believes the cause was either faulty wiring or improvised heat for a room under the eaves of the house. Jones said a room was set up in the attic and was heated by an electric space heater.

Chicopee fire officials contacted the Red Cross to assist the displaced residents

Dookhan is expected to enter a plea in Friday court to charges she altered drug test results.

BOSTON (AP) — A chemist at a Massachusetts drug lab who allegedly admitted faking test results in criminal cases is expected to plead guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and tampering with evidence charges in a scandal that has jeopardized thousands of convictions.

Annie Dookhan of Franklin has a change-of-plea hearing scheduled for Friday in Suffolk Superior Court. She initially pleaded not guilty to a total of 27 charges.

State police shut down the state Department of Public Health lab she worked at after discovering the extent of Dookhan's alleged misconduct.

Prosecutors said Dookhan admitted "dry labbing," or testing only a fraction of a batch of samples, then listing them all as positive for illegal drugs, to "improve her productivity and burnish her reputation."

Since the lab closed in August 2012, at least 1,100 criminal cases have been dismissed or not prosecuted because of tainted evidence or other fallout from the lab's closing.

Prosecutors from state Attorney General Martha Coakley's office recommended a sentence of up to seven years in prison, while Dookhan's lawyer recommended a sentence of no more than a year.

Judge Carol Ball said in a written memo that she would impose a sentence of no more than three to five years if Dookhan decided to change her plea to guilty.

Dookhan's lawyer, Nicolas Gordon, argued that she made a series of tragic mistakes and that her only motivation was to be "the hardest-working and most prolific and most productive chemist."

"This is not a woman who ever set out to hurt anyone," Gordon argued during a court hearing last month.

Prosecutors, however, said Dookhan's actions had caused "egregious damage" to the criminal justice system and cost the state millions of dollars to assess the damage and mitigate the effect on thousands of people charged with drug offenses during the nine years Dookhan worked at the lab. The court system has been flooded with motions for new trials filed by defendants in drug cases.

Mohegan Sun wants to end its exclusive casino agreement with Northeast Realty but continue to lease the 152 acres on Route 32, making it unavailable for other economic or casino development, Northeast representatives said.

These were the most read stories on MassLive.com yesterday. If you missed any of them, click on the links below to read them now.

1) Springfield police track down 2 teenage burglary suspects in East Forest Park neighborhood [Conor Berry]

2) Massachusetts State Police: Car crash in Holyoke leads to injuries, charges for driver [Conor Berry]

3) Northeast Realty: Mohegan Sun wants to break exclusive casino agreement, but continue to lease Palmer land [Lori Stabile]

4) Just Ask: How come the windmill atop Mount Tom doesn't rotate? [Mike Plaisance] Photo above.

5) 14-year-old Philip Chism indicted in death of popular Danvers teacher Colleen Ritzer [Associated Press]

Fire from a woodstove chimney spread to an interior wall, causing an estimated $20,000 in damage to the home, according to a Ludlow fire official.

 

Ludlow Fire Capt. James Machado said firefighters were able to discover the 3:40 a.m. fire within an exterior wall between the living space and a garage and extinguished it before it spread to the rest of the home at 88 Bridal Path Circle.

Machado said the chimney serviced a woodstove and flames and hot gases from the fire box were able to work through the brickwork to an interior wall. He estimated the house sustained about $20,000 in damage because firefighters had to pull apart the wall to locate the fire.

No one was injured in the blaze and the family was not displaced.

Fire investigators will try to determine what caused a fire in a Chicopee duplex that left 10 people homeless.

CHICOPEE — The state Fire Marshal's Office and Chicopee's Fire Investigation Unit will sift through the fire scene at 5-7 Charles St. in Chicopee to try to determine what caused an early Friday fire that left 10 people homeless and caused more than $100,000 in damage.

Deputy Fire Chief James McInerney said smoke was coming from upper-story windows of the duplex house when fire units first arrived on scene at about 12:20 a.m. But, as firefighters set up to fight the fire, flames were seen coming from the rear of the attic area.

While fire damage was contained on the upper floors of the 3½-story, wood-frame building, McInerney said water damage to the floors below was extensive.

Residents in the house were awakened by neighbors banging on doors and windows and screaming for everyone to get out of the house. None of the people closest to the building said they heard smoke detectors or fire alarms sounding. McInerney said he, too, did not hear any sort of alarm system working when he arrived.

Joseph Martins, who with other neighbors alerted those inside the house, said he thought alarms should have been sounding long before he arrived.

"When I looked out my window, all I saw was smoke. The whole house was engulfed in smoke," he said. "I don't know why there were no alarms."

Roy and Jessica Soule said they were asleep when they heard banging and people screaming. They were able to gather their two young children and escape the building unharmed. They were aided by the Red Cross after being forced out of their apartment with just what they could carry. The family only moved into the duplex two weeks ago, they said.

Mark Jones and his family and friends were also displaced by the fire. He said he suspects faulty wiring or a space heater used to heat an attic room may have caused the blaze.

One firefighter sustained a shoulder injury while battling the fire, McInerney said.

Stories from our readers remembering the life, the death and the legacy of JFK on the 50th anniversary of his assassination in Dallas.

FILE - This Jan. 20, 1961 file photo shows U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivering his inaugural address after taking the oath of office at Capitol Hill in Washington. Authors, editors and speechwriters interviewed by The Associated Press agree that Obama is indeed a gifted and effective speechmaker, but even admirers have a hard time remembering what he actually says. (AP Photo/File) 

A young woman, about to give birth to her first child, experienced great joy and great sorrow. A 10-year-old boy, anxious about anesthesia for a minor surgery, came out of recovery to learn his bad dream was reality. A 4-year-old's lunch with his mom and little sister at a Dallas drive-in was shattered by the sounds of sirens. A bride-to-be's joy turned to sorrow. An emigre from Jamaica, inspired to become a U.S. citizen to vote for the incumbent president in 1964, cried when she learns it wouldn't be possible. A high school student sent to the principal's office was instead sent home – and he then decided to drive with a buddy through a snowstorm to a "surreal" funeral.

These are among the stories told when, as the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy approached, we asked readers of The Republican/MassLive.com to share their memories of that day, of JFK's life and of his legacy.

We received dozens of comments and letters. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Today, exactly 50 years ago after the shots rang out in Dallas (also on a Friday), we offer some excerpts from what you had to say:

Nana6 wrote:

I was a 16 year old girl living at home in Ireland at the time and preparing to emigrate to the America. My family were listening to the news on the radio (we did not have a TV) and suddenly heard that the President of America was shot and had died. What a tragedy. It was so sad. We read all about it in the newspapers and listened to the funeral on the radio over the next 4 days. We could hear the horses and the carriage. The Irish people were devastated. I emigrated to America two weeks later and did not realize the full impact of President Kennedy’s death until I landed in the United States. I, like many others, will never forget where we were on that fateful day.

