The 14-year-old brother of the 9-year-old Mattapan boy that died after being shot Friday morning has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm.

BOSTON -- The 14-year-old brother of the 9-year-old Mattapan boy that died after being shot Friday morning has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm.

The names of the 14-year-old boy and his deceased brother have not been released due to their age.

Boston police arrived at the Mattapan home of the boys just after 11:40 a.m. when they found the 9-year-old boy shot in the chest. The boy was transported to Boston Medical Center where he later succumbed to the gunshot wound.

The 14-year-old brother was later taken into custody by police with what they believe is the gun used in the shooting.

The Suffolk District Attorney's Office is saying that all evidence indicates the older brother was playing with the firearm in a reckless manner when it went off and shot his brother. Investigators do not believe anyone else in the home knew of the gun's presence in the home.

“Part of our investigation in the days to come will be determining how this weapon got into the hands of a 14-year-old,” said District Attorney Dan Conley in a statement.

“In the meantime, I want to make something crystal clear: if you know about an illegal firearm in this city, help us prevent another tragedy like this one. Boston Police are doing a tremendous job of taking guns off the street, but they aren’t mind readers. They need tips and information about these weapons before they’re used," said Conley.

The 14-year-old is schedule to be arraigned in Dorchester Municipal Court. Since he is being arraigned as a juvenile the proceedings will not be open to the public or media.

Baystate Franklin Medical Center and its unionized nurses reached a tentative agreement Friday on a 5-year contract ending in December 2016.

Updates a story posted Friday at 3:50 p.m.

NORTHAMPTON — Baystate Franklin Medical Center and its unionized nurses reached a tentative agreement Friday on a five-year contract ending in December 2016.

The nearly 200 nurses have been nearly three years without a labor agreement. The agreement averts a one-day strike that had been set for Monday. Nurses will still host a canned food drive they'd planned for a local food bank.

"This has been a very long two years and I am jubilant that it is over and we have come to an agreement," Nurse Linda Judd, co-chairwoman of the Massachusetts Nurses Association bargaining unit, said.

The deal, still subject to an as-yet unscheduled ratification vote, gives nurses a pay raise that averages out to about 2.5 percent a year moving forward as well as ratification bonuses. Both sides compromised on overtime rules which had been a sticking point during negotiations.

State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg , D-Amherst, and state Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, brought both sides together Thursday night to reach compromise on the overtime rules.

"There had been a lot of tension," Rosenberg said at a Friday evening news conference at the Hotel Northampton. "But both sides were willing to compromise. Once we got them in a room, they couldn't stop talking."

Baystate nurses earn overtime by the day, shift by shift, no matter how much time they work in a given week. Baystate had wanted to figure time and a half based on a 40-hour workweek.

In compromise, overtime will still be figured by the day. But there will be a one-hour grace period of regular pay at the end of each shift.

Chuck Gijanto, president of Baystate Franklin Medical Center, said most incidents of overtime are an hour or less at the end of a shift anyway.

"So we were able to get the savings we needed," Gijanto said.

Nurse Donna Stern, co-chairwoman of the union's bargaining committee, said it was important to preserve some financial penalty for keeping nurses over their shifts.

"This means every nurse can go home at the end of her shift. And most nurses work 12-hour shifts," she said. "It also keeps our patients safe."

Stern said nurses and the hospital will meet in a task force to address why nurses get kept late.

Gijanto said it is hard to figure work flow at a hospital.

"The emergency room fills up when it does," he said. "Babies arrive when they arrive."

The union also agreed to an increase in the share of the family health insurance premium that Baystate pays from the current 70 percent of premium to 75 percent of premium.

In terms of wages, the nurses get 4 percent across the board raise for 2014 and an additional 1 percent across the board pay hike each year in 2015 and 2016.

Upon ratification of the agreement, nurses will receive bonuses: $2,000 for nurses who work 36 hours or more, $1,500 for nurses who work 24 hours or more and $1,000 for nurses who work less than 24 hours per week.

Gijanto said the ratification bonus works out to about half what a retroactive pay bump would have cost Baystate.

"We met in the middle," he said.

Kulik said it was important to get the impasse settled because the hospital means so much to rural Franklin County. He thanked both sides for their willingness to compromise.

"It really showed their commitment to the community, Franklin County, and the people who use this hospital every day," Kulik said.

Stern said this deal doesn't settle another labor dispute with nurses in Baystate Visiting Nurses Association and Hospice in Springfield. But negotiations with Baystate and those nurses will resume next week.

Gijanto said Baystate is also moving forward with plans to build a two-story expansion to Baystate Franklin Medical Center. The $25-million project would have four new operating rooms. It still needs state approval.

Ludlow police thought for certain the dog was dead until an officer noticed its head moved.

Updates a story posted Thursday at 11:01 p.m.

LUDLOW — A 40-year-old Ludlow man, charged with brutally beating his pet dog and then leaving it for dead in a snow-covered field, was arraigned Friday in Palmer District Court on a charge of felony cruelty to animals.

Ricardo Costa 

Ricardo M. Costa, of 31 Acorn St., denied the charges at his arraignment. He was ordered held in lieu of $2,500 cash bail or a $25,000 personal surety. He is due back in court on March 4.

According to police, Costa grew angry that the dog, a year-old Pomeranian named Scrunchie, defecated in the house. He is accused of repeatedly hitting the dog with a pair of metal pruning shears, causing serious injuries, including a fractured skull. Thinking the dog was dead, he then dumped the body in the snow near Red Bridge Road in Wilbraham, police said.

Ludlow police found the dog alive shortly after 9 p.m., roughly two hours after they first began investigating the case after receiving a call from someone who had heard about the beating.

After speaking with Ludlow police, Costa agreed to show them where he had dumped the dog, according to police.

Ludlow police Detective Allison Metcalfe said Friday afternoon that when she and other officers went to the scene, they were certain the dog was dead when they found it lying in the snow.

She said she had just turned her head when one of the other officers shouted that he said the dog move its head. From that point, the recovery became a rescue.

Metcalfe said they wrapped the dog in a sweatshirt, and with the car heater cranked to high, she rushed the dog to the Boston Road Animal Hospital on Boston Road while another officer cradled it on his lap.

She said that in her 18 years on the job as a full-time police officer, she has never seen mistreatment of an animal to such a degree. “Other officers have, but I have not,” she said.

Metcalfe said the hospital told her the dog has a fractured skull, and staff at the veterinary hospital are cautiously optimistic it will make a recovery.

