Dozens of people are preparing to gather at a decommissioned U.S. Navy destroyer stationed in Boston to commemorate the anniversary of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into World War II.

BOSTON — Dozens of people are preparing to gather at a decommissioned U.S. Navy destroyer stationed in Boston to commemorate the anniversary of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into World War II.

National Park Service spokesman Sean Hennessey says Pearl Harbor survivor Donald Tabbut is set to attend Saturday afternoon's service on the USS Cassin Young. The ship is named for a U.S. Navy commander who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the surprise Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.

Hennessey says at least 100 people are expected to attend the Boston ceremony. They include the commander of the Navy's oldest commissioned warship, the USS Constitution and Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans' Services Coleman Nee.

In the moment, Newtown's children became our own. Staring at photographs of their freckled faces, hair tucked into barrettes and baseball caps, a country divided by politics, geography, race, class and belief was united in mourning. And as their deaths confronted Americans with vexing questions about guns and violence, there were calls to turn that shared grief into a collective...

In the moment, Newtown's children became our own.

Staring at photographs of their freckled faces, hair tucked into barrettes and baseball caps, a country divided by politics, geography, race, class and belief was united in mourning. And as their deaths confronted Americans with vexing questions about guns and violence, there were calls to turn that shared grief into a collective search for answers.

"These tragedies must end," President Barack Obama said, two nights after the mass shooting left 20 first-graders and six educators dead. "And to end them, we must change."

Now, a year has passed. But the unity born of tragedy has given way to ambivalence and deepened division.

Today, half of Americans say the country needs stricter gun laws — down since spiking last December but higher than two years ago. And the ranks of those who want easier access to guns — though far fewer than those who support expanding gun control — are now at their highest level since Gallup began asking the question in 1990. Even when the public found some common ground, widely supporting expanded background checks for gun purchases, lawmakers could not agree.

In our towns, in our neighborhoods, the discord is striking.

In Webster, N.Y. — where two firefighters were shot and killed last Christmas Eve — an advocate of gun control is discouraged by the hostile response to his effort to get people to rethink old attitudes. In Nelson, Ga., each of two men who took opposite sides in the debate over a local law requiring everyone to own a gun says the other side won't listen to reason. In Newtown, itself, a gun owner says the rush to bring the town together has left people like him marginalized.

People are digging in.

"I wish people could come to a table and say we all want the same thing. We want our kids to be safe. Now how are we going to do that?" says Carla Barzetti of Newtown, who backs her husband's support of firearms ownership, yet feels personally uncomfortable around guns. "I don't think the grown-ups are setting a very good example."

___

With 1,300 people in Nelson and so little crime that officials have debated whether it needs a full-time police officer, the north Georgia town was an unlikely flashpoint for the gun debate.

Then Bill McNiff, a retired accountant and local tea party activist, suggested to Councilman Duane Cronic that the town should have a law requiring everyone to own a gun. By the time council members unanimously approved, news cameras jockeyed for position in the chambers.

The spotlight didn't last. After the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence sued the town in support of Lamar Kellett, the law's most vocal critic, the council agreed in late August to revise the measure to make clear that gun ownership is a choice and that a requirement could not be enforced.

But the disagreements that breached the small-town quiet haven't gone away. Instead, they've added to tensions on a wooded bend in Laurel Lake Drive, where McNiff and Kellett live two doors apart. Coming and going, they're apt to pass Cronic, the councilman, who lives in the house between them. Edith Portillo, a councilwoman who also backed the ordinance, lives across the street.

"He's my neighbor and he knows my feelings," McNiff says of Kellett. "We go to City Council meetings regularly, and I see him there. I chat with him and we see our neighbors, there's conversation ... or as I'm prone to say, he's an idiot, so I just put up with him."

Asked about his neighbor, Kellett declines to use McNiff's name or give credence to his argument.

Most people in this old marble quarrying center — itself named for a long-ago farmer and rifle maker — believe in a right to own guns, McNiff and Kellett agree. But Nelson's gradual redevelopment as an outlying bedroom community for metro Atlanta has drawn families with different attitudes, they say. Each sees the outcome of Nelson's debate as a mix of victory and disappointment.

McNiff says the ordinance declares values ignored by gun control advocates in big cities.

"They don't go through and say I need a rifle, I need a gun because I have 55 acres and occasionally a coyote walks through," he says. Critics "looked at (Nelson's law) from their ideological point of view, which is that they're anti-gun. They didn't look at it from the point of view that we wanted to prevent the government" from taking away people's guns.

Kellett, meanwhile, says the outcome did little to reshape a debate that leaves many people cowed into keeping quiet.

As in many other civic discussions, "a small percentage of the people make a lot of the noise," he says.

"I talked to people who had not owned a gun in 50 years and didn't intend to get one and I talked to people who had always had a gun forever. ... That's why I didn't want the city of Nelson to be blown out of proportion, like we're some sort of an armed camp."

___

More than 20 years ago, Frank Higgins delved into the debate over guns by trying to thread the middle.

After a former University of Iowa graduate student shot and killed four faculty members and a rival student in 1991 before killing himself, a local theater company hired Higgins to write a play about guns. He devised a series of vignettes populated by characters with clashing views.

When "Gunplay" opened in 1993, a few gun rights activists protested outside. The director invited them in to talk; they approved of some scenes and disapproved of others, he says. The company spent a year staging the play around Iowa, mostly in small towns, where audiences were largely receptive.

After that, though, Higgins' play drew little interest. He recalls that a Florida director wanted to produce it and take it to local schools. A year earlier, she'd done the same thing with a play about AIDS. But school board members deemed the gun play too incendiary.

After Newtown, though, the Kansas City, Mo., resident got a call from a friend in Boston who wanted to stage a reading. The play's renewed relevance led to a call from The Kansas City Star, which ran a story in its arts section in late April.

By 9 a.m. that Saturday, Higgins' home phone started ringing. Over the next couple of hours, he answered a dozen calls, all about the play.

"About half the people who read this article ripped me to pieces because the play should be fervently anti-gun ... and the others were exactly the opposite," Higgins says.

Some were just "30 seconds of rant and hanging up," Higgins says. Others were longer, including one from a woman who told him her husband had been shot to death a few years earlier during a mugging.

Higgins' number is listed. But none of his plays — including "Gunplay" — had ever prompted strangers to look him up. Something has changed.

"It seems as if part of what Newtown did is that there's a greater sense of 'we're not going to back down, we're going to speak out more.' So what does that do? It just amps it up more."