Darrell Weldon of Belchertown wrote:

I have a very "permanent" reminder of the day of President Kennedy's assassination. Was 10 years old and attending Sacred Heart Elementary School in Springfield. But this day I was not in class. Instead I had surgery on my right index finger at Mercy Hospital. And for someone at that age who never experienced being rolled through the double doors that had "Operating Room" stenciled on the glass it was the start of a very harrowing day. I was just a little too naive to make the connection between "surgery" and "Operating Room" and protested very vocally trying to convince those that were rolling my stretcher that they took a wrong turn.

Then when it came time for the ether my mother later told me that it took a small squadron of hospital personnel to finally get the mask on me and the "lullaby gas" flowing. The memory of that mask being held over my face left quite the etching on my brain. For 30 years later when I needed surgery for my back and was meeting with my physician prior to the scheduled operation date, he asked me if I had any concerns. He got quite the chuckle when I told him that the mask might freak me out. Yes I still believed that the mask was waiting to suffocate me once more and had no idea that the "lullaby gas" was now a "lullaby cocktail."

In 1963 our home was right in the shadows of Mercy Hospital. After I awoke from my surgery and became somewhat coherent once more my mother walked me from the hospital to our house. I went to my bedroom and fell back asleep immediately. My mother would later tell me that throughout the next few hours she would come in and check on me and either I would be in a deep sleep or tethering on the edge of being somewhat awake. If it was the latter she would ask me how I was feeling and if I needed something. Most of the time she said that I would just shake my head and fall right back asleep.

Later that day I awoke startled and in search of my mother to tell her about my "bad dream." I found her in front of our black & white television watching as the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination flooded the airwaves. What I thought was a "bad dream" had actually been my mother coming to my room to tell me "the President was shot." She said that I still too tired to have comprehended what she was trying to tell me then and I had fallen right back to sleep.

For the remainder of that Friday we like millions of others watched as the events of that tragic day played out. And two days later I watched as Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby while being escorted through the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters.

The surgery on my finger left a permanent scar about a half inch long. Whenever I look at it the events of November 22, 1963 and the subsequent days will always remind me of the permanent scar left on America by the senseless killing of a great man and leader.

Mary E. Franz of Longmeadow wrote:

Mary E. FranzThe Republican [file] 

Fifty years ago I was a 31-year-old wife and mother of five. My husband and I were at the grocery store when the announcement came over the loudspeaker that our President had been shot. Silence descended and silence remained for long moments. And that same silence seemed to grip us even after the terrible news that our President, John F. Kennedy, had died of his injuries.

In the days to follow we gathered around our TV set to listen, to watch, to share what the world was sharing with us – utter, silent sorrow. It remains so clear in memory – reliving all those moments. ...

It was such a sad moment in our nation's history. Those of us who lived through it were touched by the almost beautiful sadness that swept across this land. ...

William Bevan wrote:

Fifty years ago I was (in) eighth grade at JJ Lynch school in Holyoke, when Ms. Shea was called out of class and given the horrific news. We were made aware and told to stay at our desks until dismissal.

At home being my Dad's forty-fourth birthday the evening was subdued and we sat at the dinner table and listened to our Dad talk about how JFK was a war hero and that this was a huge loss to our nation.

My Dad was a proud WW 2 Navy veteran and we never forgot that sad birthday.

MrAtos wrote:

Sad day..I remember coming home from school to find my mother crying in our kitchen. I thought someone in the family had died.

nancheska wrote:

I was only six years old on that Friday. Ironically, it was a beautiful day in Springfield (Dallas, too). We were let go early from school. My sister was crying, so many people were inconsolable. I was in shock, and I refused to completely believe JFK was dead until my mom met my sister and me on our front yard. I asked my mom if it was true, "Did this REALLY happen?" She said "Yes, and I'm so sorry." The 60's were tough....many heartbreaks, starting with JFK's assasination. Still too painful to talk about.

Tim Rooke of Springfield wrote:

My father was on the police detail when I believe then presidential candidate John F. Kennedy came to visit downtown Springfield. He has a great picture of JFK, Congressman Boland, Tommy O'Connor ... There are 7-8 Springfield police officers around the lead car. My father is one of many of them.

PS: I always wished we celebrated JFK's birthday as his family had once
wished rather than his death.

Walter Rooke of Springfield (Tim Rooke's father) said:

View full size11.08.1960 | SPRINGFIELD -- Sgt. Walter Rooke is among the Springfield police officers escorting U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy's motorcade to Court Square on the eve of the presidential election. Submitted photo 

I remember shaking hands with him (JFK). I was right next to him on Pynchon Street, just before going onto Main, and I asked, "Do you mind if I shake your hand?" He said, "My hand is so sore, one more won’t hurt, I don’t think." ...

The Secret Service told us what to do – keep your eyes out for troublemakers and things like that …

It was a great experience – I never thought I’d be shaking a hand with one of the Kennedys.

On the eve of the 1960 presidential election, Walter Rooke was a Springfield Police Department sergeant assigned to supervise a detail of about 30 officers who lined the motorcade route for U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy's visit to Springfield. Rooke, who retired as a captain after 30 years on the force, said it was the most memorable event of his career.

Joan McGovern wrote:

On that beautiful, cool morning of Nov. 22, 1963, I was a young girl on my way to Wesson Women's Hospital. My first child was about to be born.

That evening, before my son's birth, I heard the doctor and nurses having a conversation about President Kennedy being killed. Minutes later, my son, Robert Watts, was born. It was a moment of great joy and great sorrow. The next three days in the hospital, new mothers were glued to the televisions with tears flowing down their faces.

As we celebrate my son's 50th birthday this year, I still look back on that day, so long ago, with great joy, but also the sadness of our nation's terrible loss.

Frances M. Gagnon of Springfield wrote:

Frances GagnonThe Republican [file] 

I was a 21-year-old bride-to-be on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963 when arriving at work at Dun & Bradstreet, State St., in downtown Springfield. It was to have been a special day since co-workers planned a lunch treat and presentation of a wedding gift on my last day here before transferring to the larger Boston office following a Nov. 30 wedding. The day was memorable, but not like imagined. A frenzy of phone calls about the killing of President Kennedy erupted just as we prepared to leave for lunch. Needless to say, the lunch never happened and co-workers quietly gave me their gift at my desk. Tears, fear and loss were co-mingled into a single mood of deep sadness.