Metcalfe used her own credit card to pay the down payment on care for the dog, and as word spread about the case, Ludlow police officers started soliciting donations to pay for its medical bills.

As of 5 p.m., Pet Chance, a web-based organization that collects private donations to help with the cost of animal in need of veterinary care, had raised more than $3,700 of the estimated $5,000 that will needed for the dog’s treatment.

Metcalfe said it is unclear what will happen to the dog once it recovers.

The state law regarding cruelty to animals says anyone who cruelly beats, mutilates or kills an animal may be punished by up to five years in state prison, 2½ years in a county jail or a fine of $2,500. The law specifies that it makes no difference if the person accused of cruelty owns the animal or not.

The budget will be reviewed by the Finance Committee.

WILBRAHAM – Town Administrator Robert Weitz presented a fiscal 2015 town budget to the Board of Selectmen and said the budget will not require a Proposition 2½ override.

Robert WeitzThe Republican [file] 

Weitz said the proposed budget is $100,000 under the Proposition 2½ levy limit. The total proposed town budget for fiscal 2015 is $42.5 million. Of that amount, $22.4 million is proposed as the town’s share of the regional School Department budget.

Weitz said the proposed regional school budget includes an increase of 2.5 percent over this year’s school budget.

The budget must still be reviewed by the town’s Finance Committee and approved by voters at the May 12 annual town meeting.

Weitz said he expects state aid to the town to be level funded for next year.

Weitz is proposing to appropriate $1.2 million from the town’s free cash, or unappropriated funds, to help balance the budget. That’s about half of the town’s available free cash, he said.

The town usually adds to its free cash at the end of each year from unappropriated funds, replacing free cash which can then be applied to balance the next year’s budget.

Also included in the fiscal 2015 budget is $32,000 to replace the fire chief’s vehicle, $4,300 for self-contained shelter units for Minnechaug Regional High School in case the high school needs to be used as an emergency shelter and $15,000 to keep the library open on Sundays.

Selectmen's Chairman James Thompson said that rent money from the leasing of Memorial School also will be applied to address some of the capital needs of the town’s schools.

Police seized more than 700 bags of heroin.

From left in photos provided by Springfield police: Joshua Larace and Christina Monroe. 

SPRINGFIELD – Narcotics detectives arrested a city couple Thursday night after a monthlong investigation into the dealing of heroin from their Sixteen Acres home.

Detectives, surveilling the couple out of their basement residence at 104 Undine Circle, saw them making heroin deliveries throughout the city, Sgt. John M. Delaney said.

Detectives, after watching them make another delivery, intercepted them in a traffic stop at Wilbraham and Walsh streets at about 8 p.m., Delaney, aide to Commissioner William Fitchet, said.

During the traffic stop, the couple could be seen trying to hide items in the seat of their Volvo station wagon. Police seized 200 bags of heroin.

Arrested were: Christina R. Monroe, 21 and Joshua Larace, 29, both of 104 Undine Circle. Both were charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute and two counts of distribution of heroin.

Detectives took both suspects to police department headquarters and then raided their basement apartment at 104 Undine Circle.

The detectives confiscated another 520 bags of heroin and $2,000 in cash along with drug paraphernalia, scales and packaging material, Delaney said.

“This was an excellent arrest, getting two more heroin dealers off the streets,” Delaney said. “Heroin abuse is at an all-time high in the Northeast and the Springfield Police Department is doing its part to rid the deadly drug from the community.”

At their arraignments in Springfield District Court Friday, each denied the charges. Each was initially ordered held in lieu of $5,000 bail, but the right to bail for each was revoked because each was already out on bail for separate cases that have not yet gone to trial.

Each is due back in court on Feb. 24.

A Worcester man has been charged with enticing a 10-year-old New York child into producing sexually explicit videos and then sending the videos to him by email, according the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.

A Worcester man has been charged with enticing a 10-year-old New York child into producing sexually explicit videos and then sending the videos to him by email, according the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.

Brian Belanger, 21, was arrested Friday at his Worcester apartment and brought before a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Albany, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Hon. Randolph F. Treece ordered Belanger detained until a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 10, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian's office.

According to Hartunian's office, a federal criminal complaint alleges that Belanger, using the nickname "zombieshadow" met the boy online through Playstation 3.

"While talking through the game's headset feature, Belanger told the child that someone was trying to kill Belanger, and that the child could help him by providing sexually explicit videos of himself that Belanger could in turn give to the other person," according to the release.

Belanger allegedly "directed the child what to do in the videos." The boy emailed numerous videos of him engaged in "sexually explicit conduct" to Belanger over a three month period, according to the release.

On Jan. 25 the child's father found the emails and videos on the child's iPad and alerted law enforcement.

If convicted, Belanger faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years imprisonment, with a maximum penalty of 30 years, potential fines of up to $250,000, and a required term supervised release of at least 5 years, and up to life, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office. If convicted, Belanger would be required to register as a sex offender.

Members of the community in the Worcester area who have concerns or information regarding this case should call (508) 792-0214. Those in the Albany, NY, area with information or concerns should call either (518) 431-0247, or (888) 539-4535.

The investigation and arrest of Belanger is the result of an investigation by the Colonie New York Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, the New York State Police, the Worcester Massachusetts Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The Knapik family patriarch was a 1952 graduate of Westfield High School, graduated from American International College in 1962 and was hired as a teacher in the Westfield Public Schools in 1964.

WESTFIELD – Joseph C. Knapik, Marine veteran, longtime educator, “a legend in these parts,” and the father of Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, died Wednesday at the Soldier’s Home in Holyoke. He was 79.

“Between his 36 years at the South Middle School and his 36 years in the Marine Corps, he touched a lot of lives in town and across the region,” the mayor said Friday morning. “He was an old school guy that had a strong belief in God, his family and his country.”

Joseph Knapik was also the father of former state Sen. Michael R. Knapik, now an administrator at Westfield State University, who credited the elder Knapik with instilling in him a strong sense of family and service to the community.

“Our family is very sad, and we’re trying to remember him in the best light,” an emotional Michael Knapik said. “We have a lot of great memories. We will miss him dearly.”

The former state senator described his father as the kind of man who never put himself in the limelight but remained in the background as a constant source of strength.

“He was never the guy at the front,” he said. “He was the backbone, always with a cigar in his mouth.”

