Latest news with #Holyoke
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Shooter is arrested after opening fire at busy Massachusetts mall
A shooter opened fire at a busy mall in Massachusetts on Friday afternoon. The suspect, who started raining bullets near the entrance of Holyoke Mall just after 4.30pm, was apprehended by police who rushed to the scene. There were no injures, but the busy mall was evacuated during the ordeal. Frantic shoppers were seen running for their lives towards the exits while fire alarms rang out in the building, according to witnesses. Police are currently at the scene as they continue to investigate. Joshua A. Garcia, Mayor at Holyoke City Hall, said: 'At approximately 4:40pm. Holyoke Police Officers responded to the mall for a report of shots fired near the entrance to Round One. A suspect is in custody. 'There is no ongoing threat, no innocent bystander injuries or death. The mall has been temporarily evacuated. This is an ongoing investigation and further information will be released when it is available.' The mall is the third-largest in New England and features 135 stores, a large food court, and several restaurants spread out over 1.6 million square feet.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Live Wire: Eyrie House Ruins bring ‘gothic folk' to Easthampton
EASTHAMPTON — There are plenty of hybrid musical styles: country rock, folk pop, acid jazz, ska punk and many more. But local musician Rikk Desgres might have invented a new one: gothic folk. 'We had a hard time describing the genre of our music,' Desgres said in a recent interview with The Republican. 'We discussed the topic, and we settled on gothic folk.' This new genre seems like a perfect dovetail with the group's name: Eyrie House Ruins. The name, of course, is taken from the well-known Holyoke landmark, where a hotel owned by William Street burned to the ground in 1901, and still contains the stones of what was to be a new building that was never completed. Desgres has often mused among the ruins, 'What if the entire thing didn't burn down.' 'I love history. Especially local history. I have hiked to the Eyrie House Ruins many times,' he said. 'To relate Street's experience and his hard times, Eyrie House Ruins lyrical topics are usually dark with topics of misunderstood people, drink, religion, and of course the murder ballad.' The project has been a decade in the making. Desgres found himself listening to gothic country bands such as Slim Cessna's Auto Club, 16 Horsepower and Tarantella, all from the Denver, Colorado, music scene. The lyrics of this bands focus on dark themes such as death, loss and the supernatural. 'It was part country, folk, Southern gothic, Eastern European music and rock all blended together. This intrigued me and I thought about starting a band up with these ideals,' he said. 'It was difficult to find people who wanted to do this type of music. Most people were into heavy metal or rock or country or bluegrass but not everything jumbled up in a blender like this.' The group had a few false starts, but finally settled in with the current band about a year and a half ago. 'Jay Barns, our drummer,was in it from the inception. I knew (banjoist) Val Brown from the rock scene as a guitar player, and wanted to play with her in the past, but timing never worked out. I saw her posting songs on a banjo and asked her if she was interested in this crazy project. She was,' Desgres said. 'Val knew Kelsey Peake, our violin player, and Jim Pion, our bass player, answered an ad on Facebook.' The band plays a smorgasbord of music, including both originals and covers. The covers range from artists as diverse as Townes van Zandt to Motörhead. Desgres explained the process of how they choose the covers. 'Because we all come from rock backgrounds, it's fun to transform rock songs into our version of gothic folk. We just started playing 'A Forest' by The Cure, a song I thought about for this project for a while. The violin does the synth part, and the banjo does a hybrid of what the guitar and synths do,' Desgres said. But how does the band make such a wide-ranging scope of music fit under one musical umbrella? 'They fit because we play them. Our sets usually start out mellow, some Towns Van Zandt, Hank Williams mixed with similar originals, and at the end of the set we play Motörhead and The Cure along with similar originals. It seems to work quite well,' Desgres said. 'But we can also play to the bill we are on. When we get paired up with rock bands we tend to play the more aggressive songs. If paired with more eclectic bands we can play more mellow songs.' When it comes to the original songs, Desgres brings in the songs as demos for the band to learn. 'I create full band demos with everyone's part worked out. Each member will learn their part, but are free to improve upon what I created in the demo,' he said. Eyrie House Ruins is finishing up its debut album and hopes to release it in the fall. The band will play Luthier's Co-op, 108 Cottage St. in Easthampton, on July 26. The band goes on at 8 p.m. Read the original article on MassLive. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Yahoo
Holyoke drug trafficker gets 6 years for having gun while on release from feds
SPRINGFIELD — Three years ago, while on supervised release for trafficking heroin, an armed Sean Krasin tried his hardest to evade arrest at the Holyoke Mall. Krasin, 31, of Holyoke, leapt from the second story of the mall's parking garage. He broke both of his ankles, according to a presentencing memo filed by defense lawyer James Goodhines. He then attempted to flee into the woods but was caught and placed in handcuffs, according to federal prosecutors. Krasin was armed with a Glock .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun. This past January, Krasin pleaded guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. On July 3, he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to 80 months in prison, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Three years earlier, on June 20, 2022, after a five-year sentence, Krasin was arrested while 'on supervised release for a 2018 heroin trafficking conviction out of federal court in Springfield,' the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Holyoke schools, union at odds over ‘exit assurances' during transition to local control
