Jobs Not Jails is planning a rally on the Boston Common on April 26.

SPRINGFIELD — Donnell Wright of Springfield has two degrees, a real estate license, a Class B commercial driver’s license, and several certificates, but, because he also served 5 ½ years for a 2004 arrest for drug possession, he said he is unable to find work.

Wright said his resume does attract employers, but unfortunately his background check does the opposite.

“It gets you in the door but once they do a background check, they show you the door,” he said outside the Mason Square Library on Tuesday.

Still unemployed, Wright is a volunteer Western Massachusetts community organizer for Jobs Not Jails, a statewide organization that is seeking the dual goals of ending new prison construction and funding education, vocational training and job creation programs.

Jobs Not Jails staged a media event Tuesday afternoon at the Mason Square Library to drum up interest in an upcoming rally on Beacon Hill. People from around the state are planning to gather Saturday, April 26, at noon on the Boston Common

The group proposes that Massachusetts could reduce its need for new prisons and its overall prison population by some structural reforms.

Among them are ending mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenders, sending low-level drug offenders to treatment instead of jail, reforming the systems for awarding bail, probation and parole.. It also supports the restoration of vocational education and even college-level courses for people in prison and county jails.

A 2013 study by MassInc [pdf], an independent, non-partisan think tank focused on public policy issues, projected that Massachusetts could spend an additional $2 billion over the next 10 years without reforms in the criminal justice system.

As a result of harsher enforcement and mandatory-minimum sentencing for drug offenses, the prison population has tripled over the last 20 years, creating overcrowded prisons and county jails and the need for new facilities.

Jobs Not Jails advocates enacting reforms to lessen the prison population, and using the savings on job-creation programs.

“This is not about being soft on crime,” Wright said.

“If you break the law, then you deserve to go pay your debt to society,” he said. “But once you are released, we’re saying that you deserve the opportunity to be employed.”
As it stands now, he said, anyone in Massachusetts who has a criminal record is often considered not employable.

This is particularly acute in lower-income or minority neighborhoods, which statistically have higher arrest rates, he said.

Wright said the sequence of arrest, incarceration and release becomes cyclical. If someone is released from prison and cannot find a job, the chances are the person is going to return to crime.

The bill would allow sellers to pass along their subsidized, below-market insurance rates to new buyers and lower the limit on how much flood insurance premiums can rise each year.

MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON — The House approved legislation Tuesday night to roll back a recently enacted overhaul of the federal flood insurance program, after homeowners in flood-prone areas complained about sharp premium increases.

The bill would allow sellers to pass along their subsidized, below-market insurance rates to new buyers and lower the limit on how much flood insurance premiums can rise each year. The measure was approved 306-91.

Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who co-sponsored the bill, said it would ensure that families across the country, including those still struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy, can avoid "a wave of devastating premium hikes and foreclosures."

The bipartisan bill would tone down a 2012 law aimed at weaning hundreds of thousands of homeowners off subsidized flood insurance rates. The federal flood insurance program is now some $24 billion in the red, mostly because of huge losses from Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. The 2012 law required extensive updating of the flood maps used to set premiums.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which passed a measure in January delaying implementation of the insurance overhaul by four years.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., sponsor of the Senate bill, said Tuesday night he supports the House measure, which he said closely mirrors his bill.

The House bill "will end the most egregious problems with the flood insurance program and bring some real relief to thousands of homeowners who desperately need our help," Menendez said in a statement. "I'm encouraged by this progress and hope we can bring the bill over the finish line very, very soon."

The 2012 law was co-sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who also co-sponsored the latest fix to what she called the original law's "unintended effects" of dramatic rate increases for homeowners.

"Relief is on the way," Waters said, adding that the new bill would make insurance premiums more affordable while making the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the flood program, more accountable.

Some GOP lawmakers complained that the Republican-controlled House was going along with a measure widely supported by Democrats. A total of 180 Democrats joined 126 Republicans in supporting the bill.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, called the flood insurance program poorly run and doomed to failure, noting that it charges just 70 percent of what officials say is needed to break even.

The program uses a faulty model that understates flood risks, with the result that a single mother in Dallas who works at a grocery store subsidizes a millionaire's beachfront home, Hensarling said. "That is the definition of unfair," he said.

Implementation of the 2012 law has stirred anxiety among homeowners along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in other flood plains. Many homeowners have complained they face unaffordable rate increases. Anger over the higher rates has fueled a bipartisan drive to delay or derail many of the 2012 changes. A Senate bill approved in January delayed implementation of the insurance overhaul by four years.

The House bill would permanently repeal a provision that imposes sharp rate increases on people who buy homes in flood-prone areas. The bill also preserves below-market rates for people whose homes meet federal flood map standards.

Rates imposed by the 2012 law are particularly high in older coastal communities in states such as Florida, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey and have put a damper on home sales as prospective buyers recoil at the higher premium rates.

The House bill was brought to the floor under special rules that limit debate and require two-thirds support from those voting. That standard proved little challenge for bill supporters, despite opposition from tea party groups and other conservatives who said the measure would continue unfair federal subsidies for people who choose to live in flood-prone areas. Some environmental groups also opposed the bill, saying that climate change has increased the risk of flooding in coastal areas, making it illogical to continue to rebuild in flood-prone zones.

The House measure would also give relief to people who have bought homes after the 2012 overhaul and therefore face sharp, immediate jumps in their premiums. Those homeowners would see rate increases capped at an average of 15 percent, with a maximum of 18 percent per years.

People whose second home is in a flood zone and those whose properties have repeatedly flooded would continue to see their premiums go up by 25 percent a year until reaching a level consistent with their real risk of flooding.

FEMA would retain the ability to increase premiums each year, but the increases wouldn't be as steep as mandated under the 2012 law. A surcharge on each of 5.6 million policyholders would offset the cost of continued subsidies for about 1.1 million homeowners.

The changes proposed by the House dismayed supporters of the 2012 law, who said it began to remove incentives for people to live in costly, flood-prone areas.

"Nobody wants to see their rates go up. But taxpayers across the country don't want to support a (federal flood) program that is $24 billion in debt and climbing," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based watchdog group.

A far better solution than either the House or Senate bill would be to slow down the rate increase, even dramatically, "but still allow rates to continue to move toward their risk-based" level, Ellis said.

The icy conditions have lingered since a weekend storm that dumped a half a foot snow on the ground in parts of the South, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

ADRIAN SAINZ
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Motorists were stranded overnight and into Tuesday on icy eastern Arkansas interstates, and the state was bringing fuel to people stuck so long that they ran out of gas, slowing efforts to make the roads passable.

