Students won’t return to Stonehill College from winter break until the middle of the month, but some parents have called the school with safety concerns after a student reported being raped on campus.
Do you have news or a news tip to submit to MassLive.com for consideration? Send an email to online@repub.com.
Since former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested back in June, three people with Bristol connections have turned up dead. On Friday, police revealed more information on the second of the three deaths.
Since former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested back in June, three people with Bristol connections have turned up dead. On Friday, police revealed more information on the second of the three deaths.
According to the Hartford Courant, a police report revealed that 49-year Robert J. Valentine of Bristol has alcohol and cocaine in his system when he failed to make a turn on his motorized scooter and was flung forward after striking the curb, leading to fatal head injury when he struck the pavement.
Police say that Valentine had a BAC of .19 at the time of the crash and was driving erratically and without a helmet, per the report. Additionally, authorities said that Valentine was not experienced in operating that type of vehicle and was wearing dark-colored glasses that may have obscured his vision prior to the nighttime crash.
Valentine was the second Hernandez associate to die in 2013. The first was Thaddeus Singleton III, who in July lost control of his vehicle before crashing into the Farmington Country Club in Farmington, Conn. and dying at the scene.
The third individual connected to Hernandez to turn up dead was 27-year-old Tabitha Perry, who was in the car with Singleton during the country club crash, but survived the incident. However, she was found dead on the floor of a friend's home in Southington, Conn. on Dec. 17 in a death that was not ruled suspicious.
The closure of Adore follows the closing of the Skyplex and Sinners & Saints bars 2 years ago in the downtown Springfield entertainment district.
SPRINGFIELD — The Adore nightclub at 280 Worthington St. closed this week, leaving another vacancy in the heart of the downtown entertainment district.
Victor Bruno, the property owner, said Thursday that the closure of Adore has left the multi-tenant building at Worthington and Dwight Street “pretty much vacant,” and that the future of the property is uncertain. The building has two small tenants, while the second floor is vacant and would need an elevator and sprinkler system before it could open, he said.
“I would like to sell it or tear it down and make a parking lot,” Bruno said.
4 Boys LLC, the business owner of Adore, did not seek renewal of its liquor license for 2014, according to the License Commission. Marvin Council, listed as manager of 4 Boys LLC, was contacted for comment Thursday, but declined.
Two years ago, both the two-story Skyplex lounge and the Sinners & Saints bar closed at Stearns Square, a short distance from Adore.
There was a proposal to reopen the Skyplex as a lounge in the fall, but an application for a liquor license was never finalized nor approved.
Hampered by crime and the perception of crime, “the entertainment district is no longer,” Bruno said.
However, Bruno said his restaurant on Worthington Street, Adolfo’s Ristorante, has been successful, and that another of his downtown properties at 272-278 Worthington St. has two long-standing bars, Glo and Shadow.
Adore opened in 2011, and previously was the site of the Pour House bar.
The Skyplex site remains vacant, while Sinners & Saints was converted to a non-bar use.
“There seem to be fewer problems related to bars since the closing of Sinners & Saints and Skyplex,” said Peter L. Sygnator, chairman of the License Commission. “I anticipate even fewer with the closing of Adore”
In November, the city ordered Adore to “cease and desist” from advertised plans to conduct an “18 and over” event for patrons under the legal drinking age of 21, stating the club did not have a special license needed for such an event. The event had been advertised with fliers that stated: “18+ event: Best Dressed Female Wins a Bottle of Belaire,” according to the city.
In December 2012, the bar’s liquor license was suspended for two days after the club sold full bottles of champagne that were fashioned to shoot off sparklers, deemed by the License Commission and police to be a safety hazard.
Two people were unharmed after an explosion in the basement of their home blew the structure off its foundation.
An update to this story was published at 12:11 p.m. Saturday.
Dennis G. Leger, executive aide to the Fire Commissioner, said Gary and Jade Malanson were home at 7:18 Saturday morning when an explosion splintered framing in the house's basement. Gary Malanson told fire officials that he was standing directly over the source of the explosion. He was blown upward into his living room ceiling when the blast lifted the floor he was standing on.. Both occupants were able to escape the house and call for help. Neither appeared to have suffered injuries, Leger said.
The Arson and Bomb unit is investigating the cause of the blaze, and has not determined a cause. Technicians from Columbia Gas were at the scene shutting down service to the home.
