Daily Hampshire Gazette from Northampton, Massachusetts • 1

awnumni 'V' WEATHER Friday Lots of sun High will be a breezy PAQEA7 GAELS FALL Holyoke Catholic's hoop season ends in the state Division 2 semifinals with -a 65-50 loss to St Bernard's SPORTS D1 DAILY HAMPSHIRE Ait by Mike Wagner Berkshire Trail School Cummington Volume 220 No 165 Northampton Massachusetts Thursday March 16 2006 Established 1786 32 Pages SO cento Aftermath of suicide standoff raise questions whole thiftfwas a Actions of police GRANBY It was three days after Christinas and beset by grief George Murphy thought he had little reason to live Murphy who is 49 and lives in East hampton was house-sitting for friends in Granby while they vacationed in Hawaii last December The area around that house on Cold Hill was soon to be the staging ground for a massive police incident By early afternoon last Dec 28 as many as 40 local and state police officers had gathered to protect the neighborhood and to try to persuade Murphy to come out of the house Granby police had been told by estranged girlfriend he had a gun and was threatening to kill himself After a nine-hour impasse the day ended badly for Murphy and for the Assessing damage at Granby home GRANBY Robert Ward says it took several letters and more than a month for the state police to inform him exactly what types (ft chemicals were fired into his house on Cold Hill in Granby Tear gas causes extreme damage to a house and its contents said Michael Wiseman owner of Aftermath Cleaning of Easton company specializes in cleaning crime scenes and has experience with tear gas damage that much gas is pumped into a house it can lay said Wiseman only to be activated later by heat So house was kept at about 90 degrees for over a month with air circulated through seven different filters before being pumped outside The gases are formulated 90 they do See HOMEBack of section disaster They were handling it like he was a terrorist instead of somebody threatening Elaine Darr-Morton a friend couple that owns the house Robert and Carol Ward The house was inundated by as many as 100 projectiles carrying tear gas and today ft remains unlivable The lives of those involved have still not returned to normal Some of the damage done to the house that day might have been avoided had state police handled the situation differently according to acquaintances of Murphy who are familiar with the See POLICEBack of section KEVIN GUTTING Holes remain visible in windows of a house on Cold Hill in Granby On Dec 28 state police fired as many as 100 tear-gas projectiles into the house to subdue a man who they believe was threatening to kill himself UP AT CLARKE SCHOOL THURSDAY STUDENT VIEWS Opinions abound in the essays Nnrthamntnn uicitinn aHitnr the JFK MkJde School in Northampton a visiting editor finds PAGE A3 POUCE EXPERT PICKED An Amherst police captain will join ai management! department PAGEB1 THE ARTSPAGES Singer and WRNX disc jockey John AUen takes the stage at the Academy of Music Saturday for a performance of "Undieworid" Also Johnny Memphis writes 1 about singer Betsy-Dawn Williams arid the band Stereolab PAGES C1C3 SCHOOL BUDGET PAIN Amherst's school superintendent is critical of his town's top board over its reluctance to draw too much from a reserve fund a stance that could compel sharp reductions in school programming PAGEB3 COLLEGE HOOP Basketball columnist Matt Vautour picks Connecticut to win the Division I men's tournament Amherst College seeks Division III tide PAGED1 BLOCK SUED A $250 million fraud suit filed by New Ybrk state accuses the tax-preparation service of steering customers to a faulty retirement plan PAGEB8 HALLIBURTON MEMO The company once headed by Vice President Cheney admits in a memo it failed to ensure water quality for US soldiers PAGE AS CHILD PORNOGRAPHY Charges are fled in an sieged international Internet ring that one US official caled "the worst imaginable form of chid pornography PAGE AS DAM BREAK As rain continues to fall in Kauai a second body is found after a dam gave way Tuesday PAGEA7 INDEX Amhsnt B3 Arts C1-C3 Business B5B6 ComicsCrossword C7 Qauified C4-C6 fawns B4 Editorial A6 Movies C2 NalkxVWorid A5A7 Northampton A3 Obituaries B2 Public notlcss C8 Region B1 South Hadley B3 Sports 01-07 TWDaarAbbyHoroscopa C8 COMING TOMORROW: Dealing old magazines can be a profitable venture Richard West of Easthampton has found 24-IIOUR NEWS INFORMATION GazctteLinc 584-3200 wwwgazcttenctcom SAVE UP TO 24 with home delivery CALL 686-1925 a 78954 00 301 w0 Clarke School for the Deaf student Patrick dellahn center playing Nathan Detroit rehearses with production of "Guys and set for Friday at 1 and 7 pm at the Galbraith Northampton Far a story and more photos see Page A3 Case of missing UMass student to air on 4 Police cite daily effort father seeks files newsmagazine show Friday at 10 pm Until now