The icy conditions have lingered since a weekend storm that dumped a half a foot snow on the ground in parts of the South, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Some drivers said they've been stranded at a West Memphis truck stop since Sunday night because they couldn't get out of the parking lot.

Traffic was stalled Tuesday on I-55 southbound between Blytheville and West Memphis and ice created snarls over a 40-mile stretch of I-40 between Forrest City and the Mississippi River. Those areas had the most extreme tie-ups, but there were trouble spots scattered across almost the entire state.

"I understand that it takes a lot of money to buy salt and sand for the roads. Still, they knew ice was coming. They could have done better than what they have done," said trucker Ted Simpson, 56, who was hauling a load of cardboard boxes from Murfreesboro, Tenn., to Russellville, Ark.

Simpson got off the interstate in West Memphis and spoke while waiting for diesel in a half-mile line that stretched from a truck stop.

Gov. Mike Beebe's office said members of the Arkansas National Guard and Game and Fish officers were bringing fuel to motorists who ran out of gas. The governor's office also noted in a statement that the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department "is constitutionally independent from the governor's office and other state agencies."

"We've been trying to figure out why the highway department wasn't there quicker with treating those roads," Beebe said. "They tell us that what happened to them, and I have to rely on what they say, that they did pre-treat them but the rain washed it off and then was suddenly hit with the ice."

Highway department spokesman Randy Ort said it is no easy task to clear the roads when they're packed with ice.

"We'll get a jackknifed rig moved and traffic will move and then something else will happen," Ort said.

Roads that did thaw were forecast to refreeze overnight. The storm was followed by a blast of arctic air that sent temperatures plummeting into the single digits, though the forecast for West Memphis calls for temperatures to rise in the next few days.

At a Petro truck stop, more than 100 semi-trucks were stranded in the parking lot Tuesday.

Tom Pate, who was hauling grain from Owensboro, Ky., to Waco, Texas, was among those who said he'd been there since Sunday night He echoed the thoughts of many when he said the state failed to treat the roads ahead of the storm. Others complained that the truck stop had not done enough to clear its parking lot.

A message left for Ohio-based Petro after hours Tuesday wasn't immediately returned.

Trucker Ralph Wilson, 62, said he called state police and traffic information to no avail.

"You've got millions of dollars of goods just sitting there, that are going right down the tube," said Wilson, who was hauling steel from Fort Smith to Georgetown, Ky. "You can't get a wrecker, you can't get state police out here to do anything."

With temperatures in the teens and single digits overnight, crews were limited in what they could accomplish, Ort said, noting road salt is ineffective when temperatures drop below 22 degrees.

On Interstate 40 from Tennessee into Arkansas, traffic edged along at 5 mph.

Sandra Lockhart Roberts said her car had moved little more than a mile in 45 minutes.

"It's a total inconvenience," she said. "It's so stressful. Stressful. I have to calm down. Patience is a virtue."

Trucker Daniel Rayford, 38, said it took him about nine hours to get from Little Rock to Memphis on Monday. The trip usually takes two hours.

"It's crazy," Rayford said in West Memphis, about 130 miles east of Little Rock. "To get to Little Rock from here, from what I saw last night, I might get there sometime tonight and it's 11:15 a.m."

Ort said state police had to stop what movement there was on the highways so tow trucks could reach disabled vehicles.

"People get very frustrated when they don't see us working on the roadway," Ort said. "If they're not moving then we can't move. We understand their frustration."

He said the penalties against Russia are "not something we are seeking to do, it is something Russia is pushing us to do."

KIEV, Ukraine — In a somber show of U.S. support for Ukraine's new leadership, Secretary of State John Kerry walked the streets Tuesday where more than 80 anti-government protesters were killed last month, and promised beseeching crowds that American aid is on the way.

Kerry met in Ukraine with the new government's acting president, prime minister, foreign minister and top parliamentary officials. Speaking to reporters afterward, Kerry urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stand down and said the U.S. is looking for ways to de-escalate the mounting tensions.

"It is clear that Russia has been working hard to create a pretext for being able to invade further," Kerry said. "It is not appropriate to invade a country, and at the end of a barrel of a gun dictate what you are trying to achieve. That is not 21st-century, G-8, major nation behavior."

Kerry made a pointed distinction between the Ukrainian government and Putin's.

"The contrast really could not be clearer: determined Ukrainians demonstrating strength through unity, and the Russian government out of excuses, hiding its hand behind falsehoods, intimidation and provocations. In the hearts of Ukrainians and the eyes of the world, there is nothing strong about what Russia is doing."

He said the penalties against Russia are "not something we are seeking to do, it is something Russia is pushing us to do."

President Barack Obama, visiting a Washington, D.C., school to highlight his new budget, said his administration's push to punish Putin put the U.S. on "the side of history that, I think, more and more people around the world deeply believe in, the principle that a sovereign people, an independent people, are able to make their own decisions about their own lives. And, you know, Mr. Putin can throw a lot of words out there, but the facts on the ground indicate that right now he is not abiding by that principle."

Speaking at a fundraiser later Tuesday, Obama said it might be possible for the situation to "de-escalate in the next several days and weeks."

Obama also spoke for more than an hour Tuesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been in contact with Putin in recent days and whose country has deep economic ties with Russia.

The Obama administration announced a $1 billion energy subsidy package in Washington as Kerry was arriving in Kiev. The fast-moving developments came as the United States readied economic sanctions amid worries that Moscow was ready to stretch its military reach further into the mainland of the former Soviet republic.

Kerry headed straight to Institutska Street at the start of an hourslong visit intended to bolster the new government that took over just a week ago when Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych fled. Kerry placed a bouquet of red roses, and twice the Roman Catholic secretary of state made the sign of the cross at a shrine set up to memorialize protesters who were killed during mid-February riots.

"We're concerned very much. We hope for your help, we hope for your assistance," a woman shouted as Kerry walked down a misty street lined with tires, plywood, barbed wire and other remnants of the barricades that protesters had stood up to try to keep Yanukovych's forces from reaching nearby Maidan Square, the heart of the demonstrations.

Piles of flowers brought in honor of the dead provided splashes of color in an otherwise drab day that was still tinged with the smell of smoke.

"We will be helping," Kerry said. "We are helping. President Obama is planning more assistance."

The Ukraine government continued to grapple with a Russian military takeover of Crimea, a strategic, mostly pro-Russian region in the country's southeast, and Kerry's visit came as Putin said he wouldn't be deterred by economic sanctions imposed punitively by the West.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia told reporters that Ukraine was in a much stronger position today than it was even a week ago, having rallied the support of the U.S. and the West. He said it's unlikely Kiev will ever go to war to prevent Russia from annexing Crimea but said doing so wouldn't be necessary, describing the economic penalties and diplomatic isolation more painful to Russians than bullets would be.

