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A longtime Boy Scout leader in central Massachusetts has been arrested on child pornography charges.

ASHBURNHAM, Mass. (AP) — A longtime Boy Scout leader in central Massachusetts has been arrested on child pornography charges.

Authorities say 75-year-old Joseph Cormier was arraigned in Winchendon District Court on Thursday and held on $25,000 bail on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography.

Police say Cormier was arrested after police searched his home computer equipment and recovered pornographic images.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and there may be more charges. There is no evidence that any scouts were involved.

Cormier has been a local Scout Master since 1982.

The executive director of the Nashua Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement that the allegations are shocking and Cormier has been removed as a scout volunteer.

The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm.

The Associated PressIn this June 12, 2011 file photo, Robert Iger srrives at The 22nd Annual A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival Sponsored by Disney at Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles. Iger is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. (AP Photo/Katy Winn, File)

By BERNARD CONDON and CHRISTINA REXRODE, AP Business Writers

NEW YORK (AP) — Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs.

The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm.

That was up more than 6 percent from the previous year, and is the second year in a row of increases. The figure is also the highest since the AP began tracking executive compensation in 2006.

Companies trimmed cash bonuses but handed out more in stock awards. For shareholder activists who have long decried CEO pay as exorbitant, that was a victory of sorts.

That's because the stock awards are being tied more often to company performance. In those instances, CEOs can't cash in the shares right away: They have to meet goals first, like boosting profit to a certain level.

The idea is to motivate CEOs to make sure a company does well and to tie their fortunes to the company's for the long term. For too long, activists say, CEOs have been richly rewarded no matter how a company has fared — "pay for pulse," as some critics call it.

To be sure, the companies' motives are pragmatic. The corporate world is under a brighter, more uncomfortable spotlight than it was a few years ago, before the financial crisis struck in the fall of 2008.

Last year, a law gave shareholders the right to vote on whether they approve of the CEO's pay. The vote is nonbinding, but companies are keen to avoid an embarrassing "no."

"I think the boards were more easily shamed than we thought they were," says Stephen Davis, a shareholder expert at Yale University, referring to boards of directors, which set executive pay.

In the past year, he says, "Shareholders found their voice."

The typical CEO got stock awards worth $3.6 million in 2011, up 11 percent from the year before. Cash bonuses fell about 7 percent, to $2 million.

The value of stock options, as determined by the company, climbed 6 percent to a median $1.7 million. Options usually give the CEO the right to buy shares in the future at the price they're trading at when the options are granted, so they're worth something only if the shares go up.

Profit at companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index rose 16 percent last year, remarkable in an economy that grew more slowly than expected.

CEOs managed to sell more, and squeeze more profit from each sale, despite problems ranging from a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating to an economic slowdown in China and Europe's neverending debt crisis.

The Associated PressThis undated file photo provided by Discovery Communications Inc., shows president and CEO David Zaslav. Zaslav is one of the top 10 highest paid CEOs at publicly held companies in America last year, according to calculations by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm, and The Associated Press. The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. (AP Photo/Discovery Communications, Inc.)

Still, there wasn't much immediate benefit for the shareholders. The S&P 500 ended the year unchanged from where it started. Including dividends, the index returned a slender 2 percent.

Shareholder activists, while glad that companies are moving a bigger portion of CEO pay into stock awards, caution that the rearranging isn't a cure-all.

For one thing, companies don't have to tie stock awards to performance. Instead, they can make the awards automatically payable on a certain date — meaning all the CEO has to do is stick around.

Other companies do tie stock awards to performance but set easy goals. Sometimes, "they set the bar so low, it would be difficult for an executive not to trip over it," says Patrick McGurn, special counsel at Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises pension funds and other big investors on how to vote.

And for many shareholders, their main concern — that pay is just too much, no matter what the form — has yet to be addressed.

"It's just that total (compensation) is going up, and that's where the problem lies," says Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

The typical American worker would have to labor for 244 years to make what the typical boss of a big public company makes in one. The median pay for U.S. workers was about $39,300 last year. That was up 1 percent from the year before, not enough to keep pace with inflation.

Since the AP began tracking CEO pay five years ago, the numbers have seesawed. Pay climbed in 2007, fell during the recession in 2008 and 2009 and then jumped again in 2010.

To determine 2011 pay packages, the AP used Equilar data to look at the 322 companies in the S&P 500 that had filed statements with federal regulators through April 30. To make comparisons fair, the sample includes only CEOs in place for at least two years.

Among the AP's other findings:

— David Simon, CEO of Simon Property, which operates malls around the country, is on track to be the highest-paid in the AP survey, at $137 million. That was almost entirely in stock awards that could eventually be worth $132 million. The company said it wanted to make sure Simon wasn't lured to another company. He has been CEO since 1995; his father and uncle are Simon Property's co-founders.

This month, Simon Property's shareholders rejected Simon's pay package by a large margin: 73 percent of the votes cast for or against were against.

But the company doesn't appear likely to change the 2011 package. After the shareholder vote, it released a statement saying that "we value our stockholders' input" and would "take their views into consideration as (the board) reviews compensation plans for our management team." But it also said that Simon's performance had been stellar and it needed to pay him enough to keep him in the job.

Simon's paycheck looks paltry compared with that of Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose pay package was valued at $378 million when he became CEO in August. That was almost entirely in stock awards, some of which won't be redeemable until 2021, so the value could change dramatically. Cook wasn't included in the AP study because he is new to the job.

— Of the five highest-paid CEOs, three were also in the top five the year before. All three are in the TV business: Leslie Moonves of CBS ($68 million); David Zaslav of Discovery Communications, parent of Animal Planet, TLC and other channels ($52 million); and Philippe Dauman of Viacom, which owns MTV and other channels ($43 million).

— About two in three CEOs got raises. For 16 CEOs in the sample, pay more than doubled from a year earlier, including Bank of America's Brian Moynihan (from $1.3 million to $7.5 million), Marathon Oil's Clarence Cazalot Jr. (from $8.8 million to $29.9 million) and Motorola Mobility's Sanjay Jha (from $13 million to $47.2 million).

— CEOs running health-care companies made the most ($10.8 million). Those running utilities made the least ($7 million).

— Perks and other personal benefits, such as hired drivers or personal use of company airplanes, rose only slightly, and some companies cut back, saying they wanted to align their pay structure with "best practices."

