Target said Friday that debit-card PIN numbers were among the financial information stolen from millions of customers who shopped at the retailer earlier this month.

By Retail Writer Mae Anderson & Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay

ATLANTA (AP) — Target said Friday that debit-card PIN numbers were among the financial information stolen from millions of customers who shopped at the retailer earlier this month.

The company said the stolen personal identification numbers, which customers type in to keypads to make secure transactions, were encrypted and that this strongly reduces risk to customers. In addition to the encrypted PINs, customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code on the magnetic strip on back of the cards were stolen from about 40 million credit and debit cards used at Target between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

Security experts say it's the second-largest theft of card accounts in U.S. history, surpassed only by a scam that began in 2005 involving retailer TJX Cos.

Target said it doesn't have access to nor does it store the encryption key within its system, and the PIN information can only be decrypted when it is received by the retailer's external, independent payment processor.

"We remain confident that PIN numbers are safe and secure," spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in an emailed statement Friday. "The PIN information was fully encrypted at the keypad, remained encrypted within our system, and remained encrypted when it was removed from our systems." The company maintains that the "key" necessary to decrypt that data never existed within Target's system and could not have been taken during the hack.

However, Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan said Friday that the PINs for the affected cards are not safe and people "should change them at this point."

Minneapolis-based Target said it is still in the early stages of investigating the breach. It has been working with the Secret Service and the Department of Justice.

A civil rights lawyer says the American Civil Liberties Union is very disappointed that a New York judge has found that a government program that collects millions of Americans' telephone records is legal.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A civil rights lawyer says the American Civil Liberties Union is very disappointed that a New York judge has found that a government program that collects millions of Americans' telephone records is legal.

Attorney Brett Max Kaufman said the ACLU will appeal Friday's ruling by federal Judge William Pauley in Manhattan. The judge concluded that the program was legal and a valuable part of the nation's efforts to combat the threat of terrorism.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley said in a written opinion that the program "represents the government's counter-punch" to eliminate al-Qaida's terror network by connecting fragmented and fleeting communications.

"This blunt tool only works because it collects everything," Pauley said. "The collection is broad, but the scope of counter-terrorism investigations is unprecedented."

He said the mass collection of phone data "significantly increases the NSA's capability to detect the faintest patterns left behind by individuals affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations. Armed with all the metadata, NSA can draw connections it might otherwise never be able to find."

He added that such a program, if unchecked, "imperils the civil liberties of every citizen" and he noted the lively debate about the subject across the nation, in Congress and at the White House.

"The question for this court is whether the government's bulk telephony metadata program is lawful. This court finds it is. But the question of whether that program should be conducted is for the other two coordinate branches of government to decide," he said.

In ruling, the judge noted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and how the phone data-collection system could have helped investigators connect the dots before the attacks occurred.

"The government learned from its mistake and adapted to confront a new enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the world. It launched a number of counter-measures, including a bulk telephony metadata collection program — a wide net that could find and isolate gossamer contacts among suspected terrorists in an ocean of seemingly disconnected data," he said.

Pauley's decision contrasts with a ruling earlier this month by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, who granted a preliminary injunction against the collecting of phone records of two men who had challenged the program. The Washington jurist said the program likely violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on unreasonable search. The judge has since stayed the effect of his ruling, pending a government appeal.

Kaufman said he hopes a federal appeals court in New York agrees with the reasoning of a Washington D.C. federal judge who concluded earlier this month that the program likely violates the Constitution.

Police said the investigation, including a physical description from the victim and DNA evidence led to charges against Cruz.

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — A Connecticut resident was arrested this week after police say DNA evidence processed from a 2012 sexual assault allegedly linked him to the crime.

Fernando Cruz, 28, of New Britain, was taken into custody on Monday and charged with felony sexual assault, 1st-degree kidnapping and 2nd-degree threatening after a year-long investigation and DNA evidence allegedly implicated him.

Police say that on Dec. 5, 2012, Cruz pulled his van up to a woman in New Britain and then threatened her at knife-point to get inside. She said she was taken to another location, where she was sexually assaulted, before being placed back in the van and dropped off on the same street where she was initially taken from.

Police said the investigation, including a physical description from the victim and DNA evidence, led to charges against Cruz.

Cruz was held on a $500,000 bond pending arraignment and is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 7.

More than 1 million Americans are bracing for a harrowing, post-Christmas jolt as extended federal unemployment benefits come to a sudden halt this weekend, entailing potentially significant implications for the recovering U.S. economy and setting up a tense battle when Congress reconvenes in the new year.

By BRADLEY KLAPPER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1 million Americans are bracing for a harrowing, post-Christmas jolt as extended federal unemployment benefits come to a sudden halt this weekend, entailing potentially significant implications for the recovering U.S. economy and setting up a tense battle when Congress reconvenes in the new year.