HOLYOKE — As Holyoke Public Schools prepare to resume local control next week, the Holyoke Teachers Association says that state receivership interference will linger. Holyoke schools are set to exit 10 years of state oversight and control on July 1, with supports in place from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. These so-called 'exit assurances" will last for period of up to two years to guide the district's transition back to local control. The teachers' union is not happy about it. 'The bottom line is district and city leadership have continued to tell us they want teachers to have full collective bargaining rights, but their actions have not backed this up,' Nick Cream, president of the union, said Tuesday. 'If they truly believe that, then they should allow us to bargain over all aspects of the contract and not limit our negotiations based on what is in the exit assurances.' Jacqueline Reis, a spokesperson for the department, said the features of the turnaround plan that remain in place will help teachers receive the professional development they need. 'This is the first time a district has exited receivership, and these measures will help give students, staff and district leaders more certainty and stability in important areas like early literacy and multilingual communications,' Reis said Friday. The features that remain in place include ensuring that students have a high-quality early literacy plan; district families, including families who speak languages other than English, have the opportunity for two-way communication with the district; students and teachers have the teaching and learning time they need; and educators have the opportunity to be rewarded for excellent work, she said. Holyoke educators have collective bargaining rights, save for exceptions outlined in the exit assurances, she said. Those exceptions give the superintendent significant power over various aspects of school operations, including deciding school days and schedule; hiring, filling vacancies and laying off teachers; and grievances, which will go through a specific dispute resolution procedure. Cream said that they believe full local control means having complete collective bargaining rights. He expressed concerns the assurances allow Anthony Soto, superintendent and receiver, to control key aspects of their contract proposals. That contradicts the union's goals, which is to bargain for scheduling and the length of the school day, among other aspects. Soto, who will become interim superintendent starting July 1, said the district and the state are aligned in the belief that Holyoke's teachers deserve a fair and equitable contract, regardless of governance structure. Even under receivership, the district consistently made revisions to its turnaround plan in response to union feedback — and that spirit of collaboration continues, he said. Soto said the Department of Education engaged with the School Committee, the receiver, district leadership, and representatives from both the Massachusetts Teachers Association and Holyoke Teachers Association before finalizing the exit assurances. 'DESE's effort to balance all voices was vital in ensuring a smooth and responsible transition back to local governance,' Soto said. Mayor Joshua Garcia said he's 'not sure where this thought that teachers are not able to bargain is coming from.' 'While the exit assurances focus on four key areas of collective bargaining, they do not restrict the union's ability to present full proposals,' he said. 'The School Committee and I remain committed to reviewing all proposals in good faith, always keeping the best interests of our students at the forefront of every decision.' Holyoke schools serve about 4,800 students in preschool through grade 12 and had been chronically underperforming since 2015. In October, then acting Commissioner Russell D. Johnston announced his provisional decision to upgrade Holyoke schools from its chronically underperforming status. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Holyoke police website down, but it's not hacked ... just an expired credit card
HOLYOKE — Residents were unable to access the Holyoke Police Department's website — — for about three days, after an expired credit card disrupted the city's vendor payment, officials said Friday. The site was inaccessible starting on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the department said on Thursday afternoon that the agency was aware of the issue, but its IT staff were on leave until Monday. It returned by 4:25 p.m. Friday. On Friday, Holyoke Police Chief Brian Keenan said the department filed a new credit card with the vendor on Thursday to settle the hosting invoice. According to Keenan, once processed, the website came back online. Email services were not affected, nor were sensitive police records, according to the department. 'The information on the website is public, as in it is all informational,' said Keenan. Keenan noted that the website does not store sensitive data like criminal records or internal police communications. The department clarified it does not host the website internally and has no control over backend operations. Keenan did not disclose which vendor manages the site or how much was owed for renewal. The main website for the city, was not affected. Read the original article on MassLive.