Military contractor General Dynamics stopped paying for country club memberships for top executives, though it gave them payments equivalent to three years of club fees to ease "transition issues" caused by the change.

The typical pay of $9.6 million that Equilar calculated is the median value, or the midpoint, of the companies used in the AP analysis. In other words, half the CEOs made more and half less.

To value stock awards and stock options, the AP used numbers supplied by the companies. Those figures are based on formulas the companies use to estimate what the stock and options will eventually be worth when a CEO receives the stock or cashes in the options.

Stock awards are generally valued based on the stock's current price. Stock options are valued using company estimates that take into account the stock's current price, how long until the CEO can cash the options in, how the stock price is expected to move before then, and expected dividends. Estimates don't generally take inflation into account.

The shift to stock awards is at least partly rooted in what is known as the Dodd-Frank law, passed in the wake of the financial crisis, which overhauled how banks and other public companies are regulated.

Beginning last year, Dodd-Frank required public companies to let shareholders vote on whether they approve of the top executives' pay packages. The votes are advisory, so companies don't have to take back even a penny if shareholders give them the thumbs-down. But shame has proved a powerful motivator.

It got Hewlett-Packard to change its ways. After an embarrassing "no" vote last year on the 2010 pay packages, including nearly $24 million for ousted CEO Mark Hurd, the company huddled with more than 200 investment firms and major shareholders, then threw out its old pay formula. New CEO Meg Whitman is getting $1 a year in salary and no guaranteed bonus for 2011. Nearly all her pay is in stock options that could be worth $16 million, but only if the share price goes up.

Other companies took notice, too. Last year, shareholders rejected the CEO pay packages at Janus Capital, homebuilder Beazer Homes and construction company Jacobs Engineering Group. All won approval this year after the companies made the packages more palatable to shareholders.

To be sure, shareholders aren't voting en masse against executive pay. Instead, they seem to be saving "no" votes for the executives they deem most egregious.

Of more than 3,000 U.S. companies that held votes in 2011, only 43 got rejections, according to ISS. But the mere presence of the "say on pay" vote is triggering change, shareholder activists say.

"Companies that have gone through that trial by fire don't want to go through it again," says McGurn, the ISS special counsel.

Even Chesapeake Energy, a company perennially in the cross-hairs of corporate-governance activists, is bowing to pressure. The company has drawn fire for showering CEO Aubrey McClendon with assorted goodies. In addition to handing him big pay packages — $17.9 million for 2011 — Chesapeake in recent years has spent millions sponsoring the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, which he partially owns, paying him for his collection of antique maps and letting him buy stakes in company wells.

Last year, shareholders of the natural gas producer passed the proposed 2010 pay package but by a low margin, 58 percent. This year, with shareholder pressure mounting, the board has ended some of McClendon's perks and stripped him of his title as chairman. A lawsuit settlement is forcing him to buy back his $12 million worth of maps.

After losing the chairman job, McClendon issued a statement saying the demotion "reflects our determination to uphold strong corporate governance standards." Chesapeake will seek shareholder approval for McClendon's 2011 pay at its annual meeting in June.

So far, Citigroup is the highest-profile company to have its pay package rejected this year. The bank planned to pay CEO Vikram Pandit about $15 million for his work last year, noting that he had returned the company to profitability in 2010 and worked for $1 that year. Shareholders, who watched the stock price plunge 44 percent in 2011 (after adjusting for a reverse stock split) weren't so forgiving.

It's usually around January that boards decide how much to pay a CEO for the previous year. Then they inform shareholders and ask for their vote in the spring — usually after the cash portion has already been handed out. For Pandit, that meant he had already received $7 million in salary and cash bonus by the time shareholders voted against his pay.

In a statement, Citi said it took the vote seriously and planned to "carefully consider" the input of major shareholders. It hasn't given more specifics. Richard Parsons, who retired as Citi's chairman after the April annual meeting, as previously planned, said after the vote that the board should have done a better job explaining to shareholders how it determined CEO pay.

Another big change is that more companies are giving themselves the right to take back a top executive's pay from previous years if they determine that the executive acted inappropriately to inflate the company's financial results.

The Dodd-Frank overhaul will eventually require public companies to include such broad "claw back" provisions, which will expand on narrowly written rules from a decade ago. But companies aren't waiting. In a separate study, Equilar found that 84 percent of Fortune 100 companies now include claw backs in their executive pay packages, up from 18 percent in 2006.

Last year, the former CEO of Beazer Homes agreed with regulators, who cited the older claw back rules, to turn over $6.5 million he had earned when profits were inflated. In February, UBS took back half of the previous year's bonuses awarded to many investment bankers because of subsequent losses in the unit.

Picking the right mix of incentives is partly just guesswork, and sometimes the results are simply a force of serendipity. Stocks can get swept up in rising or falling markets, so the fortunes of CEOs with well-designed pay packages can reflect luck — good or bad — not just managerial skills.

In February 2009, James Rohr, the head of PNC Financial Services, was granted options that allowed him to buy shares in the future at the then-current price, which had fallen 62 percent in five months on its way to a 17-year low the next month.

The stock has since doubled, and the options, mostly based on hitting certain profit and cost-cutting goals, are worth more than $20 million in paper profit, according to research by GMI Rating, a corporate governance watchdog. If investors had bought PNC stock just before the financial crisis in 2008, they would still be down more than a fifth.

Luck, of course, can cut both ways. Rohr is still waiting to cash in options granted in 2007, valued then at $2.5 million, when the stock was 18 percent higher than it is today.

Some shareholder groups doubt that ever-higher CEO pay, ingrained as it is in the corporate psyche, will ever be refashioned dramatically enough to satisfy shareholders and consumer groups who see the paychecks as too big, too disconnected from performance, and set by wealthy directors who are oblivious to the way that most of their shareholders live.

"I hope we have seen the last of this," says Rosanna Weaver of the CtW Investment Group, which works on shareholder issues with union-sponsored pension funds and has lobbied against CEO pay packages at a number of companies. "But I would be very surprised, just given what I know of human nature, let alone what I know of the financial markets."

Still, she's encouraged by the change that has already been stirred.

"It's a very big task," Weaver says. "I still believe it is worth trying."