U.S. officials traveling with Kerry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is considering slapping Russia with economic sanctions as soon as this week. Members of Congress say they're preparing legislation that would impose sanctions as well.

Officials said the sanctions could be implemented in tiers, with an initial round of penalties targeted at individuals the U.S. says were involved in the ousted Ukrainian government's corrupt activities. Putin is almost certain to be excluded from those penalties, the officials said, adding that it is rare for the U.S. to directly target a head of state with them.

As Kerry arrived, the White House announced the package of energy aid, along with training for financial and election institutions and anti- corruption efforts. Additionally, the officials said, the U.S. has suspended what was described as a narrow set of discussions with Russia over a bilateral trade investment treaty. It is also going to provide technical advice to the Ukraine government about its trade rights with Russia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted by name before the official announcement was made.

Putin pulled his forces back from the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, yet said that Moscow reserves the right to use all means to protect Russians in the country but hopes it doesn't have to. Putin declared that Western actions were driving Ukraine into anarchy and warned that any sanctions the West might place on Russia for its actions there will backfire.

Speaking from his residence outside Moscow, Putin said he still considers Yanukovych to be Ukraine's leader and hopes Russia won't need to use force in predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

In Washington, the White House said the $1 billion loan guarantee was aimed at helping insulate Ukraine from reductions in energy subsidies. Russia provides a substantial portion of Ukraine's natural gas and U.S. officials said they are prepared to work with Kiev to reduce its dependence on those imports. The assistance is also meant to supplement a broader aid package from the International Monetary Fund.

The experimental drug has only been tested for prevention in monkeys, but it completely protected them from infection in two studies reported at an AIDS conference on Tuesday.

MARILYNN MARCHIONE
Exciting research suggests that a shot every one to three months may someday give an alternative to the daily pills that some people take now to cut their risk of getting HIV.

The experimental drug has only been tested for prevention in monkeys, but it completely protected them from infection in two studies reported at an AIDS conference on Tuesday.

"This is the most exciting innovation in the field of HIV prevention that I've heard recently," said Dr. Robert Grant, an AIDS expert at the Gladstone Institutes, a foundation affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.

"Both groups are showing 100 percent protection" with the drug, Grant said of the two groups of researchers. "If it works and proves to be safe, it would allow for HIV to be prevented with periodic injections, perhaps every three months."

Until a vaccine is developed, condoms are the best way to prevent infection with the AIDS virus and many other sexually spread diseases. But not everyone uses them, or does so all the time, so public health officials have pursued other prevention options.

A drug used to treat people with HIV — Gilead Science's Truvada — also is used to help prevent infection in people who don't have the virus. A big study in gay men a few years ago found it could cut this risk by up to 90 percent, depending on how faithfully people take the daily pills.

The new research tested something that could make this type of prevention much more practical — a long-acting experimental drug made by GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The studies tested it in macaques exposed to a human-monkey version of HIV.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave six monkeys shots of the drug every four weeks; six others got dummy shots. All were exposed to the virus twice a week for 11 weeks.

The monkeys who got the fake treatment were readily infected "but the animals that received the long-acting drug remained protected," said study leader Gerardo Garcia-Lerma of the CDC.

The results mirror what was seen in the CDC's early research in monkeys on Truvada, the pill that's available for HIV prevention now.

In the second study, Chasity Andrews and others at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University in New York gave eight monkeys two shots of the drug, four weeks apart, and dummy shots to eight others. The animals were exposed to the virus weekly for eight weeks. Again, all animals given the fake treatment were quickly infected and those on the drug were all protected.

To see how long a single shot would last, they did a second study. The single shot protected 12 monkeys for about 10 weeks on average.

The dose used in a single shot corresponded to what people would get from a shot every three months, researchers said.

"This is really promising," said Dr. Judith Currier, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. The research "supports moving this forward" into human testing, she said.

Currier is on the program committee for the meeting in Boston where the studies were presented — the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The New York study also was published online by the journal Science.

Grant said the long-acting drug is chemically similar to certain AIDS medicines sold now that are "extremely safe, well tolerated and extremely potent." A mid-stage trial testing the long-acting shots in people as a treatment, not a prevention, is already underway, he said.

Many of the displaced residents were being sheltered at a local fire house, while others were staying with family and friends.

EWING, N.J. -- A gas leak and subsequent explosion destroyed at least 10 houses and damaged dozens of others at a suburban town house development Tuesday, killing a woman and injuring seven workers, authorities said.

The body was not discovered until late in the day, on a car near the site of the explosion, after authorities had thought the neighborhood had escaped the blast without any deaths. Lt. Ron Lunetta said officials were not able to identify the victim and will await an autopsy for positive ID and cause of death. He added that no one else was believed to be missing.

It also was not clear Tuesday night if the woman who was killed was inside or outside a residence when the explosion occurred.

At least 55 units in the complex were damaged, police said, including at 10 that were destroyed. Officials were hoping that some of the displaced residents would be able to return to their homes by late Tuesday night, but said the majority of them would not be able to go home until Wednesday morning at the earliest.

Many of the displaced residents were being sheltered at a local fire house, while others were staying with family and friends. Officials said they would try to accommodate residents who were being kept out of their homes but wanted to briefly return there so they could get their pets or important items, such as medications.

Ewing police said they would be at the site overnight to secure the area and continue the investigation where possible, noting that those efforts would be hampered by the darkness and the large amounts of debris.

The events leading to the explosion began with a contractor working to replace electric service to the house that later blew up, officials from the utility PSE&G said. Around noon, the utility got a call that the contractor had damaged a gas line.

Crews were repairing the line about an hour later when, PSE&G spokeswoman Lindsey Puliti said, "there was an ignition."

The force from the explosion buckled windows in an apartment complex nearby, said resident Marsha Brown, and pictures fell from her walls.

"It felt like a bomb," she said.

She ran to the town house complex, saw a home engulfed in flames and two utility workers on the lawn with injuries that apparently included broken bones. She said she saw another worker on a sidewalk crying, being held by a woman.

At least one home was a blackened pile of rubble, and others had damage, including windows that were blown out. Debris was widely scattered, with insulation hanging in some tree branches.

"My body was shaking. I like to say I am calm, but I was shaking," said Brown, who had a day off from her job as an infant hearing screener at a hospital. "You could feel the flames, everything."

A resident of the complex, Bryan Gentry, drove home minutes after he heard an explosion and as he got closer, saw a black smoke cloud. The fire was intensely hot, he said, and he saw one person walking away from the fire who appeared to be stunned.

