Free Republic

On Wednesday and Thursday, law school graduates aspiring to practice in the Commonwealth gathered in Boston and Springfield to take the 16-hour bar exam, broken into several parts. During the morning portion of the test Thursday, recent graduate of the University of Michigan Law School Iman Abdulrazzak was handed a note from an exam proctor asking her to remove her headscarf. As many Muslim women do, Abdulrazzak wore a hijab, covering her head and chest, during the exam held at the Western New England University School of Law. The note, written in capitalized block letters read, "Headwear may not be...

SPRINGFIELD - Police say a 24-year-old woman firebombed a car to punish her ex-boyfriend. Juliana Gonzales, of Springfield, was arrested and charged with arson in connection with throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Hyundai Sante Fe outside 72 Lionel Benoit Road just after 4 a.m. on Saturday, according to Sgt. Sean Arpin.

China Pig Farm Accused Of Pumping Dissolved Carcasses Into A Nearby River Agence France Presse June 10, 2013, 7:21 AM Dead pigs being tossed into a truck in China. Reuters Authorities are reportedly probing a pig farm in central China for dissolving dead pigs in a chemical solution and pumping the resulting remains down its drains, which empty into a river. Huasheng Online, a news website published by the Hunan Daily Press Group, said environmental protection and animal hygiene authorities in Changsha, Hunan province, were investigating the allegations. The farm claimed that using strong alkali to break down carcasses before...

A city police officer was shot in the head with a projectile as his cruiser came under fire in an apparent pellet gun assault Monday night in the North End. It was the second such assault since last week, when a city firefighter was shot and injured while turning off a running hydrant in Old Hill. "He wasn't injured," Springfield Police Capt. Larry Brown said of the police officer, who wasn't publicly identified and didn't require medical attention. The incident happened just before 10 p.m. as the officer patrolled near Plainfield and Orchard streets in the Brightwood section of the...

One of our friends at IllinoisCarry.com created this image that compares the IGOLD march with an event that happened yesterday in the Thompson Center.

Three of the 333 firearms handed over during a seven-hour buyback conducted by Springfield police on Saturday were deemed by officers to be assault weapons. Officer Richard Rodrigues said one of the weapons was a Chinese model, another resembled an AR-15 and the third was a Hi-Tec. Each one of those weapons netted $100 worth of VISA gift cards for those who turned them in. Information on the specific models was not immediately available. ... Of the firearms turned in Saturday, 112 were shotguns, 101 were handguns, 117 were rifles and three were black powder guns, Rodrigues said. Two additional...

Neighbors and activists, who stood out in the bitter cold for more an hour on Wednesday morning to protest the planned eviction of Jeffery Solivan of 32 Edgemont St., cheered after hearing that Fannie Mae had canceled its action. The protest kicked off just before 8 a.m., initially with about a dozen people and grew to about 30 people when word came that the eviction was off. No date has been given for a new eviction. Solivan said he hopes something can be negotiated with the lender that will allow him to keep his home, in the Pine Point neighborhood....

The City of Firsts has ranked as the second-most gay friendly city in the nation according to a new list compiled by the LGBT publication Advocate magazine. Springfield, coming in just behind Tacoma, Wash., nearly topped the 2013 list based on several factors including the number of LGBT elected officials, embracing marriage equality and the existence of a roller derby league based in the city. Providence, R.I. was the only other New England city named by the magazine in its list, which looked only at municipalities with a population of at least 150,000. "The city is among the top 10...

Smith & Wesson has announced record sales for its most recent quarter. Net sales from continuing operations for the second quarter were a record $136.6 million, up 48 percent from the second quarter last year, according to a news release issued this week. It was the second consecutive quarter of record sales. The company employs more than 1,200 workers at its factory and headquarters on Roosevelt Avenue. Federal background checks for gun purchasers were up over Black Friday. Many observers say that's because gun buyers fear that a re-elected President Barack Obama will impose more gun restrictions. But Smith &...

Local NAACP chapter president Rev. Talbert W. Swan II has called on the city to conduct a national search for a new fire commissioner, rather than lowering hiring qualifications to allow acting Fire Commissioner Joseph A. Conant to keep the job. One day after winning re-election as president of the Springfield NAACP chapter, Swan said the handling of the fire commissioner’s vacancy suggests that politics, rather than professional credentials and experience, is the prime concern of Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and other city officials. “Watering down the requirements for the sake of a single preferred candidate sends a questionable message...