Weatherwise, Saturday looks to be the best of the three-day weekend with sunny skies and a high of 84.

File photo by Damian Dovarganes / Associated PressTravelers fill up at a gas station for an early start on the Memorial Day weekend traffic in Valencia, Calif., about this time last year. Cheaper gas is not expected tot be enough to spur many more road trips this summer. Economists and tourism experts are expecting only a small uptick in summer travelers.

SPRINGFIELD – State police reported traffic was flowing smoothly Friday morning as the Memorial Day weekend looms.

“Traffic is like any other Friday morning,” said Sgt. Alan Joubert shortly after 7:30 a.m. “I don’t really see any big increase at this point. Traffic typically picks up later in the day.”

State police on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Westfield and in Northampton and Shelburne Falls also reported typical Friday morning traffic.

AAA is predicting that 1.54 million New Englanders plan to travel over Memorial Day weekend, up 0.4 percent from the number of people who traveled over Memorial Day weekend last year.

Of those, 1.39 million, or 9.5 percent of the region’s population, plan to travel by car, that is a slim 0.6 percent rate of growth from 2011.

Nationally, 34.7 million Americans plan to travel over during the traditional start of summer.

Weatherwise, Saturday looks to be the best of the three-day weekend with mostly sunny skies and a high 0f 84, according to CBS3 meteorologists.

Sunday will be humid with a high of 76 and chance of showers.

Monday will see a high of 85 and a chance of afternoon showers.

Click here for a listing of Western Massachusetts Memorial Day weekend events.

Boston's Faneuil Hall is celebrating the opening of a new visitor's center.The new enhanced facility includes interactive exhibits, an audio visual orientation program, handicapped-accessible public restrooms, and a bookstore.

AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)Boston's Faneuil Hall is celebrating the opening of a new visitor's center.

BOSTON (AP) — Boston's Faneuil Hall is celebrating the opening of a new visitor's center.

The new enhanced facility includes interactive exhibits, an audio visual orientation program, handicapped-accessible public restrooms, and a bookstore.

The space also includes 7,400 square feet for visitor services and community meeting space.

The project is a collaboration of the city of Boston and the National Park Service.

Among those planning to be on hand to celebrate the opening on Friday is U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano.

The historic hall has hosted key events in the nation's history, from the American Revolution through contemporary political debates.

Ludlow and state police continue to probe the crash.

LUDLOW - Investigators continue to probe a single-car crash on Cady Street early Monday night that sent a 29-year-old Ludlow man to Baystate Medical Center in Chicopee with serious injuries.

Police have identified the victim as Michael Murray. A Baystate spokeswoman could not provide any information on Murray Friday morning.

Police have said the victim was driving a Chrysler Sebring at a high rate of speed shortly before 6:30 p.m. when it went off the road near Grimes Street and struck a tree.

Cady Street was closed for about four hours while authorities investigated and cleared the crash site,

Lt. Paul Madera said state police are assisting in the investigation.

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"Not a decision we came to lightly," said Carol Johnson, executive director of the Amherst Cinema Arts Center.

Republican file photo

Northampton’s historic Pleasant Street Theater, an iconic destination for art house film since the mid-1970s, will close on June 8.

“This was not a decision we came to lightly, or without sadness,” said Carol Johnson, executive director of the Amherst Cinema Arts Center.

In a release to news media on the morning of May 25, Johnson said, “And it was not a decision about the future of independent film and world cinema in our Valley.

“Our Valley loves film! This decision was about how best to fulfill our mission and how to use our future resources to meet the growing needs of an expanding regional audience.”

After the Pleasant Street Theater closed in 2007, the Amherst Cinema Arts Center — a member-supported nonprofit — re-opened the theater under its umbrella.

“We gave it our all, and evaluated many options for keeping the Pleasant Street Theater open before concluding that the theater is physically inadequate as a venue in which to continue our mission,” said Johnson.

“We would have been looking at significant expenditures just to stay current with the technology that is essential for vibrant arts programming today.”

“Also, today’s audiences expect good sight lines and a comfortable theater-going environment, two things the size and configuration of the Pleasant Street Theater make impossible.

“ On top of that, the theater, which we rent, is not handicapped-accessible and cannot be made so because of space limitations. These factors, combined with the costs of updated technology, led to the decision to focus our efforts in a way that best serves our audience.”

The Amherst Cinema Arts Center is an independent arts organization that presents current-release film not typically shown in commercial cineplexes, and offers a range of educational and cultural programs. It was built and opened in 2006.

“The Amherst Cinema is thriving and offers superb first-run film in a comfortable, fully-accessible theater. In addition, we can offer the Valley a broad range of events captured live in HD, such as ballet performances and plays from Britain’s National Theatre.

“The theater has also become a favorite venue for visiting filmmakers and other artists. We plan to continue our current-release film offerings and special film series, expand our educational programming, and present a wide array of other arts programs at Amherst Cinema,” said Johnson.

“The Amherst Cinema offers a variety of exciting opportunities, and we look forward to building on its success with the support of an active member base that spans the entire Pioneer Valley.”

All employees of the Pleasant Street Theater will be offered work at the Amherst Cinema. We are not laying anyone off. Staffing changes will also be managed through attrition at both theaters.

“We thank our community – film lovers, supporters and believers in the power of independent cinema – who helped keep the Pleasant Street Theater alive and open for over four years after its closing in 2007,” said Johnson.

“We have been honored to be a part of the Pleasant Street Theater’s storied history. Our Valley has benefitted from the love and knowledge of cinema that the theater’s founders, Richard Pini and John Morrison, brought to this creative adventure, and the theater’s decades-long place as a destination for art house cinema.”

“We thank the theater’s friends, patrons and community members for their support. We will do our best to carry on its legacy,” said Johnson. Special farewell screenings at the Pleasant Street Theater are being planned for June 8 and will be announced at a later date.

Brault served in the military for more than 30 years and is now the commander of the American Legion post 275.

Photo by Michael S. Gordon / The RepublicanChicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette introduces the 2012 Charles H. Tracy award recipient, reitred Maj. Louis E. Brault Jr., of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, during a ceremony in Chicopee Thursday. The annual ceremony recognizes veterans for volunteer service. Brault is commander of the Charles Kennedy American Legion Post 275 in Chicopee.