For families dependent on cash assistance, the end of the federal government's "emergency unemployment compensation" will mean some difficult belt-tightening as enrollees lose their average monthly stipend of $1,166.

Jobless rates could drop, but analysts say the economy may suffer with less money for consumers to spend on everything from clothes to cars. Having let the "emergency" program expire as part of a budget deal, it's unclear if Congress has the appetite to start it anew.

An estimated 1.3 million people will be cut off when the federally funded unemployment payments end Saturday.

Some 214,000 Californians will lose their payments, a figure rising to more than a half-million by June, the Labor Department said. In the last 12 months Californians received $4.5 billion in federal jobless benefits, much put back into the local economy.

More than 127,000 New Yorkers also will be cut off this weekend. In New Jersey, 11th among states in population, 90,000 people will immediately lose out.

Started under President George W. Bush, the benefits were designed as a cushion for the millions of U.S. citizens who lost their jobs in a recession and failed to find new ones while receiving state jobless benefits, which in most states expire after six months. Another 1.9 million people across the country are expected to exhaust their state benefits before the end of June.

"When Congress comes back to work, their first order of business should be making this right," President Barack Obama said last week at his year-end news conference.

But Obama has no quick fix. He hailed this month's two-year budget agreement as a breakthrough of bipartisan cooperation while his administration works with Democratic allies in the House and Senate to revive an extension of jobless benefits for those unemployed more than six months.

The Obama administration says those payments have kept 11.4 million people out of poverty and benefited almost 17 million children. The cost of them since 2008 has totaled $225 billion.

At the depth of the recession, laid off workers could qualify for up to 99 weeks of benefits, including the initial 26 weeks provided by states. The most recent extension allowed a total of up to 73 weeks, depending on the state.

Restoring up to 47 extra weeks of benefits through 2014 would cost $19 billion, according to the Congressional Budget office.

House Democrats led by Reps. Sander Levin of Michigan and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland sought to include an extension through March by offsetting the costs with potential farm bill savings. They were rebuffed.

Senate Democrats and some Republicans plan another push in 2014. Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., have introduced a bill offering a similar three-month extension, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has promised to bring it up. But as with much in Congress, an extension is no sure thing.

House Speaker John Boehner spoke with Obama about an extension earlier this month. Boehner and said his caucus would consider the possibility "as long as it's paid for and as long as there are other efforts that will help get our economy moving once again." He said White House has yet to introduce a plan that meets his standards.

For other Republicans, the bar is higher. Many of them look at signs of economic growth and an unemployment rate now down to 7 percent and expected to drop further as evidence the additional weeks of benefits are no longer necessary.

The effect of jobless benefits on the unemployment rates has been fiercely debated for decades. To qualify, people have to be seeking work. Tea partiers such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky argue that the payments aggravate rather than relieve unemployment.

The benefits allow some jobseekers to hold out for higher wages. Without the benefits, they might accept lower-paying jobs, reducing the unemployment rate. Others may be looking for work only to keep the benefits flowing and will drop out of the job market entirely once the checks stop. In theory, that also would push the unemployment rate lower.

The flip side is that the benefits — in addition to alleviating suffering — get spent on consumer goods, stimulating the economy and creating jobs.

Extended unemployment insurance "is really a lifeline to help pay the bills, put food on the table, and put gas in the tank so people can look for work," argued Maurice Emsellem, policy co-director at the left-leaning National Employment Law Project.

Michael Feroli, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase, said ending the extended benefits will lower the unemployment rate by half a percentage point as the long-term unemployed leave the labor force. While that statistical change may look good on the surface, Feroli cautioned the drop could be accompanied by a similar decrease in consumer spending. That would also hurt clothing retailers, car dealers and other Main Street businesses.

Extending the program, on the other hand, would boost GDP growth by some 0.2 percent and increase full-time employment by 200,000 next year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated, but at the price of increasing the government's debt.

Advocates of extended benefits say communities hardest hit by the recession will feel the sudden loss of cash in circulation the most.

They cite a set of their own troublesome figures: three jobseekers still competing for each opening; some 4 million people in the ranks of long-term unemployed; unemployment lasting on average 37 weeks, two months longer than most states provide insurance.

After a fire destroyed his Hadley restaurant Mi Tierra, Jora Sosa said he wanted to give up. But, along with a rush of compassion and support from the community, he had an arrangement with Hadley farmer Al Zahowski, who was growing heirloom corn for him.

HADLEY — The day after a fire destroyed his restaurant, Jorge Sosa said he wanted to give up. But he couldn’t.

There was a rush of compassion and support from the community, and another important factor in his resolve to bounce back: Sosa had an arrangement with Hadley farmer Al Zahowski, who was growing heirloom corn for him.