At the end of Higgins' play, as many 10 actors take the stage, all talking over each other, until the debate is cut by a single gunshot. It was supposed to be a dramatization. Now, though, Higgins has to wonder.

___

Paul Libera went to college on the money his state-trooper dad earned in the gun-and-fishing-tackle store he ran on the side. Libera was "raised with guns under my bed and in my closet and with bird shot coming out of the food we were eating," he says. He grew up duck hunting on Lake Ontario.

When Libera moved away from upstate New York, he also left behind his father's love for guns. But the lake eventually drew Libera back. Each summer he gathered area kids for a water skiing camp at a friend's yard on the waterfront in Webster.

That peace was broken early last Dec. 24, when an ex-con, William Spengler, set his own house on fire and sprayed gunfire at responding firefighters, killing Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka. The blaze destroyed seven homes, including the one where Libera's campers met.

Webster grieved. But to Libera, that wasn't enough.

In January, he spent $600 for an 8-foot-wide sign, lettered in red, and planted it in the frozen ground next door to the site of the ambush.

"How many deaths will it take 'til we know too many people have died?" the sign asked.

Soon after, he heard that the message had sparked a week of class discussion at the local high school.

"It made me feel really grateful that there was intellectual dialogue going on," he says.

But when a photo of the sign was posted to a Facebook page honoring the firefighters, it drew more than 70 comments, many critical. There were those who said the sign was "repulsive," that it politicized the firefighters' deaths. Officials told him the sign had to be removed because he lacked a permit; he took it down in the spring.

Meanwhile, signs sprouted in some yards demanding repeal of the new state gun control law pushed through by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. And in October, American Tactical Imports, a firearms importer and manufacturer based in nearby Chili, announced it was moving to South Carolina, a "state that is friendly to the Second Amendment rights of the people."

The pro-gun response discouraged Libera, who worried fighting to keep his sign up would distract from its message and the memory of the firefighters. And he was troubled when parents of some of the children he instructs, not knowing he was responsible for the sign, remarked that its message was so horrible they avoided driving by.

"I think they just want to shut it out and pretend it didn't happen and hope it goes away," he says.

___

Newtown's conversation about guns began six months before the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary.

It started around the time Andrea Ondak, a translator who shares a home in town with husband, Jim, wrote local officials about prolonged gunfire by target shooters at a farm next door. She was not alone — from mid-2010 until August 2012, Newtown police fielded 85 complaints about gunfire.

The Police Commission crafted an ordinance restricting hours and locations of target shooting. But at a hearing in August 2012, about 60 gun owners criticized the proposal as a breach of Second Amendment rights. Jim Ondak was the only one who rose to support it.

"As a result of the pressure ... the Legislative Council just really allowed the thing to die on the on the vine," says Joel Faxon, a Police Commission member, lawyer and gun owner who drew up the measure. "The lead from a high-velocity round from a rifle can travel miles. I'm not talking a slingshot. So it had to be addressed."

Adam Lanza's rampage — and the grief it unleashed — changed everything. Now there was incentive "to say you need to stand up and do the right thing about this," says Eric Poupon, who formed Parents for a Safer Newtown to push for limits on target shooting.

That led to a tense new round of hearings, with people on both sides reminded to let opponents speak without interruption and to direct comments to the council rather than each other.

Gun owners described target shooting as a prized tradition in their rural community. Opponents noted that Newtown is no longer so rural; the population has grown 45 percent since 1980.

Finally, council members approved a law in September limiting target shooting to four hours and requiring gun owners to call police beforehand. But they dropped a requirement that such shooting take place at least 2,000 feet from another home, letting stand the current 500-foot limit.

Poupon said he hears fewer shots and thinks maybe people have decided on their own to reign in shooting. But people on both sides are troubled by what the debate revealed.

The intensity of gun owners' opposition and the pressure they put on local officials "was a real wakeup call," Andrea Ondak says.

Meanwhile, Dave Barzetti, a welder and target shooter who lives less than a mile from the Ondaks, says the debate reflects troubling changes. He says since Sandy Hook, officials are determined to build more facilities and offer more programs. It's a big-government approach to bringing Newtown together, he says, and he feels the target shooting ordinance is part of it.

"I think there was a sense of urgency to bring the town together, to coalesce," says Barzetti, a father of two. "They're pushing an agenda that's dividing the town and certain people are leaving and I'm going to be one of them."

His wife, Carla, says the family built their dream home on 18 acres here. But a large tax hike, compounded by the divide over guns, convinced them they no longer belong. In September, they bought 150 acres in Tennessee.

Recalling Newtown as it was, before last Dec. 14, she starts to cry.

"It still had people who were nice to each other, working together and no one was talking about guns," she says. "Then (the attack) happened and it became either you have guns or you don't have guns."

Voters in the 5th Congressional District are heading to the polls this week to decide the latest in a string of special elections in Massachusetts.

BOSTON — Voters in the 5th Congressional District are heading to the polls this week to decide the latest in a string of special elections in Massachusetts.

The race pits Democratic state Sen. Katherine Clark of Melrose against Republican Frank Addivinola, a Boston attorney. Both won their respective party primaries in October.

The victor will fill the seat left vacant by Edward Markey, who resigned after winning a special election to fill John Kerry's U.S. Senate seat. Kerry had stepped down to become secretary of state.

Clark and Addivinola have staked out very different ground in what has been a low-profile contest at a time when many voters have turned their attention to holiday preparations.

Clark said her priorities include pay equity for women, ending gun-related violence and supporting Social Security and early education. Clark has also voted for an increase in the state minimum wage from $8 to $11 over three years, tying future raises to inflation.

"What we're talking about is really trying to get Congress back to work for middle-class families," Clark said. "That's the economic lens that I've been looking at these issues through."

Addivinola, who described himself as a "small government kind of candidate," said that he's also interested in helping families but that the best way to do that is to help turn around a stagnant economy.

He said a lack of leadership in Washington has helped fuel unemployment and underemployment, which in turn is helping stall a recovery. He said what businesses most need is a stable regulatory environment and less interference.

"New employees become local consumers, which stimulates the local economy," he said.

President Barack Obama's health care law is one of many topics where the two disagree.

Addivinola said health care changes are best left to individual states, pointing in part to Massachusetts' landmark 2006 health care law.

"The role of the government should be minimal," said Addivinola, who believes health care plans should accept customers regardless of pre-existing conditions, an element of the federal law.

Clark called the federal initiative "a law of historical significance" and said that while it's been frustrating to watch the website problems, the goal of insuring tens of millions of Americans is critical.