CHICOPEE – For years Louis E. Brault Jr. has organized biannual picnics at the Holyoke Soldiers’ home, every Christmas he makes sure the residents have shopping help and runs frequent visiting trips to the home.

But that isn’t all, the retired Army National Guard major, now serves as the commander of the American Legion post 275, has run dinners for Army National Guard members returning from Iraq, organized a 9-11 memorial service, is key in running luncheons for Gold Star Families, helps with the Chicopee Parade Committee and is always there to assist any veteran young and old.

Thursday Brault was named the 2012 Charles H. Tracy Award recipient.

“This year’s honoree is the definition of the go-to guy,” Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette said.

The award is given to a Chicopee veteran who has gone above and beyond to help fellow veterans. This is the fifth time the award, named in honor of a Civil War Veteran, has been given the week before the Memorial Day celebrations.

The veterans department in the city does a good job but it cannot do it alone. The idea behind the award it to recognize the people who volunteer to do so much behind the scenes, he said.

Brault, an employee at the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Conn., joined the Navy in 1970 and served in the Seabees. Brault said he decided to join the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. Ironically he got his draft notice while in training.

He said he did serve off-and-on in Vietnam since the Seabees are sent to different locations, complete a building project and then move to the next spot.

After he was discharged in 1974, Brault joined the Army National Guard, where he served for more than 30 years in a wide number of positions including medic, platoon leader and infantry company commander. He retired from the military in 2002 as a major and the state food service officer.

When asked why he does so much volunteer work for veterans Brault said, “Because I can.”

Brault said veterans’ needs now are wide-ranging. There are younger men and women returning from war who are looking for information about education and health benefits.

“A lot are looking for jobs. There are a lot of job issues we are dealing with,” he said.

Older veterans are mostly looking for information about health benefits and some are looking for burial regulations especially for the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Agawam, he said.

Brault said he helps when he can but said the city’s Veterans’ Services department does a good job and he often refers people there.

“We are lucky to have a Veterans’ department. They do not let a lot go by,” he said.

The graduates will head to 82 different colleges and universities in the fall.

SUFFIELD - At the 179th Suffield Academy commencement held Friday on the campus, Headmaster Charles Cahn III congratulated the graduates who come “from all parts of the world to study and prepare for the future.”

Cahn said the Class of 2012 has been at Suffield Academy during a remarkable period in the school’s history, with more than $30 million of new facilities constructed through gifts to the school and with more than 1,000 students interviewing each year for the 120 available openings.

There were 121 graduates who received their diplomas Friday.

The keynote speaker was Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corporation.

Stringer, born in Cardiff, Wales, and educated in Great Britain, emigrated to the United States. Before joining Sony in 1997, Stringer had a 30-year career at CBS, where he produced “CBS Reports”, “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” and served as president both of CBS News and CBS Inc.

Stringer told the graduating class, “It’s not what you accumulate in the way of money or Twitter followers or Facebook friends that matters. It’s what you mean to the people and the world around you along the way.”

Stringer’s son, David, is a member of this year’s graduating class.

Graduating seniors will head to 82 different colleges and universities next fall.

Colin Dowd, a member of the class of 2012, spoke to his fellow classmates about his journey with cancer after he learned in 2010 that he had a rare tumor in his lung which was ultimately removed.

Dowd said that in the following long days of chemotherapy and radiation after his 18th birthday, he knew he had a second home and safe haven at Suffield Academy.

“To the whole Suffield community surrounding me tonight, you helped a young man survive and win his battle with cancer and made three years of his life some of the most special ones he could ask for,” Dowd told his graduating classmates.

Among Native Americans, the varying opinions demonstrate that Indian identity is subjective even among Indians themselves.

AP File photoIn this May 2, 2012 file photo, Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate Elizabeth Warren responds to questions from reporters on her Native American heritage during a news conference at Liberty Bay Credit Union headquarters, in Braintree, Mass. During her long career as a law school professor, Democratic U.S. Sen. hopeful Elizabeth Warren sometimes has presented herself as having Native American ancestry.

By JESSE WASHINGTON
AP National Writer

What, exactly, makes someone American Indian?

Even Indians themselves don't agree as they debate the case of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, whose disputed claim of Native American identity is shining a rare spotlight on the malleable nature of Indian heritage and the long history of murky claims to such ancestry.

Warren, a Harvard Law School professor and Democrat who is running in Massachusetts against Republican incumbent Sen. Scott Brown, was listed as Native American in several law school directories. Warren has said that her "family lore" described Indian ancestors, and the New England Genealogy Association said it found indications — but not proof — that Warren had a Cherokee great-great-great grandmother, which would make her 1/32 Indian.

"I'm proud of my heritage," Warren said Thursday. Asked how she knew it included Native Americans, she replied, "Because my mother told me so."

Her opponents question whether Warren chose this heritage to gain advantages available to Indians and other underrepresented groups in academia.

"Warren has zero evidence that she is at all Native American," said Brown's campaign manager, Jim Barnett. The genealogy association acknowledges that it found only secondary references to Cherokee family members, not primary sources such as marriage, birth or census records.

Among Native Americans, the varying opinions demonstrate that Indian identity is subjective even among Indians themselves.

When David Eugene Wilkins first saw Warren interviewed during her nomination to a federal post, he was smitten by her intelligence and politics. But when he heard about her claims of Indian ancestry, "I shook my head and said, 'Oh no.'"

"For us it was always about allegiance rather than biology or ancestry," said Wilkins, an enrolled member of the Lumbee tribe and professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota.

"It's where you place your political, cultural, emotional allegiance. She lived her entire life and never had any association whatsoever with any community. So something doesn't wash for me," Wilkins said.

But David Treuer, an award-winning writer and Ojibwe Indian from Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota, said there is a difference between Indian identity and ancestry — you can have one without the other.

"An Indian identity is something someone claims for oneself; it is a matter of choice," Treuer wrote in a Washington Post essay titled, "Elizabeth Warren says she's Native American. So she is."

There are 566 federally recognized Native American tribes, each with its own rules for membership, according to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA. Some tribes require a "blood quantum" measurement of as much as one-half or one-quarter Indian ancestry; others require a certain place of birth or residence.

Wilkins, the professor, is married to a Navajo with many siblings. "I've asked them what defines a Navajo," he said. "One said you have to speak the language. Another said you have to live within our sacred mountains. Another said no, you have to take part in ceremonial life. All this in one family!"