While Sosa doesn’t know how soon he’ll be able to open a new restaurant, he is honoring that commitment to Zahowski, and that means making the tortillas by hand.

Sosa was planning to use Zahowski's corn to make tortillas on the tortilla-making machine he had purchased just months before the Oct. 27 fire destroyed his Mi Tierra Restaurant and 12 other businesses along with two apartments. The cause of the fire remains undetermined.

“When we had the accident, we didn’t know what to do (with the corn Zahowski grew),” Sosa said. But he knows growing the corn is "a lot of work." When Sosa was growing up in Mexico years ago, he worked on a farm.

“We made an agreement. Everyone was happy about the agreement. It was the best corn, tasty,” Sosa said. He didn’t want to let the farmer down.

But the machine he lost costs about $50,000 to replace, and he is still waiting for his insurance to be settled. He's working on a business plan to figure out how and where to rebuild. Before the fire, he was considering buying some land and building his own place.

But the corn was already grown.

So for now, until his future is settled, he his wife and son and others are making the tortillas by hand twice a week. Instead of the 2,400 or so the machine could make in an hour, they are now laboriously turning out 80 or 100.

But that’s all right, Sosa said. He and his family are making enough tortillas to supply the River Valley Coop and State Street Fruit market, both in Northampton.

Twice a week they gather at Estelita's Taqueria in Springfield, which the family also owns, to make tortillas. They take the corn meal ground from the kernels of corn and hand roll it into balls. Then Sosa flattens each in a tortilla press before they are laid on a grill and cooked.

The tortilla-making machine, though, does everything except prepare the dough, said Ernesto Saravia, Jorge’s son, who works with his father and his mother Dora Saravia. Friends and customers have offered their help. "We were so lucky," he said.

"We feel we are not alone. I don't know how to thank everyone," Sosa said. He said the family eventually will bring a business plan to a bank to see what they might be able to do. He said they looked into renting the space formerly occupied by Spoleto Restaurant on Main Street in Northampton, but the rent was too expensive.

Farmer Michael Docter, who has been working with the family, said in an email:

"When the restaurant burned down, they lost everything, including the newly installed tortilla machine into which they had recently invested a significant portion of their life's savings.

"Jorge, Dora and Gasper, and their whole family, are some of kindest, most hard working and tenacious people I know. They are committed to good food and to supporting local agriculture. If they have to, they will make the tortillas by hand until they get their restaurant back."

So far, a fund-raising webpage has brought in $12,000, and the family made tamales for Thanksgiving and Christmas to raise some money.

The tortillas Sosa is selling allows him to pay Zahowski. An auction and fundraiser for the restaurant will be held Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Garden House at Look Park. Tickets are $25 per person, with a cash bar. There will be a live and silent auction and music. Tickets are available at State Street market, Cooper’s Corner, both in Northampton, and AJ Hastings in Amherst.

Greggory's Pastry Shop, another business that was lost in the fire, will reopen across the street in the location formerly occupied by Pasture Patty's. Kung Fu Wushu Academy also has reopened in that building, formerly occupied by a Registry of Motor Vehicles office.

To donate to Mi Tierra visit http://www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/mi-tierra-relief-fund/101711. To donate to other businesses, visit the Fire Victims Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Rt9HadleyFire.

A neighbor saw somebody enter the vacant Greenfield house and called police.

File Photo 

GREENFIELD — Police credit an alert neighbor with foiling a man and woman from Palmer as they allegedly attempted to steal copper piping on Friday from a home undergoing foreclosure on Plantation Circle.

The neighbor called police at about 9:20 a.m. after seeing somebody enter the house, Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. said.

Arriving officers found a man inside the house and the woman waiting nearby in a car, Haigh said. The police chief, who said the suspects had yet to be formally booked, would not immediately provide their names.

Both are 27-years-old and from Palmer, Haigh said, however.

The male suspect had already taken a relatively small amount of copper and had cut it up and placed it in a box, Haigh said.

Both face charges of breaking and entering in the daytime with intent to commit a felony, larceny over $250, possession of burglarious tools, wanton destruction of property and larceny of a registration plate.

The woman also faces charges of possession of a Class A drug (heroin), illegally attaching a license plate, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and four counts of possession of a Class E drug (pharmaceuticals).

Western Massachusetts has been plagued with such metal thefts for a number of years now. Haigh said foreclosed properties are a particularly attractive target for thieves.

Instead of stopping at Airport, Downtown Crossing or Park Street, MBTA riders could soon be making stops at Macy's, Emerson or JetBlue.

Instead of stopping at Airport, Downtown Crossing or Park Street, MBTA riders could soon be making stops at Macy's, Emerson or JetBlue.