Upon arriving home, I found my parents anxiously watching the news unfold on the old black & white television set. This continued everywhere all weekend until my fiance, Victor, and I left for Boston on Sunday evening, since I had a meeting scheduled with my new boss on Tuesday morning. With Monday, November 25 a National Day of Mourning, we decided to attend an outdoor memorial tribute at the Statehouse. The day and mood were bleak, gray and cold, but despite it all, a huge crowd assembled along Beacon St. and along the fringes of the Common. We were lucky to secure a perch on the stone retainers not far from the Joseph Hooker statue. Afterward, we walked to the Washington St. area and saw retail giants like Jordan Marsh, William Filene's, Gilchrist's and others full of floral and souvenir tributes in windows to the fallen JFK, almost like a citywide wake.

We returned to Springfield in time for Thanksgiving, the Friday rehearsal and the November 30 wedding day ... all in the measure of a single week that seemed to be an eternity. There was a cloud of sadness even at the wedding as guests couldn't help but discuss the assassination.

Fifty years later in 2013 we look forward to our 50th wedding anniversary, but as with each anniversary cannot help but recall the events of 1963 and the untimely death of john F. Kennedy and how life changed. And yes, I still have some of the dishes given me by co-workers on November 22, 1963.

Debby LeFebvre wrote:

It was a glorious fall day in Northern Vermont where we lived in 1963. The weather was warm and it was spectacular foliage that we will never forget; and we were anticipating the birth of our third child. When I heard the news that the president was shot, I took my two children and walked down the street to my parents' home. As I arrived at their home, their minister was ringing their door bell to pay a visit to congratulate them on their 40th wedding anniversary. When I told him the news, he asked us to join in prayer. Just then, the news flashed across the TV that the president was dead. The next morning, I arrived at the hospital to give birth. The atmosphere was absolute silence. In the maternity unit where they was usually joy; there was none. Early in the evening I gave birth to our youngest daughter. I was feeding her when watching the TV, we saw Jack Ruby kill Lee Harvey Oswald. On Thanksgiving Day, I returned home to a subdued Thanksgiving Day celebration. So, our daughter turns 50 and the November 23d memories of her birth will be shared with the fateful event that transpired on the day prior to her birth.

SL wrote:

I was 10 years old and wasn't told until I was home from school. I remember my parents explaining what happened and them stressing the v.p. becoming the president (the idea of continuity/stability for us). Interestingly I didn't cry and didn't feel worried but could not understand why someone would murder the president. .... I do remember my parents becoming troubled when Oswald was strangely murdered by Ruby. From that point on they suspected something was wrong with the whole official story.

Vera O'Connor of Springfield wrote:

Vera O'ConnorThe Republican [file] 

I had the pleasure of shaking John F. Kennedy’s hand when he was a Senator. He made a stop in Springfield. I had migrated to Springfield from Jamaica and so I was not familiar with the politics of this country. Yet, there was something different about John F. Kennedy. He had charisma and I was impressed, I can still see him riding in that blue convertible and brushing back the hair off his forehead. When he became President I decided I would become an American citizen, because I intended to vote for him, unfortunately he was assassinated before I had the chance to vote for him. I am still saddened by the events of November 1963.

I was downtown on Main Street, near Forbes and Wallace Store, waiting for a bus when I heard the news that President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas. I was praying that he would survive, that was not meant to be. I cried when I found out he had died. I was glued to my TV from the Friday until the day of his funeral.

It was a dark time for the USA and the world, a beloved President killed in the prime of his life. He was loved by most people here and around the world. In my native country of Jamaica almost every home had a picture of President John F. Kennedy adorning their walls in the Drawing Room.

I watched in disbelief when I saw Lee Harvey Oswald shot on live television.

It is true that you have to be careful what you ask for, it was on Veterans Day that President Kennedy made the statement that he loved Arlington National Cemetery so much because it was peaceful and that he wished he could have stayed there. It was a couple weeks later that he was buried there. I have visited his graveside and that of Robert and Edward many times. May their souls rest in peace and may light perpetual shine on them.

Until this day, I cannot watch the television or read any detailed article about the death of President Kennedy.

Jim Kahle wrote:

View full size11.21.2013 | SPRINGFIELD -- Jim Kahle of Jim's Auto Trim on State Street, shows photos he took of President John F. Kennedy's funeral 50 years ago.Photo by Don Treeger / The Republican 

On November 22nd 1963 I was sitting in front of our school principal Joe Pazzaro, Warren Area High, Warren PA. I had been sent to his office by my study hall teacher for my disruptive activity in her class. I was about to be reprimanded by him when his secretary came in and said “President Kennedy has just been shot in Dallas Texas”. Mr. Pazzaro immediately dismissed me to go back to study hall. But first, I went to the second floor to my best friends’ English class, and looking through the window of the door I got his attention and kept pointing to my head with my hand making it look like a gun. Being one of only three people in the school at that moment that knew what happened I wanted to tell my friend but he only looked back at me with a strange “are you crazy” look! A couple minutes later across the school P.A. system came the announcement that our President had been shot in Texas and that his condition was unknown at the time. School was dismissed and I went home. We then found out JFK had died from an assassin’s bullets. In talking with another friend of mine we decided to do something to honor JFK. The next day we decided to drive to Washington DC to pay our respects. Even now I’m really not sure why, but we did!! We packed sleeping bags in the back of his old yellow Vauxhall station wagon, left notes for our parents that we were going to Washington for JFK funeral, and off we went. We drove through the afternoon and into the night in a WET snow storm. When we got to Washington we found that our sleeping bags had gotten soaked because the rear wheel wells of the wagon had body seam cracks and the wet snow came into the back of the vehicle!! We then found a cheap hotel and split the cost of a single room, we flipped a coin, I lost and slept on the floor. Being the days before cell phones our parents had no way to check on us to see what we were doing or where we were, so they called the State Police and later we found out that bulletins were out in four states for us.

Well, when we got up on Nov 24th and went to the capital area for the funeral cortege, we found ourselves among thousands of onlookers waiting for the procession and JFK casket to pass by. Many people had climbed up into the trees along the sides of the streets where the procession was going to pass, some had spent half the night in the trees so as to get a good view of what was about to happen. Well we joined the tremendous crowd, across from the US Treasury Building to watch as JFK’s casket passed by on it’s way to the rotunda of the Capital Building for public viewing. As we were watching the procession pass, a woman next to us with a small transistor radio heard the broadcast that Lee Harvey Oswald had been shot in the Dallas Police station by a guy named Jack Ruby. As others with radios heard the news people started telling people and the word spread like wild fire through the crowd. Some people shouted, some people wept ... it was surreal.