the case which has stumped police and those who knew Murray has received little attention outside of New England Still police say they work the case daity and Murray's family has a team of volunteer investigators on it Murray then a 21-year-old nursing student from Hanson disappeared the Lousy health discriminate BOSTON (AP) If you think blacks Hispanics and poor people usually get worse medical care than others it might be time to think again: A big survey shows fairty equal though deficient care for everyone The survey which is the biggest ever of US health care quality is apt to fan the debate over fairness in the American health care system "This study shows that health care has equal-opportunity defects" declared Dr Donald Berwick wlio runs the nonprofit Institute for Ileulthrure Improvement in Cambridge Mass The survey of nearly 7000 patients reported today in the New England JERSEY ROBERTS cast members Tuesday for the Center on Round Hill Road in according to investigators The witness who later told police Murray appeared intoxicated but uninjured at the time called anyway But by the time police arrived Murray was gone Most of her belongings were still in the car Two days later a police dog tracked her scent for 100 yards before losing it A police helicopter and ground search also turned up no evidence And 36 hours later according to vol- See MUHHAYPage A4 Internet hoop i spells madness I for companies The Washington Post WASHINGTON The NCAA men's basketball tournament begins today and for the first time every game of the 19-day ritual known as March Madness will be available live and free over the Internet The decision makers ut Washington's Corporate Executive Hoard for one saw this as a recipe for disaster With visions of their 1400 employees glued to tlieir computer screens tuning bito their favorite teams the company which sells management research to firms has decided to disable access to Web broadcasts of the games The reason company officials said is that this would avoid straining the corporate computer system It also will keep their workers well working vou get past the bandwidth issue II also a business focus said Derek van Rever the company's chief research officer there any good reason to run this risk? The answer is Studies show that productivity wanes every year during the tour- See KM Hack (if welkin night of Feb 9 2004 after crashing into a snowbank in Haverhill NH Earlier that day she had emailed professors saying she wouldn't be in class all week because of a family problem She withdrew $280 from an ATM and headed north to the White Mountains of New Hampshire where her family had regularly vacationed Around 7 pm she crashed into a snowbank on Route 112 several miles from the Vermont border A witness offered help but Murray refused it and told the witness not to call police care survey finds doesn't mutter whether you're rich or poor white or black insured or uninsured" Dr Stnrn Asch Hand Health research imtitute Santa Monica Calif Journal of Medicine considered only urban area dwellers who sought treatment but il still challenged some stereotypes: These blacks and llispan-ics actually gut slightly better medical treatment than whites See tXHSY Page AI "It's a giMNl idea lor you to continue to take the medication indefinitely Just as yon lake your blood pressure med Icatom or dmltetc said Esychintrist Dr Charles Reynolds at the Imversily of Pittsburgh who led the study "It a very new Racked by the National Institutes of Health the study responds to a rising See Ai By KIMBERLY ASHTON Staff Writer been more than two years since University of Massachusetts student Maura Murray packed her belongings drove to New Hampshire and disappeared Her case along with those of other college women who have vanished will be featured in a segment on Survey reveals poor US health care A recently released survey of 6712 patients monitored if they got the highest standard treatment for 439 indicators ranging from chronic and acute conditions to disease prevention Percentage who received top-quality health care Women E21 5754 Men BSZ2E2EZ2BI 52 30 years and younger mi rjria 58 31 to 64 years E3E2E5H5E33 55 65 years and older CIS3E 152 3 54 58 Whites Blocks Hinpanlcs Incomes loss than $1 5000 Ovor $50000 SCI 57 Ah ml this survey Ink mi butwimn 01 HUM snd Aiiq 2000 12 nmlrniiuMnn sims tram Boston to Mximl to SwiNto SOUHCr Newfngtond Journal ol MmSctno AI 4 Drugs not therapy the best aid for depressed elders study says BOSTON (AP) Fir elderly ienple who suffer bouts of depression drugs work surprisingly better then psy chotherspy at keeping these black spells from returning suggests the longest study ever In patients so old The findings from the two year atudy may encourage some doctors to pre srritie antidepressants for longer periods perhaps even for life in patients who have been depressed 4aW -mow" I WMl 4.