As part of the transportation bill passed earlier this year, the MBTA is hoping to sell the naming rights of nine T stations and three rapid transit lines to bring in extra revenue for the agency. A request for proposals from private companies interested in bidding to rename T stops and transit lines was issued Thursday.

The bidding starts at $1 million annually for all stations except Yawkey, which starts at $500,000. Bidding for the renaming of the Blue, Red and Green Lines ranges from $1.2 million to $2 million, reports the Boston Business Journal.

According to the Boston Globe, the debt-plagued T could rake in $18.4 million a year if all 11 stations found companies to purchase naming rights. According to The Globe, JetBlue and Emerson have expressed interest in the venture, though a spokesman for the MBTA did not confirm this.

The MBTA is also leaning on the private sector to help with its efforts to extend late-night weekend service. Starting in the spring, trains and popular bus routes will run until 3 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays as part of a one-year pilot program sponsored by $20 million from the state legislature and pledges from corporate sponsors.

The extended hours will not be able to continue past the pilot program if there isn't enough funding from private sponsors, says Kelly Smith of the MassDOT. Smith also stated in an e-mail that the pledges from the corporate sponsors are still in the works but should be in announced in the coming weeks.

When asked whether these projects signal a growing trend toward reliance on the private sector, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo responded, "Like other public transit systems around the country, the MBTA has a long history of working to maximize non-fare revenue."

While Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Chicago and New York are also moving in a similar direction, Boston and Chicago are the only two cities awarding naming rights to the highest bidder, the Globe reports.

The MBTA boasts several benefits businesses stand to gain from this unique form of advertising, including "brand differentiation from competitors ... generation of brand awareness to a captive audience of millions of potential customers, enhancement of image as a good corporate citizen," among others.

Political, religious and adult content businesses, along with alcohol, tobacco and firearms companies, will not be considered as potential corporate sponsors, according to MBTA's request for interest document. Companies interested in participating must submit responses by Feb. 27, 2014.

The latest crime statistics from the Boston Police Department show a six percent drop in violent and property crime citywide. Data also shows a drop in murders from 2012.

BOSTON — The latest crime statistics from the Boston Police Department show a six percent drop in violent and property crime citywide. Data also shows a drop in murders from 2012.

Crime has decreased the most in Area A's Charlestown, downtown and East Boston and Area E's West Roxbury, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain and Hyde Park.

All major crime categories have shown declines except for vehicle theft and attempted theft which saw an increase of eight percent.

Compared to this period last year, there were 54 murders citywide while this year there have been 39 murders. Murders are down in every district of the city except for Area B's Roxbury and North Dorchester and Area E. District B2, which includes Roxbury and Mission Hill, saw an increase in the number of murders from 11 to 18.

The total number of shootings in Boston is roughly the same (246 in 2012 to 245 in 2013) compared to this period last year as there have been less fatal shootings but more non-fatal shootings in 2013.

Firearm-related arrests are up over last year are up four percent compared to 2012.

The MSPCA investigated after receiving a complaint that various petting zoo animals were being kept at 80 Sroka Lane without proper shelter.

Palmer District Court. Dean A. Manuel, of 84 Miller St., was released after his arraignment on animal cruelty charges on Dec. 23 before Judge Charles W. Groce III, and will return to court on March 5 for a pretrial conference. 

PALMER — A 43-year-old Ludlow man denied 10 counts of animal cruelty in Palmer District Court recently for allegedly failing to provide adequate shelter for eight ponies and two donkeys.

Dean A. Manuel, of 84 Miller St., was released after his arraignment on Dec. 23 before Judge Charles W. Groce III, and will return to court on March 5 for a pretrial conference. The charges were brought by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ law enforcement department.

According to the investigation report included in Manuel’s court file by MSPCA Officer Christine Allenberg, she wrote that the MSPCA investigated after receiving a complaint that various petting zoo animals were being kept at 80 Sroka Lane without proper shelter.

Allenberg wrote that on Dec. 9, she observed a pig, sheep, goats, ducks, geese, chicken and alpacas that all had shelter, but no water. A pen containing two donkeys and eight ponies had no food or water and no shelter or protection from the weather, she wrote, adding the ponies and donkeys had snow and ice on their bodies and were wet.

Allenberg wrote that she told Manuel that day to put up a shelter for the ponies and donkeys and to provide water for all the animals. She said that he told her that he had been working on a shelter and would have it up by Dec. 13. She said she told him that she would check and if it was not in place he could be charged with animal cruelty.

On Dec. 13, Allenberg said she visited again, and no shelter was in place, and there were no indications of construction of one. Manuel arrived on the scene and told her he was still working on it and wanted three more days, she wrote. She said she asked him about food and water and he replied that he “only waters at night” and dumps the buckets after the animals drink so they do not freeze.

Allenberg wrote that she again checked the animals on Dec. 17, when it was snowing heavily, and again there was no water or shelter.