View full size11.21.2013 | SPRINGFIELD -- This is a photograph taken by Jim Kahle of President John F. Kennedy's funeral procession 50 years ago in Washington.Photo by Don Treeger / The Republican 

The riderless horse passed and then the flag-draped casket of our President on a horse-drawn carriage followed. Then the Limo’s passed carrying Jackie Kennedy and LBJ and Lady Bird Johnson. There were secret service men everywhere!!!! As we started to line up with all the people there that wanted to pass by and pay Respect inside the Capital Building, we realized it would be several hours or more before we would be even close. So we decided to find our car and start the journey back to North West Pennsylvania. We had spent all our remaining money to fill up the gas tank and we did run out of gas, but only blocks away from our homes!!!

The next morning, after we got out of trouble with our parents, the Warren Times Mirror newspaper heard about what we had done and came to us for interviews!!! We were celebrities for a few days in our small little town!!

That was long ago and far away but is still vivid in my memory.

Mike Phillips wrote:

I was 4 years old, living in the Oak Cliff community of Dallas. On Nov. 22nd around mid-day, my mom was driving my younger sister and I home from pre-school. We had stopped for a fast food lunch where in 1963 Dallas meant a drive-in. The car hop had taken our order and we were waiting. Sirens began wailing as police cars were heading downtown. The girl brought out our food and I still remember the phrase that she used. "Some maniac had just shot at Kennedy." I had to ask my mom what a maniac was. She was near tears and we headed home as fast as we could. Along the way, passing The Texas Theater. That evening, our family drove to my grandparents' home in Irving and we watched the coverage on TV. My grandmother had a way of covering her mouth when she was upset by what she was seeing or hearing that upset her. She had that look many times as we watched the events unfold the remainder of that weekend.

Mitch Ogulewicz, of Travelers Rest, S.C., a former Springfield city councilor, wrote:

Mitch OgulewiczThe Republican [file] 

It was in July of 1956 that I first became interested in John Kennedy as a 10-year-old youngster. I remember the excitement of watching the Democratic Convention in Chicago, when Kennedy was seeking the vice presidential nomination.

I remember meeting the then-Senator John F. Kennedy at the American Legion Post 430 up on Hungry Hill, the Sunday before the 1958 election. There was a large rally hosted by Congressman Edward Boland for Kennedy's reelection campaign.

In 1960, as a student at Cathedral High School, I volunteered on Saturdays at the Kennedy For President Headquarters on Main Street in Springfield. My job was to sell as many Kennedy for President Campaign Buttons (for $1.00) to people shopping on Main Street.

On the Sunday night before the presidential election, a large group of kids and adults spent the night decorating Liberty Street in the Hungry Hill neighborhood, delivering Kennedy for President signs to all the stores, apartments and homes on Liberty Street, for people to put in their windows. A large banner was hung across Liberty Street at "Bottle Park," welcoming Jack Kennedy to Hungry Hill.

Kennedy was arriving at Westover and his caravan would pass right through the heart of Hungry Hill, on its way to Court Square and a huge rally held the day before the election.

Many of us skipped school to go down to Court Square to see the rally.

On election day, I stood at the Liberty Methodist Church, which was a large voting precinct on Hungry Hill, and passed out "Vote For Kennedy Pamphlets."

The day after the election with the vote totals between Kennedy and Nixon very close, the nuns, priest and students waited anxiously for the announcement that Kennedy had won.

All the televisions in the Cathedral library were tuned in when the announcement was finally made that Kennedy had won. Kennedy then appeared on the television screen and made a short speech from Cape Cod.

On November 22, 1963 I was sitting in a class when all of a sudden the intercom system came on. For a short time there was no one speaking, just the crackling of the intercom system. Then Monsignor Tim Leary, Director of Cathedral, announced that President Kennedy had been shot. Monsignor Leary led the entire school in the rosary. Just as we finished the rosary, he then announced that President Kennedy had died.

Many students were in shock and cried. Class was then dismissed and we were all sent home.

Starting with my freshman year in 1960 to the beginning of my senior year in 1963 were the Kennedy Years.

Those 1,000 days were exciting and at time fearful.

The death of President Kennedy had a profound affect on my generation. The world changed and as has been written "we lost our innocence."

Gerald Berg of Longmeadow wrote:

Like many, I remember JFK's assassination as if it were yesterday. I was 13 years old and in the 8th grade at Longmeadow Junior High School, now Williams Middle School. I was sick that day so my father picked me up early from school. When I got in the car he told me that the president had been shot.

He was a pretty tough guy and I remember that it was one of the very few times I ever saw tears in his eyes. I remember asking him why someone would shoot the president. He had no answer. When we got home we found out that JFK had died. For the next four days, we did nothing but watch television, switching back and forth between the three television stations. Most, if not all, of the regular programming was cancelled. Businesses closed, stores closed, restaurants closed. Very few people went to work. There was very little traffic. The streets were eerily quiet. Virtually no one left their homes until his funeral the following Monday. Other than the deaths of my parents and a couple of close friends I don't think any death has had the kind of profound effect on me that JFK's death has had. I remember that the early 1960s was a very hopeful time in this country and then, in an instant, that sense of hopefulness was gone. I'm not sure that most of us who remember or this country has ever fully gotten over it.

Nancy Plouffe of Westfield wrote:

I'm now 65 years old, but I remember Nov. 22, 1963 like it was yesterday.

I was a 15-year-old sophomore at a high school in Eastern Massachusetts, where I grew up. I was a majorette and very happy to have our last period off – so we could practice our halftime routine for the upcoming Thanksgiving Day football game.

As we walked off the football field, a reporter was there. When we asked what was going on, he told us that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. We thought it was some kind of joke. We could not imagine that anything like that could happen to our president.

However, as we entered the school, people were crying – students and teachers alike. And then, over the loudspeaker, we hear the unthinkable – that President Kennedy had been assassinated. The message was delivered by our principal, who was also crying.

Of course all football games were canceled. We all spent the next several days glued to our black and white television sets, watching with horror and sadness, the wake and funeral of JFK – and especially little "John John" saluting as his father's casket went by. The sounds of those drums during the procession will be forever etched in my memory.

In retrospect, the only way I can describe those awful days in November 1963 is a "loss of innocence" that would never return in my lifetime.

Jean Caldwell of Springfield wrote:

Jean CaldwellSubmitted photo 

I was at home sitting at my manual typewriter working on ads for Shaw Associates when the staffer in the office phoned and said, "The president died." I thought she meant the president of one of the companies Shaw wrote advertising copy for.

"Which president?" I asked.

"The president of the United States."

I couldn't believe it. I switched on the TV. All I wanted to do was cry, but I decided to get to work instead. My husband, Durham, was news director at WHYN radio and Channel 40 television. I had helped him as a volunteer. I decided to get people's reaction for the radio and began calling up people I knew. WHYN put what I gathered on the air.

As a post script, the station sent it in to UPI in 1964. I became the first woman to win the UPI Broadcasters of Massachusetts Tom Phillips Best Feature award. And I wasn't even on the payroll.