"It was just unreal," he said, adding that emergency crews responded "really fast."

The seven people injured were all utility workers, authorities said. Just three of those victims, all close to the blast, had to be hospitalized and none of those injuries was considered life-threatening, said Dr. Louis D'Amelio, trauma chief at Capital Regional Medical Center in Trenton. They included concussions, broken bones and minor shrapnel wounds, he said.

Normally during that time of day, most people in the neighborhood are at work and their kids are at school, Gentry said.

Though the damage to the pipeline caused a gas leak that could lead to an explosion, the pipeline itself did not explode, a spokesman for the utility said.

Eleven people are being honored for their good deeds, which range from saving the lives of accident victims to ensuring that disabled children are able to play in organized sports.

SPRINGFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross has announced its annual list of "Hometown Heroes" honorees, who will be feted at an awards ceremony later this month in Springfield.

This year's slate of honorees range from a man who works with disabled children to a lifelong blood donor to a pair of delivery drivers who rushed to the aid of a car-crash victim.

The recipients of the American Red Cross honor will be presented with awards at a March 27 breakfast at 7:30 a.m. in the ballroom of the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield.

The honorees are:

* Steve Berube, of Westfield, who has dedicated his life to ensuring children with disabilities are able to participate in organized sports. Berube created the Ultimate Sports Program, whose mission statement is "social Inclusion through sports."

* Vincent Ferrero, of Ludlow, who has donated blood and platelets for more than 30 years, helping to save the lives of more than 400 people.

* Joseph Allen, of Granby, John Weston, of Longmeadow, and Maryann Alben, of East Longmeadow, who performed CPR on a man and helped save his life.

* UPS employees Art Hardy and Kevin Collins, both of Springfield, who helped rescue a car-crash victim from a burning vehicle.

* Alan Kraefft, of Belchertown, who saved a neighbor from his burning mobile home on Christmas eve.

* Gina Lopez and Sandra Land, both of Agawam, who were in the middle of a running race when they helped save the life of a rival competitor who suffered a severe seizure.

* Dr. Wilson Pyle, of Florence, who performed CPR on a car-crash victim who struck a tree after suffering cardiac arrest. As it turned out, the man Pyle helped save was also a physician.

The petition article asks for the state to pass special legislation.

AMHERST – While the debate to hike the minimum wage plays out across the country, Amherst town meeting is being asked to require town employers to pay at least $15 an hour.

More than 200 signed a petition forcing a special town meeting set for March 19. The Town Government Act requires that a special Town Meeting be held within 45 days of the filing, Town Manager John P. Musante said.

If supported by town meeting the request would go to the state Legislature for a special act.

The state current minimum wage is $8 an hour but there is legislation to raise it to $11 an hour over three years.

President Barack Obama is pushing for Congress to hike the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. He will be in Connecticut Wednesday along with area governors including Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick who support the hike.

Town Manager John P. Musante said they just got the request and would look into whether such an act could be enacted for local control.

The Select Board will discuss whether to support it at its next meeting March 17. Musante said they will notify the Finance Committee as well.

According to the language, the petition asks that “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in the General Court assembled, and by authority of same as follows: Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the Town of Amherst may regulate wages paid by employers within Town limits, including but not necessarily limited to establishing a minimum wage of $15 an hour.”

The article also asks that the town can adopt “reasonable polices for enforcement,” including fines of up to $500 a day.

Places like Seattle are also looking at adopting a $15 minimum wage as well.

The water main break was reported shortly after 5:30 a.m.

 

EASTHAMPTON — A water main break early Wednesday prompted police to close Park Hill Road from Oliver Street to the Northampton line.

The break was reported shortly after 5:30 a.m. and the Water Department is on scene.

Police had no information as to when the roadway might be reopened.

NATO prepared to take up the issue directly with Russia in an extraordinary meeting of the military alliance, originally created as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union, and an international team of military observers headed to tense Crimea.

JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press
LORI HINNANT, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — The European Union prepared $15 billion in aid to Ukraine and top diplomats from the West and Russia gathered in Paris on Wednesday to defuse tensions over the Russian military takeover of the strategic Crimean Peninsula.

NATO prepared to take up the issue directly with Russia in an extraordinary meeting of the military alliance, originally created as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union, and an international team of military observers headed to tense Crimea.

The ultimate goal in Paris is to get the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the same room, negotiating directly in the fast-moving dispute that has raised tensions to nearly Cold War levels.

"It will be a test this afternoon of whether Russia is prepared to sit down with Ukraine, and we will strongly recommend that they do so," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

On the verge of economic collapse, Ukraine accused Russia of a military invasion after pro-Russian troops took over Crimea on Saturday, placing forces around its ferry, military bases and border posts. Moscow does not recognize the new Ukrainian leadership in Kiev that ousted the pro-Russian president, and raised the pressure by threatening to end discounts on natural gas supplies.

Wednesday's offer by the European Union matched the Russian bailout for fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych took the Russian loans instead of a wide-ranging trade and economic agreement with the EU, which fuelled the protests that eventually led to his ouster.

On Tuesday, the U.S. readied a $1 billion aid package.

"The situation in Ukraine is a test of our capability and resolve to stabilize our neighborhood and to provide new opportunities for many, not just a few," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Spain ahead of meetings planned with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris, warned against Western support of what Moscow views as a coup. He said that could encourage government takeovers elsewhere.

"If we indulge those who are trying to rule our great, kind historic neighbor, we must understand that a bad example is infectious," Lavrov said.

Wednesday's Paris gathering, originally scheduled to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis, came after Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to step back from the brink of war, but the crisis is far from resolved.

"This is my first trip to such an important venue where the Ukrainian future, maybe the future of the region, will be decided," Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraine's foreign minister, said of the meetings in Paris. "We want to keep neighborly relations with the Russian people. We want to settle this peacefully."

On the flight from Kiev to Paris, Deshchytsia told reporters that Ukraine was unlikely to go to war to prevent Russia from annexing Crimea but said doing so wouldn't be necessary because Russia would be unwilling to suffer the resulting economic penalties and diplomatic isolation.

Russia has suggested that it will meet any sanctions imposed by Western governments with a tough response, and Putin has warned that those measures could incur serious "mutual damage."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sent a team of 35 unarmed military personnel to Crimea on Wednesday at the fledgling government's request.

"They will not be contented with assurances that these people are volunteers, who bought their uniforms in a shop," Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said. The hope is to learn "who is in power there and conclusions the OSCE should draw from that."

___

Juergen Baetz reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Laura Mills in Moscow, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, and Lara Jakes, Greg Keller, and Sylvie Corbet in Paris, contributed.