Clark said she hoped the health care law could lead to a "public option" that would allow states to sell insurance in competition with private plans and eventually to a so-called single payer system, which would effectively guarantee health coverage for everyone.

On social issues, the two candidates also hold very different positions.

Addivinola describes himself as "pro-life" and feels states should have greater leeway to limit or expand access to abortion.

"I am into human rights, and I feel that the unborn fetus is entitled to protection," Addivinola said.

He said gay couples should have access to tax benefits available to married couples, but he is not a proponent of gay marriage and is "a believer in the strength of the family for procreation."

Clark backs gay marriage and access to abortion and criticized what she said are the actions of "a group of extremists in the House focused on attacking women's rights."

Both candidates said they were skeptical about a recent deal with Iran. Under the agreement, Iran would freeze parts of its nuclear program in return for relief from Western sanctions while both sides try to negotiate a final settlement.

Addivinola called the deal "a tragic mistake" that would allow Iran to continue their nuclear program.

Clark said she was skeptical but also hopeful the agreement will start the process of ending Iran's capability of developing nuclear weapons.

On the question of immigration, Addivinola said he doesn't support mass deportation of the millions of immigrants in the country illegally but believes the country should enforce its immigration policies.

Clark said she supports a bill passed by the U.S. Senate this year calling for a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million immigrants already living illegally in the country.

Clark, 50, a lawyer and former public interest attorney, was first elected to the Legislature in 2008 and served seven years on the Melrose School Committee.

Addivinola, 53, writes and publishes medical school admission prep books and also teaches introduction to law at Northeastern University while completing a doctoral degree in law. He grew up in Malden but lives in Boston.

Two other candidates are on the ballot — Wellesley resident James Aulenti and Arlington resident James Hall.

Massachusetts currently has an all-Democratic congressional delegation.

The winner of Tuesday's election will face re-election next year.

By CHRISTOPHER P. GOUDREAU EASTHAMPTON – Edward F. Borucki, 93, of Southampton, said Saturday he was a third class yeoman on board the USS Helena in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the alarm sounded at 7:55 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941. “Man your battle stations. Jap planes attacking. Break out service ammunition. This is no drill,” said Borucki as he recited...

By CHRISTOPHER P. GOUDREAU

EASTHAMPTON – Edward F. Borucki, 93, of Southampton, said Saturday he was a third class yeoman on board the USS Helena in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the alarm sounded at 7:55 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941.

“Man your battle stations. Jap planes attacking. Break out service ammunition. This is no drill,” said Borucki as he recited a speech before dozens of veterans along the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge over the Connecticut River Oxbow.

The gathering of veterans from all around Western Massachusetts marked a remembrance of the 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Borucki commemorated the anniversary by dropping a wreath into the cold December waters as a gun salute rang out along Route 5 by the Easthampton American Legions Post 224.

The gun salute was followed by taps by bugler Andy Phillips to close the ceremonies.

Mayor Michael Tautznik, of Easthampton, and Mayor David Narkewicz, of Northampton, attended the remembrance event and gave their words of gratitude and praise for all military veterans and their service to the United States.

“You wonder how life would be different had the wars we fought turned out differently, if people had made different decisions moving forward,” said Tautznik.

“But the decisions have been made and we’re here to remember that many men and women died, begetting of our involvement in the war.”

Walter Sliz, a 93-year-old WWII veteran and native of Easthampton, said he served in the United States Coast Guard for almost three years and his military service consisted of convoy duties and submarine patrols in the North Atlantic.

“I think of it because I’ve lost nine of my buddies,” said Sliz. “We went in together and I was the only one that survived. So, I was damn lucky. So, we will never forget these guys that made the ultimate sacrifice. This is how we feel about it.”

The accident closed Hendrick Avenue on Saturday afternoon.

 

This updates a story posted at 5:40 p.m.

EASTHAMPTON - Police are investigating a car crash that claimed two lives on Saturday just after 3:30 p.m.

A press release from the Northwestern District Attorney's Office states that two vehicles collided on Hendrick Street, and one person from each car died.

One car had three occupants, while the other car had two occupants. All five occupants were transported to Baystate Medical Center.

Easthampton police, Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office, and the state police collision analysis and reconstruction section are investigating.

No further information will be available tonight, the release stated.

Veteran Robert A. Greenleaf, Westfield’s only living Pearl Harbor survivor, along with other veterans and state and local officials, observed Saturday morning the day called one of the worst humiliations for the United States military during a ceremony held at Kane Park at the site of the twin bridges.

WESTFIELD – Robert A. Greenleaf was just 19 years old in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and yet he still remembers every detail of that day of infamy when more than 2,400 Americans were killed.

“I keep wondering why God keeps me alive to remember that day,” said the 91-year-old veteran. “My memory is still clear. We were behind the trees at the school where I was that day so we couldn’t see what was happening, but I heard the ships getting hit. When the USS Arizona blew up there was ammunition on board, and we could hear the magazines exploding.”

Although he couldn’t see what was happening at the harbor, Greenleaf did have a good view of the sky and could see what was coming.

“We saw torpedo planes flying over the school,” he said during a Saturday morning ceremony at the Great River Bridges on Elm Street.

Greenleaf said the Japanese mission was unsuccessful.

“In a lot of way, it was not really a defeat for us,” he said. “It was more of a defeat for them. The ships they sunk were not of import, the aircraft carriers were not in the harbor and they didn’t blow the fuel tanks.”

One of the most shocking aspects of the attack, Greenleaf said, was the element of surprise during a time of peace.

“I had no worries,” he said. “We had no threats to the country at that time.”

Col. James Keefe, commander of the 104th Air National Guard Fighter Wing unit at Barnes Regional Airport, who gave the keynote address during the ceremony, said Pearl Harbor, as well as Sept. 11, 2001, are moments in history that must never be forgotten.

“The events of that September day, that started out so routine, quickly brought to mind the attack on Pearl Harbor,” he said. “For too many years, the memory of Dec. 7, 1941, was slipping away. It’s heartbreaking to know that it took another tragic event to get us all thinking about our history. It’s important for America to remember our history, the high and low points. Pearl Harbor was certainly a low point.”

A few patients with one type of leukemia were given this one-time, experimental therapy several years ago and some remain cancer-free today. Now, at least six research groups have treated more than 120 patients with many types of blood and bone marrow cancers, with stunning results.