While not apparent from the outside of the house, Leger said the force of the explosion lifted the structure off its foundation, and buckled the living room floor by several feet. The walls of the home were racked out of plumb as well, Leger said. He estimated the house as a total loss.
Obituaries from The Republican.
Lillian G. (Ains) Shooner, 89, of Springfield, passed away on Thursday. She was born in Palmer, raised in the Three Rivers village, and graduated from Palmer High School. Around 1942, she moved to Springfield, where she lived for the remainder of her life. She graduated from the former Burbey Rose Beauty Academy in Springfield. Around 1951, she went to work and became the longtime manager at the former Young & Young Church Supply Company on Worthington Street in Springfield. She retired in 2002 after managing the store for 51 years.
Obituaries from The Republican:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Israelis and Palestinians are committed to settling their differences and are working with "great intensity and serious purpose" to achieve that long-sought goal.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Israelis and Palestinians are committed to settling their differences and are working with "great intensity and serious purpose" to achieve that long-sought goal.
"This is hard work," he told reporters after a 2½-hour meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and then headed back to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kerry is trying to nudge them closer to a peace pact that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He is brokering an intense phase of negotiations aimed at getting the two sides to agree on a framework to guide talks for a final settlement in the intractable dispute.
Reaching a deal on that framework, however, does not seem likely on this trip, Kerry's 10th to the region for Mideast peace talks.
"We're not there yet, but we are making progress," Kerry said. "We are beginning to flush out the toughest hurdles yet to be overcome."
He cited difficult complications and enduring mistrust that have built up over the years. All of that, Kerry said, has to be "worked through and undone and a pathway has to be laid down in which the parties can have confidence that they know what is happening and that the road ahead is real, not illusory."
"We are working with great intensity and serious purpose with a commitment to resolve this conflict," he said.
Kerry said he planned to meet next weekend with officials from the Arab League to update them on his talks. He did not say where that session would take place.
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said after the Kerry-Abbas discussions that "failure, to us, is not an option."
He urged Israel to refrain from taking any steps that would pre-empt or prevent negotiations on a final agreement, such as new Israeli settlements or the demolition of Palestinian homes.
Ahead of Kerry's arrival in the region this week, Israel had said it would announce plans to build 1,400 new Jewish settlement homes. But Israel backed off making the announcement, at least while Kerry was around.
Erekat said Kerry was doing everything possible to reach a solution that met Palestinians' demands for a state in lands that Israel captured in 1967.
An unusual alliance of tea party enthusiasts and liberal leaders in Congress is pursuing major changes in the country's mandatory sentencing laws.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An unusual alliance of tea party enthusiasts and liberal leaders in Congress is pursuing major changes in the country's mandatory sentencing laws.
What's motivating them are growing concerns about both the fairness of the sentences and the expense of running federal prisons.
The congressional push comes as President Barack Obama and his Cabinet draw attention to the issue of mandatory sentences, particularly for nonviolent drug offenders.
Supporters say mandatory minimum sentences are outdated, lump all offenders into one category and rob judges of the ability to use their own discretion.
They also cite the high costs of the policies. The Justice Department spends some $6.4 billion, about one-quarter of its budget, on prisons each year, and that number is growing steadily.
"People are coming here for different reasons, but there is a real opportunity," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the Senate's leading proponents of sentencing changes.
The push is being led by the Senate, where Durbin has worked with tea party stalwarts such as Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on legislation that would give judges more flexibility to determine prison sentences in many drug cases. At the same time, a right-left coalition is pressing for changes in the House.
Prison costs have soared in the past 30 years, when laws requiring mandatory prison time for many drug offenses were put in place.
The yearly cost for one federal inmate ranges from $21,000 to $33,000 depending on the prison's level of security. About half of the nation's more than 218,000 federal inmates are serving time for drug crimes -- and virtually all of them faced some form of mandatory minimum sentencing.
Tough-on-crime drug policies once united Republicans and Democrats who didn't want to appear weak on crime. Now reversing or revising many of those policies is having the same effect.
The Fair Sentencing Act, passed in 2010, drew bipartisan support for cutting penalties on crack cocaine offenses. The bill reduced a disparity between crack-related sentences and sentences for other drugs, though it only addressed new cases, not old ones.