"I informed him that he has had two months to prepare for winter shelter and he has done nothing," Allenberg wrote.

According to her report, Manuel told her he has had the animals on Sroka Lane since October.

The FBI is seeking the public’s to help to catch a serial bank robber nicknamed the “Brim Beanie Bandit” for the trademark hat the suspect has worn during four heists in Greater Boston.

WHDH-TV, 7News, Boston

Do you have news or a news tip to submit to MassLive.com for consideration? Send an email to online@repub.com.

This is the second year ninth-graders at the charter school have written poems to stop bullying.

CHICOPEE – It all started in the fifth grade when a group of boys started ganging up on Jon Martinez.

They hit him in gym class when the teacher wasn’t looking, leading to a fistfight. They called him names such as gay and faggot. Even though he had complained, teachers were unable to completely stop the bullying.

For several years Martinez, now a ninth-grader at Hampden Charter School of Science, constantly faced taunts from the same boys. Finally, as he reached high school, it stopped.

“I think it just got old. Some of the kids left and it got a little better,” he said. “It’s been pretty good this year.”

Martinez, of Springfield, was one of 57 ninth-graders at the school who together wrote poems about bullying and performed them in an assembly to the middle school students recently. He used his experiences to help write some of the poems.

This is the second year English teacher Matthew Darling has taken an intensive lesson about poetry and also made it a social behavior lesson to reduce bullying in the school.

The lesson started with students learning about, reading and writing a wide variety of different types of poetry. Then, as homework, he assigned all of his ninth-graders to write poems in different styles about bullying.

Students then split into groups of three and four, read all their poems and selected the one they most wanted to perform. Students edited and improved them together and some incorporated the best ideas of other works into their final product, he said.

They then memorized the poems and performed them to the sixth, seventh and eighth-graders in the school.

“They all really got into it,” Darling said. “This is something they all care about.”

They also worked with the art teacher to make posters to support their poetry.

Subjects ranged widely. Some focused on cyber bullying; many, including Martinez’s group, wrote about bullying of students who are gay.

“There are people I know who are gay, bisexual or lesbian and they go through so much because of who they like,” Martinez said. “It was about not judging them and accepting who they are.”

In one of the poems performed, students talked about verbal abuse.

“It started with a word. They called me a nerd. They called me a homosexual. They called me a slow intellectual.”

Sidney Melendez, of Springfield, said her group wrote a poem that also focused on how words can hurt but that doesn’t make the bullies bigger.

“It was a good idea because bullying still goes on and it is important to be considerate about other people’s feelings,” she said.

Melendez said she, too, was a victim of bullying last year when she was 13. She said the problem has abated, in part, because some of those students have left the school for different high schools.

Darling said he is hoping since the assembly has been greeted with so much enthusiasm by all the classes that bullying will lessen and even end.

Anti bullying poem by Nemesis Colon and Iliana Aponte

Cyber Bullying Poem from Hampden Charter School of Science

Anti Bullying Poem from Hampden Charter School of Science

A state's attorney has been arrested in the case.

FORT MYERS, FL— A Springfield native, living with his father in Fort Myers, Fla., was killed early Christmas morning as he walked home from a party, and Florida Highway Patrol investigators are looking at a Lee County state's attorney investigator as the main suspect.

Michael J. Sasen, 48, formerly of East Forest Park and Cape Cod, was killed at 12:09 a.m. Christmas day after he was run down by a car as he walked alongside McGregor Boulevard in Fort Myers. Lt. Gregory Bueno, spokesman for the Highway Patrol, said Sasen was pronounced dead at the scene. The vehicle that hit Sasen had left the scene by the time police arrived.

Sasen had apparently attended a Christmas party and was walking home at the time of his death.

As police investigated Sasen's death some 30 minutes after the initial incident, they noticed a vehicle with front end damage consistent with having hit a person driving nearby. Police stopped the vehicle and found state's attorney investigator Charles Lawson behind the wheel. The car he was driving was the state-issued vehicle he used for his work, Bueno said.

A Fort Myers newspaper said Lawson had been an investigator for nearly 10 years, and worked for the Fort Myers Police Department for 25 year before that.

Lawson was questioned and after he refused to submit to a Breathalizer test, he was arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He was arraigned Thursday and released after he posted a $750 cash bail. So far, Lawson has not been charged with Sasen's death, Bueno said.

"He was arrested for OUI, and all other charges remain under investigation," he said.

Lawson's 2013 Impala was impounded by the FHP traffic homicide unit for processing by the state's Department of Law Enforcement Laboratory. Lawson was placed on paid administrative leave as FHP investigates the incident.

Sasen's former wife, Christine, said Sasen moved to Fort Myers in August to live with his biological father, Joseph Sasen. However, Christine Sasen said he grew up in the household of his stepfather and mother, Leon and Madeline Kalesnik, in Springfield.