Durham Caldwell of Springfield wrote:

Durham CaldwellThe Republican [file] 

November 22, 1963. I was news director at WHYN-TV/40, working that day as a street reporter. Photographer Ronnie Dowling and I had had a busy morning. But not a frame of film that Ron had shot ever made it on the air.

We had gotten back in the news van after shooting some sort of event at the Community House in Longmeadow and signed in with the newsroom via two-way radio. The voice of Darrell Gould, the WHYN radio newsman on duty, came out of the loudspeaker: “A story from Dallas. The president’s been shot. They think it could be serious.”

A few moments later: “Congressman Boland just called. He wants to make sure you don’t use any of that interview he gave you this morning.” President Kennedy had invited Boland to go with him to Texas, but Boland had declined. I have no memory of what was in the interview.

We turned our AM radio to one of the network stations and headed for Boland’s office in the Post Office building on Dwight Street. As I recall, there was no word on the president’s condition. Boland shook his head about Dallas, saying something to the effect of “What a city!” He declined a new interview.

We drove to Main Street. A crowd was gathered around the window of a Springfield Newspapers office somewhere near the Paramount Theater devouring the wire service bulletins that newspaper staffers were posting. We parked at curbside a short distance away. Passersby crowded around our open passenger-side door to listen to reports coming over the AM radio. Too soon came the news that the president was dead.

We moved a little ways south on Main Street and pulled up in front of Don Keavany's card shop, the House of Cards. This was the site of our frequent “man on the street” sidewalk interviews. Don made them possible by letting us run the electrical cord from our sound camera into one of his indoor outlets. Sometimes passersby balked at being interviewed for television. But not today.

This was a different Main Street. Many passersby were weeping as they scurried along. I seem to remember that we frequently had people waiting in line for their turn to speak on camera. We recorded the sentiments of everyone from teenagers to senior citizens. Many of them were very emotional. For me, the words of the veteran police officer on the Main Street beat, Patrick (“Paddy”) Pepper, still bring tears to my eyes when I watch the film a half century later:

“When they took a shot at that man, to me it was as if they took a shot at the whole country.”

taxedtothemax wrote:

I remember that day vividly. My mother and I were dying a sweater for my boyfriend. His family couldn't afford to buy him his "school sweater", so we got him a less expensive one and dyed it his school color. The television was on and the news of the President's shooting was announced. I watched everything about that day and the days following.

Jane D. O’Donoghue wrote:

I was resting in the living room enjoying a quiet spell. My 6-week old infant John Fitzgerald O’Donoghue has just gone to sleep after his bottle. My 4-year-old daughter Liz was napping also and the older three were in school.

By the way, the Fitzgerald part of John’s name was in honor of his paternal grandmother’s maiden name. We figured if the Kennedys could do it, so could we.

When the phone rang, it was my sister Ann telling me the soap she was watching was interrupted by a bulletin announcing the President was shot. Remembering the old cowboy movies, my first impression was “it’s only a flesh wound”. Ann was anxious to get back to the news, and I turned on my TV. The news was still indefinite until Walter Cronkite appeared on the screen with a tearful announcement, the President was dead. Unbelievable, this could not happen to our young, handsome President; the one who had given us a new spirit of hope and grand plans for the country’s future.

I continued to watch until I needed to get out of the house. I awakened the sleepers and headed for the “X” to meet the others on their way home from school. I met a woman whose only concern seemed to be that Jackie wouldn’t have to worry about money as a widow. I was aghast. She didn’t recognize the enormity of the situation that someone or maybe an enemy had killed our president.

I met my three elementary youths who were coming from school being released early. People everywhere were unsure of what was going to happen, including the teachers whose first fears were an invasion. This was the time of bomb drills and students were instructed to bend down under their desks for safety. Eventually, all were sent home.

My husband left work early and the family spent the following days watching TV in disbelief as the sadness of our nation was played out before us. It seemed we couldn’t tear ourselves away from the TV, as if we needed to be witness. We cried, mourned, and prayed with and for the Kennedy family and our country.

Television networks cut away from Washington, D.C., and the preparations for burial, to Dallas. The police were transferring the murder suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, from the local to county jail. After Oswald raised his handcuffed hands in defiance, a man named Jack Ruby rushed forward and to our horror, shot him in the stomach, and killed him. This was the first time a murder was witnessed live on television and we continued our vigil even more horrified and saddened.

The country was at a standstill until we witnessed the ceremonies at the final resting place of our president beside the eternal flame in Arlington National Cemetery.

Reluctantly we resumed our lives a sadder bewildered people with a new president and an unpredictable future.

Nearly all of the 175 people gathered in the second floor ballroom of the P.N.I. Club Thursday night were ready to pledge their time and their money as a means to keep St. Mary's Junior-Senior High School open past June 2014.

Nearly all of the 175 people gathered in the second floor ballroom of the P.N.I. Club Thursday night were ready to pledge their time and their money as a means to keep St. Mary's Junior-Senior High School open past June 2014.

Before donations come rolling in, however, supporters want specific information about the committees being formed to oversee the volunteer effort to "save St. Mary's" and a promise that the financial books will be made open for their inspection.

With just a little more than two months to put together a plan to keep the seventh through 12th grade school open, the Save St. Mary's organization has to provide those answers and fast. The plan must be presented to the Most Rev. Robert Joseph McManus, bishop of the Worcester Diocese, by the end of Catholic Schools Week in late January.

Steve Quist, one of the group organizers, said that the finance committee will be establishing an account with a local bank today to accept donations. Quist said he received the school's current budget, and that of the elementary school, early Thursday and after a cursory review estimated that there could be a shortfall of up to $60,000 for the current academic year.

Quist said although an exact amount necessary to keep the school open has not been determined, he'd like to raise up to $750,000 in the first year to help feed a capital campaign and establish an endowment fund.

Quist, along with school principal Thomas Olson, assured supporters that they have the word of the diocese and school headmaster, Rev. Thaddeus X. Stachura, that money raised would be used to benefit the elementary and junior-senior high schools.

Relaying a conversation that Olson said he had with Stachura, the principal told the crowd of supporters that the headmaster was devastated by the thought that the school would have to close and having to share such news with students last week. Olson said that Stachura had reached into his personal bank account many times in the past to balance the school's budget.

"He can't contribute anymore," Olson said, adding that now it's time for school advocates to help.

Despite the assurances that Stachura fully supports the group and its effort, some parishioners said that they want to hear the priest say it himself during Mass on Sunday. After letters were sent home with students on Nov. 15 about the school's anticipated closure, Stachura's told parishioners at Mass on Nov. 17 that there was no hope to save the school.

Olson said that since Tuesday, when McManus gave the Save St. Mary's group 75 days to come up with a viable plan to keep the school open, Stachura has had "a spring in his step."