The Knapik family patriarch was a 1952 graduate of Westfield High School; graduated from American International College in 1962, and was hired as a teacher in the Westfield Public Schools in 1964. Knapik continued graduate studies in education at Westfield State College earning a master’s degree and certificate of advanced graduate studies.

Joseph Knapik was also a Hampden County deputy sheriff and served as a Westfield Board of Public Works commissioner.

The mayor said his father was a generous and loving man with a good sense of humor who was known among other Marines as a “Marine’s Marine,” serving his country with great pride.

“He had a huge heart and was the kindest person I knew,” said Daniel Knapik

He was also regarded in the Westfield Public Schools as a practical joker who kept the South Middle School staff alert with his humor, the mayor added. He retired from the public school system in 1998 having spent most of his time as a guidance counselor.

Joseph Knapik was also a Hampden County Deputy Sheriff and served as a Westfield Board of Public Works commissioner.

Joseph Knapik retired from the military in 1990 as a “Marine gunner”, Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class, a rank that, the mayor said, “was rare in the Marine Corps and is held in high esteem from the commander of the corps to the buck private”

“Marine gunners are revered, rare and highly respected in the corps and his length of service was a testament to his love for the corps and the corps' respect for him,” Daniel Knapik said.

“That was my dad,” he added simply.

Knapik credits his father for putting him on the path to politics by enlisting his help in putting up lawn signs during the 1978 campaign for former Westfield Mayor Garreth Lynch.

“I always tell people I got my start in politics putting in lawn signs with my dad,” he said.

For Michael Knapik, his indoctrination in public service began, he said, in 1974 when he, too, helped his father with lawn signs.

"With me, is started with putting up lawn signs for a referendum question."

In keeping with his father's strong sense of family and honor, Michael Knapik said, he and his brothers were told from a young age that they carried a responsibility to the Knapik name.

"My dad always said to the four boys from our earliest years that he had given us a good name, and it was our job to keep it that way. I hope we all made him proud."

Most of all, Michael Knapik said of his father, "he adored his seven grandchildren."

The Knapik family, from left, Joseph Jr. and his wife Rose, of Holyoke; Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and his wife, Tricia; John Knapik and his wife, Joanne, of Westfield; behind them are Hanna Knapik Dyki and her husband, Michael Dyki; Mary Knapik Downie; and Katie, Jimmy, Kathleen and Michael R. Knapik at the mayor's inaugural ball held Jan. 18 at Tekoa Country Club.Manon L. Mirabelli 

The elder Knapik is survived by Alice, his wife of nearly 54 years, his four sons: Joseph and his wife Rose, of Holyoke, Michael and his wife Kathleen, of Westfield, Daniel and his wife Tricia, of Westfield, and Neil and his wife Debra, of Natick, as well as his brother John and his wife Joanne, also of Westfield.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Citizens’ Scholarship Foundation of Westfield in the name of the Rose Curran Knapik Memorial Scholarship in care of CSF Westfield Dollars for Scholars, P.O. Box 382, Westfield, MA 01086.

Highland teacher Sheila Zagula said the school’s diverse population made the Olympic concept of bringing the world together an educational opportunity for students and staff to share in one another’s culture.

WESTFIELD – The diverse student population of Highland Elementary School celebrated the Olympics with an opening ceremony of their own that paid homage to the history of the world athletic competition.

The school’s 500 children from kindergarten through grade five participated in the program that also honored local hockey player Kacey Bellamy to whom the students wrote letters. In response, Bellamy promised to visit the school after her participation in the games as a defenseman on the U.S. Olympic women's ice hockey team.

Highland teacher Sheila Zagula said the school’s diverse population made the Olympic concept of bringing the world together an educational opportunity for students and staff to share in one another’s culture.

“Languages from across the world are spoken here,” she said. “We have students and staff from the Sochi region" where the games started Friday. "The connection to Russia is exciting.”

Zagula added that the city’s connection to Olympic athlete Bellamy also makes the world-sporting event one to which the children can better relate.

“Kacey Bellamy has been a guest at our school in the past to share her experiences with our students, and they have written letters and made cards that have been delivered to her,” Zagula said.

The program began at about 2 p.m. with a procession of students carrying flags they made for the occasion and included presentations and demonstrations on various Olympic sports such as hockey, snowboarding and bobsledding, as well as Olympic history and the traditions that have made the sporting event a worldwide spectacle.

“During the Olympics, we will be keeping track of the events,” Zagula said. “This is five-month plan where we will be integrating activities across the curriculum.”

The educational plan steeped in Olympic tradition is the brainchild of second-grade teacher Kathleen Knapik, who wrote and received a grant to help support the multicultural events surrounding the Olympic theme, Zagula said.

“The idea is to foster the ideals of respect, teamwork and ‘going for the gold,’” Knapik said.

Photos from the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

It was a spectacle of Russian history and Olympic-sized grandeur, and Associated Press photographers captured all the memorable photographs from the opening ceremony on Friday. The Sochi Olympics opened with a celebration of Russia's past greatness and hopes for future glory, especially for a group of athletes who marched into a rollicking seaside stadium with no shortage of pride. Hockey goalie Vladislav Tretiak and three-time figure skating gold medalist Irina Rodnina ran out of the stadium and joined hands to light the towering Olympic cauldron.

*  *  *  *  *

Coming on Saturday, the first gold medals will be awarded in Sochi: the men's 5,000-meter speedskating, where Sven Kramer of the Netherlands opens defense of his lone Olympic title; the men's 10-kilometer sprint in biathlon; the women's moguls, the men's slopestyle final; and the women's 15-kilometer skiathlon, where Marit Bjorgen of Norway, the most successful athlete of the Vancouver Games with three golds, a silver and a bronze, leads a strong Norwegian team.

In November, Massachusetts gained 2,100 manufacturing jobs. But that's just month to month. For the year, the state is down 1,000 of the coveted high-paying manufacturing jobs for the year.

PALMER — Smaller than a pencil tip, the titanium set screw cradled in the palm of machinist David Ruest's hand is the most complicated part he makes.

It's full, he said, of odd angles and bevels not to mention the tiny little Allen-wrench slot that goes at the tip. Even the ridges of the threads have to be shaped just so, or the screw won't fit into the equally tiny part where it serves to hold a slightly larger screw in place.

He runs a computer-controlled machine tool at Detector Technology Inc. in Palmer, an expanding company that makes and assembles laboratory equipment, specialty engineered glass products for nuclear medicine and medical implants, like bone screws, for veterinary surgery.