In this October 2012 photo provided by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Emily Whitehead is checked by pediatric oncologist, Dr. Stephan A. Grupp, at the hospital. In early 2012, she was the first child given gene therapy for acute lymphocytic leukemia and shows no sign of cancer today, nearly 21 months after treatment.Associated Press 

MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Associated Press

In one of the biggest advances against leukemia and other blood cancers in many years, doctors are reporting unprecedented success by using gene therapy to transform patients' blood cells into soldiers that seek and destroy cancer.

A few patients with one type of leukemia were given this one-time, experimental therapy several years ago and some remain cancer-free today. Now, at least six research groups have treated more than 120 patients with many types of blood and bone marrow cancers, with stunning results.

"It's really exciting," said Dr. Janis Abkowitz, blood diseases chief at the University of Washington in Seattle and president of the American Society of Hematology. "You can take a cell that belongs to a patient and engineer it to be an attack cell."

In one study, all five adults and 19 of 22 children with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, had a complete remission, meaning no cancer could be found after treatment, although a few have relapsed since then.

These were gravely ill patients out of options. Some had tried multiple bone marrow transplants and up to 10 types of chemotherapy or other treatments.

Cancer was so advanced in 8-year-old Emily Whitehead of Philipsburg, Pa., that doctors said her major organs would fail within days. She was the first child given the gene therapy and shows no sign of cancer today, nearly two years later.

Results on other patients with myeloma, lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, will be reported at the hematology group's conference that starts Saturday in New Orleans.

Doctors say this has the potential to become the first gene therapy approved in the United States and the first for cancer worldwide. Only one gene therapy is approved in Europe, for a rare metabolic disease.

The treatment involves filtering patients' blood to remove millions of white blood cells called T-cells, altering them in the lab to contain a gene that targets cancer, and returning them to the patient in infusions over three days.

"What we are giving essentially is a living drug" — permanently altered cells that multiply in the body into an army to fight the cancer, said Dr. David Porter, a University of Pennsylvania scientist who led one study.

Several drug and biotech companies are developing these therapies. Penn has patented its method and licensed it to Switzerland-based Novartis AG. The company is building a research center on the Penn campus in Philadelphia and plans a clinical trial next year that could lead to federal approval of the treatment as soon as 2016.

Talking with the researchers, "there is a sense of making history ... a sense of doing something very unique," said Hervé Hoppenot, president of Novartis Oncology, the division leading the work.

Lee Greenberger, chief scientific officer of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, agreed.

"From our vantage point, this looks like a major advance," he said. "We are seeing powerful responses ... and time will tell how enduring these remissions turn out to be."

The group has given $15 million to various researchers testing this approach. Nearly 49,000 new cases of leukemia, 70,000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 22,000 cases of myeloma are expected to be diagnosed in the United States in 2013.

Many patients are successfully treated with chemotherapy or bone marrow or stem cell transplants, but transplants are risky and donors can't always be found. So far, gene therapy has been tried on people who were in danger of dying because other treatments failed.

The gene therapy must be made individually for each patient, and lab costs now are about $25,000, without a profit margin. That's still less than many drugs to treat these diseases and far less than a transplant.

The treatment can cause severe flu-like symptoms and other side effects, but these have been reversible and temporary, doctors say.

Penn doctors have treated the most cases so far — 59. Of the first 14 patients with CLL, four had complete remissions, four had partial ones and the rest did not respond. However, some partial responders continue to see their cancer shrink a year after treatment.

"That's very unique to this kind of therapy" and gives hope the treatment may still purge the cancer, said Porter. Another 18 CLL patients were treated and half have responded so far.

Penn doctors also treated 27 ALL patients. All five adults and 19 of the 22 children had complete remissions, an "extraordinarily high" success rate, said Dr. Stephan Grupp at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Six have since relapsed, though, and doctors are pondering a second gene therapy attempt.

At the National Cancer Institute, Dr. James Kochenderfer and others have treated 11 patients with lymphoma and four with CLL, starting roughly two years ago. Six had complete remissions, six had partial ones, one has stable disease and it's too soon to tell for the rest.

Ten other patients were given gene therapy to try to kill leukemia or lymphoma remaining after bone marrow transplants. These patients got infusions of gene-treated blood cells from their transplant donors instead of using their own blood cells. One had a complete remission and three others had significant reduction of their disease.

"They've had every treatment known to man. To get any responses is really encouraging," Kochenderfer said. The cancer institute is working with a Los Angeles biotech firm, Kite Pharma Inc., on its gene therapy approach.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will report on 13 patients with ALL; the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will report about two-dozen patients with ALL or lymphoma, and Baylor College of Medicine will give results on 10 patients with lymphoma or myeloma.

Patients are encouraged that relatively few have relapsed.

"We're still nervous every day because they can't tell us what's going to happen tomorrow," said Tom Whitehead, 8-year-old Emily's father.

Doug Olson, 67, a scientist for a medical device maker, shows no sign of cancer since gene therapy in September 2010 for CLL he had had since 1996.

"Within one month he was in complete remission. That was just completely unexpected," said Porter, his doctor at Penn.

Olson ran his first half-marathon in January and no longer worries about how long his remission will last.

"I decided I'm cured. I'm not going to let that hang over my head anymore," he said.

The unlikely collision between two strangers — one deeply confused, another perceiving a threat — illustrates both the difficulties that caregivers face in keeping loved ones with Alzheimer's safe and the consequences of miscalculation in a state that celebrates its gun culture.

The house where Ronald Westbrook was mistakingly killed by homeowner Joe Hendrix, is seen, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013, in Chickamauga, Ga. The last walk that Westbrook took began as early as 1 a.m. when he slipped unnoticed from his North Georgia home with his two dogs. It ended three hours later when Westbrook, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, knocked in the dark on a stranger’s door. A man inside that home, 34-year-old Joe Hendrix, got a .40-caliber handgun, went outside to investigate and shot Westbrook in a horrible mistake.Associated Press 

RAY HENRY
Associated Press

CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — The last walk that Ronald Westbrook took began as early as 1 a.m. when he slipped unnoticed from his North Georgia home with his two dogs.

It ended three hours later when Westbrook, a 72-year-old who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, knocked in the dark on a stranger's door last month. Police said a man inside that home, 34-year-old Joe Hendrix, got a .40-caliber handgun, went outside to investigate and shot Westbrook in a horrible mistake.

The unlikely collision between two strangers — one deeply confused, another perceiving a threat — illustrates both the difficulties that caregivers face in keeping loved ones with Alzheimer's safe and the consequences of miscalculation in a state that celebrates its gun culture.

Westbrook's widow struggles to comprehend how she lost her husband of 51 years and discussed what happened in an interview in her house this week, sitting on her couch beside her Bible.