That spring could be seen in many supporters' steps Thursday night as lines formed at tables where people could sign up to volunteer in some capacity. People even began writing checks to be deposited in the yet-established bank account.

Throughout the night, recent and longtime alumni shared stories about the school's value to the parish - the school is sponsored by the Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish and is not directly overseen by the diocese - and the community.

They praised the teaching staff, saying that many of them are the heart and soul of the school and credited the dedication of the staff - from teachers to coaches - for improving their lives and preparing them for life after high school.

Olson encouraged everyone to get out their yearbooks and start contacting former classmates to become part of an alumni network that would financially support the school. Quist said that the committee has scheduled appointments next week with representatives from Assumption College and the College of The Holy Cross to ask them for support.

"This is a battle for our faith, for our school. We can't keep losing our schools," Quist said.

Former boys and girls basketball coach John Kottori reminded people that the school has overcome its fair share of challenges, using his experience as coach from bringing a boys' team from a winless season to league champions to prove his point.

Alumni Alex Johnson, Aaron Going, and Hillery "Buddy" Hayfron talked about their strong connection to the school and said that the effort to keep the school open will be successful if the group is able to market itself to alumni.

"We’re building it back up. When I was here we had more kids, but not 300 or 400, never that at St Mary's. We survived, competed academically and athletically strived to be our best. We need to work on getting the funding to keep this school open," said Going, currently a senior at the College of the Holy Cross.

The Save St. Mary's group will spend the next few days establishing working committees and continue to update its Facebook page with new information pertaining to its effort.

In an alert sent to students and faculty, the college cancelled classes in buildings 76, 8, 19, 21, 28 and 35.

File photo, The Republican 

Springfield Technical Community College has cancelled classes in seven buildings on Friday.

In an alert sent to students and faculty, the college cancelled classes in buildings 7, 8, 19, 21, 28 and 35. The seven are among the older buildings on campus.

Faculty were instructed to contact managers.

In an email, STCC said the buildings were closed for electrical work.

Students and alumni at Brandeis University are banding together to protest the generous salary being drawn by the school's former president at a time when tuition is rising faster than inflation and the school is making tough budget decisions.

WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) -€” Students and alumni at Brandeis University are banding together to protest the generous salary being drawn by the school's former president at a time when tuition is rising faster than inflation and the school is making tough budget decisions.

More than 1,000 students, alumni, and others with ties to the school signed a petition this week expressing outrage after learning Jehuda Reinharz received at least $1.2 million for part-time work since stepping down as president in 2010.

Alumnus and petition signer Ari Rabin-Havt told The Boston Globe it makes him sick that students are graduating in deep debt while Reinharz is benefiting.

The faculty is also "dismayed and frustrated" music professor Eric Chasalow said.

The Waltham college defended the deal in a statement, citing Reinharz's "unparalleled fundraising record."

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Information from: The Boston Globe

The Massachusetts woman sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for withholding potentially life-saving medication from her autistic, cancer-stricken son has had her request for a new trial rejected.

LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) — The Massachusetts woman sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for withholding potentially life-saving medication from her autistic, cancer-stricken son has had her request for a new trial rejected.

Kristen LaBrie's new attorney told a judge this week that her trial lawyer was ineffective and had no experience presenting the "diminished capacity" defense.

The Salem News (http://bit.ly/17OBF7g ) reports that the judge in his decision released Thursday wrote that while not perfect, the work of LaBrie's attorney was "very good" and the lawyer pursued the only viable defense — that LaBrie was overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for a sick child.

LaBrie was convicted in 2011 of attempted murder for withholding at least five months of chemotherapy treatments for her son, Jeremy Fraser. He died at age 9 in 2009.

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Information from: The Salem (Mass.) News, http://www.salemnews.com

Political violence and unrest have plagued Egypt since the ouster in 2011 of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak, but a flurry of deadly incidents this week appears to have touched a raw nerve in the nation's psyche.

HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — In Egypt, misery just keeps piling on and, fittingly, the nation is officially in mourning.

Political violence and unrest have plagued Egypt since the ouster in 2011 of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak, but a flurry of deadly incidents this week appears to have touched a raw nerve in the nation's psyche, with many Egyptians abandoning hopes for democracy and freedom and instead embracing a grim view of the future.

"I think the time has come for everyone to acknowledge that the only thing this country can offer us is nightmares," prominent activist Mona Seif wrote despairingly on her Twitter account Thursday. "It is futile that, every now and then, we try to find an excuse to be happy or optimistic."

The interim, military-backed president, Adly Mansour, announced a three-day state of national mourning Wednesday to honor 39 Egyptians who died this week. They include 11 army soldiers killed in a suicide bombing in the turbulent Sinai Peninsula, 27 who perished when a freight train rammed into their cars at a rail crossing south of Cairo and a senior security officer in charge of monitoring Islamist groups who was slain by gunmen near his home in the capital.

A day after Mansour announced the mourning period, two police officers, one in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia and the other in the town of Qaha north of Cairo, were gunned down by suspected Islamic militants.

The incidents, in rapid succession, have touched off an uproar. TV commentators derided the government and the prime minister as useless and negligent and called for swift retribution against terrorists and whoever is behind them. Military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed to bring to justice those behind the killing of the soldiers.

A silver-haired constitutional judge, Mansour tried to counter the nation's gloom in the statement announcing the state of mourning, saying, "The nation's guardians will defend it against the powers of darkness, terror and extremism."

Mubarak's ouster fueled dreams of democracy and reform in an autocratic system that was seen as corrupt, brutal and uncaring for its people. Instead, several thousand Egyptians have been killed in clashes with police, army troops and against each other, and the economy has been battered by constant instability. Elections were held, but after a year, a huge sector of the population turned against the winner, Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, and his supporters, with giant protests capped by a July 3 military coup that ousted him.

Though the ouster was depicted as a "re-set" on the path of democracy, the turmoil has continued, and lately, al-Qaida style suicide bombings and assassinations have added to the mix.

In a country previously unused to political bloodshed, graffiti associated with blood or martyrdom is now everywhere.

Thousands of graffiti by Morsi supporters declaring "CC: Murderer" — a play on the pronunciation of el-Sissi's name — have sprung up walls, highway signs and the sides of public buses since security forces killed hundreds of Morsi backers on Aug. 14 when they cleared sit-in protest camps in Cairo.

Graffiti on walls in Cairo near the famed Tahrir square often depict a black-clad "martyr's mother" with a haunted face or men carrying coffins.

"Our fate has not changed despite of our revolutions," Hamdi Keshta, a 29-year-old businessman, said in Cairo's famed Tahrir square, just hours before clashes Tuesday night between protesters and police left two people dead. "The authorities don't work for the good of the country. Instead they work from a security perspective to protect the regime, whether it is a religious or a military regime."