The massive explosion that rocked Springfield's entertainment district, leveling a strip club and injuring 21 people, was caused by "human error," according to Massachusetts Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan. Officials said a thorough, block-by-block investigation since Friday's blast indicates the city's gas system is safe, intact and functioning properly. The probe will now focus on the Columbia Gas employee responsible for puncturing a gas line with a tool, and whether proper protocol was followed in the build-up to Friday's explosion. The blast injured 21 people, damaged more than three dozen buildings, and prompted a large-scale evacuation of the city's downtown...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Preliminary investigations show more than 40 buildings were damaged in a natural gas explosion in Massachusetts that injured 18 people, building inspectors said Saturday. A strip club was flattened and a day care center was heavily damaged in the massive explosion Friday night in Springfield, one of New England's biggest cities. No one was killed in the explosion. Investigators were trying Saturday to figure out what caused the blast that could be heard for miles, left a large hole in the ground where the multistory brick building housing Scores Gentleman's Club once stood and scattered debris...

In the final stretch of the Massachusetts Senate race between Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor took time to shake hands and meet voters at a city bakery on Monday. During a visit that spanned nearly an hour, Warren took pictures with dozens of Latino residents inside the Puerto Rico Bakery on Armory Street while addressing some of the themes that have defined her candidacy. Alongside State Reps. Benjamin Swan and Sean Curran, both Springfield Democrats, Warren reiterated her belief that Washington is rigged for big business and that she wants to...

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken reminded a crowd of unionized health care workers here Saturday about the importance of their get-out-the-vote effort in the city and elsewhere for fellow Democrat Elizabeth Warren, who's running a close race against incumbent Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown. Franken -- elected to the Senate by a razor-thin 312 votes four years ago -- told members of SEIU Local 1199 that it's "absolutely critical" to knock on every door and make every phone call. "This is about turnout," he said. "No stones unturned," shouted a man in the crowd. Tim Foley, the union's political director,...

President Obama's campaign has raised millions of dollars, but officials in Springfield Illinois are still griping about an upaid bill from a 2008 campaign rally. When he was a candidate in August of 2008, Barack Obama used Springfield as a backdrop to introduce Joe Biden as his running mate. However Springfield Alderman Frank Edwards tells WLS that the Obama campaign has refused to pay $55,000 it owes in police overtime costs: "If you're going to go after your citizens for bills they owe you then everybody's in. And that's just kind of the way I look at it. I think...

Live from Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA.

The elevated section of Interstate 91 downtown needs $360 million to $400 million worth of reconstruction within the next few years, but local, state and federal transportation planners are only now starting to figure out how to pay for the project and what Springfield’s city center might look like when it's done. Options on the table include demolishing the viaduct and making I-91 a surface road or burying the interstate in the style of Boston’s notorious Big Dig. Springfield’s elevated stretch of Interstate 91 has long been blamed for smothering downtown development by cutting the city off from the Connecticut...

Nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center have hit the picket line. The strike is scheduled to run 24 hours, from 7:00 a.m. Friday to 7:00 a.m. Saturday. Friday’s job action, which the union says is the first in the hospital’s history, comes after months of negotiations over a new contract. The Mass. Nurses Association says that they have been bargained 28 times over the last year where “Baystate Management has committed a number of unfair labor practices and has refused to make the necessary compromises to settle an equitable contract.” However, Baystate Franklin says that they have come with proposals,...

More than 125 unionized nurses and their supporters picketed Baystate Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon, hours before heading into the last scheduled bargaining session before a one-day strike at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. "We hope to get it settled, we really do," said Donna L. Stern of Greenfield, a registered nurse and co-chairwoman of the bargaining committee. "I can't wait to get back to taking care of patients. I love being a nurse." If an agreement is not reached, the nurses will strike for 24 hours from 7 a.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday. But Stern and her...

State and federal officials are set to announce $121 million in federal funding for a high-speed rail project between New Haven and Springfield, Mass. In addition to Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who will announce the funding, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin support the 62-mile project. It calls for service every 30 minutes during peak periods and every 60 minutes at other times. Speeds would reach up to 110 miles an hour. Malloy's office projects 1.26 million riders annually by 2030. The state says it expects to finish design work next year and launch service in...