Free Republic

Gunmaker Smith & Wesson announced Thursday it will spend $200,000 refurbishing and renovating the Roosevelt Avenue veterans memorial flagpole near its headquarters. The memorial, built in 1932 at the entrance to the former Veterans Memorial Golf Course, suffered weather damage for decades before the pole itself blew over in the June 2011 tornado. At the time the monument was built, Smith & Wesson was located on Stockbridge Street. "First off, we pass it by every day," said James Debney, Smith & Wesson's president and CEO. "It's right on our doorstep. It would be insulting not to do something." The monument...

A visibly frustrated Domenic J. Sarno on Tuesday blasted Western Massachusetts Electric Co. for what he called a lackluster effort to restore electricity in the region’s largest city and for projections that could leave several thousands of city residents without electricity or heat for a week or more. Sarno, at a press briefing in City Hall, voiced frustration and anger at the restoration effort since Saturday night, and with the latest WMECO projections that power will not be fully restored in the city until Friday or Saturday. “I’m very frustrated with their performance. This is unacceptable,” Sarno said. “I’m told...