"I can't imagine him feeling threatened by my husband, that's what surprises me," said Deanne Westbrook, 70. "Because Ron wasn't like that. He probably, I think he was so cold. He was looking for help when he was ringing that doorbell at their place. I think he just wanted somebody to help him."

Hendrix declined to comment because of the ongoing investigation. His attorney, Lee Davis, described his client as distraught. The local district attorney has not yet decided whether to press criminal charges against Hendrix for what happened on Nov. 27.

"He is not a gun-toting rights activist who's saying, 'Keep off my property,'" Davis said. "He's a man who thought he had to take action because of what he believed to be a real and imminent threat."

A retired nurse who once cared for dementia patients in a nursing home, Westbrook's wife was perhaps better equipped than most to care for a spouse with Alzheimer's. The progressive disease results in memory loss, impairs judgment and can leave its victims disoriented.

She installed door alarms to alert her if her husband tried wandering away. She was already making plans to get more advanced care at home as the disease progressed.

"I don't feel angry," she said. "I just feel sad. I never would have thought he would've (come) to an end like this. I was prepared for the Alzheimer's to get worse and for me to take care of him here. And I was going to do it."

Others can sympathize. Marylou Hable, who works for A Place for Mom, helping match families with care and living facilities, said she works with Alzheimer's patients and their families every day. Yet she still struggled when her husband's uncle came to live with them.

She took all sorts of precautions to protect him, but one night he wandered out after midnight. She and her husband were exhausted and didn't hear the alarms. Alzheimer's patients often seize on a past memory, and the uncle was trying to find the streetcar to go home to Cleveland, Ohio, even though he had moved to Michigan. He was beaten up and robbed, but luckily police contacted Hable and her husband when he turned up in the hospital.

"Here I am in the industry and I couldn't keep John safe," she said.

An incident in mid-November may have set the stage for the fatal error. Shortly after Hendrix's fiancee moved into her new rental home, a man appeared at the door just before midnight on Nov. 19. He pounded on the door while Hendrix's fiancee was alone with two children, and he demanded to see someone whom Hendrix's fiancee did not know, Davis said.

She called Hendrix, who was in nearby Chattanooga, Tenn., who told her to call 911. By the time sheriff's deputies and Hendrix arrived, the man was gone. Davis said what happened was documented in a police report.

Afterward, Hendrix took a Glock handgun that he kept in his apartment and brought it to his fiancee's home.

The following week, Deanne Westbrook woke up and noticed that her husband and the couple's two dogs were missing. Not long after, a police officer arrived to deliver the news, and the dogs were returned to her.

For reasons that are not clear, Westbrook left his home and started walking. A deputy sheriff noticed him along a road around 2:20 a.m. and stopped to ask what he was doing, Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said. Westbrook told the officer that he was gathering mail and then planned to return to his home up a hill. While Westbrook's answers were curt, nothing about the conversation alarmed the deputy.

Wilson said barking dogs woke up Hendrix and his fiancee in her home sometime before 4 a.m. Westbrook had walked to their house, the last in a cul-de-sac. He rang the doorbell, knocked on the door and tried the handle. In what may have been a startling move, Westbrook left the front of the home and moved out of view.

The woman called 911, and Hendrix got his gun.

While the woman was on the phone with a dispatcher, Westbrook returned to the door a second time, Wilson said.

Hendrix left the house and found Westbrook outside in the dark. He told police that Westbrook ignored commands to stop, identify himself and raise his hands. The sheriff said Westbrook approached Hendrix, who fired four shots.

"Obviously, in hindsight, it's very easy to say, 'Why didn't you stay inside? Why didn't you keep the door shut?'" Davis said. "But the reality is, how long are you supposed to wait until somebody comes through your door? And had the person come through his door with his fiancee there, then what would have happened?"

Under Georgia law, people are not required to try retreating from a potential conflict before opening fire to defend themselves from serious imminent harm, said Russell Gabriel, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at the University of Georgia. State law allows people to use lethal force to stop someone from forcibly entering a home if those inside reasonably fear they are going to be attacked. Deadly force can even be used to stop someone from trying to forcibly enter a home to commit a felony.

"Different people have a different understanding of what is reasonable," Gabriel said. "Reasonableness is a classic jury question."

AP reporter Kate Brumback contributed to this report from Atlanta.

The president's remark was somewhat startling. Obama has tried to allay the fears of many Israelis and some Americans that his administration last month promised to ease economic pressure too much in return for too few Iranian concessions.

President Barack Obama smiles as he arrives at the Saban Forum to speak about the Middle East at the Willard Hotel in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013. The 2013 Forum is examining the political changes taking place across the Middle East, and the President spoke about topics including Iran. Associated Press 

BRADLEY KLAPPER
and DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Saturday he believed the chances for a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran are 50-50 or worse, yet defended diplomacy as the best way to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.

During a question-and-answer session with a pro-Israel audience, Obama said he wasn't naive about the odds for a successful final agreement between world powers and Iran next year, building on the recent six-month interim deal.

"If you ask me what is the likelihood that we're able to arrive at the end state ... I wouldn't say that it's more than 50-50," Obama said. "But we have to try."

The president's remark was somewhat startling. Obama has tried to allay the fears of many Israelis and some Americans that his administration last month promised to ease economic pressure too much in return for too few Iranian concessions.

The comment nevertheless pointed to the difficult talks that await as the U.S. and its negotiating partners — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — work toward a final pact next year. The goal is to eliminate the possibility of Iran assembling a nuclear arsenal, even if any deal might let Iran continue enriching uranium at lower levels not easily convertible into weapons-grade material.

Obama said the six-month interim agreement halts and rolls back central elements of Iran's nuclear program, compelling Tehran to eliminate higher-enriched uranium stockpiles, stop adding new centrifuges and cease work at a heavy water reactor that potentially could produce plutonium. It also provides time to see if the crisis can be averted through negotiation.

"If at the end of six months it turns out we can't make a deal," Obama said, "we are no worse off." Sanctions against Iran will be fully reinstated and even tightened if Iran doesn't make a final agreement, he pledged.

Obama's appearance at the Brookings Institution forum appeared directed as much at an Israeli audience as an American one. The discussion was broadcast live on Israeli television, with analysts there viewing it as an effort to patch over Obama's public differences with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, who was scheduled to address the same forum Sunday, has called the nuclear agreement in Geneva the "deal of the century" for Iran. In an appearance Friday, his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, repeated Israel's objections.

Obama acknowledged some "significant tactical disagreements" with Netanyahu, but said U.S. and Israeli bottom-line goals were the same.