Durbin, one of that bill's chief sponsors, has written a much broader bill with Lee, called the Smarter Sentencing Act. It would expand a provision that gives judges discretion for a limited number of nonviolent drug offenders. The new law would allow judges the same latitude for a larger group of drug offenders facing mandatory sentences.
It's one of four bills dealing with sentencing that the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to take up early in the year. The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he wants one consensus bill to clear the committee.
Leahy is a co-sponsor on the Durbin-Lee bill but has also introduced legislation with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that would expand the safety valve even more, to all federal cases with mandatory sentences if certain conditions are met.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation late in December that is based on changes in Texas' state prison system.
A separate bill, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, allows inmates to earn credit for completing programs designed to reduce recidivism.
Leahy's committee delayed writing a sentencing bill several times in 2013. But supporters noted that the last sentencing legislation took months to negotiate and said that the committee has delayed work until early 2014 in large part because behind-the-scenes talks are proving fruitful. Durbin said he and Lee had been lobbying their fellow committee members -- Durbin talking to skeptical Democrats, Lee to Republicans.
In the House, Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, a tea party conservative, and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., are co-sponsors of a companion to Durbin and Lee's bill.
A number of outside groups have expressed support for the Durbin-Lee bill, too, and they run the ideological spectrum, including the conservative Heritage Action, the American Bar Association, the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union.
In August, Attorney General Eric Holder called on Congress to make permanent changes in sentencing laws and instructed federal prosecutors to stop charging nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimum sentences.
Just before Christmas, Obama used his presidential powers to press the issue. He commuted the sentences of eight people serving long drug sentences.
Water flooded into the intersection in front of Tower Square on Main Street.
SPRINGFIELD - City workers struggled to quell a water main break at the corners of Bridge and Main streets early Saturday afternoon.
Water flooded into the intersection in front of Tower Square, presumably the result of a cracked pipe during the weekend's bitter cold snap. Water Department officials were on scene.
More details as they become available.
At least five Massachusetts cities have begun the new year on an optimistic note after a major credit service raised their bond ratings, citing their strong economic and budgetary performances.
BOSTON — At least five Massachusetts cities have begun the new year on an optimistic note after a major credit service raised their bond ratings, citing their strong economic and budgetary performances.
A bond rating for the state is like a credit rating for a person. The Standard & Poor's Rating Services bond rating system uses an alphabetical scale from AAA — indicating an extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments — down to D, marking an obligation that is in default.
Standard & Poor's raised the rating for Salem and Attleboro's bonds two notches to AA from A-plus. The rating for Gloucester, Freetown and North Attleboro also rose one notch each. The outlook for all is stable.
S&P upgraded Gloucester's bond rating to AA from A-plus, North Attleboro rose to AA from AA-minus and Freetown's jumped to AA from AA-minus.
Boston Mayor-elect Marty Walsh has named the first major appointment to his administration with less than 48 hours to go before he is scheduled to be sworn in as the 54th mayor of the city.
BOSTON — Boston Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh has named the first major appointment to his administration with less than 48 hours to go before he is scheduled to be sworn in as the 54th mayor of the city.
Walsh announced in an email blast to the press that he has selected HuffPost Live General Manager Daniel Arrigg Koh as his chief of staff.
Koh previously worked as advisor to Mayor Thomas M. Menino in 2011 and was chief of staff to Arianna Huffington while working at the Huffington Post.
He interned for the late Senator Edward Kennedy in the early 2000s.
"I'm excited to have Daniel joining our Administration and bring a fresh, new energy to the Mayor's Office," said Mayor-elect Walsh in a statement.
"He has broad experience about City Hall and a deep understanding of managing a large, fast-paced organization. We have great talent joining us, and I know Daniel will help me transform the way we do things in Boston," said Walsh.
Koh was born and raised in Andover and holds a bachelor's degree in government from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He attended high school at Phillips Academy in Andover.
Although there were several charred chickens, there were no injuries, Mancino said.
WEST SPRINGFIELD - A small fire broke out in a chicken rotisserie oven at the Big Y supermarket on Memorial Avenue on Saturday morning, according to a fire department official.
Fire Department Deputy Chief Robert Mancino said a quick-thinking manager quickly extinguished the flames. Although there were several charred chickens, there were no injuries, Mancino said. The small blaze, which broke out around 10:15, was out by the time firefighters arrived.