According to census figures provided by the BIA, an estimated 4.5 million people identify themselves as American Indians or Alaska Natives, including those who say they are more than one race. But in a 2005 report, the most recent available, the BIA counted just 2 million enrolled tribal members — which means that fewer than half of all people claiming Indian heritage are recognized by a tribe.

"There's an old joke in this corner of Indian Country that if you meet someone who doesn't know anything about tribal affairs but claims they're Indian, they'll say they're Cherokee," Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton, a spokesperson for the Cherokee Nation, said by e-mail.

Warren grew up in Oklahoma, home of the 310,000-member Cherokee Nation, the largest Indian tribe. Warren does not claim official Cherokee membership, which is based on the "Dawes Rolls," a federal list of Cherokees in Oklahoma from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many people have legitimate Cherokee ancestry but are not eligible for membership because their ancestors were not among those counted, Krehbiel-Burton said.

But "some people falsely claim Native heritage simply out of ignorance," Krehbiel-Burton said. "They've been told for years that they had a great-grandmother (or something similar) who was a Cherokee princess and assume that it's true."

Warren spoke of a similar oral tradition when she mentioned an heirloom photo of her grandfather: "My Aunt Bea has walked by that picture at least a thousand times (and) remarked that he — her father, my papaw — had high cheekbones like all of the Indians do."

Even President Barack Obama has an Indian story, about his maternal grandmother, who was nicknamed "Toot."

"If asked, Toot would turn her head in profile to show off her beaked nose, which, along with a pair of jet-black eyes, was offered as proof of Cherokee blood," Obama wrote in his memoir, "Dreams from My Father."

But eyes, noses and cheekbones are not the issue for Rhonda LeValdo, president of the Native American Journalists Association and an enrolled member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe.

"If you're going to claim it, you have to help your people out," says LeValdo. She had seen no evidence of such involvement by Warren, but said she didn't know enough details to judge Warren's claim.

LeValdo said there are many fakers: "A lot of people find some sort of romanticism in being Native American. They think of the warrior type, or the Pocohontas stereotype. They're just taken with the idea of it."

"But to a lot of our people who live this life, it's tough," she continued. "We deal with a lot of things. A lot of us feel like if you're going to claim it, you have to do something. Don't just use it when you want to use it."

Warren has been adamant that she did not seek any advantage from Native American heritage. Records show that she declined to apply for admission to Rutgers Law School under a minority student program and identified her race as "white" on an employment record at the University of Texas, where she worked from 1983 to 1987.

She left Texas for the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where a report on minority faculty listed Warren's name. Her ethnicity became a campaign issue when the Boston Herald reported that Harvard Law, which hired Warren in 1995, listed her as a minority when the school was under pressure to diversify the faculty.

Besides potentially influencing hiring or promotion, Indian identity can have other economic advantages. Some tribes share millions in casino earnings; health care, scholarships and housing are available to some tribal members.

Native Americans have a high rate of intermarriage with other groups. Many are not identifiable by appearance, which has made it possible for almost anyone to assume a Native persona — for various purposes.

Some of the American colonists who boarded British ships during the Boston Tea Party wore Mohawk costumes. During New York anti-rent conflicts of the 1840s, white people assumed Indian garb and pidgin "Injinspeak" as they harassed patrician estates, according to the book "Playing Indian," by Philip J. Deloria.

The actor Iron Eyes Cody starred as an Indian in films from the 1930s to the '70s, and championed many Native causes. He claimed to be Cherokee, but near the end of his life was revealed to be the son of Italian immigrants. In 1976, former Ku Klux Klansman Asa Earl Carter published a fabricated and best-selling memoir, "The Education of Little Tree," under the name Forrest Carter.

"When that kind of fraud takes place it damages our people," said Wilkins, the professor.

"You have people on the outside claiming this and that to draw attention to themselves," he said, "and then people on the outside may wonder, do Native people really know who they are?"

Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. He is reachable at www.twitter.com/jessewashington or jwashington@ap.org.

The 17-year-old was last seen early on May 25, and may be driving a silver 2006 Hyundai Sonata with Connecticut license plate number 693 XYL.

Brian Graves, 17, of Manchester, Connecticut was reported missing on Friday, May 25, 2012. (Photo circulated by Manchester Police Department)

MANCHESTER, Conn. -- A Silver Alert was issued Friday for a missing Connecticut teen, Brian Graves.

The 17-year-old Manchester High School Student was last seen early on May 25, and may be driving a silver 2006 Hyundai Sonata with Connecticut license plate number 693 XYL.

Police said Graves is 6-feet, 3-inches tall, weighs about 170 pounds and he has brown hair, blue eyes and a mole on his right cheek.

Graves was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, white Reebok shoes with red and black highlights and he may be carrying a dark blue L.L. Bean backpack.

Anyone who spots Graves or his vehicle is asked to call the Manchester Police Department at 860-645-5500.

Standard & Poor's cut Bankia's credit rating to junk status because of deepening uncertainty over its restructuring plans.

By CHRISTINA REXRODE | AP Business Writer

File photo | Associated PressThe Bankia bank headquarters is seen in Madrid. Spain's market regulator suspended trading of shares in bailed-out Bankia on Friday May 25, 2012, ahead of a key board meeting at which the lender is expected to decide how much more rescue money it needs from the government. (AP Photo/Paul White, file)

NEW YORK — Another flare-up in Europe's debt crisis knocked U.S. markets lower Friday. This time, it was more trouble at a major Spanish bank.

Stock indexes were waffling between small gains and losses until news broke in the afternoon that Bankia, a hobbled Spanish lender, asked that country's government for $23.8 billion in support. Earlier in the day, Standard & Poor's cut the bank's credit rating to junk status because of deepening uncertainty over its restructuring plans.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped as much as 108 points, then recovered slightly to end down 74.92 points at 12,454.83. Concerns about Europe have sent the Dow on a steady slide this month, erasing most of its gains from the first quarter. It finished the week slightly higher, its first weekly gain for May.

The declines were broad. Eight of the 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell. The only sectors that rose were utilities and telecommunications, which investors tend to buy when they're skittish about the market. Trading volume was light ahead of the Memorial Day holiday.