The annual party is slated to run from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, March 5.

SPRINGFIELD — The Mac and O brigade is expected to descend on the Boyle on Thursday for Don Ashe's annual Paddy's Day bash, the unofficial kickoff to the political season.

Or, put a bit more properly, a few hundred people are expected to attend the annual St. Patrick's Day party hosted by Hampden County Register of Deeds Donald E. Ashe at Springfield's John Boyle O'Reilly Club, where generations of Kerrymen and their ancestors have traditionally celebrated Ireland's patron saint with pints of Guinness and corned beef sandwiches.

Thursday's event is from 5-8 p.m. at the Boyle, located at 33 Progress Ave.,

Ashe said the event will feature "numerous elected officials and candidates running for state and county seats." And music, of course.

The host also will introduce Mary Miller, Springfield's Colleen, and her court.

"They don't come to see me, they come for the corned beef," Ashe joked at last year's party.

While County Kerry has undoubtedly sent more of its children to greater Springfield than any other Irish county over the decades, the region is also home to pockets of people whose roots are in Mayo and Cork.

A second baby born with the AIDS virus may have had her infection put into remission and possibly cured by very early treatment — in this instance, four hours after birth.

MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Chief Medical Writer

A second baby born with the AIDS virus may have had her infection put into remission and possibly cured by very early treatment — in this instance, four hours after birth.

Doctors revealed the case Wednesday at an AIDS conference in Boston. The girl was born in suburban Los Angeles last April, a month after researchers announced the first case from Mississippi.

That case was a medical first that led doctors worldwide to rethink how fast and hard to treat infants born with HIV. The California doctors followed that example.

The Mississippi baby is now 3 1/2 and seems HIV-free despite no treatment for about two years. The Los Angeles baby is still getting AIDS medicines, so the status of her infection is not as clear.

A host of sophisticated tests at multiple times suggest the LA baby has completely cleared the virus, said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a Johns Hopkins University physician who led the testing. The baby's signs are different from what doctors see in patients whose infections are merely suppressed by successful treatment, she said.

"We don't know if the baby is in remission ... but it looks like that," said Dr. Yvonne Bryson, an infectious disease specialist at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA who consulted on the girl's care.

Doctors are cautious about suggesting she has been cured, "but that's obviously our hope," Bryson said.

Most HIV-infected moms in the U.S. get AIDS medicines during pregnancy, which greatly cuts the chances they will pass the virus to their babies. The Mississippi baby's mom received no prenatal care and her HIV was discovered during labor. So doctors knew that infant was at high risk and started her on treatment 30 hours after birth, even before tests could determine whether she was infected.

The LA baby was born at Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach, and "we knew this mother from a previous pregnancy" and that she was not taking her HIV medicines, said Dr. Audra Deveikis, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the hospital.

The mom was given AIDS drugs during labor to try to prevent transmission of the virus, and Deveikis started the baby on them a few hours after birth. Tests later confirmed she had been infected, but does not appear to be now, nearly a year later.

The baby is continuing treatment, is in foster care "and looking very healthy," Bryson said.

The Mississippi girl was treated until she was 18 months old, when doctors lost contact with her. Ten months later when she returned, they could find no sign of infection even though the mom had stopped giving her AIDS medicines.

Bryson is one of the leaders of a federally funded study just getting underway to see if very early treatment can cure HIV infection. About 60 babies in the U.S. and other countries will get very aggressive treatment that will be discontinued if tests over a long time, possibly two years, suggest no active infection.

"These kids obviously will be followed very, very closely" for signs of the virus, Persaud said.

She described the Los Angeles case at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter here.

A capital fundraising campaign is planned to restore the Campanile tower in downtown Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD — The city is preparing to announce a capital campaign to raise funds to restore the historic Campanile tower at Court Square.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has scheduled a press conference on Friday at 1 p.m. at City Hall to announce the details of the capital campaign.

The Campanile, which is part of the Municipal Group buildings that also consists of City Hall and Symphony Hall, has been fenced and boarded off from public access for many years. In addition, long strips of aluminum netting were installed along the corners of the tower in 2008, as an emergency measure to prevent the limestone exterior from further popping out in chunks.

The bell chimes and the four-sided clock have not worked for many years, and the elevator needs repairs.

 

Some officials and residents have urged the city to restore the campanile, as a landmark in the downtown visible from Interstate 91.

Jessica Rojas' family members sometimes held hands and passed around boxes of tissues to wipe away tears at the murder trial of Jose Santiago.

SPRINGFIELD - As about a dozen family members of Jessica Rojas sat in a courtroom Wednesday listening, two paramedics and a police officer described what they found when they got to her house March 3, 2012.

The three men were testifying at the murder trial of Jose Santiago, 32, of Springfield, Rojas' boyfriend who is charged with fatally stabbing her in her own home.

Rojas's family members sometimes held hands and passed around boxes of tissues to wipe away tears.

The Hampden Superior Court jury is not faced with deciding who stabbed Rojas dozens of times.

Defense lawyer David Rountree told jurors Santiago did the stabbings, but because of extreme alcohol intoxication could not form the intent for premeditation - one theory of first degree murder.

After the jury was dismissed for the day Wednesday Rountree told Judge Constance M. Sweeney he is requesting she give jurors - when the case is over and she is instructing jurors - the instruction for manslaughter.

Sweeney said she did not see how the facts of the case fit manslaughter but told Rountree he could argue that further Thursday. She said she would instruct on first and second degree murder.

Assistant District Attorney Frank Flannery is slated to call his last witness - the medical examiner - Thursday morning. Sweeney told jurors they most likely will get the case to begin deliberations Thursday.

At the time of her death, Rojas had just gotten a job at the Law Department at City Hall, was studying criminal justice at Springfield Technical Community College and was enjoying her life, friends said.

City police Sgt. Dennis Prior testified when he went to Rojas' Washburn Street home shortly after 3:15 a.m. Rojas was laying on her back on a low couch with part of her on the floor.

"I could see she was bleeding from numerous lacerations," Prior said. When paramedics got her onto a stretcher, he could see a knife buried in her chest "up to the hilt."

He said he wanted her to know she may not survive, so told her and then asked who stabbed her. She said it was Santiago.

Paramedic William Bobianski said when he and partner John Glabicky got to the apartment it was trashed and Rojas was on the couch bleeding very badly. She has been "stabbed, slashed, cut everywhere," he said.

When he went to pick her up by her arms, his hands went into the deepest cuts on her arms he has ever seen, Bobianski said.

Glabicky said when they got to the apartment Rojas was saying, "Help me, I can't breath."