Ruest didn't go to school for this, he started off deburring and smoothing parts at another machine shop, moved on to old-fashioned Bridgeport machines, albeit with some computer controls added, and then got his hands on the latest technology at Detector Technology.

"I just love it," Ruest, 36, of Monson said. "I love taking the raw stock of metal and turning it into something. You get to see a finished product."

And as a region, the Pioneer Valley loves people like Ruest and manufacturers like Detector Technology. Precision manufacturing has been the region's calling card since George Washington started the Springfield Armory. And it might be one of the region's tickets back from the recession as companies look to do more manufacturing stateside.

And people like Ruest can drive the economy in ways other workers cannot.

According to numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, machinists in greater Springfield average $22.14 an hour or $46,050 a year.

"Manufacturing generally has been pretty stable in Western Massachusetts, especially in the precision aspect of manufacturing ," said Allan W. Blair, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts. "It's also an area of great focus for us. It's important for our economy."

Manufacturers in the Pioneer Valley are working to innovate and diversify and, Blair added with emphasis, automate to add efficiency.

He said longtime stalwarts of the local economy like Hasbro in East Longmeadow and Smith & Wesson in Springfield have brought manufacturing back to the region because of automation.

In November, industrial production surpassed for the first time its pre-recession peak of December 2007 and was 21 percent above its trough of June 2009, according to statistics kept by the Federal Reserve. Industrial production increased 1.1 percent in November after having edged up 0.1 percent in October.

The gain in November was the largest since November 2012, when production rose 1.3 percent.

New orders for manufactured durable goods rose by $8.2 billion in November, or a 3.5 percent gain to $241.6 billion. It was the third monthly increase in the last four months.

In November, Massachusetts gained 2,100 manufacturing jobs. But that's just month to month. For the year, the state is down1,000 of the coveted high-paying manufacturing jobs for the year.

Locally, Greater Springfield has a manufacturing workforce of about 31,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's down 1 percent on the year.

Mitchell Machine in Springfield is always looking for more skilled help, but the automated manufacturing equipment it makes might be a part of the reason fewer people make their livings in factories theses days. The 30-employee company makes machines used by other manufacturers.

 

“We’re not making it, were making the machinery that makes it,” said company president Jack Mitchell, president of the 90-year-old company now in its third generation of the Mitchell family.

And often, to be competitive stateside, making it means making it with fewer people.
Four years ago, Mitchell's company helped a South Carolina manufacturer for the textile industry replace 66 machine operators with four using automated equipment.

"But if they hadn't, none of those jobs would still be there," Mitchell said.

Now, Mitchell is helping companies transition into new products, like medical devices and new compost materials.

"Aircraft manufacturers are interested in shedding weight," he said.

Mitchell Machine has 30 employees. It's an aging workforce, but Mitchell said it can be hard to find qualified staff. Even if he lands a qualified graduate of a local manufacturing program, that person still needs a lot of on-the-job training.

"It's rare to get someone even from a community college," he said. "It just requires time. You learn a lot in a month here after you learned a lot in years in high school or a junior college."

Marubi Citizen Cincom in Agawam, formerly known as Citizen Machine, has added four staff members in the past year, about a 10 percent increase to a staff of 35 said James H. Cepican, general manager of the tooling and accessories division.

His customers are manufacturers, so he keeps tabs on the industry all over the country.

"We see activity being pretty strong," he said. "Demand in defense might be coming back now a little bit. It just appears to be in a good place for manufacturing."

Civilian firearms manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson, are ordering equipment. So are makers of medical devices like bone screws.

"They are selling to the average American," he said. "There have been some decent orders in the aircraft industry, so that is staying strong, farm implements, they are all going strong."

Mel O'Leary, CEO of Meredith Springfield Associates in Springfield said he is relieved that state lawmakers are finally paying attention to manufacturing. Issues that interest him include vocational training and energy.

Meredith Springfield makes blow-molded plastics. Examples include items such as architectural pieces for a chandelier in a Chinese casino to bottles for products like Mrs. Dash Seasoning and Vermont Maid Maple Syrup.

"Energy costs make it very difficult to be competitive here," O'Leary said. "But the customers are out there."

Northampton activist Patricia Weiland was sentenced to 15 days in prison for protesting drone warfare on a New York ANG base.

DEWITT, N.Y. — A Northampton activist began serving a sentence of 15 days in a New York penitentiary Friday after she and 11 others were found guilty of disorderly conduct in the wake of an October 2012 protest at a New York Air National Guard base outside of Syracuse over the use of unmanned aerial drones in Afghanistan.

Patricia "Paki" Weiland was among a group of 16 people calling themselves, "The Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars." The group was arrested on the Hancock Air National Guard Base, the home of the 174th Attack Wing on October 25, 2012. The unit flies the Reaper armed drone.

According to the Post Standard of Syracuse, of the 16 original protesters, 12 were convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $250, assessed $125 in court costs and ordered to serve 15 days in prison by DeWitt Town Judge David Gideon in a Friday evening court session.

Gideon levied the maximum sentence available to him after tapes of the protest showed Weiland and others preventing vehicles and pedestrians from entering the base, the Post Standard reported. He expressed concern that protests outside the base had been escalating in recent years, as has the angry response from some members of the public.

"At some point you're going to be confronted by an individual who's violent," Gideon said.

Weiland and the others were taken from the courtroom to the Jamesville Penitentiary in Jamesville, New York to begin serving their sentences.

The group was originally faced an additional charge of trespassing on the base, but that charge was dropped after there appeared to be a dispute over the actual borders of the military base.

Obituaries from The Republican.

Karen Savage 

Karen A (Merriweather) Savage, 56, of Springfield, passed away on Jan. 29. Born in Fairbanks, Alaska, she was a 1976 graduate of the High School of Commerce and a 1978 graduate of Bay Path College. She was an employee at Monsanto/Solutia. An avid Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots fan, she also enjoyed bingo, baking and family gatherings.

At least one family is without a place to stay after a fire inside a South End apartment building broke out late Saturday morning.

SPRINGFIELD — A local family won't be staying in their home for an extended period of time, after a fire broke out inside a South End apartment building late Saturday morning.

Around 10:50 a.m., firefighters were called to investigate a reported fire at a fourth floor apartment inside a brick apartment building in the Outing Park Historic District, also known as the Hollywood District. As they pulled onto the scene, firefighters reported seeing black smoke billowing out of the window of apartment 4B at 95 Oswego Street, the Concord Heights building.