Secretary of State John Kerry promised close consultation on next steps with the Jewish state, which includes a visit to Washington this coming week by Yossi Cohen, Netanyahu's national security adviser.

"We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon — period — not now, not ever," Kerry said. "I am convinced that we have taken a strong first step that has made the world and Israel safer."

Beyond Israel, Sunni Arab countries have expressed concerns about what America's Iran engagement might mean for the balance of power in the region with Shiite-dominate Iran. Saudi Arabian officials even have talked about their own potential nuclear ambitions.

Echoing Obama's effort to reach out to concerned allies, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel renewed a U.S. push for the sale of missile defense technology and other weapons systems to U.S.-friendly Gulf nations to counter the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles.

In a speech Saturday in Bahrain, Hagel made clear that any final deal on Iran's nuclear program wouldn't end the threat posed by a country the U.S. considers the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

On Mideast peace hopes, Obama echoed an optimistic assessment provided by Kerry during a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories this past week.

The president said his administration had spent much time working with Netanyahu to understand Israel's security needs as part of any two-state solution.

"I think it is possible over the next several months to arrive at a framework that does not address every single detail but gets us to the point where everybody recognizes it's better to move forward than move backward," Obama said.

Still, he said tough decisions await both sides, including the Palestinians' understanding a transition period will be necessary so no situation arises similar to Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip after Israel's 2005 military pullout.

"The Israeli people cannot expect a replica of Gaza in the West Bank," Obama said. "That is unacceptable."

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Manama, Bahrain, contributed to this report.

Route 6 westbound is now open. The victim's name will not be released until her family is notified, state police said.

File Photo 

YARMOUTH - State police and local police are investigating a fatal accident in which a motor vehicle struck a female pedestrian on Saturday night.

A state police press release states that the victim is only being identified as a female at this time, and that her name will not be released until her family is notified.

Route 6 westbound is now open, but there are still some traffic delays, state police said.

Troopers from the state police barracks in south Yarmouth responded to the fatal motor vehicle accident involving the female pedestrian on Route 6 westbound, between exits 8 and 7, in Yarmouth.

Reyes said police recovered what they believe to be a BB gun from the scene.

 

HOLYOKE - Police arrested a 25-year-old Springfield man in connection with an alleged home invasion on Saturday night at 39 O’Connor Ave., police said.

Lt. Manuel Reyes said police received a report of a possible disturbance at 39 O’Connor Ave. just before 7 p.m., and as officers arrived, they noticed two people walking away from the address.

The victim then ran out and pointed out the individuals, saying that they assaulted him. The victim lives in the first floor apartment, Reyes said.

Police chased the two individuals, and arrested one, Raymond Ramirez, who was charged with home invasion and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Reyes said.

Reyes said police recovered what they believe is a BB gun from the scene.

Reyes said two more individuals might be involved, and they are also searching for a red Chevrolet Impala that may have been used during the incident. He said it is unknown if anything was stolen, and police are continuing to investigate and take statements.

One person was injured in a one car crash that close Route 57 for several hours.

 

Southwick Police Sgt. Rhett Bannish said the female operator, the sole occupant of the car, was transported to the Baystate Medical Center with "non-life threatening injuries."

Bannish said the investigation into the crash is on-going, but preliminary information indicates the driver apparently lost control of the vehicle as she traveled westbound on Route 57, also known as Feeding Hills Road, near the Brew Too bar. The car apparently struck a utility pole, rolled over across the roadway, then struck a tree off the north shoulder of the roadway.

An ambulance from the Agawam Fire Department responded to the scene and transported the injured woman to the Springfield hospital.

The road will remain closed, Bannish said, as workers from Western Mass. Electric Company and Verizon replace the utility pole and reattach service lines.

Eight people were driven from their home byan electrical fire in a ceiling fan.

0.26.2012 | SPRINGFIELD -- The Springfield Fire Department will purchase on new engine truck this year. The truck pictured above, participating in a parade, was purchased in 2011.The Republican [file] 

Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, said the 11 a.m. fire started in the electrical wiring associated with a third-floor ceiling fan.

The two residents of that apartment and six people living in the second floor apartment were displaced by the fire, and aided by the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross. The occupants of the first floor apartment did not have to leave, Leger said.

Fire officials estimate damage to the building at between $5,00 and $10,000.

Dawn Leaks, director of Communications for the local red Cross chapter said lodging and food was supplied to the eight displaced residents, and each was supplied with "comfort kits" providing personal necessity items lost i the fire. Leaks said the Red Cross will follow up with the families to aid their recovery.

Casino supporters, including Palmer Businesses for a Palmer Casino spokesman Robert Young, have questioned Mohegan's commitment to Palmer in the wake of the vote and news that Mohegan has now partnered with Suffolk Downs to run a casino in Revere.

Palmer Town Manager Charles BlanchardThe Republican staff (file) 

PALMER - The final bills are in, and the failed casino referendum and recount cost Mohegan Sun approximately $35,000.

Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said the election cost the Connecticut-based casino operator $12,999.78, and the recount, $22,276.18.

He said the recount cost so much more because of attorney fees associated with the event, as well as notifications that had to be made regarding the recount to groups that had organized on both sides of the issue.

The anti-casino group, and pro-casino groups had to be formally notified of the recount so that they could have representatives there, he said. Also in attendance were lawyers for the town of Palmer, and two police officers working paid details. Blanchard said the expanded gaming act requires casino operators to pay for the local elections on the casino votes.

Mohegan Sun lost the casino vote on Nov. 5 by 93 votes. The Nov. 26 recount confirmed the loss, and resulted in another no vote, widening the margin to 94 votes. Fifty-one percent of those who cast ballots voted against it, compared to 49 percent in favor - a vote of 2,657 to 2,563.

Blanchard said the vote was disappointing because it was so close.

“The potential that the town had for revenue under the gaming act is many times what it would be from normal commercial development,” Blanchard said.

The town stood to gain an extra $16 million in revenue if the casino project passed.

Recently released campaign finance reports showed Mohegan spent $485,000 in the months leading up to the vote. A Mohegan representative has said the company spent $25 million over the years on the Palmer proposal.

Casino supporters, including Palmer Businesses for a Palmer Casino spokesman Robert Young, have questioned Mohegan’s commitment to Palmer in the wake of the vote and news that Mohegan has now partnered with Suffolk Downs to run a casino in Revere.

The fund still needs $134,549 to meet its fund-raising goal of $150,000 by Christmas Eve.

View full sizeTo get a printable version of this coupon to mail in with your donation, click on "view full size," above. 