The store was not evacuated. Mancino said he believed rotisserie chicken production would be back up and running by Saturday evening, pending health department approval.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has sworn-in Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera at a public inaugural ceremony attended by about 600 people.
LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has sworn-in Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera at a public inaugural ceremony attended by about 600 people.
The Saturday morning ceremony marked the public transfer of power from William Lantigua, who did not attend the event after conceding the mayor's race to the former city councilor.
U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, state Treasurer Steve Grossman and State Auditor Suzanne Bump joined mayors from around Massachusetts as well as supporters and well-wishers who gathered at a public auditorium for the inauguration.
Tsongas told the crowd that she has long believed that Rivera has the right mix of leadership, ideas and experience to lead Lawrence. She said the new mayor demonstrated the courage necessary to stand up and be a forceful and effective voice for change.
Rivera has pledged to work for all residents of Lawrence.
Activists pushing seven ballot questions spent much of last year ensuring their proposals passed constitutional muster and collecting the tens of thousands of voter signatures needed to claim a spot on November's ballot. Now comes the hard part — persuading voters to support their ideas. That effort can cost millions, depending on the question.
BOSTON — Voters in Massachusetts have grown used to weighty policy questions, from deciding whether to allow the death penalty or regulate abortion to whether to legalize physician-assisted suicide or create any number of tax-related changes.
2014 is no different.
Activists pushing seven ballot questions spent much of last year ensuring their proposals passed constitutional muster and collecting the tens of thousands of voter signatures needed to claim a spot on November's ballot.
Now comes the hard part — persuading voters to support their ideas. That effort can cost millions, depending on the question.
In 2012, the question that attracted the most spending would have allowed patients to self-administer life-ending drugs prescribed by physicians.
Of the total of $5.8 million spent on the question, $4 million was spent by the Committee Against Physician Assisted Suicide, much of it on an advertising campaign urging voters to reject the proposal. The question, which had the support of nearly two-thirds of Massachusetts voters in one poll, was narrowly defeated.
Other questions have drawn little advertising.
More than $1.1 million was spent in 2012 in support of a ballot question that would require Massachusetts to establish marijuana dispensaries for medical use.
Much of that money, however, was spent on collecting signatures. Without a well-heeled opposition to mount a campaign to defeat the measure, the question was approved by voters.
The questions heading toward the ballot this year include ones that would repeal the state's casino gambling law, raise the minimum wage and expand the state's existing bottle deposit law.
Other proposed questions would limit the number of patients assigned to a nurse at one time, require hospitals to be transparent about financial holdings, create a statewide earned sick time policy and repeal a new law linking future increases in the gas tax to the rate of inflation.
There is a shortcut.
Before landing on the ballot, the questions first head to the state Legislature, where lawmakers have the option of approving them or taking no action. In the latter case, supporters would need to collect a second, smaller batch of signatures to guarantee a ballot spot.
One measure that could be approved before it reaches the ballot is the minimum wage question that would raise the wage from $8 to $10.50 per hour over two years and link automatic future increases to the rate of inflation.
The state Senate has already approved an increase in the minimum wage from $8 to $11 over three years, also tying future raises to inflation. The House hasn't taken up the measure.
Most of the other questions are less likely to get legislative approval.
Backers of the question to expand the types of bottles covered by Massachusetts' bottle deposit law have been pressing lawmakers unsuccessfully for more than a decade to expand the law to include noncarbonated beverages like water, tea and sports drinks.
The question to repeal the state's casino law is even less likely to win the support of lawmakers, given that the process of awarding the casino licenses is well underway.
Unlike candidates for office, there is no limit on donations to ballot question committees, meaning that wealthy individuals can virtually single-handedly push a question.
That was the case with the medical marijuana question, which was bankrolled almost entirely by Ohio billionaire Peter Lewis, the former chairman of the board of the auto insurer Progressive Corp. Lewis died in November at age 80.
The most spent by competing sides on a single question was $13 million for a 2006 effort to sell wine in food stores. That question failed.
Authorities in Connecticut are asking the public for help locating a missing West Haven woman who hasn't been seen since New Year's day.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Authorities in Connecticut are asking the public for help locating a missing West Haven woman who hasn't been seen since New Year's day.
Police have issued a silver alert for Stephanie Miskowicz, 28, who was last seen walking towards Yale-New Haven Hospital from the Gilbert Street area, a few blocks south of the facility.