"I hope Egypt will have a reason, any reason, to be happy again soon. We need a large dose of happiness," he added.

The deaths this week at the railroad crossing were all too reminiscent of Mubarak's 29 years in office, when a string of disastrous infrastructure accidents killed hundreds, all blamed on negligence mixed with corruption. Many had idealistically hoped that the revolution that removed Mubarak meant an eventual end to those problems.

Testimonies by survivors of the rail crossing disaster echoed Mubarak-era complaints of an uncaring leadership.

"May God exact revenge on them (government officials)," one injured woman said in a frail voice from her hospital bed. "How can they do this to us? We are humans after all."

Other survivors described signs of negligence. There was no guard at the crossing, and emergency services and police arrived hours after the incident, they said. The crossing guards were eating a late dinner in their nearby kiosk when the incident happened, according to leaks from the investigation published in Wednesday's newspapers.

"A failed government and a failed society," screamed popular TV talk show host Amr Adeeb in an on-air outburst Tuesday. "The price of a human being in Egypt is equivalent to the price of a laptop computer," he said, casting scorn on the government's offer of 15,000 Egyptian pounds in compensation to families of the victims — less than $3,000.

"The problem of negligence or indifference is chronic in Egypt," said prize-winning novelist Hamdy Abdel-Jaleel. "Our people will never rise before achieving a just democracy."

The country's mood is playing out against a backdrop of a massive crackdown against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhoods. More than 1,000 Morsi supporters have been killed by security forces and some 2,000 top and mid-level leaders of the Brotherhood have been detained along with several thousand supporters. Many of the leaders, including Morsi, are facing trials, mainly on accusation of inciting violence.

Frequent clashes between protesters and police — and the campaign of violence by militants against the army and police — have fueled a vehemently anti-Brotherhood camp calling for harsh action against them and reducing the already small chances for political reconciliation.

"Forget any talk of reconciliation. It is treasonous to put our hands in the hands of murderers," columnist Mohammed Amin wrote in Thursday's edition of the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. "Retribution satisfies all and brings stability to the nation ... execution to those who betray us, execution to those who take innocent lives. Why are we lenient in meting out justice?"

In a last bit of misery, the nation lost out on any chance of reaching to World Cup with a 7-3 aggregate loss to Ghana in a two-leg qualifier. Egypt's fate was sealed Tuesday, when it narrowly beat Ghana at home but not by enough to overcome its humiliating 6-1 away loss to the West African nation last month.

A seven-time African champion, Egypt last qualified to the World Cup in 1990 and a berth in Brazil in 2014 would have certainly lifted spirits.

Egypt had a spark of hope, though, when its top football club last week won the coveted African Champions' Cup.

But politics intruded even on that.

Egyptian striker Ahmed Abdel-Zaher celebrated his goal with the four-finger gesture that symbolizes support for Morsi. Then star midfielder Mohammed Abu-Treka — a public Brotherhood supporter — refused to accept his winner's medal from the sports minister to show his opposition to the military-backed government.

Abdel-Zaher has been suspended and put on the club's transfer list. Abu-Treka was fined.

A Somerville teenager charged with using a broomstick to rape a fellow student at a sports camp in Otis pleaded not guilty at his Superior Court arraignment.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Somerville teenager charged with using a broomstick to rape a fellow student at a sports camp in Otis pleaded not guilty at his Superior Court arraignment.

Galileo Mondol pleaded not guilty Thursday to seven charges, including aggravated rape on a person under 16.

The 17-year-old Mondol was allowed to remain free on the $100,000 bail he posted after his district court arraignment, with the same conditions.

Prosecutors say Mondol was one of three Somerville High School soccer players charged in connection with the alleged assault Aug. 25 in a cabin at Camp Lenox in Otis, which the school had rented for a preseason team building camp.

The Berkshire Eagle (http://bit.ly/1bXzwW7 ) reports that Mondol's lawyer refused comment after Thursday's proceedings. Another defense lawyer previously said evidence against the teen is thin.

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Information from: The Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle, http://www.berkshireeagle.com

No injuries were reported in the fire, which was confined to a bedroom at Olympia Manor.

03.09.11 | Photo by Julian Feller-Cohen – A West Springfield Fire Department truck. 

WEST SPRINGFIELD – Firefighters continue to probe a fire that took the life of a cat and caused some $30,000 to $40,000 in damage to an Ashley Avenue apartment Thursday night.

Deputy Chief Daniel Culver said three residents were displaced in the blaze, which was reported shortly before 8 p.m. at Olympia Manor, 113 Ashley Ave., Apt. D.

The residents were not home when the fire broke out and no injuries were reported, Culver said. The fire, on the third floor of the complex, was confined to the bedroom. It is not considered suspicious.

Water damage was limited to the apartment and the hallway leading it to it.

“We used minimal water,” Culver said. “It was more smoke, heavy black smoke.”

The owners of the complex put the residents up in a motel overnight and will find housing for them within the complex, Culver said.

The crash occurred shortly after 8:05 a.m. at Country Road and Kennedy Drive.

MassLive.com photo [file] 

HUNTINGTON -- A crash involving a school bus and two vehicles at County Road and Kennedy Drive Friday morning sent four people -- including two school children -- to area hospitals with what are believed to be minor injuries, state police said.

Trooper Mark Rogers said the crash was reportedly shortly after 8:05 a.m. The crash involved a smaller school bus with perhaps 8 to 11 elementary school age children aboard, a pickup truck, and a small sedan.

The two school children and the driver of the bus were taken to Noble Hospital in Westfield and the driver of one of the other two vehicles went to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, said Rogers, who is attached to the Russell barracks.

Additional information was not immediately available.

Denials from Elizabeth Warren aside, the 1st-term U.S. Senator from Massachusetts has become the subject of considerable 2016 speculation by politicians, pundits and activists. Much of the speculation is coming from outside of Massachusetts, from national activists and the national press. The speculation could help progressives bring issues like income inequality to the forefront of the 2016 campaign.

What does Elizabeth Warren think about the speculation that she will run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016?

“I’m not,” Warren told reporters last Friday, after an Associated Industries of Massachusetts breakfast.

Absolutely not, a reporter followed up? “I am not,” Warren responded.

Under no circumstances? “I am not.”

Denials aside, the first-term U.S. senator from Massachusetts has become the subject of considerable 2016 speculation by politicians, pundits and activists. The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber wrote a 5,000-plus-word story this month on why Warren is likely Democratic presidential candidate and former first lady Hillary Clinton’s “nightmare.” The New York Times ran a similar story in September. A Facebook page urging Warren to run for president went up in March 2010, long before Warren won a seat in the U.S. Senate. Even former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Warren would be a good pick, if Clinton does not run.