SPRINGFIELD - The Toy for Joy fund inched closer to its fund-raising goal with a $1,000 donation from F. L. Roberts & Co., Inc.

Steven Roberts, president and CEO of F.L. Roberts, said he hopes the donation will help the Toy for Joy campaign purchase toys.

“We are supported by our Mobil and Sunoco gasoline customers and by our Jiffy Lube and car wash customers, and we thought this is a perfect way to give back to the community,” Roberts said.

“As a result of our customers buying merchandise, we are able to give something back,” Roberts said.

Today the Toy for Joy fund received $3,135 in donations.

The fund still needs $134,549 to meet its fund-raising goal of $150,000 by Christmas Eve.

The Toy for Joy fund, which is in its 91st year, is sponsored by The Republican and The Salvation Army, with the help of campaign partner Hasbro of East Longmeadow, which donates a portion of the toys for the campaign.

Children, ages 0 to 12, will receive a toy, a game and a book, and teens, ages 13 to 16, will receive a toy, game and young adult book.

Toys are pre-sorted so they are age and gender appropriate.

Last year Toy for Joy served 3,021 families and 14,199 children.

Today’s donations ranged from $10 to $1,000.

Many individuals and families donate to the fund to remember family members who have died.

Toy registration
Here are the times for families to register at Salvation Army sites for the 91st annual Toy for Joy campaign. Registration has closed in Springfield, Greenfield, Westfield and the Hilltowns.
Holyoke
Holyoke Citadel: 271 Appleton St., Holyoke; Dec. 9-20, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; for info, call (413) 532-6312; serves Holyoke, South Hadley, Granby
Westfield
Required documentation
Participants must bring the following documents: Photo ID for head of household; proof of address (within the last 30 days); MassHealth cards or other identifying information for any child age 16 or younger; and birth certificates (or passports) for any child age 16 and younger.
For more information, call 733-1518. To make a contribution to the Toy for Joy fund, write: Toy for Joy, P.O. Box 3007, Springfield 01102. Contributions may also be dropped off with the coupon to The Republican, 1860 Main St., Springfield, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. through Dec. 24.

Here’s a list of the latest contributors:

• In memory of Richard E Mastry, Craig, Darlene, Matt and Brett, $25


• Rob, Bob and the Blanchot family, $20


• In memory of Doug Hosmer, $35


• In loving memory of my dear wife Jeannine Olechna from husband, $50


• Loving memory of Maud and Michael Gordon, $200


• In memory of my brother Michael F Rybczyk, $100


• In loving memory of Richard and Mary Bourque and Maureen, $25


• In loving memory of my husband Harding J Steward from Bev, $50


• Bob and Deb, $50


• In loving memory of my husband Don from Lois, $25


• Keep the spirit of the season alive all year, Roger and Barb, $50


• In memory of Ellie Mae, Coroa, Pokey, Eris and Dixie, $25


• In loving memory of Barbara and Lori B, Lynne and Alan, $25


• In loving memory of Sid Harvey, $25


• Anonymous, $50


• In loving memory of Donald C Couchon, $30


• In memory of our beloved dads and uncle, $25


• In memory of Donald and Ann Beaudry, $150


• In memory of my dear husband and friend Bill Enko, $25


• In loving memory of Mary Regan, $25


• We are thankful for Keegan, Kaylee, Brendan, Jack and Tyler Myers, $100


• Merry Christmas to all the children from Helen, $10

Massachusetts State Police on Sunday identified the victim of a fatal pedestrian accident Saturday on Route 6 as 32-year-old Jessica Spaid of Yarmouthport.

MassLive.com photo [file] 

Updates a story posted Saturday at 9:43 p.m.

YARMOUTH — Massachusetts State Police on Sunday identified the victim of a fatal pedestrian accident Saturday on Route 6 as 32-year-old Jessica Spaid of Yarmouthport.

State police said troopers from the South Yarmouth barracks received several 911 calls at 4:57 p.m. on Saturday reporting a female walking on Route 6, also referred to as the Mid-Cape Highway, westbound in Yarmouth.

A short time later, several more calls were received reporting a pedestrian had been struck on Route 6, near Exit 8, in Yarmouth. On arrival, troopers found Spaid had been struck and was in grave condition. Yarmouth Fire and EMS officials responded to the scene, and declared her dead.

According to state police, preliminary reports indicate Spaid was walking on the road when she was struck by two vehicles. How or why she came to be walking on the road is under investigation.

Police spoke to the drivers involved in the crash at the scene, and no citations have been issued.

Route 6 was closed for approximately 2½ hours.

The facts and circumstances of the crash are under investigation by Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police, with assistance of the Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section and Crime Scene Services. Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Yarmouth police and fire departments and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Police investigate a pedestrian accident on Rt. 9 in Hadley.

HADLEY — A pedestrian was hit by a car and seriously injured while crossing Route 9 a little before noon Sunday.

The victim was not in the crosswalk when he was attempting to cross Route 9 near Home Depot on 350 Russell St., which is also Route 9, according to Mary Carey
communications director for the Northwestern District Attorney's office.

The driver was not injured and is cooperating with police. No charges or citations have been issued at this time, she said.

The State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office and Hadley Police are all investigating the accident.

Masslive will update this report as more information becomes available.

Police continue to investigate the accident which took the lives of a 3-year-old and 71-year-old.

 

This story has been updated to include the name of one of the victims and other details.

EASTHAMPTON — Police have arrested Mauricio Velasquez, of Springfield, in connection with a car accident that killed a 71-year-old man and his 3-year old child Saturday.

Velasquez, the operator of a white van traveling at a high rate of speed, was taken to Baystate Medical Center with serious injuries. He was later arrested by police and charged with drunken driving, two counts of vehicular homicide, two counts of causing serious injury while operating under the influence, a marked lane violation, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, child endangerment while operating under the influence, operating without a license and one count of having a child under 5-years-old in a car without a car seat, police said.

Police and firefighters are still investigating the crash that occurred in the area of Hendrick Street just after 3:30 p.m. Police say Velasquez allegedly lost control of his vehicle, struck a guardrail and ended up on the opposite side of the road where he collided with blue pick-up truck. Both vehicles suffered extensive damage and the victims were pulled from the cars with the Jaws of Life, police said.

Charles Hoffman, 71, of Easthampton, died in the accident. He was driving the pick-up truck. His 69-year-old female passenger was seriously injured in the accident and was admitted to Baystate Medical Center, according to First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne of the Northwest District Attorneys office..