Firefighters tackled the blaze from the interior of the building as residents from adjacent apartments stood in the cold watching.

According to Dennis Leger, aide to Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, the fire was sparked by an overheated extension cord in one of the apartment's bedrooms near the rear of the building.

This photo provided by Springfield Fire Department's Dennis Leger shows the extensive damage done to apartment 4-B following the Saturday morning blaze at 95 Oswego Street.  

He estimates that around $57,000 in damage was done to the structure, not to mention the family's personal belongings which were damaged or destroyed.

Crews extinguished the fire within minutes and requested a thermal imagining camera to make sure it didn't extend beyond the one apartment. Although the fire was contained to that unit, Leger said there was water damage in at least two apartments below apartment 4B.

Ledger said there were no injuries reported and that volunteers with the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross were assisting the two adults and four children who were displaced by the fire.

Kat Powers, director of communications at the American Red Cross of Massachusetts, said that the property manager made arrangements for the displaced family so they wouldn't be forced into the cold.

"The property manager opened up a community room in the building and said he would make sure the family had a place to stay," Powers said. "For those affected by the fire, we gave them emergency funds for food and clothing."

The Red Cross took care of first responders on the scene by providing them with canteen services. Blankets were also provided to tenants from the building who were waiting in the cold for permission to re-enter the building.

Powers said that the Red Cross, which provides relief during a variety of emergency situations, is always in need of additional donations and volunteers. For information on how to contribute to the non-profit organization, visit its website at www.redcross.org/ma/springfield.

The longer the immigration issue remains unresolved, the more pressure will fall on Obama from immigrant advocates to act alone and ease the deportations that have been undertaken by his administration.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For a president looking for a legacy piece of legislation, the current state of the immigration debate presents a high-wire act.

President Barack Obama could act alone to slow deportations, and probably doom any chance of a permanent and comprehensive overhaul. Yet if he shows too much patience, the opportunity to fix immigration laws as he wants could well slip away.

As Republican leaders dampen expectations for overhauling immigration laws this year, the White House is hoping that the GOP resistance is temporary and tactical, and Obama is resisting pressure from some political allies to take matters into his own hands and ease his administration's deportation record.

House Speaker John Boehner this week all but ruled out passage of immigration legislation before the fall midterm elections, saying Republicans had trouble trusting that Obama would implement all aspects of an immigration law.

White House officials say they believe Boehner ultimately wants to get it done. But they acknowledge that Boehner faces stiff resistance from conservatives who oppose any form of legalization for immigrants who have crossed into the United States illegally or overstayed their visas. As well, Republicans are eager to keep this election year's focus on Obama's health care law.

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Obama is willing to give Boehner space to operate and to tamp down the conservative outcry that greeted a set of immigration overhaul principles the speaker brought forward last week. For now, the White House is simply standing behind a comprehensive bill that passed in the Senate last year, but is not trying to press Boehner on how to proceed in the Republican-controlled House.

Vice President Joe Biden told CNN that Obama is waiting to see what the House passes before responding.

The White House view could be overly optimistic, playing down the strength of the opposition to acting this year.

For Republicans the immigration issue poses two political challenges. In the short term, it displays intraparty divisions when they want to use their unified opposition to the health care law as a key issue in the 2014 elections. Immigration distracts from that strategy. But failure to pass an immigration overhaul would be a significant drag on the chances of a Republican winning the 2016 presidential election if angry Latino voters are mobilized to vote for the Democratic nominee.

Making the case for a delay, Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said there's "overwhelming support for doing nothing this year." Labrador, who worked with a small group of Republicans and Democrats on comprehensive legislation last year then abandoned the negotiations, said it would be a mistake to have an internal battle in the GOP. He argued for waiting until next year when the Republicans might have control of the Senate.

Some Republican supporters of a new immigration law are pushing back.

"I'm trying to convince my colleagues that regardless of primaries, regardless of elections this November, that we have an obligation and a duty to solve this crisis once and for all," Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., told the Spanish-language television network Telemundo in an interview scheduled to air Sunday.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not criticize Boehner's talk of a delay, though he called the speaker's claims that Obama is the problem "an odd bit of diversion." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, however, did not hold back, signaling that Democrats are prepared to lay the blame on Boehner and his party if legislation does not materialize.

"Republicans should be candid about putting extremism ahead of the good of the country," she said.

Democratic officials familiar with the White House thinking say there is also a possibility that the House could act in November or December, during a lame-duck session of Congress after the elections. That would require swift work in a short time. What's more, if Republicans win control of the Senate, there would be pressure to leave the issue to the new Senate.

The longer the immigration issue remains unresolved, the more pressure will fall on Obama from immigrant advocates to act alone and ease the deportations that have been undertaken by his administration. Since Obama took office in January 2009, more than 1.9 million immigrants have been deported.

Ending the speculation around her future in the Legislature, Senate President Therese Murray on Saturday announced that she would not run for re-election this fall after a 22-year career on Beacon Hill where she became the first woman elected to lead the Senate.

By Matt Murphy, STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON — Ending the speculation around her future in the Legislature, Senate President Therese Murray on Saturday announced that she would not run for re-election this fall after a 22-year career on Beacon Hill where she became the first woman elected to lead the Senate.

Murray’s decision not to seek a twelfth term was expected since her tenure as president is due to end in 2015 because of a Senate term limit rule, but Murray had been suggesting she might wait until April to make the final decision. By announcing her plans now, Murray allows potential successors to ramp up their campaigns.

“It has been the greatest honor to serve the Commonwealth and I am forever thankful to the people of the Plymouth and Barnstable District for electing me to this seat time and time again,” Murray said in a statement. “We have accomplished so much since I first took my seat in 1993 because of the collaboration and dedication of my colleagues in the Senate and House, and the strong partnerships with the people and local officials in my communities.”

First elected in 1992 when she edged Republican Sen. Ned Kirby, Murray made her initial mark working on welfare reform legislation while serving under Senate President William Bulger of South Boston. She later became a top deputy to Senate President Robert Travaglini and chaired the Ways and Means Committee for four years before succeeding Travaglini when he left the Senate at the start of Gov. Deval Patrick’s governorship in 2007.

Murray, of Plymouth, was a force in 1995 behind a major overhaul of the Department of Social Services, and now will end her career once again pushing for significant reforms to the state’s welfare system through bills that have cleared the House and Senate and are currently being negotiated between the branches.