“Consultants from Los Angeles to Chicago to New Hampshire, even some political consultant contacts in Iowa, people are asking about her,” said Anthony Cignoli, a political strategist from Springfield with clients from both parties. “Everyone’s asking to see if she gets out there to start to make the rounds.”

Much of the speculation is coming from outside of Massachusetts, from national activists and the national press, not from Warren’s aides or those who know her in Massachusetts. She has not visited the early nominating states. Many Democrats acknowledge that the chance of Warren running and winning is remote. However, many say the speculation itself can be valuable in helping Warren bring her pet issues – things like income inequality and Wall Street reform – to the forefront of the 2016 campaign.

“Whether she runs or not, having that strong, powerful, progressive voice as part of the national dialogue is going to make a difference in 2016,” said Neil Sroka, a spokesman for the national progressive group Democracy for America, which supported Warren early on.

The buzz surrounding Warren as a possible presidential contender does not appear to come from Warren’s aides, who have said repeatedly that Warren is not running and point to a letter Warren signed urging Clinton to run. Rather, observers say, it is coming from the progressive, liberal wing of the national Democratic Party – the same activists who urged Warren to run for U.S. Senate and helped her raise $42 million for her Senate campaign.

“Massachusetts is part of a national scene, particularly a national, progressive Democratic scene,” said Deborah Shah, executive director of Progressive Massachusetts, a progressive group that endorsed Warren but focuses mostly on state issues. “I see it coming more from the national media and some of the blogosphere.”

Matt Barron, a Democratic political consultant with MLB Research Associates in Chesterfield, who was not involved in Warren’s campaign, said similarly that the buzz “came from a lot of the progressive liberal blogosphere types.” Barron said he is on an email list with around 1,100 progressive activists. “They’re all in a lather about Warren, but pretty much all of them are not from Massachusetts,” Barron said.

Warren was only elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2012 and has yet to develop a significant legislative track record. Her fame in the Senate has mostly come from her pointed questioning of federal regulators and others through her work on the Senate Banking Committee. Warren has focused almost exclusively on issues relating to economic inequality and financial regulation – things like preventing banks from becoming “too big to fail.”

Sroka said Warren’s populist message resonates with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, many of whom are disappointed with Democratic President Barack Obama’s willingness to work with financial firms on Wall Street and his support for changing the formula used to calculate Social Security benefits. “Senator Warren talks about income inequality and the issues facing middle class and working class voters in a way almost no one else in the country talks about it,” Sroka said. “Her unwavering focus on taking on economic inequality head on and making sure the government works for working people, I think that is ultimately what’s behind a lot of the speculation.”

Warren has also not been afraid to disagree with her party. She opposed Obama’s call to use a formula called “chained CPI” to calculate – and lower – Social Security benefits. Instead, her most recent campaign has been to expand Social Security benefits. She urged Democrats to oppose a compromise bill on student loans that temporarily lowered student loan interest rates but tied them to the market. Instead, she pushed for changes that would further lower rates and move toward eliminating government profit on student loans.

“There are a lot of people that are fired up because she’s uniquely continuing to stay the course with her attacks and oversight of Wall Street,” Cignoli said. “Here’s a liberal progressive Democrat who’s not afraid to take the White House to the woodshed.”

Despite her national profile, Warren does a limited number of interviews and makes her point primarily through committee hearings and occasional floor speeches. Warren’s staff sends out YouTube links to videos of Warren speaking, and many of these videos have gone viral. A clip of Warren grilling Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Elisse Walter over why the SEC has not taken any banks to trial over wrongdoings that led to the 2008 financial collapse has gotten 235,000 hits.

Shah said some of Warren’s appeal is her personality as well as her message. “She’s focused her mind repeatedly on issues that people care about, and so any time you see a vibrant, articulate, passionate spokesperson on your issues ... there’s going to be speculation,” Shah said. Shah said Warren has become a political celebrity in a culture that values celebrity.

At Warren’s speech last week to members of AIM, a business trade group, several Massachusetts businessmen dismissed the national buzz. “It’s garbage,” said Kate Putnam, president of Package Machinery in Holyoke. “She can accomplish what she wants to where she is now. I don’t think she has the street cred – she’s only been in the Senate two years.”

Several political operatives agreed that Warren is unlikely to run. Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic political strategist with the Dewey Square Group, said she takes Warren at her word. But she thinks the buzz is an indication that some Democrats find Warren’s message refreshing. “It may not be so much about Elizabeth Warren as it is about people who want other people like her ... to be fighting for the middle class and fighting for fairness,” Marsh said. “She’s the vessel, the leading voice on it, but she’s not the only voice. Voters are looking for more to join the chorus.”

Even if Warren does not run, she could influence the 2016 race. Cignoli said Warren has credibility, which she could use to help a Democratic candidate. “She can move votes,” Cignoli said. “I’d imagine a lot of folks in other Democratic camps are hoping to get an endorsement from her to get her out on the stump.”

Clinton, unlike Warren, has struggled to gain support from the Democratic left wing. In 2007, some liberals were turned off by Clinton’s early support for the Iraq war. Now, some criticize her for being close to Wall Street, as the former New York senator.

Ray La Raja, associate professor of political science at UMass Amherst, said pushing Warren to run is a way for progressive activists to bring issues like income inequality to the forefront. “Even if they don’t think (Warren) can win, it raises issues and it presses the other candidates, like Hillary Clinton, to address those issues,” La Raja said.

Sroka said those pushing Warren to run want to show Warren that she has a national base of support. But they also want to inspire the eventual Democratic presidential candidates “to seize that mantel and run straight at the grassroots progressive base” of the Democratic Party, as Warren has done. If Clinton runs, Sroka said, “There’s a moment early on in the primary process, before it’s begun, that she can start taking on some of these positions. Maybe Elizabeth Warren can guide her.”

Positions being affected are both salaried and hourly, and employees have been offered severance packages and outplacement assistance.

NORTHAMPTON - L-3 KEO, the city's largest industrial employer announced Friday it is laying off 19 employees from its Northampton location in part because of declining defense spending and continuing impact of sequestration on the federal budget, according to company officials.

"This difficult, but necessary action was taken to maintain the division’s overall competitiveness and improve its ability to win and execute new business pursuits in a declining defense budget and sequestration environment," the company said in a prepared statement.

Positions being affected are both salaried and hourly, and employees have been offered severance packages and outplacement assistance.

The company, formerly known as Kollmorgan,recently moved to a new building at Village Hill, after operating for years on King Street.

L-3 KEO employs approximately 313 people, with operations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont.

The company creates a designs and manufactures a variety of sensor and weapon systems for submarines, surface ships, combat vehicles, and other defense platforms.