Connecticut's silver alert system is commonly used to spread the word about runaways and endangered runaways, as well as missing persons with dementia and other cognitive impairments.
A photo wasn't immediately available, but Miskowicz is described as a white female standing 5-feet, 7-inches tall, weighing approximately 190 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Police say she was last seen wearing a grey jacket with black pants and black sneakers.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the West Haven Police Department at 203-937-3900.
President Barack Obama returns to Washington this weekend eager to test whether a modest budget deal passed in the waning days of 2013 can spark bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill.
HONOLULU — President Barack Obama returns to Washington this weekend eager to test whether a modest budget deal passed in the waning days of 2013 can spark bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill. As he opens his sixth year in office, he also faces legacy-defining decisions on the future of government surveillance programs and the American-led war in Afghanistan.
Looming over it all will be the November congressional elections, Obama's last chance to stock Capitol Hill with more Democratic lawmakers who could help him expand his presidential playing field.
For Republicans, those contests are an opportunity to seize control of the Senate, which would render Obama a lame duck for his final two years in the White House.
The wild card in 2014, for the White House and congressional Democrats facing re-election, will be the fate of the president's health care law. The website woes that tainted its launch have largely been resolved and enrollment has picked up. But the White House has been tight-lipped about who has enrolled, raising uncertainty about whether the insurance exchanges are on track to get the percentage of young and healthy people who are critical to keeping prices down.
The health care questions aside, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House enters the new year buoyed by the "modest amount of legislative momentum" generated by the December budget deal.
"We're hopeful Congress can build on it and make progress on other priorities where common ground exists," Earnest said.
It won't take long to test that proposition, with debates on unemployment insurance, budget spending and the government's borrowing limit expected in quick succession in the opening weeks of the year.
If all three can be resolved in drama-free fashion — by Washington standards — the White House believes it could create a more favorable atmosphere for Obama to pursue second-term priorities such as an immigration overhaul and a higher minimum wage, though both would still face steep odds.
The president is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sunday morning after an overnight flight from his home state of Hawaii. He's spent two quiet weeks on the island of Oahu golfing and spending time with his family and childhood friends.
Upon his return, Obama will step back quickly into the debate over expired unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a vote Monday night on a bill that would reinstate the benefits for three months.
Obama will try to make his case the following day, holding a White House event with some of those whose benefits expired at the end of December.
"For decades, Republicans and Democrats put partisanship and ideology aside to offer some security for job-seekers, even when the unemployment rate was lower than it is today," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "Instead of punishing families who can least afford it, Republicans should make it their New Year's resolution to do the right thing and restore this vital economic security for their constituents right now."
The issue with the greatest potential to upset the tepid truce forged in December's budget deal is the debt ceiling. As part of the agreement that ended the 16-day partial government shutdown in October, Congress suspended the $16 trillion-plus debt limit. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says bookkeeping maneuvers he can use to keep under that ceiling will last only until late February or early March.
Obama once again has pledged that he won't negotiate on the matter. House Republicans will plot their strategy at a caucus retreat later this month.
Aside from fiscal matters, the president also must make decisions on what changes he wants in the government's vast surveillance powers. He's expected to announce those changes before his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, though an exact date has not been set.
A presidential commission presented Obama with more than 40 recommendations and the president signaled at a year-end news conference that he was open to many of the proposals. But he's facing pushback from his intelligence advisers, who argue that the widespread collection of telephone and Internet records is crucial to national security.
The president also must make a decision on the future of the American force presence in Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is yet to sign a bilateral security agreement with the U.S. that the Obama administration says is crucial if American troops are to stay in the country after the war formally concludes at the end of 2014.
The White House had hoped to have the agreement signed before Jan. 1, but indicated there was some flexibility on that timing. Officials say that without an agreement soon, the U.S. will be forced to start making plans to bring all of its troops home.
"We are talking about weeks, not months, left on the clock," said Caitlin Hayden, Obama's National Security Council spokeswoman.
Aides say January's packed agenda will keep the president in Washington for much of the lead up to his State of the Union address, though some brief domestic travel may occur.
Lee is described as a black female standing 5-feet, 6-inches tall, weighing approximately 160 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Authorities are asking the public for help locating a missing teen who hasn't been seen since New Year's Eve.
A silver alert was issued this week for Adrianna Lee, 16, of New Haven, who may be an endangered runaway. Lee was also reported missing for a short time in July.