Facebook, marking its one-week anniversary as a public company, fell 3.4 percent to $31.91. Talbots, the women's clothing chain, plunged 41 percent to $1.51 after announcing that a deadline expired without a deal to be bought by a private equity firm.

In addition to the new worries about Spain, the head of Germany's central bank, which has been skeptical of bailing out Greece and other weak European countries, reinforced the point when he said it was an "illusion" to think allowing euro zone countries to borrow money jointly would solve the crisis.

In Asia, media reports suggested that some of China's biggest banks will miss their annual lending targets for the first time in seven years, and Taiwan lowered its economic growth forecast for the year. Caterpillar, which relies heavily on demand from China, fell 1 percent.

In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.86 points to 1,317.82. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.85 points to 2,837.53.

Stock indexes in France, Britain, Germany and Spain rose, while Greece's ATHEX plunged 3.5 percent. Borrowing rates edged higher for Spain and Italy.

Greece's June 17 elections are an overhang on the market. The results will determine if Greece agrees to the spending cuts that it must swallow if it wants to stay in the 17-country euro zone, or if it goes its own way.

The idea of cutting government spending is unpopular in a country which is in a fifth year of recession and residents have grown accustomed to public-sector largesse. But if Greece left the euro zone, it would have to revert to its own currency. That would be severely devalued, and the country's standard of living would probably be crushed.

Greece makes up just 2 percent of the euro zone economy, but its fate would carry ripple effects to other, larger members. Unnerved traders could dump the bonds of other struggling European countries, such as Spain and Italy. Residents could start to pull money out of banks there, as has been happening in Greece.

The standoffs so far have almost always lasted until the 11th hour.

"Every time you think it's going to fall off a cliff and end very badly, something happens," said Beata Kirr, senior portfolio manager at Bernstein Global Wealth Management in Chicago. "The European Central Bank steps in to buy Italian and Spanish bonds. Or Germany softens its stance on austerity. All of these things have happened when it's past the precipice."

The money is intended to help rehabilitate historic buildings damaged by last June's tornado.

Photo by Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanGov. Deval Patrick speaks during a ceremony at the Center City Apartments at 22-24 Winthrop St., in Springfield Friday, The apartments were damaged in last year'ss tornado. At right is state Rep. Cheryl Coakley Rivera.

SPRINGFIELD – During a visit to the South End Friday, Gov. Deval L. Patrick dropped off a Memorial Day gift – a $2.1 million financing package to rehabilitate historic buildings damaged by last June’s tornado.

Accompanied by top state officials and Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Patrick announced the financing outside 22-24 Winthrop St., a century-old brick apartment building that was lashed by the storm’s 160-mph winds, forcing eight families to find other housing.

“We know what happened to the lives of the people” who lost housing during the storm, Patrick said, adding that rebuilding will take time and patience.

“We’re committed to using last year’s crisis as an opportunity ... to rebuild and rebound stronger than before,” he added.

The award was part of a $105 million in funding announced by Patrick to bolster affordable housing stocks statewide, including more than $23 million in federal low-income housing tax credits; $20 million in state low-income housing tax credits and $61 million in state and federal housing program subsidies.

The June 1 tornado tore the roof and parapet walls off the Winthrop Street building, which is owned by the Springfield-based Home City Housing Development Corp.

Under the plan announced by Patrick, Home City will use $1 million in state housing subsidies and $1.1 million in state and federal low-income housing tax credits to preserve the Winthrop Street building, plus three others in nearby neighborhoods.

Also scheduled for rehabilitation are 71 Adams St.; 91-93 Pine St. and 116 Hancock-130 Tyler St. Along with the Winthrop St. site, these properties meet criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, and their renovation has the support of the Springfield Historical Commission, city officials said.

Mayor Domenic Sarno said the funding was just the latest example of the state’s strong support in the aftermath of the June 1 tornado.

“They’ve been a great partner in not only helping us rebuild structures and infrastructures, but lives as well.”

Thomas Kegelman, Home City’s executive director, also expressed his appreciation.

“We are extremely grateful to the Governor and his staff for recognizing the importance of restoring these buildings to their former glory,” he said.

“This will be an important step in the community’s efforts to rebuild downtown Springfield with attractive apartments for Springfield’s families of all incomes,” he added.

Having a place in the city to relax and exercise is important for urban dwellers, according to the commissioner of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayMassachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Edward M. Lambert Jr. speaks during a press conference at Forest Park in Springfield, where it was announced the city will receive a grant to help rebuild trails at the park.

SPRINGFIELD — State Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Edward M. Lambert Jr. on Friday announced his department has awarded the city a $29,315 matching grant to rebuild trails at Forest Park.

The money will be used to improve and upgrade major points along Forest Park’s trail system, which totals about 18 miles, according to officials. About half the trails are closed because they are in disrepair; the grant should help refurbish about another mile, according to Parks and Recreation Director Patrick J. Sullivan.

“Working families in this time of fiscal challenges don’t have the means to put themselves on a jet to get to Europe or Disneyland,” Lambert said during a press conference at the park.

While the grant amount may be small, Lambert said it has the potential to enhance the quality of life for the city dwellers who use the park, which he described as “a jewel.”

“He is a former mayor. He gets it,” Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said of Lambert, who was mayor of Fall River for 12 years.

Sarno mayor expressed gratitude for the grant and said Lambert appreciates the need for “quiet time in an urban setting” and the need for a place to exercise in a city.

The grant is from the department’s Recreational Trails Program and will fund part of the city’s Forest Park Trails Project. It is one of eight grants totaling $188,722 awarded Friday by the department with funds drawn from that program’s 2011 funding round. The department last August awarded 42 similar grants totaling $1,286,798.

Springfield will match the grant by providing management and volunteer labor through such youth-centered organizations as Youth Build, a group that puts disadvantaged teenagers to work, and local Boy Scouts.

The other Western Massachusetts recipient of one of the eight grants is the Worthington Snowmobile club, at $2,920. The money will be used to purchase materials to enhance and maintain a trail system in Worthington, Cummington, Huntington, Chester, Middlefield and Peru.

Also taking part in the press conference was state Rep. Brian M. Ashe, D-Longmeadow, who called Forest Park a jewel not just for Springfield but for Western Massachusetts and the rest of the state. Sending representatives to the event were the offices of state Rep. Cheryl A. Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield, and state Sen. James T. Welch, D-West Springfield.

The parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the War Memorial, 310 Appleton St.

HOLYOKE — United Veterans of Holyoke will honor veterans with a wreath-laying parade and ceremony at Veterans’ Park Monday for Memorial Day.

Participants are asked to gather at the War Memorial, 310 Appleton St., at 9 a.m. for coffee and donuts, a press release said.

That will be followed by the 10:30 a.m. march down Appleton, High, Lyman and Maple streets to lay wreaths at monuments, winding up with an 11 a.m. ceremony at Veterans Park on Maple Street.

The ceremony is expected to last an hour.

“The public is welcome and encouraged to attend, to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our freedom alive,” the press release said.

If it rains, events will be in the War Memorial.

Pedro Hernandez was arraigned on a murder charge Friday, the 33rd anniversary of the boy's disappearance. He was held without bail.

AP PhotoThis undated file image provided Friday, May 28, 2010 by Stanley K. Patz shows a flyer distributed by the New York Police Department of Patz's son Etan who vanished in New York on May 25, 1979.

NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer for a man accused of strangling 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 said Friday his client is mentally ill and has a history of hallucinations.

Pedro Hernandez was arraigned on a murder charge Friday, the 33rd anniversary of the boy's disappearance. He was held without bail.

The 51-year-old Hernandez appeared in court via video camera from a conference room at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted after making comments about wanting to kill himself.

Court-appointed lawyer Harvey Fishbein told the judge Hernandez is bipolar and schizophrenic.

He didn't enter a plea. A judge ordered a psychological examination.

Hernandez, of Maple Shade, N.J., was arrested Thursday after telling police he strangled Etan in 1979, when he was an 18-year-old stock boy at a convenience store where the boy waited for his school bus.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan in a case that made New York parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and sparked a movement to publicize the cases of missing youngsters. He was one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton.

Hernandez, who emerged as a suspect just days ago, after police received a tip, told investigators that he lured the boy into the store, then led him to the basement, choked him and put his body in a bag with some trash about a block away, police said.

Authorities never found a body, and Hernandez's confession put investigators in the unusual position of bringing the case to court before they had amassed any physical evidence or had time to fully corroborate his story or investigate his psychiatric condition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were retracing garbage truck routes from the late 1970s and deciding whether to search landfills for the boy's remains, a daunting prospect.

Crime scene investigators also arrived Friday morning at the building in Manhattan's SoHo section that once held the bodega where Hernandez worked. Authorities were considering excavating the basement for evidence.

They were also looking into whether Hernandez has a history of mental illness or pedophilia.

Browne said letting Hernandez remain free until the investigation was complete was not an option: "There was no way we could release the man who had just confessed to killing Etan Patz."

Legal experts said that even though police have a confession in hand, they are likely to work hard to make certain Hernandez isn't delusional or simply making the story up.

"There's always a concern whether or not someone is falsely confessing," said former prosecutor Paul DerOhannesian.

Fishbein asked reporters to be respectful of some of Hernandez's relatives, including his wife and daughter.

"It's a tough day. The family is very upset. Please give them some space," Fishbein said.

AP Photo/John MinchilloStan Patz, father of missing child Etan Patz, arrives at his home in SoHo, Friday, May 25, 2012, in New York. New life has been breathed into the case after Pedro Hernandez implicated himself in the death of 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose disappearance 33 years ago on his way to school helped launch a missing children's movement that put kids' faces on milk cartons. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Etan's father, Stanley Patz, avoided journalists gathered outside the family's Manhattan apartment, the same one the family was living in when his son vanished.

Former Soho resident Roberto Monticello, a filmmaker who was a teenager when Patz disappeared, said he remembered Hernandez as civil but reserved and "pent-up."

"You always got the sense that if you crossed him really bad, he would hurt you," Monticello said, although he added that he never saw him hit anyone.

Monticello said Hernandez was also one of the few teenagers in the neighborhood who didn't join in the all-out search for Etan, which consumed SoHo and the city for months. "He was always around, but he never helped. He never participated," Monticello said.

Hernandez, who moved to New Jersey shortly after Etan's disappearance, suffered a back injury that has kept him on disability for years, according to police.

The Rev. George Bowen Jr., pastor at Hernandez's church in Moorestown, N.J., said he attended services regularly. "I would judge him to be shy and maybe timid. He never got involved in anything," Bowen said.

He said Hernandez's wife, Rosemary, and daughter, Becky, a college student, came to see him Thursday morning after he was taken into police custody.

"They were just crying their eyes out," Bowen said. "They were broken up. They were wrecked. It was horrible. They didn't know what they were going to do."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Hernandez gave a detailed confession that led police to believe they had the right man. He also said Hernandez told a relative and others as far back as 1981 that he had "done something bad" and killed a child in New York

Public defender Jared Olanoff argued a FBI agent sent an undercover informant after Jones although the agency also pursued a civil rights case on behalf of his client.

File photo | The RepublicanMelvin Jones will be back in court on drug trafficking charges. His lawyer argued Friday a FBI agent sent an undercover informant after his client although the agency also pursued a civil rights case on behalf of Jones.

SPRINGFIELD – A lawyer representing Melvin Jones III in a drug trafficking case argued in Hampden Superior Court Friday that an FBI agent sent an undercover informant after his client while the law enforcement agency was simultaneously exploring a civil rights case against local police on Jones' behalf.

The informant has since been charged with the murder of a 16-year-old in an unrelated case.

Jones, 30, who is black, was beaten by a white patrolman during a traffic stop in November 2009 in Springfield. The incident was caught on video, and now ex-patrolman Jeffrey M. Asher was convicted in February of assault charges and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Jones’ lawyer, public defender Jared Olanoff, filed a motion to compel FBI supervisor Mark Karangekis and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Grant to testify at a trial which will vet whether Jones was indeed selling cocaine to FBI informant Kamani Anderson in 2010.

Olanoff argued in court Karangekis and Grant were pursuing a federal civil rights prosecution against Asher and other white officers connected to the beating, but the FBI paid Anderson more than $10,000 as an undercover informant to target Jones in December 2010.

“Mark Karangekis was supervising the civil rights investigation and hired Kamani Anderson as an informant,” Olanoff said, noting that Jones met with Karangekis and Grant to discuss a federal civil rights case against police just months after the beating, but Anderson sold him drugs at the behest of the FBI within the same year.