He said right away he and Bobianski knew she needed to have surgical intervention immediately.

In addition to trying to stabilize as many wounds as they could in the ambulance they had to make sure the knife stuck in her didn't move or become dislodged and cause her to lose too much blood.

"She told me she had four children, not to let her die," Glabicky said.

When Rojas was being wheeled to the trauma department at Baystate Medical Center she tried to pull the knife out, continually saying she couldn't breathe. He kept her hand away from the knife, he said.

City police officer Eric Ganley said Rojas was rushed from trauma to an operating room at the hospital. He was at the hospital and was told after about 1½ to two hours she had died.

Police officer Juan Estrada testified he found three fingerprints matching Santiago's on a Ciroc vodka bottle on the kitchen table.

At a memorial event in March 2013, about 100 people gathered on the steps of City Hall and marched to Northgate Plaza on Main Street, where many friends and relatives shared their memories of Rojas.

"This violence has to stop. See it. Hear it. Report it. Don't close your eyes to it," Milta Vargas, domestic violence coordinator for the Springfield Police Department, said at the event.

Matthew Cunningham-Cook said he wants to see a redistribution of pay at UMass.

This is an update of a previous story.

AMHERST – While President Barack Obama was 63 miles away in New Britain Wednesday pushing for a $10.10 federal minimum wage, some in Amherst want to see the town require a $15 base, but business owners said such a hike would cause a hardship.

Matthew Cunningham-Cook, a University of Massachusetts student and member of the Amherst Workers Rights and the Student Labor Project at UMass, initiated the collection of more than 200 required signatures that led to the calling of a special Town Meeting March 19.

He said they settled on the $15 because of the nationwide campaign by fast food workers calling for that wage.

He said 21 percent of the town lives in poverty and many of those are students. “Poverty is a major issue,” he said. The $15 an hour wage is seen as a living wage. Seattle in a November ballot measure adopted a $15 minimum wage in the Seattle Tacoma community.

He called UMass the largest employer of low wage workers in town, and said he wants to “see a redistribution of wealth from administration hands to the people who actually make the campus run.” He mentioned head basketball coach Derek Kellogg who earns $719,663 a year.

Sharon Povinelli, manager of A. J. Hastings, said they pay their full-time employees well and provide 100 percent of the cost of health care, but paying part-timers $15 an hour “that would be something that would be difficult to navigate. It’s really a complicated issue. We have a lot of young people who work here. This is their first job. It’s not really a job designed to support a family.

“I understand the impetus to do stuff like that. Right now is a really tough time given the weather and economic situation. I commend people for working on these initiatives. It’s very difficult to justify staying open the hours we have and employing high school and early college age (workers). It would change (the business) a lot.”

Pauline Lannon, owner of Atkins Farms, said raising the minimum wage would put a great hardship on the business as well. She said they already must pay time and a half on Sundays. She said having to pay $15 would make it difficult to compete with grocers from other states because they would be paying lower wages. ; She said the business probably would reduce the number of teen workers it hires.

Cunningham-Cook said boosting the minimum wage would actually help business because students would have more money to spend in local stores.

Joan Temkin, acting director of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber members would likely talk about it at board meeting next week. “We feel this kind of thing is best handled at the state level,” she said.

The current state minimum wage is $8 an hour but there is legislation to raise it to $11 an hour over three years.

According to the language, the petition asks that “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in the General Court assembled, and by authority of same as follows: Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the Town of Amherst may regulate wages paid by employers within Town limits, including but not necessarily limited to establishing a minimum wage of $15 an hour.”

The article also asks that the town can adopt “reasonable polices for enforcement,” including fines of up to $500 a day.

Cunningham-Cook is a little concerned about the timing of the special town meeting, which occurs during spring break when students are out of town. He is considering whether to look into whether the date can be changed.

William Rennie, vice president of the Retail Association of Massachusetts, meanwhile, said the retail association would oppose municipalities setting the minimum wage.

"What are we going to do, have 351 different minimum wages?"

The retail association is seeking to repeal the impacts of increasing the minimum wage by repealing the time and a half law for retailers on Sundays. Only Massachusetts and Rhode Island have this law, he said.

Amherst Town Meeting is no stranger to enacting resolutions that have impact beyond town borders. In 2009, the meeting supported the resettlement of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the area if Congress repealed its ban allowing resettlement of detainees in this country. 


The meeting has also has debated and approved resolutions such as urging the United States to use diplomacy and avoid military action against Iran, opposing genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan, calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and to impeach then-President George W. Bush and then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

Reporter Suzanne McLaughlin contributed to this story.

Road construction will be highly visible in Springfield beginning in the spring as a result of the multiple grants. A major reconstruction project is also taking place on a section of Boston Road.

SPRINGFIELD — The city is seeking bids for an estimated $2.7 million project to improve roads and construct new sidewalks along the path of the 2011 tornado, using federal disaster funds.

Under the grant guidelines, the project targets sections of 15 roads and 40 sidewalks, generally limited to poorer areas of the city, and along the tornado path and a buffer area, City Engineer Christopher Cignoli said Wednesday.

Bids are due by 2 p.m., on March 26, at the Office of Procurement at City Hall. The work is expected to begin in the spring.

The city is also continuing numerous road improvements from $3.4 million in funds awarded last year by the state Department of Transportation, and another round of state funds awaited this year, Cignoli said.

“I’m ecstatic,” Cignoli said. “It is really going to allow us to address many, many streets that really need it. We are getting to as many as we can. We hope to get to the worst ones as often as we can.”

Road construction will be highly visible beginning in the spring as a result of the multiple grants, Cignoli said. A major reconstruction project is also taking place on a section of Boston Road.

The city received $21.9 million in Community Development Block Grant disaster aid last year, to help the city recover from the tornado of June 1, 2011. The bulk of the funds are earmarked for major projects such as construction of a new South End Community Center, a senior citizens center in Blunt Park, and to rebuild Boston Road.

Under the disaster aid, the road and sidewalk improvements must be in the block grant-eligible areas, generally poorer neighborhoods, but also along the tornado path and a designated buffer area, Cignoli said. The work includes streets and sidewalks in the central business district and the Maple-High, Six Corners and Forest Park neighborhoods.

Under the guidelines, very little work extends east of Watershops Pond, Cignoli said.

The project will include grinding down and paving sections of eight main roads, and the paving of sections of seven residential streets.

The road improvements will aid efforts to redevelop those neighborhoods, and help target roadways in bad shape, Cignoli said.

The selected sidewalks are listed as single-address locations, targeting sections of sidewalks deemed in the worst shape, Cignoli said.