Christine Sasen said while she and Sasen had divorced, they remained friends and shared two sons, Joshua and Scott. Michael Sasen moved to Cape Cod soon after the couple's 2009 divorce and hosted visits from the boys.

"He loved the ocean," Christine Sasen said. "The ocean was his love, his comfort; it is where he found peace."

The couple's older son, Joshua, died last March on Cape Cod while visiting his father.

The couple's younger son, Scott, traveled to Florida Dec. 7 for a Christmas visit with his father and grandfather. He had returned home to Springfield, and was opening presents Christmas morning when the family learned of Sasen's death.

Among the details: More than a dozen bodies, mostly children, were discovered packed "like sardines" in a bathroom where they had hidden.

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Connecticut police released thousands of pages Friday from their investigation into the Newtown massacre, providing the most detailed and disturbing picture yet of the rampage and Adam Lanza's fascination with murder, while also depicting school employees' brave and clearheaded attempts to protect the children.

Among the details: More than a dozen bodies, mostly children, were discovered packed "like sardines" in a bathroom where they had hidden. And the horrors encountered inside the school were so great that when police sent in paramedics, they tried to select ones capable of handling what they were about to witness.

"This will be the worst day of your life," police Sgt. William Cario warned one.

The documents' release marks the end of the investigation into the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead.

Lanza, 20, went to the school after killing his mother, Nancy, inside their home. He committed suicide with a handgun as police arrived at the school.

Last month, prosecutors issued a summary of the investigation that portrayed Lanza as obsessed with mass murders and afflicted with mental problems. But the summary said his motive for the massacre was a mystery and might never be known.

In releasing the huge investigative file Friday, authorities heavily blacked out the paperwork, photos and videos to protect the names of children and withhold some of the more grisly details. But the horror comes through at nearly every turn.

Included were photographs of the Lanza home showing numerous rounds of ammunition, gun magazines, shot-up paper targets, gun cases, shooting earplugs and a gun safe with a rifle in it.

A former seventh-grade teacher of Lanza's was quoted as telling investigators that Lanza exhibited anti-social behavior, rarely interacted with other students and wrote obsessively "about battles, destruction and war."

"In all my years of experience, I have known (redacted) grade boys to talk about things like this, but Adam's level of violence was disturbing," the teacher told investigators. The teacher added: "Adam's creative writing was so graphic that it could not be shared."

The documents also fill in more details about how the shooting unfolded and how staff members looked out for the youngsters.

Teachers heard janitor Rick Thorne try to get Lanza to leave the school. One teacher, who was hiding in a closet in the math lab, heard Thorne yell, "Put the gun down!" An aide said that she heard gunfire and that Thorne told her to close her door. Thorne survived.

Teacher Kaitlin Roig told police she heard "rapid-fire shooting" near her classroom. She rushed her students into the classroom's bathroom, pulled a rolling storage unit in front of the bathroom door as a barricade and then locked the door.

She heard a voice say, "Oh, please, no. Please, no." Eventually, police officers slid their badges under the bathroom door. Roig refused to come out and told them that if they were truly police, they should be able to get the key to the door — which they did.

Others weren't so lucky.

Police Lt. Christopher Vanghele said he and another officer found what appeared to be about 15 bodies packed in another bathroom. So many people had tried to cram inside the bathroom that the door couldn't be closed, and the shooter gunned them all down, Vanghele surmised.

Vanghele also recalled another officer carrying a little girl in his arms and running for the exit. Vanghele ran with him through the parking lot as the officer repeated, "Come on sweetie, come on sweetie." The girl didn't survive.

In a letter accompanying the files, Reuben F. Bradford, commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, wrote that much of the report was disturbing. But he added: "In the midst of the darkness of that day, we also saw remarkable heroism and glimpses of grace."

Lanza was diagnosed in 2006 with "profound autism spectrum disorder, with rigidity, isolation and a lack of comprehension of ordinary social interaction and communications," while also displaying symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, according to Dr. Robert A. King, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine Child Study Center.

But he also told investigators that he observed nothing in Lanza's behavior that would have predicted he would become a mass killer. Contacted by The Associated Press, King referred questions to the Yale University press office.

Peter Lanza, who was estranged from his son, told police that his son had Asperger's syndrome — a type of autism. Autism is not associated with criminal violence.

Kathleen A. Koenig, a nurse at the Yale Child Studies Center, told investigators that Lanza frequently washed his hands and changed his socks 20 times a day, to the point where his mother did three loads of laundry a day.

The nurse, who met with Lanza in 2006 and 2007, said Lanza's mother declined to give him prescribed antidepressant and antianxiety medication after she reported that he had trouble raising his arm, something she attributed to the drug.