Under Senate rules that limit a Senate president to eight years in charge of the gavel, Murray would be required to step down as president in March 2015. During a private caucus with Senate Democrats last month, she made it clear to members that she intended to finish out her term and not leave early for another job.

Senate Majority Leader Stanley Rosenberg, of Amherst, said last year that he had secured enough votes to succeed Murray as president, beating out Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Brewer who now plans to retire. Rosenberg’s success in locking up the support of his colleagues has been seen as emblematic of an ideological shift in the Senate over the past few years to the left of Murray’s more moderate, centrist policies and approach to the budget.

“I am humbled to represent the people of the Plymouth and Barnstable District and to lead such a historic and esteemed body as President of the Massachusetts Senate. I will continue to serve through the remainder of my term and I look forward to working on the issues that I am most passionate about for many years to come,” said Murray.

Murray represents the Plymouth and Barnstable Senate district, which includes Bourne, Falmouth, Kingston, Pembroke, Plymouth and Sandwich. Though Murray has long held the seat for the Democrats, its demographics present an opportunity for Republicans, who hold four in the 40-member Senate, to pick off one in November.

Murray got a tough challenge from Republican Tom Keyes in 2010 before soundly defeating him in 2012.

Rep. Viriato deMacedo, a Plymouth Republican, has said he would consider running if Murray stepped down, and is considered among insiders to be the early favorite to win Murray’s seat.

Former Rep. Matthew Patrick, a Falmouth Democrat who was defeated in 2010 by Republican Rep. David Vieira, is also making preparations to run for Murray’s seat, according to multiple sources.

Rep. Thomas Calter, a Kingston Democrat, also lives in the district, along with Republicans Vieira, and Rep. Randy Hunt, of East Sandwich.

Democrats in tough re-election races want credit for trying to fix the problematic parts of the health care law at the same time they claim bragging rights for its popular provisions.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hit with a multimillion-dollar barrage of televised attacks, Democrats in tough re-election races want credit for trying to fix the problematic parts of the health care law at the same time they claim bragging rights for its popular provisions and allege Republicans will reverse the law's crackdown on insurance company abuses.

It's a tricky, high-stakes political straddle by lawmakers who voted to create the controversial law, which Republicans intend to place at the center of their campaign to win control of the Senate and hold their House majority.

In one of the year's most closely watched races, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., recently aired a commercial that shows her in numerous public settings last fall sternly telling President Barack Obama to keep his promise to let people keep their current health plans if they want to -- and then taking credit after he took steps to make that happen.

"I'm fixing it and that's what my bill does, and I've urged the president to fix it," Landrieu says of the health care law in the ad. It ends with a screen that reads: "The result: People now allowed to keep health care plans." The three-term lawmaker aired the ad after a televised attack by Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch that has spent more than $25 million on similarly themed commercials in several races.

Hundreds of miles away, in Arizona, an outside group that backs Democrats stepped in after Americans for Prosperity targeted Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. Referring to HealthCare.gov, which had a wretched debut last fall, a House Majority PAC ad said the Democratic lawmaker "blew the whistle on the disastrous health care website, calling it stunning ineptitude, and worked to fix it."

At the same time, Kirkpatrick "fought to hold insurance companies accountable, so they can't deny coverage for pre-existing conditions or drop it when they get sick," said the commercial, referring to popular elements of the law already in place.

The response comes as Democratic Party leaders look eagerly to outside groups to keep pace with the Koch brothers' early campaign barrage, while acknowledging they have been neither fast nor aggressive enough inside the Capitol in countering Republican attacks and demands for repeal.

"We have to stop being so defensive," said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, recently tapped to lead an effort inside the Senate to respond publicly to GOP attacks.

Democrats also say public opinion points the way to a strong campaign rebuttal to Republicans. Geoff Garin, a pollster with ties to many lawmakers in the party, said that even in GOP-leaning districts, "there is a preference for a Democrat who wants to keep the good parts and fix the bad parts over a Republican who wants to repeal the whole thing."

It's a point Democrats emphasize.

In North Carolina, fast becoming ground zero of the "Obamacare" fight, a Senate Majority PAC ad says Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan "forced insurance companies to cover cancer and other pre-existing conditions." It adds that one of her Republican rivals, House Speaker Thom Tillis, "sides with insurance companies and would let insurance companies deny coverage."

Hagan has yet to air her own ads on the subject, although her campaign website makes the claims similar to the commercial by the Senate Majority PAC.

Americans for Prosperity has put more money into North Carolina than any other race, more than $5 million so far compared with about $1.5 million for the Democratic organization helping her. Both totals are certain to swell.

One recent anti-Hagan ad shows a woman saying she was shocked when she got a notice that her coverage was being canceled. "Kay Hagan told us if you like your insurance plan and your doctors, you could keep them. That just wasn't true."

Americans for Prosperity has also attacked in Arkansas, where Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor faces a tough race. The incumbent ran an ad late last year that did not mention the Affordable Care Act by name. It said he was working for "more doctor visits, free preventive care and lower prescription costs," references to elements of the legislation he voted for.

Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire has been attacked by a different group, Ending Spending, which mocked Obama's now-discredited statement that Americans could keep their health care if they liked it. "Next November, if you like your senator, you can keep her. If you don't, you know what to do," says the announcer.

Her official Senate website says she "voted in favor of the 2010 Affordable Care Act because she believes it is an important first step to making essential changes to our health care system."

"No longer can health insurance companies put lifetime dollar limits on health benefits or drop coverage if someone gets sick. Children under 19 can no longer be denied coverage if they have a pre-existing condition, and parents can keep their children on their insurance plans up to age 26," it says.

Republicans are trying to mitigate any damage from assertions along those lines.

More than three years after promising to "repeal and replace" Obamacare -- and not once proposing an alternative -- the House GOP leadership recently circulated a series of health care principles. Citing political reasons, party aides and strategists say they do not expect a bill to advance to the House floor this year. They note that would give Democrats a chance to turn the health care issue into a choice between two plans, rather than a referendum on an unpopular law with the president's name on it.

So far, at least, the deep-pocketed Americans for Prosperity is betting heavily that a straightforward message of repeal is a winning one, particularly when it is aimed at female voters.

Tim Phillips, president of organization, says that rather than targeting conservatives, who already oppose Obamacare, "we're trying to reach out to folks in the middle."