A male passenger in the van, whose name and age was not released, was also taken to Baystate Medical Center with serious injuries. The child's name was also not released, Gagne said.

Velasquez was arrested at Baystate Medical Center and is being held on He is currently held on $50,000.00 cash bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Northampton District Court, depending on his medical condition.

Easthampton police, Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office, and the state police collision analysis and reconstruction section are investigating.

Springfield Democratic U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal said he believes Mastroianni will be confirmed as Ponsor's replacement.

Hampden DA Mark MastroianniMichael Gordon 

SPRINGFIELD — After an ill-fated first stab at filling a vacancy in this city’s federal court, the dysfunctional U.S. Senate may yet propel first-term Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni to the bench.

On the heels of filibuster reform, sources in Washington, D.C., have said Mastroianni’s confirmation hearing will be fast-tracked in the coming weeks.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirmed that Mastroianni’s so-called “blue slips” were submitted by Massachusetts U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, both Democrats.

The slips are written recommendations and a necessary procedural step signaling nominees for judicial seats have the support of their home-state senators; nominees cannot proceed to confirmation hearings without them.

Although Mastroianni’s hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary has not yet been set, officials close to the process said it is expected in early January. He must clear that 18-member panel before being confirmed by the full U.S. Senate.

Mastroianni would not comment for this story. However, he appears to be among those poised to benefit from last month’s “nuclear option” of rewriting the Senate rules on filibusters. The reforms lowered the threshold for confirming federal judicial nominees from a supermajority of 60 senators to a simple majority of 51. As it stands, a supermajority still will be required for U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

Republicans in the scant Democrat-controlled Senate had been stonewalling on judicial and other executive appointments for the past five years, prompting Leahy to object to “unprecedented and meritless obstruction” on the Senate floor on Nov. 21.

“The effects of this obstruction have been clear,” Leahy argued during the debate over reforms. “When the Senate adjourned last year, Senate Republicans had blocked more than 40 of President Obama’s circuit (appeals) and district nominees from being confirmed in his first term. That obstruction has led to a damagingly high level of judicial vacancies persisting for over four years.”

There are 94 judicial vacancies (out of 677 district court slots) with 52 nominations pending, according to statistics provided by the federal courts. Three of those are in Massachusetts. In Western Massachusetts, U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor took senior, or semi-retired status, more than two years ago.

At the time, Ponsor said he timed his semi-retirement in the hopes of averting a change in presidential administration and thus a politicization of naming his replacement. Turns out, it was wishful thinking.

After a lengthy search process, a committee under former Sens. John F. Kerry and Scott Brown in 2011 recommended Hampden Superior Court Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder as Ponsor’s replacement. Given that Kinder combined a stellar reputation with the joint support of a Republican and Democratic senator, most political observers expected him to sail through the process. However, Kinder never even made it to Obama’s desk as a nominee. He ultimately withdrew his application earlier this year.

No one has ever publicly provided an explanation for the rebuff.

“It’s certainly true that, over time, certain candidates are like the Bermuda Triangle. They go into this process and for reasons nobody can discern they never return,” said Springfield attorney John Pucci, who has sat on judicial search committees under four senators – including the two that recommended Kinder and Mastroianni for Ponsor’s seat.

Mastroianni was the product of a search convened by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who became the senior senator in the blink of an eye when she defeated Brown and Kerry was appointed U.S. Secretary of State. Mastroianni was nominated by Obama in September.

But, after months without a hearing and with deadlines for seeking another term bearing down this spring, some have begun to wonder whether the county's top prosecutor would essentially get stuck between jobs: no confirmation and forced to run for a second term as a judicial hopeful.

“I see the dilemma,” Pucci said. “There’s a lot of subtle but distinct issues that arise in the waiting period to become a judge. Some are contending with clients in a private practice; for Mark, there’s a political quality.”

The filing deadline for countywide candidates for the 2014 election cycle is in May. So, on the outside chance that Mastroianni remains in confirmation limbo beyond the first quarter of the year, it could a bumpy political road.

Records filed with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance show Mastroianni has not logged a political donation since February. He spent around $121,000 to win a hotly contested race against former state Sen. Stephen J. Buoniconti in 2010.

Mastroianni has about $28,000 in his campaign coffers. Talk of potential candidates for the seat has intensified, though no one has publicly announced intentions to run.

Under state law, Gov. Deval L. Patrick must choose an interim replacement for the seat if Mastroianni leaves mid-term.

Russell Wheeler, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan public policy think tank in Washington D.C., said Republican U.S. Senators may begin using or abusing their blue slip powers to halt confirmations, or stop showing up to critical meetings in the process.

"Right now we're in uncharted territory; all bets are off," Wheeler said.

He said the average turnaround for a judicial nominee under Obama is 221 days - as opposed to 164 days from nomination to confirmation under Bush, and 108 days under Clinton.

Wheeler also noted that nominees from states with two Democratic senators will have an easier time of it since the blue slip provision doesn't present a problem.

"What we don't know is whether the Republicans will still slow-walk this thing," through other means, Wheeler said.

Springfield political consultant Anthony L. Cignoli said he believes the Mastroianni confirmation has gone from "a back-burner to a front-burner situation" in recent weeks.

Cignoli attributes the shift, in part, to Springfield U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal's influence in Washington.

Neal, a Democrat, has influence on "both sides of the aisle," Cignoli said.

Pucci and others said local lawyers were becoming alarmed when an increasing number of cases in federal court were being transferred to Boston.

Neal would not comment on whether there were any back-channel maneuverings going on, but lauded Warren's tenacity around the vacancy.

"Senator Warren couldn’t be any better in terms of the aggressive manner with which she has moved to fill this vacancy in the Springfield district court, and my sense is that the district attorney will be confirmed," Neal said in an interview.

Warren declined to comment for this story through a spokesman.

Neal, however, said he disagreed with the so-called "nuclear option" of changing the longstanding U.S. Senate rules on filibusters.

"I worry now that it won’t be long before they eviscerate the 60-vote rule for Supreme Court judges," he said.

The naming of the cultural district follows the receipt of 69 suggest names from the public.

SPRINGFIELD – Local officials have postponed a ceremony to announce the chosen name for Springfield’s newly approved cultural district.

The ceremony was planned Monday afternoon, but has been postponed due to inclement weather, according to Kay Simpson, vice president of the Springfield Museums.

A local panel of judges had received 68 suggested names from the public during a “Name the District” contest launched in August. The panel named the six finalists in November, and will announce the chosen name at a new date to be announced.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council voted in November to approve the city’s request to create a cultural district in the downtown area.