Connecticut's silver alert system is commonly used to spread the word about runaways and endangered runaways, as well as missing persons with dementia and other cognitive impairments.
Lee is described as a black female standing 5-feet, 6-inches tall, weighing approximately 160 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. She was last spotted Wednesday wearing a black sweatshirt and blue jeans, according to police.
Anyone with information about Lee's whereabouts or disappearance is asked to call the New Haven Police Department at 203-946-6316.
Werbicki's roommate became suspicious when the dog, a German Shepard mix, was limping around the house and became skittish when approached by humans.
PALM BAY, Fla. — A Florida man is in trouble with the law after alleged sexual encounters with his roommate's dog were caught on camera.
According to the Tampa Bay CBS affiliate, WTSP-TV, 22-year-old Joshua Lee Werbicki, was arrested and charged with felony cruelty to animals and misdemeanor criminal sex act with an animal, after a hidden camera allegedly revealed he had sex with the dog.
Published reports indicate Werbicki's roommate became suspicious when the dog, a German Shepard mix, was limping around the house and became skittish when approached by humans. The roommate reportedly set up a hidden camera in the apartment he shared with Werbicki, which allegedly revealed the inter-species sex act.
Brevard County Animal Services Sgt. Michael Healy told the news website FloridaToday.com that Florida law allows the possibility of a court-ordered injunction barring Werbicki from having future unsupervised contact with other animals, depending on the outcome of his court case.
Werbicki was arrested at the Papa John's on Minton Road in West Melbourne, Fla. where he worked. Further information on whether Werbicki was held or released on bail wasn't immediately available Saturday afternoon.
The race to be the next president of the Boston City Council took another twist on Saturday when sources confirmed to MassLive that At-Large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley is now seeking the position.
BOSTON — The race to be the next president of the Boston City Council took another twist on Saturday when sources confirmed to MassLive.com that at-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley is now seeking the position.
Pressley, the top at-large voter recipient in November's election, is challenging South Boston Councilor Bill Linehan.
District 6 City Councilor Matt O'Malley was originally leading Linehan in the race until two votes from incoming councilors, At-Large City Councilor-elect Michelle Wu and District 5 City Councilor-elect Tim McCarthy, flipped to Linehan. Wu came under intense scrutiny from several progressive groups in Boston for her decision to back Linehan.
The vote for city council president will take place on Monday when the council convenes for the first time in 2014.
Springfield Fire Department spokesman Dennis Leger characterized the explosion as an "over-pressurization" of a gas-powered boiler that was not gas-related.
This updates a story posted at 9:47 a.m. Saturday.
Dennis Leger, aide to Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, said a man suffered bumps and bruises from the incident while a woman in the house slept. Both were shaken up but refused medical attention and are staying with relatives, Leger said.
He characterized the explosion as an "over-pressurization" of a gas-powered boiler that was not gas-related.
"The owners described what looked and smelled like steam; there's wasn't a whiff of gas," after the eruption, which he said buckled the floor and knocked the ranch-style home off its framework.
There was no fire or smoke in its aftermath.
Leger said there must be several factors simultaneously at play for an over-pressurization of a boiler to occur, but that investigators were still probing precisely what led up to the explosion.
No surrounding homes were damaged on the residential street in the city's Sixteen Acres neighborhood, he said.
Leger added that code enforcement officials will inspect the home on Monday, but that it sustained heavy structural damage. He advised all homeowners to have their heating sources inspected and cleaned annually.
"Whether it's a furnace, boiler, pellet stove or chimney … whether it's gas, oil or propane, any heating unit should be cleaned and serviced once a year," Leger said.
Since brutally cold sub-zero temperatures enveloped the region on Thursday, the fire department responded to three boiler-related calls.
Police are holding a man they say was stabbed in a domestic dispute, but he is under arrest.
SPRINGFIELD— A Springfield man was taken to the Baystate Medical Center with a stab wound following a domestic dispute Saturday night, but he was the one who ended up being arrested.Springfield Police Capt. Harry Kastrinakis said the unidentified victim of the stabbing was transported for treatment of a minor stab wound to the leg at about 11:30 p.m., but as doctors worked on his wound, police discovered he was the subject of unrelated outstanding arrest warrants.
He was released from the hospital into police custody and was being held pending an appearance in district court Monday.
There was no word on his alleged assailant.