State prosecutors have said Jones’ co-defendants, Alfred and Raheim Reid, were among the original targets of a federal investigation that focused on the inner city, as opposed to specific individuals.

Assistant District Attorney Donna Donato said the civil rights and drug investigations were on parallel tracks, and that Jones stumbled into the criminal probe of his own accord, not by being lured by the FBI’s informant.

“It’s not my fault and it’s not the FBI’s fault that (Jones’ co-defendants) brought him to sell drugs to the informant,” Donato told Judge Tina Page. “Let’s not use words like the FBI tanked the investigation. I find that offensive.”

Olanoff suggested he has an entrapment defense because Jones was not selling drugs at the time and was drawn in by Anderson.

To complicate matters, Anderson has been charged with the July 2012 murder of Tyrel Wheeler – after he was registered as an FBI informant. The teen-ager was found shot multiple times at Washington and Meredith streets.

The commonwealth has noted in court filings it will not be calling its star witness, as a result.

Page will rule later on the government’s motion to quash Grant as a witness at trial; Karangekis is scheduled to testify.

Jones, who has been in and out of jail after arrests on charges of shoplifting and
domestic assault since the 2009 beating, has been released on bail on the trafficking charge.

Demolition of an abandoned house at 43-45 Leyfred Terrace is part of a city-side effort to remove blight.

The Republican | Don TreegerTop photo, demolition begins on the the duplex at 43-45 Leyfred Terrace in Springfield in an effort by the city to remove blight from the lower Forest Park area. Below, firefighters battle a fire at the house last March. The house was abandoned.

The Republican file photo | David Molnar

SPRINGFIELD — Workers demolished Thursday a burned-out duplex at 43-45 Leyfred Terrace in a continuing effort by the city to remove blight from the lower Forest Park neighborhood.

The house was abandoned, blighted, and was further damaged in an April fire, city officials said.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and city Housing, Building and Code Enforcement officials gathered at the site Thursday, saying the demolitiion and cleanup will cost about $35,000, through the federally funded Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Charlie Arment Trucking was razing the building as subcontractor.

Under demolition efforts, the city places a lien to seek recovery of costs.

Sarno also praised Lorilee Development LLC, and its manager Craig L. Spagnoli, for its ongoing rehabiliation of blighted houses in the Lower Forest Park area, aided by public funding under the neighborhood stabilization program.

Sarno said the demolition is “a continued attack on derelict foreclosed properties.”

City lawyer Lisa C. DeSousa said Springfield is continuing to pursue Housing Court action against the owners of blighted properties, and court-appointed receivers to oversee the sites, and demolition orders if necessary.

"I'm not angry at the city," Ron Davis said. "I just got sick of looking at it."

The Republican | Mark M. MurrayRon Davis, a Springfield resident, stands in the center of Avalon Park, located at the corner of Allen and White streets, which also includes a veterans memorial marker. He paid a contractor to cut the knee-high grass because it became an eyesore in the neighborhood.

SPRINGFIELD — The ragged-looking grass growing up around the veterans’ monument in the center of Avalon Park was getting on Ron Davis’ nerves.

That’s why on Friday Davis, who lives across from the park on Revere Street with his wife Barbara, paid a contractor $175 from his own pocket to cut the grass in time for Memorial Day.

“I’m not angry at the city,” Davis said. “I just got sick of looking at it.”

Patrick J. Sullivan, director of Springfield parks, buildings and recreation management, said he’s also sick of looking at unkempt parks.

But budget constraints have forced him to prioritize. He’s only been able to mow around children’s playgrounds and athletic fields and a few smaller parks, particularly those at or near entrances to the city like on State Street or Island Pond Road.

All the terraces will be mowed at least twice during June, before the city’s budget year runs out. After that, he hopes to get more inmate crews from the Hampden County Correctional Center or crews of horticulture students from Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy.

Sullivan said he’s gotten a lot of complaints and he welcomes people to call in. He knows of other neighbors who, like Davis, have taken matters into their own hands. He thanked everyone, including Davis, for their efforts and asked that he be made aware of what people are doing. That way he can direct resources to parks that don’t have neighborhood benefactors.

“We haven’t enjoyed this,” Sullivan said. “Just drive through the city. The trash isn’t picked up as fast. The weeds are growing up. I’m angry. I know that we have a lot of people in Springfield who work hard to pay their taxes. They deserve better.”

An adopt-a-terrace program is in place, but it is more than 20 years old and many who adopted are no longer active, Sullivan said.

The city has a total of 180 terraces, Sullivan said. Some are landscaped boulevard strips or green spaces at the center of cul-de-sacs. Some are really small parks like Avalon, a triangle-shaped piece of land bounded by White and Allen streets that features a few monuments and sidewalks along with greenery.

The city built Avalon Park in 1999 on land where a blighted apartment building had been demolished. Franklyn C. and Carole E. Bacon donated the veterans monument in 2001.

The city’s parks budget went from $8.5 million for fiscal year 2011 to $7.5 million for fiscal year 2012, which ends July 1.

Sullivan said the small-park mowing budget was about $280,000 last year and $100,000 for this fiscal year.

And Sullivan’s plight will get even worse July 1 when the new city budget goes into effect, said Mayor Domenic J. Sarno.

The new city budget that will go into effect July 1 hasn’t been finalized, but there's a $5.8 million gap that needs to be filled with either revenue or cuts.

“Either way some tough decisions are going to be made,” Sarno said.

Sarno said he knows that park maintenance speaks to a city’s quality of life and unkempt parks contribute to negative attitudes.

He praised Davis and anyone else who has stepped up on their own to help out.

The young girl fell from a third floor window of an apartment after leaning on a screen that gave way, according to the Fall River Herald.

File photo

FALL RIVER - A Fall River toddler who fell from a third-floor window earlier this week has died.

A spokesman for the Bristol District Attorney's office said the 26-month-old girl died Friday at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I.

He said his office is not releasing the girl's name.

The Fall River Herald reported the girl fell from an East Main Street apartment after leaning on a window screen that gave way. Witnesses said she lay motionless and was bleeding when emergency crews arrived.

Police are investigating, but say there's no evidence the death was suspicious. A department spokesman told the Herald the incident was "a tragic accident."