The grant programs are sorely needed, as the city has a great number of streets in need of repairs and limited funds annually, Cignoli said.

The arterial streets are:

• Mulberry Street, from Maple to Union Street
• Orange Street, from Dickinson to Oakland Street
• Commonwealth Avenue, from Belmont Avenue to Carroll Street
• Dickinson Street, from Belmont Avenue to Tiffany Street
• School Street, from State to Mulberry Street
• White Street, from Orange to Sumner Avenue
• Federal Street, from State to Taylor Street
• Mill Street, from Locust to Orange Street

The residential streets are:

• Keith Street, from Belmont Avenue to Dickinson Street
• Atwood Place, from Walnut to southwesterly 286 feet
• Mattoon Street, from Pearl to Chestnut Street
• Lester Street, from Sumner Avenue to Vermont Street
• Lyndale Street, from Sumner Avenue to Belmont Avenue
• James Street, from Walnut to Cedar Street
• Hall Street, from Belmont Avenue to Dickinson Street

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia said he canceled a flight home to Kiev after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged him to stay in Paris on the outside chance that Russia's top diplomat might agree to talk.

LARA JAKES
PARIS — Attempts to foster the highest-level diplomatic meeting between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine's strategic Crimea region fell short Wednesday as Western officials scrambled for even small successes to keep the tense situation from escalating.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia said he canceled a flight home to Kiev after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged him to stay in Paris on the outside chance that Russia's top diplomat might agree to talk. But separate evening meetings in the same building ended without Deshchytsia and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov crossing paths.

In an afternoon interview with The Associated Press, Deshchytsia said he hoped to brief Lavrov on a Ukraine plan to offer a pro-Russian public in Crimea more autonomy while still claiming it within the country's borders. Any vote taken toward for autonomy would require international observers to replace armed groups in order to work, he said.

"Our position is to use all the peaceful means, all the diplomatic ways to settle the issue without victims and tragedy — and without taking territory away," Deshchytsia said. "We don't want war with Russia," he said.

But Lavrov made clear he was not ready to meet.

Leaving the French Foreign Ministry, Lavrov was asked by reporters outside if he had met with his Ukranian counterpart Wednesday night. "Who is it?" Lavrov answered. "I didn't see anybody."

He said officials "agreed to continue those discussions in the days to come to see how best we can help stabilize, normalize the situation and overcome the crisis."

"The discussions will continue and that's it."

The comments made clear how elusive any resolution remains in the standoff between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the upstart government in neighboring Ukraine that ousted its Moscow-friendly president last month. Putin responded by sending troops to Crimea, a pro-Russian peninsula in southeastern Ukraine where some are demanding a referendum for independence from Kiev.

In remarks to reporters late Wednesday, Kerry said at least some small successes were made during the daylong negotiations with each side and signaled that at least some plan was in the works that needs to gain approval from state leaders in Moscow, Kiev and Washington.

"I'd rather be where we are today than where we were yesterday," Kerry said. He also said he had "no expectations, zero expectations" that Deshchytsia and Lavrov would meet.

"Today, I believe we initiated a process that over the next couple of days we hope can bring us to that de-escalation," Kerry said.

In the interview, Deshchytsia said Kiev and Moscow are working to retain economic ties and trade, and said long-standing cultural ties between the two counties must be minded even as the West presses to penalize Russia for the military advance in Crimea. It was a surprisingly conciliatory tone for the former Soviet republic that has accused Russia of an invasion.

But it also was pragmatic: Ukraine's shaky economy could take a significant hit if the value of Russia's ruble continues to drop, even though Europe and the U.S. are preparing a financial aid package for Ukraine, including a $1 billion loan guarantee for energy.

"We have to think of the outcome for Russia — how Russia will adjust to what has happened," Deshchytsia said. "We have to all think how to find out the way to keep Russia in the international community."

Their lawsuit, the first to go to trial since the February 2013 cruise, is being vigorously defended by Miami-based Carnival Corp., which contends the passengers cannot show such problems as kidney stones, post-traumatic stress disorder and scratchy throats are linked to unsanitary conditions or the fire that disabled the engine.

CURT ANDERSON
MIAMI — About three dozen passengers who sailed on the ill-fated Carnival Triumph cruise ship that drifted at sea for days are hoping to collect thousands of dollars apiece as a result of lingering medical and mental problems they say were caused by their nightmarish experience.

Their lawsuit, the first to go to trial since the February 2013 cruise, is being vigorously defended by Miami-based Carnival Corp., which contends the passengers cannot show such problems as kidney stones, post-traumatic stress disorder and scratchy throats are linked to unsanitary conditions or the fire that disabled the engine.

At stake is perhaps millions of dollars, as well as the industry's restrictive policy — printed on each ticket — that governs the kinds of lawsuits passengers can file. Two maritime law experts also said the trial already set an important precedent in cruise line cases when the judge ruled Carnival was negligent simply because the fire broke out, regardless of the reason.

"Ships shouldn't catch fire in the middle of the sea for no reason," said Robert Peltz, a Miami maritime attorney not involved in the Triumph case.

Passenger Debra Oubre, of Friendswood, Texas, who said she has worked in cruise line shore operations and has enjoyed a dozen cruises, said she joined the suit to hold someone accountable.

"Many of us, if not all of us, were physically or emotionally hurt," she said. "I just want the truth to be told."

Again and again during the three-week trial, Triumph passengers have told their story to Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Graham, who is hearing the case without a jury. Testimony wrapped up Wednesday, and Graham said he would take written closing arguments and issue a decision later on whether the passengers deserve any damages.

Some Triumph passengers testified on Carnival's behalf Wednesday, including James Ede, of Houston, who said the crew kept them well-informed and provided plenty of water.

"I got almost a little tired of people saying, 'How can I help you?'" Ede said of the crew.

According to Carnival, at least nine other Triumph lawsuits are pending in South Florida federal court, including a proposed class-action that seeks to represent all of the roughly 3,000 passengers aboard the ship. Attorneys involved in the current trial say its outcome could affect what happens in these other cases, although the legal claims are somewhat different.

Carnival tickets require lawsuits against the world's largest cruise line to be filed only in South Florida federal court. The tickets also state that passengers agree they can't bring a class-action lawsuit, but some lawyers are challenging that based on negligence claims.

The 893-foot Triumph left Galveston, Texas on Feb. 7, 2013, for a four-day cruise highlighted by a stop in Cozumel, Mexico. After departing Cozumel, a fire broke out at about 5 a.m. in the ship's engine room Feb. 10. It left the ship without engine power and most of its electricity, forcing passengers to endure human waste running down hallways, limited water supplies, noxious odors and extreme heat.