Republicans and Democrats alike say that means independent voters and loosely aligned Democrats. Many of the ads appear designed to appeal to women, whom Phillips said tend to be "the predominant health care decision makers" for their families and their aging parents as well as for themselves.

Democrats "know that this law is a huge problem for them," he said.

The seizure of $8 million worth of heroin in the Bronx was the result of the latest raid on heroin mills located behind the doors of New York homes, which authorities say are a sign of a well-oiled distribution network that caters to more mainstream, middle- and upper-class customers like Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman has once again drawn attention to a NYC heroin trade so sophisticated that getting the drug delivered to your door is nearly as easy as ordering a pizza. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — In a major drug bust that drew little attention just a week before Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, authorities found a sophisticated heroin packaging and distribution operation in an apartment in the Bronx.

There, workers with coffee grinders, scoops and scales toiled around the clock to break down bricks of the drug into thousands of tiny, hit-size baggies, bearing such stamped brands as "Government Shutdown" and, in a nod to the Super Bowl, "NFL."

The seizure of $8 million worth of heroin was the result of the latest raid on heroin mills located behind the doors of New York homes, which authorities say are a sign of a well-oiled distribution network that caters to more mainstream, middle- and upper-class customers like the Oscar-winning Hoffman.

Heroin dealers want to find customers with ready cash "who are going to be with them until they die," said city Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan. "That's the attitude."

Tests are continuing to try to pinpoint how Hoffman died, but his body was found with a syringe in his arm and dozens of packets of heroin nearby. Where he got his drugs remains uncertain, but the arrests of drug suspects identified during the investigation suggest he might have visited a lower Manhattan apartment building where a supplier lived.

There's no evidence that the Bronx operation provided any heroin Hoffman might have bought. But New York has long been known as the nation's capital of smack, regularly accounting for about 20 percent of the heroin the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seizes every year.

Those seizures have grown by 67 percent in the state over the last five years, a trend Brennan attributes in part to high-volume heroin mills invisible to most New Yorkers but capable of churning out hundreds of thousands of packets within days after a big shipment arrives.

The pipeline starts in Mexico, where cartels traffic Colombian-produced heroin by the kilogram. The wholesalers smuggle the drugs into the United States concealed in trucks, through tunnels dug under the southwest border and, in one recent case, by molding and coloring the heroin to look like coffee beans and shipping it via UPS to a private postal box in Queens.

In the Northeast, the cartels have increasingly supplied Dominican middlemen who rely on a business model for heroin mills that emphasizes discipline, quality control and an absence of violence.

The retailers favor residential settings in safe neighborhoods as a means of cover. Raids by Brennan's office and the DEA in recent years have found them in a newly renovated apartment in midtown Manhattan that rented for $3,800 a month and in a two-story, red-brick home in the New York City suburb of Fort Lee, N.J.

A mill found in an 18th-floor apartment in upper Manhattan had a sign that read, "Clean Up After Yourselves - The Management." At another discovered across the street from Manhattan College in a Bronx, immigrant workers wore school sweatshirts to try to blend in.

Workers can make up to $5,000 a week. They're also given meals and toiletries to help make it through 12-hour shifts.

The mill operators and workers go out of their way not to disturb neighbors, who might report them to police, or to draw the attention of other criminals who want to rob them. They leave the apartments empty when not working, and sometimes change locations long before their leases are up as a cost of doing business, said James J. Hunt, the acting head of the DEA's New York office.

"Drug dealers are very wary," Hunt said. "They wouldn't want word to get out on the street about a mill. They want anonymity."

The economics are addictive: The heroin flooding the region carries an average wholesale price of about $60,000 per kilo. The retailers can cut a kilo to a 50 percent purity level using powdered vitamin B or other nontoxic substances. That provides enough drugs to fill 25,000 single-dose glassine envelopes that would be sold for $5 each to street-level dealers, who in turn charge customers $10 to $15. After subtracting the cost of the kilo, wages and other expenses, the mill operator would turn a $70,000 profit per kilo.

In the Bronx takedown on Jan. 30, investigators conducting surveillance at a building there stopped a man making an apparent delivery of drugs before seeing another man try to flee out the fire escape of a fifth-floor apartment. Inside, they found 33 pounds of heroin, 18 coffee grinders used to cut the heroin with baking soda, folding tables and chairs where it was packaged and stamps with various brand names.

Once exposed, mills like the Bronx one can be a touchy subject for property owners and their tenants.

There was no response to a phone message left with the landlord of the building. Linda Johnson, who lived in a one-bedroom apartment there until a few months ago, said she never noticed anything suspicious.

"I saw people coming and going in the elevator and nobody bothered me," said Johnson, 61. "If it was happening, you'd know it, right?"

Separate operations distribute the drugs to users in the city and beyond. New York City brands have turned up in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and smaller cities in Connecticut, Hunt said.

The distributors offer customer service intended to remove the fear and stigma from bygone eras. In one case, a dealer riding a three-wheeled motorcycle and a helmet emblazoned with the heroin brand name "Sin City" would direct customers to an exact block in a middle-class Brooklyn neighborhood — code-named "the office" — then pull up alongside their cars and exchange glassines for cash.

Dealers and users in New York and elsewhere often connect on social media sites with a degree of anonymity, authorities say. Phone numbers are exchanged and meeting spots are arranged through texting. Sometimes there's home delivery.

Elizabeth Thompson, a recovering addict who got hooked on heroin and relied on home delivery while going to law school in Philadelphia, described the delivery men who came to her door at an apartment building there as prompt and courteous.

"I never felt unsafe with them," said the 30-year-old Thompson, now policy coordinator with the New Jersey Drug Policy Alliance. "They wanted the business. And I was a good customer for a long time."

Downstream, "it's hand to hand — the dealer's hands to the buyer's hands," Brennan said. "That has to go on no matter what. There's no anonymity at that point."

Democratic candidates hoping to land a spot on September's primary ballot are entering a critical stage of their campaigns as party activists begin meeting in small caucuses across the state this weekend.

BOSTON (AP) — Democratic candidates hoping to land a spot on September's primary ballot are entering a critical stage of their campaigns as party activists begin meeting in small caucuses across the state this weekend.

The caucuses will continue for the next month with the goal of electing 3,889 delegates and 1,525 alternates to attend the Massachusetts Democratic Convention in Worcester in June.

The selection process is key to the political hopes of candidates who must win the backing of at least 15 percent of convention delegates to get their name on the Democratic primary ballot.