Koenig unsuccessfully tried to convince Nancy Lanza that the medicine was not responsible, and the mother failed to schedule a follow-up visit after her son missed an appointment, police said.

In the documents, a friend told police that Nancy Lanza reported that her son had hit his head several days before the shootings. And an ex-boyfriend told police that she canceled a trip to London on the week of the shooting because of "a couple last-minute problems on the home front."

Just before the shooting, Nancy Lanza was in New Hampshire. She told a lunch acquaintance there that the trip was an experiment in leaving her son home alone in Connecticut for a few days.

The documents indicate investigators were gentle in their questioning of children, interviewing youngsters only if they or their parents requested it. Some of the parents thought talking openly about the shooting and getting accurate information out would help their children heal.

After the interviews, the children were given a copy of Margaret Holmes' book "A Terrible Thing Happened" to help them deal with that they witnessed.

 

As it's been said by Arthur Fellig (also known as Weegee), "F8 and be there".

This photo was shot with a 200mm at lens at f/4, ISO 250, and a shutter speed of 1/2000 second. I was shooting from about 6 feet away, and switched to manual focus knowing that autofocus would miss the mark on a small moving subject.

After 20 or so shots as I was following the butterfly from flower to flower the other unidentified insect came into view. I just kept shooting knowing that moments like these are fleeting at best. Try as I could, I could not identify the smaller insect.

The pressure was unbearable -- the bright sunny day, the warm temps and beautiful subjects.

As it's been said by Arthur Fellig (also known as Weegee), a famous photojournalist in the 1930s and '40s, "F8 and be there".

The Northampton DPW requires that all trees be free of lights, ornaments, tinsel, plastic bags and netting before they are disposed.

NORTHAMPTON — Now that Christmas is over, people’s thoughts turn to getting rid of their trees. Until this year, Northampton residents would simply bring them to the Glendale Road landfill. The facility closed in May, however, and now Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School has been designated the Christmas tree cemetery.

The Department of Public Works will collect old Christmas trees at Smith on Jan. 4 and, for those who want to hold onto them a little longer, Jan.18. The hours on both dates are 9 a.m. to noon. Smith is located at 80 Locust St.

The DPW requires that all trees be free of lights, ornaments, tinsel, plastic bags and netting before they are disposed. The collection is free and open to all Northampton residents. Although a dump sticker is not required, those dropping off trees might be required to produce identification as proof of residency.

Edward S. Huntley, the director of the Department of Public Works, said the city occasionally finds old Christmas trees dumped along the roadside, but it is not as big a problem as other large trash.

“People throw couches on the side of the road, too,” he said, adding that illegal dumping has increased since the landfill closed.

“We rarely have a problem with trees,” Huntley said, noting that it costs nothing to get rid of them. “You can’t go wrong for free.”

Opened in 1969, the Glendale Road landfill reached capacity in May. In 2009, voters rejected a plan to expand the facility into an adjacent area. The transfer station on Locust Street, across from Smith Vocational High School, still accepts household trash delivered in city-authorized bags and recyclable materials. To get rid of larger items, however, residents must go to private facilities, where they must pay to leave them.

An 84-year-old Westfield man died when the car he was driving was involved in a collision with a pickup truck on routes 5 and 10 in Northampton.

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) Letter from Hampden County court clerk Laura Gentile details health and safety problems with Springfield's Hall of Justice [Shira Schoenberg]

2) Police: Vehicle stolen from Pride Plaza in East Longmeadow may have been used in Springfield armed robbery [George Graham]

3) Westfield man, 84, dies in 2 car crash on routes 5 and 10 in Northampton [Dave Canton] Photo above.

4) Ludlow man charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty by MSPCA [Lori Stabile]

5) Visiting nurse charged with stealing from elderly Easthampton client [Fred Contrada]

The Amherst rental registration bylaw goes into effect Jan. 1.

AMHERST — With a Jan. 1 deadline, only 210 of the town’s property owners have submitted rental permit applications as of Dec. 23 with 83 permits issued.

The town has about 1,570 rental properties.

Town Manager John P. Musante said he’s not too concerned by the numbers. “The first time through it’s going to be a little slower. It’s not unexpected,” he said.

The initial permit is valid for 18 months for the first time to allow for the pacing of sign-ups. In the future, yearly permits will be issued July 1 through June 30. “We expect it to ramp up,” he said.

Musante said the town will continue to remind property owners about the program. “We want to continuously make people aware that this is a new requirement. We need their cooperation.” There is no stated penalty for failing to register.

Town Meeting in the spring approved the rental registration bylaw put together by the Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods Work Group and supported by the Select Board and the Finance Committee. 

A coalition of concerned landlords and tenants and the Amherst Landlords Association opposed it.