After about five days in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship was finally towed to Mobile, Ala., and the weary, bedraggled passengers disembarked Feb. 14. Carnival sought to make amends by offering each passenger a $500 check, a voucher for a future cruise, refunds of most on-board expenses and reimbursement for transportation, parking and so forth.

For many of the passengers, those offers were an insult and multiple lawsuits were filed seeking millions of dollars in damages. In the current trial, Judge Graham has ruled that passengers cannot collect punitive damages and may only get damages for past and future medical costs that are conclusively linked to what happened on the Triumph.

Many of the 33 passengers involved in the trial complain of lingering emotional issues such as PTSD, anxiety and depression; some have physical ailments they blame on squalid conditions, including leg pain, diarrhea, upper respiratory problems and even aggravated hemorrhoids.

Larry Poret, of Lufkin, Texas, who took the cruise with his then-12-year-old daughter Rebecca, said he remains scarred by how frightened she was, especially trying to sleep out on deck in pitch black nights.

"Something that was supposed to be so much fun turned out to be a nightmare. I felt like I let my daughter down," Poret said. "You just can't get it out of your mind."

Most of the passengers are seeking $5,000 in damages a year from Carnival for the rest of their lives, claiming they will need continuous medical monitoring because of what happened aboard ship. They want the money in lump sums based on government tables estimating their life expectancies. Poret, for example, would get about $115,000 and his daughter, who is much younger, an estimated $345,000.

An expert witness for the passengers, Dr. Ernest Schiodo, testified that each person's health problems were "caused by the exposure or aggravated by the exposure" to the Triumph's horrific conditions, including the human waste. That prompted a pointed question from the judge.

"Does that mean if you use a portable toilet you need this special testing for the rest of your life?" Graham said.

"Not if you use one, but if you fall in and wallow in it for a couple of days, yes," Schiodo said.

Carnival attorney Curtis Mase has asked Graham to reject all of the damage claims. In court papers, Mase said the passengers either haven't proved their health issues are linked to the Triumph cruise or haven't shown they suffer from any lingering problems at all.

The passengers, Mase wrote, "are not entitled to damages simply for experiencing the conditions on the vessel." And, he added, "they failed to prove that Carnival's conduct was the legal cause of the injury."

In the aftermath, Carnival announced a $300 million program to add emergency generators, upgrade fire safety and improve engine rooms on all 24 of its ships. The cruise line also said it would repay the U.S. government an unspecified amount for the costs to taxpayers of responses to disabling accidents on the Triumph and a previous disabled ship, the Splendor.

As for the Triumph, it was repaired and refitted in Mobile, but not before it broke free during a windstorm and sustained about $2.7 million in damage and a dock worker drowned. It was returned to service last summer.

Carnival's final witness Wednesday was Suzanne Vazquez, director of guest claims and litigation. She was asked which ship is currently the cruise line's top-ranked vessel based on customer feedback.

"The Triumph," she said.

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse is trying to be inclusive, but said he realizes time is tight and planning the St. Patrick's Parade is a huge undertaking.

HOLYOKE — A gay rights groups banned from marching in the St. Patrick's parade in Boston could conceivably march in the parade here March 23 if it marches as a sponsored group with the parade committee's approval and follows Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade Committee rules, officials said Wednesday.

The reason such a group could participate in the parade here only as a sponsored group, which are limited to three or four members, is the deadline for the larger marching groups to be participants was Monday, 2014 parade president Jane C. Chevalier said.

Also, she said, the parade, in terms of who can participate, is by invitation only, but a group seeking to be in the parade as a sponsored group can approach the Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade Committee.

Mayor Alex B. Morse, who is gay, said he had contacted MassEquality, the group banned from marching in the Boston parade, to invite them to participate in the parade here. Morse said he was hopeful MassEquality could be accommodated if the group does seek to join the Holyoke parade. A spokesman for the group didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

"I hope if such a group does come forward, the Parade Committee is able to allow them to sponsor and march. I love marching in the parade every year. I know a lot of hard work goes into the planning of the parade and timing is a key issue. I just hope they could make an exception if such a group made a request," Morse said.

Chevalier said neither MassEquality nor the mayor's office formally has contacted the Parade Committee about MassEquality being a sponsored participant.

The Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade is inclusive and its rules do not ban gay rights groups from marching, she said. But the planning of the parade – a multihour event that includes thousands of marchers and hundreds of thousands of onlookers – is massive, meaning that even a group that comes forward now seeking to participate as a smaller, sponsored group is pushing the time limit, she said.

"We welcome people. We do not have a ban. We welcome everybody," Chevalier said.

A sponsored group can be from a variety of areas. For example, Morse previously has sponsored flag-bearers in the Holyoke High School band in the parade.The fee for a sponsored group is $1,000, Chevalier said.

"As you can imagine, it costs a lot of money to put the parade on the street. ... A sponsor of the parade is someone who gives us money," Chevalier said.

Among the rules the group must follow are that they participate in the parade with a sign designed by the Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade Committee and not distribute leaflets or other kinds of information to parade onlookers, she said.

It appeared an agreement had been reached between MassEquality and the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, which runs the Boston parade, for MassEquality to march. But that fell through this week because the group balked at a rule that would have prohibited its members from wearing clothing or holding signs that refer to sexual orientation.

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has said he will boycott the parade if lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people were banned.

New York City Mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio said he will skip that city's St. Patrick's Parade March 17 if it continues barring participation of gay groups.

Marquan Moriarty, 19, of 66 Montgomery St. is accused of breaking into a residential garage to steal a motorcycle and other items, according to police.

SPRINGFIELD — Police are crediting a sharp-eyed neighbor with spotting a teenager who allegedly broke into her neighbor's Goodwin Street garage early Wednesday morning to steal a motorcycle and motor scooters.

Springfield police officers Bernardino Lochiatto and Josh Haygood were dispatched around 2 a.m. for a report of a burglary in progress at an Indian Orchard home near the corner of Goodwin and Daniel streets.

When the officers arrived, they heard noises coming from the garage and "called out to the suspect inside to show himself," a statement on the department's Facebook page said.

Police said that's when 19-year-old Marquan Moriarty, whom the officers recognized from past incidents, stuck his head out a window, then ducked back inside the garage. Lochiatto and Haygood entered the garage to apprehend Moriarty, who struggled with the officers, police said.

Moriarty, who lives several blocks away at 66 Montgomery St., was charged with breaking and entering at night for a felony, larceny in excess of $250, threatening to commit a crime and resisting arrest, police said.

Arraignment information was not immediately available.

"This arrest shows what can happen when neighbors get involved and look out for one another," the police statement said.