Veteran Democrats like Attorney General Martha Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman — both of whom are running for governor — should have no problem pulling in more than enough delegates than needed.

But the 15 percent threshold will prove more daunting for lesser-known candidates, including Newton pediatrician Don Berwick, former federal Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem and former Wellesley Selectman Joseph Avellone — each of whom is also seeking the governor's office.

If they don't reach the threshold, their gubernatorial hopes will be cut short.

That urgency explains the focus candidates have placed on trying to round up the backing of local party activists. That means not just traveling around the state to meet face-to-face with activists but also appealing to potential delegates through emails, on candidate websites and through social media sites like Twitter.

Those online efforts are critical, given the sheer number of caucuses — more than 500 from Feb. 8 to March 2 — making it impossible for candidates to attend each, though most Democratic candidates are planning to attend as many caucuses as they can starting Saturday.

To help guarantee they get the 15 percent needed at the June convention, candidates try to encourage their supporters to run as delegates.

Kayyem, for example, is urging her backers not only to run to become delegates but to also recruit other supporters to form a "Kayyem slate" to help improve her chances of electing enough pledged delegates.

State Democratic Party Chairman Tom McGee said he feels good about the party's chances in this year's elections. In Massachusetts, Democrats already hold every statewide office, every congressional seat and overwhelming majorities in the state House and Senate.

"The unprecedented number of qualified candidates we have is a testament to the deep talent pool of Massachusetts Democrats and to the issues and ideas we as Democrats put forward," McGee said in a statement announcing the caucuses.

The caucuses are open to all registered Democrats in Massachusetts. Delegates apportioned to each ward and town must be equally divided between men and women.

Republicans just recently wrapped more than 300 caucuses statewide. The 15 percent rule also applies to the GOP, which is having its convention March 22 in Boston.

It's not just gubernatorial candidates who are keeping an eye on the Democratic caucuses. There are several other crowded races for statewide office. Candidates in those contests must also clear the 15 percent threshold to get on the ballot.

There are three Democratic candidates running for attorney general (Maura Healey, Harold Naughton and Warren Tolman), three for state treasurer (Tom Conroy, Barry Finegold and Deb Goldberg) and five for lieutenant governor (Leland Cheung, James Arena-DeRosa, Jonathan Edwards, Steve Kerrigan and Mike Lake).

While only registered Democrats from each ward or town will be allowed to vote for delegates, the caucuses are open to the public.

A Ukrainian man who allegedly tried to hijack a Turkey-bound commercial flight and divert it to Sochi on the day of the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony wanted to press for the release of anti-government protesters in his country, authorities say.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A Ukrainian man who allegedly tried to hijack a Turkey-bound commercial flight and divert it to Sochi on the day of the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony wanted to press for the release of anti-government protesters in his country, authorities said Saturday.

Turkey's transport minister suggested the man probably acted alone and didn't have any links to terror groups.

The 45-year old Ukrainian man, identified by Turkish media as Artem Hozlov, claimed he had a bomb and tried to divert a Pegasus Airlines flight, which originated in Kharkiv, Ukraine, to Sochi, Russia, on Friday. The crew tricked him and landed the plane in Istanbul instead where he was subdued by security officers who sneaked on board. Turkish authorities said no bomb was found.

The foiled hijacking took place as thousands of athletes from around the world poured into a tightly-secured stadium in Sochi amid warnings the games could be a terror target.

The man was being questioned by police for possible links to terror groups, according to Turkey's state-run TRT television. It wasn't clear when charges would be brought.

"We think it was an individual thing," Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan told reporters in response to questions on to whether the incident was a "terrorist" act. "It may be linked to (events in) Ukraine... Our colleagues say it is not a serious issue."

Maxim Lenko, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service's investigative division, said the Kharkiv resident wanted to divert the plane to Sochi where Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych were meeting on the sidelines of the Olympics.

"The passenger put forth the demand to free the 'hostages' in Ukraine," Lenko said, in reference to people arrested in the ongoing protests in Ukraine. "Otherwise, he threatened to blow up the plane."

Turkey's private NTV television quoting an unnamed passenger on board the plane said the man was demanding freedom for prisoners in Ukraine as well as former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is Yanukovych's top foe and serving a seven-year sentence on charges of abuse of office.

Huge protests began in Ukraine when Yanukovych shelved an agreement to deepen ties with the 28-nation European Union in favor of getting a $15 billion loan from Russia. Many Ukrainians resent the long shadow Russia has cast over Ukraine.

The protests quickly expanded their grievances to calls for Yanukovych's resignation and the denunciation of police violence after the brutal dispersal of some early peaceful rallies. The demonstrations erupted into clashes last month after Yanukovych approved harsh laws against protesters. At least three protesters died in the clashes.

Master Sgt. Andrew Biscoe said one young female was taken to a local hospital for treatment of a minor injury, but overall the situation had a happy ending.

CHICOPEE — Emergency crews at three military bases in New England were waiting on stand-by Saturday afternoon after a C-5 Galaxy aircraft suddenly lost cabin pressure above the Atlantic Ocean while en route to the U.S. from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

According to Lt. Andre Bowser at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, the C-5, which is the largest aircraft in the Air Force's arsenal, was assigned to the Western Massachusetts base. Ambulances had gathered at Westover, Hanscom Air Base in Bedford and Pease Air National Guard Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire awaiting a potential emergency landing as a precaution.

"A C-5 B assigned to Westover Air Reserve Base was returning from overseas en route to Dover Air Force Base at 34,000 feet with 25 crew and passengers when the aircraft experienced a loss of pressurization shortly after 11 a.m. while over the Atlantic Ocean," Bowser said in a statement. "As a precaution, the aircraft was diverted to Westover ARB for maintenance actions."

Master Sgt. Andrew Biscoe said one young female was taken to a local hospital for treatment of a minor injury, but overall the situation had a happy ending.

"This was absolutely a serious incident, especially when you consider the altitude they were at. The oxygen masks deployed and people were breathing through those," Biscoe said. "When the plane touched down here at Westover at 2:29 p.m., I breathed a sigh of relief."

While the C-5 could have landed at any of the aforementioned bases, Biscoe said the decision to land at Westover was because the Chicopee facility has the longest runway, providing the best chance for the massive aircraft to safely land.

Biscoe said the 1987 C-5 will undergo a thorough inspection to determine what went wrong on its path to repairs and eventually a return to flight.