The purpose for it is to have clear guidelines and reasonable expectations for property owners, tenants, neighbors and to protect housing and ensure code enforcement.

As part of the process, property owners must submit a parking plan as well as a self-certification checklist that evaluates such things as building exteriors, life safety systems such as egress and smoke detectors, along with health living conditions which means having operable and secure doors and windows, ventilation and no evidence of excessive moisture among others.

They must also attest to understanding of and compliance with town bylaws, including knowing the legal limit of four unrelated persons bylaw and informing tenants. In the past, some tenants said they were never told about it. Students will sometimes double up in rooms or sleep in basements to save on rental costs.

Property owners must pay a $100 rental registry fee for each property.

Some property owners, including those who rent up to three single rooms in an owner-occupied residence; hotels, motels, inns and other similar businesses as well as group housing for the elderly, disabled or housing for people with substance abuse problems, are exempt from the permit but do need to register with the town with a $50 fee.

Most of those filing applications so far have done so online, wrote Building Commissioner Robert A. Morra in an email. The site went live Dec. 1.

The town held a series of workshops to explain the program. In January, tenants and others will be able to file a complaint or contact a landlord on the website as well.

A code enforcer and other town officials will be charged with enforcing the conditions landlords must adhere to about their property in keeping with the permitting.

According to market research, the elimination of 40- and 60-watt bulbs will have a much greater impact because they are the two most popular among U.S. consumers.

AGAWAM - When Eddie Ramos tells his customers about the government's rapidly approaching energy mandate, he doesn't see many figurative light bulbs going off.

A manager at the Rocky's hardware store, Ramos said he has tried to gradually educate his customers wandering about in aisle 20, where the store's menu of bulbs hang and where the menu will change markedly after Jan. 1.

As the government-mandated end to the omnipresent 40- and 60-watt incandescent light bulbs approaches, many consumers remain in the dark about the deadline and the future landscape of lighting. For those who don't know the difference between a watt and a lumen, the outlook can be blurry.

"The biggest thing is that most people don't know it's happening and they don't know their alternatives," Ramos said.

Osram Sylvania released its sixth annual "Sylvania Socket Survey," which found that only four in 10 consumers were aware that 60- and 40-watt light bulbs are being phased out in 2014 as production ends. It found 65 percent of consumers polled planned to switch to more energy efficient lighting as a result of legislation, but a good number planned to purchase as many incandescent bulbs as they could to put off the transition.

Fittingly, Ramos said there has been somewhat of a run on four-packs of 40-watt bulbs at the store.

"People are coming in and buying five or six at a time. You can't really beat it at $2.29," he said.

Rocky's has 11,400 40-watt four-packs stored in its warehouse, which it can sell out. But when they're gone, they're gone as manufacturing will end and importation is not permitted under the law. Former President George W. Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in 2007, mandating that low-efficiency light bulbs be gradually removed from production.

The government began phasing out 100- and 75-watt light bulbs in 2012 and 2013 respectively. But, according to market research, the elimination of 40- and 60-watt bulbs will have a much greater impact because they are the two most popular among U.S. consumers.

Ramos said there also is a fair amount of sticker shock related to the new compact fluorescent lights, known as CFLs. The bulbs cost $10, $50 or more than traditional bulbs, although a single bulb can last up to nine years, according to the packaging, and requires far less output.

For instance, a 60-watt incandescent bulb can be replaced with a 13- to 15-watt CFL bulb, according to energy experts.

Ramos also said consumers' perception of energy efficient bulbs have been tainted, in some cases, by early versions of the bulbs that took a few seconds to flicker on and several minutes to warm up and become brighter.

"People don't realize they're not the same anymore, and that many have dimmer capabilities, which the old ones didn't have," Ramos said.

One male occupant was killed in the early morning accident, state police said.

 

BROOKFIELD - State police are investigating a fatal accident that happened early Saturday morning.

The single car accident happened on Rice Corner Road at approximately 1:20 a.m., state police said. One male occupant was killed, state police said.

The Worcester County District Attorney's Office has been notified.

More details will be posted as they become available.

McQueston said the fire cause remains under investigation.

 

NORTHAMPTON - A man was injured in a rooming house fire at 129 Pleasant St. early Saturday morning.

Deputy Fire Chief Timothy E. McQueston said the fire was called in just after 12 a.m. He said the male occupant, who was not identified, was taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital for treatment. He did not have any information about his condition or injuries.

McQueston said the fire cause remains under investigation. He said it was extinguished within "minutes" by firefighters and no other residents were displaced. He estimated there are 30 rooms at the rooming house.

The room where the fire was had approximately $500 in damage - the bed was on fire and there was smoke damage, McQueston said. The resident will not be able to return to that room, he said.

Thirteen firefighters responded, as well as